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After the War

The most significant event in American History in the 20th century was World War II. It

cost the lives of millions of people, it changed political ideas and it created new countries.

However, the period after World War II was the most important. Although the war itself had

many important effects economically, politically, and socially, the consequences that the end

of the war caused, not only affected the United States, but the world in general. The world

was united by the globalization of American social, economical, and political ideas, which

were established mainly after World War II. The end of World War II caused the creation of

the United Nations, world wide equality in money and trade, and the beginning of the Cold

War.

The United Nations was formed to better the world and unite every country. It was based

upon another organization called the League of Nations, which had very little power and was

not able to stop the beginning of World War II. The U.N. was created to promote peace,

security, and cooperation among countries. Politically, the U.N. was the place where nations

would meet and promote democratic ideas. For example, the U.N. was a platform for all

nations to bring their problems and find answer with international laws. The U.N. was going

to be the peacekeeper of the world. The U.N. was split into five major sections: The General

Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council, the Secretariat, and the

International Court of Justice. The U.N. was created for more than just keeping peace, it was

also created for making the world globalized. It helped create a World Health Organization,

Food and Agriculture Organization, World Trade Organization, and other important

organizations. It tried to help countries that were not up to par to a certain standard, especially

third-world countries. To globalize capitalism, three new great institutions were created, the
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International Monetary Fund, the international Bank for Reconstruction and Development

(World Bank), and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT).

The World Bank is one of the greatest inventions because it brought monetary equality

throughout the world. With its creation, many countries stopped using gold as a measurement

of money—before, a one-dollar bill would equal one dollar in gold. The World Bank helped

create monetary policies that aided struggling countries in having stable economics, as well as

relieving the stress. The World Bank began by each country member putting one percent of

funds so other struggling countries could borrow on low interest rate. The International

Monetary Fund was created in 1944 to provide short term loans for countries that were having

difficulty meeting their balance of payment obligations and to stabilize exchange rates.

Countries contributed to a pool of resources which could be borrowed from, on a temporary

basis, by countries with external payment imbalances. The GATT was designed to promote

world trade by bringing down tariffs among all member nations. Although these systems

turned out to have some problems in them, they still brought equality to trade and the value of

currency.

The entrance into the war caused the end of American isolationism. The United States

was no longer a neutral country and it fought for the freedom of others. At the end of the war,

America began promoting ideas of democracy and capitalism. Since the United States was

one of two main powers in the 20th century, it felt that it had to spread its success. Because

the war had lasted for so long and the U.S. spent so many human and capital resources

compared to World War I, the United States decided to become more involved with the affairs

rest of the world so another war could be prevented from happening again. However, this

brought fear towards the communistic ideas of the USSR. This clash of powers and beliefs
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brought the Cold War. The United States created a plan called the Marshall Plan to rebuild

Western Europe and create strong alliances. However, the Soviet Union rejected the plan and

thought it as a threat to Soviet control of Eastern Europe. The U.S. and the Soviet Union soon

began an arms race, to see which country was more capable technologically. While each

country was competing technologically, they were also competing to spread their beliefs.

When China, Korea, Vietnam began to fall to communism the U.S. was worried that the

domino theory would come into effect. The domino theory proposed that one country in an

area became communist, the surrounding countries would follow, each change causing

another change. The U.S. fought against communism and the USSR, it tried to spread

capitalism and democracy. When the Cold War ended, the United States dominated against

the USSR and communism. It dominated economically, diplomatically, ideologically,

technologically, and culturally, it spread its ideas through out the world and even reached the

Soviet Union.

The period after World War II was an important time for the United States, it was a time

for establishing itself as a main power. The creation of the U.N. and economic systems helped

spread its social and economic ideas, as well as its power. The Cold War allowed the U.S. to

spread its political ideas. The Cold War also allowed the U.S. to show that democracy and

capitalism was the foremost system of government. The dispersal of these ideas shows how

America globalized itself and its ideas, making it into a superpower country.