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美国(United States)

正式名称美利坚合众国（United States of America）

北美洲联邦共和国，包括该大陆中纬度地区48个接壤的州、北美洲西北端的阿拉斯加州，以及位於太平洋中部的岛州夏威夷。面积9,529,063平方公里（包括五大湖的美国部分）。人口约286,067,000（2001）。首都︰华盛顿特区。人民有白人、黑人、西班牙裔、亚洲人、太平洋岛民、美洲印第安人（美洲原住民）、爱斯基摩人及阿留申人。语言︰英语（占主导地位）和西班牙语。宗教：新教、天主教、犹太教和伊斯兰教。货币︰美元（U.S.$）。地形由山脉、平原、低地和沙漠构成。山脉包括阿帕拉契山脉、奥沙克山脉、落矶山脉、喀斯开山脉和内华达山脉。最低点是加州死谷。最高点是阿拉斯加山脉的马金利山。主要河流是密西西比河系、科罗拉多河、哥伦比亚河和格兰德河。五大湖、大盐湖和欧基求碧湖为最大的湖。美国是世界上矿产的主要生产国，包括铜、银、锌、金、煤、石油和天然气。也是食品主要输出国。制造业包括钢、铁、化学品、电子产品和纺织品。其他重要工业是旅游业、乳品业、牲畜饲养、渔业和木材业。政府形式为共和国，两院制。国家元首暨政府首脑为总统。

数千年前已有一些美洲印第安人定居在这个领土上，他们可能来自亚洲。16世纪欧洲人开始来此探险和定居，取代印第安人。第一个欧洲人永久性居民点是由西班牙人在佛罗里达州建立的圣奥古斯丁（1565）。後来英国人在维吉尼亚州詹姆斯敦（1607）、麻萨诸塞州普里茅斯（1620）、马里兰州（1634）和宾夕法尼亚州（1681）建立定居点。1664年英国人从荷兰人手中夺走纽约、新泽西和德拉瓦，一年後，卡罗来纳被授予英国贵族。英国人於1763年将法国人逐出北美洲（参阅French and Indian War），他们在政治上掌控了十三个殖民地。後来因殖民政策引起政治不安，遂爆发了美国革命（1775～1783），并在1776年宣布独立宣言。美国在「邦联条例」（1781）下首度组织起来，之後通过宪法（1787）成为联邦共和国。随後确认了西至密西西比河的美国疆界，但是并不包括西班牙的属地佛罗里达。1803年的路易斯安那购地，美国从法国手中购得的土地几乎是原来领土的一倍。美国在1812年战争中与英国开战，1819年从西班牙手中取得佛罗里达。1830年以立法手段把美洲印第安人迁移到密西西比河以西的土地。19世纪中叶向西部扩张，尤其是在1848年於加州发现金矿後（参阅gold rush）。美国在墨西哥战争（1846～1848）中取得胜利，使後来的七个州（包括加利福尼亚和德克萨斯）的部分或全部领土落入美国手中。1846年与英国签订条约确立北部疆界，1853年加兹登购地案中又取得亚利桑那州南部土地。後来因南方蓄奴的种植园经济和北方的自由工农业经济之间存在的矛盾冲突使之分裂，爆发了南北战争（1861～1865，参阅American Civil War），第十三条修正案废除了奴隶制。在重建时期（1865～1877）以後，美国经历了快速成长、都市化、工业开发和欧洲人的迁入。1877年授权把印第安人保留地的土地分配给个别部落人民，导致他们丧失广大的土地给白人。到了19世纪末，美国已发展了外贸关系，并获得海外领土，包括阿拉斯加、中途岛、夏威夷群岛、菲律宾群岛、波多黎各、关岛、威克岛、美属萨摩亚、巴拿马运河区和维尔京群岛。1917年美国的参与第一次世界大战（1917～1918）。1920年授予妇女选举权，1924年给予美洲印第安人公民权。1929年股市崩溃导致大萧条时期。日本人偷袭珍珠港（1941年12月7日）促使美国参加第二次世界大战。1945年8月6日在广岛投下第一颗原子弹，8月9日又在长崎投下第二颗之後结束了大战，使美国成为西方世界的领袖，并参与欧洲和日本的战後重建工作，但却陷入了同苏联长达四十年被称为「冷战」的对抗之中。1950～1953年美国参加韩战。1952年给予波多黎各自治地位。1954年宣布在学校实施的种族隔离政策是违宪的。1959年设阿拉斯加和夏威夷为州。1964年国会通过「民权法」，并授权全面干预越战。1960年代中期到末期，为取和反战，美国国内进行了抗议活动。1969年美国达成第一个人类登陆月球计画。1973年所有的美军撤出越南。在波斯湾战争（1991）中，美国领导联合部队攻打伊拉克。1992年派兵至索马利亚救援饥民。1995和1999年加入北大西洋公约组织空袭在前南斯拉夫的塞尔维亚部队。1998年柯林顿总统成为第二个被众议院弹劾的总统。1999年参议院决议不予起诉。同年将巴拿马运河控制权移交给巴拿马。2000年布希成为自1888年以来第一个虽比对手高尔少了几张普选票而获选举团选为总统。2001年9月11日在世界贸易中心和国防部部分建筑被恐怖主义者攻击摧毁後，美国立即攻击阿富汗的塔利班政府，因其藏匿并拒绝引渡被指为这次恐怖活动的主谋宾拉登。

English version：

United States

Federal republic, North America. It is comprised of 48 contiguous states occupying the mid continent, Alaska at the northwestern extreme of North America, and the island state of Hawaii in the mid-Pacific Ocean. Area, including the U.S. share of the Great Lakes: 3,679,192 sq mi (9,529,063 sq km). Population (2000): 281,421,906. Capital: Washington, D.C. The population is comprised of whites, African Americans, Hispanics, Asians, Pacific Islanders, American Indians (Native Americans), Eskimos, and Aleuts. Languages: English (predominant), Spanish. Religions: Protestantism, Roman Catholicism, Judaism, Islam. Currency: U.S. dollar. The country's regions encompass mountains, plains, lowlands, and deserts. Mountain ranges include the Appalachians, Ozarks, Rocky Mountains, Cascades, and Sierra Nevadas. The lowest point is Death Valley, Cal. The highest point is Alaska's Mount McKinley; within the coterminous U.S., it is Mount Whitney. Chief rivers are the Mississippi system, Colorado, Columbia, and Rio Grande. The Great Lakes, Great Salt Lake, and Okeechobee are the largest lakes. The U.S. is among the world's leading producers of several minerals, including copper, silver, zinc, gold, coal, petroleum, and natural gas; it is the chief exporter of food. Its manufactures include iron and steel, chemicals, electronic equipment, and textiles. Other important industries are tourism, dairying, livestock raising, fishing, and lumbering. It is a republic with two legislative houses; its head of state and government is the president. The territory was originally inhabited for several thousand years by numerous American Indian peoples who had probably emigrated from Asia. European exploration and settlement from the 16th century began displacement of the Indians. The first permanent European settlement, by the Spanish, was at St. Augustine, Fla., in 1565; the British settled Jamestown, Va. (1607); Plymouth, Mass. (1620); Maryland (1634); and Pennsylvania (1681). They took New York, New Jersey, and Delaware from the Dutch in 1664, a year after the Carolinas had been granted to British noblemen. The British defeat of the French in 1763 (see French and Indian War) assured British political control over its 13 colonies. Political unrest caused by British colonial policy culminated in the American Revolution (1775-83) and the Declaration of Independence (1776). The U.S. was first organized under the Articles of Confederation (1781), then finally under the Constitution (1787) as a federal republic. Boundaries extended west to the Mississippi River, excluding Spanish Florida. Land acquired from France by the Louisiana Purchase (1803) nearly doubled the country's territory. The U.S. fought the War of 1812 with the British and acquired Florida from Spain in 1819. In 1830 it legalized removal of American Indians to lands west of the Mississippi River. Settlement expanded into the Far West in the mid-19th century, especially after the discovery of gold in California in 1848 (see gold rush). Victory in the Mexican War (1846-48) brought the territory of seven more future states (including California and Texas) into U.S. hands. The northwestern boundary was established by treaty with Great Britain in 1846. The U.S. acquired southern Arizona by the Gadsden Purchase (1853). It suffered disunity during the conflict between the slavery-based plantation economy in the South and the free industrial and agricultural economy in the North, culminating in the American Civil War, and the abolition of slavery under the 13th Amendment. After Reconstruction (1865-77), the U.S. experienced rapid growth, urbanization, industrial development, and European immigration. In 1877 it authorized allotment of Indian reservation land to individual tribesmen, resulting in widespread loss of land to whites. By the end of the 19th century, it had developed foreign trade and acquired outlying territories, including Alaska, Midway island, the Hawaiian Islands, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, Guam, Wake Island, American Samoa, the Panama Canal Zone, and the Virgin Islands. The U.S. participated in World War I 1917-18. It granted suffrage to women in 1920 and citizenship to American Indians in 1924. The stock market crash of 1929 led to the Great Depression. The U.S. entered World War II after the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor (Dec. 7, 1941). Its explosion of the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan (Aug. 6, 1945), and the second on Nagasaki, Japan (Aug. 9, 1945), brought about the end of the war, and made it the leader of the Western world, involved it in the reconstruction of Europe and Japan, and embroiled it in a rivalry with the Soviet Union that became known as the Cold War. It participated in the Korean War. In 1952 it granted autonomous commonwealth status to Puerto Rico. Racial segregation in schools was declared unconstitutional in 1954. Alaska and Hawaii were made states in 1959. In 1964 Congress passed the Civil Rights Act and authorized full-scale intervention in the Vietnam War. The mid- to late-1960s were marked by widespread civil disorders, including race riots and antiwar demonstrations. The U.S. accomplished the first manned lunar landing in 1969. All U.S. troops were withdrawn from Vietnam in 1973. The U.S. led a coalition of forces against Iraq in the Persian Gulf War (1991), sent troops to Somalia (1992) to aid starving populations, and participated in NATO air strikes against Serb forces in the former Yugoslavia in 1995 and 1999. In 1998 Pres. William J. Clinton became only the second president to be impeached by the House of Representatives; he was acquitted by the Senate in 1999. Administration of the Panama Canal was turned over to Panama in 1999. In 2000 George W. Bush became the first person since 1888 to be elected president by the electoral college despite having won fewer popular votes than his opponent, Al Gore. After terrorist attacks destroyed the World Trade Center and part of the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001, the U.S. attacked Afghanistan's Taliban government for harboring and refusing to extradite the alleged mastermind of the terrorism, Osama bin Laden.

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