America
Physical Geography of the usa
The USA is the 4th largest country in the world (after Russia, Canada and China). It is situated in central North America and stretches from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean. It borders on Canada in the North and Mexico in the South and has a sea-border with Russia. The USA consists of forty-eight contiguous (смежных) states in North America, Alaska and Hawaii. The total area of the country is 9,4 million square kilometers.
Geographic Diversity. Regions of the usa
Geographers divide the US into a number of regions that share common features. The most common division is into:
- North East ( New England )
- South East
- Central Basin
- The Great Plains
- The Great Lakes Region
- Mountains
- Deserts
The main part of the US presents 4 physical divisions: 2 elevated (the Appalachian Mountains in the East and the Rocky Mountains in the West) and 2 lowland regions (Central Basin, the Great Plains (some geographers divide also the Mississippi Valley))
3. Rivers, Lakes, Waterfalls and Coastlines
The USA has many thousands of streams. Some of them are mighty rivers, which flow lazily across the valleys. Others rush swiftly down deep canyons and steep gorges. The longest are the Mississippi (6,400 kilometres), «the father of waters», the Missouri (1,600 kilometres) «too thin to plough and too thick to drink», the Colorado wild, restless and angry, the Columbia full of quiet dignity and the Rio Grande (3,200 kilometres), a national boundary between the USA and Mexico. The Colorado forms the Grand Canyon, which strikes one's imagination as a fabulous phenomenon of nature. Its perpendicular walls go up to 1,500 metres above the river level. The USA has thousands of lakes of all kinds and sizes. The Great Lakes make up the largest group; they are the greatest collection of fresh water lakes in the world with the total area equal to that of Great Britain. Here the famous Niagara Falls precipitate from the height of 50 metres. Among salty lakes the Great Salt Lake in Utah and the Salton Sea in California are the most famous. They are rich in salt (6,000 million tons).
4. Climatic Diversity of the usa
Because of its midlatitude location and vast size, the United States experienced a wide variety of climates. At one extreme are the tropical islands of Hawaii; at the other, the arctic conditions of northern Alaska. The majority of Americans live between these two extremes in a group of climatic regions with unique moisture and temperature patterns.
Geographers have traditionally divided the 48 contiguous United States into two broad patterns of continental climate: the humid East and the arid West (the dividing line is an imaginary north-south line extending through the Great Plains from Texas to North Dakota).
5. Historical background
The history of the United States begins with either 1492 and Columbus (Cristoforo Colombo), or—especially in recent years—with the prehistory of the Native peoples . By the 1770s the Thirteen Colonies contained two and half million people. They were prosperous, and had developed their own political and legal systems. US territory expanded westward across the continent, brushing aside Native Americans and Mexico, and overcoming modernizers who wanted to deepen the economy rather than expand the geography. Slavery of Africans was abolished in the North, but heavy world demand for cotton let it flourish in the Southern states. The 1860 election of Abraham Lincoln , who called for no more expansion of slavery, triggered a crisis as eleven slave states seceded to found the Confederate States of America in 1861. Thanks to an outburst of entrepreneurship in the North and the arrival of millions of immigrant workers from Europe, the US became the leading industrialized power by 1900.
Main stages of American Historical Development
American History can be divided into numerous eras. This section focuses on the major eras and events in America's past.
Age of Exploration
The Age of Exploration lasted from the 15th through 17th centuries when the Europeans were searching the globe for trading routes and natural resources. It resulted in the founding of numerous colonies in North America by the French, British, and Spanish.
Colonial Era
The Colonial Era is a fascinating era in American History. The Colonial Era covers the time from when the European countries had created colonies in North America to the time of independence, especially focusing on the history of the thirteen British colonies.
Federalist Period
The era when both George Washington and John Adams were president was called the Federalist Period. Both Washington and Adams were of the Federalist party. However, Washington did include members of both the Federalist and Anti-Federalist parties.
Age of Jackson
The time between 1815 and 1840 was known as the Age of Jackson. This was an era during which the involvement of the American people in elections and the powers of the presidency greatly increased
Westward Expansion
From the first settling of America the colonists had a desire to find new, undeveloped land to the west. Over time, they felt they had a right to settle from "sea to sea" under a manifest destiny.
Reconstruction
At the end of the Civil War, the US Congress adopted a reconstruction effort to help reorganize and reassimilate the Southern states. It lasted from 1866 to 1877 and was an extremely turbulent period for the nation.
Prohibition Era
Read about the fascinating Prohibition Era, a time when America decided to "legally" give up drinking alcohol. Unfortunately, the experiment ended in failure with growing crime rates and lawlessness.
Cold War
The Cold War was a stand-off between the two major superpowers left at the end of World War II: the United States and the Soviet Union. They both tried to further their own ends by influencing nations around the world. The period was marked by conflict and increasing tension that only resolved with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the break up of the Soviet Union in 1991.
6. American war for independence
The American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), the American War of Independence , or simply the Revolutionary War in America, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and the new United States of America. The main result was an American victory, with mixed results for the other powers. The American colonists formed a unifying Continental Congress and a shadow government in each colony, though at first remaining loyal to the king. The American boycott of taxed British tea led to the Boston Tea Party in 1773, when shiploads of tea were destroyed. In 1783, the Treaty of Paris ended the war and recognized the sovereignty of the United States over the territory.
The Declaration of Independence
The Declaration of Independence was a statement adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, which announced that the thirteen American colonies , then at war with Great Britain , regarded themselves as independent states, and no longer a part of the British Empire. There are numerous connections with Christianity in the place of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. The principles of the Declaration have not only increased equality among races and sexes in society; they have also increased this equality in the church. The writing of the Declaration of Independence culminated a ten-year period where relations between Great Britain and her thirteen American colonies became increasingly strained
7). HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE USA. THE CIVIL WAR IN THE USA (1861–1865), a war fought over the secession of the Confederate States. In response to the election of an anti-slavery Republican as President, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ("the Confederacy"); the other 25 states supported the federal government ("the Union"). After four years of warfare, mostly within the Southern states, the Confederacy surrendered and slavery was outlawed everywhere in the nation. Victory for the North meant the end of the Confederacy and of slavery in the United States, and strengthened the role of the federal government. The social, political, economic and racial issues of the war decisively shaped the reconstruction era that lasted to 1877.
8). HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE USA. INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION IN THE USA (1820-1870), was of great importance to the economic development of the United States. The Industrial Revolution itself refers to a change from hand and home production to machine and factory. The first industrial revolution was important for the inventions of spinning and weaving machines operated by water power which was eventually replaced by steam. This helped increase America’s growth. However, the industrial revolution truly changed American society and economy into a modern urban-industrial state.