how did the U.S. become a global powerhouse?

Question

Excuse my poor history knowledge, but the Europeans sailed here to find new lands, settled, and then after generations, they were overthrown by their descendants. The British empire still ruled around the world for centuries yet, the U.S. arguably is in a better state of economics, military, and such.

In: 13

Answer 1

Pretty much WW2, when the Western European powers were financially and militarily weakened, and the U.S was mostly unscathed, not even Pearl Harbor did a scratch (or nothing severe) to the American economy and military. Also all the Western European intellects who fled to the U.S., which added to the U.S. becoming even more technologically advanced.