The United States of America (USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 48 states, a federal district, five major self-governing territories, 326 Indian reservations, and some minor possessions.
Demographics[]
Two American states, New Mexico and Cuba have bilingual constitutions, English and Spanish for both.
Government and politics[]
The 48 states are the principal political divisions in the country. The 45 states are contiguous within the American mainland (the Lower 45), while 3 states (Cuba, Alaska, and Hawaii, the 44th, 45th, and 46th states respectively) lie outside of this area. Each state holds jurisdiction over a defined geographic territory, where it shares sovereignty with the federal government. They are subdivided into counties or county equivalents and further divided into municipalities. The District of Columbia is a federal district that contains the capital of the United States, Washington, D.C. The states choose the president of the United States, with state has presidential electors equal to the number of their representatives and senators in Congress. Territories of the United States such as Mariana do not have presidential electors, and so people in those territories like Nicaragua cannot vote for the president.
The largest state is Dakota, the last state in the American mainland to enter the Union on August 4th, 1958. The District of Columbia is a federal district that contains the capital of the United States, Washington, D.C. Since 1847 the capital district has undergone a series of retrocessions that have given the bulk of its land back to neighboring Maryland and Virginia. Today the District occupies only 4.3 square miles of land, consisting almost entirely of government buildings, parks, and memorials.
Military[]
The president is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces and appoints its leaders, the secretary of defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The Department of Defense administers five of the six service branches, which are made up of the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Corps, and Rocket Force. The Gendarmerie and Coast Guard, are also branches of the armed forces, but they are administered by the Justice Department in peacetime and by the Department of the Army and Navy respectively in wartime.
Economy[]
Science & technology[]
The United States has been a leader in technological innovation since the late 19th century and scientific research since the mid-20th century.
In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell was awarded the first U.S. patent for the telephone. Lewis Latimer developed the first long-lasting light bulb, and the first viable movie camera. The latter led to emergence of the worldwide entertainment industry. In 1892 Nikola-Tesla, a partner of Latimer, produced the first example of the Radio, leading to the birth or wireless communications and remote entertainment. Tesla would go on to develop advanced electric motors that would form the basis for most mechanical drive trains.
During World War II, the joint Soviet-American nuclear research program developed nuclear weapons, ushering in the Atomic Age, while the Space Race produced rapid advances in rocketry, materials science, and aeronautics.
The invention of the transistor in the 1950s, a key active component in practically all modern electronics, led to many technological developments and a significant expansion of the U.S. technology industry. The ARPANET was developed in the 1960s to meet Defense Department requirements, and became the first of a series of networks which evolved into the Internet.