History Main / AmericaTakesOverTheWorld

[[folder:Real Life]]
* Perhaps the most dramatic time the USA explicitly took possession of land besides the contiguous United States by force was in the Spanish American War, and seized territory generally either given back to its occupants or agreements were signed to do so--however some territories, such as UsefulNotes/{{Guam}}, remained in US possession. The USA's preferred method was to make [[DefeatMeansFriendship economic partners of defeated nations]] and leave a few military bases behind, but restore political and military independence. It invaded the Philippines, recently liberated from the Spanish by the war, and occupied it by force against a resistance army. It also took American Samoa following a conflict with the islands' previous imperial overlord, Germany--this involved partitioning American Samoa from the rest of UsefulNotes/{{Samoa}}.
** Four years before the Spanish-American War, the United States surpassed the United Kingdom in GDP to become the world's largest economy, terrifying the British industrial complex.
* [[ZigZaggedTrope Zig-zagged]] in the case of the Kingdom of Hawaii. Due to immigration from the United States and elsewhere, there were more non-Hawaiians than Hawaiians on Hawaii, and they didn't like the native monarchy's rule, instead preferring democratic rule. Many of them wanted the US to annex Hawaii, but the US was reluctant to do so, seeing it as an obvious imperialist land grab. The immigrants forced the issue by rebelling against the Hawaiian government and convincing the local US government minister, John Stevens, to help them by sending in some marines to "protect American interests". This resulted in the abolition of the Kingdom of Hawaii, replacing it with the temporary "Republic of Hawaii", which immediately petitioned the US government for permission to join the United States. However, the federal US government was not impressed by the rebellion, and in particular, Stevens effectively invading a foreign country without permission. Stevens was recalled from his position and [[ReluctantRetiree forced to retire]] and the Republic of Hawaii was forced to wait for five years before it was finally annexed.
* During the run-up to UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar, both sides were looking to expand their territory, since each new state boosted the faction's power in Congress.
** For the North, this meant grabbing as much of British North America (now UsefulNotes/{{Canada}}) as possible, with the most widespread call being for the complete annexation of [[UsefulNotes/TheOtherRainforest the Oregon Country]] up to the border with (then-Russian) UsefulNotes/{{Alaska}}; the slogan was "Fifty-Four Forty or Fight!", referring to the 54°40′ North line of latitude where the Oregon Country ended. From there, it was hoped, the North-West Territory and Rupert's Land, now cut off from the Pacific, would also become American. (Ultimately, the US only got the areas south of the 49th parallel minus Vancouver Island; the rest became the province of British Columbia.) Even a few years after the Civil War, the US' purchase of Alaska was at least partly motivated by the dream of adding the vast expanse of western Canada to the Union by establishing a US outpost on that country's western frontier.
** Meanwhile, Southern politicians and businessmen felt that, since the Missouri Compromise of 1820 only explicitly prohibited slavery in US territories north of 36°30' North, it was [[LoopholeAbuse implicitly permitted anywhere south of that line]] -- including in any new American territories. As such, many efforts were launched to annex or conquer UsefulNotes/{{Cuba}}, UsefulNotes/{{Mexico}}, and other nations in Central America and the Caribbean. The UsefulNotes/MexicanAmericanWar was fought for this purpose, President UsefulNotes/JamesKPolk authorized spending up to $100 million to buy Cuba in 1848, Confederate President Jefferson Davis spoke of "new acquisitions to be made south of the Rio Grande", and Confederate Naval officers were dispatched as far as the Amazon delta in UsefulNotes/{{Brazil}} to survey the area, supposedly to map shipping routes but also taking notes on local militias and separatist movements. A relatively small group of mostly Southern American mercenaries actually [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filibuster_War conquered Nicaragua]] in 1857, and intended to turn the Central American states into slave states; they quickly proved unable to achieve this goal due to lacking any state support and were driven out by the neighboring states.
* The "Pax Americana" that started after UsefulNotes/WorldWarII is the closest realization of this trope that RealLife has yet seen. With the [[UsefulNotes/TheBritishEmpire British]] and [[UsefulNotes/{{France}} French]] empires bankrupted by war (and were already being rapidly outpaced by the Americans in the early 20th century), the [[UsefulNotes/NaziGermany German]], [[UsefulNotes/FascistItaly Italian]], and [[UsefulNotes/ImperialJapan Japanese]] empires destroyed entirely, and [[GloriousMotherRussia the USSR]] and UsefulNotes/{{China}}, the only other great powers that could still stand on their own, retrenching into their own spheres of influence while adopting very inefficient economic models, the USA, untouched by war and possessing the world's largest industrial capacity by several orders of magnitude, emerged dominant over nearly every corner of the globe save for the core of Eurasia. Like the Soviet Union however, America's empire was largely indirect, given that the nation was officially anti-imperialist and exploited this tendency to appeal to the post-colonial world. With post-war Western Europe reliant on American aid, and therefore subservient to Washington, the USA could pressure its allies into abandoning its traditional empires in the third world, letting the Americans set up loyal puppet states either covertly or overtly. While they were not ruled by Washington directly, these puppet states were useful in warding off Soviet influence and securing American cultural and economic hegemony. This unofficial empire of loyal and puppet states managed to span roughly half the world. American power reached its peak in TheNineties after the end of the UsefulNotes/ColdWar, with the term "hyperpower" used to describe a nation that ''everybody'', from its allies to its enemies, had to heed. Some people, including US President UsefulNotes/GeorgeHWBush, described American power after the fall of communism as so great that it verged on a OneWorldOrder -- and of course, some {{conspiracy theorist}}s believe it goes well beyond "verged on". [[ChinaTakesOverTheWorld The rise of China after their market and trade reforms]] and [[MakeTheBearAngryAgain the resurgence of Russia]] since then have chipped away at this somewhat, with China having [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_sector_composition overtaken the US]] as the world's largest manufacturer and developing an economy somewhat in the same league (2/3 the size of the U.S. one), combined with Russia at least regaining enough strength to exert influence within its immediate vicinity.\\\
Even in spite of all this, however, America still remains the world's preeminent military, economic, and cultural force, accounting for 25% of world GDP and 40% of world military spending on their own. The US' allies in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the Organization of American States, as well as major non-NATO allies like UsefulNotes/{{Japan}}, UsefulNotes/{{Australia}}, UsefulNotes/SouthKorea, [[UsefulNotes/{{Philippines}} the Philippines]], UsefulNotes/SaudiArabia, and UsefulNotes/{{Israel}}, comprise the lion's share of world power; if they were collectively viewed as an American empire (as critics of American foreign policy often proclaim it to be), then the United States would currently be in possession of the greatest empire that history has ever known, with 60%+ of world GDP and the vast majority of the world's intellectual capital and industrial capacity (to wit, South Korea alone has a larger economy than Russia). The US dollar is the world's reserve currency, with only the euro as a serious competitor (and even then, it is a distant second). Its military can deploy hundreds of thousands of soldiers supported by carrier-borne aircraft to any corner of the globe on short notice and doesn't even need a single American soldier on the ground to destroy minor powers, as interventions in Iraq, Syria, Serbia, and Libya have demonstrated. Its economy [[https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2019/01/02/the-fastest-growers-and-biggest-shrinkers-of-2019 still prospers]] even as most other developed countries stagnate and rapidly growing middle income economies (like China) begin to slow. [[EaglelandOsmosis American food, films, TV series, fashion and pop music can be found on every continent]], and its celebrities are renowned throughout the world, to the point where both supporters and critics of the US have cited its 'soft power' (or, alternatively, 'cultural imperialism') as one of its greatest tools and weapons in maintaining its alliances. The only nations that are openly antagonistic to the US (as opposed to frenemies like Russia and China) are mostly so-called "rogue states" with few friends of any kind in the world, like UsefulNotes/{{Iran}}, UsefulNotes/NorthKorea, UsefulNotes/{{Syria}} and UsefulNotes/{{Libya}} (before UsefulNotes/TheArabSpring).


* In 1893, Lucas M Miller, a member of the US House of Representatives from Wisconsin [[https://gizmodo.com/congress-once-considered-renaming-the-us-the-united-st-1608911779]], in the spirit of this trope, proposed an amendments to the United States Constitution to change the name of the United States of America to the "United States of Earth". Well not technically a claim of global governance, his argument was that "it is possible for the Republic to grow through the admission of new States into the Union [[OneWorldOrder until every Nation on Earth has become part of it.]]" and that the Senate and House of Representatives could "vote by electricity". It is needless to say that this and other goofy proposals, including another amendment to abolish both the Army and Navy, never really got anywhere and he failed to be nominated for another term.

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Although not required, OppressiveStatesOfAmerica can easily overlap with this trope for obvious reasons. The EvilStatesOfAmerica also often combines elements of both.

* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'''s [[JustBeforeTheEnd pre-War]] backstory has Europe and the USSR being rendered weak clients of the U.S. in the lead up to a global energy crisis that sees everyone but the U.S. and China effectively collapsing. This is followed by the U.S. annexing Canada and occupying Mexico, China occupying several Asian countries and the Russian Far East, and eventually a Sino-American War. Due to a combination of superior technology (e.g. PoweredArmor) and greater economic strength,[[note]]It was noted in the military terminals in the military base in ''2'' that the Chinese were critically low on fuel while the U.S. was still comfortable.[[/note]] the war culminates in the U.S. successfully invading mainland China in retribution for their invasion of Alaska and laying siege to Beijing, effectively leaving America as the sole hyperpower. [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt For about a day.]]

Even in spite of all this, however, America still remains the world's preeminent military, economic, and cultural force, accounting for 25% of world GDP and 40% of world military spending on their own. The US' allies in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the Organization of American States, as well as major non-NATO allies like UsefulNotes/{{Japan}}, UsefulNotes/{{Australia}}, UsefulNotes/SouthKorea, UsefulNotes/SaudiArabia, and UsefulNotes/{{Israel}}, comprise the lion's share of world power; if they were collectively viewed as an American empire (as critics of American foreign policy often proclaim it to be), then the United States would currently be in possession of the greatest empire that history has ever known, with 60%+ of world GDP and the vast majority of the world's intellectual capital and industrial capacity (to wit, South Korea alone has a larger economy than Russia). The US dollar is the world's reserve currency, with only the euro as a serious competitor (and even then, it is a distant second). Its military can deploy hundreds of thousands of soldiers supported by carrier-borne aircraft to any corner of the globe on short notice and doesn't even need a single American soldier on the ground to destroy minor powers, as interventions in Iraq, Syria, Serbia, and Libya have demonstrated. Its economy [[https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2019/01/02/the-fastest-growers-and-biggest-shrinkers-of-2019 still prospers]] even as most other developed countries stagnate and rapidly growing middle income economies (like China) begin to slow. [[EaglelandOsmosis American food, films, TV series, fashion and pop music can be found on every continent]], and its celebrities are renowned throughout the world, to the point where both supporters and critics of the US have cited its 'soft power' (or, alternatively, 'cultural imperialism') as one of its greatest tools and weapons in maintaining its alliances. The only nations that are openly antagonistic to the US (as opposed to frenemies like Russia and China) are mostly so-called "rogue states" with few friends of any kind in the world, like UsefulNotes/{{Iran}}, UsefulNotes/NorthKorea, UsefulNotes/{{Syria}} and UsefulNotes/{{Libya}} (before UsefulNotes/TheArabSpring).

* ''Iron Clads'' by Creator/AdrianTchaikovsky has the US in the process of this. They had annexed Canada and the rest of the American continent and purchased a United Kingdom that had been beggared by Brexit. The UK is then used as a giant brothel and beachhead into invading Europe. The US here is very much the EvilStatesOfAmerica as it became a plutocracy run by various MegaCorp and the [[WarriorPrince warring scions of these corporate aristocrats]] while the Federal gov't is just there to facilitate the enlistment of impoverished CannonFodder and deck them in 2nd-hand kit.

* ''Iron Clads'' by Creator/AdrianTchaikovsky has the US in the process of this. They had annexed Canada and the rest of the American continent and purchased a United Kingdom that had been beggared by Brexit. The UK is then used as a giant brotherl and beachhead into invading Europe. The US here is very much the EvilStatesOfAmerica as it became a plutocracy run by various MegaCorp and the [[WarriorPrince warring scions of these corporate aristocrats]] while the Federal gov't is just there to facilitate the enlistment of impoverished CannonFodder and deck them in 2nd-hand kit.

* ''Literature/TheSunEater'' has the background event the US take over the world through A.I. overlords in our far future (and the current humanity's distant past). It's very much a case of the EvilStatesOfAmerica as the A.I. proceeds to take over the human domains and reduce almost the entire population of humanity into cancer blobs. Until the British GodEmperor fought back...

* Implied in ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyInfiniteWarfare''. While the United Nations Space Alliance is technically a coalition of different nations, the behavior that non-Americans exhibit seem suspiciously American, and all lack any traces of cultural diversity at all. They use American military jargon; UNSA Admiral Raines keeps an American flag in his office; the Lebanese Lt. Salter speaks English with an American accent; and even Kashima (a Canadian) speaks of receiving a Purple Heart (an ''American'' military decoration) after being wounded.

* Implied in ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyInfiniteWarfare''. While the United Nations Space Alliance is technically a coalition of different nations, the behavior that non-Americans exhibit seem suspiciously American, and all lack any traces of cultural diversity at all. They use American military jargon; UNSA Admiral Raines keeps an American flag in his office; the Lebanese Lt. Salter speaks English with an American accent; and even Kashima (a Canadian) speaks of receiving a Purple Heart (an American military decoration) after being wounded.