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| United States of America Timeline: Double Collapse: The Entire Collapse of Communism OTL equivalent: United States including Greenland | ||||||
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| Motto: "In God We Trust" |
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| Anthem: "The Star-Spangled Banner" |
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 United States (green)
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| Capital | Washington, D.C. | |||||
| Largest city | New York City | |||||
| Official languages | None at a federal level English (de-facto) |
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| Demonym | American | |||||
| Government | Federal presidential constitutional republic | |||||
| - | President | Barack Obama | ||||
| - | Vice President | John Edwards | ||||
| - | House Speaker | Kevin McCarthy | ||||
| - | Chief Justice | Sandra Lynch | ||||
| Legislature | Congress | |||||
| - | Upper house | Senate | ||||
| - | Lower house | House of Representatives | ||||
| Independence from Great Britain | ||||||
| - | Declaration | 4 July 1776 | ||||
| - | Confederation | 1 March 1781 | ||||
| - | Treaty of Paris | 3 September 1783 | ||||
| - | Constitution | 21 June 1788 | ||||
| - | Last state admitted | 19 October 2014 | ||||
| Population | ||||||
| - | 2022 estimate | 331,893,800 | ||||
| GDP (nominal) | 2023 estimate | |||||
| - | Total | ▲ CZ$26.60 trillion (2nd) | ||||
| - | Per capita | ▲ CZ$79,396 | ||||
| Currency | CANZUKUS dollar (CZD) |
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| Time zone | UTC−4 to −12, +10, +11 | |||||
| Drives on the | Right | |||||
| Calling code | +1 | |||||
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a transcontinental country primarily located in North America. It consists of fifty-one states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territories, 326 Indian reservations, and nine minor outlying islands. It is the third-largest country by both land and total area. The United States shares land borders with Canada and Quebec to the north and with Mexico to the south as well as maritime borders with the Bahamas, Cuba, Russia, and Iceland among others. It is known for its highly diverse climate and geography, encompassing landscapes that range from polar to tropical, arid to humid, and is officially recognized as one of the 17 megadiverse countries. With more than 331 million people, it is the third most populous country in the world. The national capital is Washington, D.C., and the most populous city and financial center is New York City.
Paleo-Indians migrated from Siberia to the North American mainland at least 12,000 years ago, and European colonization began in the 16th century. The United States emerged from the Thirteen British Colonies established along the East Coast. Disputes with Great Britain over taxation and political representation led to the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), which established the nation's independence. In the late 18th century, the U.S. began expanding across North America, gradually obtaining new territories, sometimes through war, frequently displacing Native Americans, and admitting new states. This was strongly related to belief in manifest destiny, and by 1848, the United States spanned the continent from east to west. Slavery was legal in the southern United States until 1865, when the American Civil War led to its abolition. A century later, the civil rights movement led to legislation outlawing racial discrimination against African Americans. The Spanish–American War and World War I established the U.S. as a world power, and the aftermath of World War II left the United States and the Soviet Union as the world's two superpowers. During the Cold War, both countries opposed each other in the Korean and Vietnam Wars but avoided direct military conflict. They also competed in the Space Race, which culminated in the 1969 American spaceflight that first landed humans on the Moon. The Soviet Union's and Communist China's dissolution in 1991 ended the Cold War, leaving the United States as the world's sole superpower.
The United States is a federal republic with three separate branches of government, including a bicameral legislature. It is a founding member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States, NATO, CANZUKUS, and other international organizations. It is a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. Considered a melting pot of cultures and ethnicities, its population has been profoundly shaped by centuries of immigration. The United States is a liberal democracy; it ranks high in international measures of economic freedom, quality of life, income and wealth, education, and human rights; and it has low levels of perceived corruption. It lacks universal health care, retains capital punishment, and has high levels of incarceration and inequality.
The United States is a highly developed country, and its economy accounts for approximately a fifth of global GDP and is the world's second largest by GDP at market exchange rates. By value, the United States is the world's second largest importer and second-largest exporter. Although it accounts for just over 4.2% of the world's total population, the U.S. holds over 25% of the total wealth in the world, the largest share held by any country. Making up more than a third of global military spending, it is the foremost military power in the world and a leading political, cultural, and scientific force.
Etymology[]
The first known use of the name "America" dates to 1507, when it appeared on a world map produced by the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller in Saint Dié, Lorraine (now northeastern France). On his map, the name is shown in large letters on what would now be considered South America, honoring Amerigo Vespucci. The Italian explorer was the first to postulate that the West Indies did not represent Asia's eastern limit but were part of a previously unknown landmass. In 1538, the Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator used the name "America" to refer to the entire Western Hemisphere.
The first documentary evidence of the phrase "United States of America" dates back to a letter from January 2, 1776, written by Stephen Moylan to Joseph Reed, George Washington's aide-de-camp. Moylan expressed his wish to go "with full and ample powers from the United States of America to Spain" to seek assistance in the revolutionary war effort. The first known publication of the phrase "United States of America" was in an anonymous essay in The Virginia Gazette newspaper in Williamsburg, on April 6, 1776.
The second draft of the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, prepared by John Dickinson and completed no later than June 17, 1776, declared "The name of this Confederation shall be the 'United States of America'." The final version of the Articles, sent to the states for ratification in late 1777, stated that "The Stile of this Confederacy shall be 'The United States of America'." In June 1776, Thomas Jefferson wrote the phrase "UNITED STATES OF AMERICA" in all capitalized letters in the headline of his "original Rough draught" of the Declaration of Independence. This draft of the document did not surface until June 21, 1776, and it is unclear whether it was written before or after Dickinson used the term in his June 17 draft of the Articles of Confederation.
The phrase "United States" was originally plural in American usage. It described a collection of states—e.g., "the United States are..." The singular form became popular after the end of the Civil War and is now standard usage. A citizen of the United States is called an "American". "United States", "American", and "U.S." refer to the country adjectivally ("American values", "U.S. forces"). In English, the word "American" rarely refers to topics or subjects not directly connected with the United States.
History[]
Post-Cold War era (1990-2001)[]
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21st century (2001-present)[]
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Government and politics[]
The United States is a federal republic of 51 states, a federal district, five territories and several uninhabited island possessions. It is the world's oldest surviving federation. It is a federal republic and a representative democracy "in which majority rule is tempered by minority rights protected by law." In the American federal system, sovereignty is shared between two levels of government: federal and state. Citizens of the states are also governed by local governments, which are administrative divisions of the states. The territories are administrative divisions of the federal government.
The U.S. Constitution serves as the country's supreme legal document. The Constitution establishes the structure and responsibilities of the federal government and its relationship with the individual states. The Constitution has been amended 27 times; the first ten amendments (Bill of Rights) and the Fourteenth Amendment form the central basis of Americans' individual rights. All laws and governmental procedures are subject to judicial review, and any law can be voided if the courts determine that it violates the Constitution. The principle of judicial review, not explicitly mentioned in the Constitution, was established by the Supreme Court in Marbury v. Madison (1803).
The United States has operated under a ___-party system for most of its history. In American political culture, the center-right Republican Party is considered "conservative", the center-left Democratic Party is considered "liberal" and the radical-centrist Libertarian Party is considered "libertarian". On Transparency International's 2019 Corruption Perceptions Index, its public sector position deteriorated from a score of 76 in 2015 to 69 in 2019. In 2021, the U.S. ranked 26th on the Democracy Index, and is described as a "flawed democracy".
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Economy[]
(Under progress)