Great details, Eric, on how the West (USA) was exploring its possibilities, while the East (Russia) was doing the same.

It is little things that are nevertheless big things that can change an outcome drastically. I can see how the Norwegians and the Irish left their homes. Would you say dominance by the Swedes and the English had something to do with that outcome as well?

If I am not mistaken, then the Ohio route started with the Erie canal. This opened up the hinterland for New York, and while New York and Boston had been growing more or less at the same pace up to then, New York leaped forward with the opening of that waterway. Same benefit for the hinterland that had found an easy way to the global market.

And just to show how timing is everything, the Erie canal was 'soon' supplanted by the railroads. Had that occurred at the same time, then Boston and New York would have had equal opportunities to grow, but the Erie canal gave New York the edge.

As long as grain was expensive, I guess windmills below sea level can get used to lower the water table and make land suitable for grain growing. That's the story I heard; grain had become too expensive to grow (i.e. no profit) and farmers had to look for alternatives and found more money in bulb growing, if I am not mistaken around the 1880s. Perhaps the grain grown in the low countries was the canary in the coal mine, the first to succumb. Too much trouble (cost) for something that can be had cheaper from elsewhere.