[Obadno]

If the UK, Spain, Portugal, France etc could maintain empires with their sparse resources, Indeed they had empires BECAUSE of sparse resources, the US certainly could have. We had no need to, with the continental united states being so vast and full of natural resources and for the most part empty of large numbers of natives we had no reason to engage in colonial activity other than a few oddities like Liberia, Philippines, Guam etc mostly gained from he war with Spain.

And yes everything other nations got from colonization we managed with letting (semi) private mercantile business acquire on the nations behalf but still far more limited and less brutal than your standard colonization practice of the previous 1700's and 1800's.

My point in comparing the USA to other colonizing nations is that people like to act as if the US was in any way comparable to the western European countries or other past empires in terms of exploitation, violence and conquest and that is simply not true.