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United States

The United States of America (U.S.A.), also referred to as the United
States, the U.S., America, or the States, is a federal republic in North
America with a strong democratic tradition. It shares land borders with
Canada in the north and Mexico in the south and shares a marine border with
Russia in the west. It was established in 1776 when thirteen American
colonies of Britain broke away from their mother nation. Since then it has
eclipsed most other nations in terms of relative economic, political, and
military power as well as cultural influence.

National mottos
(1776 - ): E Pluribus Unum
(Latin: "Out of many, one")
(1956 - ): In God We Trust


Official language  None at federal level,
some states specify
Capital            Washington, DC
President          George W. Bush
Area               Ranked 3rd
Ê- Total           9,372,610 km²
Ê- % water         2.198%
Population         Ranked 3rd
Ê- Total (2000)    281,421,906
Ê- Density         31/km²
 - Independence    Revolutionary War
Ê- Declared        July 4, 1776
Ê- Recognised      September 3, 1783
Currency           US dollar ($)
Time zone          UTC -5 to UTC -10
National anthem    The Star-Spangled Banner
Internet TLD       .US .EDU .GOV .MIL
Calling Code       1

Following the European colonization of the Americas,
the United States became a federal republic and the world's 
first modern democracy after its break with Great Britain (1776)
and the adoption of a constitution (1789). During the
19th century, many new states were added to the original 13 as
the nation expanded across the North American continent and
acquired a number of overseas possessions. Two of the major traumatic
experiences in the nation's history were the American Civil War (1861-65)
and the Great Depression of the 1930s. Buoyed by victories in World War I
and World War II and the end of the Cold War in 1991, the US remains the
world's most powerful nation-state and only superpower.

Politics

Main article: Politics of the United States

The United States of America consists of 50 states with limited autonomy in
which federal law takes precedence over state law. In general, matters that
lie entirely within state borders are the exclusive concern of state
governments. These include internal communications; regulations relating to
property, industry, business, and public utilities; the state criminal code;
and working conditions within the state. Many state laws are quite similar
from state to state. Finally, there are many areas of overlap between state
and federal jurisdictions.

In recent years, the federal government has assumed broader responsibility
in such matters as health, education, welfare, transportation, and housing
and urban development. The constitutions of the various states differ in
some details but generally follow a pattern similar to that of the federal
Constitution, including a statement of the rights of the people and a plan
for organizing the government. On such matters as the operation of
businesses, banks, public utilities, and charitable institutions, state
constitutions are often more detailed and explicit than the federal
constitution.

The federal government itself consists of three branches: the executive
branch, the legislative branch, and the judicial branch. The head of the
executive branch is the President of the United States of America. The
legislative branch consists of the United States Congress, while the Supreme
Court of the United States is the head of the judicial branch.

The federal and state government is dominated by two political parties, the
Republicans (center-right) and the Democrats (center-left), although minor
party candidates and independents are occasionally elected especially to
local or state office. Both major parties draw some support from all the
diverse socio-economic classes which compose the mature multi-ethnic
capitalist society which makes up the United States. Business interests
provide the major funding and support to the Republican Party while labor
unions and minority ethnic groups provide major support to the Democrats.
Access to funds is vital in the political system due to the financial costs
of mounting political campaigns. Thus, the political interests of
corporations and other organized segments of the society in a position to
provide funds and other political support play a major role in determining
the political agenda of political parties, and ultimately, government
decision making.

States

At the Declaration of Independence, the United States consisted of 13
states. In the following years, this number has grown steadily due to
expansion to the west, conquest and purchase of lands by the American
government, and division of existing states to the current number of 50 :

   * Alabama         * Louisiana         * Ohio
   * Alaska          * Maine             * Oklahoma
   * Arizona         * Maryland          * Oregon
   * Arkansas        * Massachusetts     * Pennsylvania
   * California      * Michigan          * Rhode Island
   * Colorado        * Minnesota         * South Carolina
   * Connecticut     * Mississippi       * South Dakota
   * Delaware        * Missouri          * Tennessee
   * Florida         * Montana           * Texas
   * Georgia         * Nebraska          * Utah
   * Hawaii          * Nevada            * Vermont
   * Idaho           * New Hampshire     * Virginia
   * Illinois        * New Jersey        * Washington
   * Indiana         * New Mexico        * West Virginia
   * Iowa            * New York          * Wisconsin
   * Kansas          * North Carolina    * Wyoming
   * Kentucky        * North Dakota

The contiguous part of the US (i.e. without Hawaii and Alaska) is called
continental United States.

The states are divided into smaller administrative regions, called counties
in most states - exceptions being Alaska (boroughs) and Louisiana
(parishes). Counties can include a number of cities and towns, or sometimes
just a part of a city.

District of Columbia

A separate federal district under the direct authority of congress, the
District of Columbia, was formed independent of any state. It is there that
the nation's capital city resides.

Dependent areas

Several islands in the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea are dependent
territories of the United States:

    * American Samoa         * Johnston Atoll         * Palmyra Atoll
    * Baker Island             (uninhabited)            (uninhabited)
      (uninhabited)          * Kingman Reef           * Puerto Rico
    * Guam                     (uninhabited)          * U.S. Virgin Islands
    * Howland Island         * Midway Islands         * Wake Island
      (uninhabited)          * Navassa Island           (uninhabited)
    * Jarvis Island            (uninhabited)
      (uninhabited)          * Northern Mariana Islands

(The term "commonwealth" expresses the political relationship between the
United States and Puerto Rico and the Northern Marianas).

US Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay is leased from Cuba and only mutual
agreement or US abandonment of the area can terminate the lease.

US has made no territorial claim in Antarctica but has reserved the right to
do so.

From July 18, 1947 until October 1, 1994, the US administered the Trust
Territory of the Pacific Islands, but recently entered into a new political
relationship with all four political units.

The United States is an occupying power of the following countries:

   * Iraq, this power is shared with the United Kingdom. Iraq retains its
     sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Geography

As the world's third largest nation (land area), the United States landscape
varies greatly: temperate forestland on the East coast, mangrove forests in
Florida, the Great Plains in the centre of the country, the
Mississippi-Missouri river system, the Rocky Mountains west of the plains,
deserts and temperate coastal zones west of the Rocky Mountains. Including
the arctic regions of Alaska and the volcanic islands of Hawaii only
increases the diversity.

The climate varies along with the landscape from sub-tropic in Florida to
tundra in Alaska. Large parts of the country have a continental climate,
with warm summers and cold winters.

Economy

Main article: Economy of the United States

The economy is organized on the capitalist model and is marked by steady
growth, low unemployment and inflation, a large trade deficit, and rapid
advances in technology. The American economy can be regarded as the most
important in the world. Several countries have coupled their currency with
the dollar, or even use it as a currency, and the American stock markets are
globally seen as an indicator of world economy.

The country has rich mineral resources, with extensive gold, oil, coal and
uranium deposits. Agriculture brings the country among the top producers of,
among others, maize, wheat, sugar and tobacco. American industry produces
cars, airplanes and electronics. The biggest sector is however service
industries; about three-quarters of Americans are employed in that sector.

By far, the largest trading partner of the USA is its neighboring country
Canada with the next a distant second. Other partners are Mexico, the
European Union and the industrialized nations in the Far East, such as Japan
and South Korea. Trade with China is important.

See also: List of American companies

Demographics

Main article: Demographics of the United States

Most of the 280 million people currently living in the United States descend
from European immigrants that have arrived since the establishment of the
first colonies. Major components of the European segment of the United
States population are descended from immigrants from Germany, England,
Scotland, Ireland and Italy with many immigrants also from Scandinavian
countries and the Slavic and other populations of eastern and southern
Europe and French Canada; few immigrants came directly from France.
Likewise, while there were few immigrants directly from Spain, Hispanics
from Mexico and South and Central America are considered the largest
minority group in the country, comprising 13.4% of the population (38.6
million people) in 2002. This has brought increasing use of the Spanish
language in the United States (see Languages in the United States). About
12% (2000 census) of the people are African Americans who largely descend
from the African slaves that were brought to America. A third significant
minority is the Asian American population (3.6%), which is especially
present on the West Coast. The native population of Native Americans, such
as American Indians and Inuit make up less than 1% of the population.

A majority of Americans are Christians, with relatively small but
politically significant Jewish and Muslim minorities. Although most American
Christians are Protestant, the Catholic church is the Christian denomination
with the greatest number of members because there are many more Protestant
denominations. Also, in contrast to Europe, atheists and agnostics are a
small minority in the United States. The actual level devotion of Americans
to their faith is often debated.

The social structure of the United States, a capitalist country, is highly
stratified with a large proportion of the wealth of the country controlled
by a small fraction of the population which exerts disproportionate cultural
and political influence. However, in terms of relative wealth, most
Americans nevertheless enjoy a standard of personal economic wealth that is
still far greater than that known in 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. Furthermore, 67.9% of US households owned their dwellings
in 2002.

Culture and society

Main article: Culture of the United States

American culture 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.

In American literature, authors such as Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allen
Poe, and more recently, Ernest Hemingway, J. D. Salinger and Flannery
O'Connor, mastered the "short story." Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler
pioneered gritty detective fiction that has had great influence on other
genres and in other countries. After World War I, authors like Ernest
Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald developed new techniques for novels. Other
noted American writers include John Steinbeck, William Faulkner, Sinclair
Lewis, Zora Neale Hurston, Richard Wright, James Baldwin, Willa Cather, and
Toni Morrison.

U.S. poets with international notoriety include: T. S. Eliot, Allen
Ginsberg, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Ezra Pound,
Charles Bukowski, William S. Burroughs, E. E. Cummings, Robert Frost.

American music has a long and diverse history and has been an important
influence on popular music worldwide. Some of the U.S.A.'s more famous and
important musicians and singers include Louis Armstrong, Sidney Bechet,
Chuck Berry, Mariah Carey, Johnny Cash, Ray Charles, Kurt Cobain, Bing
Crosby, Miles Davis, Bob Dylan, Duke Ellington, Eminem, Ella Fitzgerald,
Aretha Franklin, Benny Goodman, Jimi Hendrix, Billie Holliday, Buddy Holly,
Janet Jackson, Michael Jackson, Robert Johnson, Janis Joplin, B. B. King,
Carole King, Madonna, Willie Nelson, Thelonius Monk, Stevie Nicks, Charlie
Parker, Elvis Presley, Diana Ross, Paul Simon, Frank Sinatra, Tina Turner,
and Hank Williams.

American inventor Thomas Alva Edison played an important role in the
invention of motion pictures, and David Wark Griffith pioneered a filmic
vocabulary that still dominates. Other famous American film directors
include Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, Stanley Kubrick, Robert
Altman, John Ford, Spike Lee, Woody Allen, George Lucas and Steven
Spielberg.

Iconic American actors include Humphrey Bogart, Marlon Brando, James Cagney,
Bette Davis, James Dean, Harrison Ford, Robert De Niro, Clark Gable,
Katharine Hepburn, Marilyn Monroe, Julia Roberts, Jimmy Stewart, Meryl
Streep, Shirley Temple, and John Wayne.

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