How and why did the U.S. emerge as a world superpower between World War Two and 1991 - Essay Example

America gained its super power status immediately after the Second World War which saw America and the Soviet Union emerges stronger from the war than before they entered. The period between world war two and 1991 saw major events take place that led to the decline of previous great powers to the emergence of new superpowers. This was the “cold war” period. Cold war was a state of military and political tension between western bloc and eastern bloc. The western bloc was led by America and its NATO allies while the eastern bloc was led by the Soviet Union and its allies who were in the Warsaw pact.

The war was described as “cold” because it was marked with no large scale direct fights but with regional wars that were supported with the two blocs. Some of the countries that experienced wars were Afghanistan, Vietnam, and Korea. Cold war was defined by several events that prompted the two superpowers to demonstrate their influence in their allied countries. Some of the events that shaped this war were consolidation of the eastern states by the Soviet Union which saw America retaliate by giving financial and military aid to the anti-communist side in the Greek civil war.

Other events that marked this period are the Chinese civil war, Korean War, Cuban missile crisis, berlin crisis, Suez crisis and the Vietnam War. These events shaped the cold war and hence bringing to the fore the emergence of America as the superpower with the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The subsequent paragraphs will explore how and why America gained the superpower status between the period after world war two and 1991. Most of the war was fought far away from America’s boundaries. This gave it a competitive advantage over the other powers like Britain, France, and Germany who were close or experienced the war on their soil.

With the war taking place away from their national boundaries, America did not suffer major losses and destruction