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Thanksgiving is almost here, and as I think about all the abundance that we Americans enjoy, a question pops into my mind:

How did we get so rich?

The United States is the wealthiest nation in the history of the world, with an economy that dwarfs other nations' and even rivals that of the entire continent of Europe.

Much of the world envies us, some with hatred. People from poor societies all around the world strive to get into the U.S., even if they have to enter our nation illegally, even if they have to float in on leaking makeshift boats that might sink and drown them. They risk their lives to come to America and share in our bounty.

How did we get so rich?

After all, those Pilgrim Fathers and the other colonists who settled the Atlantic seaboard about four centuries ago found themselves on the ragged edge of a wilderness, facing a far harsher climate than they had ever experienced and native tribes that often attacked and killed them.

Yes, they had a vast continent filled with abundant natural resources, but they had to work hard to take those resources out of the land and make them useful.

Of all the treasures that they found in the New World, the greatest and most important was freedom. Freedom from the arbitrary rule of kings. Freedom from the hatreds of religious intolerance. Freedom to work and build and explore and create better lives for themselves and their children. And their children's children.

They treated the American Indians shamefully, true enough. In part this was because of fear; in larger part, it was greed. Perhaps it was inevitable that Europeans would swamp the Stone Age cultures that peopled the Americas. To us, with our modern sensibilities, it seems unconscionable. To them, looking at the "savages," few felt any qualms about driving them away or wiping them out. But crushing the American Indian tribes did not make the colonists rich. Their own hard work and enterprise did.

They took for granted that in this New World, a man should be able to keep the fruits of his labor. (Unless he was a black slave. It took a couple of centuries to end that crime.)

In Europe, and the rest of the world, such freedom did not exist. To this day, in most of the nations of the world, it is virtually impossible for private citizens to own land. In America, families owned the land they cleared and worked on.

I think that was a fundamental source of the growth of America's economic might. If you can keep what you earn, you tend to work harder so you can earn more. In most of the rest of the world, no matter how hard you work you are not going to do any better. If your father was poor, you will be poor and your children will be poor.

In the British colonies huddled along the Atlantic coast, people could get rich by working hard — and being smart. Ben Franklin's advice to young men starting their careers was always, "Thrift and industry." Work hard and save your money. Many a man became wealthy that way.

The American Revolution was essentially a protest against taxation. The British colonies in America were self-governing, under charters from the King. They elected their own legislatures and imposed their own taxes. When Parliament in London, several weeks distant by sailing ship, imposed taxes on the colonies, revolution resulted.

The colonists were outraged at the idea of being taxed by those distant politicians. The British crown and Parliament were dazed at the violence of their colonial brethren's response. Neither side realized that the colonies were already independent in their attitudes and outlook.

By that time, thoughtful Englishmen were becoming aware that the colonies were growing beyond the mother country in population and wealth. And health, too. British soldiers marveled at how robust and well-fed most Americans were. America won its independence in a bloody, long-drawn-out war: it was a sort of Vietnam experience for the British. (Too bad our own politicians didn't remember it in the 1960s.)

Within a few years, Jefferson bought the Louisiana Territory from Napoleon, and America swiftly became a continent-wide nation, expanding from sea to shining sea.

But when Zebulon Pike and other explorers trekked through the newly-acquired territory, they found little to get excited about. After crossing the treeless prairie, Pike called it "the Great American Desert." Nothing there but buffalo grass, buffaloes, and iron-hard dirt. And some scattered tribes of American Indians.

Within a few decades the "Great American Desert" became the breadbasket of the world. The Homestead Act was the key. Work the land, the government promised, and you can own it. With that promise from Washington, families pushed the frontier to the Pacific coast within a generation.

Jefferson expected it would take centuries to settle the enormous tracts of the Louisiana Territory. He didn't count on the enormous energy released by the opportunity to own some land, to have a place of one's own, to literally put down roots.

The industrial revolution came to America later than England, but we took better advantage of it. Yes, there were excesses of capitalism in the Gilded Age that led eventually to the Great Depression. But we got through that downturn, thanks mainly to Adolph Hitler.

Today, we are the wealthiest people on Earth. Why? Because our forebears fashioned a society that encourages people to work hard, in the knowledge that they can keep most of what they've earned.

There's always taxes, of course. But even so, we have a lot to give thanks for on this Thanksgiving. Despite war and political backbiting, we live in a land blessed with freedom. From that stems all our other blessings, and all our wealth.

Naples resident Ben Bova is the author of more than 100 futuristic books, including "Mercury," the latest novel in his acclaimed Grand Tour series. Dr. Bova's Web site address is www.benbova.net.