Early decisions in every field have disproportionate influence, not because they were the 'right' or the best choice but because its much easier not to change, or its easier to improve the existing choice (making the current database faster) than jumping to another.
a) The politicians who drafted the US constitution probably have had more impact than most presidents since.
b) Train tickets, timetables, having different class carriages, ticket offices and train guards is mostly unchanged from when introduced by GWR in the 1840s
c) Car peddles, typewriter keyboards, pizza recipes. etc
The US Constitution is a good example. While it's a politically controversial opinion, if the framers had extended 'indentured servitude' status to all slaves in the colonies at the time (a common status for many European migrants in the Middle Colonies, generally involving a ten-year period of forced labor before freedom was granted), it's entirely possible that the US Civil War could have been avoided. Some argue that southern slave states would never have gone along with this, however. The distribution of free laborers, indentured servants, and chattel slaves across the American colonies in the 17th century is a very interesting history that's typically neglected in education:
America may not have become the absolute economic powerhouse that it became if it wasn't for the 2+ centuries of uncompensated labor, but IIRC America was the only nation that had to fight a war to end slavery. Most nations simply bought the slaves from the slaveowners and then freed them, which might have actually been cheaper than fighting the Civil War.
The south wasn't a meaningful contributor to the US's economic powerhouse status.
That's the whole reason they lost the civil war — it was an economic backwater with almost no factories, and what useful goods they traded abroad were fairly easily replaced (so no European country bothered trying to help them).
Most nations have slaves far longer than 2+ centuries. Poor families had been selling their children to rich families to work until early 20th century in China
> While it's a politically controversial opinion, if the framers had extended 'indentured servitude' status to all slaves in the colonies at the time (a common status for many European migrants in the Middle Colonies, generally involving a ten-year period of forced labor before freedom was granted), it's entirely possible that the US Civil War could have been avoided. Some argue that southern slave states would never have gone along with this, however.
I'm pretty sure the South wouldn't have gone along with something like that unless the date was set very far in the future (e.g. much longer than a lifetime). The Constitution banned import of new slaves starting 20 years after ratification, and IIRC that only passed because the slaveholders thought they'd have enough by then to have a self-sustaining population.
a) The politicians who drafted the US constitution probably have had more impact than most presidents since.
b) Train tickets, timetables, having different class carriages, ticket offices and train guards is mostly unchanged from when introduced by GWR in the 1840s
c) Car peddles, typewriter keyboards, pizza recipes. etc