>>216194687 (OP)
*a subset of the British colonies (namely the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand)
Different colonial and economic models and a culture more compatible with the liberal/capitalist meta. Early industrialization that allowed to snowball from there, in the case of the US. Excluding the natives, (and later the niggers) instead of assimilating them, allowed them to receive European capital and immigration when racism was the dominant ideology. Also some plain bad luck, foreign interventions and badly timed crises affected our chances to develop.