United States

The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic consisting of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguous states border Canada to the north and Mexico to the south, with the semi-exclave of Alaska in the northwest and the archipelago of Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean. The United States also asserts sovereignty over five major island territories and various uninhabited islands in Oceania and the Caribbean. It is a megadiverse country, with the world's fourth-largest total area and third-largest population, exceeding 341 million. Paleo-Indians migrated from North Asia to North America at least 15,000 years ago and formed various civilizations. Beginning in 1607, British colonization established the Thirteen Colonies. The 18th-century American Enlightenment spread values of republicanism and liberalism there, and clashes with the British Crown over taxation without parliamentary representation, among other denied rights, sparked the American Revolution. Independence from Great Britain was formally declared in the Lee Resolution of July 2, 1776, two days before the Declaration of Independence. Victory in the 1775–1783 Revolutionary War brought international recognition of U.S. sovereignty. The U.S. expanded westward through the purchase, settlement, and conquest of European- and Indigenous-controlled territory. As more states joined the Union, a sectional division over slavery led 11 Southern states to declare secession and form the Confederate States of America, fighting the Union in the Civil War of 1861–1865. With the United States' victory and reunification, slavery was abolished. By 1900, the U.S. emerged as a great power, a status solidified after its involvement in World War I. Following Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, it entered World War II on the Allied side. The war's aftermath left the U.S. and the...