American history is really something else, and because our ancestors were so effective in some key regards, we don't even realize.

Huge swaths of the us are only inhabitable the way they are because of large engineering projects. The southeastern US was a swamp where you could catch malaria and die (a lot of Africa was the same), and a lot of the southwest was uninhabitable desert. The rocky mountains were conquered with blood building transportation networks that would have been unthinkable in previous eras. They managed to get water to dry areas and drain water from wet areas, and build transportation networks to remote areas that supply goods for regions that are productive today but wouldn't be without trade.

If you head into some of the more historic regions and look around, you really have to go "why the hell would people leave the relative comfort of Europe during the enlightenment for a frozen hellscape in the bush?"