memes

well, first of all they basically immediately began plundering their entire continent. Then they stole a bunch of patented designs from the British, while being as far away from the british as possible, which allowed them to benefit from the industrial revolution with almost no reason to pay money to britain. Then, after industrializing, they turned themselves into the world's premiere factory, producing almost every kind of good, and being supplied by quasi-slave labour in every country south of Texas, as these countries were not being protected by a country that could have been a peer to the US. Then they took in a lot of europeans fleeing war and persecution, while said wars and persecutions were destroying the productive capacity of the rest of Europe (and after Europe had already destroyed most of the rest of the world's). Cut to 1945 and the advent of the Nuke, and now the US was holding the entire planet hostage.