United States of America (A Truly Global War)

United States of America
United States of America
	Motto: E Pluribus Unum
Capital	Washington, D.C.
Official languages	None at federal level
Spoken languages	English, Spanish, French, various Amerindian languages
Demonym	American
Government	Federal Presidential Constitutional Republic
Legislature	United States Congress
Establishment
Currency	U.S. Dollar

Background[]

Note: The following is pasted from Wikipedia in order to provide information before the POD, if this should be removed, contact me on my talk page.

The United States of America (USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US), or America, is a country primarily located in North America, consisting of 51 states, a federal district, five major self-governing territories, and various possessions. At 3.9 million square miles (9.8 million square kilometers), it is the world's third- or fourth-largest country by total area. With a population of over 329 million, it is the second most populous country in the world. The national capital is Washington, D.C., and the most populous city is New York City.

The United States is a federal republic and a representative democracy with three separate branches of government, including a bicameral legislature. It is a founding member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States (OAS), NATO, and other international organizations.

The current President is Jeb Bush, a member of the Democratic Party.

History[]

European settlements[]

The first documented arrival of Europeans in the continental United States is that of Spanish conquistadors such as Juan Ponce de León, who made his first expedition to Florida in 1513. Even earlier, Christopher Columbus had landed in Puerto Rico on his 1493 voyage, and San Juan was settled by the Spanish a decade later. The Spanish set up the first settlements in Florida and New Mexico, such as Saint Augustine, often considered the nation's oldest city, and Santa Fe. The French established their own settlements along the Mississippi River, notably New Orleans. Successful English settlement of the eastern coast of North America began with the Virginia Colony in 1607 at Jamestown and with the Pilgrims colony at Plymouth in 1620. The continent's first elected legislative assembly, Virginia's House of Burgesses, was founded in 1619. Documents such as the Mayflower Compact and the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut established precedents for representative self-government and constitutionalism that would develop throughout the American colonies. Many settlers were dissenting Christians who came seeking religious freedom.

In the early days of colonization, many European settlers were subject to food shortages, disease, and attacks from Native Americans. Native Americans were also often at war with neighboring tribes and European settlers. In many cases, however, the natives and settlers came to depend on one another. Settlers traded for food and animal pelts; natives for guns, tools and other European goods. Natives taught many settlers to cultivate corn, beans, and other foodstuffs. European missionaries and others felt it was important to "civilize" the Native Americans and urged them to adopt European agricultural practices and lifestyles. However, with the increased European colonization of North America, the Native Americans were displaced and often killed. The native population of America declined after European arrival for various reasons, primarily diseases such as smallpox and measles.

ThirteenColoniesMap — Map of the 13 Colonies

During the Seven Years' War (1756–1763), known in the U.S. as the French and Indian War, British forces captured Canada from the French. With the creation of the Province of Quebec, Canada's francophone population would remain isolated from the English-speaking colonial dependencies of Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and the Thirteen Colonies. Excluding the Native Americans who lived there, the Thirteen Colonies had a population of over 2.1 million in 1770, about a third that of Britain. Despite continuing new arrivals, the rate of natural increase was such that by the 1770s only a small minority of Americans had been born overseas. The colonies' distance from Britain had allowed the development of self-government, but their unprecedented success motivated British monarchs to periodically seek to reassert royal authority.

Declaration of Independence (1819), by John Trumbull — Declaration of Independence, by John Trumbull

The American Revolutionary War fought by the Thirteen Colonies against the British Empire was the first successful war of independence by a non-European entity against a European power. Americans had developed an ideology of "republicanism", asserting that government rested on the will of the people as expressed in their local legislatures. They demanded their "rights as Englishmen" and "no taxation without representation". The British insisted on administering the empire through Parliament, and the conflict escalated into war. The Second Continental Congress unanimously adopted the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776; this day is celebrated annually as Independence Day. In 1777, the Articles of Confederation established a decentralized government that operated until 1789. After its defeat at the Siege of Yorktown in 1781, Britain signed a peace treaty. American sovereignty became internationally recognized, and the country was granted all lands east of the Mississippi River.

Independence and expansion[]

Although the federal government outlawed American participation in the Atlantic slave trade in 1807, after 1820, cultivation of the highly profitable cotton crop exploded in the Deep South, and along with it, the slave population. The Second Great Awakening, especially in the period 1800–1840, converted millions to evangelical Protestantism. In the North, it energized multiple social reform movements, including abolitionism; in the South, Methodists and Baptists proselytized among slave populations.

James K. Polk, the main President behind continental expansion during Manifest Destiny

Beginning in the late 18th century, American settlers began to expand westward, prompting a long series of American Indian Wars. The 1803 Louisiana Purchase almost doubled the nation's area, Spain ceded Florida and other Gulf Coast territory in 1819, the Republic of Texas was annexed in 1845 during a period of expansionism, and the 1846 Oregon Treaty with Britain 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, making the U.S. span the continent.

The California Gold Rush of 1848–49 spurred migration to the Pacific coast, which led to the California Genocide and the creation of additional western states. The giving away of vast quantities of land to white European settlers as part of the Homestead Acts, nearly 10% of the total area of the United States, and to private railroad companies and colleges as part of land grants spurred economic development. After the Civil War, new transcontinental railways made relocation easier for settlers, expanded internal trade, and increased conflicts with Native Americans. In 1869, a new Peace Policy nominally promised to protect Native Americans from abuses, avoid further war, and secure their eventual U.S. citizenship. Nonetheless, large-scale conflicts continued throughout the West into the 1900s.

Civil War and Reconstruction[]

Battle of gettysburg — Battle of Gettysburg, the most defining battle of the Civil War

Irreconcilable sectional conflict regarding the enslavement of Africans and African Americans ultimately led to the American Civil War. With the 1860 election of Republican Abraham Lincoln, conventions in thirteen slave states declared secession and formed the Confederate States of America (the "South" or the "Confederacy"), while the federal government (the "Union") maintained that secession was illegal. In order to bring about this secession, military action was initiated by the secessionists, and the Union responded in kind. The ensuing war would become the deadliest military conflict in American history, resulting in the deaths of approximately 618,000 soldiers as well as many civilians. The Union initially simply fought to keep the country united. Nevertheless, as casualties mounted after 1863 and Lincoln delivered his Emancipation Proclamation, the main purpose of the war from the Union's viewpoint became the abolition of slavery. Indeed, when the Union ultimately won the war in April 1865, each of the states in the defeated South was required to ratify the Thirteenth Amendment, which prohibited slavery except as penal labor. Two other amendments were also ratified, ensuring citizenship for blacks and, at least in theory, voting rights for them as well.

Reconstruction began in earnest following the war. While President Lincoln attempted to foster friendship and forgiveness between the Union and the former Confederacy, his assassination on April 14, 1865 drove a wedge between North and South again. Republicans in the federal government made it their goal to oversee the rebuilding of the South and to ensure the rights of African Americans. They persisted until the Compromise of 1877 when the Republicans agreed to cease protecting the rights of African Americans in the South in order for Democrats to concede the presidential election of 1876.

Southern white Democrats, calling themselves "Redeemers", took control of the South after the end of Reconstruction, beginning the nadir of American race relations. From 1890 to 1910, the Redeemers established so-called Jim Crow laws, disenfranchising most blacks and some poor whites throughout the region. Blacks faced racial segregation, especially in the South. They also occasionally experienced vigilante violence which went ignored by future presidents up until the 1950s.

Industrialization and further expansion[]

In the North, urbanization and an unprecedented influx of immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe supplied a surplus of labor for the country's industrialization and transformed its culture. National infrastructure, including telegraph and transcontinental railroads, spurred economic growth and greater settlement and development of the American Old West. The later invention of electric light and the telephone would also affect communication and urban life.

The United States fought Indian Wars west of the Mississippi River from 1810 to at least 1890. Most of these conflicts ended with the cession of Native American territory and their confinement to Indian reservations. Additionally, the Trail of Tears in the 1830s exemplified the Indian removal policy that forcibly resettled Indians. This further expanded acreage under mechanical cultivation, increasing surpluses for international markets. Mainland expansion also included the purchase of Alaska from Russia in 1867. In 1893, pro-American elements in Hawaii overthrew the Hawaiian monarchy and formed the Republic of Hawaii, which the U.S. annexed in 1898. Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines were ceded by Spain in the same year, following the Spanish–American War. American Samoa was acquired by the United States in 1900 after the end of the Second Samoan Civil War. The U.S. Virgin Islands were purchased from Denmark in 1917.

Rapid economic development during the late 19th and early 20th centuries fostered the rise of many prominent industrialists. Tycoons like Cornelius Vanderbilt, John D. Rockefeller, and Andrew Carnegie led the nation's progress in the railroad, petroleum, and steel industries. Banking became a major part of the economy, with J. P. Morgan playing a notable role. The American economy boomed, becoming the world's largest. These dramatic changes were accompanied by social unrest and the rise of populist, socialist, and anarchist movements. This period eventually ended with the advent of the Progressive Era, which saw significant reforms including women's suffrage, alcohol prohibition, regulation of consumer goods, and greater antitrust measures to ensure competition and attention to worker conditions. However, defined political movements such as anarchism and socialism began experiencing a heavy decline following the Assassination of William McKinley and later the defeat of the Bolshevik forces in the Russian Civil War, occurring as a result of the Red Scare. Nonetheless, pre-war socialist movements led by standard-bearer Eugene V. Debs allowed better interest in a more free public sector.

World War I, Great Depression, and World War II[]

The United States remained neutral from the outbreak of World War I in 1914 until 1917 when it joined the war as an "associated power" alongside the Allies of World War I, helping to turn the tide against the Central Powers. One of the main reasons for the declaration was the interception of the Zimmermann Telegram, which called for a Mexican invasion of the southern American states of Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas in case the United States were to join the war. The United States began mobilizations, however was unable to tend enough to the Entente's war effort as the Mexican Empire accepted the telegram hastily, but reluctantly, and launched a direct invasion that was halted after an advance lasting (at best) up to 67 miles (107 km).

Having to focus on both Mexico and Germany, the United States was unable to get enough men into the European frontlines by the time the Netherlands joined the Central Powers in 1918, allowing the Germans to erode any small expeditionaries the Americans had sent and close the gap to Paris. Even after the war was declared over, some American divisions stayed in French ports and cities to prevent them from falling to any revolutionary forces, and sent aid to the Nationalists led by Charles Maurras in the latter French Civil War. The war's official end was not met in America where Mexico had still remained a member of the Central Powers, allowing Germany to squeeze in minor volunteers from small pacific ports, enough to guarantee the war as a stalemate for the next 2 years. Following the treaties of Brest-Litovsk and Dresden, the Entente was rendered defunct.

After incumbent president Woodrow Wilson left office in 1921, many politicians with much more neutralist policies took charge. In the Election of 1920, Republican Candidate Hiram Johnson narrowly won over James M. Cox, on a platform that opposed intervening in European affairs, with opposition towards continuing any previous economic treaties with both the Continental European Entente and Central Powers. Johnson withdrew any remaining American troops from European ports, and invoked the Roosevelt Corollary to prevent any outer German influence from reaching the continent, such as the Occupation of French Guiana in 1924.

The Great Depression — Unemployed coal workers, 1933

In 1920, the women's rights movement won passage of a constitutional amendment granting women's suffrage. The 1920s and 1930s saw the rise of radio for mass communication and the invention of early television. The prosperity of the Roaring Twenties ended with the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and the onset of the Great Depression. After his election as president in 1932, Franklin D. Roosevelt responded with his proposed New Deal, though his assassination in February of the later year prevented him from implementing his policies. The Great Migration of millions of African Americans out of the American South began before World War I and extended through the 1960s; whereas the Dust Bowl of the mid-1930s impoverished many farming communities and spurred a new wave of western migration.

Al Smith 1932 — Al Smith, U.S. President (1937-1944)

The election of Al Smith in 1936 changed the direction of where the United States was going to stand in global affairs. Smith was the first Catholic president to be elected, which sparked some criticism from parts of the South but nonetheless allowed him to maintain a steady support base in regions with high Irish/Bavarian immigration rates. A vocal opponent of Prohibition, Smith enacted laws during his governorship (and later his presidency), which saw ratification of the Beer Permitting Act and repealing of primary Prohibition laws in New York and later counties across the nation. While not exclusive to his personal views, Smith would pass the Managed Service Act to a slim majority in Congress, which called for various organizations such as the IRS to audit various conservative bankers who had been avoiding making riskier loans to stimulate the economy during the depression.

To prevent the alienation of his small-government and conservative voters in the rural South and Midwest, he passed various laws which rescinded higher tax rates instated by Hoover and other appointees/governors with ties to him, whilst also decreasing the tariffs imposed on British and French imports as part of the previous Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, which Garner had not chosen to invigorate. Irritated with the stalemate that ensued with Mexico following World War I, Smith advocated a much more connective alliance system with the former Entente nations, and ordered annual conscription programs. The collapsing demand for automobiles in public service (along with the need of resources such as copper to supply tanks and aircraft needed for future conflicts) contributed to the end of the depression itself, as conscription filled the gaps of unemployment and allowed many home-businesses to return to normal production rates.

Smith's second term was dominated by World War II, which began roughly 6 months after his second inauguration. After the German invasion of Liberia and Mexican attack on El Paso, he succeeded in maintaining an early evacuation of citizens from residential border towns, which spared the nation from larger civilian casualties than in the last conflict, despite not being in full control of the army. His approval ratings reached record levels in both negative and positive rates, though leaned more positive before he died in office at roughly 79%, the highest recent for an incumbent president at that time. After the capitulation of the Mexican Empire by late 1943 he proposed less strict reparations to prevent continuing contempt between the two countries, whilst also allowing Mexico to keep trade interests as minor compensation.

After Smith's death in October of 1944, his vice president Harry S. Truman was sworn in, and immediately focused on ending the war in Europe. On June 3 of the next year, he called for the atomic bombings of Munich and Hamburg in Germany to what he believed would prevent reorganization of any consolidated Axis garrisons. After both sides met in Berlin on 10 July, 4 days following the German instrument of surrender, the United States participated in the division of Germany and Austria into several occupational zones.

Post-war and Civil Rights era[]

After the war, the U.S. had experienced sustained economic expansion and a rapid growth of its population and middle class following World War II. After a surge in female labor participation, especially in the 1970s, by 1985, the majority of women aged 16 and over were employed. Construction of an Interstate Highway System by Presidents Dewey and Eisenhower transformed the nation's infrastructure over the following decades. Millions moved from farms and inner cities to large suburban housing developments. In 1959, the United States formally expanded beyond the contiguous United States when the territories of Alaska and Hawaii became, respectively, the 49th and 50th states admitted into the Union. The growing Civil Rights Movement used nonviolence to confront segregation and discrimination, with Martin Luther King Jr. becoming a prominent leader and figurehead.

The launch of a "War on Poverty" expanded entitlements and welfare spending, including the creation of Medicare and Medicaid, two programs that provide health coverage to the elderly and poor, respectively, and the means-tested Food Stamp Program and Aid to Families with Dependent Children. The 1970s and early 1980s saw the onset of stagflation. After his election in 1980, President Ronald Reagan responded to economic stagnation with free-market oriented reforms. The acquired territory of Greenland was officially admitted as a state on June 1, 1960.

Government and politics[]

The United States is a federal republic of 51 states, a federal district, five territories and several uninhabited island possessions. It is the world's oldest surviving federation. It is a federal republic and a representative democracy "in which majority rule is tempered by minority rights protected by law." The U.S. ranked 25th on the Democracy Index in 2018. In the American federalist system, citizens are usually subject to three levels of government: federal, state, and local. The local government's duties are commonly split between county and municipal governments. In almost all cases, executive and legislative officials are elected by a plurality vote of citizens by district.

The government is regulated by a system of checks and balances defined by the U.S. Constitution, which serves as the country's supreme legal document. The original text of the Constitution establishes the structure and responsibilities of the federal government and its relationship with the individual states. Article One protects the right to the writ of habeas corpus. The Constitution has been amended 27 times; the first ten amendments, which make up the Bill of Rights, and the Fourteenth Amendment form the central basis of Americans' individual rights. All laws and governmental procedures are subject to judicial review and any law ruled by the courts to be in violation of the Constitution is voided. The principle of judicial review, not explicitly mentioned in the Constitution, was established by the Supreme Court in Marbury v. Madison (1803) in a decision handed down by Chief Justice John Marshall.