Abstract
The Americas were the last major liveable continents to be settled by humans. When first Asians («Native Americans» or «Indians») and then Europeans (and those they brought from Africa and Asia as slaves or laborers) settled in the Americas, they found enormous lands empty (or empty-able) of other humans with incredibly rich resources. Having emigrated from relatively densely populated and socially and economically stratified Asia and Europe, the Americas represented enormous resources power capita and the freedom to exploit those resources and hence generate wealth. This of course is a well-known story told to most American children with a focus on the various heroic activities of our ancestors. But it is also a story about energy.
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Hall, C.A.S., Klitgaard, K. (2018). Energy, Wealth, and the American Dream. In: Energy and the Wealth of Nations. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66219-0_7
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