system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: How did the United States get to be so wealthy? 

Basically, I understand that we produce food or whatever, but is that what we are selling that has made us wealthy throughout history? I don't understand how we became so successful monetarily as compared to much of the rest of the world.
gpt
We were a manufacturing powerhouse well into the 19th century. We became one of the largest when England and the rest of Europe started licking it's war wounds, though England was arguably the largest before WW2.