The United States of America—also referred to as the United States, the U.S., the USA, America [1], and the States (colloquially)—is a federal republic of 50 states, located primarily in central North America.
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Motto: E pluribus unum (1789 to present) (Latin: "Out of Many, One") In God We Trust (1956 to present) |
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| Anthem: The Star-Spangled Banner | |||||
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| Capital |
Washington, D.C. |
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| Largest city | New York City | ||||
| Official languages |
None at federal level; American English de facto |
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| Government |
Democratic
federal republic George W. Bush Dick Cheney |
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Independence • Declared • Recognized
Constitution |
From
Great Britain July 4, 1776 September 3, 1783 |
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Area • Total • Water (%) |
9,631,418 km² (3rd) 4.87% |
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Population • October 2005 est. • 2000 census • Density |
297,400,000 (3rd) 281,421,906 32/km² (140th) |
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GDP (PPP) • Total • Per capita |
2005
estimate $12,589,600 million (1st) $42,367 (3rd) |
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| Currency |
Dollar ($) (USD) |
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Time zone • Summer (DST) |
(UTC-5
to -10) (UTC-4 to -10) |
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| Internet TLD | .gov .edu .mil .us .um | ||||
| Calling code | +1 |
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The United States has land borders with Canada and Mexico, and territorial water boundaries with Canada, Russia and the Bahamas. It is otherwise bounded by the Pacific Ocean, the Bering Sea, the Arctic Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Caribbean Sea. Forty-eight of the states—often referred to as the continental, contiguous or Lower 48 states—are located in a single region between Canada and Mexico. The other two, Alaska and the archipelago of Hawaii, are not contiguous with the others. There is a federal district, the District of Columbia named 'Columbia' for the old poetic name for the country, comprising the capital, Washington, D.C. The United States also owns a number of overseas territories.
The official founding date of the United States is July 4, 1776, when the Second Continental Congress—representing the 13 British colonies—adopted the Declaration of Independence. However, the structure of the nation was profoundly changed in 1788, when the states replaced the Articles of Confederation with the United States Constitution. The date on which each of the original 13 states adopted the Constitution is typically regarded as the date that state "entered the Union" (became part of the United States). Since the mid-20th century, the United States has become the dominant global influence in economic, political, military, scientific, technological and cultural affairs.
- Main articles:
History of the United States,
Military history of the United States,
Timeline of United States history,
List of U.S. military history events
American history started with the migration of people from Asia across the Bering land bridge approximately 12,000 years ago following large animals that they preyed upon into the Americas. These 'Native Americans' left evidence of their presence in petroglyphs, burial mounds, and other artifacts. It is estimated that at least ten million lived in the territory now occupied by the U.S. before European contact, and the subsequent introduction of foreign diseases such as small pox that greatly diminished the native populations. Some advanced societies were the Anasazi of the southwest, who built Chaco Canyon, and the Woodland Indians, who built Cahokia, located near present-day St Louis, a city with a population of 40,000 at its peak in 1200 AD.
During the 1500s and 1600s, the Spanish settled parts of the present-day Southwest and Florida, founding St. Augustine, Florida in 1565 and Santa Fe (in what is now New Mexico) in 1607. The first successful English settlement was at Jamestown, Virginia, also in 1607. Within the next two decades, several Dutch settlements, including New Amsterdam (the predecessor to New York City), were established in what are now the states of New York and New Jersey. In 1637, Sweden established a colony at Fort Christina (in what is now Delaware), but lost the settlement to the Dutch in 1655.
This was followed by extensive British settlement of the east coast. The British colonists remained relatively undisturbed by their home country until after the French and Indian War, when France ceded Canada and the Great Lakes region to Britain. Britain then imposed taxes on the 13 colonies, widely regarded by the colonists as unfair because they were denied representation in the British Parliament. Tensions between Britain and the colonists increased, and the thirteen colonies eventually rebelled against British rule.
In 1776, the 13 colonies split from Great Britain and formed the United States, the world's first constitutional and democratic federal republic, after their Declaration of Independence of that year, and the Revolutionary War (1775 to 1783). The original political structure was a confederation in 1777, ratified in 1781 as the Articles of Confederation. After long debate, this was supplanted by the Constitution in 1789, forming a more centralized federal government. Prior to all these was the Albany Congress in 1754, in which a union was first seriously proposed.