State: a region of the United States that has its own government for some matters. Each of the 50 states is a territorial division of America and elects members to congress to represent their state, forming a branch of the federal government. There are 48 contiguous states in North America plus Alaska in northwest North America and the Hawaiian Islands in the Pacific Ocean.
PERSPECTIVE
It may be hard for some of you to imagine, but there was a time when we didn’t have Cars, Computers, and Televisions. How did we ever get along without our Tablets, Smart Phones, or Text Messaging. No iTunes, cd’s, or iPads to listen to our music. What did people do? How did they find their way without a GPS system, or even a simple map?
Yes, we do have an easy life compared to those who paved the way for America. We should never forget the struggles and hardships people had to endure in order to survive, let alone progress. Sometimes people went days without food or water, things we take for granted today, don’t forget, back then they had no grocery stores or 7-11’s.
Still, they persevered and explored the world around them, discovering new lands and opportunities as they went. Allowing us, in the 21st Century, to live like royalty did in their times; with an abundance of food, drink, freedom, and entertainment. Be appreciative of their efforts as you study about the history of America and the formation of The United States.
Despite these hardships, the U.S. population has continued it’s growth at a steady rate since it’s meager beginnings.
1790-2000
The Beginning
On a November morning in 1620, just 98 days out of England, the 180-ton Mayflower completed her rendezvous with history. She had arrived in America, bearing the bright hopes and meager possessions of the original Pilgrims, a resolute band of a hundred-plus men and women pursuing the dream of liberty. While the party paused at what is now Provincetown on Cape Cod, Captain Miles Standish went exploring in a large shallop and found a harbor across the bay. There at Plymouth the Pilgrims settled-and barely in time.
In the full fury of that first New England winter, half the settlers died. Yet those who survived sank their roots deep. And years later, looking back to the desperate times, their tough-minded governor, William Bradford, could write: “Thus out of small beginnings greater things have been produced by His hand that made all things of nothing, and gives being to all things that are; and, as one small candle may light a thousand, so the light here kindled hath shone unto many, yea in some sort to our whole nation.”
Bradford and his Pilgrims had indeed kindled an extraordinary light on their barren coasts-a light that was eventually to illumine something more than the economic sinews of the most fabulously prolific land ever worked by man. “Those coasts,” observed the prescient Frenchman Alexis de Tocqueville in 1835 in his book ‘Democracy in America‘, “so admirably adapted for commerce and industry; those wide and deep rivers; that inexhaustible valley of the Mississippi…seemed prepared to be the abode of a great nation yet unborn. In that land the great experiment of the attempt to construct society upon a new basis was to be made…there, for the first time…theories hitherto unknown, or deemed impracticable, were to exhibit a spectacle for which the world had not been prepared.”
Now the nation is full-grown, and the westward movement which brought it to fruition is over. But the Pilgrims’ light nevertheless burns on. “No man” wrote the 20th Century American poet Archibald MacLeish, “can come to the Pacific coast of this continent…and feel that he has come to the end of anything. The American journey has not ended. America is never accomplished, America is always still to build; for men, as long as they are truly men, will dream of man’s fulfillment.”
Documents of Democracy
(Wikipedia Page)
The States
The United States is a federal union of fifty states. The original thirteen states were the successors of the thirteen colonies that rebelled against British rule. Early in the country’s history, three new states were organized on territory separated from the claims of the existing states: Kentucky from Virginia; Tennessee from North Carolina; and Maine from Massachusetts.
Most of the other states have been carved from territories obtained through war or purchase by the U.S. government. One set of exceptions comprises Vermont, Texas, and Hawaii: each was an independent republic before joining the union. During the American Civil War, West Virginia broke away from Virginia. The most recent state—Hawaii—achieved statehood on August 21, 1959. The states do not have the right to secede from the union.
At 3.79 million square miles (9.83 million km2) and with about 307 million people, the United States is the third or fourth largest country by total area (the ranking varies depending on how two territories disputed by China and India are counted and how the total size of the United States is calculated), and the third largest by land area and population. The United States is one of the world’s most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many countries.
The two most traumatic experiences in the nation’s history were the Civil War (1861-65), in which a northern Union of states defeated a secessionist Confederacy of 11 southern slave states, and the Great Depression of the 1930s, an economic downturn during which about a quarter of the labor force lost its jobs. Buoyed by victories in World Wars I and II and the end of the Cold War in 1991, the US remains the world’s most powerful nation state. Since the end of World War II, the economy has achieved relatively steady growth, low unemployment and inflation, and rapid advances in technology.
50 States In Alphabetical Order
(Official Government Websites)
The Federal Government
The full name of the republic is “United States of America”. No other name appears in the Constitution, and this is the name that appears on money, in treaties, and in legal cases to which it is a party (e.g. Charles T. Schenck v. United States). The terms “Government of the United States of America” or “United States Government” are often used in official documents to represent the federal government as distinct from the states collectively. In casual conversation or writing, the term “Federal Government” is often used, and the term “National Government” is sometimes used.
The terms “Federal” and “National” in government agency or program names generally indicate affiliation with the federal government (Federal Bureau of Investigation, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Park Service). Because the seat of government is in Washington, DC., “Washington” is commonly used as a metonym for the federal government.
One of the theoretical pillars of the U.S. Constitution is the idea of “checks and balances” among the powers and responsibilities of the three branches of American government: the executive, the legislative, and the judiciary. For example, while the legislative branch (Congress) has the power to create law, the executive branch under the president can veto any legislation—an act which, in turn, can be overridden by Congress. The president nominates judges to the nation’s highest judiciary authority, the Supreme Court, but those nominees must be approved by Congress. The Supreme Court, in turn, can invalidate unconstitutional laws passed by the Congress. These and other examples are examined in more detail in the text below.
U.S. Government
(Official Government Websites)
Memorials, Museums, and Libraries
‘National Memorial’ is a designation in the United States for an officially recognized area that memorializes a historic person or event. The earliest and perhaps most recognizable is the uniquely designated Washington Monument, which was completed in 1884 and transferred to the NPS in 1933.
A national museum is a museum maintained by the government for educational purposes and historical preservation.
In the United States, the presidential library system is a nationwide network of libraries administered by the Office of Presidential Libraries. These are repositories for preserving and making available the papers, records, collections and other historical materials of every president of the United States since Herbert Hoover (31st president, 1929–1933).
In addition to the library services, museum exhibitions concerning the presidency are displayed.