The first American corporations were developed in the 1790s, almost instantly becoming key institutions in the young nation's economy. Although corporations existed in Europe in the early-19th century – particularly in Great Britain and the Netherlands – no country took to corporate development like the United States. Corporate development was dealt a blow toward the turn of the 20th century with the introduction of antitrust legislation, but it quickly rebounded. The end of World War II created a period of unprecedented American corporate hegemony until the rise of Japanese competition in world markets in the 1980s.
