[Theophilus]

The US simply wasn't significant to world history until it became the leading technological player.

The New World was immediately significant in many immeasurable ways, like new foods. The U.S. was so significant that it was born after a series of civil, continental and world wars.

[buwaya]

The US as a society, a culture, a factor to be taken into account in geopolitics - absolutely not. The US was in the main a curiosity.