The 

United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United

States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of
50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territories, 326 Indian reservations, and
some minor possessions.[i] At 3.8 million square miles (9.8 million square kilometers), it is the
world's third- or fourth-largest country by total area.[c] The United States shares significant land
borders with Canada to the north and Mexico to the south, as well as limited maritime borders
with Cuba, Russia, and the Bahamas.[22] With a population of more than 331 million people, it is
the third most populous country in the world. The national capital is Washington, D.C., and
the most populous city is New York City.
Paleo-Indians migrated from Siberia to the North American mainland at least 12,000 years ago,
and European colonization began in the 16th century. The United States emerged from
the thirteen British colonies established along the East Coast. Disputes over taxation and political
representation with Great Britain led to the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), which
established independence. In the late 18th century, the U.S. began expanding across North
America, gradually obtaining new territories, sometimes through war, frequently displacing Native
Americans, and admitting new states; by 1848, the United States spanned the
continent. Slavery was legal in the southern United States until the second half of the 19th
century when the American Civil War led to its abolition. The Spanish–American War and World
War I established the U.S. as a world power, a status confirmed by the outcome of World War II.
During the Cold War, the United States fought the Korean War and the Vietnam War but avoided
direct military conflict with the Soviet Union. The two superpowers competed in the Space Race,
culminating in the 1969 spaceflight that first landed humans on the Moon. The Soviet Union's
dissolution in 1991 ended the Cold War, leaving the United States as the world's
sole superpower.
The United States is a federal republic and a representative democracy with three separate
branches of government, including a bicameral legislature. It is a founding member of the United
Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States, NATO, and
other international organizations. It is a permanent member of the United Nations Security
Council. Considered a melting pot of cultures and ethnicities, its population has been profoundly
shaped by centuries of immigration. The U.S. ranks high in international measures of economic
freedom, quality of life, education, and human rights, and has low levels of perceived corruption.
However, the country has received criticism concerning inequality related
to race, wealth and income, the use of capital punishment, high incarceration rates, and lack
of universal health care.
The United States is a highly developed country, and continuously ranks high in measures of
socioeconomic performance. It accounts for approximately a quarter of global GDP and is the
world's largest economy by GDP at market exchange rates. By value, the United States is the
world's largest importer and the second-largest exporter of goods. Although its population is only
4.2% of the world's total, it holds 29.4% of the total wealth in the world, the largest share held by
any country. Making up more than a third of global military spending, it is the foremost military
power in the world and is a leading political, cultural, and scientific force internationally.[23]

Contents

 1Etymology
 2History
o 2.1Indigenous peoples and pre-Columbian history
o 2.2European settlements
o 2.3Independence and expansion
o 2.4Civil War and Reconstruction era
o 2.5Further immigration, expansion, and industrialization
o 2.6World War I, Great Depression, and World War II
 o 2.7Cold War and civil rights era
o 2.8Contemporary history
 3Geography
o 3.1Wildlife and conservation
 4Demographics
o 4.1Population
o 4.2Language
o 4.3Religion
o 4.4Health
o 4.5Education
 5Government and politics
o 5.1Political divisions
o 5.2Parties and elections
o 5.3Foreign relations
o 5.4Government finance
o 5.5Military
o 5.6Law enforcement and crime
 6Economy
o 6.1Science and technology
o 6.2Income, wealth, and poverty
 7Infrastructure
o 7.1Transportation
o 7.2Energy
 8Culture
o 8.1Literature, philosophy, and visual art
o 8.2Food
o 8.3Music
o 8.4Cinema
o 8.5Sports
o 8.6Mass media
 9See also
 10Notes
 11References
 12Further reading
 13External links

Etymology
See also: Naming of the Americas, Names of the United States, Names for United States
citizens, and American (word)
The first known use of the name "America" dates back to 1507, when it appeared on a world map
produced by the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller. On his map, the name is shown in
large letters on what would now be considered South America, in honor of Amerigo Vespucci.
The Italian explorer was the first to postulate that the West Indies did not represent Asia's
eastern limit but were part of a previously unknown landmass.[24][25] In 1538, the Flemish
cartographer Gerardus Mercator used the name "America" on his own world map, applying it to
the entire Western Hemisphere.[26]
The first documentary evidence of the phrase "United States of America" dates from a January 2,
1776 letter written by Stephen Moylan to George Washington's aide-de-camp Joseph Reed.
Moylan expressed his wish to go "with full and ample powers from the United States of America
to Spain" to seek assistance in the revolutionary war effort.[27][28][29] The first known publication of
the phrase "United States of America" was in an anonymous essay in The Virginia
Gazette newspaper in Williamsburg, Virginia, on April 6, 1776.[30]
The second draft of the Articles of Confederation, prepared by John Dickinson and completed no
later than June 17, 1776, declared "The name of this Confederation shall be the 'United States of
America'."[31] The final version of the Articles, sent to the states for ratification in late 1777, stated
that "The Stile of this Confederacy shall be 'The United States of America'."[32] In June
1776, Thomas Jefferson wrote the phrase "UNITED STATES OF AMERICA" in all capitalized
letters in the headline of his "original Rough draught" of the Declaration of Independence.[31] This
draft of the document did not surface until June 21, 1776, and it is unclear whether it was written
before or after Dickinson used the term in his June 17 draft of the Articles of Confederation.[31]
The short form "United States" is also standard. Other common forms are the "U.S.", the "USA",
and "America". Colloquial names are the "U.S. of A." and, internationally, the "States".
"Columbia", a name popular in American poetry and songs of the late 18th century, derives its
origin from Christopher Columbus; both "Columbus" and "Columbia" appear frequently in U.S.
place-names, including Columbus, Ohio, Columbia, South Carolina, and the District of Columbia.
Places and institutions throughout the Western Hemisphere bear the two names,
including Colón, Panama, the country of Colombia, the Columbia River, and Columbia University.
The phrase "United States" was originally plural in American usage. It described a collection of
states—e.g., "the United States are." The singular form became popular after the end of the Civil
War and is now standard usage in the U.S. A citizen of the United States is an "American".
"United States", "American" and "U.S." refer to the country adjectivally ("American values",
"U.S. forces"). In English, the word "American" rarely refers to topics or subjects not directly
connected with the United States.[33]

History
Main articles: History of the United States and Outline of United States history

Indigenous peoples and pre-Columbian history

Further information: Native Americans in the United States, Prehistory of the United States,
and Pre-Columbian era

The Cliff Palace, built by the Native American Puebloans between AD 1190 and 1260

It has been generally accepted that the first inhabitants of North America migrated

from Siberia by way of the Bering land bridge and arrived at least 12,000 years ago; however,
some evidence suggests an even earlier date of arrival.[34][35][36] The Clovis culture, which appeared
around 11,000 BC, is believed to represent the first wave of human settlement of the Americas.[37]
[38]
 This was likely the first of three major waves of migration into North America; later waves
brought the ancestors of present-day Athabaskans, Aleuts, and Eskimos.[39]
Over time, indigenous cultures in North America grew increasingly complex, and some, such as
the pre-Columbian Mississippian culture in the southeast, developed advanced agriculture,
architecture, and complex societies.[40] The city-state of Cahokia is the largest, most complex pre-
Columbian archaeological site in the modern-day United States.[41] In the Four
Corners region, Ancestral Puebloan culture developed from centuries of agricultural
experimentation.[42] The Haudenosaunee, located in the southern Great Lakes region, was
established at some point between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries.[43] Most prominent along the
Atlantic coast were the Algonquian tribes, who practiced hunting and trapping, along with limited
cultivation.
Estimating the native population of North America at the time of European contact is difficult.[44]
[45]
 Douglas H. Ubelaker of the Smithsonian Institution estimated that there was a population of
92,916 in the south Atlantic states and a population of 473,616 in the Gulf states,[46] but most
academics regard this figure as too low.[44] Anthropologist Henry F. Dobyns believed the
populations were much higher, suggesting around 1.1 million along the shores of the Gulf of
Mexico, 2.2 million people living between Florida and Massachusetts, 5.2 million in
the Mississippi Valley and tributaries, and around 700,000 people in the Florida peninsula.[44][45]

European settlements
Further information: Colonial history of the United States and Thirteen Colonies
Claims of very early colonization of coastal New England by the Norse are disputed and
controversial. The first documented arrival of Europeans in the continental United States is that
of Spanish conquistadors such as Juan Ponce de León, who made his first expedition
to Florida in 1513. Even earlier, Christopher Columbus had landed in Puerto Rico on his 1493
voyage, and San Juan was settled by the Spanish a decade later.[47] The Spanish set up the first
settlements in Florida and New Mexico, such as Saint Augustine, often considered the nation's
oldest city,[48] and Santa Fe. The French established their own settlements along the Mississippi
River, notably New Orleans.[49] Successful English settlement of the eastern coast of North
America began with the Virginia Colony in 1607 at Jamestown and with the Pilgrims' colony at
Plymouth in 1620.[50][51] The continent's first elected legislative assembly, Virginia's House of
Burgesses, was founded in 1619. Documents such as the Mayflower Compact and
the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut established precedents for representative self-
government and constitutionalism that would develop throughout the American colonies.[52]
[53]
 Many settlers were dissenting Christians who came seeking religious freedom. In 1784, the
Russians were the first Europeans to establish a settlement in Alaska, at Three Saints
Bay. Russian America once spanned much of the present-day state of Alaska.[54]
In the early days of colonization, many European settlers were subject to food shortages,
disease, and attacks from Native Americans. Native Americans were also often at war with
neighboring tribes and European settlers. In many cases, however, the natives and settlers came
to depend on one another. Settlers traded for food and animal pelts; natives for guns, tools and
other European goods.[55] Natives taught many settlers to cultivate corn, beans, and other
foodstuffs. European missionaries and others felt it was important to "civilize" the Native
Americans and urged them to adopt European agricultural practices and lifestyles.[56][57] However,
with the increased European colonization of North America, the Native
Americans were displaced and often killed.[58] The native population of America declined after
European arrival for various reasons,[59][60][61] primarily diseases such as smallpox and measles.[62][63]
The original Thirteen Colonies (shown in red) in 1775

European settlers also began trafficking of African slaves into Colonial America via

the transatlantic slave trade.[64] Because of a lower prevalence of tropical diseases and
better treatment, slaves had a much higher life expectancy in North America than in South
America, leading to a rapid increase in their numbers.[65][66] Colonial society was largely divided
over the religious and moral implications of slavery, and several colonies passed acts both
against and in favor of the practice.[67][68] However, by the turn of the 18th century, African slaves
had supplanted European indentured servants as cash crop labor, especially in the American
South.[69]
The Thirteen Colonies (New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New
York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina,
and Georgia) that would become the United States of America were administered by the British
as overseas dependencies.[70] All nonetheless had local governments with elections open to most
free men.[71] With extremely high birth rates, low death rates, and steady settlement, the colonial
population grew rapidly, eclipsing Native American populations.[72] The Christian
revivalist movement of the 1730s and 1740s known as the Great Awakening fueled interest both
in religion and in religious liberty.[73]
During the Seven Years' War (1756–1763), known in the U.S. as the French and Indian War,
British forces captured Canada from the French. With the creation of the Province of Quebec,
Canada's francophone population would remain isolated from the English-speaking colonial
dependencies of Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and the Thirteen Colonies. Excluding the Native
Americans who lived there, the Thirteen Colonies had a population of over 2.1 million in 1770,
about a third that of Britain. Despite continuing new arrivals, the rate of natural increase was
such that by the 1770s only a small minority of Americans had been born overseas.[74] The
colonies' distance from Britain had allowed the development of self-government, but their
unprecedented success motivated British monarchs to periodically seek to reassert royal
authority.[75]

Independence and expansion

Further information: American Revolution and Territorial evolution of the United States
Declaration of Independence, painting by John Trumbull, depicts the Committee of Five presenting their
draft of the Declaration to the Continental Congress, July 4, 1776

The American Revolutionary War fought by the Thirteen Colonies against the British Empire was

the first successful war of independence by a non-European entity against a European power
in modern history. Americans had developed an ideology of "republicanism", asserting that
government rested on the will of the people as expressed in their local legislatures. They
demanded their "rights as Englishmen" and "no taxation without representation". The British
insisted on administering the empire through Parliament, and the conflict escalated into war.[76]
The Second Continental Congress unanimously adopted the Declaration of
Independence on July 4, 1776; this day is celebrated annually as Independence Day.[77] In 1777,
the Articles of Confederation established a decentralized government that operated until 1789.[77]
After its defeat at the Siege of Yorktown in 1781, Britain signed a peace treaty. American
sovereignty became internationally recognized, and the country was granted all lands east of
the Mississippi River. Tensions with Britain remained, however, leading to the War of 1812,
which was fought to a draw.[78] Nationalists led the Philadelphia Convention of 1787 in writing
the United States Constitution, ratified in state conventions in 1788. The federal government was
reorganized into three branches in 1789, on the principle of creating salutary checks and
balances. George Washington, who had led the Continental Army to victory, was the
first president elected under the new constitution. The Bill of Rights, forbidding federal restriction
of personal freedoms and guaranteeing a range of legal protections, was adopted in 1791.[79]

Territorial acquisitions of the United States between 1783 and 1917

Although the federal government outlawed American participation in the Atlantic slave trade in

1807, after 1820, cultivation of the highly profitable cotton crop exploded in the Deep South, and
along with it, the slave population.[80][81][82] The Second Great Awakening, especially in the period
1800–1840, converted millions to evangelical Protestantism. In the North, it energized multiple
social reform movements, including abolitionism;[83] in the South, Methodists and Baptists
proselytized among slave populations.[84]
Beginning in the late 18th century, American settlers began to expand westward,[85] prompting a
long series of American Indian Wars.[86] The 1803 Louisiana Purchase almost doubled the
nation's area,[87] Spain ceded Florida and other Gulf Coast territory in 1819,[88] the Republic of
Texas was annexed in 1845 during a period of expansionism,[89] and the 1846 Oregon Treaty with
Britain led to U.S. control of the present-day American Northwest.[90] Victory in the Mexican–
American War resulted in the 1848 Mexican Cession of California and much of the present-
day American Southwest, making the U.S. span the continent.[85][91]
The California Gold Rush of 1848–1849 spurred migration to the Pacific coast, which led to
the California Genocide[92] and the creation of additional western states.[93] The giving away of vast
quantities of land to white European settlers as part of the Homestead Acts, nearly 10% of the
total area of the United States, and to private railroad companies and colleges as part of land
grants spurred economic development.[94] After the Civil War, new transcontinental railways made
relocation easier for settlers, expanded internal trade, and increased conflicts with Native
Americans.[95] In 1869, a new Peace Policy nominally promised to protect Native Americans from
abuses, avoid further war, and secure their eventual U.S. citizenship. Nonetheless, large-scale
conflicts continued throughout the West into the 1900s.

Civil War and Reconstruction era

Main articles: American Civil War and Reconstruction era

The Battle of Gettysburg, fought between Union and Confederate forces on July 1–3, 1863, around the

town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, marked a turning point in the American Civil War.

Irreconcilable sectional conflict regarding the enslavement of Africans and African

Americans ultimately led to the American Civil War.[96] With the 1860
election of Republican Abraham Lincoln, conventions in thirteen slave states declared secession
and formed the Confederate States of America (the "South" or the "Confederacy"), while the
federal government (the "Union") maintained that secession was illegal.[97] In order to bring about
this secession, military action was initiated by the secessionists, and the Union responded in
kind. The ensuing war would become the deadliest military conflict in American history, resulting
in the deaths of approximately 618,000 soldiers as well as many civilians.[98] The Union initially
simply fought to keep the country united. Nevertheless, as casualties mounted after 1863 and
Lincoln delivered his Emancipation Proclamation, the main purpose of the war from the Union's
viewpoint became the abolition of slavery. Indeed, when the Union ultimately won the war in April
1865, each of the states in the defeated South was required to ratify the Thirteenth Amendment,
which prohibited slavery except as penal labor. Two other amendments were also ratified,
ensuring citizenship for blacks and, at least in theory, voting rights for them as well.
Reconstruction began in earnest following the war. While President Lincoln attempted to foster
friendship and forgiveness between the Union and the former Confederacy, his
assassination on April 14, 1865 drove a wedge between North and South again. Republicans in
the federal government made it their goal to oversee the rebuilding of the South and to ensure
the rights of African Americans. They persisted until the Compromise of 1877 when the
Republicans agreed to cease protecting the rights of African Americans in the South in order for
Democrats to concede the presidential election of 1876.
Southern white Democrats, calling themselves "Redeemers", took control of the South after the
end of Reconstruction, beginning the nadir of American race relations. From 1890 to 1910, the
Redeemers established so-called Jim Crow laws, disenfranchising most blacks and some poor
whites throughout the region. Blacks would face racial segregation nationwide, especially in the
South.[99] They also occasionally experienced vigilante violence, including lynching.[100]

Further immigration, expansion, and industrialization

Main articles: Economic history of the United States and Technological and industrial history of
the United States
Ellis Island, in New York Harbor, was a major entry point for European immigration into the U.S.[101]

In the North, urbanization and an unprecedented influx of immigrants from Southern and Eastern

Europe supplied a surplus of labor for the country's industrialization and transformed its culture.
[102]
 National infrastructure, including telegraph and transcontinental railroads, spurred economic
growth and greater settlement and development of the American Old West. The later invention
of electric light and the telephone would also affect communication and urban life.[103]
The United States fought Indian Wars west of the Mississippi River from 1810 to at least 1890.
[104]
 Most of these conflicts ended with the cession of Native American territory and their
confinement to Indian reservations. Additionally, the Trail of Tears in the 1830s exemplified
the Indian removal policy that forcibly resettled Indians. This further expanded acreage under
mechanical cultivation, increasing surpluses for international markets.[105] Mainland expansion
also included the purchase of Alaska from Russia in 1867.[106] In 1893, pro-American elements in
Hawaii overthrew the Hawaiian monarchy and formed the Republic of Hawaii, which the
U.S. annexed in 1898. Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines were ceded by Spain in the same
year, following the Spanish–American War.[107] American Samoa was acquired by the United
States in 1900 after the end of the Second Samoan Civil War.[108] The U.S. Virgin Islands were
purchased from Denmark in 1917.[109]
Rapid economic development during the late 19th and early 20th centuries fostered the rise of
many prominent industrialists. Tycoons like Cornelius Vanderbilt, John D. Rockefeller,
and Andrew Carnegie led the nation's progress in the railroad, petroleum, and steel industries.
Banking became a major part of the economy, with J. P. Morgan playing a notable role. The
American economy boomed, becoming the world's largest.[110] These dramatic changes were
accompanied by social unrest and the rise of populist, socialist, and anarchist movements.
[111]
 This period eventually ended with the advent of the Progressive Era, which saw significant
reforms including women's suffrage, alcohol prohibition, regulation of consumer goods, and
greater antitrust measures to ensure competition and attention to worker conditions.[112][113][114]

World War I, Great Depression, and World War II

Further information: World War I, Great Depression, and World War II
The Empire State Building was the tallest building in the world when completed in 1931, during the Great
Depression.

The United States remained neutral from the outbreak of World War I in 1914 until 1917 when it
joined the war as an "associated power" alongside the Allies of World War I, helping to turn the
tide against the Central Powers. In 1919, President Woodrow Wilson took a leading diplomatic
role at the Paris Peace Conference and advocated strongly for the U.S. to join the League of
Nations. However, the Senate refused to approve this and did not ratify the Treaty of
Versailles that established the League of Nations.[115]
In 1920, the women's rights movement won passage of a constitutional
amendment granting women's suffrage.[116] The 1920s and 1930s saw the rise of radio for mass
communication and the invention of early television.[117] The prosperity of the Roaring
Twenties ended with the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and the onset of the Great Depression. After
his election as president in 1932, Franklin D. Roosevelt responded with the New Deal.
[118]
 The Great Migration of millions of African Americans out of the American South began before
World War I and extended through the 1960s;[119] whereas the Dust Bowl of the mid-1930s
impoverished many farming communities and spurred a new wave of western migration.[120]

U.S. Marines raising the American flag on Mount Suribachi during the Battle of Iwo Jima in one of the most
iconic images of the war.

At first effectively neutral during World War II, the United States began supplying materiel to
the Allies in March 1941 through the Lend-Lease program. On December 7, 1941, the Empire of
Japan launched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, prompting the United States to join the Allies
against the Axis powers, and in the following year, to intern about 120,000[121] U.S. residents
(including American citizens) of Japanese descent.[122] Although Japan attacked the United States
first, the U.S. nonetheless pursued a "Europe first" defense policy.[123] The United States thus left
its vast Asian colony, the Philippines, isolated and fighting a losing struggle against Japanese
invasion and occupation. During the war, the United States was one of the "Four Powers"[124] who
met to plan the postwar world, along with Britain, the Soviet Union, and China.[125][126] Although the
nation lost around 400,000 military personnel,[127] it emerged relatively undamaged from the war
with even greater economic and military influence.[128]
The United States played a leading role in the Bretton Woods and Yalta conferences, which
signed agreements on new international financial institutions and Europe's postwar
reorganization. As an Allied victory was won in Europe, a 1945 international conference held
in San Francisco produced the United Nations Charter, which became active after the war.
[129]
 The United States and Japan then fought each other in the largest naval battle in history,
the Battle of Leyte Gulf.[130][131] The United States developed the first nuclear weapons and used
them on Japan in the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945; the
Japanese surrendered on September 2, ending World War II.[132][133]

Cold War and civil rights era

Main articles: History of the United States (1945–1964), History of the United States (1964–
1980), and History of the United States (1980–1991)
Further information: Cold War, Civil Rights Movement, War on Poverty, Space Race,
and Reaganomics