national interests, they also had an underlying missionary spirit to expand the “Empire of Liberty,” consisting of the American ideals of freedom and democracy.16
While it could be argued that exceptionalism was just one of the many lenses through which America viewed itself, American exceptionalism was no longer something kept internally. Instead, American exceptionalism began to go global through the actions of the United States due to the efforts of many different American political, social, and economic forces that sought to change the world beyond its North American borders.17 Although the United States possessed the economic strength to potentially create one of the most powerful military forces in the twentieth century, the United States quickly found out that it did not have a complete understanding of the advantages and disadvantages that came from its geographic position on the planet. In addition, the United States neither appreciated nor possessed the technological know-how to create a military force armed with the tools and technology capable of fighting and winning wars for the purpose of shaping an international system that was conducive to American interests.
During the late eighteenth century, the American republic’s geopolitical base in North America had many advantages: it was a sparsely populated continent rich in natural resources, it was protected by two of the planet’s largest oceans and, more importantly, the United States had time and distance on its side against any potentially hostile state that had designs to attack. While other great powers such as Great Britain and Japan had these same geographic advantages to a greater or lesser degree, the United States achieved hegemony in the international system by the end of World War II because it made decisive policy decisions to invest in developing certain technologies that forever changed the dynamics of the international system. Max Boot argues in his study of technology and its impact on world powers that history was full of examples of superpowers failing to take advantage of important technological revolutions, especially in military affairs. Boot points out that the warning that appears at the bottom of mutual fund advertisements also applies to geopolitics: “Past performance is no guarantee of future returns.”18 Therefore, technological innovations and the ability to utilize them toward geopolitical ends could potentially radically change not only the conduct of warfare, but also the international system.19
Although the United States followed Great Britain, Japan, and the other major world powers in designing and testing various military technologies, such as aviation, tanks, warships, and atomic weapons, American leadership also focused on exploring the use of technology to improve amphibious warfare.20 Because amphibious warfare was widely believed to be one of the most difficult forms of warfare, many countries, including most of the world’s major powers during the twentieth century, preferred avoiding having to conduct it. Paul Kennedy argues that assaults from the sea were essentially “a gambler’s throw” and that a cursory review of past amphibious assaults showed failures for a variety of reasons, ranging from powerful defenses to unfavorable weather conditions.21 However, by World War II, the United States’ unique decision to pursue developing technology and codifying techniques to conduct amphibious warfare allowed American military forces to destroy the Axis Powers and set the foundations for a radically different international system based on American leadership.
The International Situation in the Nineteenth Century
The international system in the late nineteenth century was hallmarked by European imperialism at its zenith. The British, French, Germans, Japanese, and other colonial competitors were pursuing aggressive territorial expansion in order to secure markets and resources to fuel their expanding industrial bases at home. This competition for land and influence led to not only the creation of several colonial empires, but also dangerous diplomatic crises that threatened to boil into a major regional war.22 While the Napoleonic Wars dramatically transformed Europe and essentially destroyed many of the old monarchical states, Great Britain led the victorious coalition against Napoleon in carefully establishing a post-Napoleonic world that focused on maintaining a balance of power in Europe. Henry Kissinger observes that the Napoleonic Wars led to the destruction of the old European order and, as a result, created an urgent need among the victorious major powers to try to build a new European system that would keep future revolutions in check while preventing the threat of a future hegemonic power. This international order, which was created more explicitly in the name of the balance of power than any other before or since, relied the least on power to maintain itself. This unique system was on continental equilibrium and a collection of major powers knitted together by shared values of power and justice.23
Unfortunately, the builders of this new system did not anticipate that the various major world powers would all go through different levels of political and economic development in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars that would later influence their expansionistic policies overseas instead of within continental Europe.24 Both Great Britain and France had a head start in the race for colonies based on their earlier jump on exploration and expansion since the sixteenth century.25 Additionally, while the earlier colonial powers such as Spain, Portugal, and the Netherlands stagnated and contracted during the nineteenth century, both the British and French embraced imperialism through an assorted mix of industrial development, national security, and international prestige.26 The advent of the Second Industrial Revolution brought technology and knowledge that led to advances in every aspect of European society. The impact was an extraordinary population explosion, increased urbanization, and the need for more natural resources to continue feeding industries to produce goods and services to support a growing market base. Martin van Creveld observes, “A vast revolution swept over Europe and permanently altered the face of the Continent. Everywhere factories were erected, towns grew, and millions of peasants streamed from the countryside into the cities; at the turn of the century, what had for millennia been essentially agricultural societies had been metamorphosed into fully industrialized ones.”27
While Great Britain consolidated its gains in Canada, Australia, India, and New Zealand, it also began expanding beyond the borders of its old imperial possessions by moving into Southeast Asia, Central Asia, the Pacific, Africa, and the Middle East. This expansion inevitably brought the British Empire into contact with various countries and civilizations that were either conquered militarily or were controlled indirectly through local rulers and governments.28 In each case, the industrial and technological superiority of Great Britain was the reason for its successful expansion across the globe. Cheap, affordable commercial goods produced in London, Manchester, and Liverpool created economic and cultural ties between Great Britain and its imperial possessions, thus binding the British Empire through the use of technology in terms of capitalism, communication, transportation, and military might. Niall Ferguson pointed out that perhaps the most remarkable thing about British defense of its interests was the composition of its military forces to defend its global interests in 1898. There were 99,000 regular soldiers in Great Britain, 75,000 in India supplemented by 148,000 native troops, 41,000 stationed throughout the rest of the empire, and 100,000 men in the Royal Navy. To support their military, the British Empire devoted 2.5 percent of its gross domestic product (40 million pounds annually), which also included barracks, forts, coaling stations, ports and maintenance facilities, supply depots, and arsenals, as well as additional money set aside for research and development geared toward modernizing the force. This was world domination on the cheap.29
France’s recovery from the Napoleonic Wars and its economic boom due to the industrial revolution also made it the cultural capital of the world, the leader in literature, art, clothing, architecture, and design. Unlike the British, French expansion did not rely as much on military expeditions or hard power due to the wariness of the other European powers as a result of the Napoleonic Wars. Instead, France utilized a combination of diplomacy and soft power to establish protectorates in key geographic locations throughout the world and later used these protectorates as bases of operation to expand its control over certain geographic areas, as seen with the French annexation of Madagascar, French Indochina, French West Africa, and the South Pacific.30 In addition, French industry and technology allowed for the funding and coordination of extraordinary projects that had
