Americanization

• 1. Defining The Concept

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  In 1902, the British journalist William Stead published a book titled The Americanization of the World. This early work discussed the growing popularity of American ideas across the globe. Scholars have long debated what this term actually means for international relations and culture. Harm G. Schröter defined it as an adapted transfer of values, behaviors, institutions, technologies, patterns of organization, symbols, and norms from the United States to the economic life of other states. Mel van Elteren offered a negative definition describing it as a process where influences emanating from America impinge on the values, norms, belief systems, mentalities, habits, rules, technologies, practices, institutions, and behaviors of non-Americans. Some observers describe Americanization as synonymous with progress and innovation while others view it as cultural imperialism. The ambiguity of the concept has led to complex discussions about trans-Atlantic relations in both economic and cultural history fields.

• 2. Hollywood And Media Dominance

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  The cinema of the United States has dominated most of the world's media markets since the 1910s. It serves as the chief medium by which the international community sees American fashions, customs, scenery, and way of life. The top 50 highest-grossing films of all time were all made entirely or partially in the United States. Criteria for determining a movie's country of origin are mutable but based on fiscal contribution and head office locations. This creates a significant advantage for Hollywood to fund large-scale motion pictures. Works set and filmed entirely in the United Kingdom like some Harry Potter franchise entries count as American productions for solely financial reasons. The major film studios of the United States remain the primary source of the most commercially successful movies globally. In 2006, a survey of 20 countries found seven American shows among the ten most watched including CSI: Miami, Lost, Desperate Housewives, The Simpsons, and The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius. Michael Jackson's album Thriller at 100 million sales stands as the best-selling album of all time internationally.

• 3. Corporate Brands And Soft Power

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  United States-based commercial enterprises operating internationally are strongly associated with Americanization. The Coca-Cola Company was previously the top global company by revenue giving rise to the term Coca-Cola diplomacy for anything emblematic of U.S. soft power. Of the world's 500 largest companies 124 are headquartered in the United States. Companies such as McDonald's, Subway, Starbucks, Burger King, Pizza Hut, KFC, and Domino's Pizza have numerous outlets around the world. A kosher McDonald's exists in Ashkelon Israel while another location sits within the Forbidden City in China. Even as far back as 1900 some observers saw Americanization as synonymous with progress and innovation. In Germany during the 1920s the American efficiency movement was called rationalization and promised that science would bring prosperity. Department stores threatened more local businesses with low prices and chain-managed operations. Small businesses fought back to protect their source of income from the U.S. market. Many of the world's biggest computer companies including Microsoft, Apple, Intel, HP Inc., Dell, and IBM are also U.S.-based.

• 4. Cold War Cultural Strategies

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  During the Cold War Americanization served as the primary soft power method chosen to counter Sovietization around the world. Education schools and particularly universities became the main target for Americanization efforts. The first McDonald's in Soviet Russia had a grand opening on Moscow's Pushkin Square on the 31st of January 1990 with approximately 38,000 customers waiting in hours long lines breaking company records at the time. By 1997 there were 21 locations of the Russian chain. From 1950 to 1965 American investments in Europe soared by 800% to $13.9 billion. In the European Economic Community they rose ten times to $6.25 billion. Finland has been considered the most Americanized country in Europe since the 1960s. Koç University in Turkey is based on the American model and features an American football team called the Koç Rams. Resistance to Americanization within the university community restrained its effectiveness though it was still much more successful than Sovietization. The importation of Little Golden Books to France under the publisher Cocorico after World War II presented economic principles of American liberalism in a favorable light.

• 5. Digital Age And Internet Expansion

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  Americanization found yet another gear with the advent of widespread high-speed Internet use in the mid-2000s notably heavily censored in China. A new dimension of anti-Americanism emerged as fear of the pervasiveness of American Internet technology. Americanization arrived through widespread high-speed Internet and smartphone technology since 2008 with a large fraction of new apps and hardware designed in Silicon Valley. In Europe growing concern exists about excess Americanization through Google Facebook Twitter the iPhone and Uber among many other American Internet-based corporations. European governments have increasingly expressed concern about privacy issues as well as antitrust and taxation issues regarding these new giants. There is a fear that they are significantly evading taxes and posting information that may violate European privacy laws. The Wall Street Journal reported deep concerns in Europe's highest policy circles about the power of U.S. technology companies in 2015. Vladimir Putin published an opinion piece in The New York Times in 2013 attacking the American tendency to see itself as an exceptional indispensable nation.

• 6. Historiography And Academic Debate

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  The Americanization of the Navajo at Canyon de Chelly was carried out by the Bureau of Indian Affairs in the late 1800s. Berghahn analyzed the debate on the usefulness of the concepts of Americanization and Westernization reviewing recent research on the European, American relationship during the Cold War. Some critics believe that the result of the rivalry between Sinicization and Americanization may lead to the emergence of a third power or turn one of the two into the actor with the most bargaining power. Francis Fukuyama argued that the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 prompted a unipolar global capitalist reality meaning the end of history. John Fousek said the triumphalism embedded in Fukuyama's view constitutes a new historically contingent variation on ideology. Mary Nolan stated that what emerged during 1990 was a multipolar global order rather than an all-consuming force. The traditional exceptional image of U.S. complete hegemonic power can be quite dangerous because it prompted American intervention in Iraq and Afghanistan which proved limitations of American power across the globe similar to Vietnam. Public opinion began to resent American advertising business methods personnel policies and use of the English language by American companies.