ABSTRACT
Until the post-World War II period, the United States was not a major actor in world affairs, though by the end of World War I it was the most powerful country. The nation heeded, for the most part up to the end of the nineteenth century, Washington’s farewell address warning to have as little as possible to do with other countries, especially in Europe. Thomas Jefferson warned the nation against engaging in “entangling alliances” (Solomon 1999, 1006; see also Starobin 2006). This is not to say that the United States was totally isolated from the world. During the colonial
period, the French and Indian War was the American theater (to use modern terminology) of the Seven Years’ War between Britain and France. The Mexican War in the 1840s helped fulfill our “Manifest Destiny” to expand to the Pacific. The Spanish-American War made America a colonial and Pacific power (“winning” the Philippines). As we shall see below, the Theodore Roosevelt era marked the beginning of the United States as a world power (see Kennedy 2006; Kinzer 2006). The United States entered World War I reluctantly. President Franklin D. Roosevelt prepared the country to enter World War II on the side of the Allies. Even then, it took the Japanese attack on the naval base at Pearl Harbor to shake off isolationist tendencies. But all of these conflicts were exceptions.1 Blessed with abundant resources, relatively benign neighbors to the north and south, and large oceans to the east and west, the United States developed into a world-class economic and military power.
