United States of America
- For other meanings, see the disambiguation pages for U.S., USA, or United States.
The United States of America is a federal republic situated primarily in North America. It is bordered on the north by Canada and on the south by Mexico. It is comprised of several states and one federal district, and has had at various times several territories with differing degrees of affiliation. It has also been referred to, with varying formality, as the United States, America, the U.S., the U.S.A., the U.S. of A., the States, or (poetically) Columbia.
After World War I, the United States emerged as the dominant global influence in economic, political, military, cultural and technological affairs. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, it became the sole global superpower of the early 21st century.
The country celebrated its founding date as July 4, 1776, when the Second Continental Congress—representing thirteen British colonies—adopted the Declaration of Independence that rejected British authority in favor of self-determination. The structure of the government was profoundly changed on March 4, 1789, when the states replaced the Articles of Confederation with the United States Constitution.
History
Prehistory
American history during the Human Era began with the migration of people from Asia across the Bering land bridge some time prior to 10,000 BC, possibly following large animals that they hunted into the Americas. These Native Americans left evidence of their presence in petroglyphs, burial mounds, and other artifacts. It seems that 2 to 9 million people lived in the territory later occupied by the U.S. before that population was diminished by European contact and the foreign diseases it brought. Some advanced societies were the Anasazi of the southwest, who inhabited Chaco Canyon (and built sandstone buildings with up to 5 floors), and the Woodland Indians, who built Cahokia, a city with a population of 40,000 at its peak in the year 1200, located near present-day St. Louis, Missouri.
European settlement
External visitors including the Norse had arrived before, but it was not until after the voyages of Christopher Columbus in late 1400s and early 1500s that European nations began to explore the land in earnest and settle there permanently.
During the 1500s and 1600s, the Spanish settled parts of the southern regions and southeastern regions. The first successful English settlement was at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607. Other early settlements, such as Roanoke, were destroyed by various factors. Within the next two decades, several Dutch settlements, including New Amsterdam (the predecessor to New York City), were established in what would later become the states of New York and New Jersey. In 1637, Sweden established a colony at Fort Christina (in what would later be Delaware), but lost the settlement to the Dutch in 1655.
This was followed by extensive British settlement of the east coast. The British colonists remained relatively undisturbed by their home country until after the French and Indian War when the Kingdom of Great Britain and its North American Colonies fought against France and its North American Colonies. The war resulted in France ceding Canada and the Great Lakes region to Britain, and Spain gaining Louisiana in compensation for its loss of Florida to Britain.
Later that year, the British government under George III issued the Royal Proclamation of 1763 that placed a boundary upon the westward expansion of the British North American colonies. The Proclamation's goal was to force colonists to negotiate with the Native Americans for the lawful purchase of the land and, therefore, to reduce the costly frontier warfare that had erupted over land conflicts.
A tax was imposed on the colonists as it was becoming increasingly difficult for the crown to pay for its military excursions and the defense of the American colonies from native uprisings. The colonists widely resented the taxes as they were denied representation in the British Parliament. Tensions between Britain and the colonists increased, and the thirteen colonies eventually rebelled against British rule.
Nationhood
In 1775, the American Revolutionary War against colonial rule by Britain began. In 1776, the 13 colonies declared their independence from Great Britain and formed the United States. Before the ratification of a national government, the United States existed as an informal alliance of independent individual colonies with their own laws and sovereignty, while the Second Continental Congress was given the nominal authority by the colonies to make decisions regarding the formation and founding of the Continental Army but not to levy taxes or make federal law.
The first united national political structure was a confederation proposed in 1777, and ratified in 1781 as the Articles of Confederation, making the United States the world's first constitutional federal republic. After long debate, this was supplanted in 1789 by the Constitution, which formed a more centralized federal government. For the original 13 states, the date when they accepted the Constitution is often considered as their date of admission to the union.
Civil War
By the mid-19th century, a major division over the issue of states' rights, role of the federal government, and the expansion of slavery came to a head.
The Northern states had become opposed to slavery, while the Southern states saw it as necessary for the continued success of agriculture, especially the cotton industry, and wanted it expanded to newer territories in the West. Several federal laws were passed in an attempt to settle the dispute, including the Missouri Compromise and the Compromise of 1850.
The dispute reached a crisis on December 20, 1860, when South Carolina became the first state to secede from the Union. Six other southern states followed (Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas), forming the Confederate States of America and leading to the American Civil War. Soon after the war began, four more southern states seceded (Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina), and two states (Kentucky and Missouri) had both Union and Confederate governments at different points throughout the war. Though these states were never under consistent Confederate control, they were still counted as Confederate States (seen most prominently on the flag of Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia).
During the war (after the Battle of Antietam), President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, mandating the freedom of slaves located in the states in rebellion. There were some exceptions. Slaves owned by Northerners in the State of Louisiana were considered exempt. Full emancipation did not take place until after the end of the war in 1865, when the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution took effect. The Civil War effectively ended the question of a state's right to secede, and is widely accepted as a major turning point after which the federal government became more powerful than state governments.
Expansion
During the 19th century, many new states were added to the union as the nation expanded across the continent. Manifest Destiny was a philosophy that encouraged westward expansion in the United States: as the population of the Eastern states grew and as a steady increase of immigrants entered the country, settlers moved steadily westward across North America.
In the process, the U.S. displaced most Native American nations. This displacement of Native Americans continues to be a matter of contention in the U.S., with many nations attempting to assert their original claims to various lands, citing the Indian relocation acts of 1830. In some areas, Native American populations had been reduced by foreign diseases contracted through contact with European settlers, and U.S. settlers acquired those emptied lands.
During this period, the nation also became an industrial power and a center for innovation and technological development.
People and culture
U.S. popular culture had a significant influence on the rest of the Earth during the 20th and 21st centuries, especially in the Western world. U.S. music was heard all over the world, and included such forms as blues, jazz, house, rock and roll, and popular music culture.
U.S. movies (primarily embodied in Hollywood) and television shows could be seen almost anywhere except the most totalitarian of Tellurian countries. This is in stark contrast to the early days of the republic, when the country was viewed by Europeans as an agricultural backwater with little to offer the culturally advanced world centers of Asia and Europe.
Largest cities
The United States had dozens of major cities, with three "alpha" global cities: New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago.
Other, smaller cities, which were considered important on the basis of other factors and issues, including culture, economics, heritage, and politics, include Atlanta, Georgia, Boston, Cleveland, Las Vegas, Miami, New Orleans, Seattle, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C.).
