Difference between revisions of "United States of America"

Revision as of 22:30, November 18, 2008

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-{{Country
+Usa suks black dick
-|name           =''United States of America''
-|map	        =US map.PNG
-|flag	        =50 star flag.png
-|arms	        =United States arms.png
-|capital	=Washington, D.C.
-|government	=Federal Republic
-|language	=[[English]] (unofficial)
-|president	=George W. Bush
-|area	        =3,718,695 sq mi
-|pop	        =301,554,000 (2007)
-|gdp-year	=$13.049 trillion (2007
-|gdp-pc	        =$44,333 (2007)
-|currency	=dollar
-}}
-The '''United States of America''' (commonly referred to as '''the United States''', '''the USA''', '''the US''', '''the States''', 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 is 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 350 million people.
-The United States' 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.
-==The Constitution and Politics in the United States==
-[[Image:76485685i79.jpg|left|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]] risked a sentence of death for treason against the English Crown by signing 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]].
-The Founding Fathers formally established the current structure of the United States by ratification of the [[U.S. Constitution]] in 1788.
-Since then, that constitution has been the only official governing document.<!-- What does this mean?  Aren't laws "governing documents"? -->
-Although officially a [[republic]],  the United States has been governed by two or more [[political parties]] under the rules of a "[[representative democracy]]."  Presently, the two major political parties are the [[Democratic Party]], and the [[Republican Party]], the latter being created in 1854, making it the younger of the two.
-== The Role of Religion in Government ==
-Americans overwhelmingly consider the U.S. a [[Christianity|Christian]] nation.  A Pew Report showed 76% of Republicans, 63% of Democrats,and 67% of independents view the U.S. a Christian nation. [[Humanism#Secular_Humanism|Secular]] categories are the only subgroup in which fewer than a majority sees the U.S. as a Christian country. <ref>[http://pewforum.org/docs/index.php?DocID=153#1 Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life], August 24, 2006.  Retrieved June 7, 2007.</ref>
-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 by the author,  [[Thomas Jefferson]], whose religious beliefs were Deistic.
-Many early Americans emigrated because of religious persecution in their home countries.  The American Founding Fathers adhered to various sects of Christianity, including [[Catholicism]], [[Protestantism]], and [[Deism]]. They recognized that [[Judeo-Christian]] tradition in addition to other legal traditions should inform the Constitution.
-Based upon these beliefs, the Founding Fathers specifically placed into the [[First Amendment]] to the U.S. Constitution a sentence 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]]. Even in contemporary times, citizens often mistakenly insist the First Amendment mandated [[separation of church and state]], which it clearly does not.  It is obvious by the writings and the documents they produced that the Founding Fathers could not even conceptualize (let alone desire) a [[government]] without Christian principles. However, in a letter that Thomas Jefferson wrote to the Danbury Baptists, he himself described the First Amendment as "a wall of separation between Church and State." <ref>[http://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/9806/danpre.html Jefferson's Letter to the Danbury Baptists], January 1, 1802. Retrieved November 11, 2008.</ref>
-[[Image:Cathedral of the Plains, Kansas.JPG|thumb|Cathedral of the Plains, [[Kansas]].]]
-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 country.
-The Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, the [[Federalist Papers]], and the many personal papers of the Founding Fathers have been used to examine the issue.  Different and sometimes contradicting statements have been noted regarding the influence of religion on government, and it can be difficult sometimes 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 entanglement between government and religion, though in some cases has allowed religious icons (such as [[the Ten Commandments]] display in [[Texas]].<ref> http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=US&vol=000&invol=03-1500 </ref>)
-In America today, an individual's party affiliation is at times determined by their personal view of the relationship between religion and government.  Many other social issues, such as [[abortion]], [[euthanasia]], [[freedom of speech]], and [[cloning]] may be based on an individual's religious beliefs, as well as other beliefs.
-==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.]]
-=== Independence ===
-In [[1783]], when the [[1783 Treaty of Paris|Treaty of Paris]] concluded hostilities against [[Great Britain]], the former [[colonial power]], the United States' population totalled 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 of the Unites States of America|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 since 1800.  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.
-=== Louisiana Territory ===
-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.
-=== Revolutions ===
-[[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]].
-=== Alaska ===
-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.
-=== Hawaii ===
-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 [[referendum|referenda]] to express its desired status within the United States.
-=== Relinquishments ===
-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 United States 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).
-=== United Nations ===
-The United States has been criticized for holding back a portion of its [[United Nations]] dues (currently amounting to 41%, or $1.246 billion dollars.
-== See Also: ==
-*[[Flag of the United States of America]]
-*[[Pledge of Allegiance]]
-*[[Americas]]
-*[[America (continent)]]
-== External links ==
-*[http://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/america.htm America]
-*[http://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/flags_of_us_states.htm Flags of the U.S. States]
-*[http://www.pibmug.com/files/map_test.swf Interactive map test of the 50 U.S. states]
-== References ==
-{{reflist|2}}
-[[Category:North American Countries]]
-[[Category:NATO members]]
-[[Category:United States]]

Difference between revisions of "United States of America"

Revision as of 22:30, November 18, 2008

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