How did the us benefit from contact with foreign nations and territories?

In the revolutionary war, we were able to become the us in the first place because we convinced France and her allies to war with England and her allies, thus forcing Britain to divert its resources to other mor important battlefields. Thus, by becoming a lesser priority to the British, we were able to escape her full wrath. Also, foreign relations have been important to the us ever since we became a world power, padticularly after the Spanish-American war when we gained Guam, the phillipines, Cuba, and Puerto Rico. Contact with foreign nations allowed us to find markets for our industrial and agricultural goods.