alternatehistory.com

As we know, the emergence of innovative, intelligent and cunning industrialists played a huge role in the rise of the USA as an industrial behemoth during the late 19th century, in addition to government policies (e.g. tariffs). Many of them had poor background. The most notable ones include:
- Cornelius Vanderbilt
- John D. Rockefeller
- Andrew Carnegie
- Thomas Edison
- George Westinghouse
...and many others
These guys basically single-handedly brought the US to the global leadership position in oil, railway, steel and electricity, which were the backbone of an industrial power.

Meanwhile, such giants never emerged in Britain. Guys with poor background like Andrew Carnegie would have ended up working in a shipyard as a factory worker.

Your challenge is to have such giants to emerge in Britain during the same period. I think the most important difference was about social structure, which would require a very early POD to change.
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