United States

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United States, officially United States of America, republic (2015 est. pop. 319,929,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and in area. It consists of 50 states and a federal district. The conterminous (excluding Alaska and Hawaii) United States stretches across central North America from the Atlantic Ocean on the east to the Pacific Ocean on the west, and from Canada on the north to Mexico and the Gulf of Mexico on the south. The state of Alaska is located in extreme NW North America between the Arctic and Pacific oceans and is bordered by Canada on the east. The state of Hawaii, an island chain, is situated in the E central Pacific Ocean c.2,100 mi (3,400 km) SW of San Francisco. Washington, D.C., is the capital of the United States, and New York is its largest city.

The outlying territories and areas of the United States include: in the Caribbean Basin, Puerto Rico (a commonwealth associated with the United States) and the Virgin Islands of the United States (purchased from Denmark in 1917); in the Pacific Ocean, Guam (ceded by Spain after the Spanish-American War), the Northern Mariana Islands (a commonwealth associated with the United States), American Samoa, Wake Island, and several other islands. The United States also has compacts of free association with the Republic of the Marshall Islands, the Republic of Palau, and the Federated States of Micronesia.

Sections in this article:

• Introduction
• Related Articles
• The George W. Bush Presidency, 9/11, and Iraq
• Bush, Clinton, and Bush
• The Reagan Years
• Internationalism and the End of the Cold WarFord and Carter
• The Nixon Years
• The Great Society, the Vietnam War, and Watergate and the Vietnam War
• The United States in a Divided World
• World War II
• From Prosperity to Depression
• World War I
• Expansionists and Progressives
• The Late Nineteenth Century
• Slavery, Civil War, and Reconstruction
• Jackson to the Mexican War
• Madison, Monroe, and Adams
• Washington, Adams, and Jefferson
• The States in Union
• Colonial America
• European Exploration and Settlement
• Government
• Economy
• Religion and Education
• People
• Climate
• Major Rivers and Lakes
• The Pacific Coast, Alaska, and Hawaii
• The Western Mountains and Great Basin
• The Plains and Highlands of the Interior
• The East and the Gulf Coast
• Physical Geography
• Political Geography
• Geographical Studies

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