Day of Empire_ How Hyperpowers Rise to Global Dominance--And Why They Fall - Amy Chua [124]
Why has the United States been so extraordinarily successful economically and militarily? Its rich agricultural land certainly contributed, as did its bountiful raw materials, geographic separation from foreign threats, and its institutions, however imperfect, of private property, free markets, democracy, and the rule of law. But as with every preceding hyperpower, the real secret to America's strength lies in its human capital.
If relative tolerance is the key to world dominance, the United States has always had a huge advantage over the nations of Europe. Not only has America attracted immigrants; it is a nation of immigrants. The country's Founding Fathers were the sons and grandsons of immigrants, if not immigrants themselves. (Born on the Caribbean island of Nevis, Alexander Hamilton arrived in New York at the age of sixteen.) More than 95 percent of Americans today descend from someone who crossed an ocean to get here.
Of course, many who crossed the ocean did so in leg irons. For them, as for America's native peoples, the birth of the United States was a story not of tolerance but of ruthless oppression. The “nation of immigrants” was founded by—and for generations defined as a nation of—largely white Anglo-Saxon Protestants. As late as 1909, when Israel Zangwill, a Russian Jew, wrote his celebrated play The Melting Pot, he envisioned only “the races of Europe” in the crucible.2
Compared to all other contemporaneous powers, the United States has always been remarkably tolerant of religious diversity. In a truly revolutionary act, the United States in 1789 not only embraced religious freedom—as had countries like Britain and the Dutch Republic—but declared as a constitutional principle that there would be no national church. On the other hand, despite its generally open immigration policy, the United States for much of its history demonstrated extreme racial and ethnic intolerance toward certain groups, most notably Native Americans, African Americans, and other non-“whites.” Notwithstanding repeated declarations that “all men are created equal,” slavery, segregation, discrimination, and inequality of citizenship were long-standing American realities. It was only after World War II that the United States developed into one of the most ethnically and racially open societies in world history. Not coincidentally, this was also the period in which the United States achieved world dominance.
This chapter will trace the United States’ transformation from ragtag colony to continental power to superpower and finally to hyperpower. This ascent was a direct product of America's continuing ability to attract, reward, and absorb the energy and ingenuity of vastly diverse groups. By accepting other countries’ pariahs, and later by draining rival powers and developing nations of many of their best and brightest, the United States generated unprecedented economic dynamism and technological innovation, which in turn gave rise to the greatest accumulation of wealth and the most fearsome military the world has ever seen.
THE REVOLUTIONARY SEPARATION
OF CHURCH FROM STATE
The Puritans had their virtues. Epitomizing Max Weber's “Protestant work ethic,” they were famous for their thrift and industry. They placed tremendous value on education. Puritans such as John Harvard founded America's earliest universities. Increase Mather, who served as president of Harvard from 1685 to 1701 and later helped found Yale, was able to read the Old Testament in ancient Hebrew, Greek, and Latin.
It's often forgotten, however, that the Puritans were not religiously tolerant. Having escaped persecution in Europe, the Puritans became persecutors in colonial America. Seeing themselves as God's chosen people—the carriers of the “true religion”—the Puritans denied religious liberty not