[jimbob]

People always seem to forget that though the US didn't enter WWI until very late they profited off of it a great deal as the "Arsenal of Democracy" selling to the British. With British Colonial doctrine being what it was it is unlikely that the USA as colony would have had that kind of production capability, just look at India and Egypt and Australia or other British colonies for what it probably would have been. A source of raw materials for export to the British manufacturing base and a source of young men to be used as cannon fodder, sorry, artillery and heavy machine gun fodder...

Hmmm... Riddle me this: I can think of another country in North America that remained an Imperial colony, managed to connect sea to sea under the authority of a single federal government, industrialize (ie produce tanks), and played a pivotal role in the outcome of both WWI and WWII by jumping in at the start with the Imperial "overmaster". In the process of becoming a nation it managed to not wage a costly war against the imperial power, not wage a costly civil war against itself and it managed to not perform genocide against it's indigenous tribes (though the nation did institute a number of destructive policies against the indigenous people, it did not have a policy of open warfare against them per se).

10 points and a piece of toast to the person who answers my riddle correctly!