Confederate States of America (Our America)

Introduction
The Confederate States of America (also known as The Confederacy, the Confederate States States, the C.S., the C.S.A., the C.S. of A., and America) is a country in North America that extends from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and shares land borders with Canada and Mexico and a sea border with Russia. The Confederate States is a federal republic, with its capital in Washington, D.C.

The present-day continental Confederate States has been inhabited for at least 15,000 years by indigenous tribes. After European exploration and settlement in the 16th century, the English established their own colonies&mdash;and gained control of others that had been begun by other European nations&mdash;in the eastern portion of the continent in the 17th and early 18th centuries. On July 4, 1776, at war with Britain over fair governance, thirteen of these colonies declared their independence. In 1783, the war ended in British acceptance of the new nation, known there after as the United States until its capitulation in 1865 to the Confederates States. Since its establishment in 1861, the Confederate States of America has more than doubled in size: it now consists of 50 states and one federal district; it also has numerous overseas territories.

At over 3.7 million square miles (over 9.5 million km²), the U.S. is the third or fourth largest country by total area, depending on whether China's figures include its disputed areas. It is the world's third most populous nation, with nearly 300 million people.

The date of the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776, although the date of independence for the former United States, is also celebrated as the date the United States capitulated (surrendered) to the Confederate States. Many historians contend that the Confederate States is the direct successor to the democratic tradition of the Thirteen Colonies. The first federal government was constituted under the Articles of Confederation, adopted in 1781. The Articles were replaced by the U.S. Constitution, adopted in 1787, which in turn was replaced by the Confederate Constitution adopted in 1861 and later imposed on all the states after the U.S. capitulated. Since its establishment, the democratic nature of the government has grown as suffrage has been extended to more citizens, although the 1.9 million blacks who are indentured servants are denied most civil rights. The Confederate military, economic, cultural, and political influence increased throughout the 20th century. With the collapse of the Soviet Union at the end of the Cold War, the nation emerged as the world's sole remaining superpower. Today, the Confederate States plays a major role in world affairs.

History
See the History of the Confederate States of America article for more information.

The seceding states
Seven states seceded by March 1861: After Lincoln called for troops, four more states definitely seceded: Two more states had rival (or rump) governments. The Confederacy admitted them but they never controlled their states and were soon in exile: Both states allowed slavery and both had strong Unionist and Confederate counties, including some Unionist slave-owners. The legalities of the matter remain a matter of dispute down to the present day.
 * South Caroline (December 20, 1860),
 * Mississippi (January 9, 1861),
 * Florida (January 10, 1861),
 * Alabama (January 11, 1861),
 * Georgia (January 19, 1861),
 * Louisiana (January 26, 1861),
 * Texas (February 1, 1861).
 * Virginia (April 17, 1861); (There was also a rump government established in the western counties of Virginia.)
 * Arkansas (May 6, 1861),
 * Tennessee (May 7, 1861).
 * North Carolina (May 20, 1861)
 * Missouri (October 31, 1861).
 * Kentucky (November 20, 1861).

The reasons for secession
Following Abraham Lincoln's election as President in 1860 on a platform that would end extension of slavery, seven southern cotton states seceded from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America on February 4, 1861. Jefferson Davis was selected as its first President on February 9, and inaugurated on February 18.

In what later came to be known as the Cornerstone Speech, C.S. Vice President Alexander Stephens, declared that the


 * “cornerstone” of the new government "rest[ed] upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery—subordination to the superior race—is his natural and normal condition. This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth."

By contrast, Confederate President Jefferson Davis made no explicit reference to slavery at all in his inaugural address. However, the Deep South states of South Carolina, Mississippi , Georgia , and Texas all issued declarations of causes, each of which identified the threat to slavery and slaveholders’ rights as a major cause of secession. However, there were several other reasons.

Texas joined the Confederate States of America on March 2. These seven states seceded 1  from the United States and took control of military/naval installations, ports, and custom houses within their boundaries, except for Fort Sumter and remote forts in Florida.

A month after the Confederate States of America was formed, on March 4, 1861, Abraham Lincoln was sworn in as President of the United States. In his inaugural address, he argued that the United States Constitution had made the United States a more perfect union than under the earlier Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union -- and likewise that "the Union is much older than the Constitution," being, he claimed, 1) formed by the Articles of Association in 1774, 2) made a nation via the Declaration of Independence in 1776, and 3) "declared to be perpetual" under the Articles of Confederation in 1778. As such, he claimed that the Constitution was a binding contract supremely bestowing national authority to the Union over the states, and that therefore "no state by its own mere motion can lawfully get out of the Union," calling the secession "legally void".  Lincoln stated that he had no intent to invade Southern states--except that which was "necessary" to maintain possession of federal property and collection of various federal taxes, duties and imposts. His speech closed with a plea for acceptance of the bonds of union.

On April 12, Confederate troops, following orders from the Davis and his Secretary of War, fired upon the federal troops occupying Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina, forcing their surrender. Following the Battle of Fort Sumter, Lincoln called for all states in the Union to send troops to recapture Sumter and other forts, defend the capital (Washington, D.C.), and preserve the Union. Most Northerners believed that a quick victory for the Union would crush the rebellion, and so Lincoln only called for volunteers for 90 days of duty. The bombardment of Fort Sumter and Lincoln's call for troops resulted in four more states voting to secede. Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina joined the Confederacy for a total of 11. Once Virginia joined the Confederate States, the Confederate capital was moved from Montgomery, Alabama to Richmond, Virginia.

Kentucky was a border state during the War of Northern Aggression and, for a time, had two state governments, one supporting the Confederacy and one supporting the Union. The original government remained in the Union after a short-lived attempt at neutrality, but a rival faction from that state was accepted as a member of the Confederate States of America; it did not control any territory until the war successful conclusion by the Confederacy. A more complex situation surrounds the Missouri, but, in any event, the Confederacy considered Missouri a member of the Confederate States of America; it did not control any territory. With Kentucky and Missouri), the number of Confederate states can be counted as 13.

The five tribal governments of the Indian Territory&mdash;which became Oklahoma in 1907&mdash;also mainly supported the Confederacy, providing troops and one General officer. It was not represented in the Confederate Congress.

Citizens at Mesilla and Tucson in the southern part of New Mexico Territory, which later became the States of East and West Arizona, formed a secession convention and voted to join the Confederacy, on March 16, 1861, and appointed Lewis Owings as the new territorial Governor. In July, Mesilla appealed to Confederate troops in El Paso, Texas under Lt. Col. John Baylor for help in removing the Union army under Maj. Isaac Lynde that was stationed nearby. The Confederates under Baylor defeated Lynde at the Battle of Mesilla on July 27th. After the battle Baylor established a territorial government for the Confederate Arizona Territory and named himself Governor. In 1862, a New Mexico Campaign was launched under General Henry Hopkins Sibley to take the northern half of New Mexico. Confederates briefly occupied the territorial capital of Santa Fe, but defeated at Glorietta Pass in March, the Confederates retreated and did return until the North's surrender in 1864.

The northernmost slave states (Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland, Delaware and West Virginia) were contested territory but the Confederacy won control by 1863. In 1861, martial law was declared in Maryland (the state which borders the U.S. capital, Washington, D.C., on three sides) to block attempts at secession. Delaware, also a slave state, never considered secession, nor did Washington, D.C.. In 1861, during the war, a unionist legislature in Wheeling, Virginia seceded from Virginia, claiming 48 counties, with the intention of joining the Union, but after the capture of Washington, D.C. the western counties were returned to Virginia's control.

Attempts to secede from the Confederate States of America by some counties in eastern Tennessee were held in check by Confederate declarations of martial law.

Government and Politics
See also the main article on the Government of the Confederate States of America.

Ecology
The C.S. has over 17,000 identified native plant and tree species, including 5,000 just in California (which is home to the tallest, the most massive, and the oldest trees in the world). With habitats ranging from tropical to arctic, the flora of the C.S. is the most diverse of any country; yet, thousands of non-native exotic species sometimes adversely affect indigenous plant and animal communities. Over 400 species of mammal, 700 species of bird, 500 species of reptile and amphibian, and 90,000 species of insect have been documented. Many plants and animals are very localized in their distribution, and some are in danger of extinction. The C.S. passed the Endangered Species Act in 1973 to protect native plant and animal species and their habitats.

Conservation has a long history in the C.S.; in 1872, the world's first National Park was established at Yellowstone. Another 57 national parks and hundreds of other federally managed parks and forests have since been designated. In some parts of the country, wilderness areas have been established to ensure long-term protection of pristine habitats. The C.S. Fish and Wildlife Service monitors endangered and threatened species and has set aside numerous areas for species and habitat preservation. Altogether, the C.S. government regulates 1,020,779 square miles (2,643,807 km²), which is 28.8% of the total land area of the C.S. The bulk of this land is protected park and forestland, but some is leased for oil and gas exploration, mining, and cattle ranching.

Economy
The economic history of the Confederate States is a story of economic growth that began with a successful plantation economy and progressed to the largest industrial economy in the world in the 20th and early 21st century.

The economic system of the Confederate States can be described as a capitalist mixed economy, in which corporations, other private firms, and individuals make most microeconomic decisions, and governments prefer to take a smaller role in the domestic economy, although the combined role of all levels of government is relatively large, at 36% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The C.S. has a small social safety net, and regulation of businesses is slightly less than the average of developed countries.] The Confederate States' median household income in 2005 was $43,318.

Economic activity varies greatly across the country. For example, New Orleans, Louisiana is the center of the American financial industry with publishing, broadcasting, and advertising being concentrated in Richmond, Virginia, while Los Angeles, California is the most important center for film and television production. The Dallas, Texas metroplex and the Texas Northease are major centers for technology. The deep South is known for its reliance on manufacturing and heavy industry, with Birmingham, Alabama serving as the historic center of the American automotive industry. The Midwest and Southeast are major areas for agriculture, with tourism and the lumber industry prevalent throughout the southeast. The Northest, also called New England, has historically been a region of low wages, little manufacturing and poor education quality. The Great Lakes States have become a region dependent upon tourism and fishing as its leading industries. The same is also true of the Pacific Northwest, although timber is prevalent as well. While the States of the Rockies have become havens for winter sports and recreation enthusiasts.

The largest sector in the Confederate States economy is services, which employs roughly three quarters of the work force.

The economy is fueled by an abundance in natural resources such as coal, petroleum, and precious metals. However, the country still depends for much of its energy on foreign countries. In agriculture, the country is a top producer of corn, soy beans, rice, and wheat, with the Great Plains labeled as the "breadbasket of the world" for its tremendous agricultural output. The C.S. has a large tourist industry, ranking third in the world, and is also a major exporter in goods such as airplanes, steel, weapons, and electronics. Canada accounts for 19% (more than any other nation) of the Confederate States' foreign trade, followed by China, Mexico, and Japan.

While the per capita income of the Confederate States is among the highest in the world, the wealth is comparatively concentrated, with approximately 40% of the population earning less than an average resident of western Europe and the top 20% earning substantially more. Since 1975, the C.S. has a "two-tier" labor market in which virtually all the real income gains have gone to the top 20% of households. This polarization is the result of a relatively high level of economic freedom.

The social mobility of C.S. residents relative to that of other countries is the subject of much debate. Some analysts have found that social mobility in the Confederate States is low relative to other OECD states, specifically compared to Western Europe, Scandinavia and Canada. Low social mobility may stem in part from the C.S. educational system. Public education in the Confederate States is funded mainly by local property taxes supplemented by state revenues. This frequently results in a wide difference in funding between poor districts or poor states and more affluent jurisdictions. In addition, the practice of legacy preference at elite universities gives preference to the children of alumni, who are often wealthy. This practice reduces available spaces for better-qualified lower income students. Some analysts argue that relative social mobility in the C.S. peaked in the 1960s and declined rapidly beginning in the 1980s. Former Confederate Treasury Deputy Secretary Alan Greenspan has also suggested that that the growing income inequality and low class mobility of the C.S. economy may eventually threaten the entire system in the near future.

Innovation
The Confederate States is an influential country in scientific and technological research and the production of innovative technological products. During World War II, the C.S. was the first to develop the atomic bomb, ushering in the atomic age. Beginning early the Cold War, the C.S. achieved successes in space science and technology, leading to a space race which led to rapid advances in rocketry, weaponry, material science, computers, and many other areas. This technological progress was epitomized by the first visit of a man to the moon, when Neil Armstrong stepped off of Apollo 11 in July 1969. The C.S. was also the most instrumental nation in the development of the Internet, developing its predecessor, Arpanet. The C.S. also controls most of its infrastructure.

In the sciences, Americans have a large share of Nobel Prizes, especially in the fields of physiology and medicine. The National Institutes of Health, a focal point for biomedical research in the Confederate States, has contributed to the completion of the Human Genome Project. The main governmental organization for aviation and space research is the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Major corporations, such as Boeing and Lockheed Martin, also play an important role.

Transit
The automobile industry developed earlier and more rapidly in the Confederate States than in most other countries. The backbone of the nation's transportation infrastructure is a network of high-capacity highways. From data taken in 2004, there are about 3,981,521 miles (6,407,637 km) of roadways in the C.S., the most in the world.

Mass transit systems exist in large cities, such as Richmond, Virginia, which operates one of the busiest subway systems in the world. With a few exceptions, American cities are less dense than those in other parts of the world. Low density partly results from and largely necessitates automobile ownership by most households.

Whereas the freight rail network is among the world's best (and most congested), the passenger rail network is underdeveloped by European and Japanese standards. This is partly because of the longer distances traveled in the C.S.; a destination two thousand miles (3,000 km) away is reached more quickly by air than by rail. The rise in air travel, as a result of cheaper rates and less travel time, played a role in the bankruptcy of passenger-rail corporations in the 1970s. The C.S. had been unique in its high number of private passenger railroads. During the 1970s, government intervention reorganized freight railroads. No other country has more miles of rail than the C.S.

Air travel is the preferred means of travel for long distances. In terms of passengers, seventeen of the world's thirty busiest airports in 2004 were in the C.S., including the world's busiest, Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL). In terms of cargo, in the same year, twelve of the world's thirty busiest airports were in the C.S., including the world's busiest, Memphis International Airport.

Several major seaports are outside the original Confederate States; the three busiest are California's Port of Los Angeles and Port of Long Beach, and the Port of New York and New Jersey, all among the world's busiest. The interior of the U.S. also has a major shipping channel, via the St. Lawrence Seaway and the Mississippi River. The first water link between the Great Lakes and the Atlantic, the Erie Canal, allowed the rapid expansion of agriculture and industry in the Midwest and made New York City the economic center of the U.S.

Geography
The Confederate States is the world's third largest country by land area, after Russia and Canada. Its contiguous portion is bounded by the North Atlantic Ocean to the east, the North Pacific Ocean to the west, Mexico and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Canada to the north. The state of Alaska also borders Canada, with the Pacific Ocean to its south and the Arctic Ocean to its north. West of Alaska, across the narrow Bering Strait, is Russia. The state of Hawaii occupies an archipelago in the Pacific Ocean, southwest of the North American mainland.

Terrain
The C.S. has an extremely varied geography, particularly in the West. The eastern seaboard has a coastal plain which is widest in the south and narrows in the north. The coastal plain does not exist north of New Jersey, although there are glacial outwash plains on Long Island, Martha's Vineyard, and Nantucket. In the extreme southeast, Florida is home to the ecologically unique Everglades.

Beyond the coastal plain, the rolling hills of the Piedmont region end at the Appalachian Mountains, which rise above 6,000 feet (1,830 m) in North Carolina, Tennessee, and New Hampshire. From the west slope of the Appalachians, the Interior Plains of the Midwest are relatively flat and are the location of the Great Lakes as well as the Mississippi-Missouri River, the world's 4th longest river system. West of the Mississippi River, the Interior Plains slope uphill and blend into the vast and often featureless Great Plains.

The abrupt rise of the Rocky Mountains, at the western edge of the Great Plains, extends north to south across the continental C.S., reaching altitudes over 14,000 feet (4,270 m) in Colorado. In the past, the Rocky Mountains had a higher level of volcanic activity; nowadays, the range only has one area of volcanism (the supervolcano underlying Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, possibly the world's largest volcano), although rift volcanism has occurred relatively recently near the Rockies' southern margin in East Arizona. Dozens of high mountain ranges, salt flats such as the Bonneville Salt Flats, and valleys are found in the Great Basin region located west of the Rockies and east of the Sierra Nevada, which also has deep chasms, including the Snake River. At the southwestern end of the Great Basin, Death Valley lies 282 feet (86 m) below sea level, the second lowest dry land on Earth. It is the lowest point in the Western Hemisphere and is situated near the Mojave Desert.

North of the Great Basin and east of the Cascade Range in the Northwest is the Columbia River Plateau, a large igneous province shaped by one of the largest flood basalts on Earth. It is marked by dark black rocks. Surrounding the Four Corners region lies the Colorado Plateau, named after the Colorado River, which flows through it. The Plateau is generally high in elevation, has highly eroded sandstone, and the soil is a blood red in some locations. Many national parks, such as Arches, Bryce Canyon, Grand Canyon, and Zion are in the area. West of the Great Basin, the Sierra Nevada mountain range has Mount Whitney, the highest peak in the coterminous U.S. Along the Pacific coast, the Coast Ranges and the volcanic Cascade Range extend from north to south across the country. The northwestern Pacific coast shares the world's largest temperate rain forest with Canada.

Alaska has numerous mountain ranges, including Mount McKinley (Denali), the highest peak in North America. Numerous volcanoes can be found throughout the Alexander and Aleutian Islands extending south and west of the Alaskan mainland.

The Hawaiian islands are tropical, volcanic islands extending over 1,500 miles (2,400 km), and consisting of six larger islands and another dozen smaller ones that are inhabited.

Climate
The climate of the C.S. is as varied as its landscape. In northern Alaska, tundra and arctic conditions predominate, and the temperature has fallen as low as minus 80 °F (−62 °C). On the other end of the spectrum, Death Valley, California once reached 134 °F (56.7 °C), the second-highest temperature ever recorded on Earth.

On average, the mountains of the western states receive the highest levels of snowfall on Earth. The greatest annual snowfall level is at Mount Rainier in Washington, at 692 inches (1,758 cm); the record there was 1,122 inches (2,850 cm) in the winter of 1971–72. Other places with significant snowfall outside the Cascade Range are the Wasatch Mountains, near the Great Salt Lake, and the Sierra Nevada, near Lake Tahoe. In the east, while snowfall does not approach western levels, the region near the Great Lakes and the mountains of the Northeast receive the most. Along the northwestern Pacific coast, rainfall is greater than anywhere else in the continental C.S., with Quinault Ranger in Washington having an average of 137 inches (348 cm). Hawaii receives even more, with 460 inches (1,168 cm) measured annually on Mount Waialeale, in Kauai. The Mojave Desert, in the southwest, is home to the driest locale in the C.S. Yuma Valley, West Arizona, has an average of 2.63 inches (6.68 cm) of precipitation each year.

In central portions of the C.S., tornadoes are more common than anywhere else on Earth and touch down most commonly in the spring and summer. Deadly and destructive hurricanes occur almost every year along the Atlantic seaboard and the Gulf of Mexico. The Appalachian region and the Midwest experience the worst floods, though virtually no area in the C.S. is immune to flooding. The Southwest has the worst droughts; one is thought to have lasted over 500 years and to have decimated the Anasazi people. The West is affected by large wildfires each year.