I need a little history lesson please. To be honest, I hope Dr. Lao answers this questions because I like his/her style and ability to write, but I welcome answers from everyone.
When did the United States become a “Superpower” in the world. I assume that it was during the cold war that the term came into prominance but I don’t know. And how did the term come about?
Also, what was the United States’ position with Russia pre-WWII. Was it friendly, indifferent, hostile? There must have been some cooperation back when Alaska was acquired, but was it only after the war that the communism threat was taken to heart in the States that Russia became the great red evil?
…and no, I am not writing a history paper for any kind of class and looking for easy info…
Moving the thread to General Questions. Quotes in a thread title will disappear, unless you use keyboard shortcuts to put in the quotes (alt+0147 and alt+0148). Just a quirk.
American troops fought against the Bolsheviks in Russia after WWI. I have seen newsreel footage of Herbert Hoover condemning Soviet supression of religion. So I would say the animosity was there well before WWII.
Some historians consider the American contribution to WWI as fairly slight. Remember the famous quote, “America has labored mightily and brought forth a mouse.” The US was fairly isolationist before WWII. Our standing army in 1939 was quite small. So, we didn’t achieve “world power” status, really, until somewhere between D-Day and V-J Day.
I don’t know when it was coined, but I believe that the terms “superpowers”, used to describe the USA and the USSR, was popularised by a book called The Superpowers by the US historian W T R Fox, published towards the end of World War II (c. 1944).
Post-WWII, when the old European world powers were prostrate after the war while the US was essentially untouched --indeed had profited in some respects from the war. (No implications here, rather only the result of distance). The Soviet Union was probably not genuinely in the American league power-wise until it achieved its own nuclear arsenal.
I have to suspect Tom probably has identified the origins of the word.
Of course Communism only wins power in the Russian Empire in 1917, prior to that the US had indifferent relations with the Tsarist government --indeed we were fairly isolated from European affairs and the Tsars exerted relatively little influence in Siberia --one reason Alaska was sold to us.
I seem to recall that the US was not pro-Russian in the Russo-Japanese War of 1905 (which led to the failed revolution of 1905). As another poster noted, the US intervened post-1918 in the Russian Civil War on the side of the Whites – the Tsarist and other assorted anti-Communist forces. Probably nothing was worse for the Whites than foreign intervention on their side. General lesson: in a civil war, its not generally good to have your foreign supporters send troops. Your nationalist credentials are shot. If your own strength is not enough (with foreign aid perhaps) then you’re screwed anyways.
The first big US “Red” scare was in the 1920s by the way… Clearly our relations were frosty at best at the time. Things only warmed up during the war.
Years ago, I read a book for Political Science class that discussed American feelings toward Russia in terms of several wild cycles of love and hate. I may have some of the details wrong, because I don’t remember it very well and I no longer own the book. Chances are I’m leaving out a cycle or two. Here’s what I do remember [ol][li]Catherine the Great sent the Russian fleet to overwinter in some east coast port (New York?) sometime toward the end of the Revolutionary War, when the peace treaty was being negotiated. We loved Russia for it, thinking they did it was an act of intimidation against the British. Really, they just needed some place to keep their fleet[/li][li]Russia was hated after our purchase of Alaska. They had swindled us, after all.[/li][li]After the Revolution of February (or March N.S.) 1917 we loved Russia again. They had thrown off the anachronistic autocrat and seemed to be moving toward democracy.[/li][li]After the Revolution of October (or November N.S.) 1917 we hated them again because the communists made a separate peace with Germany and left the Allies in the lurch.[/li][li]During the Great Depression we respected and admired them because their economy seemed to be immune from our problems.[/li][li]After the nonaggression pact with Hilter, and the overrunning of the Baltic republics, we hated Russia again.[/li][li]During WWII while we were allied with Russia we loved them again.[/li]During the cold war we hated them again.[/ol]
The OED traces the first use of the word “superpower” to an article in the Economist in 1930. The next reference is to Fox’s book of 1944 as mentioned above.
It used to be hyphenated.
A USGS scientist used the word in 1921 but it was used in the sense of electrical power. The author referred to the Boston-NYC corridor as being the “superpower” zone.
