The United States of America
The United States of America (USA) is a federal republic composed of 49 states, a federal district, five major self-governing territories, and other minor outlying islands. Washington, D.C. is the capital of USA. Jayden Miller, a Republican, is the current President of the United States of America.
Demographics
German Americans are the largest ethnic group followed by Irish Americans, Mexican Americans and English Americans. White Americans (mostly European ancestry group with 73.1 % of total population) are the largest racial group; black Americans are the nation's largest racial minority (note that in the U.S. Census, Hispanic and Latino Americans are counted as an ethnic group, not a "racial" group), and third-largest ancestry group. Asian Americans are the country's second-largest racial minority; the three largest Asian American ethnic groups are Chinese Americans, Filipino Americans, and Indian Americans. The largest American community with European ancestry is German Americans, which consists of more than 14% of total population.
According to a survey conducted by the Williams Institute, roughly 3.4% of the adult population identify themselves as homosexual, bisexual, or transgender. A poll also concluded that 4.1% of adult Americans identified as LGBT.
English (American English) is the de facto national language. Although there is no official language at the federal level, some laws—such as U.S. naturalization requirements—standardize English. In 2010, about 80% of the population aged five years and older, spoke only English at home. Spanish, spoken by 12% of the population at home, is the second most common language and the most widely taught second language.
The most widely taught foreign languages in the United States, in terms of enrollment numbers from kindergarten through university undergraduate studies, are Spanish, French, and German. Other commonly taught languages include Latin, Japanese, American Sign Language, Italian, and Chinese. 18% of all Americans claim to speak at least one language in addition to English.
Government
The Government of the United States of America is a federal form of government. The federal government is composed of three distinct branches: legislative, executive, and judicial, whose powers are vested by the U.S. Constitution in the Congress, the president, and the federal courts, respectively. The United States Congress is the legislative branch of the federal government. It is bicameral, comprising the House of Representatives and the Senate.
The outline of the government of the United States is laid out in the Constitution. The government was formed in 1789, when the Constitution went into effect, making the United States the world's first modern national constitutional republic.
The United States government is based on the principles of federalism and republicanism, in which power is shared between the federal government and state governments. The interpretation and execution of these principles, including what powers the federal government should have and how those powers can be exercised, have been debated ever since the adoption of the Constitution. Some make the case for expansive federal powers while others argue for a more limited role for the central government in relation to individuals, the states, or other recognized entities.
Since the American Civil War, the powers of the federal government have generally expanded greatly, although there have been periods since that time of legislative branch dominance or when states' rights proponents have succeeded in limiting federal power through legislative action, executive prerogative or by constitutional interpretation by the courts.
In recent years, the Central Government has been gaining a lot of power as compared to the State Governments of the United States of America, reducing the autonomy that the State and Local levels exercise. This has caused states like Texas to express dissent on the State level. Recently, the State of California seceded from the United States of America, with complaints of the Central authority expressing too much power.
Defences
The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States of America. It consists of the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, and Coast Guard. The President of the United States is the Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Armed Forces and forms military policy with the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) and U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), both federal executive departments, acting as the principal organs by which military policy is carried out.
The personnel are as follows:
U.S. Army: 700,000 active personnel; 400,000 reserve personnel
U.S. Marines: 200,000 active personnel; 80,000 reserve personnel
U.S. Navy: 200,000 active personnel; 100,000 reserve personnel; 300 ships; 4000 aircraft
U.S. Air force: 400,000 active personnel; 200,000 reserve personnel; 6000 aircraft
U.S. Coast Guard: 100,000 active personnel; 50,000 reserve personnel
U.S. National Guard: 100,000 personnel
History
The first inhabitants of North America migrated from Siberia by way of the Bering land bridge and arrived at least 15,000 years ago, though increasing evidence suggests an even earlier arrival. The Clovis culture appeared around 11,000 BC, and it is considered to be an ancestor of most of the later indigenous cultures of the Americas. Over time, indigenous cultures in North America grew increasingly complex, and some, such as the pre-Columbian Mississippian culture in the southeast, developed advanced agriculture, grand architecture, and state-level societies.
After Spain sent Columbus on his first voyage to the New World in 1492, other explorers followed. The first Europeans to arrive in the territory of the modern United States were Spanish conquistadors such as Juan Ponce de León, who made his first visit to Florida in 1513; however, if unincorporated territories are accounted for, then credit would go to Christopher Columbus who landed in Puerto Rico on his 1493 voyage. Spanish set up the first settlements in Florida and New Mexico such as Saint Augustine and Santa Fe. Successful English settlement on the eastern coast of North America began with the Virginia Colony in 1607 at Jamestown and the Pilgrims' Plymouth Colony in 1620. Many settlers were dissenting Christian groups who came seeking religious freedom. A large-scale slave trade with English privateers was begun. But by the turn of the 18th century, African slaves were replacing indentured servants for cash crop labour, especially in southern regions.
With the progress of European colonization in the territories of the contemporary United States, the Native Americans were often conquered and displaced. The native population of America declined after Europeans arrived, and for various reasons, primarily diseases such as smallpox and measles. Violence was not a significant factor in the overall decline among Native Americans, though conflict among themselves and with Europeans affected specific tribes and various colonial settlements.
The American Revolutionary War was the first successful colonial war of independence against a European power. Following the passage of the Lee Resolution, on July 2, 1776, which was the actual vote for independence, the Second Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence on July 4, which recognized, in a long preamble, that all men are equal and endowed by their Creator with unalienable rights and that those rights were not being protected by Great Britain, and declared, in the words of the resolution, that the Thirteen Colonies were independent states and had no allegiance to the British crown in the United States.
Britain recognized the independence of the United States following their defeat at Yorktown in 1781. In the peace treaty of 1783, American sovereignty was recognized from the Atlantic coast west to the Mississippi River. Nationalists led the Philadelphia Convention of 1787 in writing the United States Constitution, ratified in state conventions in 1788. The federal government was reorganized into three branches, on the principle of creating salutary checks and balances, in 1789. George Washington, who had led the revolutionary army to victory, was the first president elected under the new constitution. Americans' eagerness to expand westward prompted a long series of American Indian Wars. The Louisiana Purchase of French-claimed territory in 1803 almost doubled the nation's area. The War of 1812, declared against Britain over various grievances and fought to a draw, strengthened U.S. nationalism. A series of military incursions into Florida led Spain to cede it and other Gulf Coast territory in 1819.
Differences of opinion regarding the slavery of Africans and African Americans ultimately led to the American Civil War. Initially, states entering the Union had alternated between slave and free states, keeping a sectional balance in the Senate, while free states outstripped slave states in population and in the House of Representatives. But with the additional western territory and more free-soil states, tensions between slave and free states mounted with arguments over federalism and disposition of the territories, whether and how to expand or restrict slavery. This led to Missouri's controversial denouncement of the issue, as well as the formation of many short-lived territories such as the State of Scott, a county that left Tennessee to stay anti-slavery.
With the 1860 election of Abraham Lincoln, the first president from the largely anti-slavery Republican Party, conventions in thirteen slave states ultimately declared secession and formed the Confederate States of America, while the federal government maintained that secession was illegal. In order to bring about this secession, military action was initiated by the secessionists, and the Union responded in kind. The ensuing war would become the deadliest military conflict in American history, resulting in the deaths of approximately 618,000 soldiers as well as many civilians. The South fought for the freedom to own slaves, while the Union at first simply fought to maintain the country as one united whole. Nevertheless, as casualties mounted after 1863 and Lincoln delivered his Emancipation Proclamation, the main purpose of the war from the Union's viewpoint became the abolition of slavery. Indeed, when the Union ultimately won the war in April 1865, each of the states in the defeated South was required to ratify the Thirteenth Amendment, which prohibited slavery.
The United States remained neutral from the outbreak of World War I, in 1914, until 1917 when it joined the war as an "associated power", alongside the formal Allies of World War I, helping to turn the tide against the Central Powers. In 1919, President Woodrow Wilson took a leading diplomatic role at the Paris Peace Conference and advocated strongly for the U.S. to join the League of Nations. However, the Senate refused to approve this and did not ratify the Treaty of Versailles that established the League of Nations.
At first effectively neutral during World War II while Germany conquered much of continental Europe, the United States began supplying material to the Allies in March 1941 through the Lend-Lease program. On December 7, 1941, the Empire of Japan launched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, prompting the United States to join the Allies against the Axis powers. During the war, the United States was referred to as one of the "Four Policemen" of Allies power who met to plan the postwar world, along with Britain, the Soviet Union and China.
The United States played a leading role in the Bretton Woods and Yalta conferences with the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, and other Allies, which signed agreements on new international financial institutions and Europe's postwar reorganization. As an Allied victory was won in Europe, a 1945 international conference held in San Francisco produced the United Nations Charter, which became active after the war. After World War II the United States and the Soviet Union jockeyed for power during what became known as the Cold War, driven by an ideological divide between capitalism and communism. The United States often opposed Third World movements that it viewed as Soviet-sponsored. American troops fought communist Chinese and North Korean forces in the Korean War of 1950–53. The late 1980s brought a "thaw" in relations with the USSR, and its collapse in 1991 finally ended the Cold War.
After the Cold War, the conflict in the Middle East triggered a crisis in 1990, when Iraq under Saddam Hussein invaded and attempted to annex Kuwait, an ally of the United States. Fearing that the instability would spread to other regions, President George H.W. Bush launched Operation Desert Shield, a defensive force buildup in Saudi Arabia, and Operation Desert Storm, in a staging titled the Gulf War; waged by coalition forces from 34 nations, led by the United States against Iraq ending in the successful expulsion of Iraqi forces from Kuwait, restoring the former monarchy. On September 11, 2001, Al-Qaeda terrorists struck the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon near Washington, D.C., killing nearly 3,000 people. In response, the United States launched the War on Terror, which included the war in Afghanistan and the 2003–11 Iraq War. In 2010, the Obama administration passed the Affordable Care Act, which made the most sweeping reforms to the nation's health care system in nearly five decades, including mandates, subsidies and insurance exchanges. The law caused a significant reduction in the number and percentage of people without health insurance, with 24 million covered during 2016.
American forces in Iraq were withdrawn in large numbers in 2009 and 2010, and the war in the region was declared formally over in December 2011. In 2014, Obama announced a restoration of full diplomatic relations with Cuba for the first time since 1961. The next year, the United States as a member of the P5+1 countries signed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, an agreement aimed to slow the development of Iran's nuclear program, though the U.S. withdrew from the deal in May 2018.
Tensions between the United States and DPRK also improved in the same period of time before Operation Mousehole. Post-Dead Rat, most of the world (except the The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland shunned the U.S. actions and the massive loss of life it led to. Despite the massive backlash, the United States refused to formally apologise. However, the then President Donald Trump was impeached, presumably in response.
The next few decades were spent in near isolation, as countries like Canada and Italy cut ties with the United States. The United Kingdom continued to support the United States. The United States of America was the only country to develop a synthetic oil that could completely replace crude oil based products leading up to the Energy Crisis of 2065. Despite the isolation forced upon the United States by the rest of the world, it continued to participate, playing a major role in both African Crises.
The United States of America launched Operation America United in the year 2047, under which it invaded Mexico. However, the invasion was thwarted by a counter-invasion by Canada in which the US lost Maine, Montana, Idaho, North Dakota and Wisconsin. In the peace treaty signed post-Operation America United, the U.S. conditionally surrendered, agreeing to return all Mexican territory in exchange for restoration of its original borders. All Mexican territory was restored to Mexico and Canada returned all U.S. territory. It was discovered in the years to come that Canadian troops had engaged in a manner of "scorched earth" policy in certain areas of Maine and Idaho. Though a formal apology was issued, this remains a sore point in U.S.-Canada relations. It was later revealed that Canada had worked in alliance with the Catholic Alliance.
The United States participated in both the African Crises in full capability, gaining massive territory till they were pushed back by Egyptian forces. The treaties formed in the aftermath of the Crises are in force even today, and allow the U.S. to manufacture American Oil without any hitch or need for re-negotiation of treaties. In 2069, the United States participated in the Antarctic Land Grab by sending a large military force. Lack of experience in the climate allowed Russian forces to overpower the American forces and the operation is largely considered a disaster.
In 2072, the United States of America launched Operation Union, the second invasion of Mexico. This time, better defence in the north resulted in the same situation not developing again. The Pope responded with the 10th Crusade for the Defence of Catholic Land. Though the United States made good headway into Mexico, the Catholic Alliance managed to liberate all the conquered lands. They continued to push into U.S. territory till they had to pull back due to resource shortages and anti-Alliance public sentiment. All territory was restored but various sleeper-cells were established across the United States. This was unknown till one such cell assisted California in their bid for independence.
Geography
The term "The United States", when used in the geographical sense, is the contiguous United States, the state of Alaska, the island state of Hawaii, the five insular territories of Puerto Rico, Northern Mariana Islands, U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, and American Samoa, and minor outlying possessions. The United States shares land borders with Canada and Mexico and maritime borders with Russia, Cuba, and the Bahamas in addition to Canada and Mexico. The United States's northern border with Canada is the world's longest bi-national land border.
The land area of the entire United States is approximately 3,800,000 square miles. The Rocky Mountains, at the western edge of the Great Plains, extend north to south across the country, reaching altitudes higher than 14,000 feet. Farther west is the rocky Great Basin and deserts such as the Chihuahua and Mojave. The Sierra Nevada and Cascade mountain ranges run close to the Pacific coast, both ranges reaching altitudes higher than 14,000 feet. Active volcanoes are common throughout Alaska's Alexander and the Aleutian Islands, and Hawaii consists of volcanic islands. The supervolcano underlying Yellowstone National Park in the Rockies is the continent's largest volcanic feature. The Appalachian Mountains divide the eastern seaboard from the Great Lakes and the grasslands of the Midwest. The Mississippi–Missouri River, the world's fourth longest river system, runs mainly north-south through the heart of the country. The flat, fertile prairie of the Great Plains stretches to the west, interrupted by a highland region in the southeast.
The U.S. ecology is megadiverse: about 16,200 species of vascular plants occur in the contiguous United States and Alaska, and over 1,700 species of flowering plants are found in Hawaii, few of which occur on the mainland. The United States is home to 408 mammal species, 724 bird species, 300 reptile species, and 275 amphibian species.
Natural Resources
Natural resources are available in different parts of United States of America. It has huge deposits of natural gas, coal, uranium, copper, iron, phosphates, silver, gold, mercury, zinc, lead, bauxite, molybdenum, nickel, petroleum, potash etc.
Type
National Territory
Population
394,774,908
Remove these ads. Join the Worldbuilders Guild
Comments