The Oil Drum

We became a world power because we were a huge country, filled with unexploited natural resources.

Something that I think is under-appreciated. I've finally gotten around to reading Charles Mann's "1491" and it's an amazing (and heart-breaking) story: Europeans apparently walked almost unchallenged into a vast country from which the indigenous peoples had only recently been all but annihilated. There has been little to compare that with in recent history (except for Australia, of course).

The other thing that I think is under-appreciated is how much America's geographic isolation from the twentieth century wars in Europe, N Africa, Asia and the Pacific gave it a "leg up" in the years following WW II. I've had this discussion with many who have argued that American hegemony in the 20th century owed almost entirely to the strength of our culture and our institutions.

Now, we're in the position -- as Asebius put it the other day -- of having "eaten our lunch" and trying to figure out where we are going for our next meal.