United States (Twilight of a New Era)

The United States of America (also referred to as the United States, the U.S., the USA, or America) is a federal constitutional republic comprising forty-eight states, two organized incorporated territories and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its forty-eight contiguous states and Washington, D.C., the capital district, lie between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, bordered by Canada to the north and Mexico to the south. The territory of Alaska is in the northwest of the continent, with Canada to the east and Russia to the west across the Bering Strait. The territory of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific. The country also possesses several territories and Commonwealths (unincorporated territories) in the Caribbean and Pacific.