United States (Cherry, Plum, and Chrysanthemum)

United States of America Timeline: Cherry, Plum, and Chrysanthemum OTL equivalent: United States of America (without Oklahoma, Arkansas, Western and Middle Tennessee, Louisiana, Texas, Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and Hawaii) including Newfoundland, Baja California, Sonora, Cuba, and southern part of British Columbia
Flag Greater coat of arms
Motto:  In God we trust
Anthem:  The Star-Spangled Banner
Location of the United States
Capital		Mayflower
Other cities		New York City; Los Angeles; Boston; San Fransisco
Official languages		English (de facto)
Religion		Christianity; Irreligion; Judaism; Islam
Demonym		American; U.S.
Government		Federal state; Presidential constitutional republic
-	President	Bernie Sanders
-	Vice President	Elizabeth Warren
Legislature		Congress of the United States
-	Upper house	Senate
-	Lower house	House of Representatives
Establishment
-	Declaration of Independence from Great Britain	July 4, 1776
-	Treaty of Paris	September 3, 1783
-	Constitution	March 4, 1789
Population
-	estimate	206,901,729
Currency		United States dollar ($) (USD)
Time zone		various (UTC−5 to −10)
Internet TLD		.us
Calling code		+1

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is commonly called the United States (US, USA, U.S. or U.S.A.) and colloquially as America. It is bordered by Canada to the north; by the Bering Strait to the northwest; by the Atlantic Ocean to the east; by the Pacific Ocean to the west; by Mexico and the Confederate States to the south. The United States is separated with the Soviet Union only by the Bering Strait, making the strait is known as the "Ice Curtain" for the continued tensions between two superpowers since the end of World War II. It also shares land border with Haiti to the west on Hispaniola through the state of Santo Domingo.

The United States of America is consisting by 44 states, a federal capital district (Mayflower), four major self-governing territories, and various possessions. Thirty-nine states and a federal capital district are contiguous in North America between that lie between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. Alaska is a semi-exclave, mostly borders Canada, on the northwest extremity of the North American western coast. Newfoundland is a semi-exclave, also mostly borders Canada, located in the Labrador Peninsula. Cuba and Santo Domino are parts on an archipelago in the northern Caribbean.

The United States is the fourth-largest country by total area and third largest by population. It is one of the world's most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many countries. The geography and climate of the United States is also extremely diverse, and it is home to a wide variety of wildlife. The United States has the world's largest national economy and being the world's foremost economic and military power, a prominent political and cultural force, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovation. It is the third-largest oil producer and sixth-largest exporter as well as second-largest natural gas producer and exporter in the world, making it one of "energy superpowers" in the world.

Politics and government

The Executive House, the official seat of the President of the United States.

The United States is a federal constitutional democratic republic, in which the president, Congress, and judiciary share powers reserved to the national government, and the federal government shares sovereignty with the state governments. The federal government's layout is explained in the Constitution. Two political parties, the center-left Progressive Party and the center-right Liberal Party, have dominated American politics since the start of Cold War, although other parties have also existed.

The executive branch is headed by the President of the United States and is independent of the legislature. The president and vice president are elected in pair by direct popular vote from the citizens of the states and the federal capital district. Before 2008, the presidents and the vice presidents were elected indirectly by an indirect electoral college system in which the determining votes are apportioned to the states and the capital district. The president serves a four-year term and may be elected to the office no more than twice.

The Capitol, the meeting place of the Congress of the United States.

Legislative power is vested in the two chambers of Congress: the Senate and the House of Representatives. The House of Representatives has fixed 435 voting members (although for terms between 2023 and 2030, the numbers will be temporarily increased to 437 as Puerto Rico became a new U.S. state), each serving for a two-year term. House seats are apportioned among the states by population. Each state then is either divided as several single-member districts that conform equally with the census apportionment or electing its representatives at large in proportional representation to the votes received by the party. The Mayflower Federal District and the five major U.S. territories each have one member of Congress—these members are not allowed to vote. The Senate has 88 members with each state having two senators, elected at-large to six-year terms; one-third of Senate seats are up for election every two years. The Mayflower Federal District and the five major U.S. territories do not have senators.

The judicial branch, composed of the Supreme Court and lower federal courts, exercises judicial power. The judiciary's function is to interpret the United States Constitution and federal laws and regulations. This includes resolving disputes between the executive and legislative branches. The Supreme Court, led by the chief justice of the United States, has nine members, who serve for life.

Administrative divisions

The United States is consisted of 44 states and a federal capital district which classified into nine regions. New England consists of Newfoundland, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. Mid-Atlantic consists of Delaware, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania. South Atlantic consists of Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky and East Tennessee. Great Lakes consists of Illinois, District of Mayflower, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin.

Great Plains consists of Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota. Mountain consists of Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Utah, and Wyoming. New Spain consists of Arizona, Lower California, Upper California, Nevada, New Mexico, and Sonora. Cascadia consists of Alaska, Oregon, and Franklin. Caribbean consists of Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Santo Domingo.

Flag + Name	Capital	Largest city	Population	Area (sq km)
Region of New England
Connecticut	Hartford	Bridgeport	3,605,944	14,356
Maine	Augusta	Portland	1,344,212	91,633
Massachusetts	Boston		7,033,469	27,363
Newfoundland	St. John's		519,716	405,720
New Hampshire	Concord	Manchester	1,377,529	24,214
Rhode Island	Providence		1,098,163	4,001
Vermont	Montpelier	Burlington	643,503	24,923
Mid-Atlantic Region
Delaware	Dover	Wilmington	990,837	6,450
New Jersey	Trenton	Newark	9,288,994	22,591.38
New York	Albany	New York City	20,215,751	141,297
Pennsylvania	Harrisburg	Philadelphia	13,011,844	119,283
South Atlantic Region
Maryland	Washington City	Baltimore	6,185,278	32,133
West Virginia	Charleston		1,795,045	62,755
Kentucky	Frankfort	Louisville	4,509,342	104,656
East Tennessee	Knoxville		2,403,342	35,115.8
Great Lakes Region
Mayflower Federal District			702,100	177
Illinois	Springfield	Chicago	12,812,508	149,820
Indiana	Indianapolis		6,785,528	94,321
Michigan	Lansing	Detroit	10,077,331	250,493
Minnesota	Saint Paul	Minneapolis	5,706,494	225,163
Ohio	Columbus		11,808,848	116,096
Wisconsin	Madison	Milwaukee	5,893,718	169,640
Great Plains Region
Iowa	Des Moines		3,190,369	145,746
Kansas	Topeka	Wichita	2,940,865	213,100
Missouri	Jefferson City	Kansas City	6,160,281	180,560
Nebraska	Lincoln	Omaha	1,961,504	200,356
North Dakota	Bismarck	Fargo	779,094	183,123
South Dakota	Pierre	Sioux Falls	886,667	199,729
Mountain Region
Colorado	Denver		2,940,865	269,601
Idaho	Boise		1,839,106	216,444
Montana	Helena	Billings	1,085,407	380,800
Utah	Salt Lake City		3,271,616	219,887
Wyoming	Cheyenne		576,851	253,600
Region of New Spain
Arizona	Phoenix		7,151,502	295,234
Upper California	Sacramento	Los Angeles	39,538,223	423,970
Lower California	La Paz	Tijuana	4,085,695	145,360
Nevada	Carson City	Las Vegas	3,104,614	286,382
New Mexico	Santa Fe	Albuquerque	2,120,220	314,915
Sonora	Hermosillo		2,944,840	179,355
Cascadia Region
Alaska	Juneau	Anchorage	736,081	1,717,856.23
Franklin	Vancouver	Seattle	10,291,112	992,260
Oregon	Salem	Portland	4,237,256	254,806
Caribbean Region
Cuba	Havana	Santiago de Cuba	11,193,470	109,884
Puerto Rico	San Juan		3,221,789	9,104
Santo Domingo	Santo Domingo		9,078,116	48,671

History

Colonization (1609–1775)

The landing of Mayflower passengers

European colonization in the area that known today as the United States of America was started at the Colony of New Netherland, a Dutch settlement located in present-day New York City and the Hudson River Valley in 1614. The Dutch were Calvinists who built the Reformed Church in America, but they were tolerant of other religions and cultures. The New Netherland Colony left an enduring legacy on American cultural and political life, including religion tolerance and free trade. The city was captured by the English in 1664; they took complete control of the colony in 1674 and renamed it as New York.

The Plymouth Colony was established at present-day Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1620 by the English religious separatists called the Pilgrims. They arrived aboard a ship named the Mayflower and held a feast of gratitude which became part of the American tradition of Thanksgiving. The Pilgrims were soon followed by other Puritans, who established the Massachusetts Bay Colony at present-day Boston in 1630. Later, in 1691, these two English colonies were united into the Province of Massachusetts Bay.

There were 20 English colonies in North America by 1775, 13 among them later rebelled against the British rule and formed the First Union of the United States of America. Those colonies were Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, Connecticut, Massachusetts Bay, Maryland, South Carolina, New Hampshire, Virginia, New York, North Carolina, and Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. By the 18th century, the American colonies were growing very rapidly because of the abundant supplies of food and low death rates which attracted a steady flow of immigrants.

American Revolution (1775–1783)

Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790)

An effort to unite the British American colonies under single formal colonial union was first called in the Albany Congress in 1754 and reflected by Benjamin Franklin’s call “Join or Die.” Although the Congress failed to realize the Union plan and it did not even have any goal to create an independent American nation, it later greatly inspired the political concept of the United States of America following the American Revolution in 1776.

The resistance against the tax imposition by the British Parliament in late 1760s also preceded the moment of American Revolution. The colonists felt the Parliament had no any rights to tax them since they have no any representation in the British Parliament. The colonists began to set up the militia, in a preparation for the war against the British Empire. They who rebelled against the British Empire called as the Patriots.

In 1774, the First Continental Congress was convened by the Patriot leaders from the 13 Colonies as a response for the Coercive Acts that was passage to repress the Boston Tea Party in 1773. The Congress called for a boycott for British trade, rights and grievances and petitioned King George III of Great Britain and Ireland for redress of those grievances. The appeal to the Crown had no effect, and the Second Continental Congress was convened in 1775 to organize the resistance to the British rule under one armed and diplomatic effort.

Declaration of Independence of the United States

The independence of the 13 colonies as the United States of America was declared by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776. Franklin, in his capacity as as the President of the Continental Congress during the signing of Declaration of Independence as well as being one of its drafters, began to be honored as the first U.S. head of state and the "Father of Nation" by most of American historians since the Radical Reconstruction era in aftermath of the War of Southern Secession during the late 19th century. Today, July 4 is celebrated as the Independence Day in the United States and as the Liberty Day in the Confederate States.

Under the command from General George Washington, the Patriots waged a war against the Loyalist forces that lasted until 1783 when the United States and Great Britain were agreed to end the war by signed the Treaty of Paris. The treaty recognized the United States as an independent nation and its sovereignty over most territory east of the Mississippi River.

Articles of Confederation (1776–1787)

Page I of the Articles of Confederation.

The short-lived First Union of the United States of America structure was based on the Articles of Confederation that created in 1777. The Articles provided a loose confederation between the Thirteen Colonies without any federal institution except the Continental Congress, although established a small common army and limited financial authority. The First Union government had no head of state nor judiciary, although the post of the President of Congress existed, it was a ceremonial one and did not have similar functions like current post of the U.S. President.

Under this situation, the newly independent United States were so fragile to defend itself from either any external invasions or internal rebellions. The Constitutional Convention was convened in Philadelphia in 1787 to create a new constitution that provided more powerful and efficient central government, one with a strong executive head of state, and powers of taxation, while at the same time guaranteed the individual liberties, republican idea, and democratic principles.

Nation-building era (1787–1812)

George Washington (1732–1799)

George Washington, a renowned hero of the American Revolutionary War, commander-in-chief of the Continental Army and president of the Constitutional Convention, was elected as the first President of the United States under the new Constitution in 1789. The U.S. national capital was moved from New York to Philadelphia and finally to Washington D.C. in 1800. Washington is the only U.S. head of state that ever elected with 100% of electoral votes. Together with Alexander Hamilton, Washington created a strong national government that would become a model for the modern U.S. government.

Hamilton established the Bank of the United States to stabilize the financial system and set up a uniform system of tariffs (taxes on imports) and other taxes to pay off the debt and provide a financial infrastructure. To support his programs, Hamilton created a new political organization, the Federalist Party, the first in the world based on voters. The opposition Republican Party was established by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison as its response. Both political establishments have later resulted to the First Party System that would last until 1824.

The purchase of Louisiana Territory that had been claimed by the French by the administration of Thomas Jefferson almost doubled the nation's size in 1803. With that purchase, the U.S. could potentially expand its territory westward of the Mississippi River.

War of 1812 and Era of Good Feelings (1812–1829)

The Battle of Lake Erie during the War of 1812

In response to continued British interference with American shipping (including the practice of impressment of American sailors into the British Navy), and to British support for hostile Indians attacking American settlers in the Midwest, the Congress, despite strong opposition from Federalists in the Northeast who did not want to disrupt trade with Britain, declared war on Britain in 1812. The United States and Great Britain came to reach a stalemate toward the end of war. Both warring sides finally agreed to negotiate and sign a peace treaty in Aschaffenburg, present-day West Germany, that officially ending the war and returned to the status quo ante bellum without any boundary changes.

The American victory at New Orleans as well as the news of the peace, giving a psychological triumph to the Americans and opening the Era of Good Feelings. During this era, the partisan politics began to decline following the end of war. As the society became less divided on the partisan issues, the population felt "good feelings" after years of political infightings, thus giving the era its name. The Federalist Party collapsed, but without an opponent, the Democratic-Republican party decayed as sectional interests emerged. The Monroe Doctrine, expressed in 1823, proclaimed the United States' opinion that European powers should no longer colonize or interfere in the Americas in response to American and British fears over Russian and French expansion into the New World.

Jacksonian Democracy (1829–1861)

The victory of Andrew Jackson on 1828 Presidential election saw the coming to power of Jacksonian Democracy, thus marking the transition from the First Party System to the Second Party System. The entrepreneurs who envisioned an industrial nation instead, for whom Henry Clay and Daniel Webster were heroes, fought back against the Democrats and formed the Whig party. The Democrats and the Whigs emerged as the dominant parties from 1828 to 1854. Under the Second Party System, the old requirements for voters to own property were abolished and wider male suffrage was introduced.

Choctaws were removed west of the Mississippi started in 1831.

In 1830, the U.S. Congress passed the Indian Removal Act that authorizes the forced relocation that moved Indians into the west of the Mississippi River to their own reservations. Whigs and religious leaders opposed the move as inhumane. Thousands of deaths resulted from the relocations, as seen in the Cherokee Trail of Tears. Many of the Seminole Indians in Florida refused to move west; they fought the Army for years in the Seminole Wars.

The Second Great Awakening, beginning about 1800, converted millions to evangelical Protestantism. The Second Great Awakening stimulated the establishment of many reform movements, including abolitionism, women's rights, and temperance, designed to remedy the evils of society before the anticipated Second Coming of Jesus Christ. The wave of religious revival contributed to tremendous growth of the Methodist, Baptists, Disciples, and other evangelical denominations.

Whig candidate, Henry Clay, was elected President in 1844, defeating the Jacksonian James K. Polk. Clay Administration was faced a strong pressure from the Democrats for annexing Texas into the United States. Bitterly opposed the Manifest Destiny and realized the annexation risking a war with Mexico, Clay instead negotiated with the government of Mexico regarding agreeable boundary of Texas between two countries. The 1845 Texas Treaty, and later the 1848 California Treaty, with Mexico led to U.S. control of the present-day American Southwest.

In 1850, Clay proposed the Compromise of 1850 admitted California as free territories including Southern California, organized Utah Territory and New Mexico Territory with slavery to be decided by popular sovereignty, abolished the slave trade in the capital district, and strengthened the Fugitive Slave Act. The treaties with Mexico and the Compromise of 1850 equally alarmed both the Northerners as adding new territory on the Southern side simply meant the expansion of slavery and the Southerners that viewed its as early steps toward abolition of slavery.

War of Southern Secession (1861–1865)

The Battle of Franklin, Tennessee, during the War of Southern Secession

By 1860, tensions between slave and free states worsened and mounted with arguments about the relationship between the state and federal governments, as well as bloodshed and violent conflicts over the spread of slavery into new states. Abraham Lincoln, candidate of the largely antislavery Republican Party, was elected president in 1860. As result, seven Southern states declared their secession and formed the Confederate States of America on February 9, 1861.

After Confederate General Pierre Beauregard opened fire upon Union troops at Fort Sumter in South Carolina, the War of Southern Secession (or the War for Southern Independence as it is known in the Confederate States) began and four more slave states seceded and then joined the Confederates States. The Secession War reached its stalemate in 1863 and after received the pressures from Radical Republicans and the abolitionists, the United States government recognized the independence of the Confederate States in August 1, 1864 with the signing of Treaty of Princeton in Princeton, Kentucky.

Radical Reconstruction and the Gilded Age (1865–1900)

Ulysses S. Grant (1822–1885)

After the war, the U.S. government implemented the Reconstruction policies that aimed at the restructuring of U.S. constitutional framework by ending the legalized slavery in the slave states that remaining in the Union while ensuring the rights of the newly freed slaves. Lincoln's assassination in 1865 was followed by the bitter split between Radical and Liberal wings of the Republican Party. The Radicals controlled the Congress and after its candidate, the former U.S. commander during Secession War, Ulysses S. Grant, being elected President in 1868, its applied more radical social and economic reforms.

Another notable move during Radical Reconstruction era that the Congress decided to relocate the national capital further north and Princeton, New Jersey, was used as a temporary seat of federal government between 1865–1880. Hyde Park Township in Cook County, Illinois, was then selected by President Grant in 1870 to be the new location for U.S. national capital. The construction of new administrative complex, including new U.S. Capitol and new official residence for the President of the United States, taken about 20 years before its completion in 1891.

The Home Insurance Building in Chicago, built in 1885, was the world's first skyscraper

Some Liberal Republicans later merged with the National Union and the rump Northern Democrats, formed the Liberal Party in 1874. The Liberals gained its momentum when its candidate, Samuel J. Tilden, defeated Republican candidate, James G. Blaine, in the 1876 presidential election. Despite only served for one term in keeping to his campaign promise, Tilden's presidency signaled the emergence of the Third Party System that would last until the early 20th century.

Rapid economic development at the end of the 19th century produced many prominent industrialists, and the U.S. economy became the world's largest. The emergence of many industrialists gave rise to the Gilded Age, a period of growing affluence and power among the business class. The 1867 Alaska Purchase from Russian Empire and the 1870 Oregon Treaty that ended a long-time boundary dispute with British Empire, completed the country's mainland expansion that extended the United States from Atlantic coast to the Pacific coast. The annexations of Santo Domingo in 1871 and Cuba in 1898 strengthened the U.S. naval presence in the Caribbean. Dramatic changes were accompanied by social unrest and the rise of populist, socialist, and anarchist movements.

Progressive Era and World War I (1900–1921)

Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1929)

The Gilded Age eventually ended with the beginning of the Progressive Era, a period of great reforms in many societal areas, including regulatory protection for the public, greater antitrust measures, and attention to living conditions for the working classes. The notable leading figure of the progressives was Republican Vice President Theodore Roosevelt, who assumed the post of Presidency in November 1901 after President McKinley assassinated by an anarchist. Roosevelt later won the presidency in his own right in a landslide victory in 1904 Presidential election.

Roosevelt called for a "Square Deal", and initiated a policy of increased Federal supervision that aggressively curbed the power of large corporations called "trusts". Forty antitrust suits was brought by Roosevelt and major combinations such as the Standard Oil, the largest oil company, were broke-up. A new Department of Commerce and Labor was created in 1903. Conservation of the nation's natural resources and beautiful places was also a very high priority for Roosevelt. He placed 230 million acres under federal protection for preservation and parks and began systematic efforts to prevent forest fires and to retimber denuded tracts.

A cartoon depicting Roosevelt's "big stick" diplomacy.

The United States emerged as a world economic and military power in the late 1890s. Roosevelt then worked to build and to strengthen the Army and the Navy into the forces befitting a major world power that would able to protect U.S. interests. In late 1904, following the Colombia Crisis of 1902–03, Roosevelt announced his corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, stated that the U.S. would exercise of international police power over its Caribbean and Central American neighbors against European interventions. In 1905, Roosevelt negotiated an end to the Russo-Japanese War and ironed out a final conflict over the division of Sakhalin and Korea in the Treaty of Portsmouth: Russia took the northern half and Japan the south, and Japan dropped its demand for an indemnity.

Roosevelt declined to be nominated by Republicans for the third term in 1908 and instead supported his Secretary of War, William Howard Taft, for the nomination. Taft was easily elected to the office and continued anti-trust policy. However, after Taft attacked U.S. Steel that Roosevelt had personally approved as a "good trust", Roosevelt decided to seek for the third term in 1912. After failed to get Republican ticket, Roosevelt run his own for a newly-established Progressive Party with Governor of Upper California Hiram Johnson as his running mate. Survived from an assassination attempt during his campaign, Roosevelt was successfully re-elected. It signaled the beginning of Fourth Party System.

American troops cross Moselle into Germany in November 1918

When World War I began in Europe in 1914, the United States firmly maintained its neutrality despite President Roosevelt's strong sympathy for the Allies. Roosevelt, without enough support from the U.S. Congress, avoided war entry for all cost. However, on other side, naval and land forces were prepared for defensive purposes after the sinking of the RMS Lusitania in 1915. The Zimmerman Telegram, that offered the Confederate States to go to war with Germany against the United States, was the "last straw" for the United States.

President Roosevelt declared war against Central Powers in 1917. American troops, money, food, and munitions arrived quickly to Europe; by winter 1917 American soldiers under General Leonard Wood arrived at the rate of 10,000 a day, while Germany was unable to replace its losses. After the Franco-American forces launched the successful final offensive in Verdun (September Offensive), the Americans played a central role in the Allied final offensive (Hundred Days Offensive). Victory over Germany achieved on November 11, 1918. France, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Italy imposed severe economic penalties on Germany and Spain in the Treaty of Versailles. The U.S. Senate did not ratify the Treaty of Versailles and rejected American entry to the newly created League of Nations; instead, the United States signed separate peace treaties with Germany and its allies.

Roaring Twenties and the Great Depression (1921–1933)

Technologies, such as automobile, were mass produced during this era.

In the U.S. presidential election of 1920, the Republican Party returned to the White House with the victory of Charles Evans Hughes, who campaigned for the normalization of the U.S. society after the years of war, ethnic hatreds, race riots and exhausting reforms. However, another presidential election four years later saw the emergence of the Progressives as a solid political party with the election of Robert M. La Follete to the presidency. La Follete only served for four months before died in office in 1925 and was replaced by his Vice President Hiram Johnson.

During the successive administrations of Hughes (1921–1925), La Follete (1925) and Johnson (1925–1929), the United States enjoyed a period of widespread prosperity, except for a recession in 1920–21. The "Jazz Age" symbolized the popularity of new musics and dance forms as well as the growingly looser sexual standards in the society. Many major motion-picture companies had set up production near or in Los Angeles, especially in Hollywood neighborhood, due to its ideal weather which making the city the capital of American film industry. Black culture, especially in music and literature, flourished in New York City, site of the Harlem Renaissance.

Crowd at New York's American Union Bank during a bank run early in the Great Depression.

In 1920, the manufacture, sale, import, and export of alcohol were prohibited by the Eighteenth Amendment. Drinking or owning liquor was not illegal, only the manufacture or sale. The result was that in cities illegal alcohol became a big business, largely controlled by racketeers. Nevertheless, good times were widespread for all sectors (except agriculture and coal mining). New industries (especially electric power, movies, automobiles, gasoline, tourist travel, highway construction, and housing) flourished. Radio set ownership in each American households increased; by 1927, two national networks had been formed, the NBC Red Network and the Blue Network.

However, a financial bubble was fueled by an inflated stock market later led to the Stock Market Crash on October 29, 1929. This, along with many other economic factors, triggered a worldwide depression known as the Great Depression. Republican President Herbert Hoover was slow to react to the crisis. He did not provide federal relief to farmers and stubbornly refused to give help to the unemployed in urban areas. Hoover vetoed a bill that would have created a federal unemployment agency and also opposed a plan to create a public works program. During this time, the United States experienced deflation as prices fell, unemployment soared from 3% in 1929 to 25% in 1933, farm prices fell by half, and manufacturing output plunged by one-third.

New Deal era (1933–1942)

A cartoon by Vaughn Shoemaker in which he parodied the New Deal as a card game with alphabetical agencies, 1935.

The Republicans who were blamed for the Great Depression were defeated by Progressive nominee, Franklin D. Roosevelt, in 1932 presidential election. Upon taking the office, Roosevelt administration called for a "New Deal" to provide economic reliefs and restore the economy to normal condition. In 1933, the Farm Security Act was enacted to raise farm incomes by raising the prices farmers received, which was achieved by reducing total farm output. The Social Security Act was passed in 1935, established a permanent system of universal retirement pensions.

Numerous federal employment projects were also created to return the unemployed to the workforce, such as the Works Progress Administration (WPA), the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and the Public Works Administration (PWA). To prime the pump and cut unemployment, for example, the PWA was created to organize and provide funds for the building of public infrastructure. It alone employed more than 8.5 million workers who built 650,000 miles of highways and roads, 125,000 public buildings, as well as bridges, reservoirs, irrigation systems, parks, playgrounds and so on. The U.S. economy improved rapidly from 1933 to 1937 but then relapsed into a deep recession.

The construction of Fort Peck Dam built by the Missouri Basin Authority and employed 10,500 workers by July 1936.

Roosevelt's New Deal produced a political realignment. Many progressives that still remained at the Republican Party and the Liberal Party switched side and supported the Progressives during Roosevelt administration. As most of the progressive Liberals shifted their support, the Liberal Party adopted a more conservative platform against New Deal and gradually took conservative votes away from the Republicans. On the other hand, the Republican political prominence eventually diminished during the war, ending its hegemony since the War of Southern Secession.

In 1937, after some of his New Deal legislation ruled as unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court, President Roosevelt successfully expanded the size of the court through the Judicial Procedures Reform Act. Roosevelt's act for packing the court resulted to the revival of Liberal Party under the recent conservative turn against the New Deal coalition and crystallized the political realignment between American progressives and American conservatives that would be strengthened during Joseph P. Kennedy's administration in the 1950s.

USS New York under the Axis attack on Guantánamo Bay, January 15, 1942.

At the wake of World War II in Europe, the United States at first declined to enter the war due to isolationist sentiments of the Americans, limiting itself to giving supplies and weapons to Britain, Japan, and the Soviet Union. American feeling changed drastically with sudden joint German-Spanish-Italian naval attack on Guantánamo Bay on January 15, 1942. Following the attack, President Roosevelt officially asked for a declaration of war on Spain and Italy before a joint session of Congress on on January 16, 1942. The motion passed with only one vote against it, in both chambers. The U.S. enthusiastically went to war against Germany, Spain, Italy and China.

World War II (1942–1945)

American soldiers patrolled around the Amazon jungle, 1943.

Although the Allies, including the U.S., the U.K, and the USSR, saw Nazi Germany as the main threat and gave the highest priority to Europe, however in practice the U.S. devoted more in policing around the Atlantic against the Axis attacks on Allied merchant fleet and established its hegemony in South America as "America's backyard." During the early months of joining the war, main contributions of the U.S. to the Allied war effort in Europe consisted mostly of money, industrial output and munitions until it could ready an invasion force. Expeditionary forces were sent to Brazil, Peru and Chile in defense against Paraguay and Bolivia, aided with strategic bombings which destroyed all major cities in Colombia. With the U.S. invasion of the Nicaragua Canal Zone, the so-called "South American Axis" eventually collapsed by January 1944.

Outside the home front and its "backyard", the American forces were first tested to a limited degree in the North African Campaign and then employed more significantly with British Forces in Italy in 1943–45. The invasion of Italy eventually led to the downfall of Mussolini's fascist government in 1943 and the surrender of Italy that switched side to the Allies. However, further movement to Central Europe was halted as northern Italy was taken over by the Germans. Meanwhile, the American and British air forces engaged in the area bombardment of German and Spanish cities and systematically targeted German transportation links and synthetic oil plants before the the main invasion of France took place in June 1944 that allowing the Allied forces to advance further toward Central Europe.

Atomic bomb mushroom clouds over Barcelona (left) and Frankfurt (right).

The collapse of the South American Axis relieved the United States a lot of manpower to liberate the Mediterranean from the Axis control. The invasion of Gibraltar was commenced in December 1944, opening the Mediterranean to the Allied war fleets. Strategic bombings of Europe were eventually culminated with the dropping of atomic bombs by the U.S. air force to Barcelona on April 25, 1945, resulting to the surrender of Spain, and to Frankfurt on April 29. American forces met up with the Soviet Red Army marching into Germany from the east in May 1945. Being invaded from all sides, it became clear that Germany would lose the war. Adolf Hitler committed suicide on April 30, 1945 and Berlin fell to the Soviets on May 2. Hitler's successor, Karl Dönitz, led a rump government from Flensburg and continued resistance before eventually surrendering on May 17, 1945.

Early Cold War (1945–1961)

Political cartoon depicting a deepening crisis within Soviet-American relations, 1945.

Roosevelt had died on April 12, 1945, replaced by Vice President Thomas E. Dewey. Domestically, Dewey focused on welfare state system while eased strains in federal budget and fought against corruption and organized crime. Federal agencies were streamlined and there was a rigorous trust-busting to prevent monopolies. Overseas, Soviet annexation of Iranian Azerbaijan and left-wing insurgencies in Serbia and Albania in 1947 escalated Soviet-American geopolitical tensions. In response to these, a policy to contain the spread of communism, named the Dewey Doctrine, was called to support anti- or non-communist governments elsewhere, such as in western Germany, western Austria, Italy, and Greece. Foreign aid was also funneled to Western Europe through the Marshall Plan. In April 1949, along with, Canada Britain, France and eight other countries, the U.S. co-founded the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) as a collective security system.

Joseph P. Kennedy served as president between 1953–1961. During his presidency, Kennedy and foreign secretary John Foster Dulles aggressively rolled back both real and perceived communist threats, such by deposing democratically elected Latin American governments they judged hostile to American interests. At the request of the United Fruit Company, the U.S. invaded Central America and deposed its president, Jacobo Árbenz, in 1954, followed by military action against José María Velasco Ibarra's government in Colombia in 1955, leading to the civil wars on both countries. At abroad, the U.S. sponsored the 1953 Iranian coup and the Jeddah Pact, while carefully resolved the Suez Crisis in 1956 between Egypt and the British-French-Israeli alliance, fearing that the crisis might win the Arabs over to the Soviets.

Joseph P. Kennedy (1888–1969).

Under Kennedy's fiscal conservative regime, New Deal legacies, even its "revamped version" under Dewey, was significantly curbed which cut significant funding on social security and shifted toward cooperation with big businesses combining with deregulation. Conglomerates in chosen sectors, such as Standard Oil of the Californias, Ford Company, U.S. Steel and Litton Industries, were tacitly supported, forming oligopolies and forging intimate ties between the government and the big businesses. Interest rates for small and medium-sized businesses were reduced around 2% to 4% and and a major cut on corporate tax was enacted during the 1950s, which were highly popular among America's burgeoning middle class.

Family watching television in their home, c. 1958.

Expansion of big businesses had led to the low rates of unemployment ever recorded in the nation, measuring around 2% to 4.5% between 1954 and 1960. Prosperity increased compared to the pre-war level, while consumerism and mass consumption grew fast. Many Americans became a part of expanding middle class and were able now to afford luxuries formerly reserved only to the upper classes as well as leisure times, such as going to cinema and having holidays. By the end of decade, most of households had at least a refrigerator, electric washer, television, and vacuum cleaner. This prosperous era made Americans feel that it was a good time to bring children into the world, and so a huge baby boom resulted during the decade following 1945.

Perfect Union era (2008–2016)

The Twenty-eighth Amendment was ratified in 2006, abolishing the Electoral College as the method to elect president and vice president. The 2008 presidential election was the first to use direct, popular voting following the constitutional amendment. On November 4, 2008, Progressive candidate, Barack Obama, defeated Liberal candidate, John McCain, with 52.9% to 45.7% in the popular vote and became the country's 42nd president, becoming the first ever person as well as the first African American to be directly elected to the highest American executive office. The 2008 election was also remarkable for the election of John Eder as the first congressman from the Green Party representing Maine's 1st congressional district.

Recent events (2016–present)

On November 3, 2020, a referendum was held to determine the status of Puerto Rico. About 52.52% of the voters had voted for the commonwealth to be admitted into the Union as a state. Puerto Rico is scheduled to be admitted to the United States on January 1, 2023, with the passing of Puerto Rico Statehood Admission Act in 2022.

Further readings