E Pluribus Unum (Latin) ("Out of Many, One") | |||||||
| Anthem | "My Country 'Tis of Thee" | ||||||
| Capital | Washington DC | ||||||
| Largest city | City of Los Angeles | ||||||
| Other cities | New York City, Chicago, San Francisco, San Diego, Dallas | ||||||
| Language official |
None at federal level | ||||||
| others | English, Spanish, French, German, Navajo, Cherokee, others | ||||||
| Religion main |
Evangelical Protestantism | ||||||
| others | Catholicism, Protestantism, Orthodoxy, Judaism, Islam | ||||||
| Ethnic Groups main |
White | ||||||
| others | Latino, Black, Asian, Mixed | ||||||
| Demonym | American | ||||||
| Government | Federal presidential constitutional republic | ||||||
| Legislature | US Congress | ||||||
| President | Hillary Rodham | ||||||
| Vice-President | Russ Feingold | ||||||
| Population | 475,013,866 | ||||||
| Established | July 4, 1776 | ||||||
| Independence | from Great Britain | ||||||
| Currency | United States Dollar (US$) | ||||||
| Time Zone | UTC -5 to -10 | ||||||
| summer | UTC -4 to -9 | ||||||
| Internet TLD | .us | ||||||
The United States of America are a federal republic consisting of forty-nine (49) states and a federal district. The 48 contiguous states, or "Lower forty-eight", are located in middle North America, between the Kingdom of Canada and the Plurinational State of Mexico.The forty-ninth state, Alaska, is the largest state in the United States and is located in the far northwest of the North American continent, stuck between Canada and the Eurasian Union. The country has a number of uninhabited islands in the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. At 471 million inhabitants, the United States is the fourth largest nation by population, after the Indic Federation, the United States of China, and Eurasia.
The United States have had a long and complicated history. Founded by American colonists tired of British involvement on the economy, the early American settlers fought a bloody colonial war against their metrople that ended with the only surrender of the British Empire to colonial forces. The new American nation, composed of thirteen colonies turned states, began expanding westwards, eventually taking over all the land between the 49th Parallel and the Rio Grande. The United States then proceeded to undergo some political turmoil throughout the ninteenth and early twentieth century, as increased control by companies led to class warfare. Anarchists murdered two different Presidents and popularity for left-wing governments rose rapidly. However, nothing important occurred until after World War One, when massive economic downtuns led to the rise of the Debs government and the rise of some political instability and military rule. The United States became the leader of the Mexico Pact, and the chief enemy of the Concert of Europe and its allies in the global, overarching Cold War. While the democratic capacity of the United States waxed and grew throughout the period, it infamously went under two dictatorships; Robert Sterling Clark's Boulangist dictatorship between the overthrowal of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1941 and his death in 1956, most known is most famous for the Indian Genocide, and Ronnie Reagan's military-backed régime between 1980 and his murder in 1992, after which the Mexico Pact collapsed.
Today, the US has bounced back from post-Cold War depression, although industrial collapse still heavily affects several areas, most notably the Midwest. The nation has transition back into a traditional two-party democracy with almost full rule of law, although recent seccessionist movements have taken control over the governments of several states, something which poses a threat to the nation. The greatest threat, however, is the ever-looming presence of over a dozen major guerrilla bands of different denominations, from communist to seccessionist, seeking to essentially destroy the United States.
History
for history before the 1900s, see History of the United States
The origin of the modern American political movement can of course be taken back as far as the Mayflower Compact, but is more easily seen from the fight between the proponents of Free Silver, supported by the left-wing Democrats, and those who supported gold, especially the Republicans. After the Era of Reconstruction, which ended in 1877 (or 1880, depending on perspective), the main ideologies present in the division between Democrats and Republicans was that of trade and monetary policy. The first such election was that of 1888, which pitted incumbent Grover Cleveland against Benjamin Harrison, who, supporting the big businesses (as well as Tammany Hall) was able to swing New York and win the election.
The late 1800s saw a period of stunning industrial and capital growth for the few at the top. Business productivity skyrocketed. Manufacture grew in most American nations and cities. Unfortunately, this process only reached the very wealthy in the nation. The "Gilded Age" brought upon the age of massive economic inequality in the United States. The workers, with little if any labour rights and very low wages (despite they being the highest for industrial workers in the world) felt oppressed by the bourgeoisie. This led to the creation of populist movements, most notably the left-wing Populist Party as well as the token issue of the 1892 election; the silver trade. There was a marked difference between those who supported major companies were against the inflationary policies of those who supported using silver as coinage instead of gold (these were led by William Jennings Bryan); those in favour were mainly peasants and poor workers. The Democrats were helped by the Populist Party to elect Bryan to office in 1892.
Soon enough, the United States experienced massive economic downturns with the Panic of 1893. Unemployment skyrocketed and deflation occurred, leading to debts mounting up. Bryan's legislation, thankfully, was able to deal with the brunt of the deal. Removing the dollar's gold-only standard, Bryan began inflating the price of dollars, to the point at which deflation was staved off.
Government and Politics
The United States operates under the 1776 Constitution, amended and modified several times throughout the history of the nation. The United States has a relatively weak central government, with much local power devolved to 49 states and one federal district. The United States is the world's lowest surviving federation, managed by a system of checks and balances between the three wings of government; the legislature (Congress, divided into Senate and House of Representatives), the executive (Presidency) and the judiciary (the Supreme Court).
Composition of the House of Representatives by party (left) and bloc (right).
Results of the last House of Representatives election.
Composition of the US senate by party (left) and bloc (right).
Senate results in the United States in the 2016-2018 period. In darker colour states with 2 senators of each party (orange, PA; grey, Democrat, green, Concertation), lighter colour those with only one senator.
The United States has something often called a "two point five party system", composed of two major parties in direct competition to each other: the People's Alliance and the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party is the oldest political party in the world, tracing back to the Democratic-Republicans of Thomas Jefferson; meanwhile, the People's Alliance was created in 1992 as a coalition of seven political parties that opposed the Reagan dictatorship and its subsequent Quayle national administration period in order to wrest control away from the Republicans in the 1992 elections. It worked, and the People's Alliance has been the party of power within the United States ever since, having held the presidency in all but one election since. The PA is composed of seven parties to this day, from left to right:
- The socialist (even Marxian) Socialist-Progressive Caucus,
- The Green and socialist Green Party,
- The Christian-socialist Solidarity Reform Alliance, popular in the Midwest,
- The social-democratic to democratic socialist Progressive Party,
- The regional, social-democratic Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party,
- The regional, social-democratic Wisconsin Progressive Party, and
- The social-liberal to social-democratic Republican Party.
On the other hand, the Democrats have only one minor party in their ranks: the Texas-specific Lone Star Party.
There is a "half a major party" in the form of the Concertation of Parties for Democracy, an alliance of political groups that look for further devolution, increased cultural rights and, in some cases, independence. Nothing more can really be said of them as a cohesive group: it is composed of nine different parties that range from the far-left to the hard-right. These parties are:
- The socialist, black interests New Africa Party
- The Christian Socialist, Latino-based Alianza Nacional de Aztlán
- The Native American, social democratic Native Party of America
- The Green Cascadia Party,
- The populist New England Federalists,
- The populist New Yorker's Party,
- The Mormon, Christian-Democratic Utahn People's Party,
- The right-wing, Christian-Democratic, sometimes racist, sometimes Cajun-interest Southern National Party, and
- The right-libertarian Alaskan Independence Party.
Electoral results from the US Presidential Election of 2016. In orange Hillary Rodham and Russ Feingold (People's Alliance); in silver Condolezza Rice and Nikki Haley (Democrat); in green Raúl Grijalva and Katherine Babineaux (Concertation).
The latest nationwide election was the United States Presidential election of 2016, in which the Republican candidate Hillary Rodham, former Vice-President to President Evan Bayh, and sitting Senator between 2004 and 2016, together with Wisconsin Progressive senator Russ Feingold, defeated the Democratic ticket of former Secretary of State Condolezza Rice and Senator Nikki Haley.
2012 Election map. Orange denotes states won by Joe Biden and John Edwards (People's Alliance). Grey denotes states won by President John Roberts/Vice-President Colin Powell (Democratic). Green denotes states won by Jon Huntsman/Paul LePage or Jon Huntsman/Satcheen Littlefeather (Concertation).
The election of 2012 resulted in the Republican candidate Joe Biden being elected with the support of the People's Alliance, with Republican John Edwards of North Carolina as his vice-president. Biden resigned in 2015 over a combination of health issues and family tragedy, resulting in Edwards being sworn in as president.
The two major parties are easily established in a left-right axis. The Democrats, at the start of the century the more left-wing of the two parties (championing farmers and workers over the Republicans' liberalism, both economical and social) began moving right under the dictatorship of Robert Sterling Clark because of the limited welfare state Clark implemented. The right-wing of the Democrats, especially the Southern Democrat wing, won the nomination in 1960, 1964 and 1968; Storm Thurmond in 1960 and George Wallace twice, in 1964 and 1968. The controversial loss of the United States presidential election in 1980 because of vote-splitting in Utah and Oklahoma by part of the right wing led to the Democratic Party seizing absolute control under Ronnie Reagan after a coup d'état. Ever since, the Democrats have represented the right-wing, economically neoliberal and socially conservative "establishment", while the reduced Republican opposition began moving to the left, especially in opposition to the Cold War.
Politics in each individual state function more or less independently from national politics, although the parties remain alligned to the four big organisations. The People's Alliance only exists, at state level in 17 of the US' 49 states; while in other states, the Progressives and Republicans compete directly statewide. An example of this is, for instance, New York, where the Legislative Assembly has been, since 2004, ruled by the Progressives (in minority), while the official opposition is the Republicans.
Demographics
With a population of 475,013,866 (475 million), the United States is the third largest nation in the world. Originally a nation completely composed of two major ethnic groups (White Anglo-Saxon Protestants in the top and black slaves in the bottom) the United States has now become far more diverse, with the Census recognising five major ethnic categories into which all ethnic groups fall:
- Whites - 241,717,231 people, 51.32% of the population
- Hispanics - 129,525,007 people, 27.3% of the population
- Blacks - 55,436,721 people, 11.17% of the population
- Asians - 25,434,003 people, 5.4% of the population
- Mixed and Other - 18,887,140 people, 4.01%
- Indians (often called Native Americans) - 4,013,763 people, 0.85%
Today, while whites (51.32%) are still a majority, lower birth rates and high immigration rates from former allies of the Mexico Pact have meant that whites are rapidly dwindling in proportion to other groups. The Hispanic, Asian and mixed-race groups have all grown extremely rapidly in the last thirty years.
Formerly dominant in several areas, following the Indian Genocide of the 1940s, most Native Americans have been expelled from the United States. While US-native-descent people (and mixed native-white and native-others) number roughly 11 million people, most of these are either in Canada (2 million) or Mexico (5 million). Outside the three states of Oklahoma (where they compose 60% of the population), Alaska (15%), Arizona (10%), and South Dakota (7%), the Native population of the United States is statistically 0.