General facts and overview

*A federal (presidential) constitutional republic

*50 states (cover 6 time zones)

*9.83 million km²

*310 million people

*white 79.96%, black 12.85%, Asian 4.43%, Amerindian and Alaska native 0.97%, native Hawaiian and other Pacific islander 0.18%

*3rd largest country both by land area and population

*Capital Washington D.C.

*Largest city New York

*Official language – none

*Native language – English (2nd is Spanish)

*Legislature – Congress

Upper House -Senat

Lower House – House of Representatives

* Independance

Declared July 4, 1776

Recognized September 3, 1783

*The U.S. economy is the world's largest national economy, with an estimated 2010 GDP of $14.780 trillion

*By the 1870s, its national economy was the world's largest.

*The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the country's status as a military power. It emerged from World War II as the first country with nuclear weapons and a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union left the United States as the sole superpower. The country accounts for 41% of global military spending, and it is a leading economic, political, and cultural force in the world.

*In 1507, German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a world map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere "America" after Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci.[12] The former British colonies first used the country's modern name in the 1776 Declaration of Independence, the "unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America"