1 - The Age of European Domination

Summary

The globalizing of America started long before 1913. This chapter traces the history of U.S. foreign relations from 1913 to 1945. It recalls that the nation had come into existence and conducted its external affairs in a world in which technological and economic globalization had begun to connect different parts of the globe. Growing American assertiveness in foreign affairs was buttressed by certain ideologies that stressed power, order, and civilization. Much of this was part of the trends in European thinking. It may be noted that while Western cultural dominance in the world continued, there was now also a greater degree of self-consciousness, even of defensiveness, in the age of imperialism. Even before 1914 the ideas both of economic interdependence and of peaceful settlement of disputes were sufficiently advanced in the United States to constitute a vision of American leadership in international relations.