... s desirable reservations. Immigration from Europe exceeded 13,000,000 beteen 1900 and 1914 alone and provided labour for the Norths burgeoning factories. hen Cuba revolted against Spain in 1895, American sympathies and interests ultimately led to ar ith Spain 1898. Victory brought the United States its first overseas territories the Philippines, Guam, Puerto Rico and marked it as an emergent international poer. The United States rise to great-poer status had its price. Though President oodro ilson pledged neutrality in orld ar I, the United States as unable to remain outside the struggle. Its entry into the ar in 1917 as decisive in bringing about an Allied victory and commenced American involvement in the European balance of poer.The prosperity of the decade that folloed orld ar I came to a sudden end in 1929 hen the stock market crashed and the Great Depression began. It ushered in an era of increased federal involvement in economic and social policy under President Franklin D. Roosevelt. His Ne Deal legislation revolutionized the country, but full economic recovery as still not achieved until ar production became massive on the eve of orld ar II. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor brought the United States into orld ar II on the side of Britain and the Soviet Union against the fascist nations of Germany, Japan, and Italy. The ar effort galvanized the American economys productive capacity, and after victory as achieved in 1945 the United States experienced three decades of unprecedented economic groth and prosperity.The Allied victory in 1945 left the United States the leader of the estern orld, deeply involved in the reconstruction of Europe and Japan, but embroiled in 40-year-long rivalry ith the Soviet Union that became knon as the Cold ar. In 1949 the United States formed the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in an effort to counter the Soviet military presence in eastern Europe, and a Soviet-inspired attack on South Korea involved the United States in the Korean ar 1950-53, hich ended in stalemate. The United States subsequently became involved in the Vietnam ar 1955-75 in an effort to prevent communist North Vietnam from taking over South Vietnam. The prolonged and unsuccessful American ar effort ended in a ithdraal of the United States from the conflict in 1973 and the fall of South Vietnam to the communists to years later.At home the 1960s itnessed a successful protest movement by American blacks to outla racial segregation and discrimination and to obtain full voting rights in the South and other parts of the country. The expense of the Vietnam ar drained resources aay from liberal programs of social reform in the 1960s and early 70s, hoever, and the end of American involvement in the Vietnam ar as accompanied by the atergate scandal, hich forced the resignation of President Richard M. Nixon in 1974.The Cold ar ended ith the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, leaving the United States the undisputed superpoer in the orld. The most serious challenges late in the 20th century ere economic ones, hoever. Beginning in the 1970s, rates of economic groth sloed and living standards stagnated or even fell as the American economy as forced to cope ith increased foreign competition, its on steadily declining vigour, and the effects of massive budget deficits and a huge national debt. ... Download