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>>Er, the USA practically IS a continent, a continental empire of separate states. cf Europe. (that way GB becomes Hawaii :-) And some of your states are bigger than some European countries, esp. Belgium, Holland, et al. Your army of independance was called the "continental army" wasn't it?
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>>So how could any indiv. Euro. country hope to compete with an empire the size of the US, with all her mineral riches?
>
>As I recall, we are almost a continent. We are part of North America, which includes that little country above us.

That's why I said "practically". You can't count the canucks - although they have, I think, the largest single country in the world, most of it is just bare, black uninhabitable rock (I've flown over the endless miles of it) :-)

Now you're splitting hairs. Anyway, haven't you now got a FTZ with them and Mexico? That's rather a large bloc.