An uncertain balance, 1890–1914

Mary Nolan

doi:10.1017/CBO9781139016872.002

1 - An uncertain balance, 1890–1914

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 November 2012

Mary Nolan

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Mary Nolan: Affiliation:
New York University

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Summary

In the decades before World War I transatlantic relations were paramount neither for the United States nor for states across Europe. The world was multipolar and rapidly globalizing. Britain remained the dominant economic and colonial power. While exchanges of goods, capital, ideas, and people across the Atlantic were increasing rapidly, for both Europe and the United States, the North Atlantic world was just one arena of economic and political interest and interaction, and transatlantic relations were often triangulated through imperial concerns in Asia, Latin America, and Africa. The American Century had not yet begun. But was it visible on the horizon?

Many historians view the twentieth-century rise of the United States as preordained due to America’s economic might, geography, or purported political and cultural exceptionalism. Likewise, the end of European hegemony appears predictable due to imperial overreach, nation-state rivalries, and less robust economies. In the decades before World War I, however, the new world did not dominate the old, and the United States was a nation among nations. It was unclear how the transatlantic balance of economic, political, and cultural power would evolve.

Type: Chapter
Information: The Transatlantic Century
Europe and America, 1890–2010
, pp. 10 - 51

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139016872.002 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2012

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