Buffalo Gold Silver Ring Coin Indian Retro Old USA 1937 U C Vintage Americana US

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Seller: Top-Rated Seller lasvegasormonaco ✉️ (3,187) 99.7%, Location: Manchester, Take a look at my other items, GB, Ships to: WORLDWIDE, Item: 266693503504 Buffalo Gold Silver Ring Coin Indian Retro Old USA 1937 U C Vintage Americana US. Zebra duiker (Cephalophus zebra). Dallas–Fort Worth. • Water (%). Los Angeles. 3,796,742 sq mi (9,833,520 km2)[9] (3rd[c]). 2021 MSA population estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau. • Total area. Religious affiliation in the United States is among the most diverse in the world[430] and varies significantly by region[431] and age. Buffalo Nickel Ring Gold & Silver This is  a Size 10 US or Size T 1/2 Silver and Gold Plated  Buffalo Nickle Ring There is an inscription in the back of the ring which has faded over time It reads "Buffalo Nickel - Honoring the American West" On the two sides are images of red indians / native americans. it is  gold and silver plated In Excellent Condition Sorry about the poor quality photos. They dont do the coin justice which looks a lot better in real life Click Here to Check out my other Great Unusual Rings! Bid with Confidence - Check My Almost 100% Positive Feedback from 600 satisfied customers over the past 10 years I always discount shipping / postage on multiple items  All Payment Methods in All Major Currencies Accepted. 

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The United States one-cent coin, commonly known as a penny, is a unit of currency equaling one one-hundredth of a United States dollar. The cent's symbol is ¢. Its obverse has featured the profile of President Abraham Lincoln since 1909, the centennial of his birth. From 1959 (the sesquicentennial of Lincoln's birth) to 2008, the reverse featured the Lincoln Memorial. Four different reverse designs in 2009 honored Lincoln's 200th birthday and a new, permanent reverse - the Union Shield - was introduced in 2010. The coin is 0.75 inches (19.05 mm) in diameter and 0.061 inches (1.55 mm) in thickness. The U.S. Mint's official name for a penny is "cent"[2] and the U.S. Treasury's official name is "one cent piece".[3] The colloquial term penny derives from the British coin of the same name, the pre-decimal version of which had a similar value. In American English, pennies is the plural form, other plural forms pence and pee (standard use in British English) are not used. As of 2012, it costs the U.S. Mint 2.41 cents to make a cent because of the cost of materials and production.[4] This figure includes the Mint’s fixed components for distribution and fabrication, estimated at $13 million in FY 2011. It also includes Mint overhead allocated to the penny, which was $17.7 million for 2011. Fixed costs and overhead would have to be absorbed by other circulating coins without the penny.[5] The loss in profitability due to producing the one cent coin in the United States for the year of 2011 is $60,200,000. This is an increase from 2010, the year before, which had a production loss of $27,400,000

The American bison (Bison bison), also commonly known as the American buffalo or simply buffalo, is a North American species of bison that once roamed the grasslands of North America in massive herds. They became nearly extinct by a combination of commercial hunting and slaughter in the 19th century and introduction of bovine diseases from domestic cattle, and have made a recent resurgence largely restricted to a few national parks and reserves. Their historical range roughly comprised a triangle between the Great Bear Lake in Canada's far northwest, south to the Mexican states of Durango and Nuevo León, and east to the Atlantic Seaboard of the United States (nearly to the Atlantic tidewater in some areas) from New York to Georgia and per some sources down to Florida. Bison were seen in North Carolina near Buffalo Ford on the Catawba River as late as 1750.[2][3][4] Two subspecies or ecotypes have been described: the plains bison (B. b. bison), smaller in size and with a more rounded hump, and the wood bison (B. b. athabascae)—the larger of the two and having a taller, square hump.[5][6][7][8][9][10] Furthermore, the plains bison has been suggested to consist of a northern (B. b. montanae) and a southern subspecies, bringing the total to three.[8] However, this is generally not supported. The wood bison is one of the largest wild species of bovid in the world, surpassed by only the Asian gaur and wild water buffalo. It is the largest extant land animal in the Americas. The American bison is the national mammal of the United States. The Buffalo nickel or Indian Head nickel is a copper-nickel five-cent piece that was struck by the United States Mint from 1913 to 1938. It was designed by sculptor James Earle Fraser. As part of a drive to beautify the coinage, five denominations of US coins had received new designs between 1907 and 1909. In 1911, Taft administration officials decided to replace Charles E. Barber's Liberty Head design for the nickel, and commissioned Fraser to do the work. They were impressed by Fraser's designs showing a Native American and an American bison. The designs were approved in 1912, but were delayed several months because of objections from the Hobbs Manufacturing Company, which made mechanisms to detect slugs in nickel-operated machines. The company was not satisfied by changes made in the coin by Fraser, and in February 1913, Treasury Secretary Franklin MacVeagh decided to issue the coins despite the objections. Despite attempts by the Mint to adjust the design, the coins proved to strike indistinctly, and to be subject to wear—the dates were easily worn away in circulation. In 1938, after the expiration of the minimum 25-year period during which the design could not be replaced without congressional authorization, it was replaced by the Jefferson nickel, designed by Felix Schlag. Fraser's design is admired today, and has been used on commemorative coins and the gold American Buffalo series.

United States of America

 

Flag

 

Coat of arms

Motto: "In God We Trust"[1]

Other traditional mottos:[2]

Anthem: "The Star-Spangled Banner"[3]

1:18

Orthographic map of the U.S. in North America

Show globe (states and D.C. only)

Show the U.S. and its territories

Show territories with EEZ

Show all

Capital Washington, D.C.

38°53′N 77°1′W

Largest city New York City

40°43′N 74°0′W

Official languages None at the federal level[a]

National language English (de facto)[not verified in body]

Ethnic groups (2020)[4][5][6]

By race:

    61.6% White

    12.4% Black

    6.0% Asian

    1.1% Native American

    0.2% Pacific Islander

    10.2% two or more races

    8.4% other

By Hispanic or Latino origin:

    81.3% non-Hispanic or Latino

    18.7% Hispanic or Latino

Religion (2021)[7]

        63% Christianity

            40% Protestantism

            21% Catholicism

            2% other Christian

    29% irreligion

    1% Buddhism

    1% Hinduism

    1% Islam

    1% Judaism

    2% other

    2% unanswered

Demonym(s) American[b][8]

Government Federal presidential constitutional republic

• President

Joe Biden

• Vice President

Kamala Harris

• House Speaker

Kevin McCarthy

• Chief Justice

John Roberts

Legislature Congress

• Upper house

Senate

• Lower house

House of Representatives

Independence from Great Britain

• Declaration

July 4, 1776

• Confederation

March 1, 1781

• Recognized

September 3, 1783

• Constitution

June 21, 1788

• Last Amendment

May 5, 1992

Area

• Total area

3,796,742 sq mi (9,833,520 km2)[9] (3rd[c])

• Water (%)

4.66[10] (2015)

• Land area

3,531,905 sq mi (9,147,590 km2) (3rd)

Population

• 2022 estimate

Neutral increase 333,287,557[11]

• 2020 census

331,449,281[d][12] (3rd)

• Density

87/sq mi (33.6/km2) (185th)

GDP (PPP) 2023 estimate

• Total

Increase $26.855 trillion[13] (2nd)

• Per capita

Increase $80,035[13] (8th)

GDP (nominal) 2023 estimate

• Total

Increase $26.855 trillion[13] (1st)

• Per capita

Increase $80,035[13] (7th)

Gini (2020) Negative increase 39.4[e][14]

medium

HDI (2021) Increase 0.921[15]

very high · 21st

Currency U.S. dollar ($) (USD)

Time zone UTC−4 to −12, +10, +11

• Summer (DST)

UTC−4 to −10[f]

Date format mm/dd/yyyy[g]

Driving side right[h]

Calling code +1

ISO 3166 code US

Internet TLD .us[16]

The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or informally as America, is a country primarily located in North America consisting of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territories, nine Minor Outlying Islands,[i] and 326 Indian reservations. It is the world's third-largest country by both land and total area.[c] It shares land borders with Canada to its north and with Mexico to its south and has maritime borders with the Bahamas, Cuba, Russia, and other nations.[j] With a population of over 333 million,[k] it is the most populous country in the Americas and the third-most populous in the world. The national capital of the United States is Washington, D.C., and its most populous city and principal financial center is New York City.

Indigenous peoples have inhabited the Americas for thousands of years. Beginning in 1607, British colonization led to the establishment of the Thirteen Colonies in what is now the Eastern United States. They quarreled with the British Crown over taxation and political representation, leading to the American Revolution and ensuing Revolutionary War. The United States declared independence on July 4, 1776, becoming the first nation-state founded on Enlightenment principles of unalienable natural rights, consent of the governed, and liberal democracy. The country began expanding across North America, spanning the continent by 1848. Sectional division over slavery led to the secession of the Confederate States of America, which fought the remaining states of the Union during the American Civil War (1861–1865). With the Union's victory and preservation, slavery was abolished nationally.

By 1900, the United States had established itself as a great power, becoming the world's largest economy. After Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the U.S. entered World War II on the Allied side. The aftermath of the war left the United States and the Soviet Union as the world's two superpowers and led to the Cold War. During the Cold War, both countries engaged in a struggle for ideological dominance but avoided direct military conflict. They also competed in the Space Race, which culminated in the 1969 landing of Apollo 11, making the U.S. the first and only nation to land humans on the Moon. With the Soviet Union's collapse and the subsequent end of the Cold War in 1991, the United States emerged as the world's sole superpower.

The United States government is a federal republic and a representative democracy with three separate branches of government. It has a bicameral national legislature composed of the House of Representatives, a lower house; and the Senate, an upper house based on equal representation for each state. Many policy issues are decentralized at a state or local level, with widely differing laws by jurisdiction. The U.S. ranks highly in international measures of quality of life, income and wealth, economic competitiveness, human rights, innovation, and education; it has low levels of corruption. It has higher levels of incarceration and inequality than most other developed nations, and is the only developed nation without universal healthcare. As a melting pot of cultures and ethnicities, the U.S. has been shaped by the world's largest immigrant population.

The United States is a highly developed country that has the highest median income of any polity in the world. Its economy accounts for approximately a quarter of global GDP and is the world's largest by GDP at market exchange rates. It is the world's largest importer and second-largest exporter, and possesses the largest amount of wealth of any country. The United States is a founding member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States, NATO, World Health Organization, and is a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. It is the world's foremost political, cultural, economic, military, and scientific force.

Etymology

Further information: Names of the United States and Demonyms for the United States

The first documentary evidence of the phrase "United States of America" dates back to a letter from January 2, 1776, written by Stephen Moylan, a Continental Army aide to General George Washington, to Joseph Reed, Washington's aide-de-camp. Moylan expressed his desire to go "with full and ample powers from the United States of America to Spain" to seek assistance in the Revolutionary War effort.[26][27][28] The first known publication of the phrase "United States of America" was in an anonymous essay in The Virginia Gazette newspaper in Williamsburg, on April 6, 1776.[29]

By June 1776, the name "United States of America" appeared in drafts of the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, authored by John Dickinson, a Founding Father from the Province of Pennsylvania,[30][31] and in the Declaration of Independence, written primarily by Thomas Jefferson and adopted by the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia, on July 4, 1776.[30]

A citizen of the United States is called an "American". "United States", "American", and "U.S." refer to the country as an adjective, such as "American values" or "U.S. forces". The word "American" rarely refers to topics or subjects not directly connected with the United States.[32]

History

Main article: History of the United States

For a topical guide, see Outline of United States history.

Beginnings (before 1630)

Further information: Native Americans in the United States and Pre-Columbian era

Cliff Palace, located in present-day Colorado, was built by Ancestral Puebloans.

The first inhabitants of North America migrated from Siberia, crossing the Bering land bridge and arriving in the present-day United States at least 12,000 years ago; some evidence suggests an even earlier date of arrival.[33][34][35] The Clovis culture, which appeared around 11,000 BC, is believed to represent the first wave of human settlement in the Americas.[36][37] This was likely the first of three major waves of migration into North America; later waves brought the ancestors of present-day Athabaskans, Aleuts, and Eskimos.[38]

The approximate locations of Native American nations in present-day North America, c. 16th century

Over time, indigenous cultures in North America grew increasingly sophisticated, and some, such as the pre-Columbian Mississippian culture in the southeast, developed advanced agriculture, architecture, and complex societies.[39] The city-state of Cahokia was the largest, most complex pre-Columbian archaeological site in present-day United States.[40] In the Four Corners region in present-day Southwestern United States, the culture of Ancestral Puebloans developed over centuries of agricultural experimentation.[41] The Algonquian, including peoples who speak Algonquian languages, were one of the most populous and widespread North American indigenous peoples.[42] These people were historically prominent along the Atlantic Coast and in the Saint Lawrence River and Great Lakes regions. Before European immigrants made contact with the Algonquian, most of the Algonquian survived by hunting and fishing, and many supplemented their diet by cultivating corn, beans, and squash, known as the "Three Sisters". The Ojibwe cultivated wild rice.[43] The Iroquois confederation Haudenosaunee, located in the southern Great Lakes region, was established between the 12th and 15th centuries.[44]

Estimating the native population of North America following the arrival of European immigrants is difficult.[45][46] Douglas H. Ubelaker of the Smithsonian Institution estimated a population of 93,000 in the South Atlantic states and a population of 473,000 in the Gulf states,[47] but most academics regard this figure as too low.[45] Anthropologist Henry F. Dobyns believed the populations were much higher, suggesting that approximately 1.1 million resided on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico, 2.2 million people living between Florida and Massachusetts, 5.2 million in the Mississippi Valley and tributaries, and around 700,000 in the Florida peninsula.[45][46]

The Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano, sent by France to the New World in 1525, encountered Native American inhabitants in the present-day New York Bay region.[48] The Spanish Empire set up their first settlements in Florida and New Mexico, including in Saint Augustine, which is often considered the nation's oldest city,[49] and Santa Fe. The French established their own settlements along the Mississippi River and Gulf of Mexico, including in New Orleans and Mobile.[50]

Colonization, settlement, and communities (1630–1763)

Main article: Colonial history of the United States

Further information: Thirteen Colonies, British America, European colonization of the Americas, and Slavery in the colonial history of the United States

The Mayflower Compact, signed on the Mayflower in 1620, set an early precedent for the nation's commitment to self governance and constitutional rule of law.

Map of the U.S. showing the original Thirteen Colonies along the [eastern seaboard

The United Colonies in 1775: * Dark Red = New England colonies. * Bright Red = Middle Atlantic colonies. * Red-brown = Southern colonies

British colonization of the east coast of North America began with the Virginia Colony in 1607, where Pilgrims settled in Jamestown and later established Plymouth Colony in 1620.[51][52]

The continent's first elected legislative assembly, the House of Burgesses in Virginia, was founded in 1619. In 1636, Harvard College in Cambridge, Massachusetts Bay Colony was founded as the first institution of higher education. The Mayflower Compact and the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut established precedents for representative self-government and constitutionalism that would develop throughout the American colonies.[53][54] Many English settlers were dissenting Christians who fled England seeking religious freedom. The native population of America declined after European arrival,[55][56][57] primarily as a result of infectious diseases such as smallpox and measles.[58][59] By the mid-1670s, the British defeated and seized the territory of Dutch settlers in New Netherland, in the mid-Atlantic region.

In the 17th century, during European colonization, many European settlers experienced food shortages, disease, and conflicts with Native Americans, including in King Philip's War. In addition to fighting European settlers, Native Americans also often fought neighboring tribes. But in many cases, the natives and settlers came to develop a mutual dependency. Settlers traded for food and animal pelts, and Native Americans traded for guns, tools, and other European goods.[60] Native Americans taught many settlers to cultivate corn, beans, and other foodstuffs. European missionaries and others felt it was important to civilize the Native Americans and urged them to adopt European agricultural practices and lifestyles.[61][62] With the increased European colonization of North America, however, Native Americans were often displaced or killed during conflicts.[63]

European settlers also began trafficking African slaves into the colonial United States via the transatlantic slave trade.[64] By the turn of the 18th century, slavery supplanted indentured servitude as the main source of agricultural labor for the cash crops in the American South.[65] Colonial society was divided over the religious and moral implications of slavery, and several colonies passed acts for or against it.[66][67]

In what was then considered British America, the Thirteen Colonies[l] were administered as overseas dependencies by the British.[68] All colonies had local governments with elections open to white male property owners except Jews and, in some areas, Catholics.[69][70] With very high birth rates, low death rates, and steadily growing settlements, the colonial population grew rapidly, eclipsing Native American populations.[71] The Christian revivalist movement of the 1730s and 1740s, known as the Great Awakening, fueled colonial interest in both religion and religious liberty.[72] Excluding the Native Americans population, the Thirteen Colonies had a population of over 2.1 million in 1770, representing then a population that was then roughly a third the size of Britain. By the 1770s, despite continuing new immigrant arrivals from Britain and other European regions, the natural increase of the population was such that only a small minority of Americans had been born overseas.[73] The colonies' distance from Britain had allowed for the development of self-governance in the colonies, but it encountered periodic efforts by British monarchs to reassert royal authority.[74]

Revolution and the new nation (1763–1849)

Main articles: History of the United States (1776–1789) and 1789–1849

Further information: United Colonies, American Revolution, American Revolutionary War, and Confederation period

See caption

Declaration of Independence, a portrait by John Trumbull depicting the Committee of Five[m] presenting the draft of the Declaration to the Continental Congress on June 28, 1776 in Philadelphia

In 1774, the First Continental Congress, meeting in Philadelphia, passed the Continental Association, which mandated a colony-wide boycott of British goods. The American Revolutionary War began the following year, on April 19, 1775, at the Battles of Lexington and Concord. The colonies responded by again convening in Philadelphia in the Second Continental Congress, where, in June 1775, they appointed George Washington as commander of the Continental Army, which was initially comprised of various American patriot militias resisting the British Army. In June 1776, the Second Continental Congress charged five of its delegates, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Robert R. Livingston, and Roger Sherman, with writing a draft of the Declaration of Independence. The five delegates, in turn, asked Jefferson to author its first draft. While Jefferson consulted with the other four delegates, he largely authored its first draft in isolation over a period of two weeks from the second floor he was renting in a home on Market Street in Center City Philadelphia.[75]

On July 4, 1776, the Second Continental Congress unanimously adopted and issued the Declaration of Independence, which famously stated: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." The unanimous adoption of the Declaration of Independence is celebrated annually on July 4th in the United States as Independence Day.[76] In 1777, the American victory at the Battle of Saratoga resulted in the capture of a British army, and led to France and their ally Spain joining in the war against them. After the surrender of a second British Army at the siege of Yorktown in 1781, Britain signed a peace treaty. American sovereignty gained international recognition, and the new nation took possession of substantial territory east of the Mississippi River, from what is present-day Canada in the north and Florida in the south.[77] Tensions with Britain remained, leading to the War of 1812, which was fought to a draw.[78]

Scene at the Signing of the Constitution of the United States on September 17, 1787 by Howard Chandler Christy (1940)

In 1781, the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union established a decentralized government that operated until 1789.[76] As it became increasingly apparent that the Confederation was insufficient to govern the new country, nationalists advocated for and led the Philadelphia Convention of 1787, where the United States Constitution was authored and ratified in state conventions in 1788. The U.S. Constitution is the oldest and longest-standing written and codified national constitution in force today.[79] Going into force in 1789, it reorganized the government into a federation administered by three branches (executive, judicial, and legislative), on the principle of creating salutary checks and balances. George Washington, who had led the Continental Army to victory and then willingly relinquished power, 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.[80]

During the British Colonial era, slavery was legal in the American colonies, a longstanding institution in world history, and "challenges to its moral legitimacy were rare". However, during the Revolution, many in the colonies began to question the practice.[81]

Slaves on a South Carolina plantation (The Old Plantation, c. 1790)

Regional divisions over slavery grew in the ensuing decades. In the North, several prominent Founding Fathers such as John Adams, Roger Sherman, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and Benjamin Franklin advocated for the abolition of slavery, and by the 1810s every state in the region had, with these emancipations being the first in the Atlantic World.[82] The Missouri Compromise (1820) admitted Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state and declared a policy of prohibiting slavery in the remaining Louisiana Purchase lands north of the 36°30′ parallel. The outcome de facto sectionalized the country into two factions: free states, which forbade slavery; and slave states, which protected the institution; it was controversial, widely seen as dividing the country along sectarian lines.[83] In the South, the invention of the cotton gin spurred entrenchment of slavery, with regional elites and intellectuals increasingly viewing the institution as a positive good instead of a necessary evil.[84] Although the federal government outlawed American participation in the Atlantic slave trade in 1807, after 1820, cultivation of the highly profitable cotton crop exploded in the Deep South, and along with it, the use of slave labor.[85][86][87] The Second Great Awakening, especially in the period 1800–1840, converted millions to evangelical Protestantism. In the North, it energized multiple social reform movements, including abolitionism;[88] in the South, Methodists and Baptists proselytized among slave populations.[89]

Expansion, Civil War and Reconstruction (1849–1876)

Main articles: History of the United States (1849–1865) and 1865–1918

Further information: Territorial evolution of the United States, Slavery in the United States, Slave states and free states, American Civil War, Lost Cause of the Confederacy, and Reconstruction era

A map of the territorial acquisitions of the United States between 1783 and 1917

In the late 18th century, American settlers began to expand further westward, some of them with a sense of manifest destiny.[90][91] The 1803 Louisiana Purchase almost doubled the nation's area,[92] Spain ceded Florida and other Gulf Coast territory in 1819,[93] the Republic of Texas was annexed in 1845 during a period of expansionism,[91] and the 1846 Oregon Treaty with Britain led to U.S. control of the present-day American Northwest.[94] As it expanded further into land inhabited by Native Americans, the federal government often applied policies of Indian removal or assimilation.[95][96] The Trail of Tears in the 1830s exemplified the Indian removal policy that forcibly resettled Indians. The displacement prompted a long series of American Indian Wars west of the Mississippi River[97] and eventually conflict with Mexico.[98] Most of these conflicts ended with the cession of Native American territory and their confinement to Indian reservations. Victory in the Mexican–American War resulted in the 1848 Mexican Cession of California and much of the present-day American Southwest, with the U.S. now spanning the continent.[90][99] The California Gold Rush of 1848–1849 spurred migration to the Pacific coast, which led to the California genocide[100] and the creation of additional western states.[101]

Division of the states in the American Civil War (1861–1865):

  Union states

  Border states

  Confederate states

  Territories

Irreconcilable sectional conflict regarding the enslavement of those of black African descent[102] was the primary cause of the American Civil War.[103] With the 1860 election of Republican Abraham Lincoln, conventions in eleven slave states, all in the Southern United States, declared secession and formed the Confederate States of America, while the federal government, known as the Union, maintained that secession was unconstitutional and illegitimate.[104] On April 12, 1861, the Confederacy initiated military conflict by bombarding Fort Sumter, a federal garrison in Charleston harbor in South Carolina.

The American Civil War, the deadliest military conflict in American history, ensued and was fought between 1861 and 1865. The war resulted in the deaths of approximately 620,000 soldiers from both sides and upwards of 50,000 civilians, most of them in the South.[105] In early July 1863, the Civil War began to turn in the Union's favor, following the Union Army's victory in the Battle of Gettysburg, where Union Army general George Meade halted Confederate Army general Robert E. Lee's invasion of the North. In April 1965, following the Union Army's victory at the Battle of Appomattox Court House, the Confederacy surrendered and soon collapsed.

Reconstruction began in earnest following the defeat of the Confederates. While President Lincoln attempted to foster reconciliation between the Union and former Confederacy, his assassination on April 14, 1865 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, and the so-called Reconstruction Amendments to the Constitution guaranteed the abolishment of slavery, full citizenship to Americans of African descent, and suffrage for adult Black males. They persisted until the Compromise of 1877. Influential Southern Whites, calling themselves "Redeemers", took local control of the South after the end of Reconstruction, beginning the nadir of American race relations. From 1890 to 1910, the Redeemers established so-called Jim Crow laws, disenfranchising almost all Blacks and some impoverished Whites throughout the region. During this period, Blacks faced racial segregation nationwide, especially in the South,[106] and lived under the threat of lynching and other vigilante violence.[107]

Development of the modern United States (1876–1918)

Main article: History of the United States (1865–1918)

Further information: Gilded Age, Progressive Era, Immigration to the United States, and Technological and industrial history of the United States

2:43

An Edison Studios film showing immigrants arriving at Ellis Island in New York Harbor, a major point of entry for European immigrants in the late 19th and early 20th centuries; between 1892 and 1954, 12 million immigrants were processed at Ellis Island.[108][109]

National infrastructure, including telegraph and transcontinental railroads, spurred economic growth and greater settlement and development of the American Old West. After the end of the American Civil War in 1865, new transcontinental railways made relocation easier for settlers, expanded internal trade, and increased conflicts with Native Americans.[110]

Mainland expansion also included the purchase of Alaska from Russia in 1867.[111] In 1893, pro-American elements in Hawaii overthrew the Hawaiian monarchy and formed the Republic of Hawaii, which the U.S. annexed in 1898. Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines were ceded by Spain in the same year, by the Treaty of Paris (1898) following the Spanish–American War.[112] Neither the Foraker Act (1900) nor the Insular Cases (1901) afforded U.S. citizenship to Puerto Ricans. The Jones–Shafroth Act, passed in 1917 one month prior to American entry into World War I, extended citizenship to Puerto Ricans.[113]: 60–63  In November 1903, the U.S. acquired a perpetual lease of the Panama Canal Zone via the Hay–Bunau-Varilla Treaty after providing naval aid that prevented Colombia from putting down the rebellion that led to the creation of an independent Panama.[113]: 67  American Samoa was acquired by the United States in 1900 after the end of the Second Samoan Civil War.[114] The U.S. Virgin Islands were purchased from Denmark in 1917.[115]

Skyscrapers in Lower Manhattan, New York City, from the Woolworth Building in 1913

Rapid economic development during the late 19th and early 20th centuries fostered the rise of many prominent industrialists. Tycoons like Cornelius Vanderbilt, John D. Rockefeller, and Andrew Carnegie led the nation's progress in the railroad, petroleum, and steel industries. Banking became a major part of the economy, with J. P. Morgan playing a notable role. The United States also emerged as a pioneer of the automotive industry in the early 20th century.[116] 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.[117] Electric light and the telephone drastically changed communication and urban life.[118] The American economy boomed, becoming the world's largest.[119] These dramatic changes were accompanied by significant increases in economic inequality, immigration, and social unrest, which prompted the rise of organized labor along with populist, socialist, and anarchist movements.[120][121][122]

This period eventually ended with the advent of the Progressive Era, which was characterized by significant reforms, including health and safety regulation of consumer goods, the rise of labor unions, greater antitrust measures to ensure competition among businesses, and improvements in worker conditions. The Great Migration, which began around 1910, resulted in millions of African Americans leaving the rural South for urban areas in the North.[123] The last vestiges of the Progressive Era resulted in women's suffrage and alcohol prohibition.[124][125][126] In 1869, Wyoming was the first state to grant women the right to vote followed by other states[127] before the women's rights movement won passage of a constitutional amendment granting nationwide women's suffrage in 1920.[128]

World Wars period (1918-1945)

Main article: History of the United States (1918-1945)

Further information: United States in World War I, Roaring Twenties, Great Depression in the United States, New Deal, and United States during World War II

A dust storm approaches Stratford, Texas, in 1935, during the Dust Bowl

The United States remained neutral from the outbreak of World War I in 1914 until 1917 when it joined the war as an "associated power" alongside the Allies of World War I, 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.[129]

During the 1920s and 1930s, radio for mass communication and ultimately the invention of early television transformed communications in the United States.[130] 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 economic policies.[131] The Dust Bowl of the mid-1930s impoverished many farming communities and spurred a new wave of western migration.[132]

The Trinity nuclear test in New Mexico, July 1945, the first detonation of a nuclear weapon

At first neutral during World War II, the United States began supplying war materiel to the Allies in March 1941. A total of $50.1 billion (equivalent to $719 billion in 2021) worth of supplies was shipped in 1941–1945, or 17% of the total war expenditures of the U.S.[133] On December 7, 1941, the Empire of Japan launched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, prompting the United States to militarily join the Allies against the Axis powers, and in the following year, to intern about 120,000 Japanese and Japanese Americans.[134][135] The U.S. pursued a "Europe first" defense policy,[136] with the Philippines being invaded and occupied by Japan until the country's liberation by the U.S.-led forces in 1944–1945. During the war, the United States was one of the "Four Policemen"[137] who met to plan the postwar world, along with Britain, the Soviet Union, and China.[138][139] The United States emerged relatively unscathed from the war, and with even greater economic and military influence.[140]

The United States played a leading role in the Bretton Woods and Yalta conferences, during which agreements were signed on new international financial institutions and Europe's postwar reorganization. As an Allied victory was achieved in Europe, a 1945 international conference held in San Francisco produced the United Nations Charter, which became active after the war.[141] The United States developed the first nuclear weapons and used them on Japan in the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945; the Japanese subsequently surrendered on September 2, ending World War II.[142][143]

Postwar United States (1945–2000)

Main articles: History of the United States (1945–1964), 1964–1980, 1980–1991, and 1991–2008

Further information: Post–World War II economic expansion, Cold War, Soviet Union–United States relations, Space Race, Nuclear arms race, Civil rights movement, Watergate scandal, and 1990s United States boom

Postwar economic boom in the U.S. led to suburban development and urban sprawl, as shown in Levittown, Pennsylvania, c. 1959.

After World War II, the United States financed and implemented the Marshall Plan to help rebuild and economically revive war-torn Europe; disbursements paid between 1948 and 1952 would total $13 billion ($115 billion in 2021).[144] Also at this time, geopolitical tensions between the United States and Soviet Russia led to the Cold War, driven by an ideological divide between capitalism and communism.[145] The two countries dominated the military affairs of Europe, with the U.S. and its NATO allies on one side and the Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact satellite states on the other.[146] Unlike the US, the USSR concentrated on its own recovery, seizing and transferring most of Germany's industrial plants, and it exacted war reparations from its Soviet Bloc satellites using Soviet-dominated joint enterprises.[n][147] The U.S. sometimes opposed Third World movements that it viewed as Soviet-sponsored, occasionally pursuing direct action for regime change against left-wing governments.[148] American troops fought the communist forces in the Korean War of 1950–1953,[149] and the U.S. became increasingly involved in the Vietnam War (1955–1975), introducing combat forces in 1965.[150] Their competition to achieve superior spaceflight capability led to the Space Race, which culminated in the U.S. becoming the first and only nation to land people on the Moon in 1969.[149] While both countries engaged in proxy wars and developed powerful nuclear weapons, they avoided direct military conflict.[146]

At home, the United States experienced sustained economic expansion, urbanization, and a rapid growth of its population and middle class following World War II. Construction of an Interstate Highway System transformed the nation's transportation infrastructure in decades to come.[151][152] In 1959, the United States admitted Alaska and Hawaii to become the 49th and 50th states, formally expanding beyond the contiguous United States.[153]

See caption

Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his "I Have a Dream" speech at the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington on August 28, 1963.

The growing civil rights movement used nonviolence to confront racism; Martin Luther King Jr. emerged as a prominent leader of the movement in the early 1960s.[154] President Lyndon B. Johnson initiated legislation that led to a series of policies addressing poverty and racial inequalities, in what he termed the "Great Society". The launch of a "War on Poverty" expanded entitlements and welfare spending, leading to the creation of the Food Stamp Program, Aid to Families with Dependent Children, along with national health insurance programs Medicare and Medicaid.[155] A combination of court decisions and legislation, culminating in the Civil Rights Act of 1968, made significant improvements.[156][157][158] Meanwhile, a counterculture movement grew, which was fueled by opposition to the Vietnam War, mainstream experimentation with psychedelics and cannabis, the Black Power movement, and the sexual revolution.[159] The women's movement in the U.S. broadened the debate on women's rights and made gender equality a major social goal. The 1960s Sexual Revolution liberalized American attitudes to sexuality and eventually spread to the rest of the developed world,[160][161] and the 1969 Stonewall riots in New York City marked the beginning of the modern gay rights movement in the West.[162][163]

The United States supported Israel during the Yom Kippur War; in response, the country faced an oil embargo from OPEC nations, sparking the 1973 oil crisis. The presidency of Richard Nixon saw the American withdrawal from Vietnam but also the Watergate scandal, which led to his resignation and a decline in public trust of government that expanded for decades.[164] After a surge in female labor participation around the 1970s, by 1985, the majority of women aged 16 and over were employed.[165] The 1970s and early 1980s also saw the onset of stagflation.

Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan signing the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty in the East Room, December 1987

Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan signing the INF Treaty during the Washington Summit of 1987

After his election in 1980, President Ronald Reagan responded to economic stagnation with neoliberal reforms and accelerated the rollback strategy towards the Soviet Union after its invasion of Afghanistan.[166][167][168][169] During Reagan's presidency, the federal debt held by the public nearly tripled in nominal terms, from $738 billion to $2.1 trillion.[170] This led to the United States moving from the world's largest international creditor to the world's largest debtor nation.[171] The collapse of the USSR's network of satellite states in Eastern Europe in 1989 and the subsequent dissolution of the country itself in 1991 ended the Cold War with American victory,[172][173][174][175] ensuring a global unipolarity[176] in which the U.S. was unchallenged as the world's sole superpower.[177]

Fearing the spread of regional international instability from the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, in August 1991, President George H. W. Bush launched and led the Gulf War against Iraq, expelling Iraqi forces and dissolving the Iraqi-backed puppet state in Kuwait.[178] During the administration of President Bill Clinton in 1994, the U.S. signed the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), causing trade among the U.S., Canada, and Mexico to soar.[179] Due to the dot-com boom, stable monetary policy, and reduced social welfare spending, the 1990s saw the longest economic expansion in modern U.S. history.[180]

New millennium (2000–present)

Main articles: History of the United States (1991–2008) and 2008–present

Further information: September 11 attacks, War on Terror, Great Recession, Political polarization in the United States, COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, and January 6 United States Capitol attack

The World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan, New York City during the September 11 attacks in 2001

On September 11, 2001, al-Qaeda terrorist hijackers flew passenger planes into the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon near Washington, D.C., killing nearly 3,000 people.[181] In response, President George W. Bush launched the war on terror, which included a nearly 20-year war in Afghanistan from 2001 to 2021 and the 2003–2011 Iraq War.[182][183] Government policy designed to promote affordable housing,[184] widespread failures in corporate and regulatory governance,[185] and historically low interest rates set by the Federal Reserve[186] led to a housing bubble in 2006. This culminated in the financial crisis of 2007–2008 and the Great Recession, the nation's largest economic contraction since the Great Depression.[187]

Barack Obama, the first multiracial[188] President with African ancestry, was elected in 2008 amid the financial crisis.[189] His signature legislative accomplishment was the Affordable Care Act (ACA), popularly known as "Obamacare". It represented the U.S. health care system's most significant regulatory overhaul and expansion of coverage since Medicare in 1965. As a result, the uninsured share of the population was cut in half, while the number of newly insured Americans was estimated to be between 20 and 24 million.[190]

After Obama served two terms, Republican Donald Trump was elected as the 45th president in 2016. His election is viewed as one of the biggest political upsets in American and world history.[191] Trump held office through the first waves of the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting COVID-19 recession starting in 2020 that exceeded even the Great Recession earlier in the century.[192] In the United States, the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in 1,127,152[193] deaths, the most of any country, and the 20th-highest per capita worldwide.[194] The COVID-19 pandemic ranks first on the list of disasters in the United States by death toll.[195]

A crowd of protestors moving towards the Capitol building.

The Capitol shortly after Congress was evacuated during the January 6 attack in 2021

Political polarization increased beginning in the 2010s, with abortion access, same-sex marriage, the transgender rights movement, lingering systemic racism, police brutality, undocumented immigration, mass shootings and recreational marijuana use becoming central topics of debate. Several protests have since become among the largest in U.S. history, including the George Floyd protests.[196][197]

On January 6, 2021, supporters of outgoing President Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol in an unsuccessful effort to disrupt the Electoral College vote count that would confirm Democrat Joe Biden as the 46th president.[198] According to the House select committee investigating the incident, the attack was the culmination of a seven-part plan by Trump to overturn the election[199][200] to support his false claim that the 2020 election had been stolen.[201][202] A week after the riot, the House of Representatives impeached Trump for incitement of insurrection, making him the only U.S. president to have been impeached twice.[203] In February, after Trump had left office, the Senate voted 57–43 in favor of conviction, but as it fell short of a two-thirds majority, he was acquitted for a second time.[204]

In 2022, the Supreme Court ruled that there is no constitutional right to an abortion, causing another wave of protests.[205] The United States responded to Russia and Belarus after their involvement in the invasion of Ukraine, with the country applying harsh sanctions on Russia and sending tens of billions of dollars of military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine.[206]

Geography

Main article: Geography of the United States

A topographic map of the United States

The 48 contiguous states and the District of Columbia occupy a combined area of 3,119,885 square miles (8,080,470 km2). Of this area, 2,959,064 square miles (7,663,940 km2) is contiguous land, composing 83.65% of total U.S. land area.[207][208] About 15% is occupied by Alaska, a state in northwestern North America, with the remainder in Hawaii, a state and archipelago in the central Pacific, and the five populated but unincorporated insular territories of Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.[209] Measured by only land area, the United States is third in size behind Russia and China, and just ahead of Canada.[210] The United States is the world's third-largest nation by land and total area behind Russia and Canada.[c][211]

The coastal plain of the Atlantic seaboard gives way further inland to deciduous forests and the rolling hills of the Piedmont.[212] The Appalachian Mountains and the Adirondack massif divide the eastern seaboard from the Great Lakes and the grasslands of the Midwest.[213] 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.[213]

The Rocky Mountains, west of the Great Plains, extend north to south across the country, peaking at over 14,000 feet (4,300 m) in Colorado.[214] Farther west are the rocky Great Basin and deserts such as the Chihuahua, Sonoran, and Mojave.[215] The Sierra Nevada and Cascade mountain ranges run close to the Pacific coast, both ranges also reaching altitudes higher than 14,000 feet (4,300 m). The lowest and highest points in the contiguous United States are in the state of California,[216] and only about 84 miles (135 km) apart.[217] At an elevation of 20,310 feet (6,190.5 m), Alaska's Denali is the highest peak in the country and in North America.[218] 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.[219]

Climate

Main articles: Climate of the United States and Climate change in the United States

The Köppen climate types of the United States

With its large size and geographic variety, the United States 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.[220]

The Great Plains west of the 100th meridian are semi-arid. Many mountainous areas of the American West 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. Hawaii and the southern tip of Florida are tropical, as well as its territories in the Caribbean and the Pacific.[221]

States bordering the Gulf of Mexico are prone to hurricanes, and most of the world's tornadoes occur in the country, mainly in Tornado Alley areas in the Midwest and South.[222] Overall, the United States receives more high-impact extreme weather incidents than any other country in the world.[223]

Extreme weather has become more frequent in the U.S., with three times the number of reported heat waves as in the 1960s. Of the ten warmest years ever recorded in the 48 contiguous states, eight have occurred since 1998. In the American Southwest, droughts have become more persistent and more severe.[224]

Biodiversity and conservation

Main articles: Fauna of the United States and Flora of the United States

A bald eagle

The bald eagle has been the national bird of the United States since 1782.[225]

The U.S. is one of 17 megadiverse countries containing large numbers of endemic species: about 17,000 species of vascular plants occur in the contiguous United States and Alaska, and more than 1,800 species of flowering plants are found in Hawaii, few of which occur on the mainland.[226] The United States is home to 428 mammal species, 784 birds, 311 reptiles, and 295 amphibians,[227] and 91,000 insect species.[228]

There are 63 national parks, which are managed by the National Park Service, and hundreds of other federally managed parks, forests, and wilderness areas, managed by the National Park Service and other agencies.[229] Altogether, the government owns about 28% of the country's land area,[230] mostly in the western states.[231] Most of this land is protected, though some is leased for oil and gas drilling, mining, logging, or cattle ranching, and less than one percent of it is used for military purposes.[232][233]

Environmental issues in the United States include debates on oil and nuclear energy, air and water pollution, protecting wildlife, logging and deforestation,[234][235] and climate change.[236][237] The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), created by presidential order in 1970, is the federal government charged with enforcing and addressing most environmental-related issues.[238] The idea of wilderness has shaped the management of public lands since 1964, with the Wilderness Act.[239] 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.[240]

As of 2020, the U.S. ranked 24th among 180 nations in the Environmental Performance Index.[241] The country joined the Paris Agreement on climate change in 2016, and has many other environmental commitments.[242] It withdrew from the Paris Agreement in 2020[243] but rejoined it in 2021.[244]

Government and politics

Main articles: Politics of the United States and Government of the United States

Further information: Political parties in the United States, Elections in the United States, Political ideologies in the United States, American patriotism, and American civil religion

The Capitol and its two legislative chambers, the Senate (left) and the House of Representatives (right)

The White House is the residence and workplace of the U.S. President and the offices of the presidential staff.

The Supreme Court Building, which houses the nation's highest court

The United States is a federal republic of 50 states, a federal district, five territories and several uninhabited island possessions.[245][246][247] It is the world's oldest surviving federation, and, according to the World Economic Forum, the oldest democracy as well.[248] It is a liberal representative democracy "in which majority rule is tempered by minority rights protected by law."[249]

Major democracy indexes uniformly classify the country as a liberal democracy.[250] The 2022 Corruption Perceptions Index and Global Corruption Barometer rank the United States as having low levels of both actual and perceived corruption,[251][252] and human rights rankings place the United States highly.[253][254][255]

The federal government comprises three branches, which are headquartered in Washington, D.C. and regulated by a system of checks and balances defined by the Constitution.[256]

    The U.S. Congress, a bicameral legislature, made up of the Senate and the House of Representatives, makes federal law, declares war, approves treaties, has the power of the purse,[257] and has the power of impeachment, by which it can remove sitting members of the federal government.[258]

    The U.S. President is the commander-in-chief of the military, can veto legislative bills before they become law (subject to congressional override), and appoints the members of the Cabinet (subject to Senate approval) and other officers, who administer and enforce federal laws and policies through their respective agencies.[259]

    The U.S. Supreme Court and lower federal courts, whose judges are appointed by the President with Senate approval, interpret laws and overturn those they find unconstitutional.[260]

The President serves a four-year term and may be elected to the office no more than twice. The President is not elected by direct vote, but by an indirect electoral college system in which the determining votes are apportioned to the states and the District of Columbia.[261] The Supreme Court, led by the chief justice of the United States, has nine members, who serve for life. They are appointed by the sitting President when a vacancy becomes available.[262]

The U.S. Constitution serves as the country's supreme legal document, establishing the structure and responsibilities of the federal government and its relationship with the individual states. The Constitution has been amended 27 times.[263]

The United States has operated under an uncodified informal two-party system for most of its history, although other parties have run candidates.[264] What the two major parties are has changed over time: the Republicans and Democrats presently are the two major parties, and the country is currently in either the Fifth or Sixth Party System.[265] Both parties have no formal central organization at the national level that controls membership, elected officials or political policies; thus, each party has traditionally had factions and individuals who deviated from party positions.[266]

Political subdivisions

Main articles: Political divisions of the United States, State government in the United States, Local government in the United States, and U.S. state

Further information: List of states and territories of the United States, Indian reservation, and Territories of the United States

See also: Territorial evolution of the United States

U.S. state governments by party control:

  Democratic control

  Republican control

  Split control

In the American federal system, sovereignty is shared between two levels of government: federal and state. Citizens of the states are also governed by local governments, which are administrative divisions of the states. The territories are administrative divisions of the federal government. Governance on many issues is decentralized.[267]

Each of the 50 states has territory where it shares sovereignty with the federal government. States are subdivided into counties or county equivalents, and further divided into municipalities. The District of Columbia is a federal district that contains the capital of the United States, the city of Washington.[268] Each state is entitled to presidential electors whose number equals the number of their representatives and senators in Congress, and the District of Columbia has three electors.[269] Territories of the United States do not have presidential electors, therefore people there cannot vote for the president.[270]

United States citizenship is granted to those born in the 50 states, Washington, D.C., or any of the U.S. territories except American Samoa.[o][274][271] Foreign-born persons who are not yet US citizens may acquire citizenship through the process of naturalization, according to the requirements of the federal Immigration and Nationality Act (INA).[275] Naturalized citizens have the same rights as those who became citizens at birth.[275]

The United States observes limited tribal sovereignty for American Indian nations. American Indians are U.S. citizens and tribal lands are subject to the jurisdiction of the U.S. Congress and the federal courts. Like the states, tribes have some restrictions on their autonomy. They are prohibited from making war, engaging in foreign relations, and printing or issuing their own currency.[276] Indian reservations are usually contained within one particular state, but there are 12 reservations that cross state boundaries.[277]

Foreign relations

Main articles: Foreign relations of the United States and Foreign policy of the United States

see caption

The United Nations headquarters has been situated along the East River in Midtown Manhattan since 1952; in 1945, the United States was a founding member of the UN.

The United States has an established structure of foreign relations, and it had the world's second-largest diplomatic corps in 2019.[278] It is a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council,[279] and home to the United Nations headquarters.[280] The United States is also a member of the G7,[281] G20,[282] and OECD intergovernmental organizations.[283] Almost all countries have embassies and many have consulates (official representatives) in the country. Likewise, nearly all nations host formal diplomatic missions with the United States, except Iran,[284] North Korea,[285] and Bhutan.[286] Though Taiwan does not have formal diplomatic relations with the U.S., it maintains close, if unofficial, relations.[287] The United States also regularly supplies Taiwan with military equipment to deter potential Chinese aggression.[288]

The United States has a "Special Relationship" with the United Kingdom[289] and strong ties with Canada,[290] Australia,[291] New Zealand,[292] the Philippines,[293] Japan,[294] South Korea,[295] Israel,[296] and several European Union countries (France, Italy, Germany, Spain, and Poland).[297] The U.S. works closely with its NATO allies on military and national security issues, and with nations in the Americas through the Organization of American States and the United States–Mexico–Canada Free Trade Agreement. In South America, Colombia is traditionally considered to be the closest ally of the United States.[298] The U.S. exercises full international defense authority and responsibility for Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, and Palau through the Compact of Free Association.[299] It has increasingly conducted strategic cooperation with India,[300] and its ties with China have steadily deteriorated.[301][302] The U.S. has become a key ally of Ukraine since Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 and began an invasion of Ukraine in 2022, significantly deteriorating relations with Russia in the process.[303][304]

Military

Main articles: United States Armed Forces and Military history of the United States

The U.S. Air Force's B-2 Spirit, a stealth heavy strategic bomber

The Pentagon, based in Arlington County, Virginia near Washington, D.C., is home to the U.S. Department of Defense. With roughly 6.5 million square feet (150 acres; 60 ha) of floor space, the Pentagon is far and away the world's largest building.

The President is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces and appoints its leaders, the secretary of defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The Department of Defense, which is headquartered at the Pentagon near Washington, D.C., administers five of the six service branches, which are made up of the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, and Space Force. The Coast Guard is administered by the Department of Homeland Security in peacetime and can be transferred to the Department of the Navy in wartime.[305] The United States spent $877 billion on its military in 2022, 39% of global military spending, accounting for 3.5% of the country's GDP.[306][307] The U.S. has more than 40% of the world's nuclear weapons, the second-largest amount after Russia.[308]

In 2019, all six branches of the U.S. Armed Forces reported 1.4 million personnel on active duty.[309] The Reserves and National Guard brought the total number of troops to 2.3 million.[309] The Department of Defense also employed about 700,000 civilians, not including contractors.[310] Military service in the United States is voluntary, although conscription may occur in wartime through the Selective Service System.[311] The United States has the third-largest combined armed forces in the world, behind the Chinese People's Liberation Army and Indian Armed Forces.[312]

Today, American forces can be rapidly deployed by the Air Force's large fleet of transport aircraft, the Navy's 11 active aircraft carriers, and Marine expeditionary units at sea with the Navy, and Army's XVIII Airborne Corps and 75th Ranger Regiment deployed by Air Force transport aircraft. The Air Force can strike targets across the globe through its fleet of strategic bombers, maintains the air defense across the United States, and provides close air support to Army and Marine Corps ground forces.[313][314]

The Space Force operates the Global Positioning System (GPS, also widespread in civilian use worldwide), the Eastern and Western Ranges for all space launches, and the United States's Space Surveillance and Missile Warning networks.[315][316][317] The military operates about 800 bases and facilities abroad,[318] and maintains deployments greater than 100 active duty personnel in 25 foreign countries.[319]

Law enforcement and crime

Main articles: Law enforcement in the United States and Crime in the United States

J. Edgar Hoover Building, the headquarters of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)

There are about 18,000 U.S. police agencies from local to federal level in the United States.[320] Law in the United States is mainly enforced by local police departments and sheriff's offices. The state police provides broader services, and federal agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the U.S. Marshals Service have specialized duties, such as protecting civil rights, national security and enforcing U.S. federal courts' rulings and federal laws.[321] State courts conduct most civil and criminal trials,[322] and federal courts handle designated crimes and appeals from the state criminal courts.[323]

As of 2020, the United States has an intentional homicide rate of 7 per 100,000 people.[324] A cross-sectional analysis of the World Health Organization Mortality Database from 2010 showed that United States homicide rates "were 7.0 times higher than in other high-income countries, driven by a gun homicide rate that was 25.2 times higher."[325]

As of January 2023, the United States has the sixth highest per-capita incarceration rate in the world, at 531 people per 100,000; and the largest prison and jail population in the world at 1,767,200.[326][327] In 2019, the total prison population for those sentenced to more than a year was 1,430,800, corresponding to a ratio of 419 per 100,000 residents and the lowest since 1995.[328] Some think tanks place that number higher, such as Prison Policy Initiative's estimate of 1.9 million.[329] Various states have attempted to reduce their prison populations via government policies and grassroots initiatives.[330]

Economy

Main article: Economy of the United States

Further information: Economic history of the United States, Taxation in the United States, United States federal budget, Federal Reserve, Income in the United States, Poverty in the United States, Affluence in the United States, and Income inequality in the United States

see caption

The U.S. dollar is the currency most used in international transactions and is the world's foremost reserve currency.[331]

The New York Stock Exchange on Wall Street, the world's largest stock exchange based on the market capitalization of its listed companies[332]

Midtown Manhattan, the world's largest central business district[333]

According to the International Monetary Fund, the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) is $25.5 trillion, the largest of any country in the world, constituting over 25% of the gross world product at market exchange rates and over 15% of the gross world product at purchasing power parity (PPP).[334][13] From 1983 to 2008, U.S. real compounded annual GDP growth was 3.3%, compared to a 2.3% weighted average for the rest of the Group of Seven.[335] The country ranks first in the world by nominal GDP,[336] second by GDP (PPP),[13] seventh by nominal GDP per capita,[334] and eighth by GDP (PPP) per capita.[13] As of 2022, the United States was ranked 25th out of 169 countries on the Social Progress Index, which measures "the extent to which countries provide for the social and environmental needs of their citizens."[337] The U.S. has been the world's largest economy since at least 1900.[338]

The United States is at or near the forefront of technological advancement and innovation[339] in many economic fields, especially in artificial intelligence; computers; pharmaceuticals; and medical, aerospace and military equipment.[340] The nation's economy is fueled by abundant natural resources, a well-developed infrastructure, and high productivity.[341] It has the second-highest total-estimated value of natural resources, valued at US$44.98 trillion in 2019, although sources differ on their estimates. Americans have the highest average household and employee income among OECD member states.[342] In 2013, they had the sixth-highest median household income, down from fourth-highest in 2010.[343][344]

The U.S. dollar is the currency most used in international transactions and is the world's foremost reserve currency, backed by the country's dominant economy, its military, the petrodollar system, and its linked eurodollar and large U.S. treasuries market.[331] Several countries use it as their official currency and in others it is the de facto currency.[345][346] New York City is the world's principal financial center, with the largest economic output, and the epicenter of the principal American metropolitan economy.[347][348][349] The New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq are the world's largest stock exchanges by market capitalization and trade volume.[350][351]

The largest U.S. trading partners are the European Union, Mexico, Canada, China, Japan, South Korea, the United Kingdom, Vietnam, India, and Taiwan.[352] The United States is the world's largest importer and the second-largest exporter after China.[353] It has free trade agreements with several countries, including the USMCA.[354] The U.S. ranked second in the Global Competitiveness Report in 2019, after Singapore.[355] Many of the world's largest companies, such as Alphabet (Google), Amazon, AT&T, Apple, Coca-Cola, Disney, General Motors, McDonald's, Nike, Meta, Microsoft, Pepsi, and Walmart, were founded and are headquartered in the United States.[356] Of the world's 500 largest companies, 124 are headquartered in the U.S.[356]

While its economy has reached a post-industrial level of development, the United States remains an industrial power.[357] As of 2018, the U.S. is the second-largest manufacturing nation after China.[358] Despite the fact that the U.S. only accounted for 4.24% of the global population, residents of the U.S. collectively possessed 31.5% of the world's total wealth as of 2021, the largest percentage of any country.[359] The U.S. also ranks first in the number of dollar billionaires and millionaires, with 724 billionaires (as of 2021)[360] and nearly 22 million millionaires (2021).[361]

Wealth in the United States is highly concentrated; the richest 10% of the adult population own 72% of the country's household wealth, while the bottom 50% own just 2%.[362] Income inequality in the U.S. remains at record highs,[363] with the top fifth of earners taking home more than half of all income[364] and giving the U.S. one of the widest income distributions among OECD members.[365] There were about 582,500 sheltered and unsheltered homeless persons in the U.S. in 2022, with 60% staying in an emergency shelter or transitional housing program.[366] In 2018 six million children experience food insecurity.[367] Feeding America estimates that around one in seven children or approximately 11 million, children experience hunger and do not know where they will get their next meal or when.[368] As of June 2018, 40 million people, roughly 12.7% of the U.S. population, were living in poverty, including 13.3 million children.[369]

The United States has a smaller welfare state and redistributes less income through government action than most other high-income countries.[370] It is the only advanced economy that does not guarantee its workers paid vacation nationally[371] and is one of a few countries in the world without federal paid family leave as a legal right.[372] The United States also has a higher percentage of low-income workers than almost any other developed nation, largely because of a weak collective bargaining system and lack of government support for at-risk workers.[373]

Science, technology, and energy

Main articles: Science and technology in the United States, Science policy of the United States, and Energy in the United States

U.S. astronaut Buzz Aldrin saluting the flag on the Moon during the 1969 Apollo 11 mission. The United States is the only country that has sent crewed missions to the lunar surface.

The United States has been a leader in technological innovation since the late 19th century and scientific research since the mid-20th century. Methods for producing interchangeable parts and the establishment of a machine tool industry enabled the U.S. to have large-scale manufacturing of sewing machines, bicycles, and other items in the late 19th century. In the early 20th century, factory electrification, the introduction of the assembly line, and other labor-saving techniques created the system of mass production.[374] In the 21st century, approximately two-thirds of research and development funding comes from the private sector.[375] In 2022, the United States was the country with the second-highest number of published scientific papers.[376] As of 2021, the U.S. ranked second by the number of patent applications, and third by trademark and industrial design applications.[377] In 2021, the United States launched a total of 51 spaceflights.[378] The U.S. had 2,944 active satellites in space in December 2021, the highest number of any country.[379] In 2022, the United States ranked 2nd in the Global Innovation Index.[380]

As of 2021, the United States receives approximately 79.1% of its energy from fossil fuels.[381] In 2021, the largest source of the country's energy came from petroleum (36.1%), followed by natural gas (32.2%), coal (10.8%), renewable sources (12.5%), and nuclear power (8.4%).[381] The United States constitutes less than 5% of the world's population, but consumes 17% of the world's energy.[382] It accounts for about 25% of the world's petroleum consumption, while producing only 6% of the world's annual petroleum supply.[383] The U.S. ranks as second-highest emitter of greenhouse gases, exceeded only by China.[384]

Transportation

Main article: Transportation in the United States

Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport, serving the Atlanta metropolitan area, is the world's busiest airport by passenger traffic with over 93 million passengers annually in 2022.[385]

The United States's rail network, nearly all standard gauge, is the longest in the world, and exceeds 293,564 km (182,400 mi).[386] It handles mostly freight, with intercity passenger service primarily provided by Amtrak, a government-managed company that took over services previously run by private companies, to all but four states.[387][388]

Personal transportation in the United States is dominated by automobiles,[389][390] which operate on a network of 4 million miles (6.4 million kilometers) of public roads, making it the longest network in the world.[391][392] The Oldsmobile Curved Dash and the Ford Model T, both American cars, are considered the first mass-produced[393] and mass-affordable[394] cars, respectively. As of 2022, the United States is the second-largest manufacturer of motor vehicles[395] and is home to Tesla, the world's most valuable car company.[396] American automotive company General Motors held the title of the world's best-selling automaker from 1931 to 2008.[397] Currently, the American automotive industry is the world's second-largest automobile market by sales,[398] and the U.S. has the highest vehicle ownership per capita in the world, with 816.4 vehicles per 1,000 Americans (2014).[399] In 2017, there were 255 million non-two wheel motor vehicles, or about 910 vehicles per 1,000 people.[400]

The American civil airline industry is entirely privately owned and has been largely deregulated since 1978, while most major airports are publicly owned.[401] The three largest airlines in the world by passengers carried are U.S.-based; American Airlines is number one after its 2013 acquisition by US Airways.[402] Of the world's 50 busiest passenger airports, 16 are in the United States, including the top five and the busiest, Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport.[403][404] As of 2020, there are 19,919 airports in the United States, of which 5,217 are designated as "public use", including for general aviation and other activities.[405]

Of the fifty busiest container ports, four are located in the United States, of which the busiest is the Port of Los Angeles.[406] The country's inland waterways are the world's fifth-longest, and total 41,009 km (25,482 mi).[407]

Demographics

Main article: Demographics of the United States

Population

Main articles: Americans and Race and ethnicity in the United States

See also: List of U.S. states by population

United States population density map based on Census 2010 data

The U.S. Census Bureau reported 331,449,281 residents as of April 1, 2020,[p][408] making the United States the third-most populous nation in the world, after China and India.[409] According to the Bureau's U.S. Population Clock, on January 28, 2021, the U.S. population had a net gain of one person every 100 seconds, or about 864 people per day.[410] In 2018, 52% of Americans age 15 and over were married, 6% were widowed, 10% were divorced, and 32% had never been married.[411] In 2021, the total fertility rate for the U.S. stood at 1.7 children per woman,[412] and it had the world's highest rate of children (23%) living in single-parent households in 2019.[413]

The United States has a diverse population; 37 ancestry groups have more than one million members.[414] White Americans with ancestry from Europe, the Middle East or North Africa, form the largest racial and ethnic group at 57.8% of the United States population.[415][416] Hispanic and Latino Americans form the second-largest group and are 18.7% of the United States population. African Americans constitute the nation's third-largest ancestry group and are 12.1% of the total United States population.[414] Asian Americans are the country's fourth-largest group, composing 5.9% of the United States population, while the country's 3.7 million Native Americans account for about 1%.[414] In 2020, the median age of the United States population was 38.5 years.[409]

Language

Main article: Languages of the United States

Map of United States Official Language Status By State

Map of U.S. official language status by state:

  English is the official language

  Multiple official languages

  No official language specified

While many languages are spoken in the United States, English is the most common.[417] Although there is no official language at the federal level, some laws—such as U.S. naturalization requirements—standardize English, and most states have declared English as the official language.[418] Three states and four U.S. territories have recognized local or indigenous languages in addition to English, including Hawaii (Hawaiian),[419] Alaska (twenty Native languages),[q][420] South Dakota (Sioux),[421] American Samoa (Samoan), Puerto Rico (Spanish), Guam (Chamorro), and the Northern Mariana Islands (Carolinian and Chamorro). In Puerto Rico, Spanish is more widely spoken than English.[422]

According to the American Community Survey, in 2010 some 229 million people (out of the total U.S. population of 308 million) spoke only English at home. More than 37 million spoke Spanish at home, making it the second most commonly used language. Other languages spoken at home by one million people or more include Chinese (2.8 million), Tagalog (1.6 million), Vietnamese (1.4 million), French (1.3 million), Korean (1.1 million), and German (1 million).[423]

Immigration

Main article: Immigration to the United States

The United States has by far the highest number of immigrant population in the world, with 50,661,149 people.[424][425] In 2018, there were almost 90 million immigrants and U.S.-born children of immigrants in the United States, accounting for 28% of the overall U.S. population.[426] In 2017, out of the U.S. foreign-born population, some 45% (20.7 million) were naturalized citizens, 27% (12.3 million) were lawful permanent residents, 6% (2.2 million) were temporary lawful residents, and 23% (10.5 million) were unauthorized immigrants.[427] The United States led the world in refugee resettlement for decades, admitting more refugees than the rest of the world combined.[428]

Religion

Main article: Religion in the United States

See also: List of religious movements that began in the United States

Religion in USA (2022 WSG and NORC)[429]

Religion Percent

Protestantism

26%

Other Christians

23%

Catholicism

21%

Irreligion

12%

Agnosticism

8%

Atheism

4%

Judaism

2%

Buddhism

2%

Other religious

2%

Islam

1%

Religious affiliation in the United States is among the most diverse in the world[430] and varies significantly by region[431] and age.[432]

The First Amendment guarantees the free exercise of religion and forbids Congress from passing laws respecting its establishment.[433][434] The country has the world's largest Christian population[435] and a majority of Americans identify as Christian, predominately Catholic, mainline Protestant, or evangelical. According to Gallup, 58% and 17% reporting praying often or sometimes, respectively, and 46% and 26% reporting that religion plays a very important or fairly important role, respectively, in their lives.[436] Most do not regularly attend religious services[429] and have low confidence in religious institutions.[437] Until the 1990s, the country was a significant outlier among highly developed countries, notably having a high level of religiosity and wealth, although this has lessened since.[438][439]

According to Gallup and Pew 81–90% of Americans believe in a higher power[440][441] while "31% report attending a church, synagogue, mosque or temple weekly or nearly weekly today."[442] In the "Bible Belt", located within the Southern United States, evangelical Protestantism plays a significant role culturally. New England and the Western United States tend to be less religious.[431] Around 6% of Americans claim a non-Christian faith;[438] the largest of which are Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism.[443] The United States either has the first or second-largest Jewish population in the world, the largest outside of Israel.[444] "Ceremonial deism" is common in American culture.[433][445] Around 30% of Americans describe themselves as having no religion.[438] Membership in a house of worship fell from 70% in 1999 to 47% in 2020.[446]

Urbanization

Main articles: Urbanization in the United States and List of United States cities by population

About 82% of Americans live in urban areas, including suburbs;[211] about half of those reside in cities with populations over 50,000.[447] In 2008, 273 incorporated municipalities had populations over 100,000, nine cities had more than one million residents, and four cities (New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Houston) had populations exceeding two million.[448] Many U.S. metropolitan populations are growing rapidly, particularly in the South and West.[449]

 

    vte

Largest metropolitan areas in the United States

2021 MSA population estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau

Rank Name Region Pop. Rank Name Region Pop.

New York

New York

Los Angeles

Los Angeles 1 New York Northeast 19,768,458 11 Boston Northeast 4,899,932 Chicago

Chicago

Dallas–Fort Worth

Dallas–Fort Worth

2 Los Angeles West 12,997,353 12 Riverside–San Bernardino West 4,653,105

3 Chicago Midwest 9,509,934 13 San Francisco West 4,623,264

4 Dallas–Fort Worth South 7,759,615 14 Detroit Midwest 4,365,205

5 Houston South 7,206,841 15 Seattle West 4,011,553

6 Washington, D.C. South 6,356,434 16 Minneapolis–Saint Paul Midwest 3,690,512

7 Philadelphia Northeast 6,228,601 17 San Diego West 3,286,069

8 Atlanta South 6,144,050 18 Tampa–St. Petersburg South 3,219,514

9 Miami South 6,091,747 19 Denver West 2,972,566

10 Phoenix West 4,946,145 20 Baltimore South 2,838,327

Education

Main articles: Education in the United States and Higher education in the United States

Photograph of the University of Virginia

The University of Virginia, founded by Thomas Jefferson in 1819, is one of many public colleges and universities in the United States.

American public education is operated by state and local governments and regulated by the United States Department of Education through restrictions on federal grants. In most states, children are required to attend school from the age of five or six (beginning with kindergarten or first grade) until they turn 18 (generally bringing them through twelfth grade, the end of high school); some states allow students to leave school at 16 or 17.[450] Of Americans 25 and older, 84.6% graduated from high school, 52.6% attended some college, 27.2% earned a bachelor's degree, and 9.6% earned graduate degrees.[451] The basic literacy rate is approximately 99%.[211][452]

The United States has many private and public institutions of higher education. There are local community colleges with generally more open admission policies, shorter academic programs, and lower tuition.[453] The U.S. spends more on education per student than any nation in the world,[454] spending an average of $12,794 per year on public elementary and secondary school students in the 2016–2017 school year.[455] As for public expenditures on higher education, the U.S. spends more per student than the OECD average, and more than all nations in combined public and private spending.[456] Despite some student loan forgiveness programs in place,[457] student loan debt has increased by 102% in the last decade,[458] and exceeded 1.7 trillion dollars as of 2022.[459]

The large majority of the world's top universities, as listed by various ranking organizations, are in the United States, including 19 of the top 25.[460][461][462][463] The country has by far the most Nobel Prize winners in history, with 403 (having won 406 awards).[464]

Health

See also: Healthcare in the United States, Healthcare reform in the United States, and Health insurance in the United States

The Texas Medical Center, a cluster of contemporary skyscrapers, at night

Texas Medical Center in Houston is the largest medical complex in the world, employing 106,000 people and treating 10 million patients annually as of 2016.[465]

In a preliminary report, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced that U.S. life expectancy at birth had dropped to 76.4 years in 2021 (73.2 years for men and 79.1 years for women), down 0.9 years from 2020. This was the second year of overall decline, and the chief causes listed were the COVID-19 pandemic, accidents, drug overdoses, heart and liver disease, and suicides.[466][467] Life expectancy was highest among Asians and Hispanics and lowest among Blacks and American Indian–Alaskan Native (AIAN) peoples.[468][469] Starting in 1998, the life expectancy in the U.S. fell behind that of other wealthy industrialized countries, and Americans' "health disadvantage" gap has been increasing ever since.[470] The U.S. also has one of the highest suicide rates among high-income countries,[471] and approximately one-third of the U.S. adult population is obese and another third is overweight.[472] According to CDC data, mortality rates among children and adolescents increased by 20% from 2019 to 2021.[473][474] Poverty was the 4th leading cause of death for 2019, according to a 2023 study published in JAMA.[475]

In 2010, coronary artery disease, lung cancer, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases, and traffic collisions caused the most years of life lost in the U.S. Low back pain, depression, musculoskeletal disorders, neck pain, and anxiety caused the most years lost to disability. The most harmful risk factors were poor diet, tobacco smoking, obesity, high blood pressure, high blood sugar, physical inactivity, and alcohol consumption. Alzheimer's disease, substance use disorders, kidney disease, cancer, and falls caused the most additional years of life lost over their age-adjusted 1990 per-capita rates.[476] Teenage pregnancy and abortion rates in the U.S. are substantially higher than in other Western nations, especially among Blacks and Hispanics.[477]

The U.S. health care system far outspends that of any other nation, measured both in per capita spending and as a percentage of GDP but attains worse health care outcomes when compared to peer nations.[478] The United States is the only developed nation without a system of universal health care, and a significant proportion of the population that does not carry health insurance.[479]

Government-funded health care coverage for the poor (Medicaid, established in 1965) and for those age 65 and older (Medicare, begun in 1966) is available to Americans who meet the programs' income or age qualifications. In 2010, former President Obama passed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act or ACA,[r][480] with the law roughly halving the uninsured share of the population according to the CDC.[481] Multiple studies have concluded that ACA had reduced the mortality of enrollees.[482][483][484] However, its legacy remains controversial.[485]

Culture and society

Main articles: Culture of the United States and Society of the United States

The Statue of Liberty, a large teal bronze sculpture on a stone pedestal

The Statue of Liberty (Liberty Enlightening the World) on Liberty Island in New York Harbor was an 1866 gift from France that has become an iconic symbol of the American Dream.[486]

Americans have traditionally been characterized by a unifying belief in an "American creed" emphasizing liberty, equality under the law, democracy, social equality, property rights, and a preference for limited government.[487][488] Individualism,[489][490] having a strong work ethic,[491] competitiveness,[492] and altruism[493][494][495] are also cited values. According to a 2016 study by the Charities Aid Foundation, Americans donated 1.44% of total GDP to charity, the highest in the world by a large margin.[496] The United States is home to a wide variety of ethnic groups, traditions, and values,[497][498] and exerts major cultural influence on a global scale,[499][500] with the phenomenon being termed Americanization.[501] As such, the U.S. is considered a cultural superpower.[502]

Nearly all present Americans or their ancestors came from Eurafrasia ("the Old World") within the past five centuries.[503] Mainstream American culture is a Western culture largely derived from the traditions of European immigrants with influences from many other sources, such as traditions brought by slaves from Africa.[497][504] More recent immigration from Asia and especially Latin America has added to a cultural mix that has been described as a homogenizing melting pot, and a heterogeneous salad bowl, with immigrants contributing to, and often assimilating into, mainstream American culture.[497] The American Dream, or the perception that Americans enjoy high social mobility, plays a key role in attracting immigrants.[505] Whether this perception is accurate has been a topic of debate.[506][507][508] While mainstream culture holds that the United States is a classless society,[509] scholars identify significant differences between the country's social classes, affecting socialization, language, and values.[510] Americans tend to greatly value socioeconomic achievement, but being ordinary or average is promoted by some as a noble condition.[511]

The United States is considered to have the strongest protections of free speech of any country in the world under the First Amendment,[512] with the Supreme Court ruling that flag desecration, hate speech, blasphemy, and lese-majesty are all forms of protected expression.[513][514][515] A 2016 Pew Research Center poll found that Americans were the most supportive of free expression of any polity measured.[516] They are also the "most supportive of freedom of the press and the right to use the Internet without government censorship."[517] It is a socially progressive country[518] with permissive attitudes surrounding human sexuality.[519] LGBT rights in the U.S. are among the most advanced in the world.[519][520][521]

Mass media

Further information: Mass media in the United States

See also: Newspapers in the United States, Television in the United States, Internet in the United States, Radio in the United States, and Video games in the United States

Comcast Center in Philadelphia, headquarters of Comcast, the world's largest telecommunications and media conglomerate

The four major broadcasters in the U.S. are the National Broadcasting Company (NBC), Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS), American Broadcasting Company (ABC), and Fox Broadcasting Company (FOX). The four major broadcast television networks are all commercial entities. Cable television offers hundreds of channels catering to a variety of niches.[522] As of 2021, about 83% of Americans over age 12 listen to broadcast radio, while about 41% listen to podcasts.[523] As of September 30, 2014, there are 15,433 licensed full-power radio stations in the U.S. according to the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC).[524] Much of the public radio broadcasting is supplied by NPR, incorporated in February 1970 under the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967.[525]

Globally-recognized newspapers in the United States include The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and USA Today.[526] More than 800 publications are produced in Spanish, the second most commonly used language in the United States behind English.[527][528] With very few exceptions, all the newspapers in the U.S. are privately owned, either by large chains such as Gannett or McClatchy, which own dozens or even hundreds of newspapers; by small chains that own a handful of papers; or, in a situation that is increasingly rare, by individuals or families. Major cities often have alternative newspapers to complement the mainstream daily papers, such as The Village Voice in New York City and LA Weekly in Los Angeles. The five most popular websites used in the U.S. are Google, YouTube, Amazon, Yahoo, and Facebook, with all of them being American companies.[529]

The video game market of the United States is the world's second-largest by revenue.[530] Major publishers headquartered in the United States are Sony Interactive Entertainment, Take-Two, Activision Blizzard, Electronic Arts, Xbox Game Studios, Bethesda Softworks, Epic Games, Valve, Warner Bros., Riot Games, and others.[531][532] There are 444 publishers, developers, and hardware companies in California alone.[533]

Literature and visual arts

Main articles: American literature, American philosophy, Architecture of the United States, and Visual art of the United States

Photograph of Mark Twain

American author and humorist Mark Twain, who William Faulkner called "the father of American literature"[534]

In the 18th and early 19th centuries, American art and literature took most of their cues from Europe. Writers such as Washington Irving, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allan Poe, and Henry David Thoreau established a distinctive American literary voice by the middle of the 19th century. Mark Twain and poet Walt Whitman were major figures in the century's second half; Emily Dickinson, virtually unknown during her lifetime, is recognized as an essential American poet.[535]

In the 1920s, the New Negro Movement coalesced in Harlem, where many writers had migrated from the South and West Indies. Its pan-African perspective was a significant cultural export during the Jazz Age in Paris and as such was a key early influence on the négritude philosophy.[536]

There have been a multitude of candidates for the "Great American Novel", which are works seen as embodying and examining the essence and character of the United States, including Herman Melville's Moby-Dick (1851), Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852), Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885), F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby (1925), John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath (1939), Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird (1960), Toni Morrison's Beloved (1987), and David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest (1996).[537][538][539]

Thirteen U.S. citizens have won the Nobel Prize in Literature, most recently Louise Glück, Bob Dylan, and Toni Morrison.[540] Earlier laureates William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway and John Steinbeck have also been recognized as influential 20th century writers.[541]

In the visual arts, the Hudson River School was a mid-19th-century movement in the tradition of European naturalism. The 1913 Armory Show in New York City, an exhibition of European modernist art, shocked the public and transformed the U.S. art scene.[542] Georgia O'Keeffe, Marsden Hartley, and others experimented with new, individualistic styles, which would become known as American modernism.

Major artistic movements such as the abstract expressionism of Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning and the pop art of Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein developed largely in the United States. The tide of modernism and then postmodernism has brought global fame to American architects such as Frank Lloyd Wright, Philip Johnson, and Frank Gehry.[543] Major photographers include Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Steichen, Dorothea Lange, Edward Weston, James Van Der Zee, Ansel Adams, and Gordon Parks.[544]

The most notable American architectural innovation has been the skyscraper. By some measures, what came to be known as a "skyscraper" in the modern world, first appeared in Chicago with the 1885 completion of the world's first largely steel-frame structure, the Home Insurance Building. One culturally significant early skyscraper was New York City's Woolworth Building, which was designed by Cass Gilbert. At 793 ft (233 m), the Woolworth Building was the world's tallest building from 1913 until 1930 when it was eclipsed as the world's tallest building by another New York City skyscraper, the Empire State Building, which, in turn, was the world's tallest building until the 1973 opening of the World Trade Center in New York City.[545]

Cinema and theater

Main articles: Cinema of the United States and Theater in the United States

The United States movie industry has a worldwide influence and following. Hollywood, a district in northern Los Angeles, the nation's second-most populous city, is the leader in motion picture production and the most recognizable movie industry in the world.[546][547][548] The major film studios of the United States are the primary source of the most commercially successful and most ticket-selling movies in the world.[549][550]

The iconic Hollywood Sign, in the Hollywood Hills, often regarded as the symbol of the American film industry

Since the early 20th century, the U.S. film industry has largely been based in and around Hollywood, although in the 21st century an increasing number of films are not made there, and film companies have been subject to the forces of globalization.[551] The Academy Awards, popularly known as the Oscars, have been held annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences since 1929,[552] and the Golden Globe Awards have been held annually since January 1944.[553]

Director D. W. Griffith, an American filmmaker during the silent film period, was central to the development of film grammar, and producer/entrepreneur Walt Disney was a leader in both animated film and movie merchandising.[554] Directors such as John Ford redefined the image of the American Old West, and, like others such as John Huston, broadened the possibilities of cinema with location shooting. The industry enjoyed its golden years, in what is commonly referred to as the "Golden Age of Hollywood", from the early sound period until the early 1960s,[555] with screen actors such as John Wayne and Marilyn Monroe becoming iconic figures.[556][557] In the 1970s, "New Hollywood" or the "Hollywood Renaissance"[558] was defined by grittier films influenced by French and Italian realist pictures of the post-war period.[559]

The 21st century has been marked by the rise of American streaming platforms, such as Netflix, Disney+, Paramount+, and Apple TV+, which came to rival traditional cinema.[560][561]

Mainstream theater in the United States derives from the old European theatrical tradition and has been heavily influenced by the British theater.[562] The central hub of the American theater scene has been Manhattan, with its divisions of Broadway, off-Broadway, and off-off-Broadway.[563] Many movie and television stars have gotten their big break working in New York productions. Outside New York City, many cities have professional regional or resident theater companies that produce their own seasons. The biggest-budget theatrical productions are musicals. U.S. theater also has an active community theater culture.[564]

Music

Main article: Music of the United States

The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville, Tennessee

American folk music encompasses numerous music genres, variously known as traditional music, traditional folk music, contemporary folk music, or roots music. Many traditional songs have been sung within the same family or folk group for generations, and sometimes trace back to such origins as the British Isles, Mainland Europe, or Africa.[565]

The rhythmic and lyrical styles of African-American music have significantly influenced American music at large. The Smithsonian Institution states, "African-American influences are so fundamental to American music that there would be no American music without them."[566] One instrument first mass-produced in the United States was the banjo, which had originally been crafted from gourds covered by animal skins by African slaves.[567][568] Banjos became widely popular in the 19th century due to their use in minstrel shows.[567] Country music developed in the 1920s, and rhythm and blues in the 1940s. Elements from folk idioms such as the blues and what is known as old-time music were adopted and transformed into popular genres with global audiences. Jazz was developed by innovators such as Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington early in the 20th century.[569]

Elvis Presley and Chuck Berry were among the pioneers of rock and roll in the mid-1950s. Rock bands such as Metallica, the Eagles, and Aerosmith are among the highest grossing in worldwide sales.[570][571][572] In the 1960s, Bob Dylan emerged from the folk revival to become one of the country's most celebrated songwriters.[573] Mid-20th-century American pop stars such as Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra,[574] and Elvis Presley became global celebrities,[569] as have artists of the late 20th century such as Prince, Michael Jackson, Madonna, Whitney Houston, and Mariah Carey.[575][576] The musical forms of punk and hip hop both originated in the United States.[577] American professional opera singers have reached the highest level of success in that form, including Renée Fleming, Leontyne Price, Beverly Sills, Nelson Eddy, and many others.[578]

American popular music, as part of the wider U.S. pop culture, has a worldwide influence and following.[579] Beyoncé, Taylor Swift, Miley Cyrus, Ariana Grande, Eminem, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, and many other contemporary artists dominate global streaming rankings.[580] The United States has the world's largest music market with a total retail value of $4.9 billion in 2014.[581] Most of the world's major record companies are based in the U.S.; they are represented by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).[582]

Cuisine

Main article: American cuisine

Further information: List of American regional and fusion cuisines

A cheeseburger served with fries and coleslaw

Early settlers were introduced by Native Americans to such indigenous, non-European foods as turkey, sweet potatoes, corn, squash, and maple syrup. They and later immigrants combined these with foods they had known, such as wheat flour,[583] beef, and milk to create a distinctive American cuisine.[584][585] Homegrown foods are part of a shared national menu on one of America's most popular holidays, Thanksgiving, when many Americans make or purchase traditional foods to celebrate the occasion.[586]

The American fast food industry, the world's first and largest, is also often viewed as being a symbol of U.S. marketing dominance. Companies such as McDonald's,[587] Burger King, Pizza Hut, Kentucky Fried Chicken, and Domino's Pizza, among others, have numerous outlets around the world,[588] and pioneered the drive-through format in the 1940s.[589] Characteristic American dishes such as apple pie, fried chicken, doughnuts, french fries, macaroni and cheese, ice cream, pizza, hamburgers, and hot dogs derive from the recipes of various immigrants.[590][591] Mexican dishes such as burritos and tacos and pasta dishes freely adapted from Italian sources are widely consumed.[592]

Sports

Main article: Sports in the United States

See also: Professional sports leagues in the United States, National Collegiate Athletic Association, and United States at the Olympics

American football is the most popular sport in the United States; in this September 2022 National Football League game, the Jacksonville Jaguars play the Washington Commanders at FedExField.

The most popular spectator sports in the U.S. are American football, basketball, baseball, soccer, and ice hockey, according to a 2017 Gallup poll.[593] While most major U.S. sports such as baseball and American football have evolved out of European practices, basketball, volleyball, skateboarding, and snowboarding are American inventions, some of which have become popular worldwide.[594] Lacrosse and surfing arose from Native American and Native Hawaiian activities that predate European contact.[595] The market for professional sports in the United States was roughly $69 billion in July 2013, roughly 50% larger than that of all of Europe, the Middle East, and Africa combined.[596]

American football is by several measures the most popular spectator sport in the United States;[597] the National Football League (NFL) has the highest average attendance of any sports league in the world, and the Super Bowl is watched by tens of millions globally.[598] Baseball has been regarded as the U.S. national sport since the late 19th century, with Major League Baseball being the top league. Basketball, soccer and ice hockey are the country's next three most popular professional team sports, with the top leagues being the National Basketball Association and the National Hockey League, which are also the premier leagues worldwide for these sports. The most-watched individual sports in the U.S. are golf and auto racing, particularly NASCAR and IndyCar.[599][600] On the collegiate level, earnings for the member institutions exceed $1 billion annually,[601] and college football and basketball attract large audiences, as the NCAA Final Four is one of the most watched national sporting events.[602]

Eight Olympic Games have taken place in the United States. The 1904 Summer Olympics in St. Louis, Missouri, were the first-ever Olympic Games held outside of Europe.[603] The Olympic Games will be held in the U.S. for a ninth time when Los Angeles hosts the 2028 Summer Olympics. U.S. athletes have won a total of 2,959 medals (1,173 gold) at the Olympic Games, by far the most of any country.[604][605][606]

In international soccer, the men's national soccer team qualified for eleven World Cups, and the women's national team has won the FIFA Women's World Cup and Olympic soccer tournament four times each.[607] The United States hosted the 1994 FIFA World Cup and will co-host, along with Canada and Mexico, the 2026 FIFA World Cup.[608]

See also

    Lists of U.S. state topics

    Outline of the United States

Notes

30 of 50 states recognize only English as an official language. The state of Hawaii recognizes both Hawaiian and English as official languages, the state of Alaska officially recognizes 20 Alaska Native languages alongside English, and the state of South Dakota recognizes O'ceti Sakowin as an official language.

The historical and informal demonym Yankee has been applied to Americans, New Englanders, or northeasterners since the 18th century.

At 3,531,900 sq mi (9,147,590 km2), the United States is the third-largest country in the world by land area, behind Russia and China. By total area (land and water), it is the third-largest behind Russia and Canada, if its coastal and territorial water areas are included. However, if only its internal waters are included (bays, sounds, rivers, lakes, and the Great Lakes), the U.S. is the fourth-largest, after Russia, Canada, and China.

Coastal/territorial waters included: 3,796,742 sq mi (9,833,517 km2)[18]

Only internal waters included: 3,696,100 sq mi (9,572,900 km2)[19]

Excludes Puerto Rico and the other unincorporated islands because they are counted separately in U.S. census statistics.

After adjustment for taxes and transfers

See Time in the United States for details about laws governing time zones in the United States.

See Date and time notation in the United States.

A single jurisdiction, the U.S. Virgin Islands, uses left-hand traffic.

The five major territories are American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the United States Virgin Islands. There are eleven smaller island areas without permanent populations: Baker Island, Howland Island, Jarvis Island, Johnston Atoll, Kingman Reef, Midway Atoll, and Palmyra Atoll. U.S. sovereignty over Bajo Nuevo Bank, Navassa Island, Serranilla Bank, and Wake Island is disputed.[17]

The United States has a maritime border with the British Virgin Islands, a British territory, since the BVI borders the U.S. Virgin Islands.[20] BVI is a British Overseas Territory but itself is not a part of the United Kingdom.[21] Puerto Rico has a maritime border with the Dominican Republic.[22] American Samoa has a maritime border with the Cook Islands, maintained under the Cook Islands–United States Maritime Boundary Treaty.[23][24] American Samoa also has maritime borders with independent Samoa and Niue.[25]

The U.S. Census Bureau provides a continuously updated but unofficial population clock in addition to its decennial census and annual population estimates: [1]

New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia

John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston

[The Soviet Union] instituted trading arrangements deliberately designed to favour the country. Moscow controlled the Communist parties that ruled the satellite states, and they followed orders from the Kremlin. Historian Mark Kramer concludes: "The net outflow of resources from eastern Europe to the Soviet Union was approximately $15 billion to $20 billion in the first decade after World War II, an amount roughly equal to the total aid provided by the United States to western Europe under the Marshall Plan."

People born in American Samoa are non-citizen U.S. nationals unless one of their parents is a U.S. citizen.[271] In 2019, a court ruled that American Samoans are U.S. citizens, but the litigation is ongoing.[272][273]

This figure, like most official data for the United States as a whole, excludes the five unincorporated territories (Puerto Rico, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, and the Northern Mariana Islands) and minor island possessions.

Inupiaq, Siberian Yupik, Central Alaskan Yup'ik, Alutiiq, Unanga (Aleut), Denaʼina, Deg Xinag, Holikachuk, Koyukon, Upper Kuskokwim, Gwichʼin, Tanana, Upper Tanana, Tanacross, Hän, Ahtna, Eyak, Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian

    Also known less formally as Obamacare

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External links

Library resources about

United States

    Resources in your library

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    "United States". The World Factbook. Central Intelligence Agency.

    Key Development Forecasts for the United States from International Futures

Government

    Official U.S. Government web portal. Gateway to government sites.

    House. Official site of the United States House of Representatives.

    Senate. Official site of the United States Senate.

    White House. Official site of the President of the United States.

    Supreme Court. Official site of the Supreme Court of the United States.

History

    "Historical Documents". National Center for Public Policy Research.

    "U.S. National Mottos: History and Constitutionality". Religious Tolerance. Archived November 19, 2022, at the Wayback Machine. Analysis by the Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance.

    "Historical Statistics". Collected links to United States historical data.

Maps

    "National Atlas of the United States". Official maps from the U.S. Department of the Interior.

    Wikimedia Atlas of the United States

    Geographic data related to United States at OpenStreetMap

    "Measure of America". A variety of mapped information relating to health, education, income, and demographics in the United States.

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1937 Nickel Value

Today the 1937 nickel value begins at $.55 cents each. The price is for a heavily worn coin, in what is known as "Good" condition.

Uncirculated 1937 Nickel Value

However, the 1937 nickel is famous because of an interesting and rare variety where the buffalo has only three legs. Find below a description and close up view to help identify this valuable coin.

Two more important elements change how much your buffalo nickel is worth. First mintmarks, they indicate the mint that produced the coin and are valued separately.

Secondly, consider the condition of your coins. The "Uncirculated" 1937 nickel pictured is highly prized by rare coin dealers and collectors because of condition. Huge swings in value follow the better condition coins.

An exciting year with many variables, such as date, mintmarks and the elusive 3 Legged variety contributing to 1937 nickel value.

1937 Nickel D Mintmark Location

The chart separates values according Condition and the Mints that produced the coin.

A listing of "1937-D" is a coin minted in Denver, they used a "D" as a mark.

An "S" is the mintmark used by the San Francisco mint. These two mints placed their mintmark on the reverse below the buffalo. The third mint to strike Buffalo nickels, Philadelphia, did not use a mintmark.

A very distinctive mint made error once you have seen it, the 3 Legged Buffalo variety is popular with collectors and considered necessary to complete a collection. These are two powerful forces driving the value of the 1937-D 3 Leg Buffalo nickel.

The 3 Legged variety is found on nickels minted at the Denver mint. Locate the "D" mintmark, identifying the mint, below the buffalo under the "Five Cents."

Excessive die polishing is believed as the reason too much metal was removed causing the buffalo's leg to vanish. Before the mint realized the error a few thousand had been released into circulation.

Back in the day many of these now valuable nickels circulated freely, the result is 3 legged buffalo nickels are found today showing all degrees of wear. They can turn up in any box of old coins.

1937-D 3 Legged Buffalo Nickel

In the later years of the buffalo nickel series greater numbers of coins were saved, both from circulation and new from the banks. With many to choose from and many in better condition, collectors favor the high grade buffalos. It takes a very nice coin to break away from being worth a dollar.

Condition Determines 1937 Nickel Value

1937 Nickel Uncirculated Condition

Uncirculated: A 1937 buffalo nickel in this condition stands out as a superior coin. It never circulated, therefore its surfaces show no signs of wear. Handle coins in Uncirculated condition by their edges to preserve their surfaces. Rotate the coin under a light, examine the cheek of the Indian and upper back of the buffalo for signs of wear, appearing as dullness on the high spots.

1937 Nickel Extremely Fine Condition

Extremely Fine: This coin shows evidence of use but was collected from circulation before to much wear took place. A nice looking coin with abundant detail, although the hair braid is reduced and shows some loss of detail, and on the reverse the small details along the buffalo's back have begun to wear.

1937 Nickel Fine Condition

Fine: Additional wear has reduced the major details and eliminated the finer points of design. Obvious loss of sharpness and an overall smoothness is evident on the entire surface of the coin.

Buffalo Nickel Good Condition

Good: The date is readable, however parts of the numbers are often merged. The rim is no longer separated from the tops of the letters. The roundness of the design to the buffalo has become flat on the hip, stomach, shoulder and head. This coin is at the low side of 1937 nickel value.

buffalo

Hereford cattleIn livestock farming: Buffalo and camels

The name buffalo is applied to several different cud-chewing (ruminant) mammals of the ox family (Bovidae). The true, or Indian, buffalo (Bubalus bubalis), also known as water buffalo, or arna, exists both as a wild and domestic animal; it has been…

…yields from Indian cattle and buffaloes are quite low, although milk from buffaloes is somewhat better and richer on average than from cattle. Because cow slaughter is illegal in many states, scarcely any cattle are raised expressly for providing meat, and most of what little beef is consumed comes from…

milk production

farmIn dairying

Buffalo’s milk is produced in commercial quantities in some countries, particularly India. Where it is produced, buffalo’s milk is used in the same way as is cow’s milk, and in some areas the community milk supply consists of a mixture of both. This article treats…

milkIn dairy product

…for their milk production include buffalo (in India, China, Egypt, and the Philippines), goats (in the Mediterranean countries), reindeer (in northern Europe), and sheep (in southern Europe). This section focuses on the processing of cow’s milk and milk products unless otherwise noted. In general, the processing technology described for cow’s…

religion of

Proto-Harappan Period

IndiaIn India: Culture and religion

…the widespread occurrence of the buffalo-head motif, characterized by elongated horns and in some cases sprouting pipal (Ficus religiosa) branches or other plant forms. These have been interpreted as representing a “buffalo deity.” A painted bowl from Lewan displays a pair of such heads, one a buffalo and the other…

Toda

Toda houseIn Toda

…religion centres on the all-important buffalo. Ritual must be performed for almost every dairy activity, from milking and giving the herds salt to churning butter and shifting pastures seasonally. There are ceremonies for the ordination of dairymen-priests, for rebuilding dairies, and for rethatching funerary temples. These rites and the complex…

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cattle

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Beef cattle breeds

Dairy cattle breeds

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What animals are considered cattle?

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Are Cows Really Unable to Walk Down Stairs?

Why Do Animals Have Tails?

7 More Domestic Animals and Their Wild Ancestors

Abundant Animals: The Most Numerous Organisms in the World

18 Questions About Farming Answered

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cattle

cattle

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Key People: Robert Bakewell Charles Colling Robert Colling

Related Topics: cow gayal Hereford Angus Wagyu

Top Questions

What are cattle?

What animals are considered cattle?

What species do modern domestic cattle belong to?

Ankole-Watusi cattle

Ankole-Watusi cattle

cattle, domesticated bovine farm animals that are raised for their meat, milk, or hides or for draft purposes. The animals most often included under the term are the Western or European domesticated cattle as well as the Indian and African domesticated cattle. However, certain other bovids such as the Asian water buffalo, the Tibetan yak, the gayal and banteng of Southeast Asia, and the plains bison of North America have also been domesticated or semidomesticated and are sometimes considered to be cattle.

Hereford cow and calf

Hereford cow and calf

Murray Grey

Murray Grey

In the terminology used to describe the sex and age of cattle, the male is first a bull calf and if left intact becomes a bull; if castrated he becomes a steer and in about two or three years grows to an ox. The female is first a heifer calf, growing into a heifer and becoming a cow. Depending on the breed, mature bulls weigh 450–1,800 kg (1,000–4,000 pounds) and cows 360–1,100 kg (800–2,400 pounds). Males retained for beef production are usually castrated to make them more docile on the range or in feedlots; with males intended for use as working oxen or bullocks, castration is practiced to make them more tractable at work. The use of cattle as commodities has been a point of philosophical contention throughout history, particularly regarding the raising of animals for food. Such issues are compounded by modern concerns about the ethics of industrial factory farming and the contribution of commercial meat production to global warming. (See also livestock farming: Cattle; vegetarianism.)

Young chimpanzee dressed in a shirt and sweater vest, scratching his head thinking. (primates)

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Jersey cow

Jersey cow

Brahman bull

Brahman bull

Santa Gertrudis bull

Santa Gertrudis bull

All modern domestic cattle are believed to belong to the species Bos taurus (European breeds such as Shorthorn and Jersey) or Bos indicus (Zebu breeds such as Brahman) or to be crosses of these two (such as Santa Gertrudis). Breeds as they are known today did not always exist, and many are of recent origin. The definition of a breed is difficult and inexplicit, although the term is commonly used and, in practice, well understood. It may be used generally to connote animals that have been selectively bred for a long time so as to possess distinctive identity in colour, size, conformation, and function, and these or other distinguishing characteristics are perpetuated in their progeny. Breeds have been established by generations of breeders aiming at the attainment and preservation of a particular type with its identifying characteristics. This is accomplished by working on the principle of “like begets like.” It is only in relatively recent times that the science of genetics, and particularly population genetics, has contributed to breeding. (See also animal breeding.)

There are many old established breeds in continental Europe—for example, the Charolais and Normande of France, the Holstein-Friesian of the Netherlands, and many others—but British breeds are of particular interest because of their influence in building up the vast herds that supply so much beef and dairy in other countries around the world.

Beef cattle breeds

A comparison of selected breeds of beef cattle is provided in the table.

Selected breeds of beef cattle

name distribution characteristics comments

Angus bull.

Angus, or Aberdeen-Angus originally Scotland, now also United States, United Kingdom hornless, black, compact, low-set adapts well to varied climates

Beefmaster bull.

Beefmaster developed in Texas, 1908 red, usually with white spots breed trademarked Lasater Beefmaster

Belgian Blue bull.

Belgian Blue originally Belgium, now also United States large with prominent muscles; straight back hardy

Belted Galloway cattle.

Belted Galloway originally Galloway, southwest Scotland usually black; distinctive white belt encircling body between shoulders and hooks hardy; thrives in rigorous climate

Brahman bull

Brahman, or Zebu originally India, now widespread gray with large shoulder hump extensively crossbred

Brangus bull

Brangus developed in United States, 1930s large, black, hornless; straight back 3/8 Brahman, 5/8 Angus

Charolais bull

Charolais originally France, now also Mexico, United States unusually large and white much used for crossbreeding

Chianina bull

Chianina originally Italy, now also North America white; heavily muscled long legs largest breed of cattle

Hereford bull

Hereford, whiteface originally England, now also United Kingdom, North and South America, Australia, New Zealand red and white; low-set and compact popular beef breed

Limousin bull.

Limousin originally France, now also North America red-gold; long-bodied; horned uses feed efficiently

Normande bull.

Normande originally France, now also South America medium-sized; small head; coloured patches around eyes dual-purpose breed

Polled Hereford bull.

Polled Hereford originally United States, now widespread muscular; hornless mutation of the Hereford

Santa Gertrudis bull

Santa Gertrudis originally United States, now also Cuba, South America, Australia deep red colour; horned 3/8 Brahman, 5/8 Shorthorn

shorthorn bull

Shorthorn, or Durham originally England, now almost every cattle-raising area horned or hornless; red or roan calves mature rapidly for market

Simmental bull.

Simmental originally Switzerland, now widespread red and white; large; horned extensively crossbred

Dairy cattle breeds

A comparison of selected breeds of dairy cattle is provided in the table.

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Selected breeds of dairy cattle

name distribution characteristics comments

Ayrshire cow

Ayrshire originally Scotland, now throughout temperate lands deep, fleshy body; red or brown with white hardy

Brown Swiss cow

Brown Swiss originally Switzerland, now North and South America, Europe wedge-shaped body; light to dark brown hardy

Guernsey cow

Guernsey originally island of Guernsey, now United Kingdom, North America, Australia fawn-coloured with white markings; short horns excellent milk producer

Holstein-Friesian cow

Holstein-Friesian originally Netherlands, now North and South America, Australia, South Africa black and white; horned or hornless large production of milk

Jersey cow

Jersey originally island of Jersey, now every cattle-raising country small, short-horned; varies in colour, often fawn docile; uses feed efficiently

Milking Shorthorn cow.

Milking Shorthorn originally England, now also United States, Australia red, red and white, white, or roan highly versatile

Red Poll cows

Red Poll originally England, now also North America red with some white; hornless dual-purpose breed

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

This article was most recently revised and updated by Amy Tikkanen.

bovid

Table of Contents

Introduction

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bovid summary

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7 Questions About Mammals Answered

Abundant Animals: The Most Numerous Organisms in the World

Why Do Animals Have Tails?

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mammal

    

Also known as: Bovidae

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American bison (Bison bison)

American bison (Bison bison)

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Category: Animals & Nature

Related Topics: antelope Antilopinae Eotragus Bovinae Cephalophinae

bovid, (family Bovidae), any hoofed mammal in the family Bovidae (order Artiodactyla), which includes the antelopes, sheep, goats, cattle, buffalo, and bison. What sets the Bovidae apart from other cud-chewing artiodactyls (notably deer, family Cervidae) is the presence of horns consisting of a sheath covering a bony core that grows from the skull’s frontal bones. Unlike the antlers of deer and the American pronghorn, bovid horns do not branch and are never shed. The males of all species and the females of about two-thirds of all species have horns—of every possible shape and size, from the short, straight spikes of duikers and dwarf antelopes to the huge scimitar-shaped horns of wild goats and the sable antelope and to the long corkscrew horns of the blackbuck, kudu, and markhor. There are 143 different species and 50 genera of Bovidae, including one completely new species placed in its own genus, the saola, discovered in the 1990s in the montane forests that divide Laos and Vietnam.

Natural history

Zebra duiker (Cephalophus zebra).

Zebra duiker (Cephalophus zebra).

Bovids are far and away the most diverse, widespread, and abundant family of hoofed mammals. Their size ranges from the 1.5-kg (3-pound) royal antelope to the 1,000-kg (2,200-pound) bison and wild oxen (see gaur). They occupy virtually every kind of habitat available to terrestrial herbivores in Africa, Eurasia, and North America, where they span the full range of biomes from the equatorial rainforests of Africa (royal antelope and duiker) to the Arctic tundra (musk ox).

bison

bison

Many grazing species that inhabited vast open plains and steppes once had populations numbering in the millions. The prime example is the dominance of America’s prairies and Great Plains by a single species, the bison, which numbered from 30–60 million animals. In Africa a mix of species, mainly antelopes, ranged tropical savannas and subdeserts and the temperate Highveld grasslands of South Africa in uncounted millions, while in Asia gazelles and their allies were equally abundant on steppe and subdesert.

The fate of the bison, which was brought to the verge of extinction by hide and meat hunters late in the 19th century, was repeated in Asia and Africa. During the 20th century, efforts to save wildlife and wilderness resulted in the establishment of a worldwide network of protected areas. However, these amount to less than 10 percent of the ecosystems that they were intended to conserve. As humankind continued to increase, wildlife and natural habitats outside of these protected areas continued to disappear and have been replaced by settlements, cultivation, and livestock. Now millions upon millions of cattle, sheep, and goats dominate and usually degrade the savannas, steppes, and subdeserts, leaving little room for the remaining wild bovids. Thanks to the demand for their meat, hides, and milk, livestock now inhabit every continent except Antarctica. In an ironic turn of events, out of the extraordinary array of 143 bovid species, only one sheep, one goat, and three bovine species have been domesticated. Yet, husbanded by humans, these three species have played a major role in hastening the demise of all the rest, including species exquisitely adapted to ecosystems in which livestock can survive only through human intervention.

Nine-Banded Armadillo.

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Herd of wildebeest drinking at water's edge, Masai Mara, Kenya.

Herd of wildebeest drinking at water's edge, Masai Mara, Kenya.

However, large populations of a few wild bovids still survive to show what the ecosystems of Africa and Asia were like when they were still intact. Among these populations are two million wildebeest and gazelles in the Serengeti ecosystem and possibly hundreds of thousands of white-eared kob and tiang on the floodplains of South Sudan. Over a million saiga lived in Kazakhstan and Kalmykia until the early 1990s, when the breakup of the Soviet Union left them largely unprotected, and the unsettled steppe of eastern Mongolia still supports an estimated one million Mongolian gazelles.

Evolution and diversification

Bovids are the most recent and adaptable family of hoofed mammals to evolve. The earliest bovid, known from fossil horn cores, occurs in Eurasia in the Miocene Epoch about 18 million years ago. Eotragus was a small, solitary forest and bush dweller dependent on cover. Africa’s duikers and dwarf antelopes are considered closest to this ancestral type. The subsequent radiation of bovid species followed the spread of grasses, which in turn followed a change from a subtropical to a cooler, more seasonal climate in the middle Miocene. This climate change replaced subtropical woodlands with more open and productive habitats. With their superior ability to extract nutrients from a fibrous diet, ruminants evolved into a variety of species that could use a relatively narrow range of ecological conditions more efficiently than other less-specialized animals. Among the ruminants, the bovids were singularly adept at tailoring their size, shape, feeding apparatus, digestive system, dispersion pattern, and social system to a particular habitat. By partitioning ecosystems into many segments (giving each species a narrow niche), they became the most diverse and abundant large herbivores.

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The opening of a land bridge across the Red Sea connected the Arabian Peninsula and Africa during cool periods when polar ice caps lowered the sea level and thus enabled the interchange of Asian and African bovids and other ruminants. The first ruminants to enter Africa arrived in the early Miocene, before the bovids arose. Horn cores unearthed in North Africa show that Eotragus crossed over soon after evolving in Eurasia. By the mid-Miocene Gazella, one of the oldest bovid genera, was present in East Africa and widespread in Eurasia. By the late Miocene African bovids had diversified into nine distinct tribes, most of which had Asian relatives.

However, most of today’s genera and species of bovids appeared only during the Pliocene and Pleistocene epochs, following a major invasion of Asian genera into Africa five million years ago. During the Pleistocene Ice Age, while most of the Eurasian tropical savanna fauna became extinct, Africa remained the main refuge of Plio-Pleistocene mammals.

The alternating expansion and contraction of the equatorial rainforest during wet and dry periods of the Ice Age promoted speciation by isolating populations of the same species that then became different subspecies and species in the process of adapting to different ecological conditions. Meanwhile, bovids adapted to cold climates evolved on the northern continents; most notable among these bovids were members of the subfamily Caprinae (goats, sheep, goat antelopes, and musk oxen), bovines (yak, bison, and the aurochs, the ancestor of domestic cattle), and the gazelle tribe (Antilopini; e.g., the Mongolian gazelle).

At the climax of bovid diversity and abundance in the later Pliocene and Pleistocene (which has been called the golden age of mammals), there were many more genera and species than there are now. After the Ice Age ended some 10,000 years ago, many bovids and other ruminants became extinct in the Northern Hemisphere. Predation by hunter-gatherers has been blamed in some cases. This was also when humankind began to domesticate animals and cultivate crops, with eventual dire consequences both for their wild progenitors and the natural environment.

Aoudad (Ammotragus lervia).

Aoudad (Ammotragus lervia).

However, in the tropical refuge of sub-Saharan Africa, although some mammals went extinct (e.g., giant forms of buffalo and hartebeest), most of the genera and species that evolved during the golden age of mammals survived to the present. All but four of the 75 African bovid species are antelopes, and south of the Sahara there are only one buffalo, one sheep (the aoudad) and two goats (ibexes). Conversely, there are only 15 antelope species in Eurasia, all but three of which are members of the gazelle tribe, and none in North America. Bovid diversity on these northern continents reposes mainly in sheep, goats, and goat antelopes.

Nevertheless, despite loss of habitat, competition with domestic species, and overhunting virtually everywhere bovids occur, few species are yet extinct. However, many species are endangered, and the survival of all is now entirely dependent on human beings. Members of the same tribe, which share descent from a common ancestor, mostly inhabit the same biome, occupy somewhat similar habitats, and have a similar conformation, behavioral repertoire, social organization, and mating system. (The wild Bovini are a notable exception in that they exploit a wide variety of biomes and habitats.)

Social organization

Meet the dik-diks, the smallest antelope

Meet the dik-diks, the smallest antelopeSee all videos for this article

Despite the many different species of bovids, their social organization can be categorized as either unsocial or social, and their mating system can be categorized as monogamous and territorial, polygynous and territorial, or based on a male dominance hierarchy. Furthermore, there is a clear dichotomy between bovids that live in closed habitats (e.g., forest and bush) and those that live in open habitats (e.g., plains and mountains). Through the process of convergence, species of different lineages that have adapted for similar habitats come to share a number of correlated traits. Thus, closed-habitat bovids (e.g., duiker, dik-dik, and reedbuck) have a body plan that is adapted for moving in dense undergrowth, rely on hiding and concealing coloration to avoid predators, browse selectively on nonfibrous vegetation, are solitary or monogamous, and are territorial. Open-habitat bovids are mostly medium to large, do not hide except in early infancy, have a build adapted for flight in the open, have a conspicuous and distinctive coloration that advertises their presence and species, are mainly grazers or mixed feeders (graze and browse), and form herds.

Whether the mating system is territorial or based on a male dominance hierarchy may be linked to phylogeny. The members of the subfamilies Caprinae and Bovinae, which appear to have separated from the main bovid line very early, are virtually all nonterritorial. For the rest, the Antilopinae and the duiker tribe, breeding males are territorial. All African bovids bear single young, whereas twins are common among the Antilopini, Caprini, and Boselaphini of the Northern Hemisphere.

  • Condition: In Excellent Condition
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