>|image_flag = Flag of the United States.svg |image_coat = USSeal.png|20px | symbol_type = Great Seal
| national_motto = W. Bush | leader_name2 = Dick Cheney | largest_city = New York City | area = 9,631,420 | areami� = 3,718,695 | area_rank = 3rd1 | area_magnitude = 1 E12 | percent_water = 4.87 | population_estimate = high | sovereignty_type = Independence | established_event1 = United States Declaration of Independence|Declared | established_event2 = Recognized | sovereignty_note = From Kingdom of Great Britain|Great Britain | established_date1 = July 4 1776 | established_date2 = September 3, 1783 | currency = United States dollar ($) | currency_code = USD | country_code = USA | time_zone = | utc_offset = -5 to -10 | time_zone_DST = | utc_offset_DST = -4 to -10 | cctld = .us .gov .edu .mil .um | calling_code = 1 | HDI = 0.944 | HDI_rank = 10th |ISO_3166-1_alpha2 = US |ISO_3166-1_alpha3 = USA |ISO_3166-1_numeric
|sport_code = USA |vehicle_code = USA
| footnotes = 1.) Area rank is ''disputed'' with China and sometimes is ranked 3rd or 4th. }}
The "United States of America" (also known as the "United States", the "U.S.", the "U.S.A.", and "America") is a country in North America that extends from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and shares land borders with Canada and Mexico and a sea border with Russia. The United States is a federal republic, with its capital in Washington, D.C.
The present-day continental United States has been inhabited for at least 15,000 years by indigenous tribes."Indian, American", 2001 Standard Edition CD-ROM of ''The World Book Encyclopedia'': "Most scientists think the first Indians came to the Americas from Asia at least 15,000 years ago. Other scientists believe the Indians may have arrived as early as 35,000 years ago. [* * *] By 12,500 years ago, Indians had spread throughout the New World and were living from the Arctic in the north all the way to southern South America." After European exploration and settlement in the 16th century, the English established their own colonies—and gained control of others that had been begun by other European nations—in the eastern portion of the continent in the 17th and early 18th centuries. On July 4 1776, at war with Kingdom of Great Britain|Britain over fair governance, thirteen of these colonies United States Declaration of Independence|declared their independence. In 1783, the war ended in British acceptance of the new nation. Since then, the United States of America has more than quadrupled in size: it now consists of 50 states and one District of Columbia|federal district; it also has numerous overseas territories.
At over 3.7 million square miles (over 9.5 million km�), the U.S. is the List of countries and outlying territories by total area|third or fourth largest country by total area, depending on whether China's figures include its disputed areas. It is the world's List of countries by population|third most populous nation, with 299.9 million people.
The date of the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776, is generally considered to be the date on which the U.S. was founded. The first federal government was constituted under the Articles of Confederation, adopted in 1781. The Articles were replaced by the Constitution, adopted in 1787. Since its establishment, the liberal democratic nature of the government has grown as suffrage has been extended to more citizens. American military, economic, cultural, and political influence increased throughout the 20th century. With the collapse of the Soviet Union at the end of the Cold War, the nation emerged as the world's sole remaining superpower. http://www.foreignaffairs.org/... July/August 2004. Council on Foreign Relations. ''URL accessed July 14, 2006.'' Today, the United States plays a major role in world affairs.
Name
''See also: List of meanings of countries' names''
The earliest known use of the name ''America'' is from 1507, when a globe and a large map created by the German cartographer Martin Waldseem�ller in Saint-Die-des-Vosges described the combined continents of North and South America. Although the origin of the name is uncertain, http://www.uhmc.sunysb.edu/... /ref> the most widely held belief is that expressed in an accompanying book, ''Cosmographiae Introductio'', which explains it as a feminized version of the Latin name of Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci (''Americus Vespucius''); in Latin, the other continents' names were all feminine. Vespucci theorized, correctly, that Christopher Columbus, on reaching islands in the Caribbean Sea in 1492, had come not to India but to a "New World".
The Americas were also known as ''Columbia'', after Columbus, prompting the name ''District of Columbia'' for the land set aside as the U.S. capital. ''Columbia'' remained a popular name for the United States until the early 20th century, when it fell into relative disuse; but it is still used poetically and appears in various names and titles. A female personification of the country is also called ''Columbia''; she is similar to Britannia.http://www.nasa.gov/columbia/home/index.htmlhttp://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/C/htmlC/columbiabroa/columbiabroa.htmhttp://www.reelclassics.com/Studios/Columbia/columbia.htmhttp://memory.loc.gov/cocoon/ihas/loc.natlib.ihas.200000004/default.html Columbus Day, a holiday in the U.S. and other countries in the Americas commemorating Columbus' October 1492 landing.
The term "united States of America" was first used officially in the Declaration of Independence, adopted on July 4 1776. On November 15 1777, the Second Continental Congress adopted the Articles of Confederation, the first of which stated "The Stile of this Confederacy shall be 'The United States of America.'"
The adjectival and demonymic forms for the United States are ''American'', a point of use of the word American|controversy among some.
Geography
e, with 460 inches (1,168 cm) measured annually on Mount Waialeale, in Kauai. The Mojave Desert, in the southwest, is home to the driest locale in the U.S. Yuma Valley, Arizona, has an average of 2.63 inches (6.68 cm) of precipitation each year.Hereford, Richard, et al, http://pubs.usgs.gov/... ''U.S. Geological Survey, Fact Sheet 117-03'', ''URL accessed 13 June 2006.''
In central portions of the U.S., tornadoes are more common than anywhere else on EarthNOVA, http://www.pbs.org/... ''Hunt for the Supertwister'', ''URL accessed 15 June 2006.'' and touch down most commonly in the spring and summer. Deadly and destructive hurricanes occur almost every year along the Atlantic seaboard and the Gulf of Mexico. The Appalachian region and the Midwest experience the worst floods, though virtually no area in the U.S. is immune to flooding. The Southwest has the worst droughts; one is thought to have lasted over 500 years and to have decimated the Anasazi people.O'Connor, Jim E. and John E. Costa, http://pubs.usgs.gov/... ''U.S. Geological Survey Circular 1245'', ''URL accessed 13 June 2006.'' The West is affected by large wildfires each year.
History
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. Surrender of Japan|Japan surrendered soon after, on 2 September 1945, which ended World War II.Walker, John F, and Vatter, Harold G ''The Rise of Big Government in the United States''. Page 63. M.E. Sharpe: May 1997. ISBN 0-7656-0067-6.
Cold War and Civil Rights
Buzz Aldrin on the moon during the first manned landing, 1969. countries that were antagonistic to the Soviet Union, like the People's Republic of China during the Sino-Soviet split. Recently, the foreign policy of the United States has focused on combating terrorism as well as the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. Other transnational issues include immigration reform and the shipment of illegal drugs into the country.[https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/us.html#Issues "Transnational Issues"]. 20 April 2006. CIA World factbook. Accessed 30 April 2006. s like the USS ''Nimitz'' are a major component of the U.S. system of force projection.
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 United States Navy|Navy, the Marine Corps, and the United States Air Force|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, http://www.dior.whs.mil/... 2002. ''Accessed 2 May 2006.'' along with several hundred thousand each in the Reserves and the United States National Guard|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,Anup Shah, http://www.globalissues.org/... Last updated 27 March, 2006. globalissues.org. ''Retrieved 30 June, 2006.'' even though the U.S. military budget is only about 4% of the country's gross domestic product.[https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/us.html#Military Military]. 1 June 2006. CIA Factbook. ''Retrieved 3 June 2006.'' gone to the top 20% of households.[https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/us.html#Econ Economy]. June 13, 2006. CIA World Factbook. ''URL accessed June 15, 2006.'' This polarization is the result of a relatively high level of economic freedom.(More Info) September 2005. Fraser Institute. ''Accessed 18 July 2006.''
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. http://www.economist.com/... The Economist. December 29, 2004. ''URL accessed 21 August 2006.'' http://www.suttontrust.com/... Jo Blanden, Paul Gregg, and Stephen Malchin. April 2005. "URL accessed 21 August 2006." http://www.iza.org/... Miles Corak. March 2006. "URL accessed 21 August 2006." 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. http://www.asu.edu/... Bruce Biddle and David C. Berliner. Winter 2002. "URL accessed 21 August 2006." http://www.brookings.edu/... William G. Gale, Meghan McNally, and Janet Rothenberg Pack. June 2003. "URL accessed 21 August 2006." In addition, the practice of legacy preference at elite universities gives preference to the children of alumni, who are often wealthy. This practice reduces available spaces for better-qualified lower income students. http://online.wsj.com/... Wall Street Journal Some analysts argue that relative social mobility in the U.S. peaked in the 1960s and declined rapidly beginning in the 1980s.New York Times. (Late Edition (East Coast)). New York, N.Y.: May 15, 2005. pg. 1.1 Former Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan has also suggested that that the growing income inequality and low class mobility of the U.S. economy may eventually threaten the entire system in the near future. http://www.csmonitor.com/... Peter Greier. Christian Science Monitor. 14 June 2005. "URL accessed 21 August 2006."
