United States

The United States of America is a country on the continent of North America.

Other names for the United States of America

The United States of America has many different names.

Common names:

"America" (This can also sometimes mean all of North America and South America.)
"The United States"
"USA" or "The USA"
"US" or "The US"

Less common names:

"The States"
"The Union"
"Uncle Sam" (This name refers to the government or military of the United States of America)
"The US of A"

Position of the United States of America

Most of the United States of America is in the middle of the continent of North America. It has borders with Canada to the north and Mexico to the south, and it touches the Atlantic Ocean and Pacific Ocean. This part is made up of 48 states, and is often called the "contiguous states" (states that border each other) or the "lower 48".

Alaska and Hawaii are also states that are part of the United States, but they are not touching the others. Alaska is west of Canada, and Hawaii is a group of islands in the Pacific Ocean.

The United States of America also owns other islands around the world, including:

Government

The federal government is set up by the Constitution. There are three branches of government. They are the executive branch, the legislative branch, and the judicial branch. State governments work very much like the federal government.

Executive branch

The executive branch is the part of the government that enforces the law. Members of the U.S. Electoral College elect a President who is the leader of the executive branch, as well as the leader of the Armed Forces. The President decides whether or not the bills that the Legislative branch passes will become laws. He may also make "executive orders" to make sure people follow the law. Two famous executive orders were when Abraham Lincoln made the Emancipation Proclamation, and when Dwight D. Eisenhower ordered 1,200 soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division to allow the Little Rock Nine into school. The President is in charge of many departments that control all of the different parts of the government. For example, Department of Commerce makes rules about trade and business. The President chooses heads of departments, and judges at the federal (nation-wide) level. However, the Senate, part of the legislative branch, must agree with all of the people he chooses. The President may serve two 4-year terms, or up to 10 years if he takes over in the middle of another President's term.

Legislative branch

The legislative branch is the part of the government that makes laws. The legislative branch is made up of Congress. Congress is divided into two "houses".

One house is the House of Representatives. The House of Representatives is made up of Representatives, who are each elected by voters from their own state. The number of Representatives a state has is based on how many people live there: the more people a state has, the more representatives it gets. Representatives serve 2-year terms. The total number of representatives today is kept at 435.

The other house is the Senate. In the Senate, each state is represented equally, by two Senators. Before the President makes treaties or appoints officials, the Senate must approve them. Senators serve 6-year terms.

Representatives and Senators suggest laws in Congress, then vote on them. These are called "bills". If one house agrees to a bill, it gets sent to the other; if both houses vote for it, it is then sent to the President, to agree to it or not.

Judicial branch

The judicial branch is the part of government that interprets what the law means. The judicial branch is made up of the Supreme Court and many lower courts. If the Supreme Court decides that a law is not allowed by the Constitution, then it is not a law anymore. The Supreme Court is made up of 9 judges, called Justices. The head of the Supreme Court is called the Chief Justice. A Supreme Court Justice serves until he or she either dies, or retires. When that happens, the President chooses someone to be a new Justice, to replace the one who left. If the Senate agrees with that choice, the person becomes a Justice. If the Senate does not agree with the President's choice, then the President has to nominate someone else.

History

The place now called "the United States" has been lived in since prehistoric times by Native American tribes. In about 1607, the British founded colonies in the eastern part of today's United States of America. The Europeans brought diseases, like smallpox, that killed many Native Americans because the natives had never been exposed to these diseases before, while the Europeans had been used to them for a very long time. Also, the colonists wanted the land the natives lived on for thousands of years. They killed most of the Native Americans that were left, or forced them to leave most of the land where they lived, though in a very few cases, they did buy land from them.

After a while, the colonists who settled in the British colonies did not like being ruled from Britain. By 1775, the colonists had decided to fight the British soldiers who were sent to control them, and on July 4, 1776, people from 13 colonies signed the United States Declaration of Independence. This said from that point on, they were free and independent states. Britain tried to recapture the colonies in the American War of Independence, but they failed.

During the American Revolution and right after it, the United States was much more loosely organized than it is today. Each state had more power than the United States as a whole. In other words, the government was not centralized. That government structure was set in 1781. The paper outlining that government is called the Articles of Confederation.

After a time, the United States wanted a stronger government. So in 1789, a constitution was written. The Constitution is a document that says how the government works. Very soon after, the Bill of Rights was added. This was a set of 10 changes, or amendments, that limited the government's power and guaranteed rights to the citizens. It has been changed and added to many times since then. The main idea is a representative democracy elected by the people, who all have the same (equal) rights.

The United States was mostly farm land before the industrial revolution around the mid 19th century. Many new states were added to the original 13, as the nation grew.

The American Civil War lasted from 1861 until 1865. Several states in the southern part of the United States wanted to break away and start a different country. They disagreed with the other states about policies like slavery in the new territories, and how much power the states should have to make their own laws. The national government (which was made up of the states that remained, all of which were in the northern part of the United States) won the war. Because of the war, slavery ended in the United States.

After the Civil War, there were more problems in the west between the white settlers and the native Indians as more people began to move west. Because of this, many more Indians were killed.

After 1900

In the 20th century, the US had more contact with other countries. In 1917, the US got involved in World War I and helped quickly defeat Germany and its allies. After World War I, the United States was the world's second richest and most powerful country.

The Great Depression happened in the early 1930s, when a lot of people could not find a job. There were a lot of reasons for the Great Depression, but one of the main things that made it come as quickly as it did was the stock market crash of 1929, in which a lot of people lost a lot of money in a very short amount of time. Some people lost all their money in only a few days, since the stocks they had bought in the years leading up to it, were now worth almost nothing.

Later, the US was involved in several more wars, including:

The United States has also invaded, intervened, or occupied Latin American countries more than a hundred times since the United States became independent, the most notable invasion being the Mexican-American War.

In 1991, the US led other countries in what it calls the Persian Gulf War, after Iraq invaded Kuwait.

On September 11, 2001, the United States was struck by a major terrorist attack. About 3,000 people died. The attackers took control of four airplanes, in what is called hijacking. The attackers crashed all four of the planes on purpose.

Two of the planes crashed into the World Trade Center, a pair of skyscrapers in New York City. One plane crashed into the Pentagon, the main office for the U.S. military, in Virginia. The fourth plane crashed in a field in Pennsylvania after the passengers fought back.

The attack led to big changes. The United States went to war against Afghanistan. After that, it went to another war against Iraq.

Immigrants from many nations now live in United States. Many immigrants are people from Europe, Asia and Africa.

Politics

Main article: Politics of the United States

The United States of America consists of 50 states with 'limited autonomy.' This means that states can make laws about things inside the state, but if the national government makes laws that say different things, the law the state made is not a law any more, and people only have to follow the national law. Each state has a constitution of its own, different from the federal (national) Constitution. Each one of these is like the federal Constitution, but they only talk about how each state's government is set up.

The federal and state government is dominated today by two groups of politicians (called political parties): the Republicans (who are usually more conservative) and the Democrats (who are usually more liberal), although other people can sometimes be elected too. These two parties get support from different people and businesses, who give money to the parties. This means that elections can cost a lot of money. In return, parties will sometimes pass laws that help the people who gave them money. This is a problem in American politics.

Right now, the President is Republican and so is most of Congress, which means that they have enough votes to decide what direction the country's policies will go.

The USA's large cultural, economic, and military influence has made foreign relations, or relations with other countries, an especially important topic in American politics, and the politics of many other countries.

Land

The United States has grown from 13 states in 1776, to 50 states and other land today. The states are like what are sometimes called provinces for some countries.

The country grew from east to west. It conquered and bought lands. It also divided some states into two.

The states are also divided into smaller counties. Two states use different words other than "county". Louisiana uses the word "parish". Alaska uses the word "borough".

The United States also holds several other lands not in a state. Some examples are:

The U.S. military has bases in many countries. The U.S. Naval base at Guantanamo Bay was rented from Cuba, and kept after that country had a Communist revolution.

Geography

Main article: Geography of the United States

The United States is the third biggest country in the world. Its geography varies a lot.

There are meadows on the East Coast,
The Appalachian Mountains
The Great Plains in the middle of the country,
The Mississippi-Missouri river,
The Rocky Mountains west of the plains
Deserts and coastal areas west of the Rocky Mountains
Rainforests in the Pacific Northwest
Arctic regions of Alaska
Volcanic islands in Hawaii

The climate varies along with the geography, from tropical (hot and wet in summer, warm and dry in winter) in Florida to tundra (cold all year) in Alaska. Large parts of the country have warm summers and cold winters. Some parts of the United States, like parts of California, have a Mediterranean climate.

Economy

The United States has a capitalist economy. The country has steady economic growth, low unemployment and inflation, and a large trade deficit (meaning the United States buys more things from other countries than it sells).

The American economy is one of the most important in the world. Several countries have coupled their currency with the dollar, meaning that their currency becomes more or less valuable exactly the same way the American dollar does. Some other countries even use the American dollar as their currency. The American stock markets are seen as an indicator of world economy.

The country has rich mineral resources, with many gold, oil, coal and uranium deposits. Farming makes the country among the top producers of, among others, corn (maize), wheat, sugar and tobacco. American produces cars, airplanes and electronics. About 3/4 of Americans work in the service industry.

Some of the country's biggest trading partners are:

Canada
Mexico
European countries
industrialized Asian nations such as Japan, Taiwan, India, South Korea and China

Demographics

Most of the people in the United States descend from European immigrants. Many people are descended from Germany, England, Scotland, Ireland, and Italy.

In recent years, many Hispanics have come from Mexico and other parts of Latin America, especially to the U.S. Southwest. Many of these people cross the border illegally. Some Americans are unhappy about that, and are also unhappy about having more use of the Spanish language in the United States (see Languages in the United States).

Many people are African-American. Most of them descend from the African slaves that were brought to America.

A third large minority is Asian-American. Many of them are on the West Coast.

The original peoples, called Native American or American Indians and Eskimos are a very small group.

Money

The social structure of the United States has a big range, meaning some Americans are much, much richer than others. Still, most Americans are much richer than the majority of the world. For example, 51% of all households have access to a computer and 41% had access to the Internet in 2000, a figure which had grown to 75% in 2004. Furthermore, 67.9% of Americans owned their homes in 2002. The average income for an American was $37,000 a year in 2002.

Religion

The level of Christianity in the US is declining. 86.2% called themselves Christian in 1990 and 76.5% said this in 2001 (ARIS 2001). The religious memberships in 2001 were Protestant 52%, Catholic 24.5%, none 13.2%, Jewish 1.3% and 0.5-0.3% for Muslim, Buddhist, Agnostic, Atheist, Hindu and Unitarian Universalist. There is a large difference between those who declare themselves to be of a religion and those who are members of a church of that religion. Census Bureau figures (PDF file) show that church membership in 2001 was 53% Christian, 2.3% Jewish and 0.1% Muslim, others lower.

Culture

American popular culture goes out to many places in the world. It has a large influence on the rest of the world, especially the Western world.

American music is heard all over the world, and American movies and television shows can be seen almost anywhere.

This very different from when the country was younger and considered culturally primitive.

Now most big American cities have classical and popular music; research centers and museums, dance performances, musicals and plays; outdoor art projects and important architecture.

The United States is also a center of higher education. It has more than 1,500 universities, colleges, and similar institutions. Some of them are very prestigious.

Federal holidays

Date	Name	Remarks
January 1	New Year's Day	Celebrates the beginning of the year.
January, third Monday	Martin Luther King, Jr. Day	Honors Dr. King, a civil rights leader.
February, third Monday	Washington's Birthday	Honors the first American President, George Washington. Sometimes, this holiday is called Presidents Day and honors all of the American Presidents.
May, last Monday	Memorial Day	Honors military men and women who died in service, and marks the traditional start of summer.
July 4	Independence Day	Celebrates the Declaration of Independence; usually called "The Fourth of July".
September, first Monday	Labor Day	Celebrates the achievements of workers, and marks the traditional end of summer.
October, second Monday	Columbus Day	Honors Christopher Columbus, the traditional discoverer of the Americas.
November 11	Veterans Day	Honors all military men and women. The day usually includes a moment of silence at 11 a.m.
November, fourth Thursday	Thanksgiving	Gives thanks for the autumn harvest, and marks the traditional beginning of the "holiday season".
December 25	Christmas	For Christians, marks the birth of Jesus Christ. Many people, both Christians and people who are not Christians, celebrate Christmas as a winter holiday of peace, friendship, and gift-giving.

Press freedom

Reporters without borders Worldwide Press Freedom Index 2003: Ranks 31 out of 166 countries (2-way tie) (2002 - 17 out of 139 countries)

External links

United States government

Official website of the United States government - Gateway to governmental sites
The White House - Official site of the Presidential residence
Senate.gov - Official site of the United States Senate
House.gov - Official site of the United States House of Representatives
SCOTUS - Official site of the Supreme Court of the United States
Portrait of the USA - Published by the United States Information Agency, September 1997.
US Census Housing and Economic Statistics Updated regularly by US Bureau of the Census.

Other

National Motto: History and Constitutionality
Historical Documents
Reference: US specific web resources sorted by state
Usaak - Usa Search Engine

Countries | United States

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