The history of the founding of the United States is less than 250 years, but since its independence, it has become the world's most powerful country, which is quite amazing. How did the U.S. become the world's most powerful country? This question has been touched on by the author previously. Here we will analyze the question raised in the title, whether the US hegemonic strategy was carefully planned or not.
North America is blessed with the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean as barriers on both sides of the East and West coast. The aboriginal Indians were sparsely populated and lived in tribes. Their culture was less influenced by Asia and Europe. It was not until the 15th century that humans developed navigation technology for ocean transportation that the 'New World' was discovered. Asian Chinese were the first to visit the Americas. Recently, much historical evidence has been put forward, including cultural relics, historical sites, and even the genetic sequence of Indians and Asian Chinese. Later, an Italian, Columbus, was given credit for ‘discovering America’. This story was later believed by Europeans who immigrated to the Americas. The reason for this was closely related to the fact that European powers became a maritime power from the seventeenth to the twentieth century and vigorously invaded and colonized all continents. The colonists in America were mainly Anglo-Saxons who believed in Christianity. When they reached the east coast of North America, they called the place New England, and gradually expanded westward and southward, promoting Christianity and destroying the original culture. Indigenous Indian culture. Christianity is a monotheistic religion, which worships only its God and rejects other religions’ Gods. The early colonists who arrived in North America were mostly Christians.
Since the seventeenth century, the European powers had practiced colonialism and invaded all continents with ships and guns. A small European country can occupy a large area of colonial land and rule the natives of the colonies by force. There were a large number of local populations in the Asian and African colonies, especially the Asians with deep roots in their own culture. The colonists used high pressure to tule and extract the native resources. The immigrants in North America, on the other hand, took religious belief as their superficial purpose, excluded other beliefs, and actually drove and killed Indians with force and guns. Eventually, only small aboriginal tribal reserves would remain. The founding of the U.S. was based on the bloody colonial history of the United Kingdom. The Revolutionary War of Independence against the British in America originated from the high taxes imposed by the British on the colonies. Since the local aborigine population was killed and dropped sharply, they were no longer able to resist the immigrant colonists. These colonists felt no need of depending on the British Empire, so revolutionary independence became a natural choice.
In the early days of the founding of the U.S., it did not expect that it would become a world power nor would embark on the hegemony expansion route to become a leader of the world. On the contrary, the U.S. worried a lot about the influence of European powers, Britain, France, Spain, etc. It can be said that the U.S. was very lucky when it was founded. Due to the checks and balances between Britain and France, the American War of Independence ended in just a few years, and its independence was established smoothly. The politicians and leaders at that time were very wise in establishing a constitution for the federation. The purpose was not only to protect civil liberties and human rights, but more importantly, to consolidate the separate states established by colonists all over the country into a federal government. The U.S. Constitution has strict conditions for any state to secede from the federal government and grants the federal government autocratic diplomatic and military powers. State governments do not have those powers. The sage leaders of the U.S. also wisely adopted the concept of democracy, instead of inheriting the monarchy of the mother country, Britain. However, although the idea of a democratic system is good, the actual operation of the democratic system is very experimental and lacks any long-term historical verification.
In view of the rapid expansion of colonialism practiced by European countries, the U.S. proposed the Monroe Doctrine in the early mid-nineteenth century, requiring European countries not to forcibly colonize the Americas (mainly South America). This doctrine is noble, but at that time the United States itself did not stop its own colonial aggression. For example, it participated in the invasion of China by the Western Eight-Power Allied Forces. From the perspective of future developments, historians must give second thoughts about the Monroe Doctrine, that is, the real purpose of the U.S. is to prevent other countries from interfering in South America, and only let the influence of the U.S. exist. This can be seen in the foreign policy of the U.S. in the 20th century. The U.S. regarded South America as its sphere of influence and used the security of the U.S. as an excuse to exclude the influence of other countries on South America. From the Monroe Doctrine to American protectionism in the 20th century, it can be said that the strategy of the U.S. is to become a world power. Based on the attitude, behavior, and benefits of what the U.S. obtained in the First and Second World Wars, it can be said that the U.S. was quite successful in planning its goal to become a world power. These achievements have made the U.S. plan more carefully to become the world's strongest power and remain one.
After World War II, there could have been global peace, but the U.S. and the Soviet Union launched a cold war and arms race. Although the Soviet Union is a dictatorial and expanding federation, the intentions and actions of the U.S. can also be seen as carefully planning a strategy to fight against the Soviet Union. In addition to developing weapon technology and competing with the Soviet Union in the space program, the U.S. also established the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) with the U.S. leading its military alliances. In this anti-Soviet plan, China, which was working hard to build its country at that time, was strategically engaged to work together in a plan against the Soviet Union. In 1991, the Soviet Union's economy collapsed, the communist union disintegrated, and the struggle of the U.S. against the Soviet Union was fully successful. But the U.S. did not disband NATO. On the contrary, NATO expanded, approaching and threatening Russia, and even shifted its focus to the Asia-Pacific to target the rising China. These changes have clearly shown that the U.S. strategy is carefully planned to keep the U.S. as the world's number one hegemony. Although the the strength of the U.S. may be still the strongest in the world, it is gradually declining relative to the fast growing China. It must rely on a larger alliance to counter China, so there is the Australia-UK-U.S. Alliance (AUKUS), the Quad Indo-Pacific Alliance (QUAD+), and the expansion of NATO to Asia. The U.S. is even planning a crisis across the Taiwan Strait to consume China and Russia. These like the Russia-Ukraine war, are already clearly visible plots, with the U.S.'s careful planning traceable. Whether or not the U.S. can succeed again is not optimistic. First, China and Russia have learned their historical experience and lessons. Second, Chinas growth has been very mature and stable, while the stability of the U.S. has problems. The deficiency in U.S. democracy has visibly become an obstacle for the U.S. to make the needed progress. (Both infrastructure rebuild and military renewal are clear examples) Third, the world has changed so much making most countries knowledgeable enough to realize that a multi-polar world is far better than a unipolar world in terms of growth, prosperity, and peace. Consequently, the U.S. may eventually have to change its strategy to embrace a multipolar world.
Ifay Chang. Ph.D., Inventor, Author, TV Game Show Host and Columnist (www.us-chinaforum.org) as well as serving as Trustee, Somers Central School District.
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