United States

The United States of America (USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country composed of 50 states, a federal district, five major self-governing territories, and various possessions.

In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are currently 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory and shares its sovereignty with the federal government.

The capital is Washington, D.C., and the largest city by population is New York.

The City of New York, often called New York City (NYC) or simply New York (NY), is the most populous city in the United States.

The capital is Washington, D.C., and the largest city by population is New York.

The following is a list of the most populous incorporated places of the United States.

Forty-eight states and the capital's federal district are contiguous in North America between Canada and Mexico.

It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and to the east by the Gulf of Mexico.

The State of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean.

Hawaii (Hawaii ) is the 50th and most recent state to have joined the United States, having received statehood on August 21, 1959.

The extremely diverse geography, climate, and wildlife of the United States make it one of the world's 17 megadiverse countries.

The term "United States", when used in the geographical sense,

The U.S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, stretching across nine official time zones.

Time in the United States, by law, is divided into nine standard time zones covering the states and its possessions, with most of the United States observing daylight saving time (DST) for approximately the spring, summer, and fall months.

The State of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east and across the Bering Strait from Russia to the west.

It shares maritime borders with Japan by the Sea of Okhotsk and the U.S. state of Alaska across the Bering Strait.

The State of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east and across the Bering Strait from Russia to the west.

It is the largest state in the United States by area and the

Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the colonies following the French and Indian War led to the American Revolution, which began in 1775, and the subsequent Declaration of Independence in 1776.

The American Patriots in the Thirteen Colonies won independence from Great Britain, becoming the United States of America.

The current constitution was adopted in 1788, with the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, being ratified in 1791 to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties.

The United States Constitution is the supreme law of the United States.

During the second half of the 19th century, the Civil War led to the abolition of slavery.

The American Civil War (also known by other names) was a war fought in the United States from 1861 to 1865.

The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the country's status as a global military power.

The Spanish–American War (Guerra hispano-americana or Guerra hispano-estadounidense; ) was fought between the United States and Spain in 1898.

The United States embarked on a vigorous expansion across North America throughout the 19th century, acquiring new territories, displacing Native American tribes, and gradually admitting new states until it spanned the continent by 1848.

Note that this list primarily concerns land the United States of America acquired from other nation-states.

During the second half of the 19th century, the Civil War led to the abolition of slavery.

Slavery in the United States was the legal institution of human chattel enslavement, primarily of Africans and African Americans, that existed in the United States of America in the 18th and 19th centuries.

The United States emerged from World War II as a global superpower, the first country to develop nuclear weapons, the only country to use them in warfare, and a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council.

The United States was the first country to manufacture nuclear weapons and is the only country to have used them in combat, with the separate bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II.

The United States emerged from World War II as a global superpower, the first country to develop nuclear weapons, the only country to use them in warfare, and a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council.

During the final stage of World War II, the United States detonated two nuclear weapons over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9, 1945, respectively.

The United States of America (USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country composed of 50 states, a federal district, five major self-governing territories, and various possessions.

The minor outlying islands and groups of islands consist of eight United States insular areas in the Pacific Ocean (Baker Island, Howland Island, Jarvis Island, Johnston Atoll, Kingman Reef, Midway Atoll, Palmyra Atoll, and Wake Island) and one in the Caribbean Sea (Navassa Island).

The United States embarked on a vigorous expansion across North America throughout the 19th century, acquiring new territories, displacing Native American tribes, and gradually admitting new states until it spanned the continent by 1848.

A state of the United States is one of the 50 constituent entities that shares its sovereignty with the federal government.

During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union competed in the Space Race, culminating with the 1969 Moon landing.

The Cold War was a period of geopolitical tension between the Soviet Union with its satellite states (the Eastern Bloc), and the United States with its allies (the Western Bloc) after World War II.

At 3.8 million square miles (9.8 million km 2 ), the United States is the world's third or fourth largest country by total area and slightly smaller than the entire continent of Europe's 3.9 million square miles (10.1 million km 2 ).

Both world wars took place for the most part in Europe, contributing to a decline in Western European dominance in world affairs by the mid-20th century as the Soviet Union and the United States took prominence.

During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union competed in the Space Race, culminating with the 1969 Moon landing.

The Space Race refers to the 20th-century competition between two Cold War rivals, the Soviet Union (USSR) and the United States (US), for dominance in spaceflight capability.

The U.S. economy is largely post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge-based activities, although the manufacturing sector remains the second-largest in the world.

The economy of the United States is a highly developed mixed economy.

The war ended in 1783 with the United States becoming the first country to gain independence from a European power.

The Treaty of Paris, signed in Paris by representatives of King George III of Great Britain and representatives of the United States of America on September 3, 1783, ended the American Revolutionary War.

It is a federal republic and a representative democracy, "in which majority rule is tempered by minority rights protected by law".

The law of the United States comprises many levels of codified and uncodified forms of law, of which the most important is the United States Constitution, the foundation of the federal government of the United States.