Physical features of the U.S.A.

The USA is a country in North America. It is a very big country. In the north there is Canada. It the east there is the Atlantic Ocean. In the south there is Mexico. In the west there is the Pacific Ocean. USA stands for United States of America. It is federation of 50 states, 48 in the mainland plus Alaska in the north west and Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean. Hawaii is a group of islands.

THE LAKES

There are a lot of lakes near Canada: Lake Superior,Lake Michingan,Lake Huron,Lake Ontario and Lake Erie. Between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario there are famous Niagara falls.

THE MOUNTAINS

The rocky mountains and the Sierra Nevada are in the west. They are high mountains with a lot of forests, waterfalls and lakes. They are famous for their national parks such Yellowstone and Yosemite. The Appalachian mountains are in the est the highest, mountain is Mt.Mckinley in Alaska (it is high 6194m).

THE RIVERS

The longest river is the Mississippi. The Missouri is a tributary of the river Mississippi.it and Rio Grande flow into the gulf of Mexico. The Colorado and the Columbia flow in to the Pacific Ocean.

Mount Rainier is a dormant stratovolcano located in Washington State, 87 km from Seattle. Like many other volcanoes in the USA, it is part of the Cascade chain and is also the highest mountain in the chain itself, reaching 4392 meters in height. Because of its vast size with respect to the surrounding landscape and the way in which the landscape is dominated, the locals of nearby cities (like Seattle and Tacoma) refer to the volcano using simply “the Mountain.

The Yellowstone caldera is the supercool caldera under the Yellowstone National Park in the United States of America. The caldera is located in the northwest of Wyoming, where most of the park area is located. 3.142 m.

Mauna Loa is a volcano located on the island of Hawaii. It is a shielded volcano with an estimated volume of 75,000 km³, making it the largest active volcano of Earth for volume [1], although its peak (4,169 m asl) is 36 m lower than its neighbor Mauna Kea, another of the five volcanoes that form the largest island of Hawaii. Since its cone-shaped structure rests on the deep oceanic backdrop of about 5000 m, the overall height of the mountain exceeds that of Everest

FACTS FILE USA

• Population: 250 000 000 people.

• Currency: American dollar ($).

• Language: American English.

• Governement: is a republic with a President (today is Donald J. Trump).

• Climate: in the North is often very cold, and in the South is very hot.

• Time zones: there are four time zones (when is 10 a.m. in New York, is 7 a.m. in Los Angeles).

THE AMERICAN FLAG

The American flag is called -The Stars and Stripes- it dates back to 1776. It has thirteen stripes and fifty stars, the number of the states of the present federation.

The colours of the flag are blue (for justice), red (for courage) and White (for innocence).

THE NATIONAL ANTHEM

The nation anthem of the USA is the Star-Spangled Banner.

In 1813 the British attacked the American at Fort McHenry in Maryland. During the battle, the poet Francis Scott Key was imprisoned. Through the night, he could see that the sky was lit by exploding bombs. When the sun came up in the morning, the first thing that he saw was the United States flag flying over the fort. Francis Scott Key was so happy that he wrote a poem about his feelings, and now this poem is a song.

the history of the U.S.A.
15th CENTURY: THE “DISCOVERY”
Christopher Columbus “discovered” America in 1942. It was not a real “discovery” because the regions were already inhabited. The continent was populated by tribes such as Sioux and Apaches. Columbus salied from Spain with three ships, the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria. Columbus belived that the Earth was round, so he was sure he could reach the Indies by travelling west. The Indies were very important for gold and spices. Instead, he found America. After him, Amerigo Vespucci was the first explorer that realized that he had arrived at a new continent that was not Asia. He called the new continent “America”.

CURIOSITY:Contrary to what is being said, when Christopher Columbus died, he was not as poor as he wanted to believe. He lived alot in Valladolid, in the Corona of Castile, or today’s Spain. He suffered the pain of arthritis, that’s true. But he also suffered a sting for tyrannies against the indigenous peoples of the Americas. He was pardoned by King Ferdinand, but he was always deprived of most of the profits of his discoveries, promised by the same King and Queen Isabella.After his death, his family fought the question and cited the royal family. A process that history remembers as Colombinos Pleitos. It ended in favor of the heirs of Colombo.

16-17th CENTURY: THE FIRST SETTLERS
During the 16th century more Europeans arrived. In 1620 the Pilgrim Fathers, a religious group from England, salied to the New World in a ship called “Mayflower”. They were Protestant dissenters and their religion was not permitted in England. They founded a colony and they called it New England. A lot of other Europeans arrived looking for freedom, wealth or adventure. In the big plantations they started to cultivate cotton and tobacco.

CURIOSITY: People say The First Piligrim Fathers are cannibals.

17th CENTURY: SLAVERY
The slave trade started in the American Colonies during the 1600s. A lot of men and women were brought from Africa to work as slaves on the plantations. They were captured in Africa and sold at auction in America after a long, terrible journey. The majority lived in the south were large plantations grew cotton, tobacco and sugar cane. The plantations required more labourers. The living conditions of the slaves were very difficult: they had to work long hours, they did not have enought food and they lived in simple cabins. Slaves could not marry, own property on earn their freedom

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18th CENTURY: THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION
At the end of the 18th century the thirteen colonies were not happy with the rule of Great Britain and started to fight to become independent. There was a Congress in Philadelphia where the colonies approved the Declaration of Independence on the 4th July 1776. They also decided to fight Great Britain. The American War of Independence lasted 7 years and eventually finished in 1783, when Great Britain recognized the independence of the United States of America. The first President of the USA was George Washington and he was elected in 1789.

19th CENTURY-THE CONQUEST OF THE WEST AND THE NATIVE AMERICANS

In 1848 gold was discovered in California and a lot of people moved west:it was the gold rush. Pioneers crossed the country in covered wagons for different reasons: some wanted freedom and adventure,others wanted to find gold,others escaped religious persecutions. They crossed the Great Plains where Native Americans lived. The Native Americans tried to fight for their territories but they were defeated. In 1861 the Southern States left the Union and formed the Confederacy. There was a civil war between the North and South,and the Union forces in the North won in 1865. Slavery was abolished.

20th CENTURY-THE FIRST HALF OF THE CENTURY

At the beginning of the 20th century a lot of European and Asian immigrants  come to the USA to escape poverty and persecutions. They were all looking for a better life. There were a lot of Italians, too. The USA entered the First World War to help Great Britain, France and Italy against Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire and they won. After the First  World War there was a very serious  economic crisis in 1929. It was the “Great Depression”.President Roosevelt fought this crisis with a new economic program called “New Deal”. In the Second World War, the American soldiers fought in Asia, in the Pacific and in Europe.In 1945 they dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan surrendered and the Second World War ended.

20th CENTURY-THE SECOND HALF OF THE CENTURY

After the Second World War the USA and the Soviet Union were the only two superpowers. They started the “Cold War”. The United States led the West and a group of countries with capitalist political systems, The Soviet Union led the East and a group of countries with communist political systems. Between the 50s and the 70s tension between the two blocs increased significantly in different parts of the world. In the 60s the USA faced some internal problems too: the most serious was segregation of black people in the Southern States. Segregation meant separate schools, public toilets, park benches, train and restaurant seating. A non-violent mass protest movement led by Martin Luther King wanted to break down segregation. He was assassinated in 1968. At the end of the 80s the Soviet Union collapsed and the United States emerged as the world’s most important economic and military superpower.

                                                                  AMERICANS CITIES

                                                                         Washington

Washington is the capital of the U.S.A. it is named Washington after the first president, George Washington. It is located in the District of Columbia, named after Christopher Columbus, the famous Italian explorer. The President of USA lives in the White House. The symbol of Washington is Washington Monument, an obelisk which was built in honour of George Washington. By law, no other building in the District of Columbia can be taller. Washington is the planned city. Now washington’ s population amount about 640’000 inhabitants.

                                                                                      New York

New York is the biggest city of the USA. It has nearly 8 million Inhabitant. The center of New York his called Manhattan. In Manhattan there is Central Park, a huge green area with lakes gardens and woods. People go cycling, horseback riding, swimming and jogging in it.New York has a lot of skyscapers. The most famous one is  the Empire States Building, with 102 floors. The World Trade Centre or the Twin Towers, destroyed on 11^th September 2001, had 110 floors. In New York harbour there is the Statue of Liberty,  a gift from the people of France.

FESTIVITY

INDEPENDENCE DAY

On the 4th July 1776 there was the Declaration of Indipendence from Great Britain. In the past North America was a colony of the British Empire.

Now on the 4th of July American people celebrate this historical event with parades, fireworks, concerts, special events, picnics, barbecues and re-enactments of historical occurences.

THANKSGIVING DAY

In the U.S.A one of the most important festivals is thanksgiving.

The Pilgrin Fathers arrived in America with teh Mayflower in 1620. In the 1621 they prepared a large dinner to thank God for their first harvest.

Thanksgiving has been celebrated nationally on and off since 1789, after Congress requested a proclamation by George Washington.