A Hamburger is one of the popular foods of the United States. Fast food in United States is home to many regional cuisines such as the Cuisine of the Southern United States, also known as Southern food. There is Americanized versions of Chinese, Greek, Italian and Mexican cuisine. Native American cuisine is the cuisine of the indigenous Native Americans. A lot of American dishes are influenced by many countries around the world.
The most popular genres in the United States are Rock and roll, pop, country, R&B and hip hop. Native American music is the indigenous music of the United States.
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. It is north of the United States. Its land reaches from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and the Arctic Ocean to the north. Canada's area is , so it is the world's second largest country by total area but only the fourth largest country by land area. It has the world's longest coastline which touches three oceans. Canada has ten provinces and three territories. Most parts of the country have a cold or severely cold winter climate, but areas to the south are warm in summer. Much of the land is forests or tundra, with the Rocky Mountains towards the west. About four fifths of Canada's 36 million people live in urban areas near the southern border with the US, the longest between any two countries in the world. The national capital is Ottawa, and the largest city is Toronto. Other large cities include Montreal, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Quebec City, Winnipeg and Hamilton.
Aboriginal people lived in the places that are now Canada for a long time. In 1537 the French started a colony and the British Empire soon followed. The two empires fought several wars and in the late 18th century only British North America remained with what is more or less Canada today. The country was formed with the British North America Act on July 1, 1867, from several colonies. Over time, more provinces and territories became part of Canada. In 1931, Canada achieved near total independence with the Statute of Westminster 1931, and became completely independent when the Canada Act 1982 removed the last remaining ties of legal dependence on the Parliament of the United Kingdom.
Canada is a federal parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy, with Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom as its head of state. The country is officially bilingual at the federal level, meaning that citizens have the right to communicate with the government in either English or French. Immigration to Canada has made it one of the world's most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations. Its economy is the eleventh largest in the world, and relies mainly on natural resources and well-developed international trade networks. Canada's relationship with its neighbor and biggest trading partner, the U.S., has a big impact on its economy and culture.
Canada is a developed country and has the tenth highest nominal per capita income globally as well as the tenth highest ranking in the Human Development Index. It ranks among the highest in international measurements of government transparency, civil liberties, quality of life, economic freedom, and education. Canada is a Commonwealth realm member of the Commonwealth of Nations, a member of the Francophonie, and part of several major international and intergovernmental institutions or groupings including the United Nations, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the G8, the G20, the North American Free Trade Agreement and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum.
By total area (including its waters), Canada is the second-largest country in the world, after Russia. By land area alone, Canada ranks fourth. It has the longest border with water (coastline) of any country in the world. It is next to the Pacific, Arctic, and Atlantic Oceans. It is the only country in the world to be next to three oceans at once. It has six time zones.
Canada is made up of ten provinces and three territories. The provinces are between the 45th and 60th parallels of latitude, and the territories are to the north of the 60th parallel of latitude. Most large cities in Canada are in the southern part of the country, including Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal. There are very few people living in the northern part of Canada.
Canada extends from the west coast, across the prairies and central Canada, to the Atlantic provinces. In the north there are three territories, between Alaska and Greenland: the Yukon in the west, then the Northwest Territories, then Nunavut. Four of the five Great Lakes (Superior, Huron, Erie, and Ontario) are shared between Canada and the United States (Lake Michigan is in the USA), and they make up 16% of the Earth's fresh water. The Saint Lawrence Seaway joins the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean, allowing ocean going vessels to travel as far inland as Thunder Bay in Ontario, Canada.
Canada shares land and sea borders with the USA (the lower 48 states and Alaska), Denmark (Greenland), and France (St. Pierre and Miquelon — a small group of islands off the southern coast off the island of Newfoundland).
The geography of Canada is very different from place to place, from high alpine areas in the west, flat grasslands and prairies in the centre, and ancient shield rocks in the east. Canada contains some of the very last untouched boreal forest in the world.
The Canadian Shield is a vast area of ancient Pre-Cambrian rocks lying in an arc around Hudson Bay, covering more than one third of Canada's land area. This is a unique land of lakes, bogs, swamps, trees, and rocks. It is a terrain that is very dangerous and difficult to traverse cross country because of lakes, bogs, swamps, trees, and rocks. Canada has 60% of the world's lakes.
Indigenous peoples lived in what is now Canada for thousands of years before the first Europeans arrived. The indigenous groups are called the First Nations, the Inuit, and the Métis. The Métis are people that come from both First Nations and European families. Together, these three groups are called "Indigenous," "Aboriginal," or "First Peoples." They used to be called "Indians" by the Europeans, but this is now considered rude.
Many people think that the first people to live in Canada came from Siberia by using the Bering land bridge at least 14,000 years ago. The land bridge used to connect Asia and North America.
When European people first came to Canada to settle, the number of Indigenous people living in Canada already was between 200,000 and two million.
The Vikings were the first Europeans known to land in what is now called Canada, in what is now Newfoundland, led by the Viking explorer Leif Erikson. They did not stay long, however. In the early 16th century, Europeans started exploring Canada's eastern coast, beginning with John Cabot from England in 1497, and later Jacques Cartier in 1534 from France. Alexander Mackenzie later reached the Pacific coast over land, where captains James Cook and George Vancouver went by sea. The Europeans also traded beaver furs to the First Nations.
Parts of Canada were settled by France, and parts by Great Britain. In 1605, Port-Royal was built in Acadia (today called Nova Scotia) by the French, led by Samuel de Champlain, and in 1608 he started settling Quebec. The British took control of the French areas after a battle of the French and Indian War on the Plains of Abraham near Quebec City in 1759.
After the American Revolutionary War, many people in the new United States wanted to stay loyal to Britain. Thousands came north to Canada and settled in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec, and Ontario. They were called United Empire Loyalists. During the War of 1812, the United States tried to conquer Canada but were defeated.