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.
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* Favorable Geography – the US has an intricate system or rivers/waterways that allows you to move goods in land. This is of less importance now, but in the 1700 and 1800’s meant you could quickly build up forts and colonies in land and keep them supplied. Those same rivers and waterways also provide clean water which is crucial for developing large cities. 50% of the US population lives in the eastern time zone or basically the east coast/seaboard for that reason.
* Lots of rich land – lots of land in the US relative to its total population that provides farming and later on resources (minerals and oil).
* Lack of domestic enemies – the US has never had to seriously fight with their northern or southern neighbors. Europe by contrast is marked by centuries of war for many reasons but partly because of the lack of land which forced many European powers to colonize foreign lands or fight wars to gain territory. War is expensive and devastating to a country and the fact that the US hasn’t fought many is a plus.
* History of genocide/slavery – hard not to list this as a reason for why the US became a global powerhouse. If they never took the lands from Native Americans or tried to compensate them fairly, history may have turned out very differently. Large swaths of the US may now fall under sovereign rule of Native Americans instead, depriving America of rich farm/plain lands. Slavery made the US again very rich during the 1800’s. “In 60 years, from 1801 to 1862, the amount of cotton picked daily by an enslaved person increased 400 percent. The profits from cotton propelled the US into a position as one of the leading economies in the world, and made the South its most prosperous region.” (source: https://www.vox.com/identities/2019/8/16/20806069/slavery-economy-capitalism-violence-cotton-edward-baptist#:~:text=In%2060%20years%2C%20from%201801,South%20its%20most%20prosperous%20region.)
* World Wars – both world wars decimated and destroyed most of Europe. It took them decades to rebuild. The US was untouched by the world wars domestically with the exception of Pearl Harbor. Rebuilding your country after a war is expensive and resource intensive. The US really took off in the period leading up to WW2 and after because our industries got ramped up quickly. (making war time goods at first and then shifting to consumer goods) After the war, while other nations were rebuilding, the US became the global leader in manufacturing.
* Strength/ubiquity of the dollar – one of the consequences of being a major manufacturing power is that other nations are forced to buy your products, and they will naturally do so in US dollars. Why US dollars? US dollars are more valuable because other nations will value them as well, knowing that they can always use it to buy US goods or trade it to other nations who will want to buy US Goods. It’s a reinforcing loop/cycle that ensures dominance of one currency.
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