United States of America

United States of America

United States of America (USA) - a country in North America. Area - 9.5 million km ² (4th place in the world). Population - 320 million people (2013 estimate; emesto 3 in the world). Capital - the city of Washington.

United States border with Canada in the north, in the south - Mexico, also have a maritime border with Russia. By the Pacific Ocean to the west, the Atlantic Ocean - from the east and the Arctic Ocean - from the north. Administratively, the country is divided into 50 states and the District of Columbia, United States subordinate is also a number of island territories. U.S. residents called the Americans and to the United States itself is the common name of America. In the Russian language until the middle of the XX century was also the name of common North American United States (NAUS).

United States of America was formed in 1776 by ​​combining the thirteen British colonies that declared their independence. War of Independence lasted until 1783 and ended in victory for the colonists. In 1787, the U.S. Constitution was adopted, and in 1791 - Bill of Rights, which severely restricted the authority of the government in relation to citizens. In the 1860s, the conflict between the slave and the southern industrial northern states led to the beginning of the four-year civil war. Winning northern states led to the worldwide ban slavery in the U.S. and rebuild the country after the split that emerged in the southern states of the union of the Confederacy and the announcement of independence from the U.S..

Until the First World War the U.S. foreign policy activity limited interests in North, Central and South America, according to the formulated back in 1823 in the Monroe Doctrine. After World War I the United States Congress did not give consent to join international organizations (such as the League of Nations and the International Court of Justice in it), which limited the U.S. role in world politics. However, the country's participation in the anti-Hitler coalition significantly strengthened its influence on the world stage and the second half of the century it became the core of the capitalist camp. In 1945 he became the first U.S. nuclear power, and since 1946, they were in a state of global confrontation with the Soviet Union, which lasted until the beginning of the 1990s.

Currently, the U.S. economy is the world's highest GDP (15.1 trillion dollars in 2011, 22 % of global GDP). The United States has powerful armed forces, including the world's largest naval forces; have a permanent seat on the UN Security Council, are state - founder of the North Atlantic Alliance (NATO). The U.S. has the largest nuclear power in terms of aggregate capacity in the world.

Having the greatest economic, political, cultural and military influence in the world, the United States considered the sole superpower at the moment.

United States has no official language. Most people in the country use American English.

Location

The main territory of the United States (called continental states) is located on the North American continent and stretches from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west. In the south of the U.S. border with Mexico, in the north - Canada. Furthermore, in the United States includes two further state. In the extreme north- west of the continent is Alaska also borders Canada. In the Pacific, is the state of Hawaii. Russian border across the Bering Strait. The United States also owns a number of islands in the Caribbean (eg, Puerto Rico) and the Pacific (American Samoa, Midway, Guam, etc.).

Dependent Areas

Under the control of the United States or otherwise are (but are not included in them) number of island territories of different status. On the territory of the uninhabited atoll of Palmyra fully valid U.S. Constitution. Other territories have their own primary legislation. The largest of these areas is Puerto Rico..

Relief

On the mainland west of the Atlantic Coastal Plain stretches Appalachian Mountains, which are located in the central valley (200-500 m above sea level), the Great Plains (600-1500 m). Nearly the whole west Cordillera mountain system busy.

Climate

Since the country is located in a large area, it contains almost all climatic zones - the Antarctic climate in northern Alaska to tropical in Hawaii and southern Florida.

Nature. Natural Resources

The land is rich reserves of various natural resources, including - coal, lignite, iron ore imargantsevaya. Cordillera, Colorado Plateau, the Great Plains and lowlands have Primeksikanskaya deposits of copper, zinc, lead, silver, chromite, vanadium, tungsten, molybdenum, titanium, complex, uranium, mercury ore, gold, sulfur, phosphates and other chemical raw materials.

The slopes of the Cordillera covered with dense coniferous forests of the Appalachians - forests of broad-leaved trees is almost gone. Prevalent in northern Alaska tundra vegetation. River, which formed deep canyons, belong to the basins draining into the Pacific Ocean. Mississippi (with the influx of Missouri) - one of the longest river systems in the world - stretches for 6420 km. On the border with Canada are the Great Lakes - Superior, Huron, Michigan, Erie, Ontario.

Administrative division

United States of America consists of 50 states, are equal members of the Federation, the Federal District of Columbia and dependent territories. Each state has its own constitution, legislative, executive and judicial powers. Most state names come from the names of the Indian tribes and the names of the kings of England and France.

States are divided into districts (English county, parish (Louisiana), borough (Alaska)) - smaller administrative units smaller than the state, and no less than the city, except for the five counties (boroughs) as part of the New York City. Total, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, the country has 3141 District. Fewest counties in the State of Delaware (3), the largest in Texas (254). Powers of county governments and the relationship with the municipal authorities in their territory settlements vary greatly from state to state. Local life settlements run municipalities.

Set a special status for non incorporated areas (so-called. Freely associated or non-aligned territories: Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, etc.): These areas have a deliberative vote and could theoretically stop or suspend its privileged relations with Washington.

Political system

According to the U.S. Constitution, adopted in 1787, certain powers for the exercise of public authority passed the U.S. federal government. State powers are not defined for the transfer to the federal government by the Constitution, carried U.S. states.

In the U.S. Constitution, the principle of separation of powers, by which the federal government is composed of legislative, executive and judicial authorities, acting independently of each other.

The highest legislative body - a bicameral Congress:

• the lower house - the House of Representatives;

• upper house - the Senate.

The highest executive body - the U.S. president. President - Head of State, Chief of the Armed Forces (List of Presidents of the USA). There is a vice-president.

Highest judicial authority - the U.S. Supreme Court.

The main political parties - Republican and Democratic. There are also many other smaller parties.

U.S. Foreign Policy

U.S. foreign policy is aimed at achieving two main goals - to ensure the security of the state and its citizens and the welfare of its citizens. In today's world, American foreign policy tends toward hegemony, which is caused by destruction of the bipolar (with USSR) system of international relations.

The U.S. economy is the largest economy in the world, as the PPP, and in nominal terms, at least one quarter of global GDP in 50 years.

Also it is one of the most diversified economies in the world of national and holds leadership in the world economy last 100 years. However, since the early 2000s, due to globalization and to accelerate the economic growth of developing countries, its influence in the world economy has declined slightly.

Advantages: world's largest economy. Many natural resources, including energy and raw materials. High-tech production. Development of scientific research. Well-developed services, competitive industry. Multinational companies such as «Ford», «General Motors» and ExxonMobil. Leading manufacturer of software. A good system of higher education, especially in the field of high technologies. U.S. firms are thriving due to the wide spread of American culture in the world. The world's largest exporter of goods. Political stability, qualified staff.

Weaknesses: strong decline in the number of jobs in manufacturing. Globalization, leak jobs to countries with cheap labor (in 1945 almost 50% of total world production came from the U.S., in the 1990s - only 25 %). Stiff competition in the field of technology with East Asian countries and the European Union. Fanned speculative markets. Bankruptcy firms leads to a crisis of confidence. After 9 years of the economic boom in 2001 there was a crisis reducing conditions. Beginning with fiscal year 2002 to the present time the U.S. federal budget expenditures exceed its revenues. The external debt of over 15 trillion dollars, which exceeds the annual U.S. GDP.

Transport infrastructure

The U.S. has a highly developed transport, engineering and other infrastructure, the maintenance of which in 2011 was spent 2.4 % of GDP, which amounted to approximately $ 362 billion

Despite the increase in costs in absolute terms over the last 10 years the share of spending on the country's infrastructure remains below the maximum target of 3.1% of GDP reached in 1960.

Highways

U.S. road network is the most extensive road network in the world. Its total length is 6,506,204 km.

In this network includes both federal highways (Interstate System) and state and local roads values ​​.

Railways

Despite the almost halving of the railways of the 1920s, the United States still have the world's longest railway network, the length of which is 226 427 km.

Air transport

The United States has the world's largest number of airports and airfields with hard runways (runways). The total number of TMA is 5194.

This country is also the leader in the number of airports with unpaved runways. There are 9885 such sites.

Airspace over the United States is one of the busiest in the world. Thus, according to The Guardian, in 2012, four of the top 10 busiest airports in the world were American.

According to a study by the University of Hofstra, the U.S. accounts for 70 % of domestic flights in the world.

Health

Health care in the U.S. is leading the world in scale concentrated in her resources. The number of people employed in the sector - over 10 million people. Expenditure on medicine United States ranks first in the world - both in absolute terms (2.26 trillion dollars, or 7439 dollars per person), and as a percentage of GDP (16%). But at the same time, the U.S. is the only industrialized country that does not guarantee its citizens a universal and all-embracing system of health insurance. Despite the impressive achievements of American health care system and health services, 16.7 % of Americans am they are not available, because of the high cost. The U.S. Census Bureau released data showing that in 2009 had no health insurance 50.7 million inhabitants (including 9.9 million non-citizens). Another 30 % medical aid are incomplete. According to the Institute of Medicine report, published in 2004, lack of health insurance causes roughly 18,000 deaths annually. For similar studies at Harvard (2009), the figure is 44 800 additional deaths

Education

Education in the U.S. mainly state -controlled and funded at three levels: the federal government, state governments and local authorities. There is a public school system. Higher education institutions mainly private, that attract undergraduate and graduate students from around the world.

The literacy rate in the U.S. - 97 %, but according to the 2003 census, only 84.6 % of people 25 years and older had a high school education. 52.5% had a higher education, and 27.3 % had a bachelor's degree. The main language of education - English, except for Puerto Rico, where the official language - Spanish.

Population

First People (Native American tribes who migrated from Siberia to Alaska) populated U.S. territory about 10 thousand years ago, and their descendants remained dominant ethnic component to the end of the XVII century. Modern U.S. population, however, is much less reflects the genetic heritage of indigenous inhabitants, as the bulk of the modern inhabitants - descendants of relatively recent (XVII-XX centuries) of immigrants from Europe (mostly Western) and Africa. It should be noted that the full right to be called Americans receive only the children of immigrants born in the United States. In the country remains a clear distinction between foreigners and natives, between which there is a significant cultural and linguistic distance. This difference, however, is limited by internal division. Americans United States - heterogeneous nation with diverse racial composition. Dominant in all respects and regions (except for the State of Hawaii) is currently caucasian ethnicity - came from the United Kingdom, Germany, Ireland and other European countries.

Дата добавления: 2015-09-30