How is America the most powerful country in the world?

That the last countries to invade the United States was Britain and France (or was it Canada?) back in the 1800s?


The US has been invaded twice: Once in 1812 by the British with support of their colonies in Canada (not actually a nation at the time)

And the other and most recent invasion of the United States was by the Japanese in WWII when they attacked and held parts of Alaska, a fact which has been much overlooked. The last invasion of the US was not 190 years ago, but 60 by the Japanese.

 

The Japanese invaded Alaska?

Prove it, please.

 

He's quite right.

Japan attacked and held a few islands in the Aluetian chain. It was supposed to be a feint to draw the American fleet away from Midawy, however the breaking of the Japanese encription made it feutile and the small Aluetion force retreated.

Of course Alaske was still only a territory at the time, so the capture of Guam had the same effect in my mind as an attack on America.

No?

 

I hardly think either of those two events are of any importance at all. The USA was not the most powerful country in 1812, and I think you forgot that we soundly beat the British in the Battle of New Orleans while you were relishing the fact that Washington was burned. Of course that decisive victory was 2 weeks after a treaty had been signed thus making it totally meaningless, but could we leave the stupid war of 1812 out of it? We were also occupied by the British for quite some time before that, will you hold that against us too?

The fact that the Japanese held a few meaningless islands is irrelevant. What we are discussing is American power today. The US did not achieve it's most powerful country till after WW2 and still had to contend with Russia, but I would say that the US was still greater than Russia during the cold war.

AT-60, your countrymen are largly multilateral pacifists. If you were an American I suspect you would be just as patriotic.

 

America has the largest economy. It's true that many European countries have larger economies if you look at it "per capita" this nevertheless only illustrates Europe's main weakness - while economically strong it's split into too many smaller nations.

But America's true economic power isn't its GDP. It's the knowledge that most countries on Earth would suffer economically if they'd lose the US as a business partner. Some more (Britain, Ireland), some less (Japan,Germany), but nobody can afford to be on the bad side of the US.

I read somewhere that 40% of the world's military budget is spent in the US. Other nations have hopelessly fallen behind the US in military terms. European nations have spent less and less on the military in the last 20 years in favour of spending the money instead on jobs, education, health, etc (and the US have fallen behind in those areas as a consequence)

 

But yet people from all over the world come to study at Universities in the United States. When it comes to higher education, the USA is the leader. Hands down. There are more Universities in the USA than in any other nation.

 

Money spent post-eduction in R&D is higher in the US, as well.


I think we've sufficiently answered the original question.

 

But yet people from all over the world come to study at Universities in the United States. When it comes to higher education, the USA is the leader. Hands down. There are more Universities in the USA than in any other nation.

Quantity does not equate to quality.

Our kids don't learn calculus until college. Our public education system is a joke... and, according to a recent National Science Foundation poll, roughly 50 percent of Americans aren't aware that the earth revolves around the sun.

I would say that several American universities have earned themselves a marketable brand name... enough to garner high starting salaries by virtue of brand alone. However, that is a far cry from actually providing good content in education.

Most Ivy League schools are inaccessible only because of their strict admissions policies which try to create a false perception of inflated demand or status. Once admitted, the academic curriculum of these schools is no more challenging than a number of well-funded public schools such as University of Minnesota.

 

Darth_SnowDog

I think that post deserves the US education thread.

Furthermore, as red-seven already stated, the answer has been answered

USA is the most powerfull nation because of it's GDP, military budget and economy.

Although I'm still in doubt with healthcare and education.

 

I have a foreign friend who was doing division in kindergarten

 

US universities are okay, but the best are still in Europe. Why do you think nearly every US President goes to Oxford or Cambridge?

And the US public education system is one of the worst in the western world.

 

America still has the most educated populace anywhere. (I said most, not best)

 

There are more Universities in the USA than in any other nation.

Mexico has the greatest number of higher education facilities >>

http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/content_pages/record.asp?recordid=46663

Back to the topic of the thread ... I think it depends on how you define power. If you look at the phrase 'Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely' then the most corrupt country could possibly be the most powerful

Statistics on corruption

Bangladesh comes in last on that scale, but they only surveyed 91 countries.