Is it possible that the United States became so strong because the federal government was limited for a long time?

Is it possible? Sure, just as it’s possible that I’ll be able to swim the English Channel in the next few months. That the US became “so strong because the federal government was limited for a long time” is, however, as unlikely as my English Channel swim.

The US is as powerful as it is for three main reasons. The first is that the US takes up most of a large continent, and one that is richly blessed with diverse natural resources. The second is that the US was effectively shielded from conflicts in the rest of the world by two enormous moats known as the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Third is that, after the end of WWII, the US was literally only major economic power that hadn’t been blown to smithereens.

Combine these three reasons, and you get a perfect situation for the US to be in its current position of strength. It has virtually nothing to do with the size of its Federal government. One could actually argue the exact opposite: that the strong Federal government, one blessed with a remarkable bounty of forward-thinking leaders**, put it in the best situation to capitalise on its advantages as listed above.

** I’d especially single out General/President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who presided over the strongest economy in human history, General George Marshall, whose plan following the war played a huge part in preventing post-WWII Europe from following a similar course to post-WWI Europe, and George Kennan, whose Long Telegram literally set the tone for the Cold War.

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