Comments

c4: I agree, there is no guarantee that any of the cultures--European, Asian, or Indian--had to be first, but I am sure you agree that the thoughts behind scientific progress, the idea of empirical study and falsification, had to precede any discovery of the sort I mentioned.

It then becomes, not a racial thing, but a cultural thing. Anthony Lister, a Scotsman, discovered antiseptic. Alexander Fleming, a Scotsman, discovered antibiotics. James Young Simpson, a Scotsman, discovered the surgical use of anesthesia.

You even imply the answer: "The Spanish were brutal. The English could be but were at times accomodating and legalistic. The French did best as they wanted a trading network that used tribes as the procurers of goods for trade." Spanish were brutal, French opportunistic, English accomodating and legalistic.

You must understand that it is the cultural relics of Whiggism that has steered America, with all of her racial diversity, towards success and preeminence. Britain became powerful because of her scepticism, but her class snobbery led her astray. America improved and eliminated the class struggle and now sits astride the world.

Evolution is our power. Others compete on those terms, or they perish.