You give too little credit to freedom and it's utility.
When freedom and capitalism are suppressed, societal advances are too.
Look at any free country anywhere in the world. Then look at the totalitarian countries. Are you still willing to say that it's success is primarily or solely geographical?
I'm saying that there were many places with the same sorts of people as America at the time of our revolution. The reason ours happened when it did and succeeded are mostly geographic.