Throughout its history, the United States has been a nation of immigrants. The population is diverse with people from all over the world seeking refuge and a better way of life. European settlers came to New England in search of religious freedom. These industrial areas attracted millions of European immigrants and gave rise to some of the East Coast's largest cities: New York, Baltimore, and Philadelphia.
The Midwest is home to the country's agricultural base and is called the "nation's breadbasket. The Southwest is a beautiful stark landscape of prairie and desert. The states of Arizona , New Mexico , Oklahoma , and Texas are considered the Southwest and are home to some of the world's great natural marvels, including the Grand Canyon and Carlsbad Caverns.
The American West, home of rolling plains and the cowboy, is a symbol of the pioneering spirit of the United States.
The West is diverse, ranging from endless wilderness to barren desert, coral reefs to Arctic tundra, Hollywood to Yellowstone. The landscape varies across the large country from tropical beaches in Florida to peaks in the Rocky Mountains, from rolling prairie lands and barren deserts in the West to dense wilderness areas in the Northeast and Northwest.
The wildlife is as diverse as the landscape. Mammals such as bison once roamed freely across the plains, but now live only in preserves. Black bears , grizzlies , and polar bears are the largest carnivores.
There are over 20, flower species and most came from Europe. There are more than areas which are protected and maintained by the National Park Service, and many other parks in each state. The bald eagle is the national bird and symbol of the United States and is a protected species. Citizens over the age of 18 years old vote to elect the President and Vice President of United States every four years. The president lives in the White House in the capital city of Washington, D.
There are two houses of Congress: the Senate and the House of Representatives. There are senators, two from each of the 50 states and each serves a six-year term. There are representatives who must be elected every two years.
The Supreme Court is made up of nine justices who are picked by the president and must be approved by Congress. He was reelected for a second term in Advances in the past hundred years have established America as a world leader economically, militarily, and technologically.
America has the largest coal reserves in the world. For centuries native peoples lived across the vast expanse that would become the United States.
Starting in the 16th century, settlers moved from Europe to the New World, established colonies, and displaced these native peoples. Explorers arrived from Spain in at St. Augustine, Florida , and the British landed in to establish a colony in Roanoke, in present-day Virginia. In another British colony was established in what would become Jamestown, Virginia. From there, the French founded Quebec in , then the Dutch started a colony in in present-day New York.
Europeans continued to settle in the New World in ever-increasing numbers throughout the next couple of centuries. The settlers also brought diseases that the native peoples had not faced before, and these illnesses sometimes had horrible effects.
During this time, fights between the settlers and Native Americans erupted often, particularly as more people claimed land where the Native Americans lived. The U. But the government did not honor most of these treaties, and even sent military units to forcibly remove Native Americans from their lands.
For example, in , President Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act, which granted land west of the Mississippi River to Native American tribes who agreed to give up their lands. But this broke with other treaties he had signed with Native American tribes in the Southeast. The removal was supposed to be voluntary, but Jackson used legal and military action to remove several tribes from their homelands and ended nearly 70 treaties during his presidency.
By the midth century, most Native American tribes had been wiped out or moved to live on much smaller portions of land in the Midwest. In , colonists living in the New England area of the New World drafted the Declaration of Independence, a document that stated that the American colonies were tired of being ruled by Great Britain now called the United Kingdom.
The settlers fought for—and won—their independence and formed a union of states based on a new constitution. Enslaved Africans were brought to North America by boat as early as The trans-Atlantic slave trade saw more than By , nearly four million enslaved people lived in the country. Most worked in the South, where their free labor allowed the sugar, cotton, and tobacco industries to flourish. Enslaved people even built the White House and the U. Lincoln wanted to end slavery.
Many people in the northern states agreed with him; some people in the southern states, however, relied on enslaved people to farm their crops and did not want slavery to end. Eventually, 11 southern states formed the Confederate States of America to oppose the 23 northern states that remained in the Union. The Civil War began on April 12, The Civil War was fought between abolitionists, or people who wanted to end slavery, and the pro-slavery Confederacy.
Two years later, the Civil War ended with a Union victory. That same year, the passage of the 13th Amendment officially abolished the practice of slavery and ended nearly years of slavery in the country. America's gross domestic product accounts for close to a quarter of the world total, and its military budget is reckoned to be almost as much as the rest of the world's defence spending put together.
The country is also a major source of entertainment: American TV, Hollywood films, jazz, blues, rock and rap music are primary ingredients in global popular culture.
The United States originated in a revolution which separated it from the British Crown. The constitution, drafted in , established a federal system with a division of powers which has remained unchanged in form since its inception. President: Joe Biden. A former vice-president with decades of experience in Congress, Mr Biden campaigned on a platform of promoting national unity after the divisive presidency of Mr Trump, a right-wing businessman, and re-engaging with international diplomacy.
His most immediate task will be handling the Covid pandemic. The US has the most highly-developed mass media in the world.
Its dramas, comedies, soaps, animations, music videos and films have a global audience and are staple fare for broadcasters worldwide. Television is the most popular medium. The amount of content consumed via live broadcast TV is falling as video-on-demand platforms flourish.
The US is the home of the internet. Access is unrestricted. Constitution comes into effect in Slavery is abolished under the Thirteenth Amendment.
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