Democracy and Capitalism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Democracy and Capitalism - Essay Example Great Britain had slowly emerged as a country that was dominated by classical liberalism as it evolved during the seventeenth and the eighteenth century. Capitalism was inadvertently further developed by two events of the late fifteenth century and the early years of the sixteenth century, namely the discovery of the New World and the Protestant Reformation. The Portuguese and Spanish colonisation and economic exploitation of their New World empires in Asia, Central America, and South America were responsible for greatly expanding global trading links. New World silver and gold alongside the Atlantic slave trade boosted economic development greatly. The wealth exported to Portugal and Spain prompted competition from the Dutch, the English, and the French for colonies and trade England and later Britain was the state most responsible for developing the global capitalist economy. Capitalism, liberalism, and the Royal Navy were a virtually unstoppable combination.1 When Britains economic and military power declined after the Second World War its position of the global promoter of capitalism and democracy was taken over by the United States. In 1945 the United States was the worlds only nuclear power as well as having the largest economy. During the Cold War period the United States certainly promoted capitalism and anti-communism even if it did always further democracy. During the Cold War era capitalism and democracy became even more closely linked together than before. Capitalism whether in its traditional liberal form, or the Keynesian version with its mixed economies dominated Western Europe, North America, Latin America, and Japan. The Americans were not averse to interfering in other countries if their democratic choices threatened capitalism, for example in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Guatemala, and Iran. Unlike Russia in