The United States of America has 50 sates. 48 states are situated in the southern part of North America. Alaska is situated in the North and Hawaii in the Mid-Pacific. Its neighbours are Canada in the north, Mexico in the south.
Central plains are bounded by the Rocky Mountains and the Coastal Mountains in the west, the Appalachian Mountains in the east and alluvial plains around the Gulf of Mexico. The highest mountain in the USA is Mount McKinley in the Alaska Range, which is 6 194 m high..
The largest rivers are the Mississippi and the Missouri. The border with Canada is in its central part made by the Great Lakes Region. The Great Lakes are: Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie and Ontario. Between Erie and Ontario are all over the World known Niagara falls. There are many national parks in the USA, e. g. Yellowstone NP, Rocky Mountains NP, Grand Canyon NP, etc.
The USA population is about 250.000.000. Around 79 per cent of inhabitants live in urban areas. Now there are 79 per cent of white people, 12 per cent of black people and about and the rest are Asian and Pacific islanders, Indians and Eskimos. The main language spoken here is American English but various ethnic minorities speak their original languages (Chinese, Spanish) American English differs from British English in vocabulary (for example: In British English flat, in American apartment, or lift x elevator or post x mail or cinema x the movies), pronunciation and spelling (colour X color, catalogue x catalog )
Now I would like tell you something about the history of the USA. I will start with:
First settlements - Till 1400 native Indians were the only inhabitants in the USA. In 1492 Christopher Columbus discovered America. The first English colony was founded in Virginia at Jamestown in 1607. In 1620 the ship named Mayflower brought 102 English men, women and children to the north-east coast where they founded the colony called Plymouth. They were members of a religion sect called Pilgrim Fathers, but in winter about one half of them died. The next year in October 1621 they celebrated good harvest and the day of celebrations they called Thanksgiving day. During the 17th century many colonists settled in the country. From these settlements became the 13 colonies under British rule.
The War of Independence - British government started to charge new taxes on the imported goods (for example: sugar, coffee, textiles etc.) to cover the costs of the war against France. The colonists refused to pay taxes, so British soldiers were sent to Boston. In 1773 a group of patriots, dressed as Indians, threw the cargo of British tea into the Boston Harbour. This event is known as Boston Tea Party. Americans began boycotting British trade. In 1775 at Lexington the War began. Later George Washington took over the command of a Continental Army. The Continental Congress began to work as a national government and on July 4th, 1776 they agreed on th Declaration of Independence written mainly by Thomas Jefferson. This is the day, when the USA was founded. The War of independence lasted till 1783. The new constitution was adopted in 1787.
Civil War- About 60 years of never ending discuses about slaves freedom led to the Civil War between the North and the South. It started in 1861 after Abraham Lincoln was elected President in 1860. Southern states protested against Lincoln being president and wanted to separate from the Union. Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 which granted freedom to all slavers. In April 1865 the Union Forces won the War. Only shortly after that Lincoln was assassinated in the theatre.
The American flag has 13 red and white stripes and on the blue field in the top corner there are 50 white stars. Each star represents one of the 50 states and each strip represents one of original state.
The USA can be divided into four parts:
The 1st area The North and the North East with centres of heavy and light industry.
The biggest cities here are New York - the biggest port and Philadelphia, where the Declaration of Independence was adopted on 4th July 1776.
The 2nd The Middle west, the area of Great Lakes. Here agriculture is closely connected with industry. The biggest city here is Chicago. There is situated the highest skyscraper in the USA. It is named Sears Tower.
The 3rd area is the agricultural South with the mainly black population. There is also situated the capital - Washington, D. C. in this area. Other big city here is New Orleans, the home of jazz.
The 4th area is the Far West, which is the largest area, but has the smallest number of population. San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego are the largest cities here. There is also situated Las Vegas where you can win much money.
9. srpen 2008
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