United States of America

* Vice President [[]]

* House Speaker [[]]

* Chief Justice [[]]

The **United States of America** (**U.S.A.** or **USA**), commonly known as the **United States** (**U.S.** or **US**) or **America**, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territories, nine Minor Outlying Islands, and 326 Indian reservations. The United States is also in free association with three Pacific Island sovereign states: the Federated States of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau. It is the world's third-largest country by both land and total area. It shares land borders with Canada to its north and with Mexico to its south and has maritime borders with the Bahamas, Cuba, Russia, and other nations. With a population of over 333 million, it is the most populous country in the Americas and the third most populous in the world. The national capital of the United States is Washington, D.C. and its most populous city and principal financial center is New York City.

The United States government is a federal republic with three separate branches of government, including a bicameral legislature. It is a liberal democracy and has a market economy. It ranks very highly in international measures of quality of life, income and wealth, economic competitiveness, human rights, innovation, and education; it has low levels of perceived corruption. The United States has the highest median income per person of any polity in the world, although it has high levels of incarceration and inequality and lacks universal health care. As a melting pot of cultures and ethnicities, the U.S. has been shaped by centuries of immigration.

## Modern history

By 1900, the United States had grown to become the world's largest economy, and the Spanish–American War and World War I established the country as a world power. After Japan's surprise attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the U.S. entered World War II on the Allied side. The aftermath of the war left the United States and the Soviet Union as the world's two superpowers and led to the Cold War, which commenced in 1945 and ended in 1991 with the Soviet Union's dissolution. During the Cold War, both countries engaged in a struggle for ideological dominance but avoided direct military conflict. They also competed in the Space Race, which culminated in the 1969 American spaceflight in which the U.S. was the first nation to land humans on the Moon. Simultaneously, the civil rights movement (1954–1968) led to legislation abolishing Jim Crow laws and other codified racial discrimination against African Americans. With the Soviet Union's dissolution in 1991 and the end of the Cold War, the United States emerged as the world's sole superpower. In 2001, following the September 11 attacks, the United States became a lead member of the Global War on Terrorism, which saw its involvement in the War in Afghanistan (2001–2012) and the Iraq War (2003–2011).

Two decades of stagnation and multiple global economical crises resulted in the U.S. economy collapsing on 16 April, 2012. A day now dubbed Black Monday, it laid the groundwork for the U.S. withdrawal (and subsequent collapse) of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Bipartisanship governing and constitutional crises during the presidency of Robert Gallagher caused further issues for the country that resulted in an entire constitutional overhaul.

## Law Enforcement

Law in the United States is mainly enforced by local police departments and sheriff's offices. The state police provides broader services, and federal agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the U.S. Marshals Service have specialized duties, such as protecting civil rights, national security and enforcing U.S. federal courts' rulings and federal laws. State courts conduct most civil and criminal trials, and federal courts handle designated crimes and appeals from the state criminal courts.

The Federal Bureau of Democratic Integrity is tasked with preventing, surveilling and halting illegal lobbying and corruption in federal government institutions. Furthermore, the BDI can initiate proceedings to remove corrupt government officials, including the President of the United States, from their positions, as to prevent widespread corruption and abuse of power due to the United States' abolishment of term limits.

## Armed Forces

The **United States Armed Forces** are the military forces of the United States of America. It consists of the Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force and Coast Guard. The president is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces and appoints its leaders, the secretary of defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The Department of Defense, which is headquartered at the Pentagon near Washington, D.C., administers five of the six service branches, which are made up of the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, and Space Force. The Coast Guard is administered by the Department of Homeland Security in peacetime and can be transferred to the Department of the Navy in wartime. The president of the United States forms military policy with the Department of Defense (DoD) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS), both Federal Executive departments, acting as the principal organs by which military policy is carried out.

From its inception during the American Revolutionary War to the Global War on Terror, the U.S. Armed Forces have played a decisive role in the history of the United States. The U.S.' National Security Act of 1947, adopted following World War II, created the modern military framework for the U.S Armed Forces.

The United States Armed Forces draws its personnel from a large pool of paid volunteers. The Selective Service System retains the power to conscript males, and requires that all male citizens and residents residing in the U.S. between the ages of 18–25 register with the service.