Otázka: Map of the USA
Jazyk: Angličtina
Přidal(a): Klárka
Basic Information
- Flag– The US flag nicknamed The Stars and Stripes, has 13 horizontal stripes representing the original 13 colonies. The blue square in the upper left corner contains 50 stars, standing for the 50 states. The blue square has changed throughout the years – last time it changed was when Hawaii joined USA, 1960.
- Americans are proud of their nation therefore they emphasize their national songs and symbols:
- The Great Seal, Liberty bell, Statue of Liberty, Mount Rushmore, American Bison
- Bird: Bald Eagle
- Flower: Rose
- Tree: Oak
- (…)
- Population – 300 millions inhabitants – 74% – white people
- Minorities
- Afro-Americans – 12 %- offspring of slaves
- Hispano-Americans – more and more, lots of them are there illegal, live in the states along border with Mexico
- Original nation – Indians – live in reservation, oppressed (utlačováni)
- President – Barack Obama
- Capital city – Washington D.C.
- Federative republic
- Minorities
Landscape
Position
The USA is situated on the northern and western hemisphere of the Globe, mostly on the continent of North America + Hawaii.
Borders
USA is bounded by the Pacific Ocean from the West, the Atlantic Ocean from the East and the Gulf of Mexico from the South. It borders with Canada (longest border in the world) from the North and Mexico from the South (divided mostly by the river Rio Grande).
Mountains
Appalachian Mountains – From Alabama (USA) all the way to Canada. Highest peak – Mt. Mitchell. The Appalachian Mountains contain a major deposit of anthracite coal as well as bituminous coal. Because of the use of the mountain removal method, the environment is being destroyed. →Importance for Economy.
Rocky Mountains – Part of the American Cordillera range (spread from the Antarctic Peninsula to Alaska). Created by the subduction of the Pacific plate under the North American plate. →The area is unstable until today and every now and then an earthquake occurs.
Alaska Range- Highest point of USA- Mt. McKenley.
Sierra Nevada- Yosemite National Park.
Rivers
Mississippi River- The forth longest and tenth largest among the world´s rivers.
Colorado River – Important for its´ dams – fresh water reservoir and electricity. Lake Powell. Hoover Dam is one of the greatest dams of the world and supplies most of Las Vegas by electricity and fresh water.
Youkon – The Gold Rush
The Great Lakes
Consisting of Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario. Largest liquid fresh water source.
Climate
A large size and a geographical variety include most of climate types, from dry deserts (Death Valley) to humid tropical rainforests (Hawaii, Florida) and arctic areas in Alaska.
The West Coast is influenced by the cold California Current, which does not bring much humidity. Therefore California is known for its sunny weather, because it really does not rain much in this region. We can also find the driest and hottest place in North America – Death Valley.
The climate in the central part of US creates good conditions for agriculture. The lowlands along the Mississippi River used to grow corn, wheat and cotton. This area is endangered by the tornados. This phenomenon occurs due to the interference of the cold wind from the north and the hot wind coming from the Gulf.
Hurricanes often damage the South-East Coast. These huge storms are formed above the equatorial Atlantic Ocean and are then brought by the wind to North America, where they cause damage.
Otherwise the climate is temperate or appropriate to the latitude.
Historical map (for more info see question 4)
The forming of US goes back to the 17-18 century when Englishmen had begun settling the new continent from the east. New states were being established and the nation spread across the continent (see map in my presentation). Fun fact – since the flag of the US is dependent on the number of states it has changed every time a new state joined the union (also see presentation).
States of USA
Being a federation the USA consists of 50 states and District of Columbia. Each state has its´ own government, governor and constitution. However they share their sovereignty with the United States federal government and especially over the last few years the states tend to lose their rights and the laws unite across the whole federation.
Economy
The US economy is the worlds´ largest since 1980´s. However it is dealing with serious troubles nowadays – it´s 15 trillion dept speaks for itself http://www.usdebtclock.org/ (together with the private sector the dept is up to 50 trillion). Nevertheless USA has the largest army industry of the world, most worldwide known companies reside in the US and its´ scientific research is still top quality. Some of the companies to be remembered – General Motors, Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, McDonalds, Coca-Cola, Boeing, Google, film industry (Pixar, Walt Disney..)..
Sports, culture, cities…
Washington, D.C.
The intention of the Founding Fathers was that the United States capital should be at a neutral site, not giving favor to any existing state; as a result, the District of Columbia was created in 1800 to serve as the seat of government. The inhabitants of the District do not have full representation in Congress or a sovereign elected government (they were allotted presidential electors by the 23rd amendment, and have a non-voting delegate in Congress). Some residents of the District support statehood of some form for that jurisdiction—either statehood for the whole district or for the inhabited part, with the remainder remaining under federal jurisdiction. While statehood is always a live political question in the District, the prospects for any movement in that direction in the immediate future seem dim.
According to Article IV, Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution, „New states may be admitted by the Congress into this union; but no new states shall be formed or erected within the jurisdiction of any other state; nor any state be formed by the junction of two or more states, or parts of states, without the consent of the legislatures of the states concerned as well as of the Congress.“[20] This was the case when Maine was split off from Massachusetts; and when West Virginia was split from Virginia during the Civil War. When Texas was admitted to the union in 1845, it was much larger than any other state and was specifically granted the right to divide itself into as many as five separate states.
American cities:
– New York – center of finance, culture and business
– Detroit – Michigan, industry city
– Los Angeles – CA, movie and music industry, the biggest city of California
– San Francisco –Golden Gate, Alcatraz, biggest Chinatown in the US
– Las Vegas – Nevada, casinos
– Miami – Florida, beaches
– New Orleans – Louisiana, carnivals, damaged by hurricane Katrina in 2005
– Harbors – Houston, New York, Los Angeles
Places connected with famous people:
- California – Hollywood – center of movie and music industry, Walk of Fame (chodník slávy)
- Mount Rushmore – rock shaped like heads of 4 American presidents (Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, Roosevelt), South Dakota
- Graceland, Tennessee – Elvis Presley
- Brooklyn Bridge – connects Brooklyn and Manhattan, symbol of New York
- Golden Gate Bridge – San Francisco, red-orange color
- Statue of liberty
- Empire state Building
- American Museum of Natural History in New York
- White House
- Alcazar – prison on an island near to California
- Universities – Harvard, Yale, Stanford,…
- Grand Canyon in Colorado
- National parks (Yellow Stone)
