USA

USA

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and the Federal Capital Territory. Most of the country is located in central North America, where 48 states and Washington, DC, are located between the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans, and is bordered by Canada in the north and Mexico in the south. Alaska is located in the northwest of the continent, and is bordered to Canada in the east and Russia to the west by the Bering Strait. The state of Hawaii, which is an archipelago, is located in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The country also includes a number of lands and islands in the Caribbean and the Pacific.

The United States ranks third in area (3.79 million square miles or 9.83 million square kilometers), and it ranks third in terms of population (307 million people). And the United States is distinguished as one of the most diverse countries in the world in terms of race and culture, and this came as a result of the large migration to it from different countries.

 The American economy is considered the largest national economy in the world, where the gross domestic product for the year 2008 is estimated at about 14.3 trillion US dollars (23% of the total).

The country was founded by thirteen British colonies along the Atlantic coast, the first of which was the English "Virginia" colony, whose discoverer, Sir Walter Raleigh, called this name after the Virgin Queen Elizabeth. English settlement increased on the east coast after the emergence of companies aimed at encouraging the movement of settlement in overseas lands, which were popular with people due to economic crises, unemployment and religious persecution.

Jamestown was founded in the year 1607 in the lands of Virginia, it was the first successful English settlement in the future lands of the United States. Other colonies were followed by: New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Maryland, South Carolina, North Carolina, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, and Pennsylvania.

The people of these colonies were engaged in agriculture, logging, mining, trade and livestock, and their inhabitants were made up of an English and European mixture due to the influx of other European immigrants. These colonies issued the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, which recognized their independence from Great Britain and the formation of a federal government. Rebel states defeated Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War, the first successful colonial war to gain independence.

The Philadelphia Convention adopted the current US constitution on September 17, 1787; and it was ratified the following year which made those states part of a single republic with a strong central government. The Bill of Rights was ratified in 1791, and includes ten constitutional amendments to guarantee many basic civil rights and freedoms.

The geographic region that currently constitutes the United States of America was settled by humans for the first time in the late or late ice age or shortly after, after tribes belonging to the two elements of the Mongolians crossed from the Levantine These were the ancestors of Native Americans.

As for modern European colonization, it first began with the Spanish, then moved to the British, who began thinking about colonizing the regions that constitute the eastern coast of the United States today during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, who occupied throughout the second half of the sixteenth century, especially after the destruction of the mighty Spanish fleet in 1588 .

In the nineteenth century, the United States acquired land from France, Spain, the United Kingdom, Mexico, and Russia, and the Republic of Texas and Hawaii were also included. The disputes between the agricultural region of the South and the North Industrial Zone over state rights and the expansion of the slave trade led to the outbreak of the American Civil War in the 1860s. The victory of the northern region prevented a split in the country, which led to the end of legal slavery in the United States. The national economy became the largest economy in the world by 1870.

The American Spanish War and World War I emphasized the country's military strength. In 1945, the United States emerged from World War II as the first country to possess nuclear weapons, a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, and a founding member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The United States also became the world's only superpower after the end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The United States spends about 50 percent of global military spending on the United States, and it is a global economic, political and cultural force.

The area of the United States of America is approximately 1.9 billion acres. The largest state, Alaska, separated by Canada from the United States, is 365 million acres. Hawaii, a group of islands located in the central Pacific Ocean in southwestern North America, has an area of more than 4 million acres.

The United States of America is the third or fourth country by area after Russia, Canada, and in front of or after China. The arrangement varies according to the calculation of the area of ​​the disputed areas between China and India, and how the total area is calculated for the United States of America: The area is 3,794,083 square miles, which is equivalent to 9,826,630 square kilometers, according to the CIA World Factbook, and 3,717,813 square miles (9,629,091 square kilometers) According to the United Nations Statistics Division, 3,676,486 square miles (9,522,055 square kilometers), according to the British Encyclopedia. This places the United States in fourth place in terms of area, after Russia, China and Canada.

The United States possesses most types of climate due to its large area and geographical diversity. The climate differs in the north, where it is humid continental east of the 100th longitude, and it is semi-tropical humid in the south. As in Hawaii, the southern tip of Florida has a tropical climate. The vast plains west of the 100th meridian include a semi-arid climate. Most of the western mountains have an alpine climate. In addition, the climate is arid in the Great Basin Desert in the southwest, Mediterranean in coastal California, and oceanic in coastal Oregon, Washington, and southern Alaska.

Most of Alaska is polar. The country is also exposed to some natural disasters, especially the states that overlook the Gulf of Mexico and are subject to tropical hurricanes, as the most famous hurricanes in the world hit that region, especially in the path of hurricanes in the Midwest.

The United States has a mixed capitalist economy fueled by an abundance of natural resources, advanced infrastructure, and high productivity. According to the International Monetary Fund, the gross domestic product of the United States, which amounts to $ 14.87 trillion, constitutes 24% of global output at market exchange rates and approximately 21% of global output in terms of purchasing power parity.

It is also the largest GDP in the world, although it was about 5% less than the total GDP of the European Union in terms of purchasing power parity in 2008. The country ranks ninth in the world in terms of nominal GDP per capita, and the sixth rank of Where the GDP per capita in terms of purchasing power parity.

The United States is the largest commodity importer and the third largest exporter, although per capita exports are relatively low. The US trade balance deficit reached $ 696 billion in 2008. Canada, China, Mexico, Japan and Germany are the largest trading partners of the United States.

In 2007, cars were the largest importing and exporting commodity. Japan has the largest foreign share of the US public debt, surpassing China in early 2010. The United States is again in the Global Competitiveness Report.

The United States is a country of social welfare, as it is one of the most austere developed countries. Relative and absolute poverty is much lower than the average for rich countries. Although per capita public and private social expenditures are higher than any of the Scandinavian countries.

  While the state of luxury in America reduced the level of poverty among the elderly, it did not help much in solving the problems of youth. According to a 2007 UNICEF study on the welfare of children in twenty-one industrialized countries, the United States ranks second to last.

Despite increased productivity, lower unemployment, and lower inflation, income gains since 1980 have been slower than in previous decades, and have been accompanied by an increase in economic insecurity. Between 1947 and 1979, average real income increased by 80% for all groups, as the income of the poor in the United States increased faster than the wealthy.

 Average household income has increased in all groups since 1980, as a result of increasing double income for family families and narrowing the gender gap and longer working hours, but growth has been slower and tilted strongly towards the top. Consequently, the share of the rich elite’s income at 1% represents 21.8% of the total revenue reported in 2005 and has doubled since 1980.

This places the United States first in terms of income inequality between the developed world. The richest 1% of the population pays 27.6% of all federal taxes; the first 10% pays 54.7%. Wealth is very concentrated in the hands of a few, such as income, as the richest 10% of the adult population owns 69.8% of the wealth of families in the country, which is the second highest percentage among developed countries. While the richest 1% owns 33.4% of the net worth.