U.S.A (0)

Introduction

The United States of America is a very big country . Its territory is about 9.4 million square kilometres and its population is more than 260 million people, 12% of them are the Afro-Americans.
It is the world's third-largest country by size and by population. The population density is about 27 people per square kilometre. Most of the people live in towns.
There are 50 states in America. The biggest of the state is Texas, next by size are California , Alaska and Montana . Six states - Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Connecticut ,Rhode Island and Massachusetts are called New England . They are all small states in the U.S. that lie in the north - east . The first colony of immigrants settled down in Virginia , in the eastern part of the U.S.A.
The biggest cities are New York , Washington, Chicago , Los Angeles , San Francisco , etc. The official language of the USA is English ; Spanish is also widely spoken. The currency of the USA is the United States Dollar .

Lakes and rivers

The Mississippi is the major river of North America and the United States. It flows from north- western Minnesota south to the Gulf of Mexico .The western tributaries are the Red River, the Arkansas and the Missouri . The eastern tributaries are the Tennessee and the Ohio . Its name means the Father of Waters in the red Indian . Together with its tributaries it forms 20,000 km of navigable waterways.
Other important rivers are the Colorado and the Columbia that flow into the Pacific Ocean , and the Rio Grande . The rivers of the Pacific basin are rapid . There are many hydro- electric power -stations on them.Over 800 rivers cross the continental (48) states. Most are small branches and/or tributaries of larger rivers.The great lakes between the USA and Canada are joined together by rivers and canals. The lakes are connected to the Atlantic Ocean by the St. Lawrence River and to the Hudson River by a canal . Between Lake Ontario and Lake Erie is Niagara Falls (51 m). Another large lake in the USA is Great Salt Lake. It is saltier than the sea.

History

For thousands of years America was unknown to Europe . In 1492 Christopher Columbus discovered it while trying to reach India. He didn’t stay and in the sixteenth century the first Europeans to settle in America were the Spanish, the English and the French . The first village founded by the English settlers was in Virginia in 1607. It was called Jamestown. In 1620 a new group of British settlers reached Plymouth, Massachusetts, called ’Pilgrims’ due to their strong belief in religion. They became farmers and businessmen who coped with the Indians and in 1621 had a big dinner to thank the Indians as they had helped them to survive the hard winter . That day is now known as Thanksgiving and is celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November in America. More and more people arrived . Over a time settlers from many other countries joined the English in America – the French, the Spaniards , the Dutch . Africans were first brought to Virginia in 1619. By 1770 there were thirteen British colonies in America who weren’t pleased with their lives because they had to pay high taxes . In 1773, the ’ Boston Tea Party ’ took place and it made the British mad, so in 1775 the War of Independence started . The Americans were led by George Washington who in 1788 became the country’s first president . On the 4th of July , 1776 the Declaration of Independence was written and that day is now celebrated as the Day of Independence. The war ended in 1788 and during the time following it, the Americans bought large pieces of land from foreign countries to themselves, creating a big country. By 1860 America was a big country but there was a big difference between the free North and the slavery South. The biggest problem was the issue of slaves and due to that the Civil War broke out in 1861. President Abraham Lincoln tried hard to unite the country again. Though both sides were strong, the North had more men, more factories and stronger leaders. In 1865 the South accepted the loss. Lincoln was shot in 1865 and the next president wasn’t strong enough to unite the country, so problems weren’t solved.During the 19th century many people went to live in the west . To people of today the West comes to us through fun cowboys who in reality were hard-working men. They disappeared when the government gave them land and from 1862 to 1900 they became farmers. The farms that in the beginning were lonely, were brought together by the railway built in 1869.In the 15th century there were about two million Indians in America but due to diseases brought by Europeans and wars fought between them, by 1900 there were only about 250,000 natives left . The Indian wars finally ended in 1890 with the Battle of Wounded Knee and after it the government gave the Indians reservations, pieces of land that belonged to them.At the beginning of the 19th century many settlers came to America, in search for a better life. By the middle of the 19th century there were already 34 states in the U.S.A.
The United States grew to be one of the great powers of the world. The nation fought in the First World War. After the war women got the right to vote for the first time.In 1929 the Great Depression began with the stock market crash. Banks , factories and farms shut down and many Americans were unemployed. In 1941 the United States entered the Second World War when Japan attacked the Hawaiian Islands . The war ended in 1945 when the US dropped the first atomic bombs, and the world entered the Nuclear Age.Today about 30 million of 260 million Americans are black . When they were freed after the Civil War, the Southerners were angry at them and showed a lot of prejudice . Some of them formed the Ku Klux Klan who beat and murdered black people. Until in 1870 the blacks didn’t have civil rights or the right to vote. In the 20th century many blacks travelled to the North but even there they were treated as different and until 1954 black kids had to go to separate schools . In the 1950s a black churchman by the name Martin Luther King started to fight for black people and said that they were equal to whites. After 1963 when he held his famous speech “I have a dream...“, in 1964 the blacks were given same rights as the white. In 1968 King was murdered.The 1950s are known as the time of Cold War because of the competition with the Soviet Union. After that in the 1960s and 1970s the Americans fought in the Korean and in the Vietnam War, and in the1990s in the Gulf War and now they are fighting in Iraq.

Industry

The US is extremely rich in natural resources. The western mountains are especially rich in them. The US is among the leading countries in the value of its mineral production . The US is third, after Russia and Saudi Arabia, in the production of petroleum . Mining has been the key of development of the USA. The US has large deposits of coal , iron ore, natural gas, and petroleum, which are vital to the country’s industrial strength . Its many other important minerals include copper , gold , lead , silver and zinc . To meet its needs the US must import additional amounts of iron ore, petroleum, and other minerals.Most American industry is located in the eastern and mid-western parts, around the Great Lakes and also on the Pacific coast.The US engineering products are known all over the world. The US produces planes, rockets, cars, agricultural machinery, ships, etc. Electronics has become a major industry.The role of service and leisure industries has also grown . Canned fish and timber are the chief products of the state of Alaska, while Hawaii ’s are sugar , nuts and canned pineapple. The value of American manufactured goods is greater than that of any other country. Factories in the US turn out a tremendous amount of producer goods, such as sheet metal and printing presses; and consumer goods, such as cars, clothing , and TV sets . The leading categories of US products are chemicals , transportation equipment , food products, electrical machinery, scientific and medical instruments and primary metals .

Agriculture

Agriculture accounts for 2% of the U.S. gross domestic product and employs 3% of the nation’s workers . Yet, the US is a world leader in agricultural production. The country’s farms turn out as much food as the nation needs, with enough left over to export food to other countries. About a third of the world’s food exports come from US farms.Beef cattle is the most valuable product of American farms. Millions of beef cattle are reared on huge ranches in Western US, also the South and Midwest.Other leading farm products, in order of value, include milk , maize, soybeans, chickens and eggs , pigs, wheat and cotton . US farms also produce large amounts of hay, tobacco, turkeys, oranges, potatoes, tomatoes, apples, peanuts and sorghum .Farmers throughout the country rear dairy cattle for milk and other products. Much of the dairy production is concentrated in a belt that extends from Minnesota to New York. Midwestern states account for much of the nation’s maize, soybeans and pig production. The nation’s chief wheat-growing region stretches across the Great Plains. Most of the chickens are reared in the South. California and states in the South and Southwest produce almost all of the country’s cotton. Farmers in other areas also produce poultry , eggs, fruit, vegetables, nuts and many other crops.The use of modern machinery and agricultural methods has helped make U.S. farms to be one of the most efficient in the world but it has also increased production costs . Many farmers who have been unable to meet these rising costs, have been forced to leave farming and sell their land. Since 1925, the number of farms has decreased to about 2 million. But at the same time, average farm size has increased about 30%.

Climate

The climate of the U.S.A differs greatly from one part of the country to another. It is colder in the north and warmer in the south. The main part of the country lies in the temperate and the subtropical belts. The south of Florida lies in the tropical belt and Alaska in the arctic belt. The mountain ranges in the west and in the east of the country prevent damp air from moving into inland. As there are no mountains running from east to west, cold polar air masses can move far to the south. Sometimes warm tropical air from the south reaches far to the north. Hot winds blowing from the Gulf of Mexico often bring hurricanes. The summers are warm and the winters are cold in the central part of the country.The rainfall is heavier on the western slopes of the Cordilleras, the eastern and the south-eastern parts of the country get a lot of rain too. It rains less in the area of the Great Plains. The western coast is much warmer than the eastern coast because of the influence of the Pacific Ocean.
.
Geography
The main part of United States extends from Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west.It covers the middle of the North American continent .This area is called the continental United States.The continental United States is bounded to the north by Canada and to the south by Mexico.The border with Canada is often called the longest unguarded border in the world.The United Staetes and Canada are good friends and have very few problems in managing the broder .The border with Mexico is different.Immigrants are constantly crossing the border illegally. American patrols are constantly trying to catch them and send them back to Mexico.Every day,about 2,000 of them are captured and sent back,but many others get through.
Political system
The USA is a federal union of 50 states. The basic law is the constitution, adopted in 1787, which prescribes the structure of national government and lists its rights and fields of authority. Each state has its government and all of them have the dual character of both Federal and State government. The political system of the USA is divided into three branches: judicial , legislative and executive . Each branch holds a certain degree of power over the others, and all take part in the governmental process . The constitution of the USA. Although the American system of government is based on Great Britain 's, it differs in having a written constitution, that is the bases of all government and law. The constitution of the US was adopted after the War of Independence on the 17th of September 1787. It lists the set of rules , law regulations, which provide the practical norms, regulating the work of the government. The document imbodied the practical theories of man of property. The main principle underline the constitution was as follows: "Private property is the backbone of liberty". It was put forward by a rich plantation owner from Virginia James Madison, who is known to be a father of the constitution. The constitution consists of Preamble and seven articles . 27 amendments have so far been added to its original text. The first 10 amendments, known as "the Bill of Rights', were added in a group in 1791. These amendments establish the individual rights and freedoms to all people of the states, including freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of worship etc. Americans fill that of all freedoms, proclaimed in the constitution, there is only one freedom - the freedom of enterprise. But it means freedom of the wealthy people only. The 21st amendment limited the President's ruling by maximum two terms . The legislative branch. Supreme legislative power in the American government lies with Congress : the Senate, the upper house; and the House of the Representatives - the Lower House. Each state has its own government - State Assemblies or, Legislatures with two houses . According to the constitution of the USA, all citizens of both sexes over 18 years of age has a right of voting, but in reality the number of voters is much smaller. The main task of Congress is to make federal laws, to levy federal taxes, to make rules for trade, to corn money , to organise Armed forces, to declare war, to make amendments to the constitution or put foreign treaties into effect. Under the constitution the US Senate has some special powers, not given to the House of representatives. It approves or disapproves the main presidential appointments: Ambassadors. Cabinet Members and federal judges; also ratify by a 2/3 vote treatments between the USA and foreign countries. The House of Representatives has a special power of its own - to invent a bill to raise money. The Senate is composed of 100 members - two from each of 50 states, who are elected for a term of years. Although congressional elections take place every two years, only 1/3 of the Senate is reelected. A Senator must be at least 30ty years old, a citizen of the USA for 9 years and a resident of the state from which he is elected. Democrats sit in the western part of the chamber - on Vice -president right. Republicans sit on his left. Vice-president presides over the Senate and conducts debates. The Senate is stable and more conservative than the House of Representatives and many Senators are more experienced politicians. The House of representatives has 450 members. The number of Representatives depends on the population of each state. A Representative must be at least 25 years age, a US citizen for 7 years and live in the state from which he is elected. Democrats sit on the Speakers right, republicans - on his left. The Speaker presides over the House and conducts debates. The Speaker, like Vice-president, may vote. Most of the Congressmen are layers, businessman and bankers. The American press as an unrepresentative institution sometimes criticises the US Congress. The Congress in work . A new Congress session begins on the 3rd of January each odd number year and continues for two years. A Congressman must work long and hard. But most of their work is done in committee meetings. Here bills are studied, experts are consulted, and recommendations are made to the whole House of Senate. During a two year term of a Congress, as many as 20000 bills are introduced. There are 16 'standing' or permanent committees in the Senate, and 22 in the House. They accept and improve some bills, but reject most of them. For a bill becomes a law it must be read, studied in committees, commented on and amended in the Senate or House chamber in which it was introduced. It is then voted upon . If it passes, it is sent to the other house where a similar procedure occurs. Members of both houses work together in "conference committees" if the chambers have passed different versions of the same bill. Groups who try to persuade Congressmen to vote for or against a bill are known as "lobbies". When both houses of Congress pass a bill on which they agree , it is sent to the president for his signature. If President is disapproves, he vetoes and refusing to sign it, and sends it back to Congress. President’s objection are read and debated. To overcome the President's veto, the bill must get a 2/3 majority in each chamber.
CULTURE
The development of the culture of the United States of America — music, cinema , dance , architecture , literature , poetry , cuisine and the visual arts — has been marked by a tension between two strong sources of inspiration: European sophistication and domestic originality.
American music is heard all over the world, such as through Channel V, VH1 and by singers such as Michael Jackson, Tina Turner, Madonna, Whitney Houston, Cyndi Lauper, Mariah Carey, and the Backstreet Boys ; American movies and television shows can be seen almost anywhere, including icons like Star Wars, Titanic and The Matrix ; American sports figures are widely known, such as Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods , Venus Williams , Mike Tyson and Michael Johnson ; and American movie actors and actresses are widely recognized such as Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts , Brad Pitt , Marilyn Monroe , Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Cruise . This is in very stark contrast to the early days of the American republic , when the country was generally seen as an agricultural backwater with little to offer the culturally advanced world centers of Europe and Asia . At the beginning of her third century, nearly every major American city offers classical and popular music; historical, scientific and art research centers and museums ; dance performances, musicals and plays ; outdoor art projects and internationally significant architecture. This development is a result of both contributions by private philanthropists and government funding.