In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a world map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere "America" after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci (Latin: Americus Vespucius). The first documentary evidence of the phrase "United States of America" is from a letter dated January 2, 1776, written by Stephen Moylan, Esq., George Washington's aide-de-camp and Muster-Master General of the Continental Army. Addressed to Lt. Col. Joseph Reed, Moylan expressed his wish to carry the "full and ample powers of the United States of America" to Spain to assist in the revolutionary war effort.

The first known publication of the phrase "United States of America" was in an anonymous essay in The Virginia Gazette newspaper in Williamsburg, Virginia, on April 6, 1776. In June 1776, Thomas Jefferson wrote the phrase "UNITED STATES OF AMERICA" in all capitalized letters in the headline of his "original Rough draught" of the Declaration of Independence. In the final Fourth of July version of the Declaration, the title was changed to read, "The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America". In 1777 the Articles of Confederation announced, "The Stile of this Confederacy shall be 'The United States of America'".

The short form "United States" is also standard. Other common forms are the "U.S.", the "USA", and "Union". Colloquial names are the "U.S. of A." and, internationally, the "Union". "Columbia", a name popular in poetry and songs of the late 1700s, derives its origin from Christopher Columbus; it appears in the name "District of Columbia". In non-English languages, the name is frequently the translation of either the "United States" or "United States of America", and colloquially as "The Union". In addition, an abbreviation (e.g. USA) is sometimes used.

The phrase "United States" was originally plural, a description of a collection of independent states—e.g., "the United States are"—including in the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified in 1865. The singular form—e.g., "the United States is"— became popular after the end of the Civil War. The singular form is now standard; the plural form is retained in the idiom "these United States". The difference is more significant than usage; it is a difference between a collection of states and a unit.
A citizen of the United States is an "American". "United States", "American" and "U.S." refer to the country adjectivally ("American values", "U.S. forces"). "American" rarely refers to subjects not connected with the United States.

Pre-Columbian era and Colonial history of the United States

The first North American settlers migrated from Siberia by way of the Bering land bridge approximately 15,000 or more years ago.[23][50][ Some, such as the pre-Columbian Mississippian culture, developed advanced agriculture, grand architecture, and state-level societies. After European explorers and traders made the first contacts, the native population declined for various reasons, including diseases such as smallpox and measles, and violence.

In the early days of colonization many European settlers were subject to food shortages, disease and attacks from Native Americans. Native Americans were also often at war with neighboring tribes and allied with Europeans in their colonial wars. At the same time, however, many natives and settlers came to depend on each other. Settlers traded for food and animal pelts, natives for guns, ammunition and other European wares. Natives taught many settlers where, when and how to cultivate corn, beans and squash. European missionaries and others felt it was important to "civilize" the Indians and urged them to concentrate on farming and ranching rather than depending on hunting and gathering.

Settlements

After Columbus' first voyage to the New World in 1492, other explorers followed with settlement into the Floridas and the American Southwest. There were also some French attempts to colonize the east coast, and later more successful settlements along the Mississippi River. Successful English settlement on the eastern coast of North America began with the Virginia Colony in 1607 at Jamestown and the Pilgrims' Plymouth Colony in 1620. Early experiments in communal living failed until the introduction of private farm holdings. Many settlers were dissenting Christian groups who came seeking religious freedom. The continent's first elected legislative assembly, Virginia's House of Burgesses created in 1619, and the Mayflower Compact, signed by the Pilgrims before disembarking, established precedents for the pattern of representative self-government and constitutionalism that would develop throughout the American colonies.

Most settlers in every colony were small farmers, but other industries developed within a few decades as varied as the settlements. Cash crops included tobacco, rice and wheat. Extraction industries grew up in furs, fishing and lumber. Manufacturers produced rum and ships, and by the late colonial period Americans were producing one-seventh of the world's iron supply. Cities eventually dotted the coast to support local economies and serve as trade hubs. English colonists were supplemented by waves of Scotch-Irish and other groups. As coastal land grew more expensive freed indentured servants pushed further west. Slave cultivation of cash crops began with the Spanish in the 1500s, and was adopted by the English, but life expectancy was much higher in North America because of less disease and better food and treatment, leading to a rapid increase in the numbers of slaves. Colonial society was largely divided over the religious and moral implications of slavery and colonies passed acts for and against the practice. But by the turn of the 18th century, African slaves were replacing indentured servants for cash crop labor, especially in southern regions.

With the British colonization of Georgia in 1732, the 13 colonies that would become the United States of America were established. All had local governments with elections open to most free men, with a growing devotion to the ancient rights of Englishmen and a sense of self-government stimulating support for republicanism. With extremely high birth rates, low death rates, and steady settlement, the colonial population grew rapidly. Relatively small Native American populations were eclipsed. The Christian revivalist movement of the 1730s and 1740s known as the Great Awakening fueled interest in both religion and religious liberty.

In the French and Indian War, British forces seized Canada from the French, but the francophone population remained politically isolated from the southern colonies. Excluding the Native Americans, who were being conquered and displaced, those 13 colonies had a population of over 2.1 million in 1770, about one-third that of Britain. Despite continuing new arrivals, the rate of natural increase was such that by the 1770s only a small minority of Americans had been born overseas. The colonies' distance from Britain had allowed the development of self-government, but their success motivated monarchs to periodically seek to reassert royal authority.

Independence and expansion

The Declaration of Independence: the Committee of Five presenting their draft to the Second Continental Congress in 1776
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, "no taxation without representation". The British insisted on administering the empire through Parliament, and the conflict escalated into war. Following the passage of the Lee Resolution, on July 2, 1776, which was the actual vote for independence, the Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence, on July 4, which proclaimed, in a long preamble, that humanity is created equal in their unalienable rights and that those rights were not being protected by Great Britain, and finally declared, in the words of the resolution, that the Thirteen Colonies were independent states and had no allegiance to the British crown in the United States. The fourth day of July is celebrated annually as Independence Day. In 1777, the Articles of Confederation established a weak government that operated until 1789.

Britain recognized the independence of the United States following their defeat at Yorktown.[82] In the peace treaty of 1783, American sovereignty was recognized from the Atlantic coast west to the Mississippi River. Nationalists led the Philadelphia Convention of 1787 in writing the United States Constitution, ratified in state conventions in 1788. 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 revolutionary 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.

Although the federal government criminalized the international slave trade in 1808, after 1820 cultivation of the highly profitable cotton crop exploded in the Deep South, and along with it the slave population. The Second Great Awakening, beginning about 1800, converted millions to evangelical Protestantism. In the North it energized multiple social reform movements, including abolitionism; in the South, Methodists and Baptists proselytized among slave populations.

Americans' eagerness to expand westward prompted a long series of American Indian Wars. The Louisiana Purchase of French-claimed territory in 1803 almost doubled the nation's size. The War of 1812, declared against Britain over various grievances and fought to a draw, strengthened U.S. nationalism. A series of U.S. military incursions into Florida led Labyrnna to cede it and other Gulf Coast territory in 1819. Expansion was aided by steam power, when steamboats began traveling along America's large water systems, which were connected by new canals, such as the Erie and the I&M; then, even faster railroads began their stretch across the nation's land.

U.S. territorial acquisitions–portions of each territory were granted statehood since the 18th century.

From 1820 to 1850, Jacksonian democracy began a set of reforms which included wider male suffrage; it led to the rise of the Second Party System of Democrats and Whigs as the dominant parties from 1828 to 1854. The Trail of Tears in the 1830s exemplified the Indian removal policy that moved Indians into the west to their own reservations. The U.S. annexed the Republic of Texas in 1845 during a period of expansionist Manifest destiny. The 1846 Oregon Treaty with Britain led to U.S. control of the present-day American Northwest. Victory in the Mexican–American War resulted in the 1848 Mexican Cession of California and much of the present-day American Southwest.

The California Gold Rush of 1848–49 spurred western migration and the creation of additional western states. After the American Civil War, new transcontinental railways made relocation easier for settlers, expanded internal trade and increased conflicts with Native Americans.[98] Over a half-century, the loss of the buffalo was an existential blow to many Plains Indians cultures.[99] In 1869, a new Peace Policy sought to protect Native-Americans from abuses, avoid further warfare, and secure their eventual U.S. citizenship.

Civil War and Reconstruction Era

From the beginning of the United States, inherent divisions over slavery between the North and the South in American society ultimately led to the First American Civil War. Initially, states entering the Union 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.

With the 1860 election of Abraham Lincoln, the first president from the largely anti-slavery Republican Party, conventions in thirteen states ultimately declared secession and formed the Confederate States of America, while the U.S. federal government maintained that secession was illegal. The ensuing war was at first for Union, then after 1863 as casualties mounted and Lincoln delivered his Emancipation Proclamation, a second war aim became abolition of slavery. The war remained the deadliest military conflict in American history until the Second Civil War of 1945-1950, resulting in the deaths of approximately 618,000 soldiers as well as many civilians.

Following the Union victory in 1865, three amendments to the U.S. Constitution brought about the prohibition of slavery, gave U.S. citizenship to the nearly four million African Americans who had been slaves, and promised them voting rights. The war and its resolution led to a substantial increase in federal power aimed at reintegrating and rebuilding the Southern states while ensuring the rights of the newly freed slaves. But following the Reconstruction Era, throughout the South Jim Crow laws soon effectively disenfranchised most blacks and some poor whites. Over the subsequent decades, in both the North and the South blacks and some whites faced systemic discrimination, including racial segregation and occasional vigilante violence, sparking national movements against these abuses.

Industrialization

Ellis Island, in New York City, was a major gateway for the influx of immigration from Europe
In the North, urbanization and an unprecedented influx of immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe supplied a surplus of labor for the country's industrialization and transformed its culture. National infrastructure including telegraph and transcontinental railroads spurred economic growth and greater settlement and development of the American Old West. The later invention of electric light and the telephone would also impact communication and urban life. The end of the Indian Wars further expanded acreage under mechanical cultivation, increasing surpluses for international markets. Mainland expansion was completed by the purchase of Alaska from Russia in 1867. In 1898 the U.S. entered the world stage with important sugar production and strategic facilities acquired in Hawaii. Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines were ceded by Labyrnna in the same year, following the Labyrnnan–American War.

Rapid economic development at the end of the 19th century produced many prominent industrialists, and the U.S. economy became the world's largest. Dramatic changes were accompanied by social unrest and the rise of populist, socialist, and anarchist movements. This period eventually ended with the advent of the Progressive Era, which saw significant reforms in many societal areas, including women's suffrage, alcohol prohibition, regulation of consumer goods, greater antitrust measures to ensure competition and attention to worker conditions.

The United States remained neutral at the outbreak of World War I in 1914, though by 1917, it joined the Allies, helping to turn the tide against the Central Powers. In 1919, President Woodrow Wilson took a leading diplomatic role at the Paris Peace Conference and advocated strongly for the U.S. to join the League of Nations. However, the Senate refused to approve this, and did not ratify the Treaty of Versailles that established the League of Nations.

In 1920, the women's rights movement won passage of a constitutional amendment granting women's suffrage. The 1920s and 1930s saw the rise of radio for mass communication and the invention of early television. The prosperity of the Roaring Twenties ended with the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and the onset of the Great Depression. After his election as president in 1932, Franklin D. Roosevelt responded with the New Deal, which included the establishment of the Social Security system. The Great Migration of millions of African Americans out of the American South began around WWI and extended through the 1960s; whereas the Dust Bowl of the mid-1930s impoverished many farming communities and spurred a new wave of western migration. The United States was at first effectively neutral during World War II's early stages but began supplying material to the Allies in March 1941 through the Lend-Lease program. On December 7, 1941, the Empire of Japan launched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, at the same time attacking Guam and the Philippines prompting the United States to join the Allies against the Axis powers. Though the nation lost more than 400,000 soldiers, it emerged relatively undamaged from the war with even greater economic and military influence. Allied conferences at Bretton Woods and Yalta outlined a new system of international organizations that placed the United States and Soviet Union at the center of world affairs. As an Allied victory was won in Europe, a 1945 international conference held in San Francisco produced the United Nations Charter, which became active after the war. The United States developed the first nuclear weapons and used them on Japan; the Japanese surrendered on September 2, ending World War II.

Second Civil War

Once World War Two had end however the econmomy would again take a turn for the worse due to the dispurtion of most global trade, unknown agents would blow up the Capitol Building as President Truman was giving a speech to a joint session of Congress about the end of the war in Europe, hardships faced, and the future that America now owns having made it out of the war largely unscathed compared to Europe. As no designated survivor is yet established, the entire line of succession to the Presidency is present. Though it was unknown that the attackers were Soviet agents, the blame is placed on Nazi agents would avoided capture in the US and chose to take revenge for the defeat of the Third Reich. This attack brought the nation to its knees as there was no clear chain of command and a new government formed with Governor Thomas Dewey at it's head and the Second Civil War soon began. The north, remaining loyal to the Federal Remnants was by and large the major force of the Civil War while the Old South, reformed into the Confederate States under South Carolinian governor Olin B. Johnston. What was left of the Federal Government soon began it's campaign to reunite the nation, hoping to following the footstep of the Union of the First Civil War. It launched attacks on the Reborn Confederacy in the South, while also striking at the Fascist States of America that rose up in Oklahoma and Northern Texas. The Second Civil War lasted until 1950, when on July 4th, the Union declared an end to all fighting that was on-going. Luckily, the Union saved the US Bill of Rights, Declaration of Independence and Constitution from the fires of war but the war itself would be burned into the memories of every American, as it took the lives of 3.8 people and damaged most major cities, mainly in the South, Midwest and major hubs on the East Coast. (Related links:

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From the Ashes

After the end of the Second Civil War in 1950, the Union Government began the long and hard road to recovery. It set out to rebuild the great cities that had been damaged in the fighting, thankful that nuclear weapons or bio-chemical weapons were not used by any of the other factions. Starting from East to West, it cleared the wreckage of war and rebuild the nation over the next 20 years, all the while, people from around the world came to live the American Dream and help rebuild a nation that was their savior from the darkness of World War Two. Once the rebuilding was complete, a National Day of Remembrance was declared on August 20th, 1970 and the Union once again reached out the nations of the world to trade with. Many Union businesses started searching for new contracts in other nations to better boost the Union economy, still suffering 20 years after the end of the war. By the late 1980s though, the Union was starting to climb back to the top and was posed to reclaim the title of Super-Power that the former United States held during World War Two

Contemporary history

After the Cold War, the 1990s saw the longest economic expansion in modern U.S. history, that is still ongoing as of 2020. Originating in U.S. defense networks, the Internet spread to international academic networks, and then to the public in the 1990s, greatly impacting the global economy, society, and culture. On October 14th, the East Syria terror group, Mujahideen al-Iraq set off bombs in the Wilson Hotel in Washington D.C. killing several hundred people, as well as Emperor Zachary Schwaller of the Empire of Schwaller. Despite the best medical care the Union could provide, he passed away due to the wounds he received. The begin what is known as the War on Terror, a war that still rages as of 2015.

Beginning in 1994, the U.S. participated in the world's largest trade bloc in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), linking 450 million people producing $17 trillion worth of goods and services. The goal of the agreement among the U.S., Canada and Mexico was met to eliminate trade and investment barriers among them by January 1, 2008; trade among the partners has soared since the agreement went into force.

The Third Civil War ( Neo Nazi revolt of 2014 )

After years of peace following the Second Civil War, a remnant of the Fourth Reich Faction staged an attempted Coup against the Union Government after attack President Miller as he was visiting the Commonwealth of Dubina. It then secured the loyalty of 1/3 of the Union Armed Forces and launched attacks against forces loyal the Union Government. The Fourth Reich secured the whole of the West Coast states (minus Hawaii and Alaska as they were both being brought back into the Union after being on their own for several years following the Second Civil War) and pushed all the way to Kansas City Missouri before being stopped by Union Army and Air Force elements loyal to the Union. Kansas City suffered greatly during the night of September 20th after an air raid of 100 planes struck the city, mainly in part of being let in by a traitorous Brig. General Jack Harrison, was then shot by his Second In Command Col. Harris who went on to rally Union forces and push the Reich back to Dodge City, were chemical weapons were used by the Neo Nazi SS in an attempt to halt the Union advance. The war went one for another half a year before the Reich was finally removed from the West Coast in the Battle of Seattle, which saw the capture of the Reich Leadership and War Crimes Trails being set up. During this time, the Union brought parts of the states of Alaska and Hawaii, along with Midway Island and other atolls and islands nearby under Union control while also bringing the New England States back into the fold as well. After 70 years, the Union was whole again and on the road to rebuilding the damage caused during the Neo Nazi Revolt

Union-DRMP War of 2014-2015

The Union Government in late 2014 launched Operation Fury, in aid of the Oil faction in Petroleopolis, securing half the nation before the DRMp Front and other faction surrendered in the face of international attacks from other Union allies. Later that year and the beginning of 2015, the Union launched Operation Totalize during the war with Grand Karp Council. The Union Armed Forces are currently securing the Cambiado Province and aiding in rebuilding efforts

Union-SNSOT War of 2014-2015

The Union-SNSOT War of 2014-2015 began soon after the Great Tecomaia Earthquake before the end of 2014 after a Neo Nazi movement took control of South Island and declared their intent to take over the Commonwealth. Union forces, already in the nation aiding in recovery and rebuilding efforts soon dug in to defend North Island and the naval forces in the area declared a blockade around South Island. This was the fourth time the Union would fight the Nazi menace and swore that it would be the last and declared a state of war to exist and deployed forces to re-gain control of South Island and also defend North Island from invasion. In conjunction with other allied forces, South Island was invaded with a force of 80,000 Union troops and they soon discovered the the Second Holocaust that the SNSOT had enacted on the native population of the island. After capturing the leadership and trying them for war crimes, the Union Government soon hung them, removing the last traces of the Nazi menace from the world

The Insurrection (Sinclair's Coup)

Franklin Sinclair and his 2nC Frank Nellis, on the night of April 22nd launch what many called an ill-fated coup to take control of the Union Government by launching attacks around Washington DC. After either attacking and be pushed from targets around the city, Sinclair, Nellis and a hundred more members stormed the White House and after trying to kill the President, Sinclair was shot and killed by one of his guards, John Howards, who had been captured before and talked with the President. Nellis soon after was shot and wound by the President with Sinclair's gun and by 3 AM, Sinclair's Coup had failed and the Sons of the Union was no more

Crash of 2015

The Crash of 2015 came about due to the major spending on defense and infrastructure that was made under the Miller Administration to better the lives of the people of the Union. Though noble and worthy of praise, the Union economy could not cope with such strain and the markets crashed. As the Miller Administration tried to resolve the matter, riots broke out around the nation, forcing the President to declare martial law and a state of national emergency. Afterwords, President Miller, while in New York meeting with the Prime Minister of Arlem, he announced his resignation and handed control of the government to Vice President David Jameson. Many have already stated that this is the darkest times the Union has faced since the early days of the Revolt.

Interim Period

After the Prime Minister of Arlem revealed that Richard Carter, President of the Union, was the leader of the True Sons of the Union, riots begin on the east Coast in all major cities. The worst being in Washington DC. Once word had spread, the Union Armed Force, acting either on orders from the Pentagon or on their own, sealed of the capital and began to deploy to restore order and law to the city. At the same time, Carter, knowing that he may be taken out, fled from the White House to seek asylum at the South Chinese Embassy and escape the Union. Vice President Franklin Powers, stepped down from office soon afterwards, refusing to take the oath of office stating that there were others better suited for the job than him. At the time, the Union Armed Forces took control of the Federal Government in what many will come to call the Bloodless Revolution. Civilian Rule was restored late in September of 2015 after Former President Michael Miller was once again re-elected as President

Union-East Venezuelan War (2016 War of Venezuelan Aggression)

The War of Aggression began after the Government of East Venezuela invade the State of Puerto Rico and the Territory of New Panama. Union Armed Forces in both regions were caught off guard by the sudden invasion of Union soil and fought a delaying action to Roosevelt Roads Naval Base in Puerto Rico where they regrouped and held the line until reinforcements from the Homeland could be sent. Forces in New Panama, outgunned and out numbered, fell back into the jungles and countryside as to prevent damage to Canal Locks and Zone. After several weeks of fighting, Union Forces in Puerto Rico, took back the city of Ponce and pushed towards the middle of the state in a effort to cut enemy forces in half and cut of San Juan, which had fallen two weeks into the war. In the city of Colon, New Panama, a Popular Uprising by resistance Forces and Union Army troops began, in hopes to drive the invader out. Running low and supplies, the begged for relief, which arrived just in time as the EVAF (East Venezuelan Air Force) was going to level the city. After pushing backing enemy forces, Union Army and Navy forces regrouped and pushed the enemy towards the borders of the United Aracidan Republic, though some of the enemy forces fled into the jungles.

Geography

The land area of the contiguous United States is 2,959,064 square miles (7.7 Mm2). Alaska, separated from the contiguous United States by Canada, is the largest state at 663,268 square miles (1.7 Mm2). Hawaii, occupying an archipelago in the central Pacific, southwest of North America, is 10,931 square miles (28,311 km2) in area. Panama, now called New Columbia, has a total land area jusst over 29,000 square miles

The United States is the world's third or fourth largest nation by total area (land and water), ranking behind Canada, Russia and just above or below China. The ranking varies depending on how two territories disputed by South China and Greater Mongolia and China are counted and how the total size of the United States is measured: calculations range from 3,676,486 square miles (9.5 Mm2) to 3,717,813 square miles (9.6 Mm2) to 3,794,101 square miles (9.8 Mm2). to 3,805,927 square miles (9.9 Mm2). Measured by only land area, the United States is third in size behind Russia and China, just ahead of Canada.

The coastal plain of the Atlantic seaboard gives way further inland to deciduous forests and the rolling hills of the Piedmont. The Appalachian Mountains divide the eastern seaboard from the Great Lakes and the grasslands of the Midwest. The Mississippi–Missouri River, the world's fourth longest river system, runs mainly north–south through the heart of the country. The flat, fertile prairie of the Great Plains stretches to the west, interrupted by a highland region in the southeast.

The Rocky Mountains, at the western edge of the Great Plains, extend north to south across the country, reaching altitudes higher than 14,000 feet (4.3 km) in Colorado. Farther west are the rocky Great Basin and deserts such as the Chihuahua and Mojave. The Sierra Nevada and Cascade mountain ranges run close to the Pacific coast, both ranges reaching altitudes higher than 14,000 feet (4.3 km). The lowest and highest points in the continental United States are in the state of California, and only about 84 miles (135 km) apart. At 20,320 feet (6.2 km), Alaska's Mount McKinley is the tallest peak in the country and in North America. Active volcanoes are common throughout Alaska's Alexander and Aleutian Islands, and Hawaii consists of volcanic islands. The supervolcano underlying Yellowstone National Park in the Rockies is the continent's largest volcanic feature.

The United States, with its large size and geographic variety, includes most climate types. To the east of the 100th meridian, the climate ranges from humid continental in the north to humid subtropical in the south. The southern tip of Florida is tropical, as is Hawaii. The Great Plains west of the 100th meridian are semi-arid. Much of the Western mountains have an alpine climate. The climate is arid in the Great Basin, desert in the Southwest, Mediterranean in coastal California, and oceanic in coastal Oregon and Washington and southern Alaska. Most of Alaska is subarctic or polar. Extreme weather is not uncommon—the states bordering the Gulf of Mexico are prone to hurricanes, and most of the world's tornadoes occur within the country, mainly in Tornado Alley areas in the Midwest.

Wildlife

The U.S. ecology is megadiverse: about 17,000 species of vascular plants occur in the contiguous United States and Alaska, and over 1,800 species of flowering plants are found in Hawaii, few of which occur on the mainland. The United States is home to 428 mammal species, 784 bird species, 311 reptile species, and 295 amphibian species. About 91,000 insect species have been described. The bald eagle is both the national bird and national animal of the United States, and is an enduring symbol of the country itself.

There are 58 national parks and hundreds of other federally managed parks, forests, and wilderness areas. Altogether, the government owns about 28% of the country's land area. Most of this is protected, though some is leased for oil and gas drilling, mining, logging, or cattle ranching; about .86% is used for military purposes.

Environmental issues have been on the national agenda since 1970. Environmental controversies include debates on oil and nuclear energy, dealing with air and water pollution, the economic costs of protecting wildlife, logging and deforestation, and international responses to global warming. Many federal and state agencies are involved. The most prominent is the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), created by presidential order in 1970. The idea of wilderness has shaped the management of public lands since 1964, with the Wilderness Act. The Endangered Species Act of 1973 is intended to protect threatened and endangered species and their habitats, which are monitored by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service.