> Who owns a huge chunk of Cuba? Certainly not the US. Unless you think 45 square miles is a “huge chunk”. > fully inhabited continent Not trying to downplay

> Who owns a huge chunk of Cuba? Certainly not the US. Unless you think 45 square miles is a “huge chunk”. > fully inhabited continent Not trying to downplay the atrocities but the population density in North America was very low when colonization started in the 1600s. Much of the land was basically abandoned when European settlers first arrived. > Hawaii Yes but I’m not sure annexing a few small islands in the Pacific had a huge impact on economic growth. Same applies to Guam and Puerto Rico. US certainly committed numerous inexcusable atrocities in the Philippines but I’m not sure it benefited that much from it relatively to the considerable costs of the whole occupation. > Panama canal? It's not even on US soil. Are you even sure it would have been built without the involvement if the US?