Country Information on the USA

Terrain The United States may be divided into seven broad physiographical divisions: the Atlantic-Gulf Coastal Plain, the Appalachian Highlands, the Interior Plains, the Interior Highlands, the Rocky Mountain System, the Inter-montane Region, and the Pacific Mountain System. The lowest point is found in the Death Valley National Park (86 m below sea level). The Mississippi-Missouri river system (6,300 km long), is the longest river in the United States. The Highest mountain is Mt. McKinley (6,198 m) in Alaska. Climate The United States has a varied climate. In general, the eastern seaboard has a continental climate due to the masses of air moving principally from west to east, except for Florida where the winters are the warmest in Continental USA and summers are hot with tornadoes common in the Mississippi River region. Central USA has a continental climate with extreme variations in temperature. Winters are usually cold with frequent blizzards while summers are hot and subject to tornadoes with conditions semiarid to the west and humid to the east. Coastal California has a warm Mediterranean climate while the Pacific Northwest Coast has a maritime climate with cool summers and mild winters. Fauna/Flora With such varied topography, the US has diverse ecosystems. The most impressive flora is the huge evergreens of the West Coast, the sequoia and the redwood. The eastern states are home to hardwood forests of maple, oak and elm. The three most famous national parks are Yellowstone, in the Rocky Mountains, the Yosemite, in the Sierra Nevada, and the Grand Canyon, in Arizona. Black and grizzly bears, elk and deer, roam the north-western states. The southern states are home to some of the most interesting fauna, including the marsupial opossum. History/Politics The continent's first inhabitants walked into North America across what is now the Bering Strait from Asia. The Norwegian explorer Leif Eriksson was the first European to reach North America, some 500 years before Columbus accidentally discovered "Indians" in Hispaniola (now the Dominican Republic and Haiti) in 1492. The Spanish founded the first permanent European settlement in St Augustine, Florida, in 1565. The French moved in on Maine in 1602, and Jamestown, Virginia, became the first British settlement in 1607. British attempts to assert authority in its 13 North American colonies led to the French and Indian War (1757-63). The Battle of the Alamo during the 1835 Texan Revolution paved the way for Texan independence from Mexico, and the war with Mexico (1846-48) secured most of the southwest, including California. The South remained firmly committed to an agrarian life heavily reliant on African American slave labour. Tensions were on the rise when abolitionist Abraham Lincoln was elected president in 1860. The South seceded from the Union, and the Civil War began the following year. The North prevailed in 1865, freed the slaves and introduced universal adult male suffrage. The 1929 stock-market crash signalled the start of the Great Depression and eventually brought about Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal. After the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941, the US played a major role in defeating the Axis powers. Tensions between the former USSR and the USA reached their peak in 1962 during the Cuban Missile Crisis. The 1960s was a decade of profound social change, thanks largely to the Civil Rights movement. The 1970s and 1980s were a period of technological advancement and declining industrialism. The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the US as the world's sole superpower. George W. Bush was sworn in as president on 20 January 2001. Economy The United States is the world's largest producer of both electrical and nuclear energy. It also produces e.g. liquid natural gas, phosphates, coal, and magnesium. Although its output has declined, the United States is among the world leaders in the production of e.g. pig iron, ferroalloys, and synthetic rubber. Agriculturally, the United States is first in the production of cheese, corn, soybeans, tobacco, barley, and sugar. Major U.S. exports also include e.g. motor vehicles, aircraft, food, chemicals, and consumer goods. In 2000 app. 72.9% of Americans worked in service industries. Only 2.5% of the active population is employed in the agricultural sector, with 24.6% in manufacturing. The unemployment rate amounted to 4% in 2000. Culture Artists leaving war-torn Europe brought the remnants of surrealism to the Big Apple, inspiring American painters to create the first distinct American painting style, abstract expressionism. Famous writers include e.g. Herman Melville, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Ernest Hemingway.