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Description[]

The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or simply America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territories, 326 Indian reservations, and nine minor outlying islands. At nearly 3.8 million square miles (9.8 million square kilometers), it is the world's fourth-largest country by land area and third-largest by total area. The United States shares land borders with Mexico to the south and Canada to the north as well as maritime borders with the Bahamas, Cuba, and Russia, among others. With more than 331 million people, it is the third most populous country in the world. The national capital is Washington, D.C., and the most populous city and economic center is New York City. The US is one of the most influential countries, along with their allies, Canada,  Australia, and  New Zealand.

—"The Star-Spangled Banner" the national anthem of the United States of America.

History[]

The United States of America declared independence in 1776, marking the creation of the United States and independence from the British Empire.

The American Revolution[]

The American colonials proclaimed "No taxation without representation." starting with the Stamp Act Congress in 1765. They rejected the authority of the British Parliament to tax them because they had no representatives in the British Parliament. Protests steadily escalated to the Boston Massacre in 1770 and the burning of the Gaspee in Rhode Island in 1772, followed by the Boston Tea Party in December 1773. The British responded by closing Boston Harbor and enacting a series of punitive laws that effectively rescinded Massachusetts Bay Colony's rights of self-government. The other colonies rallied behind Massachusetts, and a group of American Patriot leaders set up their government in late 1774 at the Continental Congress to coordinate their resistance of Britain; other colonists retained their allegiance to the Crown and were known as Loyalists or Tories.

Tensions erupted into a battle between Patriot militia and British regulars when King George's redcoats attempted to destroy Colonial military supplies at Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775. The conflict then developed into a war, during which the Patriots (and later their French allies) fought the British and Loyalists in what became known as the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783). Each of the thirteen colonies formed a Provincial Congress which assumed power from the former colonial governments, suppressed Loyalism, and recruited a Continental Army led by General George Washington. The Continental Congress declared King George a tyrant who trampled the colonists' rights as Englishmen, and they announced the colonies free and independent states on July 2, 1776. The Patriot leadership professed the political philosophies of liberalism and republicanism to reject monarchy and aristocracy, and they proclaimed that all men are created equal.

The Continental Army forced the redcoats out of Boston in March 1776, but that summer, The British captured New York City and its strategic harbor, which they held for the duration of The War. The Royal Navy had put blockade on ports and captured other cities for brief periods, but they failed to destroy Washington's forces. The Patriots attempted to invade Canada during the winter of 1775–76 without success, but they captured a British army at the Battle of Saratoga in October 1777. France entered The War as an ally of the United States with a large army and navy. The war then moved to the Southern states, where Charles Cornwallis captured an army at Charleston, South Carolina, in early 1780, but he failed to enlist enough volunteers from Loyalist civilians to take effective control of the territory. Finally, a combined American and French force captured a second British army at Yorktown in the fall of 1781, effectively ending the war. The Treaty of Paris was signed on September 3, 1783, formally ending the conflict and confirming the new nation's complete separation from the British Empire. The United States took possession of nearly all the territory east of the Mississippi River and south of the Great Lakes, with the British retaining control of Canada and Spain taking Florida.

Among the significant results of the American Revolution was the creation of the United States Constitution, establishing a relatively strong federal national government that included an executive, a national judiciary, and a bicameral Congress representing states in the Senate and the population in the House of Representatives. The American Revolution also resulted in the migration of around 60,000 Loyalists to other British territories, especially British North America (Canada).

The American Civil War[]

In the 34 States in February 1861, seven Southern slave states were declared by partisans to have seceded from the country, and the Confederate States of America was organized in rebellion against the United States Constitutional government. The Confederacy grew to control at least a majority of territory in eleven states, and it claimed the additional States of Kentucky and Missouri by assertions from native secessionists fleeing Union authority, but without territory or population therein; these states were given full representation in the Confederate Congress throughout the Civil War. The two remaining slave states, Delaware and Maryland, were invited to join the Confederacy, but nothing substantial developed due to intervention by federal troops.

The Union and the Confederacy quickly raised volunteer and conscription armies that fought mostly in the South over four years. Intense combat left 620,000 to 750,000 people dead, more than the number of United States military deaths in all other wars combined.

The war effectively ended April 9, 1865, when General Robert E. Lee surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant at the Battle of Appomattox Court House. Confederate generals throughout the southern states followed suit, the last surrender on land occurring June 23. Much of the South's infrastructure was destroyed, especially the transportation systems. The Confederacy collapsed, slavery was abolished, and four million black slaves were freed. During the Reconstruction era that followed the war, national unity was slowly restored, the national government expanded its power, and civil and political rights were granted to freed black slaves through amendments to the Constitution and federal legislation.

World War I[]

When the war broke out in 1914, the USA decided to be neutral, acknowledging that this war was conflicts between Old World powers that had nothing to do with them. The public opinion about the war was often divided as there were many migrants with ties to both sides. However, when the Germans sank Lusitania in 1915, a passenger ship with 159 Americans on board, the United States' view of the war began to change. It led to the death of 1,198 innocent passengers, including the American ones, so when the United States finally entered the war two years later (in 1917), the cry Remember Lusitania! was used in the recruitment posters and to unite the people against the German Empire.

In January 1917, the British got a secret telegram (known as Zimmerman Telegram) sent by German Foreign Minister Arthur Zimmerman to the German ambassador to Mexico. Where he proposed Mexico's alliance with Germany against the United States, promising them the possibility of acquiring Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. The secret telegram was the last straw, as President Woodrow Wilson delivered a speech to Congress on April 2, 1917, asking them to declare war on Germany. He also said in his speech that the United States would go to war for Fighting For The Ultimate Peace Of The World. On April 6, 1917, the United States formally declared war over the  German Empire.

The United States military in Europe was under the command of General John J. Pershing, and at first, he had a few trained troops to send to Europe, though, the Army was quickly built up by project as well as the volunteers. Near the end of the war, there were nearly 2 million American soldiers in France. Thanks to the arrival of the American forces at the right time. The course of the war was diverted in favor of the Allies. Both sides were exhausted and running out of soldiers, but the influx of new forces helped to boost the morale of the Allies and played a crucial role in defeating the  German Empire.

After entering the war, President Wilson issued his fourteen famous points. These points were his plans for peace and the goals of the United States in entering the war. He was the only leader who publicly announced his goals in this war. His fourteen points were included in the founding of the League of Nations that he hoped would help to end the war in the future.

After defeating the  German Empire, President Wilson pressed his fourteen points for the rest of Europe and the Allies to follow. He wanted all of Europe to recover quickly from the war, including the German Empire, after which both  France and the United Kingdom  differed and then put severe reparations over the  German Empire in the Treaty of Versailles, the United States didn't sign it, but he established his own peace treaty with the  German Empire.

World War II[]

At the beginning of the war, the United States didn't want a part of it but, on December 7, 1941, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor causing the United States to declare war shortly after the declaration of war on Japan. TheThird Reich followed suit. On June 6, 1944, is when operation overlord started, also known as D-Day. It is the most significant landing in history, and the United States was a part of it. From December 16, 1944 - January 25, 1945, was the battle of the bulge a significant fight that the United States was a part of. In 1945, an atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima on August 9, 3 days, later another Atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, putting an end to the war.

Oklahoma City Bombing[]

Trigger Warning, the following contains sensitive topics that are related to a major event, if it offends you, please click off.

On April 19, 1995, a bomb was detonated next to the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, causing 169 casualties. The bomb was planted by Timothy McVeigh in a rented moving truck, and Terry Nichols, Who helped him build it. McVeigh was later arrested in a car pulled over by a sheriff for no license plate and arrested for possession of a weapon. Nichols was also arrested. McVeigh got a death sentence, and Nichols got a life sentence in jail.

September 11, 2001[]

Trigger Warning, the following contains sensitive topics that are related to a major event, if it offends you, please click off.

On September 11, 2001, Which today is considered the most deadly terrorist attack in the twenty-first century, with more deaths, not only in the US; but in the world. (2,996 people died, not including all the firefighters that died from cancer/radiation from the debris of the two towers and Pentagon.) This incident is triggered by a terrorist organization, Al-Qaeda, for which Osama bin Laden takes responsibility. Two Boeing 767's hit the north tower (American Airlines Flight 11 Tail Number: N334AA), and the south tower (United Airlines Flight 175 Tail Number: N612UA), and two Boeing 757's were also hijacked.

One hit the Pentagon (American Airlines Flight 77 Tail Number: N644AA), and one was successfully retaken by the passengers (United Airlines Flight 93 Tail Number: N591UA). The one that was taken back by the passengers was supposed to hit the White House; the passengers took back the plane and crashed in a field near Diamond T. Mine (a coal mine) in Stonycreek Township, Somerset County, Pennsylvania. The only evidence of them taking back the plane was from the black box. (There were no survivors.)

Government policy designed to promote affordable housing, widespread failures in corporate and regulatory governance, and historically low-interest rates set by the Federal Reserve led to the United States housing bubble in 2006, which culminated with the financial crisis of 2007–2008 and the Great Recession, the nation's largest economic contraction since the Great Depression. During this crisis, assets owned by Americans lost about a quarter of their value. Barack Obama, the first multiracial president with African-American ancestry was elected in 2008 amid the crisis of the Great Recession, and subsequently passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 economic stimulus and the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act in an attempt to mitigate its negative effects and ensure there would not be a repeat of the economic crisis.

Election of Trump and beginning of the COVID-19 Pandemic[]

In what is viewed as one of the biggest political upsets in American history, Republican businessman Donald Trump was elected as the 45th president in 2016. Trump's management of the country through the first waves of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States was highly controversial, with over 900,000 Americans succumbing to the virus by December 2021. In 2020, in what was seen as a repudiation of Trump's divisive leadership, Democratic candidate Joe Biden was elected as the 46th president. On January 6, 2021, supporters of President Trump stormed the United States Capitol in an unsuccessful effort to disrupt the presidential Electoral College vote count, the result of which is still being felt today with many participants facing charges for trespassing and obstruction of government.

2020 Presidential election and Joe Biden presidency[]

The 2020 Presidential Elections were a election held after former U.S President Donald Trump was impeached. This later sparked a debate about who won the elections, with more right-leaning people claiming that Donald Trump won the "legal vote", and that the more left-leaning ones claiming that Biden legitimately won the elections. Other candidates included Jo Jorgensen and Howie Hawkins. However, it is commonly speculated by right-leaning candidates as they have a distrust for Biden, which they claim have rigged the elections. This topic is still controversial in political circles, with far-right memes not making such a comment about the topic.

Gallery[]

History of the United States of America
History: Pre-Colonial America | Colonial America | Revolutionary America | Young Republic | Expansionist America | American Civil War | Reconstruction | Industrialist America | Progressive America | World War I | Prohibition | Depression | World War II | Modern America | Post-Modern America
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