United States of America

A country founded on a written argument about the purpose of government, which has been arguing about it ever since. Thirteen colonies with different founding theories declared independence in 1776 on a claim of universal rights written by a slaveholder, and the constitution drafted in 1787 built a federal system deliberately full of friction - separated powers, an upper house weighted to small states, a supreme court - while counting enslaved people as three-fifths of a person for representation. Expansion west came by purchase, war and the removal of Native nations, and the unresolved question of slavery produced a civil war in which around seven hundred thousand died. Emancipation was followed by a century of legal segregation and then by a civil rights movement that dismantled it. Immigration built the population and was repeatedly restricted by origin. Industrial capacity decided both world wars, and the postwar order - the United Nations, the dollar, NATO, the internet - was substantially American design. The country landed people on the moon in 1969. It holds around four per cent of the world's population and a quarter of its economic output. Washington is the capital and New York the largest city. The country has about 340 million people and is the third largest by both population and area. There is no official language at federal level, though English is used throughout. Twenty-six of its sites are World Heritage listed. Its national park system, beginning with Yellowstone in 1872, was the first of its kind anywhere. The federal structure leaves criminal law, education and elections largely to the fifty states.

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