MAIN INFORMATIONS
Capital Washington, D.C.
38°53′N 77°02′W
Largest city: New York City
Official languages: None at federal level
(English de facto)
Government Federal constitutional republic
- President George W. Bush (R)
- Vice President Dick Cheney (R)
Independence from Great Britain
- Declared July 4, 1776
- Recognized September 3, 1783
Area
- Total 9,631,420 km² (3rd1)
3,718,695 sq mi
- Water (4.87
Population
- 2007 estimate 300,983,000[1] (3rd)
- 2000 census 281,421,906
- Density 31/km² (172nd)
80/sq mi
GDP (PPP) 2006 estimate
- Total $13.049 trillion (1st)
- Per capita $43,555 (3rd)
GDP (nominal) 2005 estimate
- Total $13.3 trillion (1st)
- Per capita $44,333 (8th)
HDI (2004) 0.948 (high) (8th)
Currency United States dollar
HISTORY
Civil War
As new territories were being incorporated, the nation was divided over the issue of states' rights, the role of the federal government, and—by the 1820s—the expansion of slavery, which had been legal in all thirteen colonies but was rarer in the north, where it was abolished by 1804. The Northern states were opposed to the expansion of slavery whereas the Southern states saw the opposition as an attack on their way of life, since their economy was dependent on slave labor. The failure to permanently resolve these issues led to the Civil War, following the secession of many slave states in the South to form the Confederate States of America after the 1860 election of Abraham Lincoln. The 1865 Union victory in the Civil War effectively ended slavery and settled the question of whether a state had the right to secede. The event was a major turning point in American history and resulted in an increase in federal power.[19]
Reconstruction and industrialization
After the Civil War, an unprecedented influx of immigrants, who helped to provide labor for American industry and create diverse communities in undeveloped areas—together with high tariff protections, national infrastructure building, and national banking regulations—hastened the country's rise to international power. The growing power of the United States enabled it to acquire new territories, including the annexation of Puerto Rico and the Philippines after victory in the Spanish-American War, which marked the debut of the United States as a major world power.
World Wars I and II
At the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the United States remained neutral. In 1917, however, the United States joined the Allied Powers, helping to turn the tide against the Central Powers. For historical reasons, American sympathies were very much in favor of the British and French, even though a sizable number of citizens, mostly Irish and German, were opposed to intervention. After the war, the Senate did not ratify the Treaty of Versailles because of a fear that it would pull the United States into European affairs. Instead, the country continued to pursue its policy of unilateralism that bordered at times on isolationism.
During most of the 1920s, the United States enjoyed a period of unbalanced prosperity as farm prices fell and industrial profits grew. A rise in debt and an inflated stock market culminated in a crash in 1929, and combined with the Dust Bowl, triggered the Great Depression. After his election as President in 1932, Franklin Delano Roosevelt instituted his plan for a New Deal, which increased government intervention in the economy in response to the Great Depression.
The nation did not fully recover until 1941, when the United States was driven to join the Allies against the Axis Powers after a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor by Japan. World War II was the costliest war in economic terms in American history, but it helped to pull the economy out of depression because the required production of military materiel provided much-needed jobs, and women entered the workforce in large numbers for the first time. During this war, scientists working for the United States federal government succeeded in producing nuclear weapons, making the United States the world's first nuclear power. Toward the end of World War II, after the end of World War II in Europe, the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. The Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs were the second and third nuclear devices detonated and the only ones ever employed as weapons.
Japan surrendered soon after, on 2 September 1945, which ended World War II.
Cold War and civil rights
After World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union became superpowers in an era of ideological rivalry dubbed the Cold War. The United States officially promoted liberal democracy and capitalism, while the Soviet Union officially promoted communism and a centrally planned economy. Both sides sometimes supported politically convenient oppressive regimes. The result was a series of proxy wars, including the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the tense nuclear showdown of the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the Soviet war in Afghanistan.
The perception that the United States was losing the space race spurred government efforts to raise proficiency in mathematics and science in schools[26] and led to President John F. Kennedy's call for the United States to land "a man on the moon" by the end of the 1960s, which was realized in 1969.
Meanwhile, American society experienced a period of sustained economic expansion. At the same time, discrimination across the United States, especially in the South, was increasingly challenged by a growing civil-rights movement headed by prominent African Americans such as Martin Luther King, Jr., which led to the abolition of the Jim Crow laws in the South.
After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, the United States continued to intervene in overseas military conflicts such as the Gulf War.
It remains the world's only superpower.
September 11, 2001 and the War on Terrorism
On September 11, 2001, 19 al-Qaeda operatives hijacked four commercial airplanes. Two were flown into the World Trade Center towers in New York City, while a third crashed into The Pentagon in Washington, D.C.. The fourth plane was brought down near Shanksville, Pennsylvania during a struggle between the passengers and hijackers.
After the 9/11 attacks, U.S. foreign policy focused on the global threat of terrorism and the U.S. government under President George W. Bush began a series of military and legal operations termed the War on Terror. The War on Terror began on October 7, 2001 when a U.S.-led coalition launched military operations in Afghanistan which led to the removal of the Taliban rule and the expulsion of the terrorist organization al-Qaeda and its leader Osama Bin Laden.
The events of September 11 led to a preemptive policy against threats to U.S. security, known as the Bush Doctrine.
In the 2002 State of the Union address, President George W. Bush labeled North Korea, Iraq, and Iran "the axis of evil," and stated that these countries "constitute a grave threat to the security of the U.S. and its allies." Later that year, the Bush administration began to press for regime change in Iraq.
After many failed U.N. resolutions and Saddam Hussein rejecting demands to surrender, the United States and its allies invaded Iraq in March 2003. The Bush administration justified its invasion with a charge that Iraq had stockpiled weapons of mass destruction, and was seeking nuclear weapons.After the invasion, no such stockpiles were found, and the Bush administration later admitted having acted on flawed intelligence. As of January 2007, Operation Iraqi Freedom is ongoing.
Government and politics
Political system
The United States is the longest-surviving extant constitutional republic, with the oldest wholly written constitution in the world. Its government relies on representative democracy through a congressional system under a set of powers specified by its Constitution. However, it is "not a simple representative democracy, but a constitutional republic in which majority rule is tempered by minority rights protected by law.
"There are three levels of government, consisting of the federal, state, and local levels. Officials at all three levels are either elected by voters in a secret ballot or appointed by other elected officials. Executive and legislative offices are decided by a plurality vote of citizens in their respective districts, with judicial and cabinet-level offices nominated by the Executive branch and approved by the Legislature. In some states, judicial posts are filled by popular election rather than executive appointment.
The federal government comprises three branches, which are designed to check and balance one another's powers:
· Legislative: The Congress, made up of the Senate and the House of Representatives, which makes federal law, declares war, approves treaties and has powers of impeachment.
· Executive: The President, who appoints, with Senate approval, the Cabinet and other officers, who administers and enforces federal law, can veto bills, and is Commander in Chief of the military.
· Judiciary: The Supreme Court and lower federal courts, whose judges are appointed by the President with Senate approval, which interpret laws and their validity under the Constitution and can overturn laws they deem unconstitutional.
The United States Congress is a bicameral legislature. The House of Representatives has 435 members, each representing a congressional district for a two-year term. House seats are apportioned among the states according to population every tenth year. Each state is guaranteed at least one representative: seven states have one each; California, the most populous state, has 53. 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 United States Constitution is the supreme legal document in the American system, and serves as a social contract between the people of the United States and their government. All laws and procedures of both state and federal governments are subject to review, and any law ruled to violate the Constitution by the judicial branch is overturned. The Constitution is a living document as it can be amended by a variety of methods, all of which require the approval of an overwhelming majority of the states. The Constitution has been amended 27 times, the last time in 1992.
The Constitution contains a dedication to "preserve liberty" with a "Bill of Rights" and other amendments, which guarantee freedom of speech, religion, and the press; the right to a fair trial; the right to keep and bear arms; universal suffrage; and property rights. However, the extent to which these rights are protected and universal in practice is heavily debated. The Constitution also guarantees to every State "a Republican Form of Government". However, the meaning of that guarantee has been only slightly explicated.
American politics is dominated by the Republican Party of the United States and the Democratic Party of the United States. Members of these two parties hold the overwhelming majority of elected offices across the country at federal, state, and lower levels. Independent or so-called "third party" candidates tend to do better in lower-level elections, although they are presently some independent members of both the House and Senate.
Within American political culture the Republican Party is considered "center-right" or conservative while the Democratic Party is considered "center-left" or liberal. However, the size of both parties and the comparative weakness of party discipline in the United States has allowed for considerable divergence of views within both parties, and the label "Republican" or "Democrat" does not always offer an unambiguous indication of an individual politician's political views.
Since 2001, the President has been George W. Bush, a Republican. Following the 2006 mid-term elections, the Democratic Party holds a majority of seats in both the House and Senate for the first time since 1994, except for a Democratic plurality in the Senate in 2001–02.
Foreign relations and military
On a global scale, which makes its foreign policy a subject of great interest and discussion around the world. Almost all countries have embassies in Washington, D.C., and consulates around the country. However, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, and Sudan do not have formal diplomatic relations with the United States.The United States is a founding member of the United Nations (with a permanent seat on the Security Council), among many other international organizations.
The United States has a long-standing tradition of civilian control over military affairs. The Department of Defense administers the U.S. armed forces, which comprise 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 but is placed under the Department of the Navy in times of war. The military of the United States comprises 1.4 million personnel on active duty, along with several hundred thousand each in the Reserves and the National Guard.
Service in the military is voluntary, though conscription may occur in times of war through the Selective Service System. The United States is considered to have the most powerful military in the world, partly because of the size of its defense budget; American defense expenditures in 2005 were estimated to be greater than the next 14 largest national military budgets combined, even though the U.S. military budget is only about 4f the country's gross domestic product. The U.S. military maintains over 700 bases and facilities. It also has bases on every continent except Antarctica.
Administrative divisions
The United States of America consists of 50 states and one federal district, the District of Columbia. The conterminous, or contiguous, forty-eight states—all the states but Alaska and Hawaii—are also called the continental United States or the "lower 48". Alaska is separated from the "lower forty-eight" by Canada, and Hawaii, the fiftieth state, occupies an archipelago in the Pacific Ocean.
States1. Alabama 2. Alaska 3. Arizona 4. Arkansas 5. California 6. Colorado 7. Connecticut 8. Delaware 9. Florida 10. Georgia 11. Hawaii 12. Idaho 13. Illinois 14. Indiana 15. Iowa 16. Kansas 17. Kentucky 18. Louisiana 19. Maine 20. Maryland 21. Massachusetts 22. Michigan 23. Minnesota 24. Mississippi 25. Missouri 26. Montana 27. Nebraska 28. Nevada 29. New Hampshire 30. New Jersey 31. New Mexico 32. New York 33. North Carolina 34. North Dakota 35. Ohio 36. Oklahoma 37. Oregon 38. Pennsylvania 39. Rhode Island 40. South Carolina 41. South Dakota 42. Tennessee 43. Texas 44. Utah 45. Vermont 46. Virginia 47. Washington 48. West Virginia 49. Wisconsin 50. Wyoming Territories51. American Samoa 52. Guam 53. Northern Mariana Islands 54. Puerto Rico 55. U.S. Virgin Islands · District of Columbia
The United States also holds several other territories. Palmyra Atoll is the United States' only incorporated territory; but it is unorganized and uninhabited. The United States Minor Outlying Islands consist of uninhabited islands and atolls in the Pacific and Caribbean Sea. In addition, since 1898, the United States Navy has held an extensive naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
In addition to the actual states and territories of the United States, there are also nations which are associated states of the U.S. The Federated States of Micronesia (since 1986), the Marshall Islands (since 1986), and Palau (since 1994) are associated with the United States under what is known as the Compact of Free Association, giving the states international sovereignty and ultimate control over their territory. However, the governments of those areas have agreed to allow the United States to provide defense and financial assistance.
ECONOMY
General situation
The economic history of the United States is a story of economic growth that began with marginally successful colonial economies and progressed to the largest industrial economy in the world in the 20th and early 21st century.
At over 3.7 million square miles (over 9.6 million km²), the United States (including its non-contiguous and overseas states and territories) is the third largest country by total area. It is the world's third most populous nation, with over 300 million people.
With a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2006 of $13.3 trillion, the United States has the biggest and most technologically advanced economy in the history of the world. GDP per capita is also among the highest in the world at $44,000, ranking seventh; of decent-sized Western World countries only exceeded by Norway. Most economists agree that U.S. consumers have the most purchasing power in the world, and the United States is currently the most influential country in the global economy.
The USA was founded by 13 colonies that declared their independence from Great Britain, on 4 July 1776, under the name "The United States of America," and were recognized by Britain as sovereign states in 1783. The United States has existed continuously as a united, sovereign, national state since it adopted the Articles of Confederation, on 1 March 1781. The nation's form of government was significantly altered when it adopted the current Constitution, the Articles' replacement, on 17 September 1787. American military, economic, cultural, and political influence increased through the 19th and 20th centuries. With the collapse of the Soviet Union at the end of the Cold War, the nation emerged as the world's sole remaining superpower,[5] greatly influencing world affairs, as it continues to do today.
The economic system of the United States can be described as a capitalist mixed economy, in which corporations, other private firms, and individuals make most microeconomic decisions, and governments prefer to take a smaller role in the domestic economy, although the combined role of all levels of government is relatively large, at 36f the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Most business in the U.S. are not corporations and do not have a payroll but are unincorporated sole proprietorships. The U.S. has a smaller social safety net than that of other developed countries, and regulation of businesses is slightly less than the average of developed countries. The United States' median household income was $46,326 with personal median income for those aged 25 to 64 being $32,611 in 2006. The unemployment rate as of Dec 2006 was 4.5
Economic activity varies greatly across the country. For example, New York City is the center of the American financial, publishing, broadcasting, and advertising industries, while Los Angeles is the most important center for film and television production. The San Francisco Bay Area is a major center for technology. The Midwest is known for its reliance on manufacturing and heavy industry, with Detroit serving as the historic center of the American automotive industry, and Chicago serving as the business and financial capital of the region. The Southeast is a major area for agriculture, tourism, and the lumber industry, and, because of wages and costs below the national average, it continues to attract manufacturing.
The largest sector in the United States economy is services, which employs roughly three quarters of the work force.
The economy is fueled by an abundance in natural resources such as coal, petroleum, and precious metals. However, the country depends on foreign countries for much of its energy. In agriculture, the U.S. is a top producer of corn, soy beans, rice, and wheat, with the Great Plains labeled as the "breadbasket of the world" for its tremendous agricultural output and productivity. The U.S. has a large tourist industry, ranking third in the world, and is also a major exporter in goods such as airplanes, steel, weapons, and electronics. Canada accounts for 19more than any other nation) of the United States' foreign trade, followed by China, Mexico, and Japan.
The per capita income of the United States is among the highest in the world. While income is higher than in western Europe, in 1990 it was distributed less equally. Since 1975, the U.S. has a "two-tier" labor market in which virtually all the real income gains have gone to the top 20f households, with most of those gains accruing to the very highest earners within that category. This polarization is the result of a relatively high level of economic freedom.
The social mobility of U.S. residents relative to that of other countries is the subject of much debate. Some analysts have found that social mobility in the United States is low relative to other OECD states, specifically compared to Western Europe, Scandinavia and Canada. Low social mobility may stem in part from the U.S. educational system. Public education in the United States is funded mainly by local property taxes supplemented by state revenues. This frequently results in a wide difference in funding between poor districts or poor states and more affluent jurisdictions. Some analysts argue that relative social mobility in the U.S. peaked in the 1960s and declined rapidly beginning in the 1980s. Former Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan has also suggested that the growing income inequality and low class mobility of the U.S. economy may eventually threaten the entire system in the near future.
Innovation
The United States is an influential country in scientific and technological research and the production of innovative technological products. The bulk of Research and Development funding (69comes from the private sector, rather than from taxes. During World War II, the U.S. led the allied program to develop the atomic bomb, ushering in the atomic age. Beginning early the Cold War, the U.S. achieved successes in space science and technology, leading to a space race which led to rapid advances in rocketry, weaponry, material science, computers, and many other areas. This technological progress was epitomized by the first visit of a man to the moon, when Neil Armstrong stepped off of Apollo 11 in July 1969.
The U.S. was also the most instrumental nation in the development of the Internet, developing its predecessor, Arpanet. U.S. businesses control most of its infrastructure.
In the sciences, Americans have a large share of Nobel Prizes, especially in the fields of physiology and medicine. The National Institutes of Health, a focal point for biomedical research in the United States, as well as the privately-funded Celera Genomics have contributed to the completion of the Human Genome Project. The main governmental organization for aviation and space research is the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Major corporations, such as Boeing and Lockheed Martin, also play an important role.
Transportation
The automobile industry developed earlier and more rapidly in the United States than in most other countries. The backbone of the nation's transportation infrastructure is a network of high-capacity highways which carry large numbers of both passenger cars and freight trucks. From data taken in 2004, there are about 3,981,521 miles (6,407,637 km) of roadways in the U.S., the most in the world.
Mass transit systems exist in large cities, such as New York, which operates one of the busiest subway systems in the world. With a few exceptions, American cities are less dense than those in other parts of the world. Low density partly results from and largely necessitates automobile ownership by most households.
The U.S. had been unique in its high number of private passenger railroads. During the 1970s, government intervention reorganized freight railroads, consolidating passenger service under the government-backed Amtrak corporation. No other country has more miles of rail.
Air travel is the preferred means of passenger travel for long distances. In terms of passengers, seventeen of the world's thirty busiest airports in 2004 were in the U.S., including the world's busiest, Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL). In terms of cargo, in the same year, twelve of the world's thirty busiest airports were in the U.S., including the world's busiest, Memphis International Airport.
Several major seaports are in the United States; the three busiest are California's Port of Los Angeles and Port of Long Beach, and the Port of New York and New Jersey, all among the world's busiest. The interior of the U.S. also has major shipping channels, via the St. Lawrence Seaway and the Mississippi River. The first water link between the Great Lakes and the Atlantic, the Erie Canal, allowed the rapid expansion of agriculture and industry in the Midwest and made New York City the economic center of the country.
