United States History

 United States History

 

 

United States

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"United States of America", "America", "U.S.", and "USA" redirect here. For the landmass comprising North and South America, see the Americas. For other uses, see America (disambiguation), US (disambiguation), USA (disambiguation) and United States (disambiguation).

Coordinates: 40°N 100°W

United States of America
Flag Great Seal
Motto:  "In God we trust"[1][2] Other traditional mottos  [show]
Anthem: "The Star-Spangled Banner" Menu 0:00 March: "The Stars and Stripes Forever"[3] Menu 0:00
The contiguous United States plus Alaska and Hawaii
The United States and its territories
Capital		Washington, D.C. 38°53′N 77°01′W
Largest city		New York City 40°43′N 74°00′W
Official languages		None at federal level[a]
National language		English[b]
Ethnic groups		72.41% White 12.61% Black 9.11% Other/Multiracial 4.75% Asian 1.12% Native[4]
Demonym		American
Government		Federal presidential constitutional republic
•	President	Barack Obama
•	Vice President	Joe Biden
•	Speaker of the House	Paul Ryan
•	Chief Justice	John Roberts
Legislature		Congress
•	Upper house	Senate
•	Lower house	House of Representatives
Independence from Great Britain
•	Declaration	July 4, 1776
•	Confederation	March 1, 1781
•	Treaty of Paris	September 3, 1783
•	Constitution	June 21, 1788
•	Last polity admitted	March 24, 1976
Area
•	Total Area	9,857,306 km2[5][c] (3rd/4th) 3,805,927 sq mi
•	Water (%)	7.1
•	Total Land Area	9,158,022 km2 3,535,932 sq mi
Population
•	2016 estimate	322,369,319[6] (3rd)
•	2010 census	309,349,689[7] (3rd)
•	Density	35/km2 (180th) 90.6/sq mi
GDP (PPP)		2014 estimate
•	Total	$17.419 trillion[8] (2nd)
•	Per capita	$54,629[8] (10th)
GDP (nominal)		2014 estimate
•	Total	$17.419 trillion[8] (1st)
•	Per capita	$54,629[8] (5th)
Gini (2013)		40.8[9][10][11] medium
HDI (2014)		0.915[12] very high · 8th
Currency		United States dollar ($) (USD)
Time zone		(UTC−4 to −12, +10, +11)
•	Summer (DST)	(UTC−4 to −10[d])
Date format		MM/DD/YYYY
Drives on the		right[e]
Calling code		+1
ISO 3166 code		US
Internet TLD		.us   .gov   .mil   .edu
a.	^ English is the de facto language of American government and the sole language spoken at home by 80% of Americans aged five and older. It is the official language of at least 28 states; some sources give higher figures, based on differing definitions of "official."[13] English and Hawaiian are both official languages in Hawaii, and English and 20 Native American languages are official in Alaska. Cherokee is an official language in some Native-controlled lands in Oklahoma. French is a de facto, but unofficial, language in Maine and Louisiana, while New Mexico law grants Spanish a special status.[14][15][16][17]
b.	^ In five territories, English as well as one or more indigenous languages are official: Spanish in Puerto Rico, Samoan in American Samoa, Chamorro in both Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands. Carolinian is also an official language in the Northern Mariana Islands.
c.	^ Whether the United States or China is larger has been disputed. The figure given is from the U.S. Census.[18]
d.	^ See Time in the United States for details about laws governing time zones in the United States.
e.	^ Except the Virgin Islands.

The United States of America (commonly referred to as the United States, U.S., USA, or America), is a federal republic^[19][20] composed of 50 states, a federal district, five major territories, and various possessions.^{[fn 1][fn 2]} The 48 contiguous states and Washington, D.C., are in central North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwestern part of North America and the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific. The territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. At 3.8 million square miles (9.842 million km²)^[18] and with over 320 million people, the country is the world's third or fourth-largest by total area^{[fn 3]} and the third most populous. It is one of the world's most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many countries.^[26] The geography and climate of the United States are also extremely diverse, and the country is home to a wide variety of wildlife.^[27]
Paleo-Indians migrated from Eurasia to what is now the U.S. mainland at least 15,000 years ago,^[28] with European colonization beginning in the 16th century. The United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Disputes between Great Britain and the colonies led to the American Revolution. On July 4, 1776, as the colonies were fighting Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War, delegates from the 13 colonies unanimously adopted the Declaration of Independence. The war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by the Kingdom of Great Britain, and was the first successful war of independence against a European colonial empire.^[29] The country's constitution was adopted on September 17, 1787, and ratified by the states in 1788. The first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties.
Driven by the doctrine of Manifest Destiny, the United States embarked on a vigorous expansion across North America throughout the 19th century.^[30] This involved displacing American Indian tribes, acquiring new territories, and gradually admitting new states, until by 1848 the nation spanned the continent.^[30] During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War ended legal slavery in the country.^[31][32] By the end of that century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean,^[33] and its economy, driven in large part by the Industrial Revolution, began to soar.^[34] The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the country's status as a global military power. The United States emerged from World War II as a global superpower, the first country to develop nuclear weapons, the only country to use them in warfare, and a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the world's sole superpower.^[35]
The United States is a developed country and has the world's largest national economy by nominal and real GDP, benefiting from an abundance of natural resources and high worker productivity.^[36] While the U.S. economy is considered post-industrial, the country continues to be one of the world's largest manufacturers.^[37] Accounting for 34% of global military spending^[38] and 23% of world GDP,^[39] it is the world's foremost military and economic power, a prominent political and cultural force, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations.^[40]

Contents

• 1 Etymology
• 2 History
  • 2.1 Indigenous and European contact
  • 2.2 Settlements
  • 2.3 Independence and expansion (1776–1865)
  • 2.4 Civil War and Reconstruction Era
  • 2.5 Industrialization
  • 2.6 World War I, Great Depression, and World War II
  • 2.7 Cold War and civil rights era
  • 2.8 Contemporary history
• 3 Geography, climate, and environment
  • 3.1 Wildlife
• 4 Demographics
  • 4.1 Population
  • 4.2 Language
  • 4.3 Religion
  • 4.4 Family structure
• 5 Government and politics
  • 5.1 Political divisions
  • 5.2 Parties and elections
  • 5.3 Foreign relations
  • 5.4 Government finance
  • 5.5 Military
• 6 Law enforcement and crime
• 7 Economy
  • 7.1 Income, poverty and wealth
• 8 Education
• 9 Culture
  • 9.1 Food
  • 9.2 Literature, philosophy, and the arts
  • 9.3 Music
  • 9.4 Cinema
  • 9.5 Sports
  • 9.6 Media
• 10 Infrastructure
  • 10.1 Transportation
  • 10.2 Energy
  • 10.3 Water supply and sanitation
• 11 Science and technology
• 12 Health
• 13 See also
• 14 Notes
• 15 References
• 16 Bibliography and further reading
  • 16.1 Website sources
• 17 External links

Etymology

See also: Naming of America, Names for United States citizens and Names of the United States

In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a world map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere "America" after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci (Latin: Americus Vespucius).^[41] The first documentary evidence of the phrase "United States of America" is from a letter dated January 2, 1776, written by Stephen Moylan, Esq., George Washington's aide-de-camp and Muster-Master General of the Continental Army. Addressed to Lt. Col. Joseph Reed, Moylan expressed his wish to carry the "full and ample powers of the United States of America" to Spain to assist in the revolutionary war effort.^[42]
The first known publication of the phrase "United States of America" was in an anonymous essay in The Virginia Gazette newspaper in Williamsburg, Virginia, on April 6, 1776.^[43][44] The second draft of the Articles of Confederation, prepared by John Dickinson and completed by June 17, 1776 at the latest, declared "The name of this Confederation shall be the 'United States of America.'"^[45] The final version of the Articles sent to the states for ratification in late 1777 contains the sentence "The Stile of this Confederacy shall be 'The United States of America'".^[46] In June 1776, Thomas Jefferson wrote the phrase "UNITED STATES OF AMERICA" in all capitalized letters in the headline of his "original Rough draught" of the Declaration of Independence.^[47][48] This draft of the document did not surface until June 21, 1776 and it is unclear whether it was written before or after Dickinson used the term in his June 17 draft of the Articles of Confederation.^[45] In the final Fourth of July version of the Declaration, the title was changed to read, "The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America".^[49] The preamble of the Constitution states "...establish this Constitution for the United States of America."
The short form "United States" is also standard. Other common forms are the "U.S.", the "USA", and "America". Colloquial names are the "U.S. of A." and, internationally, the "States". "Columbia", a name popular in poetry and songs of the late 1700s, derives its origin from Christopher Columbus; it appears in the name "District of Columbia".^[50] In non-English languages, the name is frequently the translation of either the "United States" or "United States of America", and colloquially as "America". In addition, an abbreviation (e.g. USA) is sometimes used.^[51]
The phrase "United States" was originally plural, a description of a collection of independent states—e.g., "the United States are"—including in the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified in 1865. The singular form—e.g., "the United States is"— became popular after the end of the American Civil War. The singular form is now standard; the plural form is retained in the idiom "these United States".^[52] The difference is more significant than usage; it is a difference between a collection of states and a unit.^[53]
A citizen of the United States is an "American". "United States", "American" and "U.S." refer to the country adjectivally ("American values", "U.S. forces"). "American" rarely refers to subjects not connected with the United States.^[54]

History

Main articles: History of the United States, Timeline of United States history, Economic history of the United States and Labor history of the United States

Native Americans meeting with Europeans, 1764

Indigenous and European contact

Further information: Pre-Columbian era and Colonial history of the United States

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.^[28] Some, such as the pre-Columbian Mississippian culture, developed advanced agriculture, grand architecture, and state-level societies. After the Spanish conquistadors made the first contacts, the native population declined for various reasons, primarily diseases such as smallpox and measles. Violence was not a significant factor in the overall decline, though it impacted specific tribes and colonial settlements.^{[55][56][57][58][59][60]} In the Hawaiian Islands the earliest indigenous inhabitants arrived around 1 AD from Polynesia. Captain James Cook arrived in the Hawaiian Islands in 1778^[61] with American contact made in 1790 with the first ship to dock arriving in Oahu.^[62]
In the early days of colonization many European settlers were subject to food shortages, disease, and attacks from Native Americans. Native Americans were also often at war with neighboring tribes and allied with Europeans in their colonial wars.^[63] At the same time, however, many natives and settlers came to depend on each other. Settlers traded for food and animal pelts, natives for guns, ammunition and other European wares.^[64] Natives taught many settlers where, when and how to cultivate corn, beans and squash. European missionaries and others felt it was important to "civilize" the Native Americans and urged them to adopt European agricultural techniques and lifestyles.^[65][66]