How America Went From Afterthought to Superpower
In 13 fast, funny minutes, watch America go from a continent Europe mostly ignored to a world power on the eve of World War I.
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The jokes are cartoon-simple, but some of the dialogue comes almost straight from the historical record. Watch the Alaska scene: the stabbing Seward mentions was real (an assassin attacked him the same night Lincoln was shot), and his offer of $5 million, “perhaps $5.5 million, but no more,” is what he actually told the Russian envoy, whose strategic silence then nudged the price to $7.2 million. The treaty was signed at 4 a.m.
The bird-droppings gag holds up too: the Guano Islands Act of 1856, which let any American claim an unowned, guano-covered island, is still U.S. law. By the end, America has gone from ignored backwater to world power on the eve of World War I. If you want to see that new giant up close, New York City in 1911 catches it in full stride, on real film.
