Well, one way they could have likely done better for themselves would be different choices for allies during the French&Indian war, the Revolutionary war, War of 1812?, and the US Civil War. Choosing a different side in the F&I war is probably pretty ASB, but maybe siding with the colonists in the Revolutionary war could happen. Being on the wrong (i.e, the losing) side of these wars hurt their position quite a bit. Also, perhaps a strongly enforced taboo against strong drink would help as well. Young drunken hotheads engaging in low-level raiding activities tended to draw extremely harsh responses (raiding is pretty common in a lot of cultures, especially nomadic ones, but it frequently draws a near-genocidal response from most of England's seed).