United States
June 8th, 2011 -- Posted in North America | No Comments »History
Native American and European settlement
The indigenous peoples of the U.S. mainland, including Alaska Natives, are believed to have migrated from Asia, beginning between 12,000 and 40,000 years ago.[31] Some, such as the pre-Columbian Mississippian culture, developed advanced agriculture, grand architecture, and state-level societies. After Europeans began settling the Americas, many millions of indigenous Americans died from epidemics of imported diseases such as smallpox.[32]
In 1492, Genoese explorer Christopher Columbus, under contract to the Spanish crown, reached several Caribbean islands, making first contact with the indigenous people. On April 2, 1513, Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de LeĂłn landed on what he called “La Florida”—the first documented European arrival on what would become the U.S. mainland. Spanish settlements in the region were followed by ones in the present-day southwestern United States that drew thousands through Mexico. French fur traders established outposts of New France around the Great Lakes; France eventually claimed much of the North American interior, down to the Gulf of Mexico. The first successful English settlements were the Virginia Colony in Jamestown in 1607 and the Pilgrims’ Plymouth Colony in 1620. The 1628 chartering of the Massachusetts Bay Colony resulted in a wave of migration; by 1634, New England had been settled by some 10,000 Puritans. Between the late 1610s and the American Revolution, about 50,000 convicts were shipped to Britain’s American colonies.[33] Beginning in 1614, the Dutch settled along the lower Hudson River, including New Amsterdam on Manhattan Island.
In 1674, the Dutch ceded their American territory to England; the province of New Netherland was renamed New York. Many new immigrants, especially to the South, were indentured servants—some two-thirds of all Virginia immigrants between 1630 and 1680.[34] By the turn of the 18th century, African slaves were becoming the primary source of bonded labor. With the 1729 division of the Carolinas and the 1732 colonization of Georgia, the thirteen British colonies that would become the United States of America were established. All had local governments with elections open to most free men, with a growing devotion to the ancient rights of Englishmen and a sense of self-government stimulating support for republicanism. All legalized the African slave trade. With high birth rates, low death rates, and steady immigration, the colonial population grew rapidly. The Christian revivalist movement of the 1730s and 1740s known as the Great Awakening fueled interest in both religion and religious liberty. In the French and Indian War, British forces seized Canada from the French, but the francophone population remained politically isolated from the southern colonies. Excluding the Native Americans (popularly known as “American Indians”), who were being displaced, those thirteen colonies had a population of 2.6 million in 1770, about one-third that of Britain; nearly one in five Americans were black slaves.[35] Though subject to British taxation, the American colonials had no representation in the Parliament of Great Britain.
Economy
| Economic indicators | ||
|---|---|---|
| Unemployment | 9.1% (July 2011) | [71] |
| GDP growth | 1.3% (2Q 2011), 2.9% (2009 – 2010) | [72] |
| CPI inflation | 3.6% (July 2010 – July 2011) | [73] |
| Poverty | 14.3% (2009) | [74] |
| Public debt | $14.65 trillion (August 25, 2011) | [75] |
| Household net worth | $58.1 trillion (1Q 2011) | [76] |
The United States has a capitalist mixed economy, which is fueled by abundant natural resources, a well-developed infrastructure, and high productivity.[77] According to the International Monetary Fund, the U.S. GDP of $15 trillion constitutes 23% of the gross world product at market exchange rates and over 20% of the gross world product at purchasing power parity (PPP).[3] Though larger than any other nation’s, its national GDP is about 5% smaller than the GDP of the European Union at PPP in 2008. The country ranks ninth in the world in nominal GDP per capita and sixth in GDP per capita at PPP.[3] The U.S. dollar is the world’s primary reserve currency.
The United States is the largest importer of goods and third largest exporter, though exports per capita are relatively low. In 2008, the total U.S. trade deficit was $696 billion.[78] Canada, China, Mexico, Japan, and Germany are its top trading partners.[79] In 2007, vehicles constituted both the leading import and leading export commodity.[80] China is the largest foreign holder of U.S. public debt.
Culture
American cultural icons: apple pie, baseball, and the American flag
The United States is a multicultural nation, home to a wide variety of ethnic groups, traditions, and values.[6][201] Aside from the now small Native American and Native Hawaiian populations, nearly all Americans or their ancestors immigrated within the past five centuries.[202] The culture held in common by most Americans—mainstream American culture—is a Western culture largely derived from the traditions of European immigrants with influences from many other sources, such as traditions brought by slaves from Africa.[6][203] More recent immigration from Asia and especially Latin America has added to a cultural mix that has been described as both a homogenizing melting pot, and a heterogeneous salad bowl in which immigrants and their descendants retain distinctive cultural characteristics.[6]
American culture is considered the most individualistic in the world.[204] Though the American Dream, or the perception that Americans enjoy high social mobility, plays a key role in attracting immigrants, other developed nations offer greater social mobility.[205] While the mainstream culture holds that the United States is a classless society,[206] scholars identify significant differences between the country’s social classes, affecting socialization, language, and values.[207] The American middle and professional class has initiated many contemporary social trends such as modern feminism, environmentalism, and multiculturalism.[208] Americans’ self-images, social viewpoints, and cultural expectations are associated with their occupations to an unusually close degree.[209] While Americans tend greatly to value socioeconomic achievement, being ordinary or average is generally seen as a positive attribute.[210]
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