02 The United States of America

02 The United States of America

UNITED STATES

• official name: The United States of America

• abbreviations: U.S. or U.S.A.

AMERICA X USA

• America

  • North and South

  • many countries: USA, Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Brasil, Columbia…

• USA

  • country in North America

  • federal republic of 50 states: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Ohlahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming

SYMBOLS

• motto: In God we trust

• anthem: Star-Spangled Banner – goes back to the revolution, military song

• flag: Stars and Stripes – represent colonies

• capital: Washington DC – east coast

• currency: American Dollar – pyramid with an eye on the top

LANGUAGES

• doesn’t have official language

• most used: English (national language)

• second most used: Spanish

• indigenous languages: Navajo, Cherokee, Dakota, Lakota, Western Apache

POLITICAL MAP

• 2 land borders: Canada, Mexico

• divided to continental part and islands

• continental states between North Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Ocean

• Eastern Coast: Atlantic Ocean, Gulf of Mexico

• Western Coast: North Pacific Ocean (Hawaii), Bering Sea (Alaska)

• population: officially in the US: 321 millions

DEMOGRAPHICS

• Ethnicity

  • White anglo-saxon protestan = they would like to be this

  • Cajun – southern states – Louisiana, French descendants, cuisine, mix-up french and English together

  • African Americans – came to US as slaves

  • Southern border – „Mexican“ – from Spanish or Portuguese speaking countries – latinx

  • Cubans – only minority that is welcomed, have automatically granted citizenship – used for fighting against Cuba

  • Native Americans – „indians“, only comunity in the US believed to disappear in the following 100 years, numbers falling

  • 50 in 2050 – bad scenario for WASP, growing minorities, WASP would have less than 50 % US population, WASP = caucassian

• Religious demographics

  • unlikely for a developped country

  • 75 % declares themselves Christian

  • southern and central America – latinx

  • rest = protestant religions – baptists

  • large number of deeply religious people

  • non religious is only 10 % of the population

POLITICAL SYSTEM

• two political parties: Republicans X Democrats

• Republican: Donald Trump X Democrat: Joe Biden

• Checks&Balances

  • executive – president (POTUS – official twitter account of the president)

    • head of government, head of Cabinet, accompanied by FLOTUS (First lady of the United States)

• PRESIDENT

  • head of government of the USA, head of state

  • directs the executive branch of the federal government

  • commander-in-chief of United States Armed Forces

  • D. Trump – 45th president