United States of America

United States of America
Flag of the United States
Capital	Washington, D.C.
Government	Federal constitutional republic, Representative democracy
Official Language	None (English de facto)
President	George W. Bush (R)
Vice President	Dick Cheney (R)
Senate majority leader	Harry Reid (D)
House majority leader	Nancy Pelosi (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 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 - The Politics and Constitution of the United States, and the Role of Religion in Government

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 the Declaration of Independence in 1776 and the ratification of the Constitution in 1788, the United States was governed according to the Articles of Confederation.

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 one official governing document: the U.S. Constitution. All previous documents were superceded by the adoption of the US Constitution.

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

A contentious issue in modern politics is the role of religion in public life and particularly government entanglement in religious affairs. Some groups that self identify as Republican, or in some cases Dominionist, argue that the US was founded on Christian principles and that the modern US Government should be more lenient with regards to entanglement of Christianity with politics. Others that self identify as Democrat or Libertarian argue that the Constitution is a secular document which prohibits the entanglement of religion and politics in any way. Though these divisions are on general level and a particular stance on this issue is not a prerequisite to being a member of either party.

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 Deistic.

Most early Americans emigrated to avoid religious persecution in their home countries. The American Founding Fathers adhered to various sects of Christianity ranging from Deism to Protestantism, and recognized that Judeo-Christian tradition in addition to other legal traditions should inform the Constitution.

Despite their own beliefs however, the Founding Fathers specifically placed into the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution which states "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." The first clause is referred to as the Establishment Clause, and the second 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 Declaration of Independence, U.S. Constitution, the Federalist Papers, and the many personal papers of the Founding Fathers have not helped to resolve the issue as there are different and often contradicting statements regarding the proper influence of religion on government as it is difficult to interpret the importance and precedence of personal beliefs, legal intent, and actual verbiage in the documents.

In recent decades, the U.S. Supreme Court has used the Lemon Test as a means for determining whether or not a particular controversy causes excessive entaglement between government and religion, though in some cases has allowed religious icons (such as the Ten Commandments display in Texas ) as the US has sought reforms within the international organization.