THE MAKING OF A NATION – a program in Special English on the Voice of America.
The 1920s are remembered today as a quiet period in American foreign policy. The nation was at peace. The Republican presidents in the White House generally were more interested in economic growth at home than in relations with foreign countries.
But the world had changed. The United States had become a world power. It was tied to other countries by trade, politics, and joint interests. And America had gained new economic strength.
Before World War One, foreigners invested more money in the United States than Americans invested in other countries -- about three thousand million dollars more. The war changed this. By 1919, Americans had almost three thousand million dollars more invested in other countries than foreign citizens had invested in the United States.
American foreign investments continued to increase greatly during the 1920s.
Increased foreign investment was not the only sign of growing American economic power. By the end of World War One, the United States produced more goods and services than any other nation, both in total and per person.
