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Comment by ransom1538 | Hacker News Reader

Sort of. The big advantage the US had was OCEANS on both sides and only stone age peoples to the south. Attacking the US on it's own soil has been a suicide mission for hundreds of years. Counties in order to attack the US would need to pile men on ships travel for a month(s) then attempt to skirmish on the beaches. On the other hand attacking Poland /Korea/China/Spain/Italy/Egypt is a matter of walking. Once ships were powered/quick enough to transfer men in mass it was too late -- the repeating rifle had been invented.

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The British stole the president's dinner and burned the White House during the war of 1812:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burning_of_Washington#White_Ho...

A storm intervened on behalf of USA.

"One force [British] burned Washington but failed to capture Baltimore, and sailed away when its commander was killed. In northern New York State, 10,000 British veterans were marching south until a decisive defeat at the Battle of Plattsburgh forced them back to Canada.[b] Nothing was known of the fate of the third large invasion force aimed at capturing New Orleans and southwest. The Prime Minister wanted the Duke of Wellington to command in Canada and take control of the Great Lakes." [i]

Sure, they burned the White House [battle won], but lost the war.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_1812

> Sort of. The big advantage the US had was OCEANS on both sides and only stone age peoples to the south.

By the time the US became a country, the indigenous peoples had access to firearms, certainly every one the US Army would have been fighting. It's also worth pointing out that the US bordered an English colony to the north and a mestizo former Spanish colony to the south.

And the French controlled half the continent too before they gave it up for peanuts.

Nominally, yes. In practice, the control in most of that region didn't really extend outside of the presence of a few trading posts. (It should also be noted that Mexican control of Alta California outside of the coastal region was similarly nominal)

stone age people to the south? Didn't Spaniards and Englishmen had the same technology?

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