United States of America

2007-05-05T20:35:24Z

Old Amos: Fifty states and DC

{| border="1" align="right" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" width="300" style="margin-left:5px"
|align="center" colspan="2"|
|-
!colspan="2" align="center" style="color: black; height: 30px; background: white no-repeat scroll top left;"|United States of America
|-
!colspan="2" align="center" style="color: black; height: 30px; background: white no-repeat scroll top left;"|[[Image:Kljghlkjkh.png|250px]]
Flag of the United States
|-
|Capital
|[[Washington, D.C.]]
|-
|Government
|Federal constitutional republic, Representative democracy
|-
|Official Language
|None <br><small>([[English]] de facto)</small>
|-
|President
|[[George W. Bush]] ([[Republican|R]])
|-
|Vice President
|[[Dick Cheney]] ([[Republican|R]])
|-
|Senate majority leader
|[[Harry Reid]] ([[Democrat|D]])
|-
|House majority leader
|[[Nancy Pelosi]] ([[Democrat|D]])
|-
|Area
|3,718,695 sq mi
|-
|Population (2007 estimate)
|301,554,000
|-
|GDP (2007 estimate)
|$13.049 trillion
|-
|GDP per capita (2007 estimate)
|$44,333
|-
|}

The '''United States of America''' (commonly referred to as '''the United States''', '''the USA''', '''the US''', or simply as '''America''') is a North American nation that consists of a federal union of fifty individual states and the federal District of Columbia. Its origins lie in the [[British Empire]]: it was founded on July 4, [[1776]] with the signing of the [[Declaration of Independence]], and its independence from Britain was formally recognized in 1783, following the [[American Revolutionary War|War of Independence]]. The US is currently the world's sole [[superpower]]; it has the world's largest economy, and is recognized as having the world's most powerful military.

==Overview==
The United States has land borders with [[Canada]] and [[Mexico]], as well as several territorial water boundaries with Canada, [[Russia]] and The Bahamas. It is otherwise bounded by the [[Pacific Ocean]], the Bering Sea, the Arctic Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Caribbean Sea. Two of the fifty states, [[Alaska]], an exclave, and [[Hawaii]], an archipelago, are not contiguous with any of the other states. Alaska in located in northwest North America and the Hawaiian Islands in the Pacific Ocean. The United States also has a collection of overseas territories and possessions around the world. Each of the 50 states has a high level of local autonomy under the federal system.

At over 3.7 million square miles (over 9.6 million km²), the U.S. (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.

American military, economic, cultural, and political influence increased through the 19th and 20th centuries. Since the mid-20th century, the United States has become a dominant global influence in contemporary economic, political, military, scientific, technological and cultural matters. With the collapse of the [[Soviet Union]] at the end of the [[Cold War]], the nation emerged as the world's sole remaining superpower, greatly influencing world affairs, as it continues to do today.

==Background - GOD, The Constitution, and Political Parties==

[[Image:76485685i79.jpg|right|thumb|300px|The drafting committee presenting the [[Declaration of Independence]] to the [[Continental Congress]], painted by John Trumbull 1817–1819.]]

[[George Washington]], [[Thomas Jefferson]], and the other [[Founding Fathers]] signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4th, 1776.

Between independence in 1776 and the ratification of the [[Constitution]] in 1788, the United States had TWO governing documents: the [[Articles of Confederation]] and the [[Declaration of Independence]] itself.

[[George Washington]], [[Thomas Jefferson]], and the other [[Founding Fathers]] formally established the current structure of the United States by ratification of the [[U.S. Constitution]] in 1788.

Since 1788, the United States has had ONLY ONE official governing document: the [[U.S. Constitution]].

All previous documents are mere historical reference material.

Although officially a [[Republic]], since the Presidency of [[John Quincy Adams]], the United States has been governed by two [[political parties]] under the rules of a "Representative [[Democracy]]." Those two major political parties are the [[Democrat Party]], and the Republican Party. The younger of the two parties, the [[Republican Party]], was created in 1854.

In American political life. The relationship between GOD and GOVERNMENT is the prime characteristic differentiating the various political parties.

The [[Declaration of Independence]] acknowledges the existence of a GOD when it refers to "the Laws of Nature and of Nature's GOD" and says all men "are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights." That statement was inserted at the request of [[Thomas Jefferson]], whose religious beliefs were more Unitarianism / Christian.

It is established fact that most early Americans came there for Religious Freedom. The American [[Founding Fathers]] called themselves Christians, and acted as though the United States was founded upon the principles and ideals of Christianity.

Despite their own beliefs however, the [[Founding Fathers]] specifically placed into the [[First Amendment]] to the [[U.S. Constitution]] a statement that the government cannot interfere in the conduct of religious groups, and grants "Freedom of Religion" for all faiths. That statement is often referred to as the Free Exercise Clause."

This Free Exercise Clause of the [[First Amendment]] to the [[U.S. Constitution]] began increasingly to be tested and interpreted by the judiciary in the late 19th century as a result of the increasing population of religious [[minorities]] in the United States.

The various differences and contradictions between the founding documents such as the "[[Declaration of Independence]]", the "[[U.S. Constitution]]", the "[[Federalist Papers]]", and the many personal papers of the [[Founding Fathers]] has not helped to resolve the issue.

This is important to understand, as in recent decades, the [[U.S. Supreme Court]] has re-interpreted this clause to represent an actual, "physical separation" of Religion from Government. This "separation of Church and State" interpretation has become a continuing source of conflict in American society.

In America today, what political party you join is often determined by your personal view of the relationship between "GOD and GOVERNMENT." All other lesser social issues, whether they be Abortion, Euthanasia, Freedom of Speech, etc. are all subserviant in one way or another to an individuals' view of "GOD and GOVERNMENT."

The [[Republican Party]] does not believe in a "physical separation" between Church and State. The [[Democrat Party]] firmly believes in that "physical separation."

It is the pre-imminent importance of this issue in American Life and Culture that causes this discussion to have so prominent a place on the main page of this encyclopedia's "United States of America" entry.

==History and geography==

[[Image:56eugyjnm.jpg|right|thumb|300px|The [[White House]], the official home and workplace of the [[President of the United States]] of America.]]

In [[1783]], when the [[Peace of Paris]] concluded hostilities against [[Great Britain]], the former [[colonial power]], the United States' population totaled some three million [[citizens]] and [[slaves]] living on slightly less than one million square miles of land. An unknown number of [[Native Americans]] also lived in the western part of the United States, which was then bordered on the west by the [[Mississippi River]], on the north by [[Lake Superior]], [[Lake Huron]], [[Lake Erie]] and [[Lake Ontario]], on the east by the [[Atlantic Ocean]], and on the south by [[Florida]], then controlled by [[Spain]]. The land border with Canada was not clarified until the [[Rush-Bagot Agreement]] of 1816.

The majority of the taxable population lived in the thirteen original [[states]]. In alphabetical order they are [[Connecticut]], [[Delaware]], [[Georgia]], [[Maryland]], [[Massachusetts]], [[New Hampshire]], [[New Jersey]], [[New York]], [[North Carolina]], [[Pennsylvania]], [[Rhode Island]], [[South Carolina]] and [[Virginia]]. In 1790, an agreement between supporters of Jefferson and those of [[Alexander Hamilton]] resulted in the creation of the [[District of Columbia]] from part of [[Maryland]]; it has served as the national capital from 1800 on. The remainder of the 1783 territory was eventually organized as the states of [[Ohio]], [[Indiana]], [[Michigan]], [[Illinois]], [[Wisconsin]], [[Kentucky]], [[Tennessee]], [[Mississippi]] and [[Alabama]]. Two additional states were added during the first fifty years by [[secession]] from existing states: [[Vermont]] from New York, and [[Maine]] from Massachusetts. After that, the legality of [[secession]] became an issue.

In 1803, [[French]] emperor [[Napoleon Bonaparte]] took advantage of a lull in his war with Great Britain to sell the [[Louisiana Territory]] to the United States, more than doubling the nation's land area. This territory would later be organized as the states of [[Minnesota]], [[North Dakota]], [[South Dakota]], [[Montana]], [[Wyoming]], [[Nebraska]], [[Iowa]], [[Missouri]], [[Arkansas]], [[Kansas]], [[Oklahoma]], and [[Louisiana]] proper. President Jefferson commissioned [[Lewis and Clark]] to explore the new territory, which they did from 1802 to 1804.

[[Florida]] and [[Texas]] joined the United States as a result of [[revolutions]] by settlers from the United States against their central governments. Florida's was fought in 1810, while the much better remembered [[Texas Revolution]] was fought in 1836. While Spain was willing to cut its losses in Florida and relinquished any claims on the state in the [[Adams-Oniz Agreement]] of 1819, one of the successors to its empire in the Americas, Mexico, was considerably more attached to Texas and fought the [[Mexican War]] between 1846 and 1848 to reverse its annexation by the United States. Losing badly, Mexico was forced to cede the sparsely populated northern portion of itself under the [[Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo]]. This territory eventually became the states of [[California]], [[Nevada]], [[Utah]], [[Colorado]], [[New Mexico]] and [[Arizona]]. At approximately the same time, [[President]] [[James K. Polk]] had agreed with the British that the 49th Parallel (degree of latitude) would serve as the boundary between the U. S. and Canada from [[Lake of the Woods]] (partially in Minnesota) to the [[Pacific Ocean]]. This territory was later organized as the states of [[Washington]], [[Oregon]] and [[Idaho]].

In 1867, [[Secretary of State]] [[William Seward]] purchased [[Alaska]] from [[Russia]]. Critics referred to this as "Seward's Folly." Alaska is the westernmost extremity of [[North America]] bounded on the east by Canada, on the south by the Pacific Ocean, on the west by the [[Bering Strait]] and on the north by the [[Arctic Ocean]]. At $7,000,000, Alaska cost the United States considerably less per acre than the [[Mexican Cession]] and slightly less than the Louisiana Territory. Of course, [[inflation]] was less of a factor at this time due to the world [[economy]] still being principally [[agrarian]]. Although at the time it was considered a foolish bargain, Alaska would later become a large source of economic prosperity due to large gold, oil, and other natural resources. Alaska would not be admitted as a state until 1959.

The 50th and so far final state, [[Hawaii]], was also admitted in 1959, 67 years after the DOLE corporation, sugar producers, and the US Marine Corps deposed the last native [[queen]] of the archipelago and 62 years after annexation had become politically feasible as a result of the [[Spanish-American War]], in which the United States also annexed [[Puerto Rico]], [[Guam]] and [[Wake Island]]. The last three islands are not states, although [[Puerto Rico]] has occasionally held non-binding [[referenda]] to express its desired status within the United States.

The United States has occasionally relinquished territory. The most significant example of this was certainly the granting of independence in 1946 to the [[Philippines]] as part of the general [[decolonization]] of [[Asia]] and [[Africa]] following [[World War II]]. Under both [[autocratic]] and [[democratic]] governments, the Philippines have subsequently remained a strong American ally, and today contribute more troops to the U. S. [[military]] than some states. Other Pacific territories such as the [[Federated States of Micronesia]] and [[Palau]] have also become independent in the postwar era with little objection from opinion leaders on the mainland. More controversial was the 1977 agreement between President [[Jimmy Carter]] and [[General]] [[Omar Torrijos]] to return the [[Panama Canal Zone]], which had been part of the United States since 1914, to [[Panama]] in the year 2000. Ultimately the United States lived up to this agreement despite the worst fears of both [[liberals]] (who decried [[Operation Just Cause]], the 1989 invasion of Panama) and [[conservatives]] (who feared the management of the [[Panama Canal]] by [[Chinese]] interests).

The USA's has been criticized for holding back its [[United Nations]] dues (currently, even after the Helms-Biden amendment, the United States has withheld 41%, or $1.246 billion dollars, <ref>http://www.un.org/ga/president/55/speech/una_usa.htm</ref>) as the US has sought reforms within the international organization.

== References ==
<references/>

[[Category:North American Countries]]
[[Category:NATO members]]
[[Category:United States]]

Alex Salmond

2007-05-05T19:57:49Z

Old Amos: New page: '''Alex Salmond''' is the leader of the Scottish National Party which becaem the largest party in the Scottish Parliament in the election of May 2007. Born in Linlithgow in 195...

'''Alex Salmond''' is the leader of the [[Scottish National Party]] which becaem the largest party in the [[Scottish Parliament]] in the election of May 2007. Born in [[Linlithgow]] in 1954, Salmond has an MA in Economics and History from [[St Andrews]] University, and worked in the civil service and for the Royal Bank of Scotland before being elected to the UK Parliament as SNP MP for [[Banff]] and [[Buchan]] in 1987. He first served as SNP leader between 1990 and 2000. In 2001 he stood down from the newly-created Scottish Parliament while remaining an MP in the UK Parliament. He was returned as party leader for a second time in 2004, and has been re-elected to the Scottish Parliament as MSP for [[Gordon]].

Conservapedia - User contributions [en]

United States of America

Alex Salmond