The United States of America is a country in North America. The mainland portion of the country borders Canada to the north, Mexico to the south, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. The noncontiguous state of Alaska borders Canada to the east, and has a maritime border with Russia to the west. As of the 2020 census, it is reported that the United States has 331,449,281 people living in its fifty states. The capital of the United States of America is Washington, D.C., which is a federal district not part of any state. The largest city and financial capital of America is New York City. Other major cities in the United States of America include Chicago, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Dallas, Houston,. Boston, San Francisco, San Diego, Miami, and Philadelphia.
History
For thousands of years, various Native American tribes lived in the present day United States. Starting in 1607, England began colonizing the future United States with the founding of Jamestown within the Colony of Virginia.
By 1775, there were thirteen British colonies on the Eastern Seaboard of America that stretched from Georgia in the south, the New Hampshire in the north. However, due to high taxation from the British, alongside the lack of representation and the ban on westward expansion pass the Appalachian Mountains, the thriteen British colonies would begin to grow rebellious in 1775. Prior events, such as the Boston Tea Party (1773) and the Coercive Acts (1774), made the colonists in America more angry at their British overlords.
On April 19, 1775, the American Revolutionary War began after British Redcoats who were trying to seize weapons from the Massachusetts towns of Lexington and Concord were attacked by rebelling colonists. This drove British soldiers out of the New England Colonies.
On July 4, 1776, 250 years prior to this article’s publication date, the Continental Congress met in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to adopt the Declaration of Independence, which led to the formal independence declaration of the Thirteen Colonies from the Kingdom of Great Britain. The declaration was not recognized by the British, who would seize and burn various towns and cities, including but limited to: New York City, New York; Norfolk, Virginia; and Falmouth, Massachusetts (now called Portland, Maine).
After being defeated in the Battle of Yorktown in 1781, the British finally gave up their attempts to crush American independence. Two years later, the 1783 Treaty of Paris was signed, tus resulting in Great Britain recogning the independence of the United States of America. Also, starting in 1781, the United States had its first constitution adopt. This original consitution was called the Articles of Confederation,.
After the Shays Rebellion in 1786, the United States officially abandoned the Articles of Confederation and adopted its current constitution, which known simply as The Constitution, in 1787. The first three three states to ratify it were Delaware, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. From December 15, 1788, until January 7, 1789, the United States held its first ever presidential election. The winning candidate of this election, George Washington, was unanimously elected as the first President of the United States. He would also be unanimously re-elected to a second term in 1792, but in 1796, Washington stepped down as president. This set a precedent for the young nation’s leader, who would sometimes serve two term that last four years.
In 1803, the United States purchased the French colony of Louisiana, which doubled the country’s land area. Nine years later in 1812, the United States once again went to war with the British Empire/ This time, the wear ended in a stalemate. After the Wat of 1812, the United States continued expanding. Florida was purchased from Spain in 1819 while an 1825 treaty with the British resulted in both nations sharing what was known as the Oregon Country. Oregon was ultimately partitioned in 1846
In 1836, American settlers in Texas revolted against Mexico. This rebellion resulted in the birth of the Republic of Texas. When the United States annexed Texas in 1845, tensions with Mexico arose. In 1847, the Mexican American War erupted between Mexico and the United States. It resulted in the annexation of Northern Mexico after the Guadelupe-Hidalgo Treaty was signed in 1848.
In 1849, gold was discovered in California, which had already been annexed by the United States in what used to Mexican soil. As a result, people from Europe, China, Latin America, and the eastern half of the country began to migrate to California in droves. This resulted in California becoming a state in 1850.
In 1860, Abraham Lincoln was elected president of the United States. His views against slavery resulted in the secession of seven states in the Southern United States. After Fort Sumter in South Carolina was attacked in 1861, the United States erupted into The American Civil War. The Northern states remained as the United States of America while the Southern states formed another country called the Confederate States of America.
After four years of fighting, the Confederate States were defeated in 1865 and the country was reunited while the enslavement of African Americans was made illegal. However, President Lincoln did not get a chance to see this as he was assassinated on April 15, 1865. by a theater actor named John Wilkes Booth.
In 1898, the United States went to war with Spain over its colonies of Cuba, Guam, Puerto Rico, and The Philippines. It resulte4d in an American victory. Guam, Puerto, and the Phillipines were made into American colonies while Cuba was allowed to become an independent country.
In 1917, the United States joined World War One after the Zimmermann Telegram was discovered. the Zimmermann Telegram’s purpose was for Mexico to join the war as an ally of the German Empire. After the war ended in 1918, the United States did not join the newly established League of Nations.
In 1929, the New York Stock Exchange crashed, resulting in the United States entering the Great Depression. In the 1932 election, President Herbert Hoover was defeated by New York governor Franklin Roosevelt. President Roosevelt would put in place the New Deal program, which sought to rebuild the American economy. This made Roosevelt popular and he would re-elected in 1936, 1940, and 1944.
On December 7, 1941, the United States Naval Base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii was attacked by a Japanese air raid. This resulted in America join World War Two. After the defeat of the German Third Reich in 1945, the United States dropped two atomic bombs onto the cities of Nagasaki and Hiroshima, both of which are located in Japan. This resulted in the end of World War Two, the bloodiest war ever fought by humanity.
In the years following World War Two, tensions between the United States and Soviet Union led to the Cold War starting. This arms race between the two countries continued until 1991, when the Soviet Union collapsed.
In the 1950s and 60s, the United states entered an economic boom. During this period of prosperity, many new American babies were born in what became known as the Baby Boomer Generation./Also, new inventions, such as televisions, would be sold in masses to the American population. Suburbs were also being built outside major American cities. Most notably, the community of Levittown, New York, a suburb of New York City, was founded in 1951.
In the 1960s, the United States would see the Civil Rights Movement, Cuban Missile Crisis, and the 1963 Assassination of President John F. Kennedy. In 1969, the United States became the first, and so far, only country to land humans onto the Moon following a Space Race with the Soviet Union.
After the disaster that was the Vietnam War, America entered a period of stagnation that lasted until the 1980s. Eventually, when the Soviet Union fell in 1991, The United States was left as the only remaining superpower on Earth.
On September 11, 2001, Islamic terrorists destroyed the World Trade Center complex in New York City. As a consequence of this attack, the United States, led by President George W. Bush, invade the countries of Afghanistan and Iraq. This period of American history is known as the War on Terror, which is still going on as of 2026, albeit in a reduce form since the presidency of George W. Bush.
In 2008, the voters of the United States elected Illinois senator Barack Obama as the first African-American president in American history. After Obama left office in 2017, he was succeeded by New York businessman Donald Trump. After Trump was defeated in the 2020 presidential election, he returned to power in 2025 after the withdrawal of President Joseph Biden from the 2024 election. This political fighting between the Republican and Democratic Parities has resulted in political polarization in the United States that currently has no end in sight.
In 2018, the country of McGrathia officially became independent from the United States. Relations between McGrathia and America are currently positive.