what do you think is the greatest achievement of the usa, in science, technology, social or really anything else. personally I would regard the moon landings as the greatest american achievement of all time and possibly the greatest achievement of humanity. I’m curious as a non america what do americans regard as their greatest and proudest achievement.
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I think the original. Being the first place in the world to break away from a larger country and then form a representative government.
Landing a man on the moon.
The constitution.
It receives a lot of derision these days but it is an historical document that played a major contributing factor to how tge US became a superpower and therefore changed the entire world to some degree.
The principles within may have taken time to really take root but nearly all societal advancement has been, at minimum, guided by them.
Landing a Man on the Moon without a doubt. We went from gliding for 30 seconds to landing people on the surface of the moon in 60 years.
The internet.
For the first time in history, people all over the world have almost the entirety of human knowledge at their finger tips, literally. It’s a shame we use it to bicker with each other and assholes use it to spread misinformation
The 2 greatest political documents ever written – the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States of America
It may not be #1 but I would put the transcontinental railroad pretty high ranking. It played a pivotal role in our nations development and healing post civil war.
I don’t believe we would have become the economic power house we are today without it. It’s the beginning stage of our impressive logistic network. If we attempted it later than we did I think we would have been completely underprepared for the 20th century and would be nowhere near as successful as we are today.
Creation of a land bridge connecting the Atlantic and Pacific did wonders for global trade and our nations development.
Creating the National Parks system which spread globally.
Technology: We were brought up to regard it as the moon landing, but time shows it really is the Internet. ARPANET baby! The Information Age is here and is the most momentous change since the Industrial Revolution.
Ideology: We were the first European colony to gain independence, and US liberalism and federalism was influenced by the greater freedoms found in American Indian societies compared to feudal Europe.
Military: WWII saved the world from fascism, so that’s not bad either.
EDIT: People are randomly getting salty even though this credit is obviously shared amongst the Allied Powers. Even Stalin knew this — he told Khrushchev and others that Lend Lease was decisive in ensuring the Soviet victory (but he’s still Stalin and he never wrote it down)
First powered flight to boots on the moon in a single lifetime is pretty bananas when you think about it. Shout out to the USSR for the motivational assist. They were tough competitors in the space race. Fuck all that communist nonsense, but credit where credit is due, we wouldn’t have achieved that without the stiff competition.
Corn beef hash. I’m hungry.
The Constitution and more important (for lots of people have constitutions no one does anything about) a culture that respects it. A lot of those technological achievements would not have come about if people did not hope to profit from their knowledge or if they feared being persecuted for it.
The automobile and airplane
Our ongoing occupation of the minds of Europeans.
Inventing the airplane, without it, we never would have reached the moon.
In b4 Brazilians.
As bad as it was in conception and making it, the Panama Canal is a huge thing globally. A way to get from the Atlantic to the Pacific easily? Yay!
The transistor
Mobilizing for world war 2 which also got us out of the depression.
The creation of modern popular music. Ragtime, Gospel, Spirituals, Blues, Jazz, Musical Theatre/”American Songbook”, Rock and Roll, Country, Soul, Rhythm and Blues, Hip Hop and all the rest. Obviously there were roots in Africa and Europe and obviously there have been major artists from outside America but America has been the fountainhead, laboratory, and factory of the sound of music for over 100 years. We have gone from a world in which Mark Twain could joke that most people found most performed music boring and unpleasant to a world in which recorded and performed music is a constant presence to almost everyone in the world, and it all started and still mostly comes from the US.
Dolly Parton
We achieved (basically) world peace after WWII. Not 100% peace, but stability at least. We established an international environment in which invasions and border changes were clearly not ok, which was a very new thing, historically speaking. Not only did we establish this system, we maintained it until 2014 (when Russia took Crimea and everyone just… let them). Well… mostly… I guess we never took a stance on Kashmir.
During this period 1945-2014, the entire world (or at least the western world) was freed from the burden of self defense, because they knew Big Brother USA would protect them if they ever got invaded. This freed up budget, manpower, and stress/energy levels to be spent on other things that hugely improved quality of life: infrastructure, technology, healthcare, education, etc.
There are tons of metrics that show how drastically life has improved for humanity from the early 20th century to now: literacy rates, extreme poverty rates, access to clean running water rates, childhood mortality rates, etc. This was due in a large part to the USA providing that stable international system that allowed all these countries to make these domestic improvements.
I see the Declaration and Constitution were already mentioned so I’m going to pick the Battle of Trenton. The sheer nerve of Washington’s army to cross the frozen Delaware River, in rafts, at night, on Christmas.
I’m gonna get hate for this, but the immigration system.
Yes I’m an immigrant, but either way, the country is so immensely diverse, nothing like this exist anywhere else and we live amongst one another. Not to mention the very real American dream, we are prime examples of.
But mainly, I could become a proper American. The kind with a funny accent, but still. I am now American. In other countries, you get a passport and citizenship, but you will never become British or German.
And the moon landing of course…
First polio vaccine was developed in the United States
America is the first nation to consist of people from many ethnic groups.
Despite our current immigration/migrant issues, the States are a medley of many nationalities. Our unifying symbol is the US flag, not our ethnic background.