The U.S.A.

History:

In 1584 was established the first english colony called Virginia and the first permanent settlement was founded in 1607 and was called Jamestown. In 1620 a group of puritan refugees from England known as the Pilgrim fathers reached the coast of North America on their ship Mayflower and founded a settlement Plymouth there. The first colony in the north was called New England. The settlers in New England were hard working, courageous and therefore the colonies were prosperous. During the Great English Revolution the Royalists emigrated to Virginia, where they established large tobacco-plantations. After 1660 the colonies in the South began to replace white labour with black slaves from Africa. The colonies in the north and south were separated by a Dutch colony in the mouth of the river Hudson called the Netherlands with the chief town New Amsterdam on Manhattan Island. In 1664 this colony was captured by Duke of York. In the 18. century there were continual wars between the English and the French. On December the 16. 1773 against the duty on tea about 50 citizens attacked 3 english ships with a cargo of tea and emptied it into the sea. This event is known as "The Boston Tea Party". On July the 4. 1776 Congres proclaimed The Declaration of Independence. That´s why the war for "The rights of Englishmen" changed into the War of Independence. In 1777 the Americans achieved the first great victory at Saratoga and the North was placed under the american control. The war continued in the South about 4 years. The peace treaty was finally signed in 1783. The next period is known as The Period of territorial expansion to the West.

The civil war was caused by the fact, that there existed two economic and social systems: the capitalist one in the North and the slave one in the South. In 1860 the republican candidate Abraham Lincoln won the elections and became the president of the U.S.A. Before he took the office 11 southern states formed the Confederate States of America. In April 1861 civil war began. In 1863 Lincoln issued The Emancipation Proclamation declaring that all slaves in the U.S.A shall be forever free. Now the war had revolutionary basic. On April the 9. 1865 the was was ended. Five days later A. Lincoln was assassinated vy an agent of the South while was attending the performance to celibrate the victory. Next period is called The Period of reconstruction. In 1867 Alaska was bought from Russian for 7 million dollars.

20 million emigrants from Europe came to U.S (1870-1910). In 1904-1914 the Panama Canal was built and it increased the influence in the Central America.

The U.S.A entered the World War 2 in 1917. After the war the U.S.A was the richest country and the past-war period was "The Period of increasing prosperity". But the crash on Wall Street in 1919 was the begining of a deep world-wide crises.

The U.S.A entered the second world war in December 1941 after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour. During the war the U.S.A played a leading role in the Tar East, Italy, Normandy. The characteristic feature of the period after the war was the cold war between the U.S.A and the U.S.S.R. In 1953 american troops fought in the Corean war. J. Kennedy solved sucessfuly the Cuba crises. In 1963 J. Kennedy was assassinated. During Kennedy´s and Johnson´s period the U.S.A was more deeply involved in the war in Vietnam. The war was ended 1973 the peace treaty was signed vy Richard Nixon, who was reelected in 1972. In 1974 he was forced to resign of the Watergate affair. Next president Gerald Ford signed Salt I. between the U.S.A and the U.S.S.R. In 1980 the U.S. president Ronald Reagan with the U.S.S.R. president Gorbatchow started the well known summits. The first important summit was in 1985 in Reykjawiik.

Geography:

The U.S.A is composed of 50 states joined in a federal republic. It is bordered on the north by Canada and on the south-west by Mexico. Alaska is separated from the continental U.S.A by Canada. Hawaii is situated halfaway between America and the Asian continent. The seat of the Federal Government is Washington D.C. The U.S.A is 9.5 million square km. Each state is theoretically sovereign having its own constitution and government and its name after the name of each town, village.

Relief of the country:

It consists of eastern Appalachian Highlands, interior planes-prairies and western Rocky Mountains. The highest point is Mount Mitchel (over 2000 m). Interior plains include Central Lowlands including the Great Lake and the Great Plain. Western Highlands are covering 1/3 of the country. The highes peak is Mt. Whitney (4400 m).

Rivers and Lakes:

Rivers entering the Atlantic - they are short, not very deep and not very important for economy. These are like Hudson, Potomac, Delaware, Sasquahana. Hudson is only navigable river. The main river entering into Mexico Gulf is Mississippi.

With many important tributaries like Missouri, Arkansas, Ohio, Kansas river.

Mississippi is the biggest and the longest river.

Rio Grande flows through the american-mexician border. In western part the well known rivers are: Columbia, Sacramento, Colorado with its famous Colorado Canyon.

The greatest and the largest lakes are Great Lakes: Ontario, Erie, Huron, Michigan, Superior.

Natural Resources:

The U.S. is rich in mineral resources, especially oil, zinc, copper, lead, silver and gold, aluminium, coal and iron.

Climate:

The U.S. as a whole has a good conditions. This block of 48 states is temporate zone. Extreme south has subtropical climate. The Atlantic coast is relatively cold with heavy snowfalls in winter. Summers are hot and very humid. The Middle west einters are colder and longer while summers are hot and dry. The gulf coast has mild climate with good rainfall. This western mountainous part has long and cold winters with heavy snowfalls. Summers are very hot. There are some deserts and very dry plateans in Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico. The Pacific coast has a milder climate then the Atlantic one, owing to mild winds flowing from the Pacific.

Population:

The population of the U.S.A is about 253 million. Approximately 2/3 of inhabitants live in the urban areas. About 14% of the population are clasified as non-white. The american indians account only about 0.3% of population.

The largest cities, ports:

The largest cities with population over 2 million are: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Detroit, Boston, Washington D.C., Houston, Dallas etc.

The largest ports on the Atlantic coast are: New York, Boston, New Port.

The most important inland ports: Chicago, Detroit, Kansas City.

The largest port in Gulf of Mexico is New Orleans.

The most important port on Pacific coast is Los Angeles, San Francisco, Long Beach.