Chapter in Perspective

The trends towards industrialization, urbanization, and expansion to gain control of markets and resources were occurring in Europe as well as in the United States. The text has already taken note of European imperial designs and how these designs brought them into rivalry with one another and with the United States. This chapter traces the emergence of the United States as a world power in the opening decades of the twentieth century. As the old European order of alliances and empires proved unable to contain the conflicts arising out of imperialism and international competition, the United States was drawn into the First World War. In its aftermath, Woodrow Wilson tried to establish a new world order of international cooperation. Narrow nationalism prevailed instead for the next 20 years.