Otázka: The USA – Geography, places of interest, selected history
Jazyk: Angličtina
Přidal(a): DedecekHribecek
The USA – Geography, places of interest, selected history
- Federal republic of 50 states
- Population: 328 mil – 3rd in the world (after China and India)
- Area: 10 mil km2 – 3rd biggest
- Borders: Canada and Mexico
- Highest point: Denali (6194 m)
- Lowest point: Death Valley (-86 m)
- Rivers: the Mississippi, the Colorado, the Ohio, the Missouri
GEOGRAPHY:
The United States includes fifty semi-autonomous states. It also administers 14 territories made up mostly of Pacific islands. The United States is the third largest country both in size and population. Two states Alaska and Hawaii are separated from the rest of the USA.
The west is mountainous – the Sierra Nevada, the Cascade Range and the Rocky Mountains. The southwest is area of desserts. The central region is dominated by large plains – the Great Plains. This region is mostly flat and because of that is suitable for farming. The east is mostly hilly – the Appalachian Mountains, where lot of minerals and coal can be found. The Great Valley extends from Appalachians. The highest point is Denali (used to be Mount McKinley) in Alaska and the lowest point is Death Valley.
The biggest river is the Mississippi, runs for more than 3 700 km from Minnesota to Louisiana ends in the Gulf of Mexico. Other big rivers are for example the Colorado, the Ohio, the Missouri and so on. There is the Salt Lake in the west and Great lakes in the northeast – Lake Michigan, Lake Ontario, Lake Superior, Lake Huron, Lake Erie (HOMES).
REGIONS:
- New England: Main, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island
- The Middle Atlantic: New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia
- The South: Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana
- The Midwest: Iowa, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, West Virginia, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, Wisconsin
- The Southwest: California, Arizona, Nevada
- The Northwest: Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Oregon, Washington
- Alaska, Hawaii
PLACES OF INTEREST:
- New England: typical rural settlement, old buildings, Harvard
- Niagara Falls: 50m high and more than kilometre long wide, borders with Canada
- Pennsylvania: Dutch country, rural settlement, Amish people
- Philadelphia: former capital, Independence Hall, Liberty Bell
- Florida: Everglades NP, Miami
- The Grand Canyon: 30 km wide, 1,6 km deep
- Glacier NP, Yellowstone NP, Yosemite NP
- Los Angeles (Hollywood, Beverly Hills), Las Vegas
SELECTED HISTORY:
- The Colonial Period (1492-1775): 1492 Christopher Columbus, Italian explorer, navigator and colonizer, discovered America. He wanted to sail around globe to India. 1584 – Sir Walter Raleigh established the first English colony in America. In honour of ‘virgin-queen’ Elizabeth I was it named Virginia. 1607 – the first permanent settlement in Virginia – Jamestown (after James I). 1620 – the Pilgrim Fathers arrives on Mayflower to Massachusetts coast (New England). 18th century – continual wars between the English and the French. All French territories except Louisiana became English.
- The War of Independence (1775 – 1783): fight between England and its 13 colonies in America resulting as the establishment of United States of America. 16. December 1773 – Boston Tea Party, 4. July 1776 – The Declaration of Independence written by Thomas Jefferson, 1783 – the peace treaty signed by King George III – independence of United States.
- Civil War (1861 – 1865): two different economic and social systems in the U.S. – Capitalist system in the North (based on industry) and slave system in the South. 1860 – Abraham Lincoln (from the Republican Party) became the 16th president. 1 January 1863 – A. Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. 15 April 1865 – Abraham Lincoln assassinated (zavražděn) by an agent of the South.
- The second half of 19th century: the period of reconstruction, Territorial expansion – Alaska, by 1890 became U.S. the world leading power, Gold Rush in Alaska (1896 – 1899)
- 20th century: The First World War (entered in 1917), 1920s the Roaring Twenties (prohibition), October 29 1929 – the great crash on a stock market on Wall Street (Great Depression), The Second World War (entered in 1941 after Japanese attack on Hawaii Islands), The Cold War (1947 – 1991), Korean War (1950 – 1953), War in Vietnam (1955 – 1975)
AMERICAN PRESIDENTS:
- John Fitzgerald Kennedy
- Richard Nixon
- Ronald Reagan
- Bill Clinton
- George Walker Bush
- Barrack Obama
