Independence and expansion

Tensions between American colonials and the British during the revolutionary period of the 1760s and early 1770s led to the American Revolutionary War, fought from 1775 through 1781. On June 14, 1775, the Continental Congress, convening in Philadelphia, established a Continental Army under the command of George Washington. Proclaiming that “all men are created equal” and endowed with “certain unalienable Rights,” the Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence, drafted largely by Thomas Jefferson, on July 4, 1776. That date is now celebrated annually as America’s Independence Day. In 1777, the Articles of Confederation established a weak federal government that operated until 1789.

After the British defeat by American forces assisted by the French, Great Britain recognized the independence of the United States and the states’ sovereignty over American territory west to the Mississippi River. A constitutional convention was organized in 1787 by those wishing to establish a strong national government, with powers of taxation. The United States Constitution was ratified in 1788, and the new republic’s first Senate, House of Representatives, and president—George Washington—took office in 1789. The Bill of Rights, forbidding federal restriction of personal freedoms and guaranteeing a range of legal protections, was adopted in 1791.

Attitudes toward slavery were shifting; a clause in the Constitution protected the African slave trade only until 1808. The Northern states abolished slavery between 1780 and 1804, leaving the slave states of the South as defenders of the “peculiar institution.” The Second Great Awakening, beginning about 1800, made evangelicalism a force behind various social reform movements, including abolitionism.

Land animal foods

The largest amount of animal protein came from game meats. Large game included bison, deer, elk, moose, bighorn sheep, and bear, mountain lion, along with goat and pronghorn being found in the Rocky Mountains. The small game cooked included rabbit, raccoon, opossum, squirrel, wood rat, chipmunk, ground hog, peccary, prairie dog, skunk, badger, beaver, and porcupine. Game birds included turkey, partridge, quail, pigeon, plover, lark and osprey. Water fowl was quite abundant and varied, particularly on the coasts such as ducks, geese, swan, crane and sea crane. Other amphibious proteins included alligators and frogs, which the legs were enjoyed from, especially bullfrogs. Snail meat was also enjoyed, along with various turtles such as the painted turtle, wood turtle, and snapping turtle along with their eggs. In addition the sea turtle and green turtle, endangered today were considered an important spiritual protein by the Native Americans.

Anglo-American war

In 1812 a dispute erupted following the Anglo-American. Conflicts may become a Canadian and borderland dispute related to the commercial blockade applied by the British against Napoleonic France. England has used a pretext to carry out armed attempt to restore the status kolonialnego of the United States, but without effect. Anglo-American war ended with the 1814 treaty gandawskim, in principle, without any tangible benefit of the parties. In the final phase of a military advantage has been on the U.S. side, which initiated the construction of myth about niezwyciężonej army. This was also an additional factor in the formation of the American nation. The consequence of the conflict settlement was also the signing of Rush-Bagota of 1817, concerning the demilitarization of the border and the 1818 Convention relating to regulatory limits.

Attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon

Attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon – a series of four morning of the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 on the territory of the United States using aircraft abducted. Made it 19 hijackers who bought tickets for 4 domestic flights of U.S. airlines. It is suspected that they also places a significant part in these aircraft in order to reduce the number of people on board, which had facilitated self-control aircraft. After taking over control of the aircraft sent them to the known objects in the United States. Officially, it is understood that the towers were zawaleniu the violation of steel structure buildings by the intense fires caused by air disasters. In total, as a result of targeted air disaster killed more than 3,000 people and hundreds more have been fatal poisoning rozpylonym asbestos and other substances derived clouds of dust created by the collapse of the two studziesięciopiętrowych World Trade Center towers.

New Orleans

New Orleans is the largest city in the U.S. state of Louisiana. New Orleans, the birthplace of jazz, cocktails and of the relaxed lifestyle, has increased in recent months by Hurricane Katrina in negative headlines. It will certainly take years until the European of all American cities will recover.

But one clear: The floods have mainly affected the surrounding residential areas, and everything should be done to assist victims. The historic old town, the elegant Garden District and the plantations in the southeast Louisiana are not damaged. Hotels, restaurants and historic sites are open to the public. And on the question of how I can help people here, there is a simple answer: Come visit us and have you here – still – a lot of fun.

Etymology

The term America, for the lands of the western hemisphere, is mostly believed to have been coined in 1507 after Amerigo Vespucci, an Italian explorer and cartographer. The full name of the country was first used officially in the Declaration of Independence, which was the “unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America” adopted by the “Representatives of the united States of America” on July 4, 1776. The current name was finalized on November 15, 1777, when the Second Continental Congress adopted the Articles of Confederation, the first of which states, “The Stile of this Confederacy shall be ‘The United States of America.’” Common short forms and abbreviations of the United States of America include the United States, the U.S., the U.S.A., and America. Colloquial names for the country include the U.S. of A. and the States. Columbia, a once popular name for the Americas and the United States, was derived from Christopher Columbus. It appears in the name “District of Columbia”. A female personification of Columbia appears on some official documents, including certain prints of U.S. currency.

The standard way to refer to a citizen of the United States is as an American. Though United States is the formal adjective, American and U.S. are the most common adjectives used to refer to the country (“American values,” “U.S. forces”). American is rarely used in English to refer to people not connected to the United States.

The phrase “the United States” was originally treated as plural—e.g, “the United States are”—including in the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, ratified in 1865. However, it became increasingly common to treat the name as singular—e.g., “the United States is”—after the end of the Civil War. The singular form is now standard, while the plural form is retained in the set idiom “these United States.”

Los Angeles

Los Angeles is the largest city in the state of California and the second largest in the United States.Often abbreviated as L.A. and nicknamed The City of Angels, it is rated an alpha world city, having an estimated population of 3.8 million and spanning over 469.1 square miles (1,215.0 km²) in Southern California. Additionally, the Los Angeles metropolitan area is home to nearly 12.9 million people who hail from all over the globe and speak 224 different languages. Los Angeles is the seat of Los Angeles County, the most populous and one of the most diverse counties in the United States. Its inhabitants are known as “Angelenos” .

Los Angeles was founded in 1781, by Spanish governor Felipe de Neve as El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles de Porciúncula (The Village of Our Lady, the Queen of the Angels of Porziuncola). It became a part of Mexico in 1821, following its independence from Spain. In 1848, at the end of the Mexican-American War, Los Angeles and California were purchased as part of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, thus becoming part of the United States; Mexico retained the territory of Baja California. It was incorporated as a municipality on April 4, 1850 — five months before California achieved statehood.

Los Angeles is one of the world’s centers of culture, technology, media, business, and international trade. It is home to renowned institutions covering a broad range of professional and cultural fields, and it is one of the most substantial economic engines of the United States. Los Angeles also leads the world in producing popular entertainment — such as motion picture, television, internet content, video games and recorded music — which forms the base of its international fame and global status. A large number of celebrities are known to live there.

Weather

The US is most popular with travellers during the summer, but this is when American families pack everything up and head out to visit Aunt Tilly. To avoid mobs (especially throughout the national park system), it’s better to go during autumn or early spring.

The climate is temperate in most of the US. Generally, it gets hotter the further south you go and seasonally more extreme the further you are north and inland from the coasts. Winters in the northeast and upper Midwest can bring long periods below freezing even though it’s still warm enough to swim at the beaches in Florida and southern California.

Washington

Washington, D.C., is the capital of the United States. Washington (the city) is coterminous with the District of Columbia (abbreviated as “D.C.”). The city and the district are located on the banks of the Potomac River and bordered by Virginia to the southwest and Maryland to the northwest, northeast and southeast. The city was planned and developed in the late 18th century to serve as the permanent national capital; the federal district was formed to keep the national capital distinct from the states.^[3][4]

The city was named after George Washington, the first president of the United States. The district’s name, “Columbia”, is an early poetic name for the United States and a reference to Christopher Columbus, an early explorer of the Americas. The city is commonly referred to as Washington, The District, or simply D.C. In the 19th century, it was called the Federal City or Washington City. Its population is about 588,292.^[1] The Washington Metropolitan Area is the eighth-largest in the United States with more than five million residents, and the Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area has a population exceeding eight million. If Washington, D.C. were a state, it would rank last in area (behind Rhode Island), second to last in population (ahead of Wyoming), first in population density, 35th in gross state product, and 1st in percentage of African-Americans, which would make Washington, D.C. a minority-majority state.

The centers of all three branches of the U.S. government are located in the District. Also situated in the city are the headquarters for the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the Organization of American States, the Inter-American Development Bank, and other national and international institutions, including trade unions and professional associations. Washington is a frequent location for political demonstrations and protests, large and small, particularly on the National Mall. A center of American history and culture, Washington is a popular destination for tourists, the site of numerous national landmarks and monuments, the world’s largest museum complex (the Smithsonian Institution), galleries, universities, cathedrals, performing arts centers and institutions, and music scenes. The District also includes substantial areas of wild natural habitat, particularly along the Potomac and Anacostia rivers, as well as in Rock Creek Park and Theodore Roosevelt Island located in the Potomac River.

The District of Columbia and the city of Washington are governed by a single municipal government and for most practical purposes, are considered to be the same entity. This has not always been the case: prior to 1871, when Georgetown ceased to be a separate city, there were multiple jurisdictions within the District.^[5] Although there is a municipal government and a mayor, Congress has the supreme authority over the city and district, which results in citizens having less self-governance than residents of the states. The District has a non-voting at-large Congressional delegate, but no senators. In the financial year 2004, federal tax collections were $16.9 billion^[6] while federal spending in the District was $37.6 billion.

The United States of America

The United States of America is a constitutional federal republic comprising fifty states and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its forty-eight contiguous states and Washington, D.C., the capital district, lie between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, bordered by Canada to the north and Mexico to the south. The state of Alaska is in the northwest of the continent, with Canada to its east and Russia to the west across the Bering Strait, and the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific. The United States also possesses several territories, or insular areas, scattered around the Caribbean and Pacific.

At 3.79 million square miles (9.83 million km²) and with over 300 million people, the United States is the third or fourth largest country by total area, and third largest by land area and by population. The United States is one of the world’s most ethnically diverse nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many countries.^[7] The U.S. economy is the largest national economy in the world, with a nominal 2006 gross domestic product (GDP) of more than US$13 trillion (over 19% of the world total based on purchasing power parity).^[4][8]

The nation was founded by thirteen colonies of Great Britain located along the Atlantic seaboard. Proclaiming themselves “states,” they issued the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. The rebellious states defeated Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War, the first successful colonial war of independence.^[9] A federal convention adopted the current United States Constitution on September 17, 1787; its ratification the following year made the states part of a single republic. The Bill of Rights, comprising ten constitutional amendments, was ratified in 1791.

In the nineteenth century, the United States acquired land from France, Spain, Great Britain, Mexico, and Russia, and annexed the Republic of Texas and the Republic of Hawaii. Disputes between the agrarian South and industrial North over states’ rights and the expansion of the institution of slavery provoked the American Civil War of the 1860s. The North’s victory prevented a permanent split of the country and led to the end of slavery in the United States. The Spanish-American War and World War I confirmed the nation’s status as a military power. In 1945, the United States emerged from World War II as the first country with nuclear weapons, a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, and a founding member of NATO. In the post–Cold War era, the United States is the only remaining superpower—accounting for approximately 50% of global military spending—and a dominant economic, political, and cultural force in the world.