The United States of America

The United States of America cover a considerable part of North America. USA is bounded to the north by Canada, to the west by the Pacific Ocean, to the south by Mexico and the Straits of Florida and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean.
It is the home of more than 250 million people mostly of European origin and also of Afro-American, American Indian, Japanese, Chinese and other origin. Besides English, which is the official language, the people of the USA speak their minority languages.
The USA is a federation of 50 states including Alaska and the island state of Hawaii.
The north-eastern region, rich in raw materials, has become the centre of industry. These states are also the most densely populated ones and include some of the greatest cities, such as York, Washington D.C., Philadelphia, and the biggest industrial centers: Chicago and Detroit.
The northern region of the USA is called New England. Old traditions are still preserved especially in architecture and lifestyle. There are the most famous private universities such Harvard and Yale.
In the centre of the U.S. territory, called the Midwest, there are vast plains, where mainly wheat is grown. It is the region where agriculture is greatly developed. Windstorms called tornadoes occur here several times a year, just like in the southern states.
The southern states are mainly agricultural growing cotton and tobacco. It is here that the slave trade started and the Negro slaves were used to work on plantations. The racial problem is still a serious problem of the south.
The southwest of the United States of America includes Texas, the largest state of the federation, famous for its oil, prairies and cattle ranches and also some states, where Indians still live in their reservations. The southwest, with its extensive deserts, is characterized by the lack of rain and extreme temperatures during summer. The famous Grand Canyon is situated in this region.
In the west there are the Rocky Mountains. With the exception of some bigger cities is the American west is thinly populated. The natural beauties of national parks of this region are world-famous.
Thousands of tourists visit Rocky Mountains, cities such as San Francisco, Los Angeles with his famous district Hollywood (centre of motion-picture industry), New York or Miami and the sandy beeches of Florida and Hawaii or the Niagara Falls every year.

History
The American continent was probably discovered by Vikings around the year 1000 A.D., but they did not establish any permanent settlement. The existence of the American continent was not known in Europe until the voyage of Columbus in 1492.
The first permanent English settlement in North America was established in 1607. More extensive colonization began when Pilgrim Fathers settled at Plymouth, New England, in 1620. Then thousands of colonists came from Europe. Many of them tried to escape the religious or political persecution.
The first 13 colonies were under the British control. The colonies were mostly agricultural, especially in the South where tobacco and cotton plantations were worked by African slaves. Gradually, the colonies increased their power of self-government and wanted to lessen their dependence on Britain. But the British parliament was not willing to let the colonies go their own way and it passed a series of acts placing taxes on goods (glass, paper, tea) imported to American colonies. The result of these acts was the growing unrest in American colonies.
One of the most famous events is the Boston Tea Party from December 1773. A group of Americans dressed as Indians threw bags of tea into the Boston Harbor in protest of unfair taxes. The Boston Tea Party was one of the significant events leading to the American Revolutionary War against England.
The war began in 1775 and a year later colonial representatives declared independence from the King of England. The Declaration of Independence belongs to the most important documents of American history. It was signed in 1776 by all 13 colonies.
The most famous American general in the Revolutionary War was George Washington, who was the first president of the United States. The war ended in 1781, but it was not until 1783 that England officially recognized the independence of the United States of America.
New parts were set up, and a sharp difference arose between the Southern part, which was mainly agricultural using slaves to work on cotton fields, and Northern part, which was mainly industrial.
The American Civil War broke out in 1861. The Southern states, organized as the Confederate States under President Jefferson Davis fought against the federal Union of the Northern states under President Abraham Lincoln. In 1865 the American Civil War ended in victory for the North. The slavery was abolished in 1863.
In the period which followed, the war damage in the South was slowly repaired and industrialization began. The building of railways across the continent started, and new settlements were established. The prosperity of the country rapidly increased.
After the World War II an enormous development of the USA as the leading world power continued. The exploration of space was started and the USA launched the first satellite in 1958. The first manned flights were made during the presidency of J. F. Kennedy.
The Vietnam War had further political and social implications on USA and caused internal conflicts and a moral crisis which culminated in the Watergate scandal. Richard Nixon had to resign and the presidency passed to Gerald Ford.
In 1975 President Ford signed the Helsinki agreement. Participants from 39 nations promised to respect each other’s sovereignty and to cooperate in the field of human rights.
In the 1980s, during the presidency of Ronald Reagan and George Bush, the United States and the Soviet Union, represented by Mikhail Gorbachev, opened new negotiations on reductions of nuclear arms and signed important agreements.

System of Government
The system of American Government is based on the principles established in the Constitution written in 1787 and in the Bill of Rights. The constitution divides the powers of government into three branches – the Executive Branch, the Legislative Branch and the Judicial Branch.
The Executive Branch is headed by the President, who is chosen in national election. He recommends programmes and laws to Congress. The President also appoints federal judges, ambassadors and government officials.
The Legislative Branch, the Congress, consists of the Senate and the House of Representatives. Each Senator is elected for six years and each Representative for two years. Congress must approve bills before they become law. The Senate alone ratifies treaties with other nations.
The Judicial Branch is headed by the Supreme Court, which consists of the Chief Justice of the United States and eight Associate Justices. The Supreme Court decides whether laws are constitutional.