United States

Where the name comes from

United States of America describes a federation of states; America honours Italian navigator Amerigo Vespucci, whose accounts helped show the Americas were separate from Asia.

First people

Many Indigenous nations lived here for thousands of years, and Cahokia, near today’s St Louis, was a city of thousands around 1100.^1,2

Known for

The United States is known for Hollywood films, jazz and the first Moon landing in 1969.³

Outside contact

English settlement began at Jamestown in 1607.¹

The modern country

Thirteen British colonies declared independence in 1776, and Britain recognized it in 1783. The Constitution, written in 1787, divided power between a national government and the states.^4,5