How did America become a super power?

in Only 7 seems to know. It had nothing to do with us wanting to be anything, we used to be isolationists. World War II left us the only big guy standing and other nations turned to us for protection from emerging totalitarian countries like the Russia, etc. We ended up playing an international role when it really was not necessarily in our best interests. We began making food and money grants to smaller countries, we influenced France and England and other European countries to free their colonies (which was a WWII promise). We signed treaties with smaller countries NATO and SEATO that used our military industrial might as the trump card to guarantee sovereignty to whole areas. We ended up being a super power sort of by default. During WWII the US supplied the rest of the free world with oil. Odd isn't it? We were an oil exporting country and could be again if we could remove cars from the oil equation. North America (US, Canada and Mexico) would be larger than OPEC if we cut consumption by finding ways to remove oil from our transportation needs.

So where's capitalism involved? The industrial revolution. WWII helped turn us into a superpower, and pulled us out of the Great Depression, but we were already on our way up, and prior to the 1930's we were a major player in the world economy and had been for several decades. This country has had vast natural resources and labor resources, and that contributed to us being a superpower. Americans innovated manufacturing processes, like with Henry Ford's assembly line, and Carnegie's innovations in the steel industry. We were pioneers in many fields, and that is just one of the few things that made this country great.

America achieved it's greatness by ensuring that everyone has civil, and property rights, and by not interfering with the lives of it's citizens - by charging income taxes, and passing laws

It reached super-power status when it switched it's industrial capacity from civilian goods to military goods (which switched back well before the war ended so that the resulting unemployment spike from returning soldiers would be softened)

Having atom bombs didn't hurt either.

We had a lot of land, it was very fresh, and filled with resources. When industrialization came along, America joined the crowd and found its land was quite capable of providing for itself. We really became a superpower though through the military industrial complex that accompanied WW2.

Having lots of land and resources helps in becoming a super power. Our farmland alone is some of the best on the planet.

We emerged from WWII as one of the most powerful nations surviving. Over time most of the others have declined while we were propelled by our manufacturing sector to new heights resulting in the US being the only mega power. But, with manufacturing being sent off-shore... I'm sure there will be some... re-alignment...

How Us Become Superpower

Simplest answer - we built bigger badder bombs. The US is a super power b/c we can blow up cities in the blink of an eye and the rest of the world knows it.

We used to be a super power b/c we lead the world in technology and economy. Reagan and Bush ended that legacy by selling us out to out sourcing and destroying the middle class. We will soon be a first class third world if our corporations keep up their illogical greed.

Economic freedom and the rule of law, essentially. The two most important things underpinning any successful economy and that are slowly but surely being taken away as America continues toward socialism.

We beat the Brits in 1776.

We beat the Brits in 1812.

We came to the French's rescue and beat the Germans in WWI.

We came to the French's rescue and beat the Germans in WWII.

We beat the Iraqis in 1991.

We have a lot of land. We have a lot of natural resources. We have a lot of money.

by defeating the Godless commies