The postwar global economy had some advantages over the prewar globalization, such as its functioning in a better international political climate, but it had one serious problem, its excessive dependence on the United States. The world had become so accustomed to depending on American financial resources that it would be faced with a threat of total collapse unless the United States now did something to alleviate the situation. The American and British representatives believed that to grant Japan's request would jeopardize their Pacific possessions' security. The economic and diplomatic crises of the Hoover years witnessed a severe challenge to the ideological foundations of American foreign policy and of postwar international relations. Capitalism and democracy at home, and economic interdependence and cultural exchange abroad, had been visualized as essential elements of a reglobalized world. To be sure, many colonies remained, and not all countries espoused liberalism or democracy.