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Ranching

Ranching

:This article is about ranching. For other meanings see Ranch (disambiguation). Ranching is the raising of cattle or sheep on rangeland, although one might also speak of ranching with regard to less common livestock such as elk, bison or emu. The word applies in the western United States, in Canada, Latin America and South America. (Australian usage would refer to ranches as "stations"; New Zealanders use the term "runs".) Historically, during a period on the Frontier in North America after the removal of the American bison and the Native Americans and before the coming of the homesteaders, ranching dominated economic activity. The public lands on the Great Plains consisted of "open range," where anyone could turn cattle loose for grazing. Barbed wire, invented in 1869, gradually made inroads in fencing off privately-owned land, especially for homesteads. Ranching became limited to lands of little use for arable farming. Ranching forms part of the iconography of the Western in motion pictures. Western

Ranching Companies


- The Thomas Ranch- located in Cochise County, Tombstone, Bisbee, Arizona since 1902.
- 6666 Ranch - located in West Texas.
- King Ranch - one of the largest ranches in the world, located in south Texas.
- Vestey Group - major cattle ranching and interests in Argentina, Brazil and Venezuela.
- XIT Ranch - a large ranch in the western Texas Panhandle (no longer in existence).
- [http://www.cscattle.com CS Cattle Company] - a large family owned ranch in Northern New Mexico
- La Escalera Ranch - Ranked by Texas Monthly magazine as one of the largest ranches in Texas, estimated 300,000 acres located in Pecos County, Reeves County, Brewster and Baylor County; owned and operated by the Gerald Lyda family, headquartered in Fort Stockton, Texas. The Lyda family has been involved in other major ranching operations in Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico, including the sprawling Ladder Ranch in southeastern New Mexico, now owned by media mogul Ted Turner.

Further Reading


- Breaking Clean, Judy Blunt, Knopf, 2002, hardcover, ISBN 0375401318
- This Was Cattle Ranching: Yesterday and Today, Virginia Paul, Superior Publishing Company, Seattle, Washington, 1973
- Heart-Diamond Kathy L. Greenwood, University of North Texas Press, 1989, hardback, ISBN 0-929398-08-4
- [http://texashistory.unt.edu/permalink/meta-pth-2412 Cattle Ranges of the Southwest], published 1898, hosted by the Portal to Texas History

External links


- [http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/RR/azr2.html The Handbook of Texas Online: Ranching] Category:Agriculture simple:Ranch

Ranch (disambiguation)

A ranch can refer any of several things:
- Ranch a common term for a legal brothel
- Ranch the ranch owners house or a large house on a large plot of land
- Ranch a place where ranching is performed
- Ranch-style houses
- Ranching the process of raising livestock
- Dude ranch
- Ranch a flavor of salad dressing

Sheep

:This article refers to the sheep genus. For the domesticated species which is used for wool and meat production in farming enterprises, see Domestic sheep. For other uses, see Sheep (disambiguation).
See text A Sheep is a mammal, one of several woolly ruminant quadrupeds in the genus Ovis. The domestic sheep is thought to be descended from the wild moufflon of south-central and south-west Asia. A male sheep is a ram, a female a ewe, and a young sheep a lamb. Sheep meat is called mutton or simply lamb. Sheep are usually stockier than their goat relatives, and some have horns which are more more divergent than those of goats. Sheep have scent glands on the face and hind feet. Communication through the scent glands is not well understood but is thought to be important for sexual signaling. Males can smell females which are fertile and ready to mate, and rams mark their territories by rubbing scent on to rocks. Sheep are highly gregarious bovids (members of the family Bovidae) and ruminants, meaning they chew cud. They have a four chambered stomach which plays a vital role in digesting, reguritating and re-digesting food. For related species, see goat antelope.

Sheep species

There are at least eight species of sheep:

Domestic sheep

Main article: Domestic sheep The domestic sheep (Ovis aries) is the most common species of sheep. As such it is a woolly ruminant quadruped which probably descends from the wild moufflon of south-central and south-west Asia. Sheep are principally husbanded for their wool, meat and milk. There are many breeds of sheep and these are generally sub-classable as: wool breeds, meat breeds, and dual-use breeds. Farmers develop wool breeds for superior wool quantity and quality and meat breeds for their fast growth, multiple births, ease of lambing, and hardiness.

Hybrids with goats

Although sheep and goats seem similar and can be mated together they belong to different genera. Goats are caprinae and have 60 chromosomes while sheep are ovinae and have 54v chromosomes. This mismatch of chromosomes means any offspring of a sheep-goat pairing is generally stillborn (the famous geep is a chimera, not a hybrid). At Botswana Ministry of Agriculture, a ram that was kept with a nanny goat impregnated the goat resulting in a live offspring that had 57 chromosomes. This was called "The Toast of Batswana". The hybrid is intermediate between the two parent species in type. It has a coarse outer coat, awoolly inner coat, long goat-like legs and a heavy sheep-like body. Although infertile, the Toast of Batswana was castrated to prevent unwanted sexual behaviour because it continually mounted the sheep and goats sharing its enclosure. In 1969, Australian farmer Dick Lanyon, who farmed near Melbourne, Australia, kept a billy-goat among his sheep to scare off foxes during the lambing season. In September of the same year, he claimed to have dozens of ‘lambs’ which were sheep-goat hybrids. The goat was locked up while scientists examined the supposed hybrids. As no more was heard of this case, it is believed that the lambs were pure-bred sheep. There is a long-standing belief in sheep/goat hybrids which is due to the animals' resemblance to each other. Some primitive varieties of sheep may be misidentified as goats. In "Darwinism An Exposition Of The Theory Of Natural Selection With Some Of Its Applications" (1889), Alfred Russel Wallace wrote: :[...] the following statement of Mr. Low: "It has been long known to shepherds, though questioned by naturalists, that the progeny of the cross between the sheep and goat is fertile. Breeds of this mixed race are numerous in the north of Europe." Nothing appears to be known of such hybrids either in Scandinavia or in Italy; but Professor Giglioli of Florence has kindly given me some useful references to works in which they are described. The following extract from his letter is very interesting: "I need not tell you that there being such hybrids is now generally accepted as a fact. Buffon (Supplements, tom. iii. p. 7, 1756) obtained one such hybrid in 1751 and eight in 1752. Sanson (La Culture, vol. vi. p. 372, 1865) mentions a case observed in the Vosges, France. Geoff. St. Hilaire (Hist. Nat. Gén. des reg. org., vol. iii. p. 163) was the first to mention, I believe, that in different parts of South America the ram is more usually crossed with the she-goat than the sheep with the he-goat. The well-known 'pellones' of Chile are produced by the second an third generation of such hybrids (Gay, 'Hist, de Chile,' vol. i. p. 466, Agriculture, 1862). Hybrids bred from goat and sheep are called 'chabin' in French, and 'cabruno' in Spanish. In Chile such hybrids are called 'carneros lanudos'; their breeding inter se appears to be not always successful, and often the original cross has to be recommenced to obtain the proportion of three-eighths of he-goat and five-eighths of sheep, or of three-eighths of ram and five-eighths of she-goat; such being the reputed best hybrids."

See also


- Aries (astrological sign)
- Barbary Sheep (Ammotragus lervia)
- Blue tongue disease
- Dolly the sheep
- Domestic sheep
- List of domestic sheep breeds
- Scrapie
- Sheep husbandry
- Wool Category:Sheep ja:ヒツジ ko:양 simple:Sheep

Elk

Elk may refer to two distinct species of large deer:
- In Europe it refers to Alces alces, which is called a Moose in North America
- In North America it refers to Cervus elaphus, which is called a Red Deer in Europe. The various North American subspecies are also called Wapiti Other meanings:
- Elk in its old British & Irish sense, i.e. Whooper Swan
- Ełk, Poland, town
- Elk, CA, town
- Elk, member of the Benevolent & Protective Order of Elks fraternal organization
- "ELK" is also an acronym for a shaft with which a mobile pallet (Dolly) can be steered. This acronym is deduced from the German language and stands for "one-point handle joint" (Einpunkt-Lenk-Kupplung). Other names also are: ELK-System or ELK-Connection.

American Bison


B. b. athabasacae
B. b. bison The American Bison (Bison bison), also called Buffalo, is a bovine mammal that is the largest terrestrial mammal in North America. The bison inhabited Great Plains of the United States and Canada in massive herds, ranging from the Great Slave Lake in Canada's far north to Mexico in the south, and from eastern Oregon almost to the Atlantic Ocean. Its two subspecies are the Plains Bison (Bison bison bison), distingushed by its flat back, and the Wood Bison (Bison bison athabascae), distingushed by its large humped back. Bison have a shaggy, dark brown winter coat, and a lighter brown (and lighter weight) summer coat. Bison can reach over 2 m (6 feet) tall, 3 m (10 ft) long and weigh over 1,360 kg (3,000 pounds). The heads and forequarters are massive, and both sexes have short, curved horns, which they use in fighting for status within the herd and defense. Bison mate in August and September; a single reddish-brown calf is born the following spring, and nurses for a year. Bison are mature at three years of age, and have a life expectancy of 18–22 years, or 35 to 40 years in captivity. In rare circumstances, bison may turn white.

Reproductive habits

Their mating habits are polygynous: Dominant bulls maintain a small harem of females for mating. Individual bulls "tend" females until allowed to mate, following them around and chasing away rival males. Homosexual behavior— including courtship and mounting between bulls—is common among bison. The Mandan nation Okipa festival concludes with a ceremonial enactment of this behavior, to "ensure the return of the buffalo in the coming season." Inter-sexual bison also occur. The Lakota refer to them as pte winkte —pte meaning buffalo and winkte designating two-spirit— thereby drawing an explicit parallel between transgender in animals and people. (Bruce Bagemihl, Whole Earth, 2000) See Homosexuality in animals. Calves are born with a light brown to red fur coat which darkens as the animal matures. One very rare condition results in the white buffalo, where the calf turns entirely white. It is not to be confused with albino, since albinos still possess pigment in the skin, hair, and eyes. White buffalo are considered sacred by many Native Americans.

Hunting and near-extinction

Native Americans The American Bison is a relative newcomer to North America, having originated in Eurasia. About 10,000 years ago it replaced the Long-horned Bison (Bison priscus) which was much larger in size. It is thought that the Long Horned Bison may have gone extinct due to a changing ecosystem and hunting pressure following the development of the Clovis point and related technology, and improved hunting skills. During this same period, other megafauna vanished, to be replaced to some degree by immigrant Eurasian animals that were better adapted to predatory humans. The American Bison, technically a dwarf form, was one of these animals. Another was the Brown Bear, which replaced the Short-Faced Bear. Bison were central to the lifestyle of Native Americans of the Great Plains. But there is now some controversy over their interaction. "Hernando De Soto's expedition staggered through the Southeast for four years in the early sixteenth century and saw hordes of people but apparently didn't see a single bison," Charles C. Mann writes in to 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus. Mann discusses the evidence that North American Indians not only created (by selective use of fire) the large grasslands that provided the bison's ideal habitat, but also kept the bison population regulated. In this theory, it was only when the Indian population was decimated by wave after wave of epidemic (from diseases of Europeans) that the bison herds propagated wildly. What is not disputed is that before the introduction of horses, buffalo were herded into large chutes made of rocks and willow branches and then stampeded over cliffs. These buffalo jumps are found in several places in the US and Canada. In order to get any use out of the Bison, the Native Americans had a specific method of butchery, first identified at the Olsen-Chubbock archeological site in Colorado. The method involves skinning down the back in order to get at the tender meat just beneath the surface, the area known as the "hatched area." After the removal of the hatched area, the front legs are cut off as well as the shoulder blades. Doing so exposes the hump meat (in the Wood Bison), as well as the meat of the ribs and the Bison's inner organs. After everything was exposed, the spine was then severed and the pelvis and hind legs removed. Finally, the neck and head were removed as one. This allowed for the tough meat to be dried and made into pemmican. When the later Plains Indians got horses, it was found that a good horseman could easily lance or shoot enough Bison to keep his tribe and family fed, as long as a herd was nearby. The Bison provided meat, leather, sinew for bows, grease, dried dung for fires, and even the hooves could be boiled for glue. The Plains horse Indians were sometimes wasteful, taking mainly the tongue and hump meat, but their pressure on the herds was easily sustainable. When times were bad, Bison were consumed down to the last bit of marrow. marrow] Bison were hunted almost to extinction in the 19th century. One major cause was that hunters were paid by large railroad concerns to destroy entire herds, for several reasons: -- The herds formed the basis of the economies of local Plains tribes of Native Americans; without Bison, the tribes would leave. -- Herds of these large animals on tracks could damage locomotives when the trains failed to stop in time. -- Herds often took shelter in the artificial cuts formed by the grade of the track winding though hills and mountains in harsh winter conditions. This could hold up a train for days. Besides this, Bison skins were valuable for industrial machine belts, clothing such as robes, and rugs. There was a huge export trade to Europe of Bison hides. Old West Bison hunting was very often a big commercial enterprise, involving organized teams of one or two professional hunters, backed by a team of skinners, gun cleaners, cartridge reloaders, cooks, wranglers, blacksmiths, security guards, teamsters, and large numbers of horse and wagons. Men were even employed to recover and re-cast lead bullets taken from the carcasses. Many of these professional hunters such as Buffalo Bill Cody killed over a hundred animals at a single stand and many thousands in their career. One professional hunter killed over 20,000 by his own count. A good hide could bring $3.00 in Dodge City, and a very good one (the heavy winter coat) $50.00 in an era when a laborer would be lucky to make a dollar a day. For a decade from 1873 on there were several hundred, perhaps over a thousand, such commercial hunting outfits harvesting bison at any one time, vastly exceeding the take by American Indians or indivdual meat hunters. It was said that the Big .50s were fired so much that buffalo hunters needed at least two rifles to let the barrels cool off, and they were sometimes quenched in the winter snow. As the great herds began to wane, proposals to protect the Bison came up. Buffalo Bill Cody among others, spoke in favor of protecting the Bison as he saw that the pressure on the species was too great. But these were discouraged, as it was recognized that the Plains Indians, often at war with the United States, depended on Bison for their way of life. General Phillip Sheridan spoke to the Texas Legislature against a proposal to outlaw commercial Bison hunting for that reason, and President Grant also "pocket vetoed" a similar Federal bill to protect the dwindling Bison herds. By 1884 the American Bison was close to extinction. The destruction of the Bison was resisted by many of the Plains Indians, but not with success. The Indians did not participate in commercial hunting of the Bison. As few as 750 bison existed in 1890. The Bronx Zoo maintained a remnant herd, some of which was transported in the early 20th century to Yellowstone National Park to bolster its faltering indigenous herd (which poaching had reduced to a few dozen animals), joining with transplants from other wildlife preserves. Some of these came from Charles Goodnight's ranch in the Texas Panhandle. A variety of privately-owned herds have also been established, starting from this population. The current American Bison population has been growing rapidly and is estimated at 350,000, but this is compared to an estimated 60–100 million during the end of the pre-Columbian era.

Bison hunting today

Small-scale hunting is allowed currently in some areas. In Montana, cattle ranchers are concerned about the spread of brucellosis to their cattle from infected bison that are wandering outside of the boundaries of Yellowstone Park. In 2005, a limited public bison hunt with 50 licenses was established, suspended, and re-established by the state.

Bison today

2005 Bison are now raised for meat and hides. Over 250,000 of the 350,000 remaining bison are being raised for human consumption. Bison meat is lower in fat and cholesterol than beef which has led to the development of beefalo, a fertile cross-breed of bison and domestic cattle. Recent genetic studies of privately-owned herds of bison show that many of them include animals with genes from domestic cattle; there are as few as 12,000 to 15,000 pure bison in the world. The numbers are uncertain because the tests so far used mitochondrial DNA analysis, and thus would miss cattle genes inherited in the male line; most of the hybrids look exactly like purebred bison. mitochondrial DNA The American Bison was depicted on the reverse side of the U.S. "buffalo nickel" from 1913 to 1938. In 2005 the United States Mint coined a nickel with a new depiction of the bison as part of its "Westward Journey" series and the Kansas quarter with a depiction of the bison on its reverse as part of its "50 State Quarter" series. The bison is a symbol of Manitoba, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Bucknell University, the University of Colorado, Lipscomb University, Marshall University, the Independence Party of Minnesota, and North Dakota State University. It is also commonly used as a symbol of the City of Buffalo, New York although the city was not named for the animal. Custer State Park in South Dakota is home to 1500 bison, one of the largest publicly-held herds in the world. A proposal known as Buffalo Commons has been suggested by a handful of academics and policymakers to restore large parts of the drier portion of the Great Plains to native prairie grazed by bison. Proponents argue that current agricultural use of the shortgrass prairie is not sustainable, pointing to periodic disasters such as the Dust Bowl and continuing significant population loss over the last 60 years. However, this plan is opposed by virtually everyone who lives in the area and has never advanced beyond preliminary studies.

Dangers

Bison are among the most dangerous animals encountered by visitors to the various National Parks – visitors will realize that a bear is not an animal to be trifled with, but will closely approach bison in the belief that bison are not dangerous, and thus run the risk of being trampled and gored. Visitors should treat bison as they would treat any other life-threatening wild animal. Although they may seem slow and lethargic, bison can run at speeds of 45 mph and can turn very quickly. Bison also have the unique ability to jump straight up.

Native American names for bison

Though commonly called Buffalo today, North American Amerindian peoples were the first to name the bison. They included:
- Tatanka (Lakota)

External links


- [http://www.bisoncentral.com/ BisonCentral.com]--The Web site of the National Bison Association
- [http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org/ Buffalo Field Campaign]
- [http://www.canadiangeographic.ca/Magazine/jf05/indepth/ Canadian Bison]
- [http://www.nps.gov/yell/planvisit/rules/mustknow.htm Yellowstone visitor's information about the dangers of wild animals, including bison]
- [http://www.nps.gov/yell/safetyvideos.htm Videos of animal attacks, including bison incidents] Category:Bovines Category:Beef ko:아메리카들소

Emu



Dromaius novaehollandiae
Dromaius baudinianus (extinct)
Dromaius ater (extinct) :Note that the acronym EMU has several meanings. The Emu(the 'u' sounds like 'you') (Dromaius novaehollandiae, Latin for "fast-footed New Hollander.") is the largest bird native to Australia and, after the Ostrich, the second-largest bird that survives today. It inhabits most of the less-populated areas of the continent, avoiding only dense forest and severe desert. Like all birds in the Ratite group, it is flightless, although unlike some it does have tiny wings hidden under the feathers. The soft-feathered, brown birds reach 1.5 to 2 metres in height and weigh up to 60 kilograms, with the male marginally smaller. Emus are opportunistically nomadic and follow rain, feeding on grains, flowers, fruit, soft shoots, insects, grubs, and whatever else is available. They are able to travel great distances at a fast, economical trot and, if need be, can sprint at 50 km/h. Three different emu species were common prior to European settlement in 1788:
- The Emu, Dromaius novaehollandiae, remains common in most of the more lightly settled parts of mainland Australia. Overall population varies from decade to decade according to rainfall; as low as 200,000 and as high as a million, but a typical figure is about half a million individuals. Although no longer found in the densely settled southern and south-western agricultural areas, the provision of permanent stock water in arid regions has allowed the mainland species to extend its range. There are three current sub-species or races of the emu across Australia:
  - D. novaehollandiae novaehollandiae - South-east Australia - whitish ruff when breeding.
  - D. novaehollandiae woodwardi - North Australia - slender, paler.
  - D. novaehollandiae rothschildi - South-west Australia - darker, no ruff during breeding.
  - D. novaehollandiae diemenensis - Tasmania - The Tasmanian Emu, became extinct around 1850.
- The Kangaroo Island Emu, D. baudinianus became extinct around 1827 as a result of hunting and frequent fires. The larger mainland species was introduced to Kangaroo Island in the 1920s.
- The small King Island Emu D. ater was about half the size of the mainland species. By 1805 it had been hunted to extinction by sealers and visiting sailors.

Breeding

Kangaroo Island They pair in high summer and defend a territory of around 30 square km. Breeding takes place in the cooler months. As the days shorten, males undergo hormonal changes, lose appetite and construct a rough nest in a semi-sheltered hollow on the ground from bark, grass, sticks and leaves. The pair mate every day or two and, every second or third day, the female lays a very large, thick-shelled dark green egg weighing about half a kilogram. The male becomes broody after about the seventh egg and begins sitting. From this time on, he does not eat, drink or defecate, and only stands to turn the eggs, which he does about 10 times a day. For the next eight weeks, he will survive on accumulated body fat and any morning dew he can reach from the nest, losing up to one third of his body weight and become ever-weaker and more dazed. The female usually continues laying but does not mate with the male again after he goes broody. About 8 or 10 eggs is typical but clutches of almost double this size are not uncommon. As with a great many other Australian birds (see Blue Wren), despite the nominal pair-bond, infidelity is the norm: once the male starts brooding, the female mates with other males instead. As many as half the chicks in the brood may be fathered by others. Blue WrenSome females stay and defend the nest until the chicks start hatching but most leave the nesting area completely after a time and often nest again—in a good season a female emu may nest three times. (In the tropical north, where the seasons are reversed and it rains in summer, mating starts just before "the wet", and emus are reliably reported to delay mating if the season is late. The mechanism for this remains unknown.) Despite the determined attention of the male, emu eggs are heavily predated, particularly by goannas, but it is estimated that four out of five chicks that hatch successfully survive to adulthood. Newly hatched chicks are active and can leave the nest within a few days. They stand about 25 cm tall, and have distinctive brown and cream stripes for camouflage, which fade after three months or so. The male stays with the growing chicks for at least six months, defending them and teaching them how to find food. A male emu will often adopt any strange chick found wandering, so long as it is no bigger than his own brood. Chicks grow very quickly (up to a kilogram a week) and are full-grown in 12 to 14 months, but many remain with their family group for another six months or so before they split up to breed in their second season. In the wild, emus live for about 10 years; captive birds can more than double that.

Adaptation

The Ratite group to which emus belong is very old. Emus have been walking the plains of Australia in something reasonably close to their present form for about 80 million years—Old Man Emu was around when the dinosaurs still walked. Emus have evolved a number of adaptions as the continent gradually became less fertile, hotter and dryer. On very hot days, emus pant: they breathe rapidly, using their lungs as evaporative coolers. They can keep it up indefinitely and seem immune to the ill-effects of low blood CO2 levels, but must recharge their fluids by drinking every day. Nevertheless, emus do not waste water: for normal breathing in cooler weather, they have large, multi-folded nasal passages. Cool air warms as it passes through into the lungs, in turn extracting heat from the nasal region. On exhalation, the emu's cold nasal turbinates condense moisture back out of the air and absorb it for reuse. Emu feathers are light in colour except for the dark tips: solar radiation is absorbed by the feather tips, while the loose-packed inner plumage insulates the skin: in combination, the dark and light areas of the plumage deflect or absorb all but 2% of the sun's radiant heat. A unique feature of the emu feather is its double rachis emerging from a single shaft. The emu's steady walking pace of 4 to 7 km/h creates just enough breeze for optimum convective cooling of the hot black outer tips, and emus are thus able to forage right through the heat of the day when nearly all other animals must take shelter. Emus are largely solitary creatures; unlike many other birds, they seem to have no need for company and mutual grooming. They roam the continent searching for the best feeding areas, and although they can form enormous flocks, this is not a truly social behaviour, simply a matter of going where the food is. According to folklore, emus have a mysterious mechanism to tell them where the rain is, and will travel for hundreds of miles to take advantage of a deluge. In fact, they are very keenly attuned to subtle weather cues: particularly the sight of distant cloud formations but probably also the sound of thunder from afar. In Western Australia, emu movements follow a distinct seasonal pattern—north in summer and south in winter—but further east their wanderings are more random. It's nothing unusual for a bird to walk 1000 km in a season, with 10 to 25 km a day being normal. (Male birds with chicks in tow must move more slowly, of course). Emus are also powerful swimmers capable of crossing rivers— something they need to do from time to time as part of their wandering. Generally though, emus prefer to play in water rather than cross it: if a stream or dam is available, they take full advantage of it on hot days, sometimes rolling on their backs and kicking their legs in the air.

Reference


- Underhill D (1993) Australia's Dangerous Creatures, Reader's Digest, Sydney, New South Wales, ISBN 0-86438-018-6 Category:Ratites Category:Birds of Australia Category:Heraldic birds ja:エミュー

United States

:For alternative meanings, see the disambiguation page for US, USA, United States, or American. The United States of America is a federal democratic republic situated primarily in central North America. It comprises 50 states and one federal district, and has several territories. It is also referred to, with varying formality, as the United States, the U.S., the U.S.A., the States, or simply and most commonly, America. The official founding date of the United States is July 4, 1776, when the Second Continental Congress—representing thirteen British colonies—adopted the Declaration of Independence. However, the structure of the government was profoundly changed in 1788, when the states replaced the Articles of Confederation with the United States Constitution. The date on which each of the fifty states adopted the Constitution is typically regarded as the date that state "entered the Union" (became part of the United States). Since the mid-20th century, following World War II, the United States has emerged as a dominant global influence in economic, political, military, scientific, technological, and cultural affairs.

Geography and climate

The United States shares land borders with Canada (to the north) and Mexico (to the south), and territorial water boundaries with Canada, Russia, the Bahamas, and numerous smaller nations. It is otherwise bounded by the Pacific Ocean and the Bering Sea, in the west; the Arctic Ocean, in the northernmost areas; and the Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Caribbean Sea, in the eastern and southeastern areas. Forty-eight of the states are in the single region between Canada and Mexico; this group is referred to, with varying precision and formality, as the continental or contiguous United States, sometimes abbreviated CONUS, and as the Lower 48. Alaska, which is not included in the term contiguous United States, is at the northwestern end of North America, separated from the Lower 48 by Canada. The archipelago of Hawaii is in the Pacific Ocean. The capital city, Washington, District of Columbia is a federal district located on land donated by the state of Maryland. (Virginia also donated land, but it was returned in 1847.) The United States also has overseas territories with varying levels of independence and organization. When inland water is included in the total area, only Russia and Canada are larger than the United States; if inland water is excluded, China ranks third and the U.S. ranks fourth. The United States' total area is 3,718,711 square miles (9,631,418 km²), of which land makes up 3,537,438 square miles (9,161,923 km²) and water makes up 181,273 square miles (469,495 km²). The United States' landscape is one of the most varied among those of the world's nations: among its many features are temperate forestland and rolling hills, on the east coast; mangrove, in Florida; the Great Plains, in the center of the country; the Mississippi–Missouri river system; the Great Lakes, four of the five of which are shared with Canada; the Rocky Mountains, west of the Great Plains; deserts and temperate coastal zones, west of the Rocky Mountains; and temperate rain forests, in the Pacific northwest. Alaska's tundra, and the volcanic, tropical islands of Hawaii add to the geographic diversity. Hawaii The climate varies along with the landscape, from tropical in Hawaii and southern Florida to tundra in Alaska and atop some of the highest mountains. Most of the North and East experience a temperate continental climate, with warm summers and cold winters. Most of the South experiences a subtropical humid climate with mild winters and long, hot, humid summers. Rainfall decreases markedly from the humid forests of the Eastern Great Plains to the semi-arid shortgrass prairies on the high plains abutting the Rocky Mountains. Arid deserts, including the Mojave, extend through the lowlands and valleys of the southwest, from westernmost Texas to California and northward throughout much of Nevada. Some parts of California have a Mediterranean climate. Rainforests line the windward mountains of the Pacific Northwest from Oregon to Alaska.

History

American history started with the migration of people from Asia across the Bering land bridge approximately 12,000 years ago following large animals that they hunted into the Americas. These Native Americans left evidence of their presence in petroglyphs, burial mounds, and other artifacts. It is estimated that 2-9 million people lived in the territory now occupied by the U.S. before European contact, and the subsequent introduction of foreign diseases such as small pox that greatly diminished the native populations. Some advanced societies were the Anasazi of the southwest, who inhabited Chaco Canyon, and the Woodland Indians, who built Cahokia, located near present-day St Louis, a city with a population of 40,000 at its peak in AD 1200. Vikings first visited North America around 1000, but did not settle permanently. Following the discovery voyages of Christopher Columbus around 1492, other Europeans began to explore and settle there. During the 1500s and 1600s, the Spanish settled parts of the present-day Southwest and Florida, founding St. Augustine, Florida in 1565 and Santa Fe (in what is now New Mexico) in 1607. The first successful English settlement was at Jamestown, Virginia, also in 1607. Within the next two decades, several Dutch settlements, including New Amsterdam (the predecessor to New York City), were established in what are now the states of New York and New Jersey. In 1637, Sweden established a colony at Fort Christina (in what is now Delaware), but lost the settlement to the Dutch in 1655. This was followed by extensive British settlement of the east coast. The British colonists remained relatively undisturbed by their home country until after the French and Indian War, when France ceded Canada and the Great Lakes region to Britain. Britain then imposed taxes on the 13 colonies, widely regarded by the colonists as unfair because they were denied representation in the British Parliament. Tensions between Britain and the colonists increased, and the thirteen colonies eventually rebelled against British rule. British Parliament, George Washington (1789-1797).]] In 1776, the 13 colonies split from Great Britain and formed the United States, the world's first constitutional and democratic federal republic, after their Declaration of Independence of that year, and the Revolutionary War (1775 to 1783). The original political structure was a confederation in 1777, ratified in 1781 as the Articles of Confederation. After long debate, this was supplanted by the Constitution in 1789, forming a more centralized federal government. Prior to all these was the Albany Congress in 1754, in which a union was first seriously proposed. From early colonial times, there was a shortage of labor, which encouraged unfree labor, particularly indentured servitude and slavery. In the mid-19th century, a major division occurred in the United States over the issue of states' rights and the expansion of slavery. The northern states had become opposed to slavery, while the southern states saw it as necessary for the continued success of southern agriculture and wanted it expanded to the territories. Several federal laws were passed in an attempt to settle the dispute, including the Missouri Compromise and the Compromise of 1850. The dispute reached a crisis in 1861, when seven southern states seceded1 from the Union and formed the Confederate States of America, leading to the Civil War. Soon after the war began, four more southern states seceded. During the war, Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, mandating the freedom of all slaves in states in rebellion, though full emancipation did not take place until after the end of the war in 1865, the dissolution of the Confederacy, and the Thirteenth Amendment took effect. The Civil War effectively ended the question of a state's right to secede, and is widely accepted as a major turning point after which the federal government became more powerful than state governments. Thirteenth Amendment). The title of the painting, from a 1726 poem by Bishop Berkeley, was a phrase often quoted in the era of Manifest Destiny, expressing a widely held belief that civilization had steadily moved westward throughout history. [http://americanart.si.edu/t2go/1lw/1931.6.1.html (more)] ]] During the 19th century, many new states were added to the original 13 as the nation expanded across the continent. Manifest Destiny was a philosophy that encouraged westward expansion in the United States. As the population of the Eastern states grew and as a steady increase of immigrants entered the country, settlers moved steadily westward across North America. In the process, the U.S. displaced most American Indian nations. This displacement of American Indians continues to be a matter of contention in the U.S. with many tribes attempting to assert their original claims to various lands. In some areas American Indian populations were reduced by foreign diseases contracted through contact with European settlers, and US settlers acquired those emptied lands. In other instances American Indians were removed from their traditional lands by force. Though some would say the U.S. was not a colonial power until the Spanish-American War when it acquired Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines, the dominion exercised over land in North America the United States claimed is essentially colonial. The Philippines became independent in 1946. During this period, the nation also became an industrial power. This continued into the 20th century, which has been termed "the American Century" because of the nation's overriding influence on the world. The US became a center for innovation and technological development; major technologies that America either developed or was greatly involved in improving include the telephone, television, computer, the Internet, nuclear weapons, nuclear power, aviation, and aeronautics. In addition to the Civil War, another major traumatic experience for the nation was the Great Depression (1929 to 1939). The nation has also taken part in several major foreign wars, including World War I and World War II (in both of which the US later joined the Allies). During the Cold War, the US was a major player in the Korean War and Vietnam War, and, along with the Soviet Union, was considered one of the world's two "superpowers". With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the US emerged as the world's leading economic and military power. Beginning in the 1990s, the United States became very involved in police actions and peacekeeping, including actions in Kosovo, Haiti, Somalia and Liberia, and the first Persian Gulf War driving Iraq out of Kuwait. After attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, the United States and other allied nations found themselves involved in what has come to be called the "War on Terrorism," which has primarily encompassed military actions in both Afghanistan and Iraq.

Government

Iraq of the United States.]]

Republic and suffrage

The United States is an example of a constitutional republic, with a government composed of and operating through a set of limited powers imposed by its design and enumerated in the United States Constitution. Specifically, the nation operates as a presidential democracy. There are three levels of government: federal, state, and local. Officials of each of these levels are either elected by eligible voters via secret ballot or appointed by other elected officials. Americans enjoy almost universal suffrage from the age of 18 regardless of race, sex, or wealth. There are some limits, however: felons are disenfranchised and in some states former felons are likewise. Furthermore, the national representation of territories and the federal district of Washington, DC in Congress is limited: residents of the District of Columbia are subject to federal laws and federal taxes but their only Congressional representative is a non-voting delegate.

Federal government

The federal government is the national government, comprising the Legislative Branch (led by Congress), the Executive Branch (led by the President), and the Judicial Branch (led by the Supreme Court). These three branches were designed to apply checks and balances on each other. The Constitution limits the powers of the federal government to defense, foreign affairs, the issuing and management of currency, the management of trade and relations between the states, and the protection of human rights. In addition to these explicitly stated powers, the federal government—with the assistance of the Supreme Court—has gradually extended these powers into such areas as welfare and education, on the basis of the "necessary and proper" clause of the Constitution.

The Congress

necessary and proper The Congress of the United States is the legislative branch of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, comprising the House of Representatives and the Senate. The House of Representatives consists of 435 members, each of whom represents a congressional district and serves for a two-year term. House seats are apportioned among the states by population; in contrast, each state has two Senators, regardless of population. There are a total of 100 senators, who serve six-year terms. The powers of Congress are limited to those enumerated in the Constitution; all other powers are reserved to the states and the people. The Constitution also includes the necessary-and-proper clause, which grants Congress the power to "make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers."

The President

necessary-and-proper clause At the top level of the executive branch is the President of the United States. The President and Vice-President are elected as 'running mates' for four-year terms by the Electoral College, for which each state, as well as the District of Columbia, is allocated a number of seats based on its representation (or ostensible representation, in the case of D. C.) in both houses of Congress (see U.S. Electoral College). The relationship between the President and the Congress reflects that between the English monarchy and parliament at the time of the framing of the United States Constitution. Congress can legislate to constrain the President's executive power, even with respect to his or her command of the armed forces; however, this power is used only very rarely—a notable example was the constraint placed on President Richard Nixon's strategy of bombing Cambodia during the Vietnam War. The President cannot directly propose legislation, and must rely on supporters in Congress to promote his or her legislative agenda. The President's signature is required to turn congressional bills into law; in this respect, the President has the power—only occasionally used—to veto congressional legislation. Congress can override a presidential veto with a two-thirds majority vote in both houses. The ultimate power of Congress over the President is that of impeachment or removal of the elected President through a House vote, a Senate trial, and a Senate vote. The threat of using this power has had major political ramifications in the cases of Presidents Andrew Johnson, Richard Nixon, and Bill Clinton. The President makes around 2,000 executive appointments, including members of the Cabinet and ambassadors, which must be approved by the Senate; the President can also issue executive orders and pardons, and has other Constitutional duties, among them the requirement to give a State of the Union address to Congress once a year. Although the President's constitutional role may appear to be constrained, in practice, the office carries enormous prestige that typically eclipses the power of Congress: the Presidency has justifiably been referred to as 'the most powerful office in the world'. The Vice President is first in the line of succession, and is the President of the Senate ex officio, with the ability to cast a tie-breaking vote. The members of the President's Cabinet are responsible for administering the various departments of state, including the Department of Defense, the Justice Department, and the State Department. These departments and department heads have considerable regulatory and political power, and it is they who are responsible for executing federal laws and regulations. George W. Bush is the 43rd President, currently serving his second term.

The Courts

George W. Bush The highest court is the Supreme Court, which consists of nine justices. The court deals with federal and constitutional matters, and can declare legislation made at any level of the government as unconstitutional, nullifying the law and creating precedent for future law and decisions. Below the Supreme Court are the courts of appeals, and below them in turn are the district courts, which are the general trial courts for federal law. Separate from, but not entirely independent of, this federal court system are the individual court systems of each state, each dealing with its own laws and having its own judicial rules and procedures. A case may be appealed from a state court to a federal court only if there is a federal question; the supreme court of each state is the final authority on the interpretation of that state's laws and constitution.

State and local governments

supreme court of each state. Note that Alaska and Hawaii are shown at different scales, and that the Aleutian Islands and the uninhabited Northwestern Hawaiian Islands are omitted from this map.]] The state governments have the greatest influence over people's daily lives. Each state has its own written constitution and has different laws. There are sometimes great differences in law and procedure between the different states, concerning issues such as property, crime, health, and education. The highest elected official of each state is the Governor. Each state also has an elected legislature (bicameral in every state except Nebraska), whose members represent the different parts of the state. Of note is the New Hampshire legislature, which is the third-largest legislative body in the English-speaking world, and has one representative for every 3,000 people. Each state maintains its own judiciary, with the lowest level typically being county courts, and culminating in each state supreme court, though sometimes named differently. In some states, supreme and lower court justices are elected by the people; in others, they are appointed, as they are in the federal system. The institutions that are responsible for local government are typically town, city, or county boards, making laws that affect their particular area. These laws concern issues such as traffic, the sale of alcohol, and keeping animals. The highest elected official of a town or city is usually the mayor. In New England, towns operate directly democratically, and in some states, such as Rhode Island and Connecticut, counties have little or no power, existing only as geographic distinctions. In other areas, county governments have more power, such as to collect taxes and maintain law enforcement agencies.

Political divisions

With the Declaration of Independence, the thirteen colonies proclaimed themselves to be nation states modeled after the European states of the time. Although considered as sovereigns initially, under the Articles of Confederation of 1781 they entered into a "Perpetual Union" and created a fully sovereign federal state, delegating certain powers to the national Congress, including the right to engage in diplomatic relations and to levy war, while each retaining their individual sovereignty, freedom and independence. But the national government proved too ineffective, so the administrative structure of the government was vastly reorganized with the United States Constitution of 1789. Under this new union, the continued status of the individual states as sovereign nation states fell into dispute in 1861, as several states attempted to secede from the union; in response, then-President Abraham Lincoln claimed that such secession was illegal, and the result was the American Civil War. Since the Union victory in 1865, the independent status of the individual states has not been broached again by any state, and the status of each state within the union has been deemed by mainstream officials and academics to be settled as being subordinate to the union as a whole. In subsequent years, the number of states grew steadily due to western expansion, the purchase of lands by the national government from other nation states, and the subdivision of existing states, resulting in the current total of 50. The states are generally divided into smaller administrative regions, including counties, cities and townships. The United States–Canadian border is the longest undefended political boundary in the world. The U.S. is divided into three distinct sections:
- the "continental United States," also known as "the Lower 48" and more accurately termed the conterminous, coterminous or contiguous United States
- Alaska, which is physically connected only to Canada
- the archipelago of Hawaii, in the central Pacific Ocean. The United States also holds several other territories, districts, and possessions, notably the federal district of the District of Columbia, which is the nation's capital, and several overseas insular areas, the most significant of which are American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the United States Virgin Islands. The Palmyra Atoll is the United States' only incorporated territory; it is unorganized and uninhabited. The United States Navy has held a base at a portion of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, since 1898. The United States government possesses a lease to this land, which only mutual agreement or United States abandonment of the area can terminate. The present Cuban government of Fidel Castro disputes this arrangement, claiming Cuba was not truly sovereign at the time of the signing. The United States argues this point moot because Cuba apparently ratified the lease post-revolution, and with full sovereignty, when it cashed one rent check in accordance with the disputed treaty.

Foreign relations and military

sovereign] The immense military and economic dominance of the United States has made foreign relations an especially important topic in its politics, with considerable concern about the image of the United States throughout the world. Reactions towards the United States by other nationalities are often strong, ranging from uninhibited admiration and mimicking of all things American to anti-Americanism. US foreign policy has swung about several times over the course of its history between the poles of strict isolationism and imperialism and everywhere in between. Three of the nation's four military branches are administered by the Department of Defense: the Army, the Navy (including the Marine Corps), and the Air Force. The Coast Guard falls under the jurisdiction of the Department of Homeland Security in peacetime, but is placed under the Department of the Navy in time of war. The combined United States armed forces consist of 1.4 million active duty personnel, along with several hundred thousand each in the Reserves and the National Guard. Military conscription ended in 1973. The United States Armed forces are considered to be the most powerful military (of any sort) on Earth and their force projection capabilities are unrivaled by any other nation. The 2005 defense budget amounted to $401.7 billion, which is an increase of 4% over 2004 and of 35% since 2001. Over 50% of that number is spent in research & development. (For comparison, in 2004 the European Union (considered as the second-largest military force) had a combined total of 1.6 million troops, and a defense budget of €160 billion, with less than 10% of that being spent on R&D.)

Largest cities

The United States has dozens of major cities, including 11 of the 55 global cities of all types — with three "alpha" global cities: New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago. The figures expressed below are for populations within city limits. A different ranking is evident when considering U.S. metro area populations, although the top three would be unchanged. Note that some cities not listed (such as Atlanta, Boston, Las Vegas, Miami, Nashville, New Orleans, Seattle, and Washington, D.C.) are still considered important on the basis of other factors and issues, including culture, economics, heritage, and politics. The twenty largest cities, based on the United States Census Bureau's 2004 estimates, are as follows:

Economy

The United States has the largest single-country economy in the world, with a per-capita gross domestic product of $40,100. In this market-oriented economy, private individuals and business firms make most of the decisions, and the federal and state governments buy needed goods and services predominantly in the private marketplace. gross domestic product The largest industry of the U.S. is now service, which employs roughly three quarters of the U.S. work force. The United States has many natural resources, including oil and gas, metals, and such minerals as gold, soda ash, and zinc. In agriculture, the U.S. is a top producer of, among other crops, corn, soy beans, and wheat; the United States is a net exporter of food. The U.S. manufacturing sector produces goods such as, cars, airplanes, steel, and electronics, among many others. Economic activity varies greatly from one part of the country to another, with many industries being largely dependent on a certain city or region; New York City is the center of the American financial, publishing, broadcasting, and advertising industries; Silicon Valley is the country’s primary location for high-technology companies, while Los Angeles is the most important center for film production. The Midwest is known for its reliance on manufacturing and heavy industry, with Detroit, Michigan, serving as the center of the American automotive industry; the Great Plains are known as the "breadbasket" of America for their tremendous agricultural output; the intermountain region serves as a mining hub and natural gas resource; the Pacific Northwest for fish and timber, while Texas is largely associated with the oil industry; the Southeast is a major hub for both medical research and the textiles industry. Several countries continue to link their currency to the dollar or even use it as a currency (such as Ecuador), although this practice has subsided since the collapse of the Bretton Woods system. Many markets are also quoted in dollars, such as those of oil and gold. The dollar is also the predominant reserve currency in the world, and more than half of global reserves are in dollars. The largest trading partner of the United States is Canada (19%), followed by China (12%), Mexico (11%), and Japan (8%). More than 50% of total trade is with these four countries. In 2003, the United States was ranked as the third most visited tourist destination in the world; its 40,400,000 visitors ranked behind France's 75,000,000 and Spain's 52,500,000. Labor unions have existed since the 19th century, and grew large and powerful from the 1930s to the 1950s. See Labor history of the United States. Since 1970 they have shrunk in the private sector and now cover fewer than 8% of the workers. However union membership has grown rapidly in the public sector, especially among teachers, nurses, police, postal workers, and municipal clerks. There have been few strikes in recent years. The United States' imports exceed exports by 80%, leading to an annual trade deficit of $700,000,000,000, or 6% of gross domestic product. It is the largest debtor nation in the world, with total gross foreign debt of over $13,000,000,000,000 (2005 estimate); and it absorbs more than 50% of global savings annually. Since the 1980s, the U.S. has increased the use of neoliberal economic policies that reduce government intervention and reduce the size of the welfare state, backing away from the more interventionist Keynsian economic policies that had been in favor since the Great Depression. As a result, the United States provides fewer government-delivered social welfare services than most industrialized nations, choosing instead to keep its tax burden lower and relying more heavily on the free market and private charities. Sixteen states and the District of Columbia have minimum wages higher than the national level ($5.15 per-hour), including the highest, Washington State at $7.35. Twenty-six states are the same as the federal level; two--Ohio and Kansas--are below; and six do not have state laws. America's wealth is relatively highly concentrated. The average C.E.O. earns 500 times the typical amount a worker grosses, this is up from 25 times in the late 1970s. In terms of wealth the top 1% of Americans own 40% of all assets and 50.1% of the country's income goes to the top twenty percent of households. Average wages for the majority of employees have been largely stagnating since the 1970s. America's poverty line defined as a family of four earning less than $19,157 is at 12.7% of the general population. Approximately one out of every five children in the United States grows up below the official poverty line. Among racial groups; African Americans have the lowest median income while Asians had the highest. Regionally, the southern states had the lowest median incomes while the West Coast and New England had the highest. The current Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan remarked that the U.S.’s growing income inequality since the 1970s is, "not the type of thing which a democratic society - a capitalist democratic society - can really accept without addressing."[http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0614/p01s03-usec.html?s=itm] However, Greenspan also noted, "...you can look at the system and say it's got a lot of problems to it, and sure it does. It always has. But you can't get around the fact that this is the most extraordinarily successful economy in history."

Transportation

Alan Greenspan ]] Because the United States is a relatively young nation, most of the development of U.S. cities has taken place since the invention of the automobile. To link its vast territory, the United States built a network of high-capacity, high-speed highways, of which the most important element is the Interstate Highway system, commissioned in the 1950s by President Dwight D. Eisenhower and modeled after the German Autobahn. The United States also has a transcontinental rail system, which is used for moving freight across the lower forty-eight states. Passenger rail service is provided by Amtrak, which serves forty-six of the lower forty-eight states. Many cities in the United States have extensive mass-transit systems. New York City operates one of the world's largest and most heavily used subway systems. The regional rail and bus networks that extend into Long Island, New Jersey, Upstate New York, and Connecticut are among the most heavily used in the world. Air travel is often preferred for destinations over 300 miles (500 kilometers) away. In terms of passengers, seventeen of the world's thirty busiest airports in 2004 were in the U.S., including the world's busiest, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport; in terms of cargo, in the same year, twelve of the world's thirty busiest airports were in the U.S., including the world's busiest, Memphis International Airport. There are several major seaports in the United States; the three busiest are the Port of Los Angeles, California; the Port of Long Beach, California; and the Port of New York and New Jersey. Others include Houston, Texas; Charleston, South Carolina; Savannah, Georgia; Miami, Florida; Portland, Oregon; San Francisco, California; Boston, Massachusetts; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Seattle, Washington; plus, outside the contiguous forty-eight states, Anchorage, Alaska, and Honolulu, Hawaii.

Society

Demographics

Hawaii The mean center of the U.S. population continues to drift farther west and south. The fastest growing region is the western United States followed by the southern portion. According to Census 2000, the states that saw the greatest increases from 1990 were: Nevada (66.3%), Arizona (40%), Colorado (30.6%), Utah (29.6%), Idaho (28.5%), Georgia (26.4%), Florida (23.5%), Texas (22.8%), North Carolina (21.4%), and Washington (21.1%). [http://www.census.gov/population/cen2000/phc-t2/tab03.pdf]

Ethnicity and race

:Main article: Racial demographics of the United States The United States is a very racially diverse country. According to the 2000 census, it has 31 ethnic groups with at least one million members each, and numerous others represented in smaller amounts. The majority of Americans descend from white European immigrants who arrived at the establishment of the first colonies (most after Reconstruction). This majority--69.1% in 2000--decreases each year, and is expected to become a plurality within a few decades. The most frequently stated European ancestries are German (15.2%), Irish (10.8%), English (8.7%), Italian (5.6%) and Scandinavian (3.7%). Many immigrants also hail from Slavic countries such as Poland and Russia. Other significant immigrant populations came from eastern and southern Europe and French Canada. Russia Hispanics from Mexico and South and Central America are the largest minority group in the country, comprising 12.5% of the population (2000 census). People of Mexican descent made up 7.3% of the population in the 2000 census, and this proportion is expected to increase significantly in the coming decades. About 12.3% (2000 census) of the American people are African Americans (Blacks). African Americans are spread throughout the country, but their presence is largest in the South. Asian Americans--including Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders--are a third significant minority (3.7% of the population in 2000). Most Asian Americans are concentrated on the West Coast and Hawaii. The largest groups are immigrants or descendants of emigrants from the Philippines, China, India, Vietnam, South Korea, and Japan. Indigenous peoples in the United States, such as American Indians and Inuit, make up 0.9% of the population (2000 census). About 35% live on Indian reservations.

Religion

Polls estimate that just under 80 percent of Americans are Christians of various denominations. The other 20 percent comprises other religions such as Hinduism, Judaism, Islam, and Buddhism, other various faiths, and those without a specific religion. The United States is noteworthy among developed nations for its relatively high level of religiosity. According to a 2004 Gallup poll, about 44% of Americans attend a religious service at least once a week. However, this rate is not uniform across the country; attendance is more common in the Bible Belt—composed largely of Southern and Midwestern states—than in the Northeast and West Coast. In the Southern states, Baptists are the largest group, followed by Methodists; Roman Catholics are dominant in the Northeast and in large parts of the Midwest due to their being settled by descendants of Catholic immigrants from Europe (such as Germany, Ireland, Italy, and Poland) or other parts of North America (mainly Quebec and Puerto Rico). The rest of the country for the most part has a complex mixture of various Christian groups.

Education

West Coast's home at Monticello and the University of Virginia (library building shown above, and designed by Jefferson), the only collegiate campus on the list. Both sites are located in Charlottesville, Virginia.]] In the United States, education is a state, not federal, responsibility, and the laws and standards vary considerably. However, the federal government, through the Department of Education, is involved with funding of some programs and exerts some influence through its ability to control funding. In most states, all students must attend mandatory schooling starting with kindergarten, which children normally enter at age 5, and following through 12th grade, which is normally completed at age 18

Latin America

Latin America

200px

Area 7,930,845 sq miles
Population 560, 287,688
Countries 20
Dependencies 4
GDP $2.26 Trillion (exchange rate)
Languages Spanish, Portuguese, French, Quechua, Aymara, Nahuatl, Mayan languages, Guaraní, German, Italian, English
Time Zones
Largest Cities Mexico City,
São Paulo,
Buenos Aires,
Rio de Janeiro,
Lima,
Bogotá
Latin America was traditionally defined as the regions of the Americas where Spanish, the language of Spain, and Portuguese, the language of Portugal, were spoken. In practice, however, virtually all of the Western Hemisphere except the United States, Canada, and the non-Hispanophone countries of the Caribbean have tended to come under the heading of Latin America. Other areas where languages derived from Latin (such as French, Papiamento or Kreyol) predominate are usually not thought of as Latin American. :See also Latino, Hispanic and Ibero-America From a socio-political perspective, including only independent countries, Latin America corresponds roughly to all nations south of the Rio Grande, consisting of Mexico (in North America), most of Central and South America, and the countries of the Caribbean where Spanish, French, Portuguese or Creoles based on those languages are spoken. Following that criteria, Latin America is divided into 20 independent countries and several dependent political units. Brazil is by far the largest country in Latin America both in area and in population. It occupies more than 40 percent of the region's land area and has about a third of its people. Its official language, Portuguese, is not officially spoken in other American countries.

Etymology

The languages of Spain and Portugal came into being with a blend of Latin and local dialects and so it is this and the need to differenciate between the south of the northern American continent, the United States of America, and the southern continent itself that brought about the term 'Latin America'. The language and peoples of Latin America are not connected to the Latium region of Italy and do not speak the ancient Latin language. Futhermore, many people in Latin America do not speak the official Latin-derived languages, but languages indigenous to the region or languages brought by immigration. Québec, Acadia and other French-speaking areas in Canada, Louisiana, Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, and other places north of Mexico are traditionally excluded from the Social-political definition of Latin America, despite significant populations speaking a Latin-derived language, because they don't exist as independent states, and/or because they are geographically isolated from the rest of Latin America. French Guiana, however, is usually included, despite being a dependency of France and not an independent country. The related term Iberoamerica is sometimes used to refer to the nations that were formerly colonies of Spain and Portugal, as these two countries are located on the Iberian peninsula. The Organization of Ibero-American States (OEI) takes this definition a step further, by including Spain and Portugal (often termed the Mother Countries of Latin America) among its member states, in addition to their Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking former colonies in America.

Political Divisions

Latin America is often seen as encompassing the following countries: And the following dependencies: In addition, some would add Belize, the Falkland Islands, Guyana, and Suriname to this list, even though they are not culturally or linguistically Latin American. They maintain economic ties with neighbouring countries, and are grouped by the United Nations in predominantly Latin American regions (South and Central America).

History

:See: History of Latin America

Demographics

The majority of the people in Latin America are of European decent. However there is a large percentage of the people in Latin America are of mixed origins, the result of racial intermingling among European settlers, African slaves, and American natives, with notable exception of the "Southern Cone" ("cono sur": Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, southern Brazil). This mixture of backgrounds ("Mestizaje" in Spanish) has profoundly influenced religion, music, and politics, and given rise to a vague identity of those belonging to these mixed cultures; this imprecise cultural heritage is (arguably improperly) called Latinos in American English. Outside of the USA, and in many languages (especially romance ones) "Latino" just means "Latin" (which refers to cultures and peoples that can trace their heritage back to the ancient Roman Empire.)

Economy

Below is a table showing the Gross domestic product (GDP) per capita at purchasing power parity (PPP) prices and the GDP (PPP) of each of the Latin American countries. This can be used as a rough gauge to the relative standards of living in the region. Data is from the year 2005. 2005 2005 Sources: Data from table is from an April 2005 report by the IMF and graphics data is from data by the World Bank from 2003 [http://www.worldbank.org/data/quickreference/quickref.html]. Data for Cuba is a 2004 estimate from the CIA World Factbook. GDP (PPP) per capita for Latin America was calculated using population data from List of countries by population

Language

The Spanish and Portuguese (in the 10 most populated countries), and French (in smaller countries, in the Caribbean, and in French Guiana) languages predominate. Many Caribbean nations have their own African-influenced Creole versions of these languages. Native American languages are spoken in many Latin American nations, mainly Peru, Ecuador, Guatemala, Bolivia, Paraguay, and Mexico.

Religion

The primary religion throughout Latin America is Roman Catholicism, but one can also find practitioners belonging to Protestant, Pentecostal, Evangelical, Mormon, Buddhist, Jewish, Hindu, Bahá'í, indigenous, and various Afro-Latin American traditions, such as Santería, and Macumba.

Music

One of the main characteristics of Latin American music is its diversity; contrarily to a widespread view (especially in the US), there is not one specific Latin American style of music. The so-called "Latin music" covers generally only the Hispano-Caribbean music (salsa, merengue, bachata, etc.), that is to say the styles of music that have been strongly influenced by African rythms and melodies. It is also possible to find completly different styles of music in Latin America, such as the Argentinean tango, Mexican ranchera or the various styles of music from Pre-Columbian traditions that are widespread in the Andean region. In Brazil, samba, American jazz, the European classical music and choro have developped the so-called bossanova music. As concerning the musicology field, classical composer Heitor Villalobos worked on the recording of native musical traditions. His classical works have been heavily influenced by them too. Today in Latin America Latin pop is very popular including many forms of Rock en Espanol.

Film

See also


- South America
  - Andean Community
  - Mercosur
  - South American Community of Nations
- Central America
  - Central American Common Market
- Caribbean
  - Caribbean Community
- Latin Europe

External links


- [http://www.comunidadandina.org/endex.htm Andean Community official webpage]
- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4079505.stm BBC - South America Creates Single Market]
- [http://www.coha.org Council on Hemispheric Affairs]
- [http://www.ericdigests.org/pre-923/latin.htm Latin American Studies]
- [http://www.trustedtranslations.com/latin_american_spanish.asp Latin American Spanish]
- [http://www.lawg.org Latin America Working Group]
- [http://www.wola.org Washington Office on Latin America]
- [http://www.latinamericandesignfoundation.com Latin American Design]
- [http://www.notisur.com Latin American News]
- zh-min-nan:Latin Bí-chiu ko:라틴아메리카 ja:ラテンアメリカ simple:Latin America th:ละตินอเมริกา

Australia

The Commonwealth of Australia is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the world's smallest continent and a number of islands in the Southern, Indian and Pacific Oceans. Australia's neighbouring countries are Indonesia, East Timor and Papua New Guinea to the north, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and New Caledonia to the northeast, and New Zealand to the southeast. The continent of Australia has been inhabited for over 40,000 years by Indigenous Australians. After sporadic visits by fishermen from the north and by European explorers and merchants starting in the 17th century, the eastern half of the continent was claimed by the British in 1