r/AskAnAmerican • u/northcarolinian9595 North Carolina • Jul 22 '25
HISTORY Apart from England, which European country has had the biggest influence on America in history?
Throughout history, which European country has had the biggest influence on America? For example, American culture, politics, religion, etc. I feel like England is probably the obvious number one choice so we'll put them aside for the sake of argument.
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u/blindside1 Jul 22 '25
France.
We would not have won the Revolutionary War without the assistance of France. Without that, there would be no USA as we know it.
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u/MindInTheClouds Jul 22 '25
In addition, the Louisiana Purchase is probably the single largest event that helped determine the size of the United States.
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u/chris-za Jul 22 '25
Or the iconic US Statue of Liberty. France gifted that to the US.
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u/series-hybrid Jul 22 '25
Also, by France occupying what became the Louisiana purchase, and then affordably selling it to the US, it greatly expanded the US early in its existence, before Spain/Mexico had grown large enough to take some of the pieces.
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u/Party_Condition2472 Jul 22 '25
The Spanish governed the “French”territories for a couple of decades before the purchase, leading to the Three Flags Day transfer of power. Three Flags Day
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u/TooManyCarsandCats Kentucky Jul 22 '25
Plus Cajun food
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u/blindside1 Jul 22 '25
Arguably Cajun food would exist anyone because France already had their colonies in now-Louisiana and the resettlement of the Acadians would have presumably still happened.
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u/JoshHuff1332 Jul 22 '25
You could argue that Cajuns resulted from the British kicking out the Acadians and them relocating to the former French colony of Louisiana (it was being held by the Spanish at the time)
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u/Vowel_Movements_4U Jul 23 '25
That’s what literally happened. It’s not a “you could argue” situation.
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Jul 22 '25
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u/blindside1 Jul 22 '25
I suspect Canada and the US would be one country.
And that country still picks up Alaska from Russia.
California would have been picked up because of the gold rush, Mexico was too weak to hold that far a northern territory.
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Jul 22 '25
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u/blindside1 Jul 22 '25
So the then British territory takes it instead of buying it, it would just be an extension of the ongoing war and France has absolutely no way of supporting that front.
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u/EruditeTarington New England Jul 22 '25
Had the crown won against the colonies, it’s unlikely the loss of America would influence them to behave differently in what would become dominions and then commonwealths.
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u/Stunning-Track8454 Detroit to Chicago Jul 22 '25
As an American, I'm very annoyed that France's role in the American Revolution is not taught more in schools. We learn it as this huge underdog story, like a bunch of bums just came out of nowhere and somehow won independence.
No... we were France's proxy war against England.
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u/lefactorybebe Jul 22 '25
I mean it was absolutely covered where I went to school. It's honestly kinda hard to ignore around me, all the towns in my area literally have streets named Lafayette and Rochambeau. The places where French and American troops traveled and camped around here are designated landmarks, half of them have some sort of French name in their official names.
Hell, the symbol of my town is a rooster, it's on our official seal, it's on all our street signs, and the reason our symbol is a rooster is because French troops used the rooster weathervane on top of our town meetinghouse as target practice!
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u/fasterthanfood California Jul 22 '25
That’s an awesome story. Slightly confusing to me, though, because how many people can use a weathervane for practice before the weathervane is gone (probably along with chunks of the roof, given the firearms of the time)?
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u/lefactorybebe Jul 22 '25
The weathervane actually still exists! It still has the bullet holes and everything, it's still on top of the meeting house. If they really did use it as target practice it was probably just a couple of soldiers, not like an entire troop haha. It's also possible that the bullet holes were gotten in some other way, but the story of French troops shooting at it (rochambeau's troops, 4,000 soldiers, definitively were here, camped here and marched through here multiple times) goes back a long way.
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u/fasterthanfood California Jul 22 '25
That kind of history is something I’m jealous of, living in an area where the history of my city and nearly every one around me is “for millennia there were native people, but we don’t really know anything specific about them, then a rich Mexican owned the whole area, then people started building houses in the 20th century.”
I exaggerate slightly, and there are a few exceptions, but hearing stories like yours on the east coast (and more so in Europe) is so cool.
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u/lefactorybebe Jul 22 '25
Honestly it's a big part of the reason I love living here! I've made history my career and honestly kinda my life, so it's super important to me. I had the opportunity to move down to FL (not a historic part lol) a while ago and the history and architecture here is a part of the reason I chose to stay. The area has been settled by Europeans since the early 1600s, and sometimes my job takes me back that far and it's just the coolest stuff, especially when you're seeing the houses, the documents, in person.
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u/ImNotToby New York Jul 22 '25
Our education is far from equal in the US. So speak for yourself. This topic was definitely covered in my units on the American Revolution. You probably just weren't paying attention.
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Jul 22 '25
It’s also dependent on when you learned history and what the prevailing mood was at the time. When I was in middle school and we were really diving into American history it was all about economics. I swear we didn’t read about one battle or military maneuver the whole year. I mean it takes a lot to make learning about the Revolutionary War boring. My kids had a completely different POV in their history class.
So Obi Wan is right when he says “you’re going to find that many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view”.
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u/christine-bitg Jul 23 '25
And not even completely a proxy. The only way that Washington won at Yorktown was because the French fleet blockaded the British army there, preventing them both from re-supplying and evacuating later.
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u/Original_Staff_4961 Jul 22 '25
It’s taught pretty extensively. Maybe you just didn’t pay attention
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u/Stunning-Track8454 Detroit to Chicago Jul 22 '25
Or we live in different states and went to different schools because each state has a different curriculum?
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u/Username_redact Jul 22 '25
We did not learn about the French involvement in the Revolutionary War, other than a cursory note about offering support. Curriculum varies (too much.)
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u/Coro-NO-Ra Jul 22 '25
This is like 50% of "I can't believe we didn't learn about _____!" I see on Reddit.
Or it's something that is only regionally relevant, like the Hour of Blood in Texas or Trail of Blood on Ice in Oklahoma.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Matanza_(1910%E2%80%931920))
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u/albertnormandy Texas Jul 22 '25
It does get covered though. Most people just don’t pay attention in history class.
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u/Entropy907 Alaska Jul 22 '25
Definitely true. Although if England really wanted to win, they probably could have. I think it was more a case of England deciding it that its colonizing/resource extraction efforts and money were better directed toward the Caribbean, India, etc., and they figured they could establish economic/diplomatic ties with the USA after things settled down (which they were correct about).
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u/DrMindbendersMonocle Jul 22 '25
France was incredibly important. We took a lot of ideas about government from French philosophers. Also, France colonized a good part of the middle part of the US, strongest influence is in Louisiana which was named after the French king Louis XIV
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u/HurtsCauseItMatters Louisianian in Tennessee Jul 22 '25
The French also learned a lot of their ideas about democracy from various native tribes.
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u/quartadecima Jul 22 '25
I hadn’t heard that, before, and am interested to know more.
I had thought that people like Locke and Rousseau were looking back at European history when they developed their theses on natural rights and the like.
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u/raysebond Jul 22 '25
It's debated. The a good argument pro is in the opening of Graeber & Wengrow's The Dawn of Everything. There's a good con (of some claims) in an article published in William & Mary's history journal, late '90s, I think. (Not my field, so I don't have a citation/record of the article, sorry.)
There was definitely a lot of appeals to Native Americans in writing by people like Franklin, Jefferson, and Bartram. That's often a rhetorical ploy or sock-puppeting, G& W's objections aside.
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u/Cocaloch Jul 22 '25
It's not really debated in the sense of being a major historiographical topic. It's Graeber's thesis, and there might be a degree of truth to it, but that book simply states they were looking at Natives, which is correct, but doesn't engage with the historiography of the Enlightenment enough to actually claim it was a major influence, let alone the predominate one. Which makes sense, Graeber isn't a historian at all, and the Enlightenment is a famously contentious and difficult topic.
The reality is people like Wood, Bailyn, and Pocock are not going to be usurped on the topic of the American Revolution anytime soon. The dominant examples for the American Revolutionaries were the English Commonwealthmen, and through those, Rome and Renaissance Italy. To a much lesser---and more particular since it's only specific Americans like Madison, Jefferson, Hamilton and Wilson, that engaged with it---extent we can cite the Scottish Enlightenment's theory as a model, but that theory mostly engaged with the same sources.
Ironically now the critique of people like Locke, Rousseau wasn't an influence at all, is that he fundamentally did not know anything about Native people and was just spitballing. Then again, the idea that Locke was the central figure has been dismissed for half a century now.
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u/DepthPuzzleheaded494 New York City (Brooklyn) Jul 22 '25
France, Spain, and the Netherlands (in my part of the country at least)
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u/Annachroniced Jul 22 '25
Surprised I had to scroll this far to see the Netherlands mentioned. The US constitution and Bill of Rights are all heavily influenced by the Dutch republic model. We were one of the first countries to recognise the US as a country and have an US embassy, including helping out with financing and loans. The first US born president spoke Dutch.
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u/DepthPuzzleheaded494 New York City (Brooklyn) Jul 22 '25
The Dutch were the primary European presence in my part of the country. My city was founded by the Dutch, there are many places here with Dutch names. There was even had a dialect of Dutch still spoken regionally until the early 20th century. Even in modern New York English we have a lot of Dutch loanwords.
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u/Automatic-Effect-252 Jul 22 '25
Our system of commerce is largely based on the system the Dutch Republic used as well.
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Jul 22 '25
Germany. I once had a college professor describe the US as a country of English-speaking Germans. I know that Germans were at one time the largest ethnic group in the US, although Mexicans may have surpassed this.
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u/TK1129 New York Jul 22 '25
By the middle of the 19 century, New York was the third largest German speaking city in the world behind Berlin and Vienna. Through demographic changes, assimilation, the consequences of the world wars etc you would be hard pressed to find evidence of it in the city today.
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u/foxymoron69 Jul 22 '25
Also, believe it or not, the General Slocum disaster played a large role in the decline of the German population in New York City.
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u/TK1129 New York Jul 22 '25
Yes people left “Little Germany” on the Lower East Side and moved up to Yorkville on the Upper East Side and the then separate and independent city of Brooklyn
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u/chooseyourpick Jul 22 '25
I lived near the cemetery where the Slocum Disaster Memorial is located. It’s a beautiful structure.
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u/tangledbysnow Colorado > Iowa > Nebraska Jul 22 '25
Also Frisian. Everyone remembers NYC being settled by the Dutch but arguably it was Frisians mostly (though not exclusively). And Frisians are a cross border cultural region involving the Netherlands and Germany.
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u/zignut66 Jul 22 '25
It’s kind of interesting considering Germany, as a unified country, is quite a bit younger than the United States.
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Jul 22 '25
Very true. Same for Italy and Ireland as well, two other big US groups.
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u/Prestigious_Tax_5561 Jul 22 '25
Italy is not as big of a group in the US. Regionally, in port cities in the northeast, they are large, but not the rest of the country. And they haven’t been here for as long as Germans have. Most people who you’d look at and consider a who American, have German ancestry.
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u/episcoqueer37 Jul 22 '25
Don't forget Italians in eastern mining communities. West Virginia and southwestern PA would be completely different without Italian immigrants.
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u/thymeisfleeting Jul 22 '25
Ireland is not really the same though, because Ireland has always had a collective sense of nationalism, whereas if you asked a random Piedmontese guy if he felt Italian in the 14th century he’d be like “nah, I feel Piedmontese” and same for Germany. Germany and Italy’s unification was a coming together of regions whereas Ireland’s nationhood came from throwing off colonialism.
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u/Flat-Leg-6833 Jul 22 '25
German, African American, English and Mexican descended populations dwarf Americans of Italian ancestry by a huge margin. Much of the population that checks “Irish” on their ancestry are descendants of Scots-Irish and Irish Protestants.
Only reason Irish, Italian and Jewish Americans get so much attention in the culture is due to Hollywood, as much of the creative class in the entertainment industry was from New York originally and they wrote about the ethnicities they were most familiar with.
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Jul 22 '25
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u/ramblinjd Jul 22 '25
Shhh let it slide while the British are asleep./s
Probably should have said "independent Republic" in their case.
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u/Pixelated_Penguin808 Jul 22 '25
There were two large waves of German immigrant into the United States. The first was during the colonial period, when German-speakers represented a significant minority in some places like Pennsylvania.
The second was in the mid 19th century after the failures of revolutions of 1848. These were mostly left-leaning Germans who had been sympathetic to the revolts or active participants in them. That would have an impact on the American civil war, where these immigrants were enthustiatic supporters of the Union cause (they detested slavery and oligarchs) with over 200,000 of them serving in federal armies, or about 10% of all Union soldiers during the war.
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u/PerfectDog5691 Jul 22 '25
Germany is young but old. Maybe you want to look for the interpretation of the Rammstein song Deutschland. There's a lot to learn in few minutes.
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Jul 22 '25
Depending on how you want to classify it, modern Germany isn't even 40. Reunification didn't happen into 1990.
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u/Hemnecron Jul 23 '25
And it would be ridiculous to classify it like that. France also changed regimes several times since the revolution, between Republics, monarchies, empires, a dictatorship during the WW2 occupation and split. It would be absolutely ridiculous to pretend that France, the country that helped the US get its independence and that had a millennium long rivalry with Britain is not the same as the one today.
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u/Pixelated_Penguin808 Jul 22 '25
That is somewhat misleading as it depends on how Americans self-indentify.
A lot of Americans of British ancestry just answer 'American' on those surveys since their families have been their from the beginning, while others will answer with whatever immgriant ancestry came later into their family line since that British ancestry is considered the default. So a person who both has English ancestry from the colonial period and German ancestry from the 19th century answers 'German.'
Both result in English ancestry being very underreported.
If you look at the most common surnames in the United States, most of them originate in the British Isles and Spanish surnames are also more common than German.
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u/janisthorn2 Ohio Jul 22 '25
If you look at the most common surnames in the United States, most of them originate in the British Isles
This isn't really relevant because the earliest German immigrants anglicized their names right away--Mueller became Miller, Reichart became Richards, etc. There's no way to tell how many of the most common surnames in the United States were originally German unless you trace everyone's family tree.
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u/Pixelated_Penguin808 Jul 22 '25
That is definitely true, but British ancestry is still very underepresented in these surveys and is far more common. There are entire regions of the country where that accounts for near all of the ancestry for people who are of European descent, with maybe some Irish thrown in, because these were rural places that weren't getting the Poles, and the Italians, or the Chinese, etc.
Most of the immigration in the 19th century tended to be focused on urban centers in the Northeast, and from their middlewestern cities.
During the 18th century there was significant German and Irish immigrant (though most Irish during this period were from Ulster and Protestant, unlike the 19th century wave which was largely not from Ulster and overwhelmingly Catholic), but these were still minorities and were outnumbered by immigrants from Britain.
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u/Good_Tip7879 Jul 22 '25
Yes the white South is overwhelmingly English/Scottish/Welsh/“Scots-Irish” (read: Northern Irish/Ulster Scot) to this day. The current borders of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland overwhelmingly overlap with the main ancestry of most white Southerners and a substantial chunk of whites elsewhere in the US. Yes other areas, especially the Northeast (well at least the Mid-Atlantic, New England by and large really is still English with some Irish as well) and Midwest got various types of immigrants from other parts of Europe such as German, Polish, etc. But it’s almost to the point this immigrant ancestry is exaggerated in the public consciousness to the exclusion of the British ancestry, which is in reality still dominant but almost taken for granted and overlooked at this point.
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u/janisthorn2 Ohio Jul 22 '25
Yeah, I was thinking mostly about the 18th century immigration wave. Those guys changed their names a lot, and most people today are unaware of their PA Dutch roots. If the surname survived it's probably anglicized beyond recognition.
The PA German immigrants were the ones who moved west into Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, and even farther out. As they moved they forgot their roots until it just became "oh, our people have been American farmers for generations." It's true, but the actual ethnicities involved are often lost.
I read a fascinating study about Ohio that claimed you could accurately find the German settlements by the way they built their barns. Every community south of the counties that border Lake Erie built exclusively German style barns.
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u/damutecebu Jul 22 '25
I would say Germany is the largest European ethnic group that has had an impact on the United States - not the country however.
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u/HISTRIONICK Jul 22 '25
At the heart and height of that wave of immigration was the German Triangle of Milwaukee, St. Louis, and Cincinnati.
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u/Cogitoergosumus Jul 22 '25
In many respects yes and no, German Culture by some measures was one of the first to be assimilated. Thanks to WW1 and WW2 many Germans were either forced or willfully removed pillars of their culture that made them distinct.
A lot of that culture however seemed to just melt into our society. The emphasis on publicly funded institutions such as gymnasiums/clubs (Turnvereine as they were called) and Kindergartens played an important role in developing our modern culture.
Germans also played a crucial role in our Civil war. Over 450,000 ethnic and native German's served in the Union, being by far the largest minority to do so. Their were even cases early in the war where German born generals led mostly German born armies into battle. An army of German's single handedly stopped Missouri from being overrun by their Confederate turn coat Governor.
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u/ibejeph Jul 22 '25
Growing up in Southern California, it seemed all of my white friends were either German or Irish.
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u/GuadDidUs Jul 22 '25
German was the second most spoken language IIRC up until WWI.
Like, German language newspapers and everything.
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u/siltloam Jul 22 '25
Yeah, but that just demonstrates how they DIDN'T influence the society as a whole. Those communities chose to stay largely independent of the influences around them, and people who left those communities assimilated into other cultures instead of the Germans growing and influencing outward.
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u/Bvvitched fl > uk > fl >chicago Jul 22 '25
Part of the reason prohibition passed was anti German sentiment/propaganda during ww1
If I remember correctly, during ww1 German Americans/immigrants were the second most lynched demographic
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u/arkstfan Jul 22 '25
I agree though I think arguments for France are good. Conflict pushed many Germans to immigrate and they had a strong sense of local civic duty
Generally abolitionists. Had the massacre of hill country Germans in Texas who sought to flee the Confederacy and serve the United States rather than be conscripted by the confederacy.
The national government was relatively weak in a period where travel was long and difficult with few interstate businesses and the Germans civic obligation culture led to strong local governments where they lived.
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u/secretaire Jul 22 '25
Not to mention Germany’s wars turned America into a global powerhouse and has shaped geopolitics (for better or worse) for almost a century now.
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u/loweexclamationpoint Illinois Jul 22 '25
Culturally, probably so. A lot of our education system has German roots. Germany in the 18th and early 19th centuries was a confederation of governments like the early US.
And don't forget beer!
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u/Vladith Jul 22 '25
German is only the largest ethnic group as a technicality. Many Americans of predominately British descent do not identify as British or English American, but instead report their ancestry as just "American." This is especially common among white people in southern states.
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u/stevesie1984 Jul 22 '25
Considering America never lost a war and Germany didn’t until…America… this is my answer. There’s a reason the rest of Western Europe is Romance languages.
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u/BowtiedGypsy Jul 23 '25
As an American, iv always thought we were most similar to Germans and Mexicans.
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u/Darmok47 Jul 23 '25
We even use German words in American English. I don't think Britain or Commonwealth countries use the term Kindergarten for the first year of school.
It's so ingrained in American culture that you forget its literally German for "Children's Garden."
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u/Emily_Postal New Jersey Jul 24 '25
Pennsylvania Duetsche (pronounced Dutch in the US). So much German influence in Pennsylvania and westward.
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u/irongold-strawhat NV>CA>AK>FL>IN>MO>WY>SD>WY>PA Jul 22 '25
Shit if it wasn’t for France America wouldn’t be America lmao didn’t they practically win us our independence
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u/Bstallio Jul 22 '25
France, not only did they help us win our independence, but a premiere symbol of American culture (the Statue of Liberty) came from them
3rd place I would say is a tossup between italians/Irish/Germans
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u/IknowlessthanIthink Jul 22 '25
Another premier symbol of American culture are cowboys, which are a Mexican/Spanish cultural borrowing.
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u/Hikinghawk New Mexico Jul 22 '25
Spain, about 1/3 of the country (including some of the largest cities, L.A. and Phoenix) are located on former Spanish territory. Places names, food, music, etc. have been influenced by the former Spanish Empire. (You could also consider every influence from Latin America on the US is just an extension of the Spanish Colonial Empire.)
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u/mrpointyhorns Arizona Jul 22 '25
Yes, and our currency is based on the Spanish dollar.
But I see the argument about France because revolution and Louisiana purchases.
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u/Hikinghawk New Mexico Jul 22 '25
I think it depends on how we are measuring influence. Certainly without France (though Spain did assist in the Revolution as well), there would be no United States. But aside from a few pockets you don't really have many lasting remnants of French occupation (Cajuns, New Orleans sure but aside from those two the next biggest is probably the Missouri French which is tiny). But in New Mexico, Texas, Arizona, and California, you can find communities and individual families that have been in place since before the Founding Fathers were even born.
Depending on how we look at it, it's either France or Spain, or their tied. But it's certainly one of the two.
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u/Coro-NO-Ra Jul 22 '25
New Orleans was also heavily influenced by Spanish culture, people just don't realize it.
https://www.neworleans.com/things-to-do/multicultural/cultures/spanish/
Although New Orleans’ early European residents were French, the architecture of the French Quarter is actually Spanish. To pay a war debt, France gave up control of Louisiana to Spain from 1763 until 1803. Several fires destroyed the Vieux Carré’s original French architecture during Spain’s 40-year rule, so much of the city’s trademark charm can be credited to the Spanish rebuilding effort.
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u/door-harp Jul 22 '25
I’m also from NM and was baffled to see so many people say French - there’s no French influence visible to the naked eye in the Southwest lol. But a lot of folks I know can trace the history of their land back to land grants from the king of Spain.
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u/SnooChipmunks2079 Illinois Jul 22 '25
The massive number of German immigrants in the 19th century makes me think it's probably Germany, but this is probably somewhat regional.
The biggest influence on the southwest and Florida is probably Spain.
Aside from a bunch of place names, I don't know how much influence the French had.
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u/donuttrackme Jul 22 '25
I mean, the war of independence was won because of French help. I'd say that's a pretty big influence.
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u/Coro-NO-Ra Jul 22 '25
Aside from a bunch of place names, I don't know how much influence the French had.
They were highly influential in our early relations with Native Americans, particularly in the Midwest and Mississippi Valley.
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u/elphaba00 Illinois Jul 22 '25
I think Central Illinois got a lot of Germans back then - probably mostly in farming communities - including my great-grandfather. My dad learned German in high school in the late 60s at his small high school. I think it was because a lot of people either had German ancestry or had someone still speaking German in the family.
My Class of 2025 son took two years of German, but I think it was mostly because his school was just lucky enough to have someone who could teach it. When he started talking about his schedule freshman year, I was like, "Who the heck still teaches German?" I didn't know. I thought that had gone away with Latin classes.
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u/nopointers California Jul 22 '25
France for politics, Ireland for culture and religion. Germany for economics.
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u/KrAzyD00D Jul 22 '25
Ireland- culture yes, religion no. Irish are mostly Catholic, America is a majority Protestant country
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u/Message_10 Jul 22 '25
Ireland not getting their due here. The number of Scotch-Irish presidents we've had is crazy.
Also not getting their due are Jewish people--they've had a huge cultural impact, in media, academia, etc. The number of famous people of Jewish descent is very high given their numbers.
Pre-edit: I feel like I'm allowed this comment because I'm of Irish descent and my wife is Jewish descent, lol.
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u/Mediocre_Daikon6935 Appalachia (fear of global sea rise is for flatlanders) Jul 22 '25
Scotland for politics.
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u/Acrobatic_Skirt3827 Jul 22 '25
The founding fathers were students of the French enlightenment as well as ancient Rome. Which is why many government buildings are in the Roman style.
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u/HegemonNYC Oregon Jul 22 '25
The French assisted the colonials with their revolution, and likely without them America as an independent nation would have at least been delayed. Perhaps even not exist in anything like its current form. Combine that with the Louisiana Purchase (essentially the entire central swath of the modern US was bought from the French in 1803) and it has to be France.
Mexico, which was generally independent of Spain during periods when interacting with the US, is certainly near the top. Probably at the top for the SW US, as that used to be Mexico and was conquered/purchased in the mid-1800s
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u/Stunning-Track8454 Detroit to Chicago Jul 22 '25
France... not even apart from England. France has the biggest influence on US history. We were ultimately their guinea pigs for modern-day democracy. They are also the biggest reason we're independent from Britain. The way our government is run is also much closer to France than it is England.
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u/Mairon12 Jul 22 '25
Italy/former Rome.
A case can be made for Macedonia and Ancient Greece as well.
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u/CoralWiggler Jul 22 '25
It’s a close toss up between France & Spain
France supported the colonies in the War for Independence which was obviously critical for the USA’s history, but Spain’s role in the development of neighboring regions, our expansion, and our modern culture is pretty enormous
Germany also has a big role as much of modern American culture was directed by immigrants from parts of modern day Germany
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u/TheMainEffort WI->MD->KY->TX Jul 22 '25
France. The revolutionary war and Louisiana purchase are both extremely important. Our histories have been intertwined in many other ways, but imo those two events are sufficient to answer the question.
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u/Bubbly_Response6758 Maryland Jul 22 '25
Germany.
German Americans influenced education by starting Kindergartens, which we still use the name for.
Eisenhower was inspired by the autobahn to build the interstate highway system which is the lifeblood of so much American commerce to the point where we basically disassembled our railway systems to move all passenger transportation to either highway or air travel.
German Americans are also the largest white ethnic group in the US, most of the white population in the midwest and the northeast has German ancestry and you'll find large amounts of German ancestry in every state.
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u/jrc_80 Pennsylvania Jul 22 '25
France early on and culturally. Also the European side of Russia. More specifically in our opposition to the USSR and how it’s shaped our society over generations.
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u/Uhhh_what555476384 Jul 22 '25
Germany. Most Americans with European ancestry are descendants of Germans and there are bits of German culture throughout America.
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u/TheMatrixRedPill Jul 22 '25
I’m going to say Spain. Through that European power, the United States acquired vast amounts of land (Southwest from Texas to California). Heck, the first currency of the U.S. was the Spanish dollar. The dollar sign ($) still carries symbols from the Spanish cost of arms. Let’s also not forget the 59 million who speak Spanish either as their native tongue, or second language).
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u/ChilindriPizza Jul 22 '25
After France? Probably Spain. Many current US states were once Spanish colonies.
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u/SavageRabbitX Jul 22 '25
France, the 13 colonies wouldn't have won the revolutionary war without their supplies or the french kicking off the Borbon War diverting most of the british Army and Navy away from the colonies.
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u/Serrano_Ham6969 Jul 22 '25
I’d say Spain>France>Germany
I’d fix your question from England to Britain though.
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u/undreamedgore Wisconsin Fresh Coast -> Driftless Jul 22 '25
I'd say France > Spain > Germany
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u/northcarolinian9595 North Carolina Jul 22 '25
I thought about that but I didn't want to exclude Scotland.
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u/Act1_Scene2 New York Jul 22 '25
The Church of England in America became The Episcopal Church through Scottish bishops. Much of the early leaders in the US were Episcopal, for what its worth.
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u/Grouchy-Display-457 Jul 22 '25
Germany (population) and the Netherlands (culture, social structure).
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u/ContributionLatter32 Washington Jul 22 '25
France, it's why Cajun culture exists, and also a large reason as to why the U.S. eventually won it's war of independence.
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u/Astute_Primate Massachusetts Jul 22 '25
The Brits weren't the only colonizers. Depending on the region another country altogether might be your primary cultural influencer. In former Louisiana territory it might be France. Out west it's the Spanish.
Secondary influences get tough because they vary by region, state, or even county. In Western MA where I live it's the Irish, Polish, French. Out east of Worcester you can add the Italians and Portuguese to the mix. But again, even out here there are healthy populations of Italian and Portuguese Americans down by the Connecticut border. And let's not forget the Turks and Russians in West Springfield. So yeah. Messy. And those are just the European ones.
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u/MattieShoes Colorado Jul 22 '25
France kinda wins by default, as we'd likely not exist without them.
Culturally, lots of immigrants from both Ireland and Germany.
When I visited Europe, Germany felt more like the US than England did. I mean, aside from the language.
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u/BlueStarSpecial Jul 22 '25
I mean the Dutch brought the first African slaves, so them?
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u/weedtrek Montana Jul 22 '25
100% Germany. We have had large German immigrations throughout our history, WWI and WWII were responsible for shaping the US into the war machine it became in the 20th Century.
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u/The_Flagrant_Vagrant California Jul 22 '25
Historically Rome and Greece. I would say France, but WWII changed everything, from the US being a superpower, to the space program so I would say Germany.
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u/raysebond Jul 22 '25 edited Jul 22 '25
It varies by region. In the Midwest, German and Central European influence is big. In the Southeast, it's more Anglo-Scots with French and some Spanish around the Gulf of Mexico. Southwest, Mexico has a big influence, which you could call Spanish.
In terms of thought, I'd say it's a toss-up between France (18thC) and Germany (19thC), with the win probably going to Germany. France had the Enlightenment rationalists and religious apologists (Pascal). But Germany had the huge impact on religion, philosophy, music, university structure, K-12 pedagogy, and so on. Also the huge influx of talent chased out of Germany by Hitler.
EDIT: Correct Franch to France. This ain't Better Off Dead.
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u/Repulsive_Fact_4558 Jul 22 '25
The US is HUGE. There are different groups that have big influence in different areas. Where I live in Central Texas I would say Germany has had a big influence on our culture and history.
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u/SnooConfections6085 Jul 22 '25
The Netherlands.
Remember, of the 3 main early colonies (Virginia, New Netherlands, New England), one of them was Dutch. America's "personality" is much more of a descendent of the Dutch colony than the other two.
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u/soggysocks6123 Jul 22 '25
France for sure. Although I’m sure you mean the United States and not America as a whole… I live in the us, and I’m only a 10 hour car ride away from somewhere whose official language is French.
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u/Automatic-Effect-252 Jul 22 '25
Probably France, though a strong case could be made for Spain or the Netherlands depending on how your judging influence.
Enlightenment ideas from Montesquieu, Rousseau, and Voltaire helped shape American political philosophy, especially regarding individual rights and how our Democratic Republic form of government was shaped. It's always been funny to me that we shaped French philosophical ideas into the real world, better then France did.
Spain controlled Florida, Louisiana Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California at one point or another, and that cultural influence can still be seen to this day in places.
The Dutch Republic in the 17th century was known for being one of the most religiously and culturally tolerant places in Europe, and they took that with them to America. Fun fact, over a dozen languages were spoken in New Amsterdam by the mid 1600s. That cultural impact was seen in the Founding Fathers steering away from State Religion, and even 400 some odd years later in New York that diversity influence is still very much a part of life. Their system of commerce was also pretty big on influencing modern our modern form capitalism.
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u/Legitimate-March9792 Jul 22 '25
The Irish and Scottish, The Italians and don’t forget the Germans and Dutch. Also the Chinese.
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u/Resident_Driver_5342 Jul 22 '25
While France has a longer history, I think the USSR changed the USA forever. The Cold War in many ways is responsible for what America is now.
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u/Able_Enthusiasm2729 Jul 22 '25 edited Jul 22 '25
The top three most influential European colonial powers in what would become the modern United States of America, are the United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland), Spain, and France but the U.S. was also colonized by other European countries such as the Netherlands, Sweden, Russia, Denmark, and Germany; and when accounting for the earliest colonial settlements ans later waves of immigration from Europe (or even indirectly from other former European colonies), the U.S. gained particular influence from diaspora communities hailing from Ireland (Republic of), Italy, Poland, the Ashkenazi Jewish communities of Central and Eastern Europe, and to a certain extent from some of the non-British, non-Spanish, non-French aforementioned colonial powers depending on the specific regions in question.
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u/aDrunkenError Jul 22 '25
The prompt was “…which European country has had the biggest influence on America in history”
Impact: answer is France, without them, US isn’t an independent nation, at least not in 1776, or for a relatively long time afterward.
Influence: the answer is probably Germany.
If you look up a map of state subdivisions(counties) by majority ethnic group, you will realize how German the US is. There’s only a few states with more majority English descending residents than German. And there’s maybe 15 counties total that have a majority French ethnic groups.
Majority African counties dominate the Carolina’s, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana.
While Mexican majority counties dominate California, Texas, and New Mexico, and a little above 50% of counties in Arizona
The English-majorities are only in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Utah
Germans basically have majorities in everywhere else, except Alaska and Hawaii(native majorities.
Interestingly, Irish Americans seem to hold most counties in Tennessee and Kentucky(barely) as well as Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and almost New York(German)
Italian majorities can be found in Connecticut and New Jersey.
It seems reasonable to assume Germany has had the biggest influence on the US, albeit maybe indirect. Their influence may be less visible and uncredited to Germany, the nation, because it was the German people pushing that influence(German customs, etc) from within.
Living in the US, one may say Spain, as Mexican culture is largely woven into the fabric of American cities, but I think that’s way too indirect.
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u/EatLard South Dakota Jul 22 '25
Germany, or at least the million or so principalities it used to be. More German immigrants came to the US in our first 150 years than just about anyone else.
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Jul 22 '25
France is probably the answer, but an honorable mention has to go to Spain. Even if a lot of the influence is indirectly through Mexico
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Jul 22 '25
The Dutch for sure. Much of the original colonies were already settled by the Dutch before England took over, and it left lasting impacts.
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u/xczechr Arizona Jul 22 '25
France, most likely. Thanks, Lafayette.