Was it inevitable that the USA and the USSR would rise to the status of superpowers (world leaders)?
Was it inevitable that the USA and the USSR would rise to the status of superpowers (world leaders)?
A superpower is a very powerful and influential nation with a strong base politically, economically and socially. Historian June Dreger agrees a superpower must be able to project its power globally. It was inevitable that the USA and the USSR would rise to the status of superpowers to a large extent and to a very small extent it was also not inevitable that they would emerge as world leaders.
To a small extent it can be said that emergence of the USA and the USSR was never inevitable. After Black Thursday on October 24 1929 a depression hit the USA and every other industrial country. During the depression there seemed to be no hope of reviving the economy although Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deals were aimed at alleviating the effects of the depression the US economy was not revived until World War two. As well had it not been for World War Two the USA may have never achieved superpower status. Furthermore the US had a policy of isolation which would prevent it from being influential as a world leader. To a small extent it was not inevitable that the USSR would come to superpower status. Russia was a backward country industrially, agriculturally and socially. It was never inevitable that the USSR would surpass the economic growth of the British and other European powerhouses.
