The United States is a large country. In terms of land mass it comes behind only Russia and Canada, and unlike those two countries most of it isn't frozen solid most of the year. It is land that can be used, and it is land that can be populated. Americans have done both and they've done them at a pace unparalleled in history. .

At the time Columbus did not discover America in 1492, there were less than a million people living on what is now the Continental United States. Due to the fact that Columbus thought that he had finally found a sea passage to India, he called these people Indians. They weren't, of course. They were one of the some three hundred nations, or tribes, of North Americans who had been developing their own separate histories, languages, philosophies, and religions for over a thousand years.

In any case, two hundred years went by and things didn't change much on the North American continen

Americans believe in equality and they believe their system of government basically gives everyone free access to realize their dreams, (This is, of course, a matter to discuss...) Americans are a mobile society; they move on the average once every five years, and a quarter of all "homes" sold are the kind that you can hook to the back of your car and drive off with. Mobility is associated with freedom and

America's first racial minority -the Blacks or Afro-Americans -was not a part of this idealistic experiment. They were brought to America as slaves, but today they make up 12 percent of the American population and they are equal citizens before the law. There have been problems along the way, and serious problem remains before it can be said that true equality exists between blacks and whites. The point here that concerns the diversity of the American society is the scope of this experiment of bringing people of every kind of race, color, religion, and culture together as members of one nation state.

Mexico To the south, the United States has Mexico as its neighbor. Like the US and Canada, Mexico was also once a European colony. But Mexico has always been poorer than its northern neighbors, though it once boasted a rich and highly developed native culture -the Aztec -that was brought to its knees and ultimately destroyed by the Spaniards. Mexico is also a former Spanish colony, and it is in fact the largest Spanish-speaking country in the world today (about 90 million in population). Still, only nine percent of the population are actually of Spanish or other European ancestry: 60 percent are "mestizos" of mixed native American and Spanish descent, and 30 percent are pure native American. Mexico is also less of a "salad" than the United States and Canada and it is also more homogeneous in one other important way: 90 percent of the population is Roman Catholic, and though the Church does not enjoy the same political influence that it does further south in Latin America, it is still a force to be reckoned with.

New situations demanded new techniques, however, and in America experimentation was looked upon as a kind of national heritage. Trial and error became a way of life. Inventiveness was a reward in itself- old ways were not regarded with the same reverence as in the "Old World." If your idea made life simpler and easier, so what if it looked funny or seemed strange?

Before leaving Mexico it is also worth noting that more or less all of the Southwest United States was once Mexican. California, Nevada, Utah, parts of Wyoming and Colorado, and Arizona were acquired by treaty in 1848. Texas and New Mexico were annexed in 1845 which resulted in a war with Mexico (the Mexican War, 1846-1848)

American history can be regarded as an experiment in democracy; it can also be regarded as an experiment in bringing people from allover the world together as equals in one nation. Think about it

There are now fifty states that comprise the US. Alaska and Hawaii became states in 1959. They became the 49th and 50th respectively. If you take a look at the map of the United States you will notice immediately that these two states are separated from what is referred to as the Continental US. Alaska was actually purchased from Russia in 1867 for the net sum of $7,3 million, and Hawaii became a US territory in 1900 after those islands' monarchy had been overthrown in 1893.

It is easy to see that size has influenced the American way of life. Certain comparative statistics underscore the obvious. Per person, Americans travel about three times the number of kilometers a year, as do the people of Europe. They have greater distances to travel. Europeans use more trains. Americans use more cars and drive them further -they cover twice as many kilometers in their cars as do Europeans. There is one car per every three Europeans while Americans own about twice as many cars per person, or one car for every 1,7 persons, and they have a n

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Approximate Pages = 17 (250 words per page double spaced)