The USA was hardly a backwater compared to Europe before WW2. Princeton had a world-class mathematics department where people came from all over the world to st

The USA was hardly a backwater compared to Europe before WW2. Princeton had a world-class mathematics department where people came from all over the world to study and research, among them Alan Turing (whose collaborations with Alonzo Church turned out to be very important to this website). And even before the 20th century, American scientific acumen was fairly well-regarded. Benjamin Franklin's reputation in Europe was partially based on his scientific achievements. Europe's disdain for the Americas was almost always rooted in a belief of cultural superiority, not a belief that American science or engineering was weak.