What if the United States began rapid expansion right after WWII being the only country with nuclear weapons?

What if the United States began rapid expansion right after WWII being the only country with nuclear weapons?

I think it would be condemned by the western allies but no one would try to stop the us as that would just be suicidal

A few problems with such an expansion if the USA went full imperialist

1. The United States was (and always has been even to this day) tried to present themselves as a land of the free, not as conquerors. They don't conquer people, they only spread democracy. I mean, even taking over a few islands in the Spanish Civil war was frowned upon by a ton of people. If they wanted to take over countries without getting their own people to be polarized and angry, they would need to have very good reasons and explanations, which might take a long time to do.

2. Europe is in shambles, but the countries still have empires, and many of them (especially France and the UK) are not just willing to give it away like that. If the United States dared tried to invade their areas of influence, I would predict a continuation of ww2 would continue (albeit with nukes now)

3. The USA were the sole country with nukes until 1949, when the USSR got them. This means the USA had only 4 years to do whatever they wanted with an advantage like that. That's a very small time to justify a war for them.

4. Would it even be worth it? We know in our timeline merely supporting the countries with money and protection is more than enough to gain allies. One huge factor that made the USA so powerful in the Cold war was that they had allies with all of western Europe (who were much richer than eastern Europe) and the rich countries of Canada, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. Why make enemies with them and take over their lands and resoruces when you can be friends and get them for free?

Those are my reasons why I don't see a warmongering USA past ww2, but feel free to explain your take on it.

I don't think it would happen but people didn't see Hitler happen, of course that strategy of world domination with very few allies didn't go well for him.

Well who would they expand into? Russia? Mexico? Canada?

England04 wrote:Well who would they expand into? Russia? Mexico? Canada?

Most likely they would take over the North American continent.

Even then I would doubt it.

Canada is still a British Dominion. They would definitely have the UK's support, and the UK is still a major power in the world (they would only lose their influence during the 1950s) and would drain the US in a major war between them. And the nukes weren't as advanced as they are now. They would have to bring their aircraft all the way through the Atlantic ocean and get to the British isles if they want to nuke the UK (much harder than it sounds). And it wouldn't make sense to nuke the very places you're trying to conquer.

So with Canada an unlikely target, that only leaves Mexico, which could work. However, they will have to deal with massive resistance (Mexico is surprisingly large population wise) and the international prestige and condemnation that we talked about. Mexico could even try to gain support from the rest of Latin America, as many would be disillusioned and fearful from America's sudden warmongering ways (and also abandoning the Monroe Doctrine that they all thought the US would uphold). So it could end up being the USA vs all of Latin America, which would be pretty hard to deal with even for them.

So yeah, American expansion seems pretty unlikely for me. Even if we assume they do end up attepting an invasion, I doubt they would win, even with the new nukes they recently built.