The United States of America (1)

The United States of America

Geography
The United States of America is situated in the central part of the North American continent . Its western coast is washed by the Pacific Ocean , and its eastern coast by the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico . It borders on Canada in the north and on Mexico in the South .
The U.S.A. consists of 51 states and the District of Columbia . The state of Alaska is separated from the rest of the U.S.A. by Canada. Hawaii , which became the fiftieth state in 1959 , is in the Pacific Ocean, halfway between the continents of America and Asia .
The area of the United States of America is over nine million square kilometres. The continental part of the U.S.A. consists of two highland regions and two lowland regions. The highland regions are the Appalachian Mountains in the east and the Cordilleras in the west . The Appalachian Mountains run parallel to the Atlantic coast almost from the Gulf of Mexico into Canada. The highest peak is 2000 metres high. The Cordilleras stretch along the Pacific coast with the Sierra Nevada in the south and the Rocky mountains continuing into Canada and Alaska in the north. Their highest point in the U.S.A. is 4540 metres in Sierra Nevada.
The five Great lakes , between U.S.A. and Canada, are joined together by short rivers or canals. They are connected with the Atlantic Ocean by the St. Lawrence River , and with the Hudson river by a canal . In the west of the U.S.A. there is another big lake called the Great Salt Lake.
The biggest rivers of the U.S.A. are the Mississippi , the second largest river in the world (6420 km), which flows into the Gulf of Mexico, the Colorado and the Columbia, which flow into the Pacific Ocean, and the Hudson River, which flows into the Atlantic Ocean.
History
The first people who arrived in the Americas were the Native Americans. Many of them lived in small groups of about 20-50 people. Most of them were very peaceful people, who lived by hunting and collecting food. Other Native Americans lived in small villages, where they had farms. When Columbus reached the Caribbean in 1492 he thought that he had landed in the East Indies in Asia, so he called the people there “Indians”. After that thousands of Europeans arrived and they tried to take the land away from the Native Americans, so there were many wars. Native Americans also died from the diseases that the Europeans brought . At first they had to move to the west. But soon the white moved further west into the lands where the Indians lived and there were again many battles .
The American Civil War (1861–1865) was a civil war between the United States of America (the "Union") and the Southern slave states of the newly formed Confederate States of America under Jefferson Davis. The Union included all of the free states and the five slaveholding border states and was led by Abraham Lincoln and the Republican Party. Republicans opposed the expansion of slavery into territories owned by the United States, and their victory in the presidential election of 1860 resulted in seven Southern states declaring their secession from the Union even before Lincoln took office. The Union rejected secession, regarding it as rebellion.
The war began in 1861 with the bombing at Fort Sumter in South Carolina. After 4 years of war, the South finally surrendered and the Confederate States of America was destroyed.
Political system
The U.S.A is a federation and a democracy . It is made up of 51 States. Each State has its own government and there is a Federal Government for the whole country . It is a democracy because the government leaders are elected by the people.
For Americans, democracy means more than majority rule . It also means minority rights . The powers of the Federal Government are divided . The Congress writes the laws . The President carries out the laws and policies of the Government. The Supreme Court decides whether the laws themselves are legal or illegal.
In the Federation, the citizens elect most of the Federal leaders as well as the State leaders. The Federal Government carries out its decisions directly, using its own tax collectors and courts. The States are supposed to control education, police and internal regulations. All Americans are citizens both of the United States and of a single State. They vote in elections for both levels of government and they have to pay taxes to both levels of government.
The American system of federation was imitated too, especially in English - speaking nations like Canada and Australia .
Climate
The climate of the U.S.A. differs greatly from one part of the country to another. The coldest climate is in the north, where there is heavy snow in winter and the temperature may go down to 40 degrees below zero . The south has a subtropical climate, with temperatures as high as 49 degrees in summer .
Economy
The United States is rich in various metals and minerals. It holds first place in the capitalist world for production of coal , iron and oil and it also produces silver and gold . It has a greatly developed car, machine , and ship -building industries, textile and food industries.
Agriculture is very wide -spread, above all in the prairie regions, where wheat and other grain crops are grown . Cotton is grown in the Mississippi valley, tobacco in Maryland and Virginia . California is famous for its fruit, and the west for its cattle -farming. Poultry -farming is highly developed in the countryside near all big cities.
The United States economy is largely based on a free enterprise system. In this system individuals and companies are free to make their own economic decisions. They have their own raw materials, equipment and other items necessary for production and they decide how to use them in order to earn a profit. Even though U.S. economy is based on free enterprise, the government has placed regulations on economic practices through the years. In spite of the involvement by the government the U.S. still has one of the least regulated economies in the world.
The U.S. has a variety of natural resources to provide the raw materials that support the economy. The most valuable resources are soils, water, fish and forests . Forests cover nearly a third of the United States and they yield many valuable products .
Population
The population of the U.S.A. is about 320 million people. They are called Americans. Most of the people live in towns, the population of the countryside is becoming smaller and smaller. In America there are representatives of all the races and national groups of the world. There are about 24 million Negroes in the country and over 800 000 Indians. Many of the inhabitants come from Mexico and other South American countries.
The life of these people is very hard because of the racial discrimination. Besides coloured people, there are also representatives of all the peoples of Europe and Asia. Some of these have great difficulties, because they can only speak the language of their nation , but the language most used in the States is English.
Cities
The capital of the U.S.A. is Washington in the District of Columbia. It is a beautiful city with many famous monuments and without much industry. New York is the largest city and port. It has a population of about 13 million people. It is the business centre of the capitalist world. It is famous for its skyscrapers.
There are many great industrial cities in the U.S.A. Chicago is famous for its meat factories and has earned a bad name as a home of gangsters. Philadelphia produces agricultural machines . Detroit is one of the biggest centres of car industry. Los Angeles is an important centre of modern industries. Not far from it is Hollywood, the world-famous centre of the US film business. Boston and San Francisco are large seaports.
Flag
The flag of the United States of America consists of 13 equal horizontal stripes of red (top and bottom ) alternating with white, with a blue rectangle in the canton bearing 50 small, white, five-pointed stars arranged in nine offset horizontal rows of six stars (top and bottom) alternating with rows of five stars. The 50 stars on the flag represent the 50 U.S. states and the 13 stripes represent the original Thirteen Colonies that rebelled against the British crown and became the first states in the Union. Nicknames for the flag include the Stars and Stripes, Old Glory, and the Star -Spangled Banner (also the name of the country's official national anthem).