The United States of America SVG is the country in North America. The area is 9.5 million km² (4th place in the world). The population is 327 million (2018, estimated; 3rd place in the world). The USA has a federal form of organization, administratively divided into 50 states and the Federal District of Columbia; it also has a number of island territories (Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, Guam and others).
The capital is Washington, D.C., and the largest city in terms of population is New York City. The United States borders Canada in the north, Mexico in the south, and has a maritime border with Russia. They are washed by the Pacific Ocean from the west, the Atlantic Ocean from the east and the Arctic Ocean from the north.
The United States of America was formed in 1776 by the unification of thirteen British colonies that declared independence. The war for independence continued until 1783 and ended with the victory of the colonists. In 1787, the U.S. Constitution was adopted, and in 1791, the Bill of Rights, which significantly limited the government’s powers with respect to citizens. In the 1860s, contradictions between slave-holding southern and industrial northern states led to the beginning of the four-year Civil War. The victory of the northern states resulted in the widespread prohibition of slavery, as well as the restoration of the country after the split that arose during the unification of the southern states into the Confederation and their declaration of independence.
Up until the First World War, U.S. foreign policy activity was limited to interests in the territories of North, Central and South America – according to the Monroe doctrine formulated in 1823. After the First World War, the Congress of the United States did not agree to the country’s membership in international organizations (for example, in the League of Nations and its Chamber of International Justice), which limited the role of the United States in world politics. However, the country’s participation in the anti-Hitler coalition significantly increased the U.S. influence on the world stage, and from the second half of the XX century the country became the core of the capitalist camp. In 1945, the United States became the first nuclear power and the first and only country to use nuclear weapons in hostilities (the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki), and since 1946 it has been in a state of global confrontation with the Soviet Union that lasted until the early 1990s, when the Soviet Union ceased to exist.
The U.S. possesses powerful armed forces, including the world’s largest naval forces; has a permanent seat in the UN Security Council with the right of veto; is a founding member of the North Atlantic Alliance (NATO), one of the founders of the United Nations, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the Organization of American States (OAS) and other international organizations. The country also has the second (after Russia) nuclear potential on the planet in terms of the total number of deployed warheads.
The United States is a highly developed country with the world’s first economy in terms of nominal GDP and second in terms of GDP (PPP). Although the country’s population is only 4.3% of the world’s population, Americans own about 40% of the world’s total wealth. The United States leads the world in a number of socio-economic indicators, including average wages, HDI, GDP per capita and labor productivity. While the U.S. economy is post-industrial, dominated by services and knowledge, the country’s manufacturing sector remains the second largest in the world.
The country’s economy accounts for about a quarter of the world’s GDP and accounts for a third of global military spending, making the United States the world’s main economic and military power. In addition, the U.S. has the greatest political influence in the world and is a leader in scientific research and technological innovation, and is currently considered the only superpower on the planet.