Re: space
The New World was precisely that: brand new, so it wasn't too difficult to start anew and you had lots and lots and lots of room to start something, change your mind and start again.
Over here, there was much less room, cities have existed for a long time and it sometimes required revolutions (like in 1789, 1848, 1871) and countless wars to correct badly evolving situations. Wars and revolutions decimated families, families that simply couldn't escape from the events.
Space means a lot in one's mentality.
That's perhaps why we are less individualistic and more socially oriented.
Raoul