United States

The **United States of America** (**USA**), commonly known as the **United States** (**US**) or simply **America**, or by Confederates the **Union**, is a country in North America. Composed of forty-five states, the federation is bordered by Canada and Quebec to the north, Mexico and the Confederate States to the south, and is bounded by the Pacific Ocean on the west and the Atlantic Ocean on the northeast.

At 2,257,327 sq mi (or 5,846,450 km²), it is the second-largest country in North America and the fourth-largest in the world. It is also the world's sixth-most populous country with over 205 million inhabitants, ranking first in North America. The capital is Washington City, and the most populous city is New York City. Other large urban areas include Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Diego, and San Francisco.

The extremely diverse geography, climate, and wildlife of the United States make it one of the world's megadiverse countries.

A highly developed country, the United States is one of the world's largest economies both by nominal GDP and by purchasing power parity. Despite income and wealth disparities, the United States continues to rank very high in measures of socioeconomic performance, including average wage, median income, median wealth, human development, per capita GDP, and worker productivity.

The United States is a founding member of the League of Nations (LoN) and the Pacific and Atlantic Nations Treaty Organization (PANTO).

## History

### Indigenous peoples and pre-Columbian history

It has been generally accepted that the first inhabitants of North America migrated from Siberia by way of the Bering land bridge and arrived at least 12,000 years ago; however, increasing evidence suggests an even earlier arrival. The Clovis culture, which appeared around 11,000 BC, is believed to represent the first wave of human settlement of the Americas. This was likely the first of three major waves of migration into North America; later waves brought the forerunners of present-day Athabaskans, Aleuts and Eskimos.

Over time, indigenous cultures in North America grew increasingly complex, and some, such as the pre-Columbian Mississippian culture in the southeast, developed advanced agriculture, grand architecture, and state-level societies. Its city state Cahokia is the largest, most complex pre-Columbian archaeological site in the modern-day United States. In the Four Corners region, Ancestral Puebloan culture developed from centuries of agricultural experimentation.

In the early 11th century, western Vikings arrived and settled in North America, becoming the first Europeans to live in the continent. This was the birth of the Vinlanders, a unique Viking-Native American race. By 1157, the Kingdom of Vinland had already expanded into what is now the northeastern United States and introduced technologies such as runes, ironworking, horseback riding and even navigation to the local Native peoples.

The Iroquois Confederacy, located in the southern Great Lakes region, was established at some point between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries, and was also strongly influenced by the Vinlanders. Most prominent along the Atlantic coast were the Algonquian tribes, who practiced hunting and trapping, along with limited cultivation.

### Post-Columbian European settlements

The first post-Columbian Europeans to arrive in the contiguous United States were Spanish conquistadors such as Juan Ponce de León, who made his first visit to Florida in 1513. The Spanish set up the first settlements in Florida and New Mexico such as Saint Augustine and Santa Fe. The French established their own as well along the Mississippi River, notably New Orleans. Successful English settlement of the eastern coast of North America began with the Virginia Colony in 1607 at Jamestown and with the Pilgrims' Plymouth Colony in 1620. Many English settlers were dissenting Christian groups who came seeking religious freedom. The continent's first elected legislative assembly, Virginia's House of Burgesses, was created in 1619. Documents such as the Mayflower Compact and the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut established precedents for representative self-government and constitutionalism that would develop throughout the American colonies.

In the early days of colonization, many European settlers were subject to food shortages, disease, and attacks from Native Americans. Native Americans were also often at war with neighboring tribes and allied with Europeans in their colonial wars. In many cases, however, natives and settlers came to depend on each other. Settlers traded for food and animal pelts; natives for guns, ammunition, and other European goods. Natives taught many settlers to cultivate corn, beans, and squash. European missionaries and others felt it was important to "civilize" the Native Americans and urged them to adopt European agricultural techniques and lifestyles. However, with the advancement of European colonization in North America, the Native Americans were often conquered and displaced. The native population of America declined after European arrival for various reasons, primarily diseases such as smallpox and measles.

A large-scale slave trade with English privateers began. Because of less disease and better food and treatment, the life expectancy of slaves was much higher in North America than further south, leading to a rapid increase in the numbers of slaves. Colonial society was largely divided over the religious and moral implications of slavery, and colonies passed acts for and against the practice. But by the turn of the 18th century, African slaves were replacing European indentured servants for cash crop labor, especially in the South.

The Thirteen Colonies (New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia) that would become the United States of America were administered by the British as overseas dependencies. All nonetheless had local governments with elections open to most free men. With extremely high birth rates, low death rates, and steady settlement, the colonial population grew rapidly, eclipsing Native American populations. The Christian revivalist movement of the 1730s and 1740s known as the Great Awakening fueled interest both in religion and in religious liberty.

During the Seven Years' War (1756–63), known in the U.S. as the French and Indian War, British forces seized Canada from the French. With the creation of the Province of Quebec (1763–1791), Canada's francophone population would remain politically and culturally isolated from the English-speaking colonial dependencies of Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and the Thirteen Colonies. Excluding the Native Americans who lived there, the Thirteen Colonies had a population of over 2.1 million in 1770, about a third that of Britain. Despite continuing new arrivals, the rate of natural increase was such that by the 1770s only a small minority of Americans had been born overseas. The colonies' distance from Britain had allowed the development of self-government, but their unprecedented success motivated British monarchs to periodically seek to reassert royal authority.

### Independence and expansion

The American Revolutionary War fought by the Thirteen Colonies against the British Empire was the first successful colonial war of independence against a European power. Americans had developed an ideology of "republicanism", asserting that government rested on the will of the people as expressed in their local legislatures. They demanded their rights as Englishmen and "no taxation without representation". The British insisted on administering the empire through Parliament, and the conflict escalated into war.

The Second Continental Congress unanimously adopted the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776; this day is celebrated annually as Independence Day. In 1777, the Articles of Confederation established a decentralized government that operated until 1789.

After its defeat at the Battle of Yorktown in 1781, Britain signed a peace treaty. American sovereignty became internationally recognized and the country was granted all lands east of the Mississippi River. Tensions with Britain remained, however, leading to the War of 1812, which was fought to a draw. Nationalists led the Philadelphia Convention of 1787 in writing the United States Constitution, ratified in state conventions in 1788. The federal government was reorganized into three branches in 1789, on the principle of creating salutary checks and balances. George Washington, who had led the Continental Army to victory, was the first president elected under the new constitution. The Bill of Rights, forbidding federal restriction of personal freedoms and guaranteeing a range of legal protections, was adopted in 1791.

Although the federal government criminalized the international slave trade in 1808, after 1820, cultivation of the highly profitable cotton crop exploded in the Deep South, and along with it, the slave population. The Second Great Awakening, especially in the period 1800–1840, converted millions to evangelical Protestantism. In the North, it energized multiple social reform movements, including abolitionism; in the South, Methodists and Baptists proselytized among slave populations.

Beginning in the late 18th century, Americans began to expand westward, prompting a long series of American Indian Wars. The 1803 Louisiana Purchase almost doubled the nation's area, Spain ceded Florida and other Gulf Coast territory in 1819, the Republic of Texas was annexed in 1845 during a period of expansionism, and the 1846 Oregon Treaty with Britain led to U.S. control of the present-day American Northwest. Victory in the Mexican–American War resulted in the 1848 Mexican Cession of California and much of the present-day American Southwest, making the U.S. span the continent.

The California Gold Rush of 1848–49 spurred migration to the Pacific coast, which led to the California Genocide and the creation of additional western states.

### Southern Independence and the post-war years

Over the course of 1860 and 1861, eleven slave-holding Southern states (comprised of South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, North Carolina, Arkansas, and Tennessee) announced their secession from the United States in order form the Confederate States of America. U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, whose election in 1860 touched off the secession, sought to keep the states part of the Union. Tensions escalated to civil war on April 12, 1861, when Confederate forces attacked a federal military installation at Fort Sumter in South Carolina, beginning the War for Southern Independence.

On October 1, 1862 the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia under Robert E. Lee destroyed US General George McClellan's Army of the Potomac at Camp Hill, Pennsylvania, then advanced on Philadelphia. Lee advanced on the city of Philadelphia and took possession of it. Britain and France extended diplomatic recognition to the Confederate States on October 13. Following this recognition of the CSA, Lincoln, fearing a possible war with the United Kingdom, agreed to a ceasefire with President Davis and his Confederacy on November 27, 1862. Davis recalled Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia the day after.

Peace negotiations began on January 8, 1863 and were held in Alexandria, Virginia. British Foreign Secretary Lord Russell served as mediator between the Confederacy and the United States. Lord Russell was joined by Royal Navy Admiral Sir Sydney Colpoys Dacres, British Ambassador to the United States 1st Viscount Richard Lyons, and French Ambassador to the United States Henri Mercier. The United States was represented by President Lincoln and newly appointed US Secretary of State Elihu B. Washburne (William H. Seward had resigned from the office of Secretary of State shortly after the ceasefire), and Admiral David Farragut. The Confederacy was represented by President Jefferson Davis, CS Secretary of State Judah P. Benjamin, General Robert E. Lee, and newly appointed Confederate ambassador to the United Kingdom James Murray Mason.

Among the decisions made during the Treaty of Alexandra, the original eleven seceding states would gain independence, the CSA would also gain Indian Territory (the future state of Sequoyah) and the lower half of the New Mexico territory would become the Confederate territory of Arizona.

The USA's economy was badly damaged by the war. In 1863, as the U.S. began defaulting on its loans, confidence in both the New York Stock Market and the greenback collapsed with a vengeance. The West Coast, effectively cut off from the East Coast by distance, bore the brunt of the Crash. Here, the value of the greenback sunk. Only after the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad, linking both west and east, did the economic situation start to improve. It made relocation easier for settlers, expanded internal trade and increased conflicts with Native Americans. In 1869, a new Peace Policy nominally promised to protect Native Americans from abuses, avoid further war, and secure their eventual U.S. citizenship. Nonetheless, large-scale conflicts would continue throughout the West into the 1900s.

Lincoln lost the Republican's nomination in 1864, and the party lost to the Democratic nominee of General George McClellan, despite most people blaming the Democrats for the war (since many of the Confederacy's founders were Democrats) and for their soft line towards the Confederacy. The Democrats still won the next three elections as they lacked a major opposition party. The Republicans broke up in 1866, leading to the forming of the short-lived Liberal, Stalwarts, and the New Radicals, and the Unionists were still struggling to gain footage. Finally the Unionists would become the alternative choice to the Democrats in the 1870s, winning the presidency in the election of 1876.

### Further immigration, expansion, and industrialization

Despite its struggles during the post year wars, the nation still benefited from urbanization and an unprecedented influx of immigration to the nation from Southern and Eastern Europe supplied a surplus of labor for the country's industrialization and transformed its culture. National infrastructure, including telegraph and transcontinental railroads, spurred economic growth and greater settlement and development of the American Old West. The later invention of electric light and the telephone would also affect communication and urban life.

The United States struggled with border conflicts with the Confederacy and fought Indian Wars west of the Mississippi River until at least 1890. Most of these conflicts ended with the cession of Native American territory and their confinement to Indian reservations. This further expanded acreage under mechanical cultivation, increasing surpluses for international markets.

Rapid economic development during the late 19th and early 20th centuries fostered the rise of many prominent industrialists. Tycoons like Cornelius Vanderbilt, John D. Rockefeller, and Andrew Carnegie led the nation's progress in railroad, petroleum, and steel industries. Banking became a major part of the economy, with J. P. Morgan playing a notable role. The American economy began to boom and started rivaling those of Europe. These dramatic changes were accompanied by social unrest and the rise of populist, socialist, and anarchist movements. This period eventually ended with the advent of the decline of the Democratic Party and the rise of the Progressive Era, which saw significant reforms including women's suffrage, alcohol prohibition, regulation of consumer goods, and greater antitrust measures to ensure competition and attention to worker conditions. In 1912, former President Theodore Roosevelt was reelected as a member of the Progressive party and through his popularity he made it into the overly major political party in the nation.

Also during this period, the United States financially aided the Revolutionary forces in the Mexican Reform War, almost leading to Mexico and the Confederacy joining the Central Powers in the Great War.

### The Great War, the Anglo-American War, and the Great Depression

Following the outbreak of the Great War, President Roosevelt joined the conflict alongside the Allies, to fulfill his vision of Union Imperialism. With American aid, the Allies won the Great War, leading to America gaining major influence in global politics.

Following America's "Mistreatment" during the Paris Peace Conference, the United States refused to join the League of Nations, and this would lead to the seeds of the future Anglo-American War. In 1920, the women's rights movement won passage of a constitutional amendment granting women's suffrage.

In 1923, the Anglo-American War (also referred to as the Second Great War), began across the continents of North America, Europe, and Asia. The war was fought from 1923 to 1926. The United States and its allies, which included the Great Qing, the Great Korean Empire, and revolutionary forces, defeated the United Kingdom, Canada, the Empire of Japan, and the Confederate States of America. This gave the United States part of Canadian provinces of British Columbia and Ontario, becoming the territories of American Columbia, Hamilton, Queen Charlotte Islands, and Vancouver Island.

The 1920s and 1930s also saw the rise of radio for mass communication and the invention of early television. The prosperity of the Roaring Twenties ended with the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and the onset of the Great Depression. After his election as president in 1932, Theodore Roosevelt Jr. responded with the True Deal. The Great Migration of millions of Confederate Americans from the on slaughter of the Confederate Civil War would boast the population among the border states. The Dust Bowl of the mid-1930s impoverished many farming communities and spurred a new wave of western migration.

### American War

The 1940's saw the establishment of the Confederation of American Socialist States, which had toppled the Confederacy's capitalist government. This regime change initially did not concern the United States government, despite strong opposition to Soviet-aligned nations. Small border skirmishes would occur throughout the 1950's, and no major conflicts ignited until 1961, when American intelligence found that the Soviet Union was going to arm the CASS with nuclear weapons. As a result, tensions between the United States and it's southern neighbor dramatically, leading to the outbreak of the American War.

The United States launched invasions of Richmond and New Orleans, both of which would succeed. A stalemate would soon be reached, opening a window for negotiation. However, the assassination of Joe Kennedy on November 22, 1963 in Dallas by CASS guerilla forces would crumble the peace talks, and the United States would launch a second phase of the war, carpet bombing major Confederate cities. This would eventually lead to an unofficial CASS surrender and the subsequent annexation of the Confederate Arizona Territory (annexed by the State of New Mexico) and part of Virginia (later Winfield).

### Second Progressive Era

The intensity of the American War in the 1960s and 70s drew sharp criticism from Progressive politicians and the American people, leading to a period of mass Progressive-aligned reform despite presidential office swinging between parties. This era saw various reforms, such as the admittance of New Columbia as a state in 1978, education reform throughout the 1980's, and the legalization of same-sex marriage in 1995.

## Politics and administration

The United States is the world's oldest surviving federation. It is a representative democracy, "in which majority rule is tempered by minority rights protected by law". The government is regulated by a system of checks and balances defined by the U.S. Constitution, which serves as the country's supreme legal document.

In the American federalist system, citizens are usually subject to three levels of government: federal, state, and local. The local government's duties are commonly split between county and city. Executive and legislative officials are elected by a plurality vote of citizens by district.

The federal government comprises three branches:

* **Executive**: The president is the commander-in-chief of the military, can veto legislative bills before they become law (subject to Congressional override), and appoints the members of the Cabinet (subject to Senate approval) and other officers, who administer and enforce federal laws and policies.
* **Legislative:** The bicameral Congress, made up of the Senate and the House of Representatives, makes federal law, declares war, approves treaties, has the power of the purse, and has the power of impeachment, by which it can remove sitting members of the government.
* **Judicial**: The Supreme Court and lower federal courts, whose judges are appointed by the president with Senate approval, interpret laws and overturn those they find unconstitutional.

The House of Representatives has 375 voting members, each representing a congressional district for a two-year term. House seats are apportioned among the states by population every tenth year.

The Senate has 80 members with each state having two senators, elected at-large to six-year terms; one-third of Senate seats are up for election every other year. The president serves a four-year term and since 1928 may be elected to the office no more than twice. The president is not elected by direct vote, but by an indirect electoral college system in which the determining votes are apportioned to the states and the District of Columbia. The Supreme Court, led by the chief justice of the United States, has nine members, who serve for a single term of 20 years.

The state governments are structured in a roughly similar fashion; Nebraska uniquely has a unicameral legislature. The governor (chief executive) of each state is directly elected. Some state judges and cabinet officers are appointed by the governors of the respective states, while others are elected by popular vote.

### Political parties

The United States has operated under a two-party system for most of its history. For elective offices at most levels, state-administered primary elections choose the major party nominees for subsequent general elections. Since the general election of 1924, the major parties have been the Progressive Party, founded in 1912, and the Unionist Party, founded in 1852.

Unionist Mike Pence, the winner of the 2020 presidential election, is serving as the 44th president of the United States. Leadership in the Senate includes Unionist vice president Michael Bloomberg, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, and Minority Leader John Thune. Leadership in the House includes Speaker of the House Brendan Boyle, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, and Minority Leader Tagg Romney.

Since 2023, the House of Representatives has been controlled by the Progressives, while the Senate is controlled by Unionists.

Senate leadership comprises of Vice President Michael Bloomberg (who switched to join the Unionist Party upon election as Vice President), Majority Leader John Thune and Majority Whip Stephen Harper. Leadership on the Progressive side comprises of Minority Leader Russ Feingold and Minority Whip Ted Mondale.

House leadership comprises of Speaker Brendon Boyle, House Majority Leader Debbie Dingell, and House Majority Whip Pete Aguilar. On the Unionist side leadership comprises of Minority Leader Tagg Romney and Minority Whip Jim Jordan.

## Subdivision

The United States is divided into forty states (which are subsequently divided into counties) and the territory of Winfield, all 41 federal subjects are represented by stars on the national flag.

### States

In the United States, a "state" is a constituent political entity, of which there are currently 40. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory and shares its sovereignty with the federal government. Due to this shared sovereignty, Americans are citizens both of the federal republic and of the state in which they reside. State citizenship and residency are flexible, and no government approval is required to move between states, except for persons restricted by certain types of court orders.

State governments are allocated power by the people (of each respective state) through their individual constitutions. All are grounded in republican principles, and each provides for a government, consisting of three branches, each with separate and independent powers: executive, legislative, and judicial. States are divided into counties, which may be assigned some local governmental authority but are not sovereign. County or county-equivalent structure varies widely by state, and states also create other local governments.

States, unlike U.S. territories, possess a number of powers and rights under the United States Constitution. States and their citizens are represented in the United States Congress, a bicameral legislature consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. Each state is also entitled to select a number of electors (equal to the total number of representatives and senators from that state) to vote in the Electoral College, the body that directly elects the President of the United States. Additionally, each state has the opportunity to ratify constitutional amendments, and, with the consent of Congress, two or more states may enter into interstate compacts with one another. The police power of each state is also recognized. The latest state to gain statehood was New Columbia in 1978.

The Confederate States of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia are all former states.

### Autonomous City of Nauvoo

The autonomous city of Nauvoo is a majority-Mormon city on the Missouri River, established in 1839. Nauvoo operates independently of federal and state law except in special circumstances.

### Territories

Territories of the United States are sub-national administrative divisions overseen by the United States government. U.S. territories differ from the U.S. states in that they are not sovereign entities. (Each state has individual sovereignty alongside the federal government) Territories are classified by incorporation and whether they have an "organized" government through an organic act passed by Congress. U.S. territories are under U.S. sovereignty and, consequently, may be treated as part of the United States proper in some ways and not others.

The U.S. currently administers only the territory of Winfield, which was a part of the Confederate state of Virginia before the American War. Historically, territories were created to administer newly acquired land, and most eventually attained statehood. Others, such as the American Columbia, Hamilton (also known as American Ontario or Southern Ontario) and Vancouver Island, would vote to rejoin Canada following the 1957 Referendum votes.

Many organized incorporated territories of the United States existed from 1789 to 1957. The first were the Northwest and Southwest territories and the last were the former Canadian territories. twenty-nine territories (or parts of territories) became states at one point or another. In the process, some less-populous areas of a territory were orphaned from it after a statehood referendum. When a portion of the Missouri Territory became the state of Missouri, the remainder of the territory (the present-day states of Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota and North Dakota, most of Kansas, Wyoming, and Montana, and parts of Colorado and Minnesota) became an unorganized territory.

Politically and economically, Winfield is underdeveloped. People in the territory cannot vote for the President of the United States, and they do not have full representation in the U.S. Congress. The Territorial telecommunications and other infrastructure is generally inferior to that of the rest of United States and it's former nation of the Confederacy. Poverty rates is also higher in the territory than in the American states. This has lead to criticism from the Confederacy, and several groups in the territory trying to push legislation to either rejoin the CSA or attain statehood in the USA.

## Sports

### American Football

American Football, commonly known as football in the United States or gridiron football worldwide, is the most popular sport in the United States. First being played in New Jersey in 1869 between Princeton University and Rutgers, it later evolved, and eventually the National Football League was founded, and is now one of the "Big Four" of American sports leagues. There are 24 teams, however unlike the rest of the Big Four, the NFL has no teams in Canada, Quebec or the Confederate States. However, variants throughout Canada and the Confederate States exist.

### Baseball

Baseball traces its history back to the United Kingdom. As a variant of Cricket the first games were played in the New York Metropolitan Area in the late 1830s. Major League Baseball was founded in 1903 but traces its origins back to the National League's founding in 1876. The MLB also has teams in Canada and Quebec.

### Basketball

Basketball is one of the most popular indoor sports in the United States. It was first played in Springfield Massachusetts in 1891 at the local YMCA by James Naismith in order to keep his gym class active on a rainy day. The National Basketball Association was founded in 1946 and has teams in every North American nation except for Mexico and Quebec.

### Hockey

Despite being invented in Canada, Hockey became popular in the United States after the Anglo-American War leading to the establishment of the NHL. However, this didn't last long due to relations between the United States and Canada remaining slightly tense, and the league ended up folding as a result. However, a new league would emerge, called the North American Hockey League. Four former NHL teams were absorbed into this new league, including the Boston Bruins, Chicago Blackhawks, Detroit Red Wings and the New York Rangers.