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A superpower is a state with the ability to influence events or project power on a wide scale. In modern terms, this may imply an entity with a strong economy, a large population, and strong armed forces, including air power and satellite capabilities, and a huge arsenal of weapons of mass destruction. Superpowers often have colonies, or satellite states.The term superpower appeared as a neologism in 1922. Prior to World War II, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Soviet UnionThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR ( Russian: ; tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik (SSSR) also called the Soviet Union ( ; tr. Sovetsky Soyuz , was a state in much of the northern region of Eurasia that existed from 1922 until 1, the United StatesThe United States of America also referred to as the United States U. America ¹ or the States is a federal republic in central North America, stretching from the Atlantic in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west. It shares land borders with Canada in, and the British EmpireThe British Empire in the early decades of the 20th century, held sway over a population of 400 500 million people (roughly a quarter of the world's population), and covered nearly 30 million square kilometres, (roughly two-fifths of the world's land area were sometimes labeled as superpowers, although the more common term was great powers.
After 1945Events January January 5 The Soviet Union recognizes the new pro-Soviet government of Poland. January 7 British General Bernard Montgomery holds a press conference in which he claims credit for victory in the Battle of the Bulge. January 12 World War II: the victorious powers — the Republic of ChinaChina's seat in the United Nations has been occupied by the People's Republic of China since November 23, 1971. It was previously held by the Republic of China. The ROC in the UN The Republic of China (ROC) was one of the founding members of the United Na, France, the United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a state in Western Europe, usually known simply as the United Kingdom the UK Britain or less accurately as Great Britain . The UK was formed by a series of Acts of Union which united the formerly, the Soviet UnionThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR ( Russian: ; tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik (SSSR) also called the Soviet Union ( ; tr. Sovetsky Soyuz , was a state in much of the northern region of Eurasia that existed from 1922 until 1 and the United States of America — gained permanent seats and veto of the United Nations Security Council. But due to economic stresses, the loss of overseas colonial empires and civil war, not all of these states could maintain their relative hegemony.
As the Cold War developed, it became clear that only two indisputable great powers remained: the United States and the Soviet Union. Superpowers became the name given to the Great Powers under the Cold War context; differentiating the bipolar situation from the previous multipolar world. This situation lasted until the political collapse of the Soviet Union circa 1991.
1 United States
The United States headed NATO, commonly known as the Western Bloc or the First World before the Cold War. In the post-Cold War era, the United States could be considered the world's sole remaining superpower. The enormous gap in military and economic power between the United States and other individual countries prompts some analysts to label the United States as a hyperpower. Because of the huge concentration of power in one state, some analysts have occasionaly drawn analogy to a Pax Americana, with the United States as the guarantor of world peace and a mediator in disputes between other states. This is a direct reference to the Pax Britannica and the Pax Romana of the past, when Great Britain and the Roman Empire, respectively, were dominant powers deeply involved in the security of surrounding nations. This view is not universally held, nor easily defined. Others have a more negative view of the United States and see it not as a guarantor of peace but as an imperialist power imposing its will on other states.
