Political system
Population
Economy
The USA is a highly developed industrial country. It is the world’s leading producer of copper and oil and the world’s second producer of iron ore and coal. Among the most important manufacturing industries are air-crafts, cars, textiles, radio and TV sets and etc.
Silicon Valley is the southern region in Northern California in the United States. It is home to many of the world's largest technology corporations as well as thousands of small startups. The term originally referred to the region's large number of silicon chip innovators and manufacturers, but eventually came to refer to all the high-tech businesses in the area; it is now generally used as a metonym for the American high-tech sector. Despite the development of other high-tech economic centers throughout the United States and the world, Silicon Valley continues to be the leading hub for high-tech innovation and development, accounting for one-third (1/3) of all of the venture capital investment in the United States.
Pilgrims (US), or Pilgrim Fathers (UK), is a name commonly applied to early settlers of the Plymouth Colony in present-day Plymouth, Massachusetts, United States (1620). The members of the English Separatist Church composed a third of the 102 colonists who sailed aboard the Mayflower to North America, and they became the dominant group in the colony.
Today the overall population of the USA is more than 300 mln people. Eastern part of the country is more populated than the western part, though most of the population of the mainland USA lives on the east and west coasts.
Though mainly European and African in origin, Americans are made up from nearly all races and nations, including Chinese and native Americans. Immigration is one of the defining characteristics of America's national identity, though calling the US a 'nation of immigrants' neatly sidesteps Native Americans (already here) and African American slaves (brought against their will).
Race/Ethnicity:
White – 80%
African American – 12.8%
Asian – 4.4%
Native American and Alaskan Native – 1%
Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander – 0.2%
Multiracial – 1.6%
In the past 30 years, the old notion of America as a melting pot - a stew in which immigrants' individual differences are lost in uniformity - has given way to the salad-bowl model, in which the individual pieces still retain their flavor while contributing to the whole.
The United States of America is a federal republic consisting of 50 states. Each state has its own government («state government*). In some ways the United States is like 50 small countries.
The government of the USA act according to the Constitution which was signed by the first thirteen representatives of thirteen original American states in 1787. The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It was completed on September 17, 1787. The Constitution of the United States of America is the oldest written national constitution in use. The document was written in 1787 and since that time twenty six Amendments have been added. According to the Constitution the USA is a republic. So, the officials of any rank are elected by US citizens. Every citizen has rights which can not be violated.
The Constitution proclaims a federal system of government which keeps both the states and the federal power from getting too much power. It means that the federal government is given certain powers, for example, to make peace or war, to issue money and to regulate the trade and so on.
The federal power is located in Washington, D.C. It is based on legislative, executive and juridical branches of power.
The legislative power is vested in Congress, which consists of two houses: the Senate and the House of Representatives. There are 435 members in the House of Representatives and 100 senators in Congress. Each state elects two members for the Senate.
The United States Capitol is the meeting place of the United States Congress, the legislature of the federal government of the United States. Located in Washington, D.C., it sits atop Capitol Hill at the eastern end of the National Mall.
The executive branch is headed by the President who is assisted by the Vice President. The President enforces federal laws, serves as commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces. The President of the USA is chosen in nationwide elections every 4 years together with the Vice.-President.
There are two main political parties in the USA: The Republican and the Democratic.
Barack Hussein Obama II(born August 4, 1961) is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as the junior United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned after his election to the presidency in November 2008.
Washington, D.C. is the capital of the United States, founded on July 16, 1790. The City of Washington was originally a separate municipality within the Territory of Columbia until an act of Congress in 1871 effectively merged the City and the Territory into a single entity called the District of Columbia. It is for this reason that the city, while legally named the District of Columbia, is known as Washington, D.C. The city shares its name with the U.S. state of Washington, which is located on the country's Pacific coast.
WHITE HOUSEis the official name of the executive mansion of the President of the United States.