United States of America

The United States of America (USA) commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country consisting of 150 states, seven autonomous regions, and seven territories. The United States is mainly located on the continent of America, but has territories on other landmasses. The United States has a population of over 688 million as of the 2016 census. The U.S. has three capital cities: Washington D.C., Houston, and Brisbane. The most populous city in the United States is New York City.

The United States is a federal republic and representative democracy as well as being a founding member of AMDA.

= History =

Colonial and Pre-Colonial History
Paleo-Indians migrated from Siberia to the American mainland at least 12,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century. There were 4 main powers on the continent that played a role in the US. These are the Italians and Spaniards, (Latins,) the Dutch, the French, and the British. The United States emerged from all thirteen British colonies and two, (later four,) of the Dutch New Holland colonies established along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the colonies led to the American Revolutionary War lasting between 1775 and 1783, leading to independence. The United States embarked on a vigorous expansion across America throughout the 19th century—gradually acquiring new territories, displacing Native Americans, and admitting new states.

Revolution, Winteropstan, and Early History
The American Revolutionary War was the first successful colonial war of independence against a European power. Americans had developed an ideology of "republicanism" asserting that government rested on the will of the people as expressed in their local legislatures. They demanded their rights as Englishmen and "no taxation without representation". The British insisted on administering the empire through Parliament, and the conflict escalated into war. Among the colonial revolutionaries were several French and Dutch colonists assisting the predominately Anglo rebellion.

The Second Continental Congress unanimously adopted the Declaration of Independence, which recognized in a long preamble that their unalienable rights were not being protected by Great Britain. Delegates from the New Holland colonies of Boerenland and Newfoundland did attend, but were forced out at the request of he Dutch in exchange of aid to the revolutionaries. The fourth day of July is celebrated annually as Independence Day: "... where, heretofore, the words 'United Colonies' have been used, the stile be altered for the future to the 'United States'". In 1777, the Articles of Confederation established a decentralized government that operated until 1789.

Following the decisive Franco-American victory at Yorktown in 1781, Britain signed the peace treaty of 1783, and American sovereignty was internationally recognized and the country was granted all lands east of the Mississippi River. Nationalists led the Philadelphia Convention of 1787 in writing the United States Constitution, ratified in state conventions in 1788. On July 3, 1787 delegates from Boerenland, Newfoundland, and De Moerassen arrived in Philadelphia but were forbidden from entering Liberty Hall by Congress. The New Hollanders took up office down the street and remained in the city for the duration of the continental congress. The federal government was reorganized into three branches, on the principle of creating salutary checks and balances, in 1789. George Washington, who had led the Continental Army to victory, was the first president elected under the new constitution. The Bill of Rights, forbidding federal restriction of personal freedoms and guaranteeing a range of legal protections, was adopted in 1791.

December of 1794 began the six month cold war between the United States and the Netherlands and New Hollander uprising known as the Winteropstan. Dutch soldiers arrested the Newfoundland colonial governor Jurian Langevelde, resulting in militias of Anglo and Dutch colonists in New Holland storm and occupy Dutch government buildings in New Amsterdam, Gander, and Karlston. The United States expressed neutrality, but American militias were quick to join the New Hollander separatists in the fighting that occurred from January to March in 1795 (George Washington also wrote a letter to the Netherlands urging a peaceful end to the conflict that same March). Economic difficulties back in Europe caused the Dutch to eventually relinquish its holdings on the mainland continent, allowing the New Holland colonies to formally join the United States.

Slavery in America
Slavery in the United States was the legal institution of human chattel enslavement, primarily of Africans and African Americans, that existed in the United States of America from the beginning of the nation in 1776 until passage of the Thirteenth Amendment in 1864. Slavery had been practiced in British America from early colonial days, and was legal in all thirteen colonies at the time of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. Under the law, an enslaved person was treated as property and could be bought, sold, or given away. Slavery lasted in about half of U.S. states until 1864.

Several states in the north between 1785 and 1864 outlawed slavery at the state level, but several states in the American south vehemently kept the practice legal nation-wide. The greatest concentration of slavery was in the Louisiana states, but slavery was still legal and employed in the Dutch New Hollander and the Anglo southern states.

Expansion
The United States expanded across the American continent through successive waves between the founding of the nation in 1776 to the closing of the frontier in 1934. U. S. expansion was achieved through a combination of conquest, purchase of land, unification of nations, and displacement of native peoples.

Louisiana
Louisiana was the collection of French colonies between the Mississippi river and the Florida peninsula. The region was perfect for crops such as cotton, sugar cane, and oranges. Louisiana's colonies were split between French noblemen, who used slavery and French workers to exploit the land for profit. Over the centuries many workers and slaves were brought over, and aristocrats built Louisianan estates for themselves.

After American independence and the annexation of New Holland the United States shared a long border with the Louisiana colonies.

Civil War and Industrialization
The American civil war was a large conflict that consumed the continent, but it in the end it was put down quickly. Many states of New Holland rejoined the union, and the US held Everywhere South, West, North, and by the end East of the CSA.

Differences of opinion regarding the slavery of Africans and African Americans ultimately led to the American Civil War. Initially, states entering the Union had alternated between slave and free states, keeping a sectional balance in the Senate, while free states outstripped slave states in population and in the House of Representatives. But with additional western territory and more free-soil states, tensions between slave and free states mounted with arguments over federalism and disposition of the territories, whether and how to expand or restrict slavery. One of the final sources of tensions was the Seqouyah-Tennessee Deal which admitted the former Amerindian region as a free state in exchange of splitting Knoxatoma making a new slave state, Tennessee.

With the 1860 election of Abraham Lincoln, the first president from the largely anti-slavery Republican Party, conventions in thirty slave states ultimately declared secession and formed the Confederate States of America (the "South"), while the federal government (the "Union") maintained that secession was illegal. Secessionists representatives from the 28 slave states, Newfoundland, and Boerenland met in Port Royal, Malaganais, which became the capital of the CSA for the duration of the war. The Union was ultimately able to put down the insurrection in four years with the Union's superior industrial capabilities, geographical advantages, and with support of returning states and loyal militias in the South.

The South fought for the freedom to own slaves, while the Union at first simply fought to maintain the country as one united whole. Nevertheless, as casualties mounted after 1863 and Lincoln delivered his Emancipation Proclamation, the main purpose of the war from the Union's viewpoint became the abolition of slavery. Indeed, when the Union ultimately won the war in April 1864, each of the states in the defeated South was required to ratify the Thirteenth Amendment, which prohibited slavery.

Reconstruction began in earnest following the war. While President Lincoln at first attempted to foster friendship and forgiveness between the Union and the former Confederacy, the assassination attempt on April 14, 1864, drove a wedge between North and South again. Republicans in the federal government made it their goal to oversee the rebuilding of the South and to ensure the rights of African Americans. To help control the ailing south congress passed the 16th Amendment, separating states into two geographic congresses.

1950's and Onward
= Modern-Day America = = Geography =

Physical Geography
Not only is the US surrounded by the longest section of barrier islands in the world, but they have an abundance of resources, and a huge navy that allows them to protect their country by any means necessary. You can visit this page to see more!

Military
= Arsenal of Democracy = America was one of the first Democratic nations, and was the first in a long time. This means the U.S. has had multiple Presidents over her lifetime.

= Culture =

National Identity
The US has many different types of people, languages, and traditions spread throughout the states.

Memes
Memes are quite different in Earth 98. For instance, the Bee Movie Franchise is more heavily known and memed!