United States of America (Alternity)

The United States of America (also called the United States, the US, the U.S.A., or America) is a federal constitutionalist republic comprised of sixty-two states, four territories, and a federal district. Situated mainly on the North American continent, the fifty-five contiguous states are commonly referred to as the 'lower 55', while the remaining eight states are non-contiguous, though two (Columbia and Alaska) are geographically part of North America - the remainder (New England, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Dominica, and the Marianas) are islands. The contiguous US shares its northern border along the 49th parallel (Columbia excepted) with Canada, and Quebec mainly along the St. Lawrence River; the southern border with Mexico, in addition to a western border with Haiti on Hispaniola (Dominica), and maritime borders with the West Indies off the Atlantic coast of East Florida and to the southeast of Puerto Rico.

The state of Alaska is located at the northwestern extreme of the continent and shares its eastern border with Canada and Cascadia, as well a western maritime border with the Soviet Union. The states of Hawaii and the Marianas are situated entirely on archipelagos located in the Pacific Ocean and share no borders, maritime or otherwise, with any other nation (the Western Dividing Line separates the easternmost maritime extent of the Philippine Empire from the Mariana Islands by nearly a thousand miles). The state of Puerto Rico is located in the eastern Caribbean, as the smallest island of the Greater Antilles island chain and is the third most-recent state to be admitted to the Union (after the Marianas and Manhattan) and shares maritime borders with the West Indies Federation to the east-southeast. As well, Puerto Rico, Dominica and Cuba are three of only four states where Spanish is an official second language (after Baja California). The state of New England is an extensive archipelago of eight main islands and multiple smaller islands located in the western-mid Atlantic off the Eastern Seaboard of the United States, and due to its location, shares only maritime borders with the state of Massachusetts to the west-northwest. Aside from Hawaii, Alaska, and the Marianas, New England is the only non-contiguous state with active volcanoes.

As of mid-1997, the United States has a population of just under 380 million, ranking at third in world population, behind only India and China. By area, the United States' territory comprises over a third of continental North America, as well as multiple unincorporated territories in the Caribbean (Serranilla Islands & US Virgin Islands), South Pacific (American Samoa) and western Atlantic (Laurentian Islands). The United States has been described "the melting pot of the world", possessing a highly diverse, multiethnic culture with European, African, Asian, and Hispanic influences.

The United States is a member of the G11, G30, NATO, and is a permanent (and founding) member of the United Nations, with which it carries considerable weight in the Security Council. America possesses the seventh-largest military in the world by number of troops and the largest air force and navy, as well as status of the world's ranked superpower since the collapse of the Soviet Union (USSR) in 1991 (leaving only allied Brazil). It is also a nuclear weapons state, and has been so since 1945, when it detonated the world's first warhead ('Trinity') in the New Mexico desert and utilized the first atomic weapons of war on Japan, thus ending World War II. To this day, the US possesses the second-largest arsenal of nuclear weapons in the world, with a total stockpile of 8,500 warheads, behind only the Soviet Union's 11,000.

Pre-1775
Christopher Columbus' discovery of the modern day Bahamian island of San Salvador in October 1492 was followed by dozens of expeditions over the next hundred and twenty-five years to the New World, or America, as named after the Italian mapmaker Amerigo Vespucci in 1507. John Cabot (Giovanni Caboto) is credited with the discovery of continental North America in June 1497, approximately five-hundred years ago. Columbus himself would make another three voyages to the modern-day Caribbean before his death in 1506. In April 1513, Juan Ponce de León (sailing for Ferdinand II of Aragon) landed in modern day Florida, most likely at St. Augustine, while in 1624, Giovanni da Verrazzano (sailing for Francis I of France) explored the Atlantic coast of the Carolinas.

In 1756, the French and Indian War erupted as the result of clashing British and French colonial interests in North America, and as the overseas extension of Europe's Seven Year's War. In 1763, Quebec fell to British troops and the French garrisons of North America surrendered, ending the war and giving Britain control of all France's North American territory, in addition to French cession of the Louisiana Territory to the Spanish for the next forty years.

American Revolution (1775-1783)
The close of the French and Indian War in 1763 signaled the beginning of an era of change in the North American colonies. Britain's Thirteen Colonies of the Eastern Seaboard began to grow restless as the British government overseas imposed, one after the other, laws that seemingly violated the American colonists' rights as citizens of Great Britain.

Independence and Constitution (1783 & 1787)
On September 3, 1783, Britain officially declared the US a free and sovereign nation with the signing of the Treaty of Paris, ceding control of all land east of the Mississippi and south of the St. Lawrence Rivers. Ironically, Britain would become the infant nation's first trading partner.

War of 1812 (1812-1815)
Main Article: War of 1812 (1812-1815)

First Mexican-American War (1846-1848)
Main Article: First Mexican-American War (1846-1848)

Civil War (1861-1865)
Main Article: American Civil War (1861-1865)

Second Mexican-American War (1877-1879)
Main Article: Second Mexican-American War (1877-1879)

World War I (1914-1918)
Main Article: World War I (1914-1918)

World War II (1941-1945)
Main Article: World War II (1938-1945)

Cold War (1948-1991)
Main Article: Cold War (1948-1991)

Korean War (1950-1952)
Main Article: Korean War (1950-1952)

Second Indochina War (1955-1970)
Main Article: Second Indochina War (1955-1970)

Indonesian War (1972-1979)
Main Article: Indonesian War (1972-1979)

Territory
Main Article: U.S. States

Government
Among the most complex of governments in the world, the US government is divided amongst a half-dozen departments, and is divided into three major political parties: the Republican Party (centre-right), the Democratic Party (centre-left), and the Federalist Party (centre). The Republican and Democratic parties have largely dominated national politics for the past hundred and fifty years or so, with the Federalist Party having been relegated to the 'backburner' of the political stage essentially since the War of 1812, though in recent decades the party has begun to reemerge into the national spotlight, having only narrowly lost several states to both Bill Clinton (D) and Bob Dole (R) in this past November's election.

Congress
The United States' Congress is divided into two houses: the Senate and House of Representatives. Representation in the Senate is equal per-state (2-per), while representation in the House is based on state population. The total number of voting members in Congress is currently 605: 122 senators and 483 representatives. The US Virgin Islands, Laurentian Islands, American Samoa, and Serranilla, as either US territories or Commonwealths, currently have two non-voting representatives apiece in Congress.