Everything about U S totally explained
The
United States of America is a
constitutional federal republic comprising
fifty states and a
federal district. The
country is situated mostly in central
North America, where its
forty-eight contiguous states and
Washington, D.C., the capital district, lie between the
Pacific and
Atlantic Oceans, bordered by
Canada to the
north and
Mexico to the
south. The state of
Alaska is in the northwest of the continent, with Canada to its east and
Russia to the west across the
Bering Strait, and the state of
Hawaii is an
archipelago in the mid-Pacific. The United States also possesses
several territories, or
insular areas, scattered around the
Caribbean and Pacific.
At 3.79 million square miles (9.83 million km²) and with more than 300 million people, the United States is the
third or fourth largest country by total area, and third largest by land area and
by population. The United States is one of the world's most
ethnically diverse nations, the product of large-scale
immigration from many countries. The
U.S. economy is the largest national economy in the world, with a nominal 2006
gross domestic product (GDP) of more than
US$13 trillion (over 19% of the world total based on
purchasing power parity).
The nation was founded by
thirteen colonies of
Great Britain located along the
Atlantic seaboard. Proclaiming themselves "states," they issued the
Declaration of Independence on
July 4,
1776. The rebellious states defeated Great Britain in the
American Revolutionary War, the first successful
colonial war of independence. A
federal convention adopted the current
United States Constitution on
September 17,
1787; its ratification the following year made the states part of a single republic. The
Bill of Rights, comprising ten
constitutional amendments, was ratified in 1791.
In the nineteenth century, the United States acquired land from
France,
Spain, the
United Kingdom,
Mexico, and
Russia, and annexed the
Republic of Texas and the
Republic of Hawaii. Disputes between the
agrarian South and
industrial North over
states' rights and the expansion of the
institution of slavery provoked the
American Civil War of the 1860s. The North's victory prevented a permanent split of the country and led to the
end of slavery in the United States. The
Spanish-American War and
World War I confirmed the nation's status as a military power. In 1945, the United States emerged from
World War II as the
first country with nuclear weapons, a permanent member of the
United Nations Security Council, and a founding member of
NATO. In the post–
Cold War era, the United States is the only remaining
superpower—accounting for
approximately 50% of global military spending—and a dominant economic, political, and cultural force in the world.
Etymology
The term
America, for the lands of the
western hemisphere, was coined in the early sixteenth century after
Amerigo Vespucci, an Italian explorer and cartographer. The full name of the country was first used officially in the
Declaration of Independence, which was the "unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America" adopted by the "Representatives of the united States of America" on
July 4,
1776. The current name was finalized on
November 15,
1777, when the
Second Continental Congress adopted the
Articles of Confederation, the first of which states, "The Stile of this Confederacy shall be 'The United States of America.'" Common short forms and abbreviations of the United States of America include the
United States, the
U.S., the
U.S.A., and
America. Colloquial names for the country include the
U.S. of A. and
the States.
Columbia, a once popular name for the Americas and the United States, was derived from
Christopher Columbus. It appears in the name "
District of Columbia". A female personification of Columbia appears on some official documents, including certain prints of
U.S. currency.
The standard way to refer to a citizen of the United States is as an
American. Though
United States is the formal adjective,
American and
U.S. are the most common adjectives used to refer to the country ("American values," "U.S. forces").
American is rarely used in English to refer to people not connected to the United States.
The phrase "the United States" was originally treated as plural—e.g, "the United States are"—including in the
Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, ratified in 1865. However, it became increasingly common to treat the name as singular—for example, "the United States is"—after the end of the Civil War. The singular form is now standard, while the plural form is retained in the set idiom "these United States."
Geography
The United States is situated almost entirely in the
western hemisphere: the
contiguous United States stretches from the
Pacific on the west to the
Atlantic on the east, with the
Gulf of Mexico to the southeast, and bordered by
Canada on the north and
Mexico on the south.
Alaska is the largest state in area; separated from the contiguous U.S. by Canada, it touches the Pacific on the south and
Arctic Ocean on the north.
Hawaii occupies an
archipelago in the central Pacific, southwest of North America. The United States is the world's third or fourth
largest nation by total area, before or after
China. The ranking varies depending on (a) how two territories disputed by China and
India are counted and (b) how the total size of the United States is calculated: the CIA
World Factbook gives, and the
Encyclopedia Britannica gives . Including only land area, the United States is third in size behind Russia and China, just ahead of Canada. The United States also possesses several
insular territories scattered around the
West Indies (for example, the
commonwealth of
Puerto Rico) and the Pacific (for example,
Guam).
The coastal plain of the Atlantic seaboard gives way further inland to
deciduous forests and the rolling hills of the
Piedmont. 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 land of the
Great Plains stretches to the west. The
Rocky Mountains, at the western edge of the Great Plains, extend north to south across the continental United States, reaching altitudes higher than 14,000 feet (4,300 m) in
Colorado. The area to the west of the Rocky Mountains is dominated by the rocky
Great Basin and deserts such as the
Mojave. The
Sierra Nevada range runs parallel to the Rockies, relatively close to the
Pacific coast. At 20,320 feet (6,194 m), Alaska's
Mount McKinley is the country's tallest peak. Active
volcanoes are common throughout the
Alexander and
Aleutian Islands, and the entire state of Hawaii is built upon tropical volcanic islands. The
supervolcano underlying
Yellowstone National Park in the Rockies is the continent's largest volcanic feature.
Because of the United States' large size and wide range of geographic features, nearly every type of
climate is represented. The climate is
temperate in most areas,
tropical in Hawaii and southern
Florida,
polar in Alaska,
semi-arid in the Great Plains west of the
100th meridian, desert in the Southwest,
Mediterranean in
Coastal California, and
arid in the Great Basin. Extreme weather isn't uncommon—the states bordering the
Gulf of Mexico are prone to
hurricanes, and most of the world's
tornadoes occur within the continental United States, primarily in the Midwest.
Environment
flora. More than 400 mammal, 700 bird, 500 reptile and amphibian, and 90,000 insect species have been documented. The
Endangered Species Act of 1973 protects threatened and endangered species and their habitats, which are monitored by the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
The U.S. has fifty-eight
national parks and hundreds of other federally managed parks, forests, and
wilderness areas. Altogether, the U.S. government regulates 28.8% of the country's total land area. Most such public land comprises protected parks and forestland, though some federal land is leased for oil and gas drilling, mining, or cattle ranching.
The
energy policy of the United States is widely debated; many call on the country to take a leading role in fighting
global warming. The United States is currently the second largest emitter, after the People's Republic of China, of
carbon dioxide from the burning of
fossil fuels.
History
Native Americans and European settlers
The
indigenous peoples of the U.S. mainland, including
Alaska Natives, are thought to have
migrated from Asia. They began arriving at least 12,000 and as many as 40,000 years ago. Several indigenous communities in the
pre-Columbian era developed advanced agriculture, grand architecture, and state-level societies. In 1492, Genoese explorer
Christopher Columbus, under contract to the Spanish crown, reached several Caribbean islands, making
first contact with the indigenous population. In the years that followed, the majority of the indigenous American peoples were killed by epidemics of
Eurasian diseases.
On
April 2,
1513, Spanish
conquistador Juan Ponce de León landed on what he called "
La Florida"—the first documented European arrival on what would become the U.S. mainland. Of the colonies Spain established in the region, only
St. Augustine, founded in 1565, remains. Later Spanish settlements in the present-day
southwestern United States drew thousands through Mexico. French
fur traders established outposts of
New France around the
Great Lakes; France eventually claimed much of the North American interior as far south as the Gulf of Mexico. The first successful English settlements were the
Virginia Colony in
Jamestown in 1607 and the
Pilgrims'
Plymouth Colony in 1620. The 1628 chartering of the
Massachusetts Bay Colony resulted in a wave of migration; by 1634,
New England had been settled by some 10,000
Puritans. Between the late 1610s and the American Revolution, an estimated 50,000 convicts were shipped to England's, and later Great Britain's, American colonies. Beginning in 1614, the Dutch established settlements along the lower
Hudson River, including
New Amsterdam on
Manhattan Island. The small settlement of
New Sweden, founded along the
Delaware River in 1638, was taken over by the Dutch in 1655.
By 1674, English forces had won the former Dutch colonies in the
Anglo-Dutch Wars; the province of
New Netherland was renamed
New York. Many new immigrants, especially to
the South, were
indentured servants—some two-thirds of all Virginia immigrants between 1630 and 1680. By the turn of the century,
African slaves were becoming the primary source of bonded labor. With the 1729 division of
the Carolinas and the 1732 colonization of
Georgia, the thirteen British colonies that would become the United States of America were established. All had active local and colonial governments with elections open to most free men, with a growing devotion to the ancient
rights of Englishmen and a sense of self government that stimulated support for
republicanism. All had legalized the
African slave trade. With high birth rates, low death rates, and steady immigration, the colonies doubled in population every twenty-five years. The Christian
revivalist movement of the 1730s and 1740s known as the
Great Awakening fueled interest in both religion and religious liberty. In the
French and Indian War, British forces seized Canada from the French, but the
francophone population remained politically isolated from the southern colonies. By 1770, those thirteen colonies had an increasingly
Anglicized population of three million, approximately half that of Britain. Though
subject to British taxation, they were given no representation in the
Parliament of Great Britain.
Independence and expansion
Tensions between American colonials and the British during the
revolutionary period of the 1760s and early 1770s led to the
American Revolutionary War, fought from 1775 through 1781. On
June 14,
1775, the
Continental Congress, convening in
Philadelphia, established a
Continental Army under the command of
George Washington. Proclaiming that "
all men are created equal" and endowed with "certain
unalienable Rights," the Congress adopted the
Declaration of Independence on
July 4,
1776. The Declaration, drafted largely by
Thomas Jefferson, pronounced the colonies
sovereign "
states." In 1777, the
Articles of Confederation were adopted, uniting the states under a weak federal government that operated until 1788. Some 70,000–80,000
loyalists to the British Crown fled the rebellious states, many to
Nova Scotia and the new
British holdings in Canada. Native Americans, with divided allegiances, fought on both sides of
the war's western front.
After the
defeat of the British army by American forces who were
assisted by the French, Great Britain
recognized the sovereignty of the thirteen states in 1783. A
constitutional convention was organized in 1787 by those who wished to establish a strong national government with power over the states. By June 1788, nine states had ratified the
United States Constitution, sufficient to establish the new government; the republic's
first Senate, House of Representatives, and
president—George Washington—took office in 1789.
New York City was the federal capital for a year, before the government relocated to Philadelphia. In 1791, the states ratified the
Bill of Rights, ten amendments to the Constitution forbidding federal restriction of personal freedoms and guaranteeing a range of legal protections. Attitudes toward
slavery were shifting; a protected the African slave trade only until 1808. The Northern states abolished slavery between 1780 and 1804, leaving the
slave states of the South as defenders of the "
peculiar institution." In 1800, the federal government moved to the newly founded
Washington, D.C. The
Second Great Awakening made
evangelicalism a force behind various social
reform movements.
Americans' eagerness to
expand westward began a cycle of
Indian Wars that stretched to the end of the nineteenth century, as Native Americans were stripped of their land. The
Louisiana Purchase of French-claimed territory under President Thomas Jefferson in 1803 virtually doubled the nation's size. The
War of 1812, declared against Britain over various grievances and fought to a draw, strengthened American
nationalism. A series of U.S. military incursions into Florida led
Spain to cede it and other Gulf Coast territory in 1819. The country annexed the
Republic of Texas in 1845. The concept of
Manifest Destiny was popularized during this time. The 1846
Oregon Treaty with Britain led to U.S. control of the present-day
American Northwest. The U.S. victory in the
Mexican-American War resulted in the 1848
cession of
California and much of the present-day
American Southwest. The
California Gold Rush of 1848–49 further spurred western migration.
New railways made relocation much less arduous for settlers and increased conflicts with Native Americans. Over a half-century, up to 40 million
American bison, commonly called buffalo, were slaughtered for skins and meat and to ease the railways' spread. The loss of the bison, a primary economic resource for the
plains Indians, was an existential blow to many native cultures.
Civil War and industrialization
Tensions between slave and
free states mounted with increasing disagreements over the relationship between the
state and federal governments and
violent conflicts over the expansion of slavery into new states.
Abraham Lincoln, candidate of the largely antislavery
Republican Party, was elected president in 1860. Before he took office, seven slave states declared their
secession from the United States, forming the
Confederate States of America. The federal government maintained secession was illegal, and with the Confederate
attack upon Fort Sumter, the
American Civil War began and four more slave states joined the Confederacy. The
Union freed Confederate slaves as its
army advanced through the South. Following the Union victory in 1865, three amendments to the U.S. Constitution
ensured freedom for the nearly four million African Americans who had been slaves,
made them citizens, and
gave them voting rights. The war and its resolution led to a substantial increase in
federal power.
After the war, the
assassination of President Lincoln radicalized Republican Reconstruction policies aimed at reintegrating and rebuilding the Southern states while ensuring the rights of the newly freed slaves. The resolution of the disputed
1876 presidential election by the
Compromise of 1877 ended Reconstruction;
Jim Crow laws soon
disenfranchised many African Americans. In the North, urbanization and an unprecedented
influx of immigrants hastened the
country's industrialization. The wave of immigration, which lasted until 1929, provided labor for U.S. businesses and transformed American culture. High tariff protections, national infrastructure building, and new banking regulations encouraged industrial growth. The 1867
Alaska purchase from Russia completed the country's mainland expansion. The
Wounded Knee massacre in 1890 was the last major armed conflict of the
Indian Wars. In 1893, the
indigenous monarchy of the Pacific
Kingdom of Hawaii was overthrown in a coup led by American residents; the archipelago was annexed by the United States in 1898. Victory in the
Spanish-American War that same year demonstrated that the United States was a
major world power and resulted in the annexation of Puerto Rico and the
Philippines. The Philippines gained independence a half-century later; Puerto Rico remains a
commonwealth of the United States.
World War I, Great Depression, and World War II
At the outbreak of
World War I in 1914, the United States remained neutral. Americans sympathized with the British and French, although many citizens, mostly Irish and German, opposed intervention. In 1917, the United States joined the
Allies, turning the tide against the
Central Powers. Reluctant to be involved in European affairs, the Senate didn't ratify the
Treaty of Versailles, which established the
League of Nations. The country pursued a policy of
unilateralism, verging on
isolationism. In 1920, the
women's rights movement won passage of a
constitutional amendment granting
women's suffrage. Partly because of the service of many in the war, Native Americans gained
U.S. citizenship in the
Indian Citizenship Act of 1924.
During
most of the 1920s, the United States enjoyed a period of unbalanced prosperity as farm profits fell while industrial profits grew. A rise in debt and an inflated
stock market culminated in the
1929 crash that triggered the
Great Depression. After his election as president in 1932,
Franklin D. Roosevelt responded with the
New Deal, a range of policies increasing government intervention in the economy. The
Dust Bowl of the mid-1930s impoverished many farming communities and spurred a new wave of western migration. The nation wouldn't fully recover from the economic depression until the industrial mobilization spurred by its entrance into
World War II. The United States, effectively neutral during the war's early stages after the
Nazi invasion of Poland in September 1939, began supplying
materiel to the
Allies in March 1941 through the
Lend-Lease program.
On
December 7,
1941, the United States joined the Allies against the
Axis powers after a surprise
attack on Pearl Harbor by
Japan. World War II cost far more money than any other war in American history, but it boosted the economy by providing capital investment and jobs, while bringing many women into the labor market. Among the major combatants, the United States was the only nation to become richer—indeed, far richer—instead of poorer because of the war. Allied conferences at
Bretton Woods and
Yalta outlined a new system of
international organizations that placed the
United States and
Soviet Union at the center of world affairs. As
victory was achieved in Europe, a 1945
international conference held in
San Francisco produced the
United Nations Charter, which became active after the war. The United States, having
developed the first nuclear weapons, used them on the Japanese cities of
Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August.
Japan surrendered on
September 2, ending the war.
Superpower
The United States and Soviet Union jockeyed for power after World War II during the Cold War, dominating the military affairs of Europe through
NATO and the
Warsaw Pact. The United States promoted
liberal democracy and
capitalism, while the Soviet Union promoted
communism and a centrally
planned economy. Both the United States and the Soviet Union supported dictatorships, and both engaged in
proxy wars. United States troops fought
Communist Chinese forces in the
Korean War of 1950–53. The
House Un-American Activities Committee pursued a series of investigations into suspected leftist subversion, while Senator
Joseph McCarthy became the figurehead of anticommunist sentiment.
The Soviet Union launched the first manned spacecraft in 1961, prompting U.S. efforts to raise proficiency in mathematics and science and President
John F. Kennedy's call for the country to be first to land "a man on the moon," achieved in 1969. Kennedy also faced a
tense nuclear showdown with Soviet forces in Cuba. Meanwhile, America experienced sustained economic expansion. A growing
civil rights movement headed by prominent African Americans, such as
Martin Luther King, Jr., fought segregation and discrimination, leading to the abolition of
Jim Crow laws. Following
Kennedy's assassination in 1963, the
Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed under President
Lyndon B. Johnson. Johnson and his successor,
Richard Nixon, expanded a proxy war in Southeast Asia into the unsuccessful
Vietnam War.
As a result of the
Watergate scandal, in 1974 Nixon became the first U.S. president to
resign, rather than be
impeached on charges including
obstruction of justice and
abuse of power; he was
succeeded by Vice President
Gerald Ford. During the
Jimmy Carter administration in the late 1970s, the U.S. economy experienced
stagflation. The election of
Ronald Reagan as president in 1980 marked a significant
rightward shift in American politics, reflected in major changes in
taxation and spending priorities. In the late 1980s and 1990s, the
Soviet Union's power diminished, leading to its collapse. The leadership role taken by the United States and its allies in the United Nations–sanctioned
Gulf War, under President
George H. W. Bush, and later the
Yugoslav wars helped to preserve its position as the world's last remaining superpower. The longest economic expansion in modern U.S. history—from March 1991 to March 2001—encompassed the administration of President
Bill Clinton. In 1998, Clinton was
impeached by the House on charges relating to a
civil lawsuit and a
sexual scandal, but he was acquitted by the Senate and remained in office.
The controversial
presidential election of 2000 was resolved by a
Supreme Court decision that effectively awarded the presidency to Texas
governor George W. Bush, son of George H. W. Bush.
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 three thousand people. In the aftermath, President Bush launched the
War on Terrorism under a military philosophy stressing
preemptive war now known as the
Bush Doctrine. In late 2001, U.S. forces led a NATO
invasion of Afghanistan, removing the
Taliban government and al-Qaeda training camps. Taliban insurgents continue to fight a
guerrilla war against the NATO-led force. In 2002, the Bush administration began to press for
regime change in Iraq on
controversial grounds. Lacking the support of NATO or an explicit United Nations mandate for military intervention, Bush formed a
Coalition of the Willing, and the U.S.
invaded Iraq in 2003, removing President
Saddam Hussein from power. Although facing both external and internal pressure to withdraw, the United States maintains its
military presence in Iraq. The United States has been criticized for
human rights violations in its pursuit of the War on Terrorism, including holding so-called
enemy combatants at the
Guantanamo Bay detention camp for years without trial and for its alleged use of torture.
Government and politics
The United States is the world's oldest surviving
federation. It is a
constitutional republic, "in which
majority rule is tempered by
minority rights protected by
law." It is fundamentally structured as a
representative democracy, though U.S. citizens residing in the territories are excluded from voting for federal officials. The government is regulated by a system of
checks and balances defined by the United States Constitution, which serves as the country's supreme legal document and as a
social contract for the people of the United States. In the
American federalist system, citizens are usually subject to
three levels of government, federal, state, and local; the
local government's duties are commonly split between
county and municipal governments. In almost all cases, executive and legislative officials are elected by a
plurality vote of citizens by district. There is no
proportional representation at the federal level, and it's very rare at lower levels. Federal and state judicial and
cabinet officials are typically nominated by the executive branch and approved by the legislature, although some state judges and officials are elected by popular vote.
The federal government is composed of three branches:
- Legislative: The bicameral Congress, made up of the Senate and the House of Representatives makes federal law, declares war, approves treaties, has the power of the purse, and has the power of impeachment, by which it can remove sitting members of the government.
- Executive: The president is the commander-in-chief of the military, can veto legislative bills before they become law, and appoints the Cabinet and other officers, who administer and enforce federal laws and policies.
- Judicial: The Supreme Court and lower federal courts, whose judges are appointed by the president with Senate approval, interpret laws and can overturn laws they deem unconstitutional.
The House of Representatives has 435 members, each representing a
congressional district for a two-year term. House seats are
apportioned among the fifty states by population every tenth year. As of the
2000 census, seven states have the minimum of one representative, while California, the most populous state, has fifty-three. Each state has two senators, elected
at-large to six-year terms; one third of Senate seats are up for election every second year. The president serves a four-year term and may be elected to the office
no more than twice. The president is
not elected by direct vote, but by an indirect
electoral college system in which the determining votes are apportioned by state. The Supreme Court, led by the
Chief Justice of the United States, has nine members, who serve for life.
All laws and procedures of both state and federal governments are subject to review, and any law ruled in violation of the Constitution by the judicial branch is overturned. The original text of the Constitution establishes the structure and responsibilities of the federal government, the relationship between it and the individual states, and essential matters of military and economic authority.
Article One protects the right to the "great writ" of
habeas corpus, and
Article Three guarantees the
right to a jury trial in all criminal cases.
Amendments to the Constitution require the approval of three-fourths of the states. The Constitution has been amended twenty-seven times; the first ten amendments, which make up the
Bill of Rights, and the
Fourteenth Amendment form the central basis of individual rights in the United States.
Parties and elections
Politics in the United States have operated under a
two-party system for virtually all of the country's history. For elective offices at all levels, state-administered
primary elections are held to choose the major party nominees for subsequent
general elections. Since the
general election of 1856, the two dominant parties have been the
Democratic Party,
founded in 1824 (though its
roots trace back to 1792), and the
Republican Party,
founded in 1854. Since the Civil War, only one
third-party presidential candidate—former president
Theodore Roosevelt, running as a
Progressive in
1912—has won as much as 20% of the popular vote.
The incumbent president, Republican
George W. Bush, is the
43rd president in the country's history. All U.S. presidents to date have been white men. If the Democrats win the next
presidential election in, November 2008, either an African-American,
Barack Obama, or a woman,
Hillary Rodham Clinton, will become president. Following the
2006 midterm elections, the Democratic Party controls both the House and the Senate. Every member of the U.S. Congress is a Democrat or a Republican except two
independent members of the Senate—one a former Democratic incumbent, the other a self-described
socialist. An
overwhelming majority of state and local officials are also either Democrats or Republicans.
Within American
political culture, the Republican Party is considered "center-right" or
conservative and the Democratic Party is considered "center-left" or
liberal, but members of both parties have a wide range of views. In a January 2008 poll, 39% of Americans described themselves as "conservative," 33% as "moderate," and 20% as "liberal." On the other hand, a plurality of adults, 35.9%, identify as Democrats, 32.9% as independents, and 31.3% as Republicans. The states of the
Northeast and
West Coast and some of the
Great Lakes states are relatively liberal-leaning—they are known in political parlance as "
blue states." The "red states" of the
South and the
Rocky Mountains lean conservative.
States
The United States is a
federal union of fifty states. The original thirteen states were the successors of the
thirteen colonies that rebelled against
British rule. Most of the rest have been carved from territory obtained through war or purchase by the U.S. government. The exceptions are
Vermont,
Texas, and
Hawaii; each was an independent republic before joining the union. Early in the country's history, three states were created out of the territory of existing ones:
Kentucky from
Virginia;
Tennessee from
North Carolina; and
Maine from
Massachusetts.
West Virginia broke away from Virginia during the
American Civil War. The most recent state—Hawaii—achieved statehood on
August 21,
1959. The
U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the states don't have the right to
secede from the union.
The states compose the vast bulk of the U.S. land mass; the only other areas considered integral parts of the country are the District of Columbia, the
federal district where the capital, Washington, is located; and
Palmyra Atoll, an uninhabited but
incorporated territory in the Pacific Ocean. The United States possesses five major territories with indigenous populations:
Puerto Rico and the
United States Virgin Islands in the Caribbean; and
American Samoa,
Guam, and the
Northern Mariana Islands in the Pacific. Those born in the territories (except for American Samoa) possess
U.S. citizenship.
Foreign relations and military
The United States has vast economic, political, and military influence on a global scale, which makes its foreign policy a subject of great interest around the world. Almost all countries have
embassies in Washington, D.C., and many host
consulates around the country. Likewise, nearly all nations host
American diplomatic missions. However,
Cuba,
Iran,
North Korea,
Bhutan,
Sudan, and the
Republic of China (Taiwan) don't have formal diplomatic relations with the United States.
American
isolationists have often been at odds with internationalists, as anti-imperialists have been with promoters of
Manifest Destiny and
American Empire. American
imperialism in the Philippines drew sharp rebukes from
Mark Twain, philosopher
William James, and many others. Later, President
Woodrow Wilson played a key role in creating the
League of Nations, but the Senate prohibited American membership in it. Isolationism became a thing of the past when the United States took a lead role in founding the United Nations, becoming a permanent member of the
Security Council and host to the
United Nations Headquarters. The United States enjoys a
special relationship with the
United Kingdom and strong ties with
Australia,
New Zealand,
Japan,
Israel, and fellow NATO members. It also works closely with its neighbors through the
Organization of American States and
free trade agreements such as the trilateral
North American Free Trade Agreement with
Canada and
Mexico. In 2005, the United States spent $27.3 billion on
official development assistance, the most in the world; however, as a share of
gross national income (GNI), the U.S. contribution of 0.22% ranked twentieth of twenty-two donor states. On the other hand, nongovernmental sources such as private foundations, corporations, and educational and religious institutions donated $95.5 billion. The total of $122.8 billion is again the most in the world and seventh in terms of GNI percentage.
The president holds the title of commander-in-chief of the nation's armed forces and appoints its leaders, the
secretary of defense and the
Joint Chiefs of Staff. The
United States Department of Defense administers the armed forces, including the
Army, the
Navy, the
Marine Corps, and the
Air Force. The
Coast Guard falls under the jurisdiction of the
Department of Homeland Security in peacetime and the
Department of the Navy in times of war. In 2005, the military had 1.38 million personnel on active duty, along with several hundred thousand each in the
Reserves and the
National Guard for a total of
2.3 million troops. The Department of Defense also employs approximately 700,000 civilians, disregarding contractors. Military service is voluntary, though
conscription may occur in wartime through the
Selective Service System. The rapid deployment of American forces is facilitated by the Air Force's large fleet of transportation aircraft and aerial refueling tankers, the Navy's fleet of eleven active aircraft carriers, and
Marine Expeditionary Units at sea in the Navy's
Atlantic and Pacific fleets. Outside of the American homeland, the U.S. military is
deployed to 770 bases and facilities, on every continent
except Antarctica. Because of the extent of its global military presence, scholars describe the United States as maintaining an "empire of bases."
Total U.S. military spending in 2006, over $528 billion, was 46% of the entire military spending in the world and greater than the next fourteen largest national military expenditures combined. (In
purchasing power parity terms, it was larger than the next six such expenditures combined.) The per capita spending of $1,756 was approximately ten times the world average. At 4.06% of GDP, U.S. military spending is ranked 27th out of 172 nations. The proposed base
Department of Defense budget for 2009, $515.4 billion, is a 7% increase over 2008 and a nearly 74% increase over 2001. The estimated total cost of the
Iraq War to the United States through 2016 is $2.267 trillion. As of
March 25,
2008, the United States had suffered 4,001 military fatalities during the war and over 29,300 wounded.
Economy
The United States has a
capitalist mixed economy, which is fueled by abundant
natural resources, a well-developed infrastructure, and high productivity. According to the
International Monetary Fund, the United States GDP of more than $13 trillion constitutes over 25.5% of the
gross world product at market exchange rates and over 19% of the gross world product at
purchasing power parity (PPP). The country ranks eighth in the world in
nominal GDP per capita and fourth in
GDP per capita at PPP. The leading export commodity is electrical machinery, while vehicles constitute the leading import. The
national debt is the world's largest; in 2005, it was 23% of the global total. As a percentage of GDP, U.S. debt ranked thirtieth out of 120 countries for which data is available.
The private sector constitutes the bulk of the economy, with government activity accounting for 12.4% of GDP. The economy is
postindustrial, with the
service sector contributing 67.8% of GDP. The leading business field by gross business receipts is wholesale and retail trade; by net income it's finance and insurance. The United States remains an industrial power, with chemical products the leading manufacturing field. The United States is the third largest producer of oil in the world, and its largest consumer. It is the world's number one producer of electrical and nuclear energy, as well as liquid natural gas, aluminum, sulfur, phosphates, and salt. While
agriculture accounts for just under 1% of GDP, and soybeans. The country's leading cash crop is
marijuana, despite federal laws making its
cultivation and sale illegal.
Coca-Cola and
McDonald's are the two most recognized brands in the world.
Three quarters of U.S. business firms have no payroll, but they account for only a small fraction of business receipts. Firms with payrolls of 500 or more employ 49.1% of all paid workers; in 2002, they accounted for 59.1% of business receipts. The United States ranks third in the
World Bank's Ease of Doing Business Index. Compared to Europe, U.S. property and corporate
income taxes are generally higher, while labor and, particularly, consumption taxes are lower. The
New York Stock Exchange is the world's largest by dollar volume; the exchange's parent company,
NYSE Euronext, represents over $29 trillion in total market
capitalization of listed
securities.
In 2005, 155 million persons were employed with earnings, of whom 80% worked in full-time jobs. The majority, 79%, were employed in the service sector. About 12% of American workers are
unionized, compared to 30% in Western Europe. The U.S. ranks number one in the ease of hiring and firing workers, according to the World Bank. Partly as a result, the United States maintains the highest labor productivity in the world. However, it no longer leads the world in productivity per hour as it did from the 1950s through the early 1990s; workers in
Norway, France,
Belgium, and
Luxembourg are now more productive per hour. Spending on the
social safety net is relatively low: the United States redistributes between 8 and 9% of GDP through social protection programs, slightly under the Japanese rate and less than half the estimated 19% of the European Union.
Income, human development, and social class
According to the
Census Bureau, the pretax
median household income in 2006 was $48,201. Using
purchasing power parity exchange rates, these income levels are similar to those found in
other postindustrial nations. Depending on the method of analysis, 12.3% or 13.3% of Americans were below the federally designated
poverty line. The United States was ranked twelfth in the world in the
UNDP's 2008 Human Development Report. A 2007
UNICEF study of children's well-being in twenty-one industrialized nations, covering a broad range of factors, ranked the U.S. next to last.
Between 1967 and 2006, median household income rose 30.8% in
constant dollars, largely because of the growing number of dual-earner households.
income inequality has grown substantially. The share of income received by the top 1% has risen considerably while the share of income of the bottom 90% has fallen, with the gap between the two groups being roughly as large in 2005 as in 1928. According to the standard
Gini index, income inequality in the United States is higher than in any European nation. Some economists, such as
Alan Greenspan, see rising income inequality as a cause for concern.
While American social classes lack defined boundaries,
Dennis Gilbert of
Hamilton College has proposed a system, adapted by other sociologists, with six social classes: an
upper, or capitalist, class consisting of the wealthy and powerful (1%), an
upper middle class consisting of highly educated professionals (15%), a
middle class consisting of semiprofessionals and craftsmen (33%), a
working class consisting of
clerical and
blue-collar workers who conduct highly routinized tasks (33%), and two
lower classes—the working poor (13%) and a largely unemployed underclass (12%). Wealth is highly concentrated: The richest 10% of the adult population possesses 69.8% of the country's household wealth, the second-highest share of any democratic developed nation. The top 1% possesses 33.4% of net wealth, including more than half of the total value in publicly traded stocks. Though the
American Dream, or the perception that Americans enjoy high
social mobility, played a key role in attracting immigrants to the United States, particularly in the late 1800s, some analysts find that the United States has relatively low social mobility compared to
Western Europe and Canada.
Science and technology
The United States has been a leader in scientific research and technological innovation since the late nineteenth century. In 1876,
Alexander Graham Bell was awarded the first U.S.
patent for the telephone. The
laboratory of
Thomas Edison developed the
phonograph, the first
long-lasting light bulb, and the first viable
movie camera. In the early twentieth century, the automobile companies of
Ransom E. Olds and
Henry Ford pioneered
assembly line manufacturing. The
Wright brothers, in 1903, made what is recognized as the "
first sustained and controlled heavier-than-air powered flight." The rise of
Nazism in the 1930s led many important European scientists, including
Albert Einstein and
Enrico Fermi, to immigrate to the United States. During World War II, the U.S.-based
Manhattan Project developed nuclear weapons, ushering in the
Atomic Age. The
Space Race produced rapid advances in rocketry,
materials science, computers, and many other areas. The United States largely developed the
ARPANET and its successor, the
Internet. Today, the bulk of
research and development funding, 64%, comes from the private sector. The United States leads the world in scientific research papers and
impact factor. Americans enjoy high levels of access to technological consumer goods. Almost half of U.S. households have
broadband Internet service. The country is the primary developer and grower of
genetically modified food; more than half of the world's land planted with biotech crops is in the United States.
Transportation
As of 2003, there were 759 automobiles per 1,000 Americans, compared to 472 per 1,000 inhabitants of the European Union the following year. Approximately 39% of
personal vehicles are vans,
SUVs, or light trucks. The average American adult (accounting for all drivers and nondrivers) spends 55 minutes behind the wheel every day, driving . The U.S. intercity passenger rail system is relatively weak. Only 9% of total U.S. work trips employ
mass transit, compared to 38.8% in Europe. Bicycle usage is minimal, well below European levels. The civil airline industry is entirely privatized, while most major airports are publicly owned. The five largest airlines in the world by passengers carried are all American;
American Airlines is number one. Of the world's thirty busiest passenger airports, sixteen are in the United States, including the busiest,
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL).
Demographics
On
October 17,
2006, the United States population was estimated by the U.S. Census Bureau to be 300,000,000. The U.S. population included an estimated 12 million
unauthorized migrants, of whom an estimated 1 million were uncounted by the Census Bureau. The overall
growth rate is 0.89%, compared to 0.16% in the European Union. The
birth rate of 14.16 per 1,000 is 30% below the world average, while higher than any European country except for
Albania and
Ireland. In 2006, 1.27 million immigrants were granted
legal residence. Mexico has been the leading source of new U.S. residents for over two decades; since 1998, China, India, and the Philippines have been in the top four sending countries every year. The United States is the only industrialized nation in which large population increases are projected.
The United States has a very
diverse population—thirty-one
ancestry groups have more than a million members.
Whites are the largest
racial group, with
German Americans,
Irish Americans, and
English Americans constituting three of the country's four largest ancestry groups.
| Race/Ethnicity (2006) Between 2000 and 2006, the country's Hispanic population increased 25.5% while the non-Hispanic population rose just 3.5%. Fertility is also a factor; the average Hispanic woman gives birth to three children in her lifetime. The comparable fertility rate is 2.2 for non-Hispanic black women and 1.8 for non-Hispanic white women (below the replacement rate of 2.1). It is estimated on the basis of current trends that by 2050 whites of non-Hispanic origin will be 50.1% of the U.S. population, compared to 69.4% in 2000 (66.4% in 2006). New Mexico, Hawaii, and Texas—as well as the District of Columbia.
About 83% of the population lives in one of the country's 363 metropolitan areas. In 2006, 254 incorporated places in the United States had populations over 100,000, nine cities had more than 1 million residents, and four global cities had over 2 million (New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Houston). The United States has fifty metropolitan areas with populations greater than 1 million. Of the fifty fastest-growing metro areas, twenty-three are in the West and twenty-five in the South. Among the country's twenty most populous metro areas, those of Dallas (the fourth largest), Houston (sixth), and Atlanta (ninth) saw the largest numerical gains between 2000 and 2006, while that of Phoenix (thirteenth) grew the largest in percentage terms.
|
| English (only) |
214.8 million |
| Spanish, incl. Creole |
29.7 million |
| Chinese |
2.2 million |
| French, incl. Creole |
1.9 million |
| Tagalog |
1.3 million |
| Vietnamese |
1.1 million |
| German |
1.1 million |
English is the de facto
national language. Although there's no
official language at the federal level, some laws—such as
U.S. naturalization requirements—standardize English. In 2003, about 215 million, or 82% of the population aged five years and older, spoke only English at home.
Spanish, spoken by over 10% of the population at home, is the second most common language and the most widely taught
foreign language. Some Americans advocate making English the country's official language, as it's in at least twenty-eight states. Both
Hawaiian and English are official languages in Hawaii by state law. While neither has an official language,
New Mexico has laws providing for the use of both English and Spanish, as
Louisiana does for English and
