By 1913, America was the richest nation in the world in terms of total and per-capita output. By 1918, she dominated the global financial structures by becoming the world's creditor nation. Her banks had provided the money to fight the war. She was preparing to take over world power; although that had to wait until the Bretton Woods conference in 1944. How had she generated such wealth at incredible speeds? The wealth generated by the USA came out of industrialisation which had begun early in the 19th century. As in Britain, industrialisation had originated out of cotton.

The USA appeared on the world stage with a big bang, if you will pardon the pun. Two atomic bombs were dropped on Japanese cities which announced her entrance. In 1944, at a meeting with the British at the village of Bretton Woods in the northeastern USA, the leaders of the two nations made a historic agreement on the future global infrastructure: something that had been missing in the interwar years; it would remain intact in most respects until the present day.

Japan had been able to follow European nations in colonising other countries and settling her people in her new colonies. By the end of 1945, around six and half million Japanese lived as settlers or as government officials in Japanese colonies such as Korea, Taiwan, China, Manchuria and Micronesia. Japanese military might had created an empire in the Asia Pacific region.

The USA would protect her vassals so long as they accepted her world leadership role. This latter included allowing USA military bases on their land, joining the military alliance, NATO, led by the USA; and following the financial leadership of the USA in terms of the dollar standard, and rules laid out in the United Nations, World Trade Organisation, and other global financial organisations. The Americans asserted their world power, and the vassals agreed voluntarily to follow behind.