America’s Epic Journey: From Ancient Roots to Modern Power – Unveiling Its Landscapes, People, and Institutions

1807 Insurrection Act — Ten Great Slave Revolts in Colonial America and the United States – World History Encyclopedia, Photo by worldhistory.org, is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

The story of the United States is an epic narrative, one that spans from ancient migrations and revolutionary beginnings to continental expansion and profound social transformation. From its founding and naming forward, this diverse nation has been in a constant state of reinvention, shaped by the forces of history and its own vast landscape. It is a tale of human ambition, resilience, and a continuous, globally resonant quest to define its identity.

Journey with us as we embark on an immersive exploration of the United States, delving into the very foundations that underpin its modern existence. We will uncover the fascinating etymology of its name, trace the ancient footsteps of its first inhabitants, and witness the dramatic events that forged a republic from a collection of diverse European colonies. This in-depth look promises to illuminate the defining moments and characteristics of a country that continues to captivate the world with its unique blend of history and innovation.

Our expedition begins not with grand declarations, but with the very words we use to describe this nation, then moves through millennia of human presence and the pivotal conflicts that carved its initial borders. Understanding these formative elements is key to grasping the intricate complexities of the American experience, offering a comprehensive perspective that only a journey through time and terrain can provide. Join us as we uncover the layers of history that make up this remarkable nation.

1. Etymology: The Story Behind the Name “America”

The very name “United States of America” carries a profound history, its documented use tracing back to January 2, 1776. On that pivotal day, Stephen Moylan, an aide to General George Washington in the Continental Army, penned a letter to Joseph Reed, Washington’s aide-de-camp. In this correspondence, Moylan expressed a desire to travel “with full and ample powers from the United States of America to Spain” to seek crucial assistance for the Revolutionary War effort. This early mention highlights the emergent identity of the nascent nation, even before its formal declaration.

The phrase gained further public recognition swiftly. An anonymous essay, published in the Williamsburg newspaper *The Virginia Gazette* on April 6, 1776, represents the first known public usage of the term. Later, on or after June 11, 1776, Thomas Jefferson inscribed “United States of America” into a rough draft of the Declaration of Independence. This seminal document, formally adopted by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, cemented the name into the annals of history, becoming synonymous with the independent nation.

Today, the terms “United States” and its initialism “U.S.” are common short names for the country, frequently used as both nouns and adjectives in English. The initialism “USA” is also widely prevalent as a noun. These abbreviations have become so ingrained that “United States” and “U.S.” are established terms throughout the U.S. federal government, accompanied by prescribed rules for their usage. Colloquially, particularly from abroad, “The States” serves as an established shortening, with “stateside” being its corresponding adjective or adverb, referring to or originating from the United States.

The name “America” itself boasts an even older etymological root, derived from the feminine form of “Americus Vesputius,” the Latinized name of the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci (1454–1512). German cartographers Martin Waldseemüller and Matthias Ringmann were the first to apply this name to the landmass in 1507. Vespucci was instrumental in proposing that the lands encountered by Christopher Columbus in 1492, initially thought to be part of the Indies at Asia’s eastern limit, were in fact part of a previously unknown continent. In English usage, the term “America” typically refers specifically to the United States, distinct from “the Americas,” which encompasses the totality of the continents of North and South America.

Military equipment: Gallo pinto
Name: Gallo pinto
Caption: Gallo pinto served with cheese
Country: Costa Rica
AssociatedCuisine: Central American cuisine
Course: Main dish,side dish
Served: Hot
MainIngredient: Rice,beans
MinorIngredient: Onions, peppers, other seasonings
Variations: Regional variations
Calories: 200
Protein: 7
Fat: 0.5
Carbohydrate: 40
Categories: Articles containing Spanish-language text, Articles with short description, Costa Rican cuisine, National dishes, Nicaraguan cuisine
Summary: Gallo pinto or gallopinto is a traditional rice and bean dish from Central America. Consisting of rice and beans as a base, gallo pinto is important to both Nicaragua and Costa Rica, both of which consider it a national dish. The beans in gallo pinto are cooked with garlic, oregano and onion. When the bean juice is in equal parts with the beans, they are then combined with leftover or previously prepared rice. The rice is prepared with bell peppers, salt and onions.

Obsolescence Takes Hold: The Cabover's Fading in North America — North America – Free of Charge Creative Commons Highway sign image, Photo by picserver.org, is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

2. Ancient Footprints: The First Peoples of North America

The story of human habitation in North America stretches back more than 12,000 years, long before European arrival. The first inhabitants migrated from Siberia, undertaking an arduous journey either across the Bering land bridge, a vast expanse of land that once connected Asia and North America, or along the now-submerged Ice Age coastline. These pioneering groups, known as Paleo-Indians, laid the foundation for the diverse and rich tapestry of Indigenous cultures that would flourish across the continent. Their initial movements across what is now a watery divide mark the beginning of North American human history.

As eons passed, these early societies evolved and adapted to the continent’s diverse terrains. Around 11,000 BC, the Clovis culture emerged, recognized by its unique fluted projectile points, widely considered the first widespread human culture in the Americas, marking a pivotal era of population growth and technological leaps, while Indigenous North American cultures became increasingly complex, developing intricate social systems, advanced farming techniques, and remarkable architectural achievements, with the Mississippian culture notably excelling in mound-building and societal organization.

In the post-archaic period, several distinct and influential cultures dominated various regions. The Mississippian cultures thrived in the midwestern, eastern, and southern regions of what is now the United States, leaving behind monumental earthworks and evidence of extensive trade networks. Simultaneously, the Algonquian peoples inhabited the Great Lakes region and along the Eastern Seaboard, developing unique languages, spiritual beliefs, and subsistence strategies adapted to their environments. Far to the Southwest, the Hohokam culture and Ancestral Puebloans established sophisticated irrigation systems and iconic cliff dwellings, demonstrating remarkable ingenuity in arid landscapes.

Estimating the exact size of the Native population in what is now the United States prior to the arrival of European immigrants remains a complex challenge for historians and archaeologists. However, scholarly estimates range widely, from approximately 500,000 to nearly 10 million individuals. This vast population, distributed across numerous distinct cultures and linguistic groups, represented a vibrant and thriving civilization that had deeply shaped the North American continent for thousands of years before the profound changes brought by transoceanic contact.

Military equipment: Indigenous peoples of the Americas
Group: Indigenous peoples of the Americas
Caption: Americas
Pop: circa
Region1: Mexico
Pop1: Indigenous peoples of Mexico
Region2: United States
Pop2: Native Americans in the United States
Region3: Guatemala
Pop3: Indigenous peoples in Guatemala
Region4: Peru
Pop4: Indigenous peoples of Peru
Region5: Bolivia
Pop5: Indigenous peoples in Bolivia
Region6: Chile
Pop6: Indigenous peoples in Chile
Region7: Colombia
Pop7: Indigenous peoples in Colombia
Region8: Canada
Pop8: Indigenous peoples in Canada
Region9: Brazil
Pop9: Indigenous peoples in Brazil
Region10: Argentina
Pop10: Indigenous peoples in Argentina
Region11: Ecuador
Pop11: Indigenous peoples in Ecuador
Region12: Venezuela
Pop12: Indigenous peoples in Venezuela
Region13: Panama
Pop13: Indigenous peoples of Panama
Region14: Honduras
Pop14: Indigenous peoples of Honduras
Region15: Nicaragua
Pop15: 443,847 (2005)
Region16: Uruguay
Pop16: Indigenous peoples in Uruguay
Region17: Paraguay
Pop17: Indigenous peoples in Paraguay
Region18: Costa Rica
Pop18: Indigenous peoples of Costa Rica
Region19: Guyana
Pop19: Indigenous peoples in Guyana
Region20: El Salvador
Pop20: 68,148 (2024)
Region21: Greenland
Pop21: Greenlandic Inuit
Region22: Belize
Pop22: 36,507 (2010)
Region23: Suriname
Pop23: Indigenous peoples in Suriname
Region24: Puerto Rico
Pop24: 19,839 (2010)
Region25: Flagicon image,French Guiana
Pop25: ~19,000
Region27: Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Pop27: 3,280 (2012)
Region28: Dominica
Pop28: 2,576 (2011)
Region29: Trinidad and Tobago
Pop29: 1,394 (2011)
Region30: Saint Lucia
Pop30: 951 (2010)
Region31: Antigua and Barbuda
Pop31: 327 (2011)
Region32: Grenada
Pop32: 162 (2011)
Region33: Saint Kitts and Nevis
Pop33: 8 (2011)
Languages: Indigenous languages of the Americas
Religions: Christianity
Related: Métis
Categories: “Related ethnic groups” needing confirmation, All Wikipedia articles in need of updating, All accuracy disputes, All articles containing potentially dated statements, All articles with dead external links
Summary: The Indigenous peoples of the Americas are the peoples who are native to the Americas or the Western Hemisphere. Their ancestors are among the pre-Columbian population of South or North America, including Central America and the Caribbean. Indigenous peoples live throughout the Americas. While often minorities in their countries, Indigenous peoples are the majority in Greenland and close to a majority in Bolivia and Guatemala. There are at least 1,000 different Indigenous languages of the Americas. Some languages, including Quechua, Arawak, Aymara, Guaraní, Nahuatl, and some Mayan languages, have millions of speakers and are recognized as official by governments in Bolivia, Peru, Paraguay, and Greenland. Indigenous peoples, whether residing in rural or urban areas, often maintain aspects of their cultural practices, including religion, social organization, and subsistence practices. Over time, these cultures have evolved, preserving traditional customs while adapting to modern needs. Some Indigenous groups remain relatively isolated from Western culture, with some still classified as uncontacted peoples. The Americas also host millions of individuals of mixed Indigenous, European, and sometimes African or Asian descent, historically referred to as mestizos in Spanish-speaking countries. In many Latin American nations, people of partial Indigenous descent constitute a majority or significant portion of the population, particularly in Central America, Mexico, Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Chile, and Paraguay. Mestizos outnumber Indigenous peoples in most Spanish-speaking countries, according to estimates of ethnic cultural identification. However, since Indigenous communities in the Americas are defined by cultural identification and kinship rather than ancestry or race, mestizos are typically not counted among the Indigenous population unless they speak an Indigenous language or identify with a specific Indigenous culture. Additionally, many individuals of wholly Indigenous descent who do not follow Indigenous traditions or speak an Indigenous language have been classified or self-identified as mestizo due to assimilation into the dominant Hispanic culture. In recent years, the self-identified Indigenous population in many countries has increased as individuals reclaim their heritage amid rising Indigenous-led movements for self-determination and social justice. In past centuries, Indigenous peoples had diverse societal, governmental, and subsistence systems. Some Indigenous peoples were historically hunter-gatherers, while others practiced agriculture and aquaculture. Various Indigenous societies developed complex social structures, including precontact monumental architecture, organized cities, city-states, chiefdoms, states, monarchies, republics, confederacies, and empires. These societies possessed varying levels of knowledge in fields such as engineering, architecture, mathematics, astronomy, writing, physics, medicine, agriculture, irrigation, geology, mining, metallurgy, art, sculpture, and goldsmithing.

3. European Arrivals: Early Colonization and Complex Encounters

The arrival of Europeans in the late 15th century fundamentally reshaped the trajectory of North America. Christopher Columbus initiated Spanish exploration of the Caribbean in 1492, setting in motion a wave of Spanish-speaking settlements and missions that eventually stretched from what are now Puerto Rico and Florida all the way to New Mexico and California. The first Spanish colony within the present-day continental United States was Spanish Florida, chartered in 1513. Despite early challenges marked by hunger and disease, Spain established its first permanent town, Saint Augustine, in 1565, marking a lasting European foothold in the region.

Other European powers soon followed, seeking their own claims and resources. France attempted settlements in French Florida as early as 1562, though these early endeavors, such as Charlesfort (1578) and Fort Caroline (1565), were either abandoned or destroyed by Spanish raids. Permanent French settlements emerged much later, strategically located along vital waterways: Fort Detroit in 1701, Saint Louis on the Mississippi River in 1764, and notably, New Orleans on the Gulf of Mexico in 1718, which became a significant cultural and economic center. Beyond the major powers, early European colonies also included the thriving Dutch colony of New Nederland, settled in 1626 and encompassing present-day New York, and the smaller Swedish colony of New Sweden, established in 1638 in what is now Delaware.

British colonization along the East Coast commenced with the Virginia Colony in 1607, followed by the Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts in 1620. These early British settlements proved foundational, establishing precedents for governance and community. Documents like the Mayflower Compact in Massachusetts and the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut are particularly noteworthy, as they laid the groundwork for local representative self-governance and constitutionalism. These principles would gradually develop and strengthen throughout the American colonies, fostering a unique political identity distinct from their European origins.

While European settlers in what is now the United States frequently encountered conflicts with Native Americans, their interactions were not solely antagonistic. They also engaged in complex trade relationships, exchanging European tools and goods for essential food resources and valuable animal pelts. However, the spectrum of relations ranged dramatically, from periods of close cooperation and mutual benefit to devastating warfare and massacres. Colonial authorities often pursued policies aimed at forcing Native Americans to adopt European lifestyles, including conversion to Christianity, which often led to cultural displacement and further conflict. Tragically, along the eastern seaboard, settlers also engaged in the trafficking of enslaved Africans through the brutal Atlantic slave trade, introducing a profound and enduring injustice into the fabric of colonial society.

The original Thirteen Colonies, which would eventually form the core of the United States, were administered as possessions of the British Empire, overseen by Crown-appointed governors. Despite this overarching imperial authority, local governments in the colonies held elections, which were largely open to most white male property owners, fostering a degree of self-rule. The colonial population experienced rapid growth, stretching from Maine to Georgia, a demographic surge that increasingly eclipsed Native American populations. By the 1770s, the natural increase of the population was so robust that only a small minority of Americans had been born overseas, solidifying a distinct colonial identity. The sheer distance from Britain further facilitated the entrenchment of self-governance, while a series of Christian revivals known as the First Great Awakening fueled colonial interest in guaranteed religious liberty, contributing to a growing sense of independent thought and political consciousness.

Military equipment: Pre-Columbian era
Align: right
Direction: vertical
Footer: Temple of Kukulcán
Categories: All Wikipedia articles needing clarification, All articles needing additional references, All articles with incomplete citations, All articles with unsourced statements, Articles needing additional references from October 2022
Summary: In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era, also known as the pre-contact era, or as the pre-Cabraline era specifically in Brazil, spans from the initial peopling of the Americas in the Upper Paleolithic to the onset of European colonization, which began with Christopher Columbus’s voyage in 1492. This era encompasses the history of Indigenous cultures prior to significant European influence, which in some cases did not occur until decades or even centuries after Columbus’s arrival. During the pre-Columbian era, many civilizations developed permanent settlements, cities, agricultural practices, civic and monumental architecture, major earthworks, and complex societal hierarchies. Some of these civilizations had declined by the time of the establishment of the first permanent European colonies, around the late 16th to early 17th centuries, and are known primarily through archaeological research of the Americas and oral histories. Other civilizations, contemporaneous with the colonial period, were documented in European accounts of the time. For instance, the Maya civilization maintained written records, which were often destroyed by Christian Europeans such as Diego de Landa, who viewed them as pagan but sought to preserve native histories. Despite the destruction, a few original documents have survived, and others were transcribed or translated into Spanish, providing modern historians with valuable insights into ancient cultures and knowledge.

“A Tribute to the Flag of the United States of America” by Dimitry B is licensed under CC BY 2.0

4. Birth of a Nation: The American Revolution and Early Republic

The conclusion of the French and Indian War, in which Britain emerged victorious, brought about a significant shift in imperial policy that profoundly impacted the American colonies. Britain began to assert greater control over local colonial affairs, initiating new taxes and regulations. This assertion of power sparked widespread colonial political resistance, as one of the primary grievances of the colonists was a perceived denial of their fundamental rights as Englishmen, particularly the sacred right to representation in the British government that now sought to tax them. The cry of “no taxation without representation” encapsulated their burgeoning dissatisfaction.

To demonstrate their resolve and displeasure, the First Continental Congress convened in 1774, a momentous gathering of colonial delegates. This assembly passed the Continental Association, which mandated a colonial boycott of British goods. This boycott was rigorously enforced by local “committees of safety” and proved remarkably effective in disrupting British trade and demonstrating the colonies’ unity and determination. The escalating tensions culminated in a direct confrontation when the British attempted to disarm the colonists, leading to the Battles of Lexington and Concord in 1775, which ignited the American Revolutionary War. At the Second Continental Congress, the colonies appointed George Washington as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army and formed a committee, entrusting Thomas Jefferson with the task of drafting the Declaration of Independence. Two days after passing the Lee Resolution to create an independent nation, the Declaration was formally adopted on July 4, 1776, marking the official birth of the United States.

The political values that animated the American Revolution were profound and far-reaching, fundamentally shaping the new nation’s identity. These values championed liberty, asserted inalienable individual rights, and upheld the sovereignty of the people, laying the philosophical groundwork for a new form of government. The revolutionaries ardently supported republicanism, emphatically rejecting monarchy, aristocracy, and all forms of hereditary political power, promoting instead the idea of civic virtue and vilifying political corruption. The Founding Fathers of the United States, a distinguished group that included luminaries such as Washington, Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, James Madison, and Thomas Paine, were deeply inspired by the intellectual currents of Classical, Renaissance, and Enlightenment philosophies and ideas, drawing upon a rich heritage of political thought to forge a truly novel political experiment.

While the Articles of Confederation had been in practical effect since its drafting in 1777, it was formally ratified in 1781, establishing a decentralized government that operated until 1789. This initial framework proved insufficient to address the complexities of governing a young nation. Following the British surrender at the siege of Yorktown in 1781, American sovereignty received international recognition with the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1783. This landmark treaty not only affirmed independence but also granted the U.S. vast new territory, stretching westward to the Mississippi River, northward to present-day Canada, and southward to Spanish Florida. Furthermore, the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 established a crucial precedent for how the country’s territory would expand: not through the enlargement of existing states, but through the orderly admission of new, sovereign states into the Union.

Recognizing the limitations of the Articles, the U.S. Constitution was meticulously drafted at the 1787 Constitutional Convention. It officially went into effect in 1789, establishing a robust federal republic governed by three separate branches: legislative, executive, and judicial. This innovative design created a sophisticated system of checks and balances, carefully intended to prevent any single branch from becoming overly supreme. George Washington, a figure of immense moral authority, was unanimously elected as the country’s first president under this new Constitution. To allay the concerns of skeptics regarding the power of the more centralized government, the Bill of Rights, a series of amendments guaranteeing fundamental individual liberties, was adopted in 1791. Washington’s voluntary resignation as commander-in-chief after the Revolutionary War and his later refusal to seek a third presidential term established enduring precedents for the supremacy of civil authority and the peaceful transfer of power within the United States.

Military equipment: The Birth of a Nation
Name: The Birth of a Nation
Caption: Theatrical release poster
Director: D. W. Griffith
Producer: D. W. Griffith,Harry Aitken
Screenplay: D. W. Griffith,Frank E. Woods
BasedOn: based on
Starring: Lillian Gish,Mae Marsh,Henry B. Walthall,Miriam Cooper,Ralph Lewis (actor),George Siegmann,Walter Long (actor)
Music: Joseph Carl Breil
Cinematography: Billy Bitzer
Editing: D. W. Griffith
Studio: David W. Griffith Corp.
Distributor: Epoch Producing Co.
Released: [object Object]
Runtime: film reel
Country: United States
Language: Silent film,intertitles
Budget: $100,000+
Gross: $50–100 million
Categories: 1910s American films, 1910s English-language films, 1910s political films, 1910s war drama films, 1915 drama films
Summary: The Birth of a Nation is a 1915 American silent epic drama film directed by D. W. Griffith and starring Lillian Gish. The screenplay is adapted from Thomas Dixon Jr.’s 1905 novel and play The Clansman: A Historical Romance of the Ku Klux Klan. Griffith co-wrote the screenplay with Frank E. Woods and produced the film with Harry Aitken. The Birth of a Nation is a landmark of film history, lauded for its technical virtuosity. It was the first non-serial American 12-reel film ever made. Its plot, part fiction and part history, chronicles the assassination of Abraham Lincoln by John Wilkes Booth and the relationship of two families in the Civil War and Reconstruction eras over the course of several years—the pro-Union (Northern) Stonemans and the pro-Confederacy (Southern) Camerons. It was originally shown in two parts separated by an intermission, and it was the first American-made film to have a musical score for an orchestra. It helped to pioneer closeups and fadeouts, and it includes a carefully staged battle sequence with hundreds of extras made to look like thousands. It came with a 13-page Souvenir Program. It was the first motion picture to be screened inside the White House, viewed there by President Woodrow Wilson, his family, and members of his cabinet. The film was controversial even before its release and it has remained so since; it has been called “the most controversial film ever made in the United States”, as well as “the most reprehensibly racist film in Hollywood history”. The film has been denounced for its racist depiction of African Americans. The film portrays its black characters (many of whom are played by white actors in blackface) as unintelligent and sexually aggressive toward white women. The Ku Klux Klan (KKK), a white supremacist hate group, is portrayed as a heroic force that protects white women and maintains white supremacy. Popular among white audiences nationwide upon its release, the film’s success was both a consequence of and a contributor to racial segregation throughout the U.S. In response to the film’s depictions of black people and Civil War history, African Americans across the U.S. organized and protested. In Boston and other localities, black leaders and the NAACP spearheaded an unsuccessful campaign to have it banned on the basis that it inflamed racial tensions and could incite violence. It was also denied release in the state of Ohio and the cities of Chicago, Denver, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, and Minneapolis. Griffith’s indignation at efforts to censor or ban the film motivated him to produce Intolerance the following year. In spite of its divisiveness, The Birth of a Nation was a massive commercial success across the nation—grossing far more than any previous motion picture—and it profoundly influenced both the film industry and American culture. Adjusted for inflation, the film remains one of the highest-grossing films ever made. It has been acknowledged as an inspiration for the rebirth of the Ku Klux Klan, which took place only a few months after its release. In 1992, the Library of Congress deemed the film “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry.

“America” by Cayusa is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0

5. Manifest Destiny: Forging a Nation Through Westward Expansion

As the 18th century drew to a close, American settlers began an increasing and often determined movement westward, driven by a powerful sense of “manifest destiny” – the belief that it was their God-given right and duty to expand across the North American continent. This ambitious vision profoundly shaped the nation’s territorial growth and its demographic composition. A landmark event in this expansion was the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, a monumental acquisition from France that nearly doubled the existing territory of the United States, opening up vast new lands for exploration and settlement and forever altering the country’s geographical scope.

Despite the acquisition of new lands, lingering issues with Great Britain persisted, eventually leading to the War of 1812. Fought to a draw, this conflict reaffirmed American sovereignty and further solidified national identity. Following this, Spain ceded Florida and its vital Gulf Coast territory to the United States in 1819, resolving long-standing border disputes and extending American influence into the southeastern reaches of the continent. These early territorial gains were crucial in establishing the initial contours of the burgeoning nation.

The issue of slavery, however, cast a long shadow over this era of expansion. The Missouri Compromise of 1820 attempted to strike a delicate balance between the North’s desire to prevent the expansion of slavery into new territories and the South’s imperative to extend it. While admitting Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state, the compromise primarily prohibited slavery in all other lands of the Louisiana Purchase north of the 36°30′ parallel. This temporary political solution underscored the deep sectional divisions that would continue to plague the nation.

As settlers pushed into lands already home to Native American peoples, the federal government implemented increasingly severe policies of Indian removal and assimilation, most notably the Indian Removal Act of 1830, a key initiative under President Andrew Jackson. This law tragically led to the “Trail of Tears” between 1830 and 1850, a series of brutal forced marches where an estimated 60,000 Native Americans from east of the Mississippi River were expelled to lands far to the west, causing an estimated 13,200 to 16,700 deaths, and intensifying the conflicts with settlers, escalating into the American Indian Wars west of the Mississippi.

Further territorial acquisitions continued to shape the American map. The United States annexed the Republic of Texas in 1845, a move that immediately strained relations with neighboring Mexico. The 1846 Oregon Treaty subsequently led to U.S. control over the present-day American Northwest, settling another significant border dispute. However, the dispute with Mexico over Texas escalated into the Mexican–American War (1846–1848). Following a decisive victory for the U.S., Mexico was compelled to recognize American sovereignty over Texas, New Mexico, and California in the 1848 Mexican Cession. This massive land transfer also included territories that would become the future states of Nevada, Colorado, and Utah, adding immense wealth and strategic importance to the United States. The California gold rush of 1848–1849 then spurred a colossal migration of white settlers to the Pacific coast, leading to even more violent confrontations with Native populations, culminating in the California genocide, which saw thousands of Native inhabitants perish, lasting into the mid-1870s. This period of rapid expansion and resource acquisition saw the creation of additional western territories and states, permanently transforming the nation’s geographical and cultural landscape.

Military equipment: US imperialism
Categories: All articles containing potentially dated statements, All articles that may contain original research, All articles with dead external links, All articles with specifically marked weasel-worded phrases, All articles with unsourced statements
Summary: U.S. imperialism or American imperialism is the expansion of political, economic, cultural, media, and military power or control by the United States outside its boundaries. Depending on the commentator, it may include imperialism through outright military conquest; military protection; gunboat diplomacy; unequal treaties; subsidization of preferred factions; regime change; economic or diplomatic support; or economic penetration through private companies, potentially followed by diplomatic or forceful intervention when those interests are threatened. The policies perpetuating American imperialism and expansionism are usually considered to have begun with “New Imperialism” in the late 19th century, though some consider American territorial expansion and settler colonialism at the expense of Indigenous Americans to be similar enough in nature to be identified with the same term. While the United States has never officially identified itself and its territorial possessions as an empire, some commentators have referred to the country as such, including Max Boot, Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., and Niall Ferguson. Other commentators have accused the United States of practicing neocolonialism—sometimes defined as a modern form of hegemony—which leverages economic power rather than military force in an informal empire; the term “neocolonialism” has occasionally been used as a contemporary synonym for modern-day imperialism. The question of whether the United States should intervene in the affairs of foreign countries has been a much-debated topic in domestic politics for the country’s entire history. Opponents of interventionism have pointed to the country’s origin as a former colony that rebelled against an overseas king, as well as the American values of democracy, freedom, and independence. Conversely, supporters of interventionism and of American presidents who have attacked foreign countries—most notably Andrew Jackson, James K. Polk, William McKinley, Woodrow Wilson, Theodore Roosevelt, and William Howard Taft—have justified their interventions in (or whole seizures of) various countries by citing the necessity of advancing American economic interests, such as trade and debt management; preventing European intervention (colonial or otherwise) in the Western Hemisphere, manifested in the anti-European Monroe Doctrine of 1823; and the benefits of keeping “good order” around the world.

6. The Nation Divided: The Turmoil of the Civil War

During the colonial period, the institution of slavery was legal throughout the American colonies, becoming the primary labor force in the large-scale, agriculture-dependent economies of the Southern Colonies, stretching from Maryland to Georgia. This brutal system underpinned the economic prosperity of the South, particularly with labor-intensive crops. While the practice began to be significantly questioned during the philosophical ferment of the American Revolution, and spurred by a re-emergent and active abolitionist movement in the 1830s, states in the North progressively enacted laws to prohibit slavery within their boundaries. This created a stark and growing divergence in legal and moral outlooks between the two regions.

However, simultaneously, support for slavery had paradoxically strengthened in the Southern states. The widespread adoption of inventions such as Eli Whitney’s cotton gin in 1793 revolutionized cotton production, making slavery immensely profitable for Southern elites and entwining their economic fate even more deeply with human bondage. Throughout the 1850s, this escalating sectional conflict regarding slavery was further inflamed by controversial national legislation passed by the U.S. Congress and contentious decisions handed down by the Supreme Court, pushing the nation ever closer to a breaking point.

Within Congress, legislative actions such as the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 compelled the return of escaped enslaved individuals to their owners in the South, often overriding state laws and sparking intense outrage in the North. Further intensifying these sectional divides, the Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854 effectively nullified the anti-slavery provisions of the earlier Missouri Compromise, introducing the concept of popular sovereignty, which allowed for the potential expansion of slavery into new territories, deeply alarming abolitionists who viewed these laws as a direct assault on liberty and evidence of a pro-slavery agenda dominating national politics.

The Supreme Court also significantly contributed to the escalating crisis. In the highly controversial Dred Scott decision of 1857, the Court ruled against a slave who had been transported to a free territory, declaring that Black individuals, whether enslaved or free, were not citizens and thus lacked legal standing in federal courts. Even more alarmingly, the Court also deemed the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional, thereby opening all federal territories to the institution of slavery. These actions, among others, intensified the profound divisions between the North and South, paving the way for the inevitable outbreak of the American Civil War from 1861 to 1865.

The ultimate fracturing of the Union began with South Carolina’s secession, followed by ten other slave-state governments in 1861, who joined together to create the Confederate States of America. All other state governments remained loyal to the Union, setting the stage for a brutal internal conflict. War broke out in April 1861 after Confederate forces bombarded Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina. A turning point arrived with President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, which declared enslaved people in Confederate territory to be free and encouraged many freed slaves to join the Union army, fundamentally changing the war’s moral and military objectives. The tide of the war began to decisively turn in the Union’s favor following the strategic 1863 Siege of Vicksburg and the climactic Battle of Gettysburg. The Confederates finally surrendered in 1865 after the Union’s decisive victory in the Battle of Appomattox Court House, bringing an end to the nation’s bloodiest conflict and preserving the Union, while nationally abolishing slavery.

Military equipment: Laotian Civil War
Conflict: Laotian Civil War
Partof: Vietnam War
Caption: Laos
Date: Age in years, months, weeks and days
Place: Kingdom of Laos
Result: Pathet Lao
Combatant2: Neutralist Armed Forces,South Vietnam
Combatant1: flagdeco
Commander2: flagdeco,Lyndon B. Johnson,flagdeco,Henry Kissinger,flagdeco,Clark Clifford,flagdeco,Sarit Thanarat
Commander1: flagdeco,Kaysone Phomvihane,flagdeco,Deuane Sunnalath,flagdeco,Hồ Chí Minh,flagdeco,Trường Chinh,flagdeco,Phạm Văn Đồng,flagdeco,Võ Nguyên Giáp,flagdeco,Văn Tiến Dũng
Strength2: flagdeco
Strength1: Flagdeco
Casualties2: [object Object]
Casualties1: Flagdeco
Casualties3: 20,000–62,000 total dead
Campaignbox: Campaignbox Indochina Wars Campaignbox Laotian Civil War
Categories: 1940s in Laos, 1950s in Laos, 1960s in Laos, 1970s in Laos, 20th century in Laos
Summary: The Laotian Civil War was waged between the Communist Pathet Lao and the Royal Lao Government from 23 May 1959 to 2 December 1975. The Kingdom of Laos was a covert theater during the Vietnam War with both sides receiving heavy external support in a proxy war between the global Cold War superpowers. The fighting also involved the North Vietnamese, South Vietnamese, American and Thai armies, both directly and through irregular proxies. The war is known as the Secret War among the American CIA Special Activities Center, and Hmong and Mien veterans of the conflict. The Franco–Lao Treaty of Amity and Association (signed 23 October 1953) transferred remaining French powers to the Royal Lao Government (except control of military affairs), establishing Laos as an independent member of the French Union. However, this government did not include representatives from the Lao Issara anti-colonial armed nationalist movement. The following years were marked by a rivalry between the neutralists under Prince Souvanna Phouma, the right wing under Prince Boun Oum of Champassak, and the left-wing Lao Patriotic Front under Prince Souphanouvong and half-Vietnamese future Prime Minister Kaysone Phomvihane. Several attempts were made to establish coalition governments, and a “tri-coalition” government was finally seated in Vientiane. The North Vietnamese Army, in collaboration with the Pathet Lao, invaded Laos in 1958 and 1959, occupying the east of the country to use for its Ho Chi Minh trail supply corridor and as a staging area for offensives into South Vietnam. There were two major theatres of the war, one for control over the Laotian Panhandle and the other was fought around the northern Plain of Jars. From 1961 onward, the US trained Hmong tribesmen to disrupt North Vietnamese operations and in 1964, the US began bombing North Vietnamese supply routes. The North Vietnamese and Pathet Lao eventually emerged victorious in December 1975, following from North Vietnam’s final victory over South Vietnam in April 1975. The conflict killed tens of thousands of people including many thousands of North Vietnamese soldiers. Unexploded ordnance (UXO), mostly from US bombing, remains a problem. According to the Laotian government in 2017, there were 29,522 deaths and 21,048 injuries from explosive ordnance during the war or as result of UXO since the end of the war. After the communist takeover in Laos, up to 300,000 people fled to neighbouring Thailand, and Hmong rebels began an insurgency against the new government. The Hmong were persecuted as traitors and “lackeys” of the Americans, with the government and its Vietnamese allies carrying out human rights abuses against Hmong civilians. The incipient conflict between Vietnam and China also played a role with Hmong rebels being accused of receiving support from China. Over 40,000 people died in the conflict. The Lao royal family were arrested by the Pathet Lao and sent to labor camps, where most of them died in the late 1970s and 1980s, including King Savang Vatthana, Queen Khamphoui and Crown Prince Vong Savang.

“CAPTAIN AMERICA by Choi sanghun.” by STICK KIM is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0

7. Rebuilding and Reshaping: Reconstruction and the Gilded Age

The immense task of reconstruction in the secessionist South began even before the war concluded, with initial efforts dating as early as 1862. However, it was in the aftermath of President Lincoln’s assassination that the true scope of rebuilding and reform took shape, marked by the ratification of three crucial Reconstruction Amendments to the Constitution. These amendments were designed to fundamentally transform the nation: they codified nationally the abolition of slavery and involuntary servitude (except as punishment for crimes), promised equal protection under the law for all persons, and prohibited discrimination on the basis of race or previous enslavement. As a direct result of these protections and the presence of federal troops, African Americans were able to take an active and unprecedented political role in ex-Confederate states during the decade following the Civil War, participating in elections and holding public office.

As the South slowly began to rejoin the Union, with states readmitted beginning with Tennessee in 1866 and concluding with Georgia in 1870, the nation also focused on expansive internal development. National infrastructure projects, particularly the transcontinental telegraph and railroads, spurred immense growth, especially on the American frontier. This westward expansion was dramatically accelerated by the Homestead Acts, through which nearly 10 percent of the total land area of the United States was given away free to some 1.6 million homesteaders, profoundly shaping the demographic and economic landscape of the West.

From 1865 through 1917, the United States experienced an unprecedented and transformative stream of immigration. Over 24.4 million people arrived from Europe alone, seeking new opportunities and fleeing hardship. Most of these immigrants disembarked through the Port of New York, leading to New York City and other large East Coast urban centers becoming home to burgeoning Jewish, Irish, and Italian populations, each enriching the cultural mosaic. Simultaneously, significant numbers of Northern Europeans, as well as Germans and other Central Europeans, moved to the Midwest, contributing to the agricultural and industrial development of the region. During this period, about one million French Canadians migrated from Quebec to New England, further diversifying the national fabric. Concurrently, a massive internal migration, known as the Great Migration, saw millions of African Americans leave the rural South for urban areas in the North, seeking economic opportunity and an escape from racial oppression. Amidst this demographic flux, Alaska was purchased from Russia in 1867, adding a vast new territory.

The Compromise of 1877 is generally regarded as the end of the Reconstruction era. This political agreement resolved the contentious electoral crisis following the 1876 presidential election and led to President Rutherford B. Hayes reducing the role of federal troops in the South. Immediately thereafter, a movement known as the Redeemers rapidly regained local control of Southern politics, often in the name of white supremacy, systematically dismantling the gains of Reconstruction. African Americans endured a subsequent period of heightened, overt racism and disenfranchisement, a dark chapter often referred to as the nadir of American race relations. A series of Supreme Court decisions, most notably *Plessy v. Ferguson*, effectively emptied the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments of much of their force, allowing Jim Crow laws in the South to remain unchecked, facilitating the rise of sundown towns in the Midwest, and entrenching segregation in communities across the country. These discriminatory practices would later be reinforced by policies like redlining, adopted by federal agencies such as the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation.

Amidst these social challenges, an explosion of technological advancement, coupled with the exploitation of cheap immigrant labor, fueled rapid economic expansion during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This remarkable industrial growth allowed the United States to outpace the combined economies of England, France, and Germany, establishing itself as an economic powerhouse. This era, often called the Gilded Age, fostered the amassing of immense power by a few prominent industrialists, largely through their formation of trusts and monopolies to suppress competition. Tycoons like Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller led the nation’s expansion in the railroad, petroleum, and steel industries, and the United States emerged as a pioneer of the automotive industry. These dramatic changes, while fostering unprecedented wealth for some, also resulted in significant increases in economic inequality, the proliferation of slum conditions in rapidly growing cities, and widespread social unrest. This environment created fertile ground for the flourishing of labor unions and socialist movements, demanding better working conditions and fairer distribution of wealth. This tumultuous period eventually gave way to the advent of the Progressive Era, a time characterized by significant and much-needed social, economic, and political reforms aimed at addressing the injustices of the Gilded Age. The spirit of expansionism also continued globally, with pro-American elements in Hawaii overthrowing the monarchy, leading to the islands’ annexation in 1898. That same year, Puerto Rico, the Philippines, and Guam were ceded to the U.S. by Spain after its defeat in the Spanish–American War (the Philippines gaining full independence in 1946, while Puerto Rico and Guam remain U.S. territories). American Samoa was acquired in 1900 after the Second Samoan Civil War, and the U.S. Virgin Islands were purchased from Denmark in 1917, further solidifying America’s overseas presence.

Military equipment: History of the Republican Party (United States)
Categories: All Wikipedia articles written in American English, All accuracy disputes, All articles with unsourced statements, Articles containing video clips, Articles with disputed statements from December 2019
Summary: The Republican Party, also known as the Grand Old Party (GOP), is one of the two major political parties in the United States. It is the second-oldest extant political party in the United States after its main political rival, the Democratic Party. In 1854, the Republican Party emerged to combat the expansion of slavery into western territories after the passing of the Kansas–Nebraska Act. The early Republican Party consisted of northern Protestants, factory workers, professionals, businessmen, prosperous farmers, and after the Civil War also of black former slaves. The party had very little support from white Southerners at the time, who predominantly backed the Democratic Party in the Solid South, and from Irish and German Catholics, who made up a major Democratic voting bloc. While both parties adopted pro-business policies in the 19th century, the early GOP was distinguished by its support for the national banking system, the gold standard, railroads, and high tariffs. The party opposed the expansion of slavery before 1861 and led the fight to dismantle the Confederate States of America (1861–1865). While the Republican Party had almost no presence in the Southern United States at its inception, it was very successful in the Northern United States, where by 1858 it had enlisted former Whigs and former Free Soil Democrats to form majorities in nearly every Northern state. With the election of its first president, Abraham Lincoln, in 1860, the party’s success in guiding the Union to victory in the Civil War, and the party’s role in the abolition of slavery, the Republican Party largely dominated the national political scene until 1932. In 1912, former Republican president Theodore Roosevelt formed the Progressive Party after being rejected by the GOP and ran unsuccessfully as a third-party presidential candidate calling for social reforms. The GOP lost its congressional majorities during the Great Depression (1929–1940); under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Democrats formed a winning New Deal coalition that was dominant from 1932 through 1964. After the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Southern strategy, the party’s core base shifted with the Southern states becoming more reliably Republican in presidential politics and the Northeastern states becoming more reliably Democratic. White voters increasingly identified with the Republican Party after the 1960s. Following the Supreme Court’s 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade, the Republican Party opposed abortion in its party platform and grew its support among evangelicals. The Republican Party won five of the six presidential elections from 1968 to 1988. Two-term President Ronald Reagan, who held office from 1981 to 1989, was a transformative party leader. His conservative policies called for reduced social government spending and regulation, increased military spending, lower taxes, and a strong anti-Soviet Union foreign policy. Reagan’s influence upon the party persisted into the 21st century. In 2016, businessman and media personality Donald Trump became the party’s nominee for president, won the presidency, and shifted the party further to the right. Since the 1990s, the party’s support has chiefly come from the South, the Great Plains, the Mountain States, and rural areas in the North. It supports free market economics, cultural conservatism, and originalism in constitutional jurisprudence. There have been 19 Republican presidents, the most from any one political party. Since 1980, Republicans have won seven out of the last twelve presidential elections, winning in the presidential elections of 1980 and 1984 (with Ronald Reagan, 1981–1989), 1988 (with George H. W. Bush, 1989–1993), 2000 and 2004 (with George W. Bush, 2001–2009), and 2016 and 2024 (with Donald Trump, 2017–2021 and since 2025). However, Republicans have lost the popular vote in 2000 and 2016 but won the Electoral College in both elections (with George W. Bush and Donald Trump, respectively). These were two of the four presidential elections in which Republicans lost the popular vote but won the Electoral College, the others being the presidential elections in 1876 and 1888.

“A World War 1 Story, Part 6. Hutt Valley, Wellington, New Zealand, 14 April 1916” by In Memoriam: PhillipC is licensed under CC BY 2.0

8. Global Upheavals: World War I, the Great Depression, and World War II (1917–1945)

The early 20th century saw the United States enter World War I in 1917, helping the Allies turn the tide against the Central Powers. Domestically, 1920 brought nationwide women’s suffrage through a constitutional amendment, a momentous step for civil liberties. The 1920s and 1930s also dramatically transformed communications with the widespread adoption of radio and the advent of early television.

Economic catastrophe, however, struck with the Wall Street Crash of 1929, triggering the devastating Great Depression. President Franklin D. Roosevelt responded with the ambitious New Deal plan, implementing sweeping recovery programs, employment relief projects, and crucial financial reforms designed to stabilize the shattered economy and provide succor to millions.

Initially neutral in World War II, the U.S. began supplying war materiel to the Allies in March 1941. Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 decisively propelled America into the global conflict. The U.S. then developed and used the first nuclear weapons, deploying them against Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which ended the war in August 1945.

Emerging relatively unscathed from the conflict, the United States found itself with enhanced economic power and international political influence, poised to shape the post-war world alongside other major powers, leading a new era of global leadership.

Military equipment: Aftermath of World War I
EventName: Aftermath of World War I
Partof: interwar period
Date: Age in years, months, weeks and days
Result: Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920),International relations (1919–1939),Revolutions of 1917–1923,World War II
Categories: Aftermath of World War I, Aftermath of wars, All articles needing additional references, All articles to be expanded, All articles with dead external links
Summary: The aftermath of World War I saw far-reaching and wide-ranging cultural, economic, and social change across Europe, Asia, Africa, and in areas outside those that were directly involved. Four empires collapsed due to the war, old countries were abolished, new ones were formed, boundaries were redrawn, international organizations were established, and many new and old ideologies took a firm hold in people’s minds. Additionally, culture in the nations involved was greatly changed. World War I also had the effect of bringing political transformation to most of the principal parties involved in the conflict, transforming them into electoral democracies by bringing near-universal suffrage for the first time in history, as in Germany (1919 German federal election), United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (1918 United Kingdom general election), and the United States (1920 United States presidential election).

9. The Cold War and Social Transformation (1945–1991)

Post-World War II, the U.S. and the Soviet Union became rival superpowers, leading to the defining Cold War, an ideological struggle. The U.S. containment policy limited Soviet influence, fueled the Space Race, and culminated in the first crewed Moon landing in 1969, a testament to American ingenuity.

Domestically, the era saw economic growth, urbanization, and the emergence of the civil rights movement. Martin Luther King Jr. led efforts for equality, with President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society enacting groundbreaking laws and policies against institutional racism.

The counterculture movement challenged societal norms, liberalizing attitudes towards recreational drug use and uality. Opposition to the Vietnam War intensified, ending conscription in 1973 and U.S. withdrawal in 1975. Meanwhile, women’s roles shifted dramatically, increasing female paid labor in the 1970s, with most American women employed by 1985.

The Cold War concluded with the Fall of Communism and the Soviet Union’s dissolution from 1989 to 1991. This left the United States as the world’s sole superpower, cementing its global influence and initiating an “American Century” in international political, cultural, economic, and military affairs.

Military equipment: Cold War
Name: Cold War
Start: 12 March 1947
End: Truman Doctrine
Duration: Aftermath of World War II
Caption: legend inline
Before: Truman Doctrine
After: Dissolution of the Soviet Union
Categories: 1940s beginnings, 1940s neologisms, 1950s, 1960s, 1990s endings
Summary: The Cold War was a period of global geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which began in the aftermath of the Second World War and ended with the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. The term cold war is used because there was no direct fighting between the two superpowers, though each supported opposing sides in regional conflicts known as proxy wars. In addition to the struggle for ideological and economic influence and an arms race in both conventional and nuclear weapons, the Cold War was expressed through technological rivalries such as the Space Race, espionage, propaganda campaigns, embargoes, and sports diplomacy. After the end of the Second World War in 1945, during which the US and USSR had been allies, the USSR installed satellite governments in its occupied territories in Eastern Europe and North Korea by 1949, resulting in the political division of Europe (and Germany) by an “Iron Curtain”. The USSR tested its first nuclear weapon in 1949, four years after their use by the US on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and allied with the People’s Republic of China, founded in 1949. The US declared the Truman Doctrine of “containment” of communism in 1947, launched the Marshall Plan in 1948 to assist Western Europe’s economic recovery, and founded the NATO military alliance in 1949 (matched by the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact in 1955). The Berlin Blockade of 1948 to 1949 was an early confrontation, as was the Korean War of 1950 to 1953, which ended in a stalemate. US involvement in regime change during the Cold War included support for anti-communist and right-wing dictatorships and uprisings, while Soviet involvement included the funding of left-wing parties, wars of independence, and dictatorships. As nearly all the colonial states underwent decolonization, many became Third World battlefields of the Cold War. Both powers used economic aid in an attempt to win the loyalty of non-aligned countries. The Cuban Revolution of 1959 installed the first communist regime in the Western Hemisphere, and in 1962, the Cuban Missile Crisis began after deployments of US missiles in Europe and Soviet missiles in Cuba; it is widely considered the closest the Cold War came to escalating into nuclear war. Another major proxy conflict was the Vietnam War of 1955 to 1975, which ended in defeat for the US. The USSR solidified its domination of Eastern Europe with its crushing of the Hungarian Revolution in 1956 and the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. Relations between the USSR and China broke down by 1961, with the Sino-Soviet split bringing the two states to the brink of war amid a border conflict in 1969. In 1972, the US initiated diplomatic contacts with China and the US and USSR signed a series of treaties limiting their nuclear arsenals during a period known as détente. In 1979, the toppling of US-allied governments in Iran and Nicaragua and the outbreak of the Soviet–Afghan War again raised tensions. In 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev became leader of the USSR and expanded political freedoms, which contributed to the revolutions of 1989 in the Eastern Bloc and the collapse of the USSR in 1991, ending the Cold War.

Prolific Author of Political Books — Political – Free of Charge Creative Commons Highway Sign image, Photo by picpedia.org, is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

10. The Modern Era: From Digital Boom to Political Shifts (1991–Present)

The 1990s ushered in an era of unprecedented prosperity and technological innovation for the U.S., marked by the longest economic expansion on record, a significant decrease in crime rates, and groundbreaking developments like the World Wide Web, with Nasdaq’s initiation of online stock trading in 1998 symbolizing the dawn of a new digital financial era.

Internationally, the U.S. played a decisive role in the 1991 Gulf War, leading an international coalition that swiftly expelled Iraqi forces from Kuwait, demonstrating its military prowess and commitment to collective security in the post-Cold War era.

The new millennium, however, brought profound national security challenges. The September 11 attacks on the United States in 2001 by al-Qaeda initiated the “war on terror,” leading to major military interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq, profoundly shaping global politics for decades.

Domestically, the U.S. housing bubble culminated in 2007, triggering the Great Recession, the largest economic contraction since the Great Depression. More recently, the 2010s and early 2020s have seen increased political polarization and democratic backsliding, culminating in the January 2021 Capitol attack.

Military equipment: Late capitalism
Categories: All articles needing additional references, Articles needing additional references from July 2025, Articles with imported Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 text, Articles with short description, Capitalism
Summary: The concept of late capitalism (in German: Spätkapitalismus, sometimes also translated as “late stage capitalism”), was first used in 1925 by the German social scientist Werner Sombart (1863–1941) to describe the new capitalist order emerging out of World War I. Sombart claimed that it was the beginning of a new stage in the history of capitalism. His vision of the emergence, rise and decline of capitalism was influenced by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels’s interpretation of human history in terms of a sequence of different economic modes of production, each with a historically limited lifespan. As a young man, Sombart was a socialist who associated with Marxist intellectuals and the German social-democratic party. Friedrich Engels praised Sombart’s review of the first edition of Marx’s Capital Vol. 3 in 1894, and sent him a letter. As a mature academic who became well known for his own sociological writings, Sombart had a sympathetically critical attitude to the ideas of Karl Marx — seeking to criticize, modify and elaborate Marx’s insights, while disavowing Marxist doctrinairism and dogmatism. This prompted a critique from Friedrich Pollock, a founder of the Frankfurt School at the Institute for Social Research. Sombart’s clearly written texts and lectures helped to make “capitalism” a household word in Europe, as the name of a socioeconomic system with a specific structure and dynamic, a history, a mentality, a dominant morality and a culture.

“Frisian flag in the United States” by Aiko, Thomas & Juliette+Isaac is licensed under CC BY 2.0

11. A Vast and Varied Land: The Geography of the United States

The United States, ranking as the world’s third-largest country by total area, boasts an immense and diverse landscape. Its 48 contiguous states and Washington, D.C., span over 3.1 million square miles, significantly contributing to global agriculture with a large share of the Earth’s meadows, pastures, and cropland.

Starting eastward, the Atlantic seaboard’s coastal plain transitions inland to expansive forests and the rolling hills of the Piedmont plateau. Further west, the ancient Appalachian Mountains and the rugged Adirondack Massif form a natural boundary separating the East Coast from the vast interior.

The heartland is dominated by the colossal Mississippi River System, the world’s fourth-longest, which flows predominantly north-south through the center of the country. Westward, the flat and immensely fertile prairie of the Great Plains stretches seemingly endlessly, an iconic agricultural landscape occasionally interrupted by a distinct highland region in its southeast.

Further west, the formidable Rocky Mountains extend north to south, peaking over 14,000 feet in Colorado, with the supervolcano of the Yellowstone Caldera beneath. Beyond lie the arid Great Basin and the Chihuahuan, Sonoran, and Mojave deserts. The breathtaking Grand Canyon, carved by the Colorado River in Arizona, stands as a stunning natural wonder.

The Pacific coast is flanked by the majestic Cascade and Sierra Nevada mountain ranges. California remarkably hosts both the lowest and highest points in the contiguous U.S. Alaska boasts Denali, North America’s highest peak, with active volcanoes common in its Alexander and Aleutian Islands. Hawaii comprises volcanic islands. The U.S. also claims one of the world’s largest marine exclusive economic zones.

Military equipment: Geography of the United States
Alt: Political map of the United States. Country geography
Name: the United States
Map: USA topo en.jpg
MapSize: 250
Continent: North America
Coordinates: Coord
AreaRanking: 3rd/4th
KmArea: 9,826,675
PercentLand: 93.24
PercentWater: 6.76
KmCoastline: 19920
Borders: Canada
Abbr: on
HighestPoint: Denali,6190.5 m
LowestPoint: Badwater Basin
LongestRiver: Missouri River
LargestLake: Lake Superior,58000 km2
Climate: Diverse: Ranges from warm-summer continental in the far north to tropical in the far south. West: mostly semi-arid to desert, Mountains: alpine, Northeast: humid continental, Southeast: humid subtropical, Coast of California: Mediterranean, Pacific Northwest: cool temperate oceanic, Alaska: mostly subarctic, Hawaii, South Florida, and the territories: tropical
Terrain: Vast central plain, Interior Highlands and low mountains in Midwest, mountains and valleys in the mid-south, coastal flatland near the Gulf and Atlantic coasts, complete with mangrove forests and temperate, subtropical, and tropical laurel forest and jungle, canyons, basins, plateaus, and mountains in west, hills and low mountains in east; intermittent hilly and mountainous regions in Great Plains, with occasional badland topography; rugged mountains and broad river valleys in Alaska; rugged, volcanic topography in Hawaii and the territories
NaturalResources: Coal, copper, lead, molybdenum, phosphates, rare earth elements, uranium, bauxite, gold, iron, mercury, nickel, potash, silver, tungsten, zinc, petroleum, natural gas, timber, arable land
NaturalHazards: Tsunamis; volcanoes; earthquake activity around Pacific Basin; hurricanes along the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coasts; severe convective thunderstorms and tornadoes in the Midwest, Great Plains and Southeast; mud slides in California; forest and brush fires in the west and central regions, especially; flooding; dust storms in western and central regions; permafrost in northern Alaska
EnvironmentalIssues: Environmental issues Deforestation, energy irresponsibility, pollution, nuclear waste, Severe water shortages, air pollution resulting in acid rain in both the US and Canada
ExclusiveEconomicZone: Alaska,Hawaii
Categories: Articles with short description, Commons category link from Wikidata, Geography of the United States, Pages using gadget WikiMiniAtlas, Short description is different from Wikidata
Summary: The term “United States,” when used in the geographic sense, refers to the contiguous United States (sometimes referred to as the Lower 48, including the District of Columbia not as a state), Alaska, Hawaii, the five insular territories of Puerto Rico, Northern Mariana Islands, U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and minor outlying possessions. The United States shares land borders with Canada and Mexico and maritime borders with Russia, Cuba, the Bahamas, and many other countries, mainly in the Caribbeanin addition to Canada and Mexico. The northern border of the United States with Canada is the world’s longest bi-national land border. The state of Hawaii is physiographically and ethnologically part of the Polynesian subregion of Oceania. U.S. territories are located in the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean.

12. Nature’s Embrace: Climate Diversity Across America

Given its immense size and extraordinary geographic variety, the United States encompasses nearly every major climate type found globally. East of the 100th meridian, climates range from humid continental conditions in the north to humid subtropical patterns characteristic of the south.

Moving westward, the vast Great Plains are semi-arid, while many Western mountainous areas exhibit an alpine climate. The Southwest is arid, coastal California enjoys a Mediterranean climate, and coastal Oregon, Washington, and southern Alaska experience an oceanic climate. Most of Alaska is subarctic or polar; Hawaii and southern Florida, along with U.S. territories, are tropical.

This climatic diversity unfortunately brings frequent high-impact extreme weather incidents. States bordering the Gulf of Mexico are prone to powerful hurricanes, and the U.S. experiences most of the world’s tornadoes, concentrated in the infamous Tornado Alley. Climate change has exacerbated this in the 21st century, increasing extreme weather and making droughts in the Southwest more persistent and severe.

13. Rich Tapestry of Life: Biodiversity and Conservation Efforts

As one of 17 megadiverse countries, the U.S. harbors immense biological wealth and numerous endemic species. The contiguous U.S. and Alaska host approximately 17,000 species of vascular plants, while Hawaii boasts over 1,800 unique species of flowering plants, many exclusive to the islands.

The nation boasts an incredibly rich biodiversity, supporting 428 species of mammals, 784 types of birds, 311 reptile species, 295 amphibian species, and an astounding 91,000 insect species, with the bald eagle, a national emblem since 1782 and officially recognized as the national bird in 2024, powerfully symbolizing this vast natural heritage.

Extensive conservation efforts are evident in 63 national parks and hundreds of other federally managed areas, overseen by agencies like the National Park Service. Approximately 28% of U.S. land is publicly owned, primarily in the Western States, and mostly protected, though some is leased for commercial use.

Environmental challenges persist, including debates on non-renewable resources, air and water pollution, biodiversity loss, and climate change. The EPA addresses these issues, with the Wilderness Act (1964) and Endangered Species Act (1973) providing crucial frameworks for protection. In 2024, the U.S. ranked 35th in the Environmental Performance Index.

Military equipment: Howard Graham Buffett
Name: Howard Buffett
Caption: Buffet in December 2023
BirthName: Howard Graham Buffett
BirthDate: [object Object]
Office: Macon County, Illinois
TermStart: September 2017
TermEnd: November 2018
Predecessor: Thomas Schneider
Successor: Antonio D. Brown
Office2: County commission
TermStart2: 1989
TermEnd2: 1992
Spouse: Marcia Duncan (divorced),Devon Morse
Children: Howard Warren Buffett
Parents: Warren Buffett,Susan Buffett
Relatives: Howard Buffett,William Hertzog Thompson,Susan Alice Buffett,Peter Buffett,Doris Buffett
Party: Republican Party (United States)
Relations: Buffett family
Categories: 1954 births, 20th-century American photographers, 20th-century Nebraska politicians, 21st-century American photographers, 21st-century Illinois politicians
Summary: Howard Graham Buffett (born December 16, 1954) is an American businessman, former politician, philanthropist, photographer, farmer, and conservationist. He is the middle child of billionaire investor Warren Buffett. He is named after Howard Buffett, his grandfather, and Benjamin Graham, Warren Buffett’s favorite professor.

U.S. American flags under clear sky — Photo by Kevin Lanceplaine on Unsplash

14. Foundations of Governance: The U.S. Federal Republic and its National Structure

The United States is a federal republic of 50 states and Washington, D.C., along with several overseas territories. As the world’s oldest surviving federation, its presidential system inspires many newly independent states globally. The U.S. Constitution, the supreme legal document, establishes a liberal democracy founded on individual rights.

The federal government, headquartered in Washington, D.C., operates through three separate, co-equal branches: legislative, executive, and judicial. This constitutional design ensures a clear separation of powers and a sophisticated system of checks and balances, preventing any single branch from becoming overly supreme.

The legislative branch, the U.S. Congress, is bicameral, comprising the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Senate has 100 members, two from each state, serving staggered six-year terms. The House has 435 members, elected for two-year terms from population-based congressional districts defined by state legislatures.

Congress’s formidable powers include making federal law, declaring war, approving treaties, controlling federal spending (the power of the purse), and impeachment. Its vital non-legislative functions involve investigating and overseeing the executive branch, often delegated to bipartisan committees facilitated by subpoena power.

Military equipment: Governance
Url: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/governance
Title: Governance
AccessDate: Fri May 01 2020 17:00:00 GMT-0700 (Pacific Daylight Time)
ArchiveDate: Tue Aug 18 2020 17:00:00 GMT-0700 (Pacific Daylight Time)
ArchiveUrl: https://web.archive.org/web/20200819122455/https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/governance
UrlStatus: corporations,companies
Categories: Accountability, Accuracy disputes from August 2016, All accuracy disputes, All articles needing additional references, All articles with specifically marked weasel-worded phrases
Summary: Governance is the overall complex system or framework of processes, functions, structures, rules, laws and norms born out of the relationships, interactions, power dynamics and communication within an organized group of individuals. It sets the boundaries of acceptable conduct and practices of different actors of the group and controls their decision-making processes through the creation and enforcement of rules and guidelines. Furthermore, it also manages, allocates and mobilizes relevant resources and capacities of different members and sets the overall direction of the group in order to effectively address its specific collective needs, problems and challenges. The concept of governance can be applied to social, political or economic entities (groups of individuals engaged in some purposeful activity) such as a state and its government (public administration), a governed territory, a society, a community, a social group (like a tribe or a family), a formal or informal organization, a corporation, a non-governmental organization, a non-profit organization, a project team, a market, a network or even on the global stage. “Governance” can also pertain to a specific sector of activities such as land, environment, health, internet, security, etc. The degree of formality in governance depends on the internal rules of a given entity and its external interactions with similar entities. As such, governance may take many forms, driven by many different motivations and with many different results. Smaller groups may rely on informal leadership structures, whereas effective governance of a larger group typically relies on a well-functioning governing body, which is a specific group of people entrusted with the authority and responsibilities to make decisions about the rules, enforcing them and overseeing the smooth operation of the group within the broader framework of governance. The most formal type of a governing body is a government, which has the responsibility and authority to make binding decisions for a specific geopolitical system (like a country) through established rules and guidelines. A government may operate as a democracy where citizens vote on who should govern towards the goal of public good. Beyond governments, other entities can also have governing bodies. These can be legal entities or organizations, such as corporations, companies or non-profit organizations governed by small boards of directors pursuing more specific aims. They can also be socio-political groups including hierarchical political structures, tribes, religious subgroups, or even families. In the case of a state, governance expresses a growing awareness of the ways in which diffuse forms of power and authority can secure order even in the absence of state activity. A variety of external actors without decision-making power can influence this system of state governance. These include lobbies, think-tanks, political parties, non-government organizations, community and media. Governance is also shaped by external factors such as globalization, social movements or technological progress. From a normative perspective, good, effective and fair governance involves a well-organized system that fairly represents stakeholders’ interests and needs. Such governance guides the formulation, implementation, and evaluation of the group’s objectives, policies, and programs, ensuring smooth operation in various contexts. It fosters trust by promoting transparency, responsibility, and accountability, and employs mechanisms to resolve disputes and conflicts for greater harmony. It adapts to changing circumstances, keeping the group responsive and resilient. By delivering on its promises and creating positive outcomes, it fosters legitimacy and acceptance of the governing body, leading to rule-compliance, shared responsibility, active cooperation, and ultimately, greater stability and long-term sustainability. Many institutions of higher education – such as the Balsillie School of International Affairs, Munk School of Global Affairs, Sciences Po Paris, Graduate Institute Geneva, Hertie School, and the London School of Economics, among others – offer governance as an academic subjects. Many social scientists prefer to use the term “governance” when discussing the process of governing, because it covers the whole range of institutions and involved relationships.

“2016-10-18 Flag of the United States prior to Game 3 of the 2016 NLCS at Dodger Stadium” by Arturo Pardavila III from Hoboken, NJ, USA is licensed under CC BY 2.0

15. Balancing Powers: Federalism, State Autonomy, and Tribal Sovereignty

Federalism grants substantial autonomy to the 50 U.S. states, allowing them to develop tailored laws and governmental structures suited to regional needs. This crucial balance between federal authority and local self-determination fosters regional variation within a unified national framework.

The United States also formally acknowledges the inherent sovereignty of 574 distinct Native American tribes, each possessing its own governmental structures and jurisdiction over 326 Native American reservations, which represents a unique dimension of self-governance within the larger federal framework, honoring their distinct cultural identities and rights.

The intricate relationship between federal, state, and tribal governments creates a complex and dynamic political environment. Since the 1850s, American politics has been largely defined by the rivalry between the Democratic and Republican parties, whose contests across all governmental levels are shaped by core American values deeply rooted in the Enlightenment-inspired democratic tradition.

Military equipment: Federalism
Categories: All articles with incomplete citations, All articles with specifically marked weasel-worded phrases, Articles with incomplete citations from October 2021, Articles with short description, Articles with specifically marked weasel-worded phrases from April 2019
Summary: Federalism is a mode of government that combines a general level of government (a central or federal government) with a regional level of sub-unit governments (e.g., provinces, states, cantons, territories, etc.), while dividing the powers of governing between the two levels of governments. Two illustrative examples of federated countries—one of the world’s oldest federations, and one recently organized—are Australia and Micronesia. Johannes Althusius (1563–1638) is considered the father of modern federalism, along with Montesquieu. In 1603, Althusius first described the bases of this political philosophy in his Politica Methodice Digesta, Atque Exemplis Sacris et Profanis Illustrata. By 1748, in his treatise The Spirit of Law, Montesquieu (1689-1755) observed various examples of federalist governments: in corporate societies, in the polis bringing villages together, and in cities themselves forming confederations. In the modern era Federalism was first adopted by a union of the states of the Old Swiss Confederacy as of the mid-14th century. Federalism differs from confederalism, where the central government is created subordinate to the regional states—and is notable for its regional-separation of governing powers (e.g., in the United States, the Articles of Confederation as the general level of government of the original Thirteen Colonies; and, later, the Confederate States of America). And federalism also differs from the unitary state, where the regional level is subordinate to the central/federal government, even after a devolution of powers—and is notable for regional-integration of governing powers, (e.g., the United Kingdom). Federalism is at the midpoint of variations on the pathway (or spectrum) of regional-integration or regional-separation. It is bordered on the increasing-separation side by confederalism, and on the increasing-integration side by devolution within a unitary state; (see “pathway” graphic). Some characterize the European Union as a pioneering example of federalism in a multi-state setting—with the concept termed a “federal union of states”, as situated on the pathway (spectrum) of regional-integration or regional-separation. Examples of federalism today, i.e., the federation of a central/federal government with regional sub-unit governments, include: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Canada, Ethiopia, Germany, India, Iraq, Malaysia, Mexico, Micronesia, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Russia, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates, the United States, and Venezuela.

From its ancient beginnings to its intricate present, the story of the United States is a continuous saga of exploration, conflict, adaptation, and an unwavering dedication to its foundational principles, a narrative deeply ingrained in its majestic landscapes, diverse populations, and the sophisticated operations of its enduring government, truly woven into the very essence of North America.