1.1. Can't be successful without the odd bump in the road, I'm looking at you AoC
2. Figuring it out
2.1. There comes that time in a young country's life where they must figure out how much of a person a slave is... oh wait no there shouldnt... but that what we had, then we got rid of it later.
3. History itself
3.1. Things like the Magna Carta is what inspired our natural rights, which our founding fathers took as well...
4. Cheating
4.1. Something works? Take it and use it. Doesn't work? Replace it with someone else's ideas
5. Greeks
5.1. The Greeks by far had one of the best ideas for government from the people in their time, so as you can guess, we kinda stole their idea for how to run it, democracy, and changed it a bit.
6. The Brits and their taxes
6.1. Think about it, without all the taxes and stupid crap the Brits pulled, we would have never split and tried the whole 'make our own government' thing.
7. War
7.1. Well I suppose we might as well point out the whole "Give me liberty of give me death thing." They fought and made their government at the same time, and it wouldn't exist if it wasn't for said war.
8. Philosophers
8.1. These big guys from Europe gave us the ideas that lead to the creation of the United States and our basic rights.
9. Compromises
9.1. Specifically the Great Compromise, without it, I'm willing to bet this country would have fallen apart at some point early on.
10. Leadership
10.1. It is very clear that without the help of certain individuals, that America would have fallen in on itself, thank God for Franklin and Washington
