USAball

## United States

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* Zombie

The **United States of America** (**USA**), commonly known as the **United States** (**U.S.**) or simply **America**, is a huge economically developed country consisting of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territories, and nine Minor Outlying Islands. 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.

## History

### Colonization

Christopher Columbus began exploring the Caribbean in 1492, and Spain soon established Spanish Florida on the mainland. The Spanish Empire set up their first settlements in Florida and New Mexico, including in Saint Augustine (1565), which is often considered the nation's oldest city, and Santa Fe (1598). The Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano, sent by France to the New World in 1525, encountered Native American inhabitants in the present-day New York Bay region. The French established their own settlements along the Mississippi River and Gulf of Mexico, including in New Orleans (1718) and Mobile (1702). British colonization of the East Coast began with the Virginia Colony (1607) and Plymouth Colony (1620). Many English settlers were dissenting Christians who fled England seeking religious freedom. The Mayflower Compact and the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut established precedents for representative self-government and constitutionalism that would develop throughout the American colonies.

During 17th-century European colonization, settlers experienced food shortages, disease, and conflicts with Native Americans, particularly in King Philip's War, but often came to develop a mutual dependency. Settlers traded guns, tools, and European goods for food and animal pelts. Native Americans taught settlers to cultivate local foods. Colonial authorities often pursued policies to to "civilize" the Native Americans and urge or force them to adopt European lifestyles. The native population of America declined after European arrival, primarily as a result of infectious diseases brought from Europe such as smallpox and measles, and native peoples were displaced by European expansion.

European settlers trafficked African slaves into the colonial United States via the transatlantic slave trade. By the turn of the 18th century, slavery supplanted indentured servitude as the main source of agricultural labor for the cash crops in the Southern Colonies. Southern tobacco colonies passed laws designed to keep African Americans subservient.

The original Thirteen Colonies were administered by Great Britain. All colonies had local governments with elections open to white male property owners except Jews and, in some areas, Catholics. With very high birth rates, low death rates, and steadily growing settlements, the colonial population grew rapidly, eclipsing Native American populations. By the 1770s, the natural increase of the population was such that only a small minority of Americans had been born overseas. The colonies' distance from Britain allowed for the development of self-governance,  and the First Great Awakening—a series of Christian revivals—fueled colonial interest in religious liberty

### Revolution

After the British victory in the French and Indian War, won largely through the support from the colonies, the British began to assert greater control in local colonial affairs, fomenting colonial political resistance. In 1774, to demonstrate colonial dissatisfaction with the lack of representation in the British government that extracted taxes from them, the First Continental Congress met in Philadelphia and passed the Continental Association, which mandated a colonies-wide boycott of British goods. The British attempted to disarm the Americans, resulting in the Battles of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775, igniting the American Revolutionary War. At the Second Continental Congress, the colonies appointed George Washington as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army and charged a committee led by Thomas Jefferson with writing a Declaration of Independence.

On July 4, 1776, the Second Continental Congress unanimously adopted the Declaration of Independence, which famously stated: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." The adoption of the Declaration of Independence is celebrated annually on July 4 in the United States as Independence Day. After the surrender of a second British Army at the siege of Yorktown in 1781, Britain signed a peace treaty. American sovereignty gained international recognition, and the new nation took possession of substantial territory east of the Mississippi River, from what is present-day Canada in the north to Florida in the south. Washington resigned his commission, returned to private life, and the Continental Army was disbanded.

As it became increasingly apparent that the Confederation was insufficient to govern the new country, nationalists advocated for and led the Philadelphia Convention of 1787, where the United States Constitution was drafted. The U.S. Constitution is the oldest and longest-standing written and codified national constitution in force today. Ratified by the states, it went into effect in 1789, reorganizing the government into a federation administered by three branches (executive, judicial, and legislative), on the principle of creating salutary checks and balances. George Washington was elected the nation's first President under the new constitution and returned to public life. The Bill of Rights was adopted in 1791 to allay concerns by sceptics of the more centralized national government.

### Expansion

During the colonial period, slavery was legal in the American colonies. However, during the American Revolution, many began to question the practice. Founding Fathers in the northern United States advocated for the abolition of slavery, and slavery was abolished in Northern states. The increased profitability for southern elites after the cotton gin lowered production costs entrenched support for slavery in the southern United States.

In the late 18th century, American settlers began to expand westward, with a sense of manifest destiny. The Louisiana Purchase (1803) nearly doubled the territory of the United States, and effectively ended French opposition to America's westward expansion. Lingering issues with Britain remained, leading to the War of 1812, which was fought to a virtual draw but established the United States as capable of defending itself. Spain ceded Florida and their Gulf Coast territory in 1819. The Missouri Compromise (1820) admitted Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state, dividing the country into free states, which forbade slavery, and slave states, which protected the institution.

As Americans expanded further into land inhabited by Native Americans, the federal government often applied policies of Indian removal or assimilation. The displacement prompted a long series of American Indian Wars west of the Mississippi River. The Republic of Texas was annexed in 1845, and the 1846 Oregon Treaty 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, resulting in the U.S. stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific oceans.

### Civil War

Sectional conflict regarding slavery culminated in the American Civil War. Eleven slave states seceded and formed the Confederate States of America, while the remaining states (the Union) maintained that secession was unconstitutional and illegitimate. On April 12, 1861, the Confederacy bombarded Fort Sumter, a federal garrison in Charleston, South Carolina. The ensuing Civil War (1861–1865) became the deadliest military conflict in American history. In 1863, the Civil War began to turn in the Union's favor following the Siege of Vicksburg led by General Ulysses S. Grant, which gave them control of the Mississippi River, and the Battle of Gettysburg, where the Union Army halted Confederate Army general Robert E. Lee's invasion of the North. In April 1865, following the Union Army's victory at the Battle of Appomattox Court House, the Confederacy surrendered.

### Reconstruction

The Reconstruction era followed the war. After the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, Radical Republicans passed the Reconstruction Amendments to ensure the rights of African Americans. The biracial Southern governments were opposed by terrorist and paramilitary organizations. To encourage additional westward settlement the Homestead Acts allowed an applicant to acquire ownership of government land, by residing there. More than 160 million acres (650 thousand km2; 250 thousand sq mi)—nearly 10 percent of the total area of the United States—were given away free to 1.6 million homesteaders. The Southern Homestead Act of 1866 was enacted to break a cycle of debt during Reconstruction. This act attempted to sell land at low prices so marginalized Southerners could buy it, but many were still too poor to afford the lower prices.

National infrastructure, including telegraph and transcontinental railroads, spurred growth in the American Old West. New transcontinental railways made relocation easier, expanded internal trade, and increased conflicts with Native Americans.

### Development of the modern United States

The Compromise of 1877 effectively ended Reconstruction and white supremacists took local control of Southern politics. African Americans endured a period of heightened, overt racism following Reconstruction, a time often called the nadir of American race relations. From 1890 to 1910, the Southern States established Jim Crow laws, disenfranchising almost all African Americans. Racial segregation was prevalent nationwide and discrimination was codified, especially in the South, while well into the 20th century lynching and other forms of unjustified vigilante violence often went unprosecuted.

Territorial expansion continued apace. Alaska was purchased from Russia in 1867. Pro-American elements in Hawaii overthrew the Hawaiian monarchy; the islands were annexed in 1898. Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines were ceded by Spain following the Spanish–American War. Puerto Ricans did not gain citizenship either through the Foraker Act (1900) or the Insular Cases (1901), but through the Jones–Shafroth Act in 1917, allowing for the conscription of 20,000 Puerto Ricans, which began two months later. American Samoa was acquired by the United States in 1900 after the Second Samoan Civil War. The U.S. Virgin Islands were purchased from Denmark in 1917.

From 1865 through 1918 an unprecedented stream of immigrants arrived in the United States, including 24.4 million from Europe including Great Britain, Ireland, Scandinavia, Germany, Italy, Russia, and other parts of Central and Eastern Europe. Most came through the port of New York City, and from 1892 specifically through the now iconic Ellis Island. New York and other large cities on the East Coast became home to large Jewish, Irish, and Italian populations, while many Germans and Central Europeans moved to the Midwest. At the same time, about one million French Canadians migrated from Quebec to New England. During the Great Migration, millions of African Americans left the rural South for urban areas in the North.

Rapid economic development during the late 19th and early 20th centuries fostered the rise of many prominent industrialists, largely by their formation of trusts and monopolies to prevent competition. Tycoons led the nation's expansion in the railroad, petroleum, and steel industries. Banking became a major part of the economy, and the United States emerged as a pioneer of the automotive industry. These changes were accompanied by significant increases in economic inequality, slum conditions, and social unrest, which prompted the rise of populist, socialist, and anarchist movements. This period eventually ended with the advent of the Progressive Era, which was characterized by significant reforms.

### World Wars

#### World War 1

The early 20th century was a time of industrial expansion and social change in the United States. The United States entered World War I alongside the Allies of World War I, helping to turn the tide against the Central Powers.

#### World War 2

At first neutral during World War II, the U.S. began supplying war materiel to the Allies of World War II in March 1941 and entered the war after the Empire of Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor. The U.S. developed the first nuclear weapons and used them again the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, ending the war.

### Cold War

After World War II, the United States entered the Cold War, where geopolitical tensions between the U.S. and the Soviet Union led the two countries to dominate the affairs of other countries. The U.S. engaged in regime change against governments perceived to be aligned with the Soviet Union, and competed in the Space Race, culminating in the first crewed Moon landing in 1969. Domestically, the U.S. experienced economic growth, urbanization, and population growth following World War II.

The civil rights movement emerged, with Martin Luther King Jr. becoming a prominent leader in the early 1960s. The counterculture movement in the U.S. brought significant social changes, including the liberalization of attitudes towards what substances are acceptable for recreational drug use, sexuality and the beginning of the modern gay rights movement as well as open defiance of the military draft and opposition to intervention in Vietnam. The presidency of Richard Nixon saw the American withdrawal from Vietnam and the Watergate scandal, which led to a decline in public trust in government.

The 1970s and early 1980s saw economic stagflation and President Ronald Reagan responded with neoliberal reforms and a rollback strategy towards the Soviet Union. By 1985, the majority of women aged 16 and over were employed. The late 1980s and early 1990s saw the collapse of the Warsaw Pact and the dissolution of the Soviet Union, which marked the end of the Cold War and solidified the U.S. as the world's sole superpower.

### 21st Centrury

In the first decades of the 21st century, the U.S. faced challenges from terrorism, with the September 11 attacks in 2001 leading to the war on terror and military interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq. TTe U.S. housing bubble in 2006 culminated in the 2007–2008 financial crisis and the Great Recession, the largest economic contraction since the Great Depression. Amid the financial crisis, Barack Obama, the first multiracial president, was elected in 2008.

Political polarization increased as sociopolitical debates on cultural issues dominated political discussion. The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in over 100 million confirmed cases and 1 million deaths, making it the most deadly pandemic in U.S. history. Attempts to overturn the 2020 U.S. presidential election culminated in the January 6, 2021 attack on the United States Capitol that attempted to prevent the peaceful transition of power

In December 23, 2022 there was a zombie virus.