United States
Geography - People - Economy - Government - Communications - Transportation - Military - Transnational IssuesCountry name - conventional long form : United States of America
Country name - conventional short form : United States
Government type : Constitution-based federal republic; strong democratic tradition
Capital - name : Washington, DC
Capital - time difference : UTC-5 (during Standard Time)
National holiday : Independence Day, 4 July (1776)
Population : 303,824,640 (July 2008 est.)
Nationality - noun : American(s)
Nationality - adjective : American
Currency (code) : US dollar (USD)
Currency code : USD
United States is located North America, bordering both the North Atlantic Ocean and the North Pacific Ocean, between Canada and Mexico. The climate is mostly temperate, but tropical in Hawaii and Florida, arctic in Alaska, semiarid in the great plains west of the Mississippi River, and arid in the Great Basin of the southwest; low winter temperatures in the northwest are ameliorated occasionally in January and February by warm chinook winds from the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains. The terrain is vast central plain, mountains in west, hills and low mountains in east; rugged mountains and broad river valleys in Alaska; rugged, volcanic topography in Hawaii.
Background
This entry usually highlights major historic events and current issues and may include a statement about one or two key future trends.Background : Britain's American colonies broke with the mother country in 1776 and were recognized as the new nation of the United States of America following the Treaty of Paris in 1783. During the 19th and 20th centuries, 37 new states were added to the original 13 as the nation expanded across the North American continent and acquired a number of overseas possessions. The two most traumatic experiences in the nation's history were the Civil War (1861-65), in which a northern Union of states defeated a secessionist Confederacy of 11 southern slave states, and the Great Depression of the 1930s, an economic downturn during which about a quarter of the labor force lost its jobs. Buoyed by victories in World Wars I and II and the end of the Cold War in 1991, the US remains the world's most powerful nation state. The economy is marked by steady growth, low unemployment and inflation, and rapid advances in technology.
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