The United States of America (abbreviated USA), also called United
States (abbreviated US) and America (abbreviated America) for short,
is a democratic, federally structured republic in North America and
with some islands also in Oceania. It consists of 50 states, the
capital Washington, D.C., which is a separate federal district, as
well as five larger Union-dependent territories and nine island
territories.
The 48 contiguous United States, the so-called
Lower 48, together with Alaska, from which they are separated by
Canadian territory, form the Continental United States. The state of
Hawaii and some smaller outlying areas are located in the Pacific
and Caribbean. The country has a very high geographical and climatic
diversity with a large variety of animal and plant species.
The United States of America is the third largest state on Earth
both in terms of area and in terms of the number of inhabitants. Its
extent of 9.83 million square kilometers is surpassed only by Russia
and Canada, and its population of more than 334 million inhabitants
is surpassed only by India and China. The most populous city in the
USA is New York City, major metropolitan areas are Los Angeles,
Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Philadelphia, Washington, Miami, Atlanta,
Boston and San Francisco with over 5 million inhabitants each. The
degree of urbanization is 83 percent (as of 2021). A well-known
national myth says that the USA is one of the most multicultural
countries in the world; however, empirical studies show that the USA
only performs on average in a global comparison of ethnic and
cultural diversity.
Paleoindians migrated from Asia to the
North American mainland of the present-day United States more than
13,000 years ago (Buttermilk Creek Complex), having settled Alaska
several millennia earlier. European colonization began around 1600,
mainly from England and in a protracted dispute with France. The
United States emerged from 13 colonies on the Atlantic coast.
Disputes between Great Britain and the American colonies led to the
American Revolution.
On July 4, 1776, delegates from the 13
colonies adopted the Declaration of Independence of the United
States and thus the founding of the United States. The American War
of Independence, which ended with the recognition of independence in
the Peace of Paris (1783), was the first successful war of
independence against a European colonial power. The current
Constitution was adopted on September 17, 1787. 27 additional
articles have been added. The first ten additional articles,
collectively referred to as the Bill of Rights, were ratified in
1791 and guarantee a large number of inalienable rights.
Driven by the doctrine of Manifest Destiny, the United States
expanded its territory from the Atlantic to the Pacific throughout
the 19th century. This included the forcible expulsion of indigenous
Indian tribes, the acquisition of new territories in the
Mexican-American War, among other things, and the founding of new
federal states. The American Civil War in 1865 led to the end of
slavery in the United States and to the fact that they finally took
the path to becoming an industrial state. At the end of the 19th
century. By the beginning of the twentieth century, the USA was the
most significant power on the American continent, and its economy
had become the largest in the world.
In the Spanish-American
War and, in the First World War, they rose to become a world power,
whose military strength ensured their global influence. The United
States emerged from the Second World War, together with the Soviet
Union, as one of two superpowers. They were the first country to
have nuclear weapons and became one of five permanent members of the
United Nations Security Council. After the end of the Cold War and
the collapse of the Soviet Union, the United States was considered
the only remaining superpower until the recent rise of the People's
Republic of China. They are a founding member of the United Nations,
the Organization of American States (OAS) and many other
international organizations. Their foreign policy and cultural
influence is being used worldwide.
According to the Human
Development Index, the United States is one of the countries with
very high human development, and its economy is the largest economy
in the world with a gross domestic product of $ 23.0 trillion in
2021, which corresponded to 24% of nominal and 16% of global
economic output adjusted for purchasing power, respectively. The
country had the eighth highest per capita income in 2020 and the
third highest per capita wealth in 2021. In terms of total national
wealth, the USA is by far the richest country in the world.
The economic performance of the country is favored by the richness
of natural resources, well-developed infrastructure and high average
productivity. Although the economic structure is generally
considered post-industrial, the country is still one of the world's
largest producers of goods. The United States was responsible for
36% of global military spending in 2016, ranking first, followed by
China with 13% and Russia with 4.1%. The state of emergency declared
as a result of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 has been
in force since 2001.
The United States stretches from the Atlantic coast in
the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west. Consequently, the regions are
also very different. Here is a simplified overview of the regions,
starting on the east coast:
New
England
New England is known for its wooden architecture. Here
are the roots of the United States, at the same time New England is the
most European part of the USA. The individual states are small, so all
can be visited within a week.
Connecticut
Maine Massachusetts
New Hampshire
Rhode Island Vermont
Mid-Atlantic States
The mid-Atlantic
states range from New York in the north to Washington in the south. The
densely populated region is home to some of the largest cities in the
USA, while rolling hills alternate with traditional seaside resorts on
the coasts of Long Island, Maryland and New Jersey.
Delaware Maryland
New Jersey New York
Pennsylvania
Midwest
In the Midwest you will find hilly farmland, vast forests, picturesque
towns and many bustling industrial cities. Many of the states border the
Great Lakes, the world's largest freshwater system, forming the North
Shore of the United States.
Illinois
Indiana Iowa
Michigan Minnesota
Missouri Ohio
Wisconsin
South
Own culture and traditions.
Alabama
Arkansas Georgia
Kentucky Louisiana
Mississippi North Carolina
South Carolina Tennessee
Virginia West Virginia
Florida
Florida is the
"Sunshine State".
Florida Panhandle North Central South
Texas
The second largest state in the USA.
Great Plains
A journey through mostly flat states. From the
forests in the east to the prairies to the high plains.
Kansas · Nebraska ·
North Dakota · Oklahoma
·
South Dakota
Rocky Mountains
The spectacular, snow-capped Rockies offer a variety of recreational
opportunities such as hiking, rafting and skiing. There are also deserts
and some large cities.
Colorado ·
Idaho · Montana ·
Wyoming
Southwest
Heavily influenced by Latin American culture. The arid
Southwest has some of the most spectacular natural landmarks in the
United States and a thriving arts scene. Although sparsely populated,
the deserts are home to some of the largest cities.
Arizona · Nevada
· New Mexico · Utah
Pacific Northwest
The pleasantly mild
north-west has plenty of hiking opportunities as well as cosmopolitan
cities.
Oregon Washington
California
California occupies most of the west coast. Two big cities that are the
centers of the state. Sun, beach and sea. In addition there are
mountains, very interesting national parks and the country's most famous
coastal road (CA-1 or Big Sur).
One-fifth the size of the rest of the United States.
Alaska extends into the polar region and is largely untouched.
Hawaii
Volcanic archipelago in the Pacific
Ocean located 2,300 miles from California (the closest state). holiday
paradise!
There are over 10,000 cities and towns in the United
States. The most visited by international tourists are:
1
New York. America's largest city with
world-class cuisine, unique art exhibits, a diverse population unmatched
anywhere in the world and many other great highlights. Both a national
symbol and highly international in character.
2
Miami. Miami is home to some of the country's largest beaches. Here,
sun lovers from the north meet immigrants from Latin America and the
Caribbean looking for a new perspective.
3 Los Angeles. Hometown of
Hollywood and the film industry, palm-blessed LA offers mountains,
beaches, sunshine and just about everything a California visitor dreams
of.
4 Orlando. Location of many famous and
popular amusement parks.
5 San Francisco. One of the most photogenic
cities in the world. Quirky San Francisco offers attractions of all
kinds and is a popular starting point for tours along the coast or to
Yosemite National Park. Feature: public toilet.
6
Las Vegas.
Gambling and party town in the Nevada desert.
7
Honolulu. Capital of
Hawaii and the largest air hub in the Pacific.
8
Washington, D.C.
Federal capital of the USA with the representative seats of parliament,
government and the Supreme Court as well as numerous museums, monuments
and parks.
9 Chicago Tel: +1.312.744.5000. The "Windy City"
on Lake Michigan; third largest city in the USA and metropolis of the
Midwest; this is where the skyscraper was invented, which still
characterizes the skyline today.
10
Boston unofficial capital of
New England, one of the most historic cities in the USA, known for top
universities and sports.
11 San Diego. former Spanish mission on the
sunny coast of southern California with a famous zoo and water sports
paradise.
Attention: Even if you only change from one flight to another at the
airport, you must enter the USA and the necessary formalities must be
completed (visa or visa requirement). If the final destination of the
trip is Canada or Mexico, it may be that German citizens also need a
visa to stay at the airport in the USA.
Visa applications can be
submitted by appointment at the local consulates General in Frankfurt
and Munich or the consular section of the embassy in Berlin. During a
personal visit to the US missions, one should not carry bags, backpacks,
etc. take it with you, since such "hand luggage" is not allowed to be
taken into the embassy.
It should be noted that the information
here could no longer be up-to-date due to the constant tightening of
anti-terrorism laws, as they have been changed at very short notice
several times recently. Since October 2017, there may be additional
requests at the place of departure. It is therefore always advisable to
contact the US consular office to find out the current entry
formalities.
Citizens of the EU and EFTA except Bulgaria, Romania and Cyprus can
enter the USA visa-free ("Visa Waiver") for short tourist or business
stays (up to 90 days).
When entering by plane or ship, you must
register electronically as a tourist (duration of stay less than 90
days) no later than 72 hours before the planned entry. This Electronic
System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) is valid for two years if you
travel with your own passport. Registration is carried out online on the
ESTA page of the US Department of Homeland Security. The registration
costs 21 dollars and must be paid by credit card as part of the online
registration.
Since 2016, entry is only possible with a
machine-readable passport (e.g. Bordeaux-colored passport of the EU).
This also applies to children! German children's passports and the dark
green emergency passport do not have a digital chip. Austrian children's
passports, on the other hand, already have a chip and can be used for
the ESTA application. However, a visa can be applied for. A paper form
(I-94) is normally no longer to be filled in for entry. But for this, a
customs declaration. Temporary passports (in green) no longer entitle to
ESTA entry, as they do not contain a chip.
When entering the USA,
the document read out by machine and not the manually entered data were
valid. This can also lead to the fact that one can be refused entry to
the USA if the wrong entry is entered unknowingly. It is very important
to enter the passport number, which is why it must also be entered twice
during the registration process. It sounds simple, but it has a greater
meaning, since you have to write off a machine-readable ID card manually
and this is the case with a German passport, on which a 0 (digit) cannot
be distinguished from an O (letter). Here it is necessary to know that,
for example, a passport number never contains an O (letter).
Since 2020, all social media accounts have to be disclosed for the ESTA
form. For longer stays or for other nationalities, a visa is required,
which must be applied for at the relevant embassy or consulate in good
time (months) before entry. A visa is also required for longer stays in
Mexico or Canada, for example, when moving to the USA.
When entering the United States, the immigration officer's questions
about the purpose and length of the trip are answered, the fingerprints
of all fingers are submitted (if not still stored from a previous entry
and satisfactory for the official), and a biometric photo is taken
(OBIM). It is important to remain friendly here, in addition, the
officials are very friendly but humorless and try to process the process
quickly. If one does not speak English, fellow travelers are often asked
to translate. The instructions of the instructor, who divides the queue
of people waiting for the individual officials, must be observed. The
Transportation Security Administration (TSA) advises air travelers to no
longer lock their suitcases in order to allow manual follow-up checks.
The TSA has the right to open all luggage, including forcibly locked
ones. In any case, a note about the successful inspection will be
deposited in the suitcase, in which attention is drawn to the exclusion
of liability in case of damage or loss of individual contents." Laptops
or other electronic data carriers may be searched by the US border
authorities for the prevention of criminal offenses. Luggage items are
always screened for explosives. Dogs are often used, which are run over
the suitcases on the luggage belt by an official and searched for drugs
and / or food (!) look.
In some countries, entry control is
already successful at the airport of departure (e.g. in Canada), where
the US authorities have their own offices (e.g. in Montreal) or, as in
Vancouver, electronic vending machines are set up next to the staffed
counters, through which control is quickly handled with the
machine-readable passports.
Duty-free quantities
Minimum age
18 years: 200 cigarettes and 100 cigars (by no means Cuban!)
Minimum
age 21 years: 1 liter of alcohol (no absinthe)
Gifts with a maximum
total value of $100
Cash worth US$ 10,000 (US dollars or foreign
currency)
By plane or ship
The airline must provide the
address of the first overnight stay, which must pass on this and many
other personal data to US authorities. After the baggage claim, customs
still have to be crossed. Only then do you enter the publicly accessible
airport area.
A journey overland
Important: When entering by
land, a fee of US$6 will be charged by all nationalities, except USA,
Canada and Mexico.
For entry by land, registration via ESTA has
been required since 01.10.2022. There is even more work on paper at the
national borders, and it may be that a so-called I-94A form is included
in the passport. This form should be returned at the time of departure,
so that the departure is registered and there are no problems with
another entry. Personal luggage is rarely checked and can therefore
usually remain in the vehicle.
According to American law, the use
of a ferry, e.g. the ferry from Victoria (British Columbia) to the US
state of Washington, is also considered as an entry by land and not as
an entry by ship.
Outdoor areas
Specific regulations apply to
visits to certain external areas, such as American Samoa.
Special
arrangements for Cuba
Direct travel to/from Cuba is only permitted
for strictly defined purposes. This applies to citizens of all nations.
There are extensive documentation obligations. The documents must be
kept for five years after the trip.
Length of stay
"In the
case of visa-free entry, the actual permitted length of stay is
determined individually by the US border officials. A late extension of
the residence permit – if your departure is delayed somewhat due to
unforeseeable circumstances - is not possible. If the entry was made
with a visa, any office of the entry authority can approve an extension
of the stay for US.“
By plane
Many cities in the USA can be
reached from Germany by direct flight. For cost reasons, it may be
helpful to change trains once on the flight to the desired city. It
should be borne in mind that the entry formalities must be carried out
at the first place you reach in the USA or Canada. This can take up to 1
1/2 hours. This time should definitely be taken into account during the
transfer time. Due to the strict security precautions, you should be at
the airport at least two hours before departure for international
flights and at least one hour before departure for flights within the
United States. Since October 2021, it has also been mandatory for
domestic flights to present a photo ID with a photo, which can also be a
driver's license.
Deviating from the procedures in other
countries, US authorities can already be located within public areas of
the airport buildings (gladly at the escalators!) carry out individual
checks. These are, for example, drug tests, whereby the fingertips are
removed with a test strip.
Flying is generally not as cheap as in
Europe, as there are fewer alternatives to flying. There are several
"low-cost airlines" in America, such as JetBlue, Southwest, Spirit or
SkyBus (with the USA - specifically Southwest - being both the inventor
of this category of airlines and the country where the categories are
most blurred). In addition, some of the largest airlines in the world
are first and foremost the "big three" United, American Airlines and
Delta, which are still left after several mergers and are integrated
into the three major aviation alliances (United with Lufthansa at Star
Alliance, Delta at SkyTeam and American at OneWorld) and offer
corresponding codeshare offers. There are also smaller airlines such as
Alaskan (despite the name not limited to Alaska) and regional airlines,
some of which belong to the big three. The cheapest way to book domestic
flights is directly with the respective airline online or with providers
such as Travelocity or Expedia. While you can also get luggage included
in the cheapest price ranges at Southwest, there has been an increasing
tendency in the 21st century for the "big three" (Delta, American,
United) to offer a "basic economy" fare, where everything really costs
extra. The boundaries between "premium" offers and "normal" wood class
are also increasingly blurring in domestic business. The "first class"
is often little more than a little more legroom and a few cookies and
you don't get into the lounge for free at many airlines even if you have
a "first class" ticket. On the other hand, the "Big Front Seat" at
Spirit or "Mint" at Jetblue is a considerable increase in legroom for a
moderate surcharge. The trend towards more and more blurring boundaries
between "cheap" and "premium" has recently reversed again somewhat and
especially on the transcontinental long haul (for example LA-New York)
you can even get a "real" first class at the "big three" - for a
corresponding surcharge. Various American (online) publications deal in
detail with the various offers of the airlines as well as tips and
tricks on how to get as many miles and bonus points as possible with
credit cards or similar.
Street
From Canada and Mexico, entry
by car is usually possible without any problems. The same regulations
apply as described above for entry. When crossing the border by rental
car, it should be noted that the transfer to the USA is allowed in the
rental agreement (be sure to read the fine print!).
Railway
See also: Amtrak
The quasi-national railway companies of the USA
and Canada, Amtrak and VIA Rail operate three routes that cross the
border in cooperation. These are on the one hand the "Amtrak Cascades"
from Vancouver to Seattle (twice a day) on the west coast and on the
east coast the "Maple Leaf" from Toronto (via Niagara Falls) and the
"Adirondack" from Montreal (via Albany), each to New York City once a
day.
In the latter two trains, the border formalities take place
at the border in the standing train, which takes a lot of time. The
Amtrak Cascades, on the other hand, handles the border formalities even
before departure, so you should be at the station early enough to do
passport control and the like.
There is currently no way to cross
the border by train from Mexico, but on the American side, the border
cities of San Diego (California) and San Antonio (Texas) are served by
Amtrak.
By boat
Traveling by ship is a rarely chosen way. The
transatlantic journey from Southampton to New York takes a good six
days. The only ship that still runs this route 3 to 4 times a year is
the Queen Mary 2 of the Cunard Line. Including the arrival, the trip
costs from about 1700 up to 30,000 euros, depending on the cabin
category.
Queen Mary 2, more information at Cunard
Sports
sailors
Entry with your own yacht is only permitted in approved
“ports of entry” (list and contact details). In any case, a personal
appointment with Customs & Border Protection (CBP) is required upon
arrival. For this purpose, there is now also the CBR ROAM app for video
chats. A file number (”application number") is issued. On Fridays and
weekends, contacting may be difficult due to overwork. There will be no
callbacks to non-American telephone numbers. The interpretation of the
generally uniform federal regulations varies from region to region, but
the responsible officials are usually helpful. A registration of the
ship's papers at the USCG Vessel Documentation Center is valid for five
years. Details are explained in the Boater's Guide to Federal
Regulations for Recreational Vessels. Upon arrival on the mainland, the
general quarantine regulations apply, i.e. fresh meat is confiscated.
Upon arrival, the yacht will be issued a Cruising License (CL) valid
for up to one year free of charge, provided that there is an agreement
with the relevant countries (including D, A and CH). (To get a new one,
you must have visited a foreign port and been absent for at least 15
days.) Without CL it is possible to sail between different ports of
entry or to apply for a fee-based “permission to move” (2018: US$ 36).
The form ”CBP-1300 Vessel Entrance" must be submitted for a fee within
48 hours of arrival, delays are punishable by law.
Ships without
CL that are longer than 30 feet must be equipped with a transponder (CBP
Decal), for which a calendar annual fee, US$ 29 in 2019, is due.
Also
mandatory are emergency radio beacons (EPIRB, 406 MHz), which must be
registered on first entry, about which a proof is issued.
Special
arrangements
If you are coming directly from Cuba to an American
port, you have to expect difficulties and longer interviews.
Strict
pilotage regulations apply to the waters off the state of Washington.
Similar rules apply off Alaska for ships longer than 65 feet.
The
US Coast Guard has the right to enter and search all incoming ships in
the area of the 12-mile zone, which also happens frequently, especially
off Florida. The Q flag must be displayed within the zone until all
formalities have been completed.
The respective states may
require the acquisition of fishing licenses (“fishing license”).
The previously strict restrictions on anchoring off Florida have all
been lifted; appropriate permits must be purchased off Georgia
(regulation text May 2019).
Many rivers and bays, and on the east
coast practically the entire 3-mile zone, are “no discharge zone” (NDZ)
for cesspools, and numerous local water protection conditions also
apply. Penalties are high.
In many areas of the USA you can hardly do without a car, because the
cities are very extensive. However, contrary to the usual opinion, in
many cities there is a developed local transport system, you just need
to find it. In general, the trend is that cities in the north and east
have better public transport than in the south and west, and cities on
the coasts (including large lakes) have better public transport than
inland. Since about 1990, a lot has also happened in this regard, so Los
Angeles has now more than 150 kilometers of rails that are used in urban
passenger transport. The S-Bahn system in San Diego has been extensively
expanded and reaches the areas of the surrounding area as well as the
border crossing to Mexico near Tijuana. Nevertheless, in many cities you
will only have the choice between bus taxi and car and buses have a
notoriously bad reputation in the USA and are often slow and
user-unfriendly.
By train
With Amtrak you can travel to 46 of
the 50 states of the USA as well as to Canada. Most train routes are
operated with long diesel trains. So far, there are only express trains
called Acela Express on the east coast (they are not quite as fast as in
Europe or Asia - they are only allowed to travel 150 miles per hour and
only on a short section of the route - the TGV and ICE, on the other
hand, travel the equivalent of 200 miles per hour between Strasbourg and
Paris). The Acela is particularly popular with business travelers and
federal employees and is comparable in price to airplanes rather than
European express trains. In most of the rest of the network, there is a
general speed limit of 79 miles per hour, which is even slower than
German regional traffic, which travels at up to 160 km / h or 100 miles
per hour.
Consequently, trains are naturally quite long on the
way for the further distances. For example, the journey from New York to
Los Angeles takes four days and can cost twice as much as a flight.
Amtrak's comfortable sleeper trains can be viewed and booked virtually
on the website. In most trains, the luggage has to be checked in, so you
should think very carefully in time about which luggage you take into
the compartment as hand luggage. The baggage allowance limits are
extremely generous - especially compared to those of an airplane - and
you should always get everything under control. All trains are
non-smoking trains. However, smokers have the opportunity to smoke on
the platform at stops if the train is not delayed.
One problem
that has plagued Amtrak since it was founded in the early seventies is
the fact that most of the network is owned not by the state, but by
private (freight) railway companies. This not only leads to the often
unacceptable condition of the rails, but also to the fact that passenger
trains have to wait again and again on the mostly single-track network
until freight trains have passed them. Exceptions to this are found
mainly in the Northeast Corridor (Boston-Washington) on which the Acela
Express runs, as well as in California, where the state of California
spends money to keep the rails in good condition and ensures the
priority of Amtrak trains. Since the delays can also add up to several
hours, you should always plan for a sufficient buffer between departure
and the last train, preferably a whole day. The exception to this is -
as mentioned above - the Acela, which is more punctual than flights on
this route. There are several websites in the USA that list how many
times a train has been significantly late in the last weeks and months,
which provides a certain planning security.
With Amtrak's USA
Rail Passes, there are also round-trip passes for individual travelers.
There is a specialized rail Pass for California.
By bus
Certainly not the most glamorous and not even necessarily the cheapest
form of travel on extremely long distances, buses cover (almost) the
whole country and are often the only realistic alternative if you don't
have your own car. Traditionally, companies such as "Greyhound" offer
connections from (near the center) bus stations with more or less
well-developed infrastructure. However, since at least the eighties, an
"ultra-cheap" competition has grown up in the form of the "china town
buses", which travel from roadside to roadside (without really much
station infrastructure) originally - as the name suggests - to connect
the various neighborhoods of the Chinese minority. Other companies such
as Bolt Bus and Megabus have copied this model and no longer only serve
Chinatowns. However, it should be borne in mind that the price structure
is often not dissimilar to the cheaper airlines and a ticket bought on
time can actually cost a dollar, but if you book the same route "last
minute" it can easily cost thirty or forty dollars, plus possible fees
for things like luggage.
Rental
The easiest way to travel
around the country is certainly by car.
A rental car is
recommended for shorter stays. Although the rates of car rental
companies close to the airport are often slightly higher than those of
other branches, it is most convenient to rent a rental car directly at
the airport. Advance booking is advisable, if only because then you can
better compare the prices. Each airport has an area where the car rental
companies are located with their counters and car depots. Only at
smaller airports this area is located directly at the terminal. At
larger airports you can reach the car rental companies with free
minibuses (shuttles), which depart directly in front of the terminal. At
some airports that connect their terminals with their own train (e.g.
San Francisco International), you can also use it to get to the car
rental companies.
You cannot rent a car in the USA without
presenting a credit card, even if the rental price has already been paid
in advance. Debit cards are not accepted.
With the car rental you
always buy a basic insurance package, but its coverage – compared to
German insurance policies – is very low. In the event of an accident or
car theft, you are left at a cost, which can be painfully high in the
USA. On the other hand, the conclusion of some voluntary additional
insurances, which the car rental company also offers, helps. The ADAC
also offers its members appropriate insurance packages.
However,
before you buy one of these services, it is worth taking a look at the
fine print that you have received with your German credit card. Many
card issuers offer their customers comprehensive insurance services if
they use the card to rent a car with it.
In addition, one should
pay attention to the specified minimum age. Although the driver's
license can be obtained in the USA at the age of 18 or earlier, renting
a car is still subject to an age restriction in most cases. The limit is
21 to 25 years, depending on the rental company. For younger drivers,
therefore, there are usually high additional costs.
Large car
rental companies often offer self-check-in machines at international
airports. This works without any problems, but it is often asked until
when the driver's license is valid. For driving license holders with an
unlimited valid driving license, it is sufficient to enter any day in
the future (birthday +100 years works).
As a rule, after
check-in, you can choose your vehicle from a variety of cars of the
booked class. The key is inserted, check the vehicle for damage and
condition and drive off. There is a final check at the exit gate, that's
it. The return of the vehicle rarely takes more than a minute.
With the increasing digitalization of vehicles, rental car companies are
also using the functionalities for vehicle monitoring that are possible
as a result. It is not entirely clear how far these surveillance
measures go because the data protection regulations in the USA are lower
than the European standards. The car rental companies assure that the
data will not be used to spy on customers. However, it is known that,
for example, Hertz can retrieve the GPS position of a vehicle and some
vehicle data, such as the maintenance status and tank level, from a
central location (operation statistics). Furthermore, at least with this
company it should be possible to lock and unlock the vehicle remotely
(remote lock / unlock) and to shut down the vehicle in the event of a
possible theft (remote shutoff). It should therefore be borne in mind
that, if necessary, in the case of driving profiles that deviate from
the terms of use (e.g. unpaved roads, ferries, ...) the relevant proof
can be provided by the rental car company and the insurance cover may be
at risk.
If you want to customize your trip, have enough time and budget, you
can rent a motorhome / recreational vehicle (RV). There are various
providers, at different locations and often also the possibility to drop
off the RV at a different location than it has been rented. Depending on
the landlord, a return fee may apply. The RV's are more generously
designed, larger and heavier than usual in Europe. With the driving
license class B, an RV with a total weight of up to 11.8 tons can be
driven in the USA, which means that a larger family with up to 7 people
can be carried along. The RV's are more suitable for paved roads. On
slopes or in soft sand, the size and weight quickly become noticeable.
It is worth organizing the rent in advance, especially in the high
season.
The RV's are usually well equipped with appliances, with
kitchen, shower and toilet. Furnishings such as crockery, bedding,
camping material, etc. can be rented additionally or must be brought
along. There are many RV parks, pitches, national parks or state
forests, which offer a good infrastructure for motorhomes. RV parks
usually have electricity, water and sewage connection directly on each
place, so that the disposal of gray and black water is unproblematic.
If you are surprised despite the good range of accommodation
options, you can also stay overnight in the Walmart parking lot for one
night (unwritten law).
If you have your own motorhome and would
like to travel to the USA / Canada for a longer period of time (> 2
months), you should consider shipping as an alternative.
Road
transport
Although there are no huge differences in the road traffic
regulations between Europe and the USA, the usual right-to-left rules do
not apply to the right-of-way for roads of the same rank (tips on road
traffic USA).
Driving in the States is quite leisurely. Let the
cruise control lock in place on the highway or interstate and just roll.
Please pay attention to the speed always and everywhere. The law
enforcement officers are very active in the field of 'speeding' and,
contrary to our customs, the testimony of a sheriff is considered
evidence in court. So no photos or other things are needed. For this
reason, discussions with the regulatory authority are usually quite
hopeless.
There are no separate speed limits for trucks in most
states. They are also allowed to drive up to 75 miles per hour on the
interstate. And, of course, also overtaking. So don't be scared if a
giant truck passes by on the left or on the right (in contrast to
Germany, you can overtake on the right, even on an interstate!) and some
of the trucks are really huge.
Special care should be taken with
children. Speed limits often apply near schools if the schoolchildren
could be on the road. When school buses stop to allow schoolchildren to
get on or off, road traffic stops in all directions. The flashing of the
two red lights of the yellow school buses attached above is considered a
stop signal, and the violation of this is usually punished worse than
running over a red light. It should also be noted that you should never
drive closer than 100 feet (30 meters) to an already stopped school bus
with the stop signal turned on.
You also have to be careful at
construction sites, because there (if there are construction workers on
the roadway) the fine doubles for speed violations. This is indicated by
a special sign ("Construction Zone - Fines doubled").
At traffic
lights, it is also allowed to turn right at red, if traffic allows it.
Unlike in Germany, there is no green arrow at the traffic lights. This
is prohibited in certain areas, but a special sign indicates this ("No
right on red"). In principle, turning right at red is allowed in all 50
states, but there are some cities - for example New York - in which the
opposite principle applies: turning right at red is prohibited, where
not explicitly allowed by sign. In some states it is also allowed to
turn left between two one-way streets at red.
Other stuff
If
you drive a car, you have to fill up. And it works a little differently
than usual. At most fuel pumps there is a lever, switch or a kind of
flap that you have to turn, turn or move so that the gasoline can flow.
Almost at all gas stations you have to pay before refueling. If you have
paid too much in advance, you will be refunded after refueling. In most
cases, you can also pay directly at the petrol pump (petrol station) by
credit card. Due to the increasing credit card fraud, the ZIP code (zip
code) of the credit card billing address must be indicated at the petrol
pump. This is often also possible for Germans, but not in every case.
Then it remains with the cash payment, or, as a reasonable alternative,
the deposit of the credit card at the checkout from where the petrol
pump is then activated. The settlement will then take place after
refueling at the cash desk. In some states (New Jersey and Oregon), the
service is required by employees and a gas station attendant refuels the
car.
Americans usually give driving time in hours instead of
distances when traveling by car. Road atlases also often contain this
information. Unusual, but quite accurate because of the strict speed
limits.
Bottles with alcoholic beverages that have already been
opened once may only be transported in the trunk. In minivans and SUVs,
which do not have a trunk separated from the passenger compartment, such
bottles are stored in luggage with difficult access. At a traffic
control, you want to avoid the impression that you are drinking while
driving, namely in any case.
Suggested routes
Highlights of
the USA: Boston - Cape Cod - New York (State) - Philadelphia - Baltimore
- Washington, D.C. - Gettysburg - Pennsylvania - Niagara Falls - Detroit
- Chicago - Sioux City - Badlands National Park - Wounded Knee - Rapid
City - Mount Rushmore National Monument - Black Hills - Hot Springs -
Devil's Tower National Monument - Buffalo - Bighorn Mountains - Cody -
Yellowstone National Park - Grand Teton National Park - Jackson - Idaho
Falls - Salt Lake City - Bryce Canyon National Park - Grand Canyon
National Park - Lake Mead National Recreation Area - Las Vegas - San
Diego - Los Angeles - Hollywood - Beverly Hills - Santa Monica - Malibu
- Santa Barbara - Edna Valley Vineyard - Monterey - San Francisco
Middle States: Washington, D.C. - Allegheny Mountains - Charleston (West
Virginia) - Lexington (Kentucky) - Cincinnati - Louisville - St Louis -
Kansas City - Denver - Rocky Mountain National Park - Cheyenne (Wyoming)
- Laramie - Medicine Bow Mountains - Rock Springs - Flaming Gorge Dam -
Dinosaur National Monument - Uintah - Salt Lake City - Great Basin
National Park - Reno - Carson City - Lake Tahoe - Sacramento - Desert
Area - San Francisco
Across the South of the USA: Miami - Miami Beach
- Florida Keys - Key West - Everglades National Park - Naples - Fort
Myers - Sanibel - Sarasota - Bradenton - Sunshine Skyway - St Petersburg
- Tampa - Orlando - Pinellas Trail - Tallahassee - Panama City - Gulf
Islands National Seashore - Pensacola - Mobile - Biloxi - New Orleans -
Baton Rouge - Lafayette - Houston - Galveston - Gulf Coast Region - San
Antonio - El Paso - Tucson - Phoenix - Montezuma Castle National
Monument - Joshua Tree National Park - Palm Springs - San Bernardino -
Los Angeles
Most American cities, including small towns, operate public buses for
urban transport. Traveling by bus is financially rewarding, especially
if you are traveling alone or at most in pairs, or if you are traveling
to a parking hell like Manhattan or San Francisco. (It's always
culturally rewarding.)
Routes, timetables and fares can be found
on the website of the respective operator. In larger cities, the stops
are often recognizable – just like stops in the German–speaking
countries - on the canopy and sign forest, but often at best a simple
sign indicates this, on which no timetable and possibly not even the
number of the bus route is displayed. Eye contact with the driver and
hand signals play a slightly larger role when stopping the buses than in
Europe.
When boarding, you almost always have cash on hand,
typically 1 dollar bills and quarter coins are accepted. So with a roll
of quarter coins in your pocket, you are on the safe side. Even if you
are traveling with several people, each person keeps their counted money
separately. The money is put into a special cash register set up by the
driver ("fare box"), which does not issue change. The driver does not
have a wallet. This is a safety precaution that efficiently protects
American bus drivers from robberies. The box spits out a paper ticket,
with which you can usually drive for 2 hours and also change to other
bus lines (show the ticket from the 1st bus to the driver when changing
to the 2nd bus). Only round trips with the same ticket are usually not
allowed.
Where subways are available, if you want to change
between bus and subway, a "transfer ticket" is usually required. Details
about this can be found on the website of the respective provider.
Although the USA has neglected public transport for a long time, a
certain renaissance has been observed in recent years; for example, as
many people used public transport again in 2014 as last in 1959. More
and more small and medium-sized cities now have light rail (comparable
to German Stadtbahnen) and even the classic street car (tram, but in
contrast to Germany usually not on its own track body) is now part of
the cityscape in more and more cities. Unfortunately, public transport
in the USA is to a large extent a plaything of political interests, and
so one tends to find a well-developed public transport system in
"liberal" (in the USA the more left-wing political direction) cities
such as Portland (Oregon), San Francisco or New York rather than in
comparably large cities in conservative areas such as the southern
states.
Despite the renaissance of public transport and the
expansion in recent years, many cities are still stuck in the belief
that public transport has to serve mainly commuters, and so it can be,
especially with systems called commuter rail ("commuter train"), that
nothing runs at the weekend and later in the evening. This is
particularly frustrating when these systems actually serve
tourist-interesting destinations and you have the choice between the
crowded rush hour, long transfer and waiting times or swerving to the
car. Fortunately, a slow rethinking is also showing up here, but clammy
public coffers and stuck mindsets are often an obstacle to large-scale
expansions of the service even outside the classic commuting times.
Especially at night, there is often no alternative to a car and a taxi,
which taxi drivers of course know and often "adjust" the prices
accordingly.
In general, public transport is often poorly
maintained, especially the subways. In the 2010s, press reports about
the state of the metro in New York, which has seen little investment in
current operation since the 1990s and still works partly with signals
from the 1920s, as well as those from Washington DC, which was mostly
built in the 1960s and 1970s and is now facing a major renovation for
which, however, no money or preparatory work has ever been planned.
Taxi
Taxis (or American cabs) are available in all major cities.
They are also often found in medium-sized cities. Most often they are
yellow, but other shades are also possible. All taxis have illuminated
signs on the roof. If this one burns, the taxi is free, if not, it is
occupied. If you want to stop a moving taxi, you stand at the side of
the road and wave it over.
All taxis have a taximeter, the fare
is calculated on the basis of a basic fee, the fee increases for each
additional mile driven. It should be noted that the fare increases even
when stationary (in a traffic jam). Payment can be made in cash, or
often by credit card.
In some large cities (e.g. New York City),
the taxis have a separation in the form of a glass pane to the driver
for safety reasons.
Taxi Apps
In recent years, mobility
services such as Uber or Lyft have become very popular. These are taxi
apps that, when you have entered the destination, assign an arbitrary
driver who is currently nearby and also has this app. The fares are
often cheaper than regular taxis, but more expensive than public
transport. There are Uber drivers in all major cities, but also in
medium and smaller cities. However, you have to download an app and you
need an internet connection (to book a ride).
The main language, of course, is English, and mastering this language makes conversation easier. But even as a tourist with low English language skills, you have no problems, because the Americans are very helpful and patient. However, it will be difficult without any knowledge of English at all. After English, Spanish is the most widely spoken language, but can only really be used in the south of the country, because most Americans torture themselves with their Spanish during school time and forget it afterwards. In tourist centers you can also very often find German information material and also German-speaking guides. In general, it is true that the vast majority of Americans have little problems with being grammatically not so firm or speaking with a German accent, the latter is perceived in the USA today as similarly charming as the French one in Germany. The sound makes the music. Rather than frowning at one's own imperfect English, one has to expect to be served in restaurants or shops by migrants who do not understand one, because they themselves hardly know English yet.
In the USA, a visit to the theater is definitely worth it. It doesn't
always have to be the notoriously overpriced Broadway or the equally
expensive Strip in Vegas; there are plenty of excellent venues even in
small towns. Although tickets can also be purchased at the box office or
at the box office, if you want to have good seats, it is advisable to
book online in advance via the theater's website. If you choose the will
call option, the tickets will be prepared at a special counter where you
can pick them up immediately before the performance on presentation of
the email notification and a proof of identity (passport or driver's
license).
Due to the enormous variety of landscape forms and the
proverbial American entrepreneurial spirit, you can do all sorts of
interesting things in the USA that are hardly offered in German-speaking
countries. An example is rafting, which in English is usually called
whitewater rafting: whitewater rafting in an inflatable boat. On many
suitable and often very scenic rivers, relevant organizers are
established, who have boats, safety equipment and instructors ready, who
ride along on the tours and, among other things, make sure that no one
gets hurt. Previous knowledge or above-average sportsmanship are not
necessary on the part of the participants, but you should already have
some courage. By the way, the largest artificially created rafting
facility in the USA is located in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Clothing sizes for men are one size larger than in Germany, i.e. a
German XL is labeled L in the USA.
Taxes
Prices are usually
net. A sales tax is usually added to it, which can differ from state to
state – often also from county to county. Likewise, the sales tax may be
dependent on the item purchased. At the checkout you will then pay 6 to
10% more than what is written on the price tag. In cities, the sales tax
is often significantly higher than in the surrounding rural counties.
Some counties (e.g. all in New York City) have exemptions from the sales
tax for "low-quality" clothing to boost shopping tourism. The state of
New Hampshire waives the "sales Tax" for all products, so alcohol,
electrical appliances and other items are much cheaper than in the
neighboring states (Massachusetts or Vermont), so there are huge
shopping centers on the borders with the other states.
Credit
The USA is the country where the credit card was invented and so you can
pay for almost everything with the usual credit cards. The most widely
used are the Visa Card and the Master Card. You can also pay with an
American Express card almost anywhere. If you have an associated PIN
number, you should know it by heart, because it is usually queried
(except for small amounts). With the credit card you can pay in the USA
not only in department stores, specialty shops, hotels, restaurants and
at gas stations, but also supermarkets, museums, zoos and other
tourist-relevant places. Fast food chains are also increasingly
accepting payment by card.
Also in the USA, cash is preferred for
small amounts (less than five US dollars (= USD = $)), whereby banknotes
from 50 dollars are only very reluctantly accepted. There are hardly any
large bills in circulation anyway. How much cash you need depends, among
other things, on how routinely you deal with the credit card and also
with cash machines. You can get by with very little cash in the USA
today. If it's your first trip to the USA and you don't use the card
often at home, you can expect to spend about a third of your expenses
with cash.
Without credit card (not debit card!) it is hardly
possible to rent a car or a caravan/camper in the USA. At the time of
collection, a credit card deduction is made to secure the deposit,
usually without directly debiting the card. Therefore, it is not
possible to rent a car in the USA without a credit card, even if the
rental car has already been paid for in Germany.
Cash
The
currency of the USA is the well-known US dollar. These are available in
the following denominations: 1 cent coin ("penny"), 5 cent coin
("nickel"), 10 cent coin ("Dime"), 25 cent coin ("Quarter"), 50 cent
coin ("half dollar" - rather rare), 1 dollar coin (rare, but sometimes
found as change at vending machines). Notes are available in the
following versions: 1 dollar, 2 dollars (very rare), 5 dollars, 10
dollars, 20 dollars, 50 dollars and 100 dollars. The most common are the
1, 5 and 20 dollar bills. Higher amounts are almost always paid by
credit card. Coins should always be kept ready, as they are needed at
many vending machines, although many of them also have a credit card
compartment. The most common is the 25 cent coin.
If you need
cash on site, it is best to get it by credit card at the ATM (ATM). This
is cheaper and also more convenient than in the bank, because the banks
in the USA have quite short opening hours. It is a fairly common
practice of some banks to charge additional fees from customers.
However, these are displayed on the display before withdrawing (usually
1-4 USD). If the need for cash is not urgent, it is worth stopping the
procedure and just try it at another bank. Also with a debit card (e.g.
Maestro or V-Pay) and the secret number you can get cash at many ATMs.
This is usually even associated with fewer fees. With these cards you
can also pay in many places (e.g. Aldi), you just have to see if there
is a sticker on the door.
It is worth asking whether there are
cooperations of their own house bank with commercial banks in the USA:
for example, Deutsche Bank customers can withdraw money at Bank of
America's ATMs without any fees.
As almost everywhere in the world, the following also applies in the
USA: the less carefully you choose and the less money you spend, the
worse, fatter and more caloric food you get. However, the "typical
American" fast food cuisine with hamburgers, French fries and liters of
Coca Cola only marks the lower end of what the country has to offer in
culinary terms. At the top end is American haute cuisine, which has
produced famous varieties such as California Cuisine, which combines
American, Mexican, Asian and Pacific influences.
Some regional
cuisines, such as the Southern cuisine of the American southern states,
are often on a par with this top cuisine. The Southwest, the Midwest,
the New England States and some cities such as New York City and
Philadelphia have also produced their own cooking style and typical
dishes that should not be missed to try.
In addition, the USA is
a country of immigration, in which people from all continents have
settled at all times. Many migrant families start their new existence by
opening a restaurant. As a result, especially in the big American
cities, you can find an incredibly wide range of – often very
inexpensive – ethnic restaurants, which are among the most interesting
that there is in American gastronomy.
If you want to make the
American cuisine here yourself, you will find the corresponding recipes.
The mecca for night owls is primarily the desert city of Las Vegas or New York City. The minimum age for visiting nightclubs or bars where alcohol is served is 21 years and is also very strictly controlled (usually already at the entrance). Even if you are significantly older than 21, you have to expect to be asked for the ID. The "normal" German identity card is often not enough, so it is best to carry your passport with you. Discussions, if you have forgotten this, are hopeless, there is no room for discretion due to the strict legal situation. Depending on the state, the opening hours of the bars or nightclubs are different. Usually the locations are already closed at 1.30 am at the latest. This is because the sale of alcohol is prohibited from 2 o'clock. But there are also clubs that have been open longer, but then no longer serve alcohol from 2 o'clock.
Most US tourists stay in hotels and motels. A motel in the classical
sense is an inexpensive hotel, where the room doors are external doors,
so you can park right in front of the room. In practice, however, the
distinction between hotels and motels is fluid. The comfort and
cleanliness are generally high, American hotel rooms are basically
equipped with a private bathroom and beds for at least two people.
Unpleasant surprises can only be experienced in very cheap quarters.
Especially interesting for families with children: the USA is –
along with Canada and Iceland – one of the very few travel countries in
the world where children do not have to sleep on folding sofas or
roll-away beds in the hotel, nor do they have to be moved to a second
room. After all, there are almost everywhere hotels with rooms, the bed
capacity of which is enough for 4 people.
An interesting and
almost everywhere possible alternative is living in a bed & Breakfast.
In the USA, this term refers to beautiful Victorian villas that have
been converted by the respective owners into a small comfort hotel with
usually four to five lovingly and individually furnished rooms.
Accommodation in a bed and breakfast is usually more expensive than in a
hotel.
The cheapest accommodation can be found in hostels (youth
hostels), which often offer four- and two-room rooms. But more often you
sleep in the bunk bed in the dormitory. Bed linen and towels must be
brought, there are no private bathrooms. There are hostels almost only
in larger cities.
A cheap alternative is also Air-Bnb, a rental
platform where private people rent out unused rooms in their own house
(or apartment). The room prices are often cheaper than in bed &
Breakfast accommodations. The advantage is that you can experience
everyday life in the USA, and also make nice acquaintances.
Outdoor fans can choose between classic camping in the tent they brought
with them or renting a camper van. The latter is relatively expensive
and must be booked carefully in advance. There are a lot of campsites
everywhere. Many campsite operators also offer accommodation in fixed
tents (canvas cabins) or log cabins (cabins).
If you are
traveling the USA with children or a larger number of people and want to
spend a long time in one place, you can also rent a holiday home
(cottage) in many (especially rural) regions. In cities there are
usually also apartment hotels.
There is an exchange for German students. You usually travel with
exchange organizations (such as AFS, YFU, EF, etc.) to a host family for
a whole year after the end of the 10th school year (even shorter times
are possible) and take part in high school life and thus get to know the
culture and language of the country. The costs range from about € 5,000
to € 10,000, but you can also get scholarships.
There are
numerous universities of world renown such as MIT, Harvard or Yale.
These colleges have strict entrance exams. But there are also some
hurdles to be overcome at the other universities. This also includes the
completion of a language test. Tuition fees have reached a record high
even by American standards.
Working in the United States is possible only with a visa. Visas are
valid for one to two years, depending on the type. Most people who go to
the USA to work are either sent by their German employer to their
American branch or recruited directly by an American company or
university. It is practically impossible to obtain a visa without an
employment contract with an employer located in the USA.
The
Green Card (actually: Permanent Resident Card), which allows a long-term
or unlimited stay in the USA, is only the second step after the visa.
The application process for this is very time-consuming, lengthy and
costly. Nothing works at all without the support of an American employer
who is ready to spend a lot of money on his highly qualified foreign
employee. An attempt with the green card lottery (actually: diversity
Visa lottery) can be made, but offers only relatively low chances of
success.
It should be noted that the American authorities are
extremely strict about activities without a work visa. In the past,
exchange students have repeatedly been expelled from the USA because
they have temporarily taken care of the children of the host family,
which is already a "working" according to American law and is therefore
not allowed without a work visa.
Holidays that fall on a Sunday are placed on the following Monday,
even if holidays are not celebrated on the historically correct day as a
result. If the holiday falls on a Saturday, the Friday before it is not
a regular working day. Banks, post offices and many museums are closed
on holidays. Shops and restaurants, on the other hand, close at most on
Thanksgiving (last Thursday in November) and on December 25th.
Since Americans have only 10-15 vacation days per year and use the long
holiday weekends for additional short breaks, you have to expect
significantly increased airfare and hotel room prices on these weekends.
If you follow basic safety rules, you usually don't need to be afraid
of thefts, robberies or harassment, especially in rural regions and
small towns. Many sparsely populated regions are so safe that many
residents do not even close their homes when they leave for shopping.
The situation is different in larger and larger cities, which often
have inner cities and residential districts that are not very homely.
Every major city has areas that strangers, especially tourists, should
avoid. Los Angeles in particular has many of these so-called no-go
areas; a preliminary search via the Internet can save unpleasant
experiences here. Trust your first impression here and avoid such
neighborhoods especially at night. This also applies to many club
districts. If you want to go dancing at night, it's best to take a taxi
even for short distances.
Outside the inner cities, the rule of
thumb has proven to be that you have arrived in the wrong area at the
latest and should turn back if more than three car wrecks are standing
around in the individual front gardens.
As everywhere in the
world, it is often reckless in the USA to carry valuables around with
you in an openly visible way. The more tourists frolic in a place, the
greater the likelihood that pickpockets and robbers will also be there.
Risks that Europeans do not usually have to deal with also lurk in
nature. In Central Europe, forest walkers encounter an otter at most
once. In the USA, they should be prepared for far more threatening
species even in urban areas. Rattlesnakes do not live here only in the
desert, but in literally all parts of the country. The same applies to
mountain lions and black bears, which also do not always stay away from
human settlements. Hikers are particularly at risk; always make some
noise while hiking on low-human trails and keep your eyes and ears open
at the same time. Pay attention to the safety instructions, especially
in the national parks, because encounters with buffaloes, grizzly bears
or rattlesnakes are among the most dangerous things that can happen to
you in the USA. Hikers should also learn about poisonous plants.
Losing your cash to a street robber in a dark corner of a big city is
certainly not a nice experience. But if you come into skin contact with
poison ivy (poison sumac) while hiking, of all things, your vacation is
at least as spoiled for you. Poison Sumac plants are easily misjudged
because they look more like very young trees than ivy. ivy), but a
helpful rule is: "leaves of three, let it be (roughly: if it has three
leaves, keep your hands off it)".
As a rule, the solar radiation
is also underestimated by US tourists from German-speaking countries.
Even in the northern parts of the country, UV radiation is very strong
in summer. If you can not avoid going out into the sun, use sunscreen
lotion with a high SPF. Americans use lotions with SPF factor 50 for
themselves and especially for their children, which, by the way, you can
buy in the USA much cheaper than in Europe.
In most states it is
forbidden and heavily penalized to leave children unattended. Therefore,
never leave children alone in the car! The same applies to hotels where
children may not be left alone in the room. To get around this problem,
many hotels or motels have a (often tiny) guarded pool, where the kids
stay under supervision to comply with the law and to give the parents
some free space. Where there is no supervisor, you just have to take the
children with you.
In general, the laws in the USA are much stricter than those in the
German-speaking countries and even minor “cavallier offenses” can end up
in prison under certain circumstances.
A visit to the USA is
problematic for minors who are accompanied by their adult partner.
Sexual relations between a person of legal age (which, depending on the
state, reaches the age of 16, 17 or 18) and an adult person are
punishable as statutory rape in all states – a crime that is taken very
seriously in the USA and is usually punishable by imprisonment. Even
those who escape the eyes of law enforcement officers may face
difficulties when trying to rent a hotel room.
The alcohol
prohibition of the 1920s continues to have a more or less noticeable
effect in all states to the present day. In order not to cause offense,
public drinking (and drunkenness) should generally be more restrained
compared to Europe. This applies, for example, to picnics and barbecues
in public parks, where even beer is usually not allowed to be brought.
In most states, anyone who has an open bottle of wine or similar in the
passenger compartment of their rental car is also liable to prosecution;
it belongs in the trunk. In some Indian reservations (for example, the
reservation to which Monument Valley belongs), alcohol may not be
carried at all.
In the case of a traffic accident in the USA, you
should generally write down facts such as the time and the course of the
accident very precisely. Because as a rule, even minor personal injuries
in the USA are a lot of money for the insurance companies. For this
reason, you should definitely be examined and treated in a hospital even
for minor things after an accident.
The use of marijuana is also
not without problems. Although an increasing number of states
(California, Oregon, Washington or Massachusetts) allow the use of
cannabis, this does not mean that it can be consumed everywhere. In some
states, consumption and possession are still strictly prohibited (e.g.
in Texas, Georgia or Utah) and will be punished accordingly. Therefore,
you are not allowed to take purchased marijuana to another state under
any circumstances, but you must inform yourself in advance what the
legal situation is there. In principle, marijuana will remain prohibited
under federal law. For most travelers, this becomes relevant when
crossing state borders (even between two states that have both legalized
marijuana) or when flying within states such as California or Alaska.
Whether and to what extent the principle of "federal law breaks state
law" applies to marijuana has been the subject of political debates and
has not yet been conclusively answered by courts. Regulations that
deviate from the other rules are also often found on Indian reserves,
which have extensive legislative powers of their own in this, as in many
other areas.
Medical expenses are dramatically high in the USA. Unexpected
toothache, for example, can easily cost a fortune during a trip. Since
the German statutory health insurances are not effective in the USA and
German private health insurances do not partially cover the fantasy
rates of American doctors and hospitals, it is absolutely necessary to
have a travel health insurance abroad. This usually costs no more than €
20 per person per year or no more than € 40 for a family. Be sure to
read the fine print, as not all insurance companies cover the USA with
or. only secure a maximum travel duration of four weeks.
In
principle, do not expect a doctor or his staff to speak German in the
USA; if your English is not very good, it is best to bring a dictionary
with you for treatment. The German missions in the USA publish online
lists of German-speaking doctors; however, these are far from complete.
In medical emergencies, you can find medical help around the clock
in the Emergency Room (ER) of most hospitals. The nearest hospital with
ER can be found, for example, if you enter "ER, (name of the place),
(state)" in Google Maps. In the city, dark blue rectangular signs with a
white H indicate the shortest way to the nearest hospital. An ambulance
with paramedics can be called via the general emergency number 911.
In case of serious medical emergencies, 911 and HE are the only
correct options. Even in less dramatic cases, such as cystitis or otitis
media, one is usually not rejected in the ER. Since the admitted
patients are processed in the order of urgency of their complaints,
however, in less serious emergencies one must be prepared for waiting
times, which can last several hours.
A good and interesting
alternative, which hardly has a counterpart in the German-speaking
countries, is to visit an urgent care practice (also: walk-in care,
walk-in clinic). This is a doctor's office that mainly treats
unannounced patients who come with less serious medical emergencies.
Many UC practices are owned by local doctors, others are operated by
companies operating regionally or nationally under brand names such as
Concentra, AFC Doctors Express or MedExpress Urgent Care. Often they can
be found on the outskirts of large shopping centers, in the middle
between retailers and restaurants. UC practices employ licensed doctors
and have X-ray equipment, so they can also treat a simple bone fracture,
for example. They are open daily and at generous times, but not around
the clock. UC practices can be found online, for example at
www.urgentcarelocations.com . Payment is made in the same way as with a
registered doctor (see the next paragraph). The costs also correspond to
what you would pay for a doctor in private practice.
If there is
no UC practice to be found or specialist help is needed, you can also
visit a resident doctor as a tourist. In community practices where
several doctors work, the prospects for a quick appointment are
generally greater than for doctors who work alone. If you do not want to
talk on the phone due to poor English skills, but want to go directly
and wait for treatment, try it first in the largest possible practice.
In any case, you have to pay there immediately, so also have a credit
card (usual credit cards are accepted in almost every doctor's office)
ready. Ask for an invoice that describes in as much detail as possible
what the doctor has done – this will make it easier for you to settle
with your German travel health insurance later.
In dental
emergencies, if in doubt, you should visit a registered dentist, because
you pay less there than at an emergency service and probably also have
to travel less far. The greatest chances for quick help are when you ask
in a community practice. If you do not call late in the afternoon, you
can expect to get an appointment on the same day in most practices. In
many cities there are also emergency dental services, which are staffed
around the clock. Addresses of such emergency services can be found, for
example, here. Always have a credit card or sufficient cash on hand when
visiting the dentist or the emergency dental service.
With a
prescription you go to any pharmacy. Independently run pharmacies like
in Europe are rare in the USA; you are most likely to find a pharmacy in
a drugstore or a large supermarket. Prescription medicines are not
pre-packaged industrially in the USA, but must be individually packaged
by the pharmacist; you therefore always have to wait a good 20 minutes
for your medication. For pharmacies, the rule is that the larger the
company, the more generous the opening hours are. In the branches of the
drugstore chain Walgreens, for example. the pharmacy counter is usually
open until 21 o'clock, on weekends until 18 o'clock. In large cities,
you can also occasionally find pharmacies that are open around the
clock. In emergencies, in some good supermarkets or drugstores, whose
pharmacy counter is already closed, the staff is also ready to call the
pharmacist especially for you.
Each country and its inhabitants have peculiarities, customs and
customs that do not always coincide with the domestic ones. Especially
as a first-time visitor, you will then come across more or less big
stumbling blocks.
Black Americans are referred to as "African
Americans" or "people of color" if you don't want to stand out
unpleasantly.
Some words that describe people with dark skin color
are understood and used within this group more as fun, including in song
lyrics. However, if these words are used by a person with fair skin
color, this can be taken as a gross insult.
Derogatory statements
about religion are very inappropriate in the USA, where 98% of the
population are believers. Also, if you do not want to stand out as
opinionated and tactless, you should basically avoid political topics to
strangers.
Americans are much more shy than Central Europeans.
Already children bring the names even for underwear only giggling over
their lips. In changing rooms, on bathing beaches and similar places one
should take this sensitivity into account.
The use of impure words is
considered a matter of the lowest social strata.
Pushing past snakes
is considered extremely rude, even with short questions.
When you
greet someone, you always introduce your companion(s).
If a woman is
taken to dinner by a man, it is considered extremely naughty if he does
not pay then.
Keep your distance. In crowded subways, elevators,
escalators, for example, people from Europe are used to putting
themselves together very closely. In the US, this is considered very
rude, and physical contact should be avoided.
The USA is also the country of laundromats and coin-operated washing
machines. If you are traveling with small luggage and want to wash
clothes on the way, you will find a coin-operated washing machine and a
coin-operated dryer in most hotels. Excluded from this rule are more
expensive hotels, which offer washing services and do not want to
compete with coin devices themselves. Self-service laundromats with
cafés, as you sometimes see them in movies, are the exception rather
than the rule in the USA. However, classic laundromats (laundromats), in
which only a few chairs are set up, can be found in high density even in
small towns. If an online search does not help, the locals are happy to
give a tip.
Except in the centers of big cities, you can always
drive up and park at Laundromats by car (how else should people
transport mountains of laundry?). If you want to be absolutely sure,
bring enough quarter coins; everyone else relies on the automatic
changeover machine in the laundromat. Detergent can be brought or pulled
from the vending machine. Most laundromats have at least a dozen
machines, and it's not a problem to use several at once. Especially in
small towns and quiet suburbs, it is quite common to leave the machines
running unattended and drive home or have a coffee or run errands in the
adjacent shops in between. However, the cleaning quality of the
laundromats can sometimes be very fluctuating.
There are many Internet cafés in major cities and university towns,
where you can usually surf by credit card. Hotels from the middle class
upwards usually offer wireless Internet access in the rooms. In some
hotels – in expensive ones rather than in inexpensive ones – you have to
have access unlocked for a fee. in these expensive hotels, free WiFi or
a guest computer is often available in the lobby, the use of which is
free of charge. Free hotspots are also located in most local and larger
stores, some even without a password, i.e. you can log in without
entering the restaurant. Another convenient and free way to get to the
Internet is provided by many city libraries, which often have a large
number of computer workstations. In addition, more and more cities are
offering public Wi-Fi at certain points (parks or squares).
You
can only use your own phone if it supports the frequencies used in the
USA. Even today, this is not yet standard for mobile phones sold in
Europe. Relatively unproblematic in this regard are the well-known
Chinese brands (Huawei, Xiaomi, etc.) as well as the iPhone (even older
ones), with other phones you should do a thorough research. The
availability of mobile networks is limited due to the long distances,
but calling is possible in most places. If you want to make calls to
Europe from your mobile phone, you should bring a phone card to save
yourself the high fees.
Public telephones are becoming
increasingly rare in the USA (just like in Germany). There is no point
in looking at the post office, because the American Post office has
never had anything to do with telecommunications. Apart from very cheap
motels, hotel rooms are always equipped with telephones, but the fees
charged there are usually drastic. You can save money if you use a
prepaid phone card for making calls, which is available from AT&T, for
example, at every supermarket, drugstore and gas station counter. To use
it, you dial a free AT&T number, enter the card code and then dial the
number you want to be connected to. The cards can also be used on public
telephones.
In Alaska, the oldest documented human traces date back 12,000 to
14,000 years. The Clovis culture was long considered the oldest culture,
but the finds in the Paisley Caves, which are about a millennium before
the Clovis finds, showed that North America had been inhabited before.
The oldest human remains are the relics of the 10,500-year-old Buhl
woman from Idaho. This early phase was followed by the Archaic Period.
Between 4000 and 1000 BC, the use of ceramics, agriculture and
various forms of gradual settlement developed. The hunting techniques
were significantly improved by Atlatl and later by bow and arrow.
Population densification occurred in North America around the Great
Lakes, on the Pacific coast around Vancouver Island (Canada), on the
Mississippi River and in many places of the Atlantic coast, as well as
in the southwest.
Complex communities were created in the
catchment area of the Adena and Mississippi cultures, but they
disappeared shortly before the arrival of the first Europeans. They
radiated far to the north and west. Clay housing estates with up to 500
rooms were built in the southwest. This Pueblo culture went back to the
basketmakers who were already growing corn. Fortified large villages and
permanent confederations developed around the Great Lakes. These groups,
similar to those in the West, cultivated maize and pumpkins as well as
an extensive long-distance trade – for example with copper and certain
types of rock that were important for hunting weapons and jewelry –,
which can be proven in British Columbia (Canada) from 8000 BC.
Imported diseases decimated the population to a degree that was
difficult to measure. Many groups disappeared due to imported epidemics,
without a European having even seen them. According to the
anthropologist Alfred Kroeber, the population north of the Rio Grande
was estimated at only one million people. These estimates were readily
taken up, as it perpetuated the myth that the whites had conquered a
largely deserted continent. The Smithsonian Institute, known as a rather
cautious one, has tripled its estimate for North America to three
million people. The extent to which the discussion has moved is shown by
the thesis that the huge buffalo herds were grazing animals of the
Indians, the size of the herds therefore did not represent a natural
balance, but was based on over-multiplication after the sharp decline in
the human population.
Despite the not to be overestimated effect
of the epidemics – already Hernando de Soto brought devastating diseases
into the area between Mississippi and Florida, in 1775 a smallpox
epidemic devastated the Pacific coast – the effects of the wars should
not be underestimated. The most costly wars in the East are likely to be
the Tarrantine War (1607-1615), the two Powhatan Wars (1608-1614 and
1644-1646), the Pequot (1637), the King-Philips War (1675-1676), the
French and Indian Wars (1689-1697, 1702-1713, 1744-1748, 1754-1763) as
well as the three Seminole Wars (1817-1818, 1835-1842 and 1855-1858). In
addition, there were the inter-tribal uprisings led by the chiefs
Pontiac (1763-1766) and the Tecumseh (about 1810-1813). The French were
in the Beaver Wars from about 1640 to 1701, then in four wars with the
Natchez (1716-1729), the Dutch in the Wapping War and in the Esopus Wars
(1659-1660 and 1663-1664), the Spaniards in 1680 against the Pueblos in
the southwest and in numerous other battles. In the western United
States, it was mainly the battles under Cochise (1861-1874), the Sioux
War (1862) and the Lakota War (1866-1867), or the Apache War under
Geronimo (until 1886) that became known. Individual battles, such as the
one at the Little Bighorn or the massacre of Wounded Knee (1890), also
became well-known.
The fur trade triggered completely different
long-distance changes. On the one hand, this trade had an effect on the
tribes who acted as hunters and vendors, but also on their close and
distant neighbors, whether through the acquisition of weapons and
related power shifts, whether through the development of trade
monopolies of the tribes encamped near the trading bases (forts), or by
triggering extensive migrations of peoples, such as by the Iroquois.
Also, the position of the leadership groups became dependent on the fur
trade.
The first European settlement in what is now the United States was
founded by the Spanish in St. Augustine, Florida, in 1565. The first
permanent English colony was Jamestown in Virginia, which was founded in
1607, shortly after the French had founded a first colony in what would
later become Canada. The arrival of the emigrant ship "Mayflower" in
Plymouth Colony (later merged with Massachusetts Bay Colony to form
Massachusetts) in 1620 is considered an important symbolic date. Swedish
colonies on the Delaware and Dutch settlements around New York (Nieuw
Amsterdam) were taken over by England.
Apart from the British,
only the French and Spanish were able to achieve lasting political
significance. For Spain, his colony of Florida had only a secondary
function compared to his large possessions in Central and South America.
France, on the other hand, limited its settlement to its colonial core
area on the St. Lawrence River (New France), while still maintaining a
strong economic interest in its remaining territories between the
Mississippi and the thirteen colonies of the British. In order to cover
the fur trade routes, these territories, which were not otherwise
settled by Europeans, were protected by a system of forts and alliances.
The British colonies, on the other hand, were under high immigration
pressure, which led to a constant shift of the settlement border to the
west. This was done partly according to the state plan (by a single
colony) and partly in wild colonization against British and Indian
resistance.
In the French and Indian War from 1754 to 1763, the
opposing interests clashed. The war was a sideshow in the global
confrontation between Great Britain and France, the Seven Years' War.
Most of the Indians fought on the side of the French.
In the
peace treaty of 1763, the entire French territories east of the
Mississippi (except New Orleans) as well as the French-populated areas
around Québec and Montreal fell to the British side. The Spanish Bourbon
dynasty had sided with their French relatives during the course of the
war. After the war, it had to cede Florida to the British and received
the previously French territory west of the Mississippi as compensation.
The government in London demanded that the colonists should bear a
higher share of the costs of the post-war order. At the same time, she
tried to prevent the wild settlement to the west in order to avoid
conflicts. The colonies opposed taxation, arguing that it violated
English law, according to which there should be "no taxation without
political representation" ("no taxation without representation"). In
this way, the settlers declared that the British Parliament was in fact
not entitled to issue instructions (but not the crown). In addition,
although the Motherland demanded higher taxation, it blocked the
issuance of its own currency, which would have been necessary for the
financial strengthening of the colonies. The parliament acted in this
way because it did not want to promote the formation of an American
state, but created a contradiction with it. Several taxes that were
perceived as unfair, such as the Stamp Act (on stamps), the Sugar Act
(on sugar) and a tea tax, angered the colonists. There were boycotts and
resistance actions, such as the Boston Tea Party, which found a first
climax in the Boston massacre. London eventually stationed more
soldiers, which further fueled secessionist tendencies in the thirteen
colonies.
In 1775, British soldiers sparked the War of
Independence when they excavated a colonial armory. A continental
congress convened, which transferred the military high command to George
Washington. On July 4, 1776, the thirteen colonies proclaimed the
Declaration of Independence. France secretly supported the insurgents
with weapons.
This contributed to US military successes. In 1783,
in the Peace of Paris, the British Empire recognized the state
sovereignty of the USA.
The territory of the now independent
colonies included the territory of the following 16 of the now 50 states
of the United States: New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Maine, Rhode Island,
Connecticut, New York, Vermont, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware,
Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and
Georgia.
The Articles of Confederation adopted in 1777 and ratified in 1781
had proved insufficient to ensure the survival of the fledgling
confederation. Therefore, the second Constitution of the United States
was signed in Philadelphia in 1787. It is the second oldest still valid
Republican state constitution – only the Constitution of the Republic of
San Marino from the year 1600 is older. The first president of the
United States in 1789 was George Washington, the general of the War of
Independence, who was unanimously elected by a large consensus.
The development of the new state in the first decades was largely
determined by two factors: on the one hand, by rapid territorial growth
and further land grabbing at the expense of the Indians, on the other
hand, by the struggle over slavery, which later determined the struggle
for the civil rights of the descendants of the former slaves. At the
time of the War of Independence, about two million whites and 500,000
enslaved blacks lived in the thirteen colonies.
During the
European Coalition Wars, the Louisiana Territory (not to be confused
with the present state of Louisiana) had fallen back to France from
Spain. However, Napoléon refrained from re-establishing the French
overseas Empire for financial reasons. Instead, in 1803 he sold the
entire area between Mississippi and the Rocky Mountains to the USA for
15 million dollars, which doubled their national territory in one fell
swoop. In the same year, the first states from the Northwest Territory,
located between the Ohio River and the Great Lakes, joined the Union,
from 1813 parts of the Louisiana territory followed.
The United
States initially pursued a course of neutrality towards France and Great
Britain. In 1812, however, the British-American War broke out over what
remained British Canada. The conflict ended with a compromise, so from
then on the demarcation of the border between the United States and
Canada was completed in the east. Early American foreign policy was
otherwise shaped by the Monroe Doctrine of President James Monroe,
promulgated in 1823. The latter stated that the European powers should
stay away from the American continent, while at the same time the United
States should not interfere in the affairs of other states.
The
Indian policy became more aggressive from 1820: with the Indian Removal
Act and the subsequent Path of Tears, a decades-long violent land
seizure and settlement began, which led to renewed fighting. The Indians
were deported to reservations. One of the few victories for the Indians
was the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876, which, however, remained
politically meaningless. The Indian Wars ended with the Wounded Knee
massacre in 1890. In 1900, less than a quarter of a million Indians
lived, to which not only war, but also epidemics had contributed. Only
in 1924 the Indians received full civil rights.
The second
central issue of American politics until 1865 was the slave question.
The importation of more slaves from overseas was prohibited by law in
1808. However, due to the extensive circumvention of this prohibition by
the slave traders and natural population growth, the number of slaves
had nevertheless increased to about four million by 1860. The slave
question is increasingly dividing the southern from the Northern states,
as industrialization began in the Northern States and the number of
slaves slowly decreased, while the owners of the huge rice and cotton
plantations in the Southern States continued to practice slavery on an
increasing scale. New states from the acquired territories were accepted
only in pairs, so as not to threaten the unstable equilibrium. Slavery
was contrary to the Declaration of Independence, according to which "all
people are created equal". Therefore, in the North, movements such as
abolitionism, which called for the abolition of slavery, gained a strong
influx. The war against Mexico (1846-1848) brought the United States
another gain in land, which makes up today's southwest. But he also
increased domestic political tensions, since the northern states partly
saw him as taking over land in favor of the expansion of the slave
states.
After Abraham Lincoln was elected US president in 1860
for the newly founded Republican Party, eleven southern states left the
Union. This marked the beginning of the Civil War (1861-1865). The first
priority was the constitutional question of whether the federal
government had the right to decide on elementary substantive issues in
the federal states at all. The northern states emerged victorious from
the Civil War, and slavery was abolished by law. Blacks were formally
granted full civil rights with the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and the 14th
Amendment of 1868. The defeat of the predominantly agrarian-structured
South, which until then had provided the most presidents, also meant
that the USA was increasingly turning into a modern industrial state
after the war.
in 1890, the Frontier was declared closed. This ended the era of the
"Wild West". Immigration did not subside, so that a total of 18 million
people were received between 1880 and 1910. Industrialization since the
Civil War led to the formation of large trusts, which could influence
politics through their economic power. Therefore, the Antitrust Act was
passed in 1890, as a result of which, starting in 1911, several large
corporations such as Standard Oil and the American Tobacco Company were
spun off.
As a result of the Spanish-American War of 1898, the
United States expanded its sphere of influence to the Philippines,
Puerto Rico, Hawaii and Cuba. An interventionist policy was pursued by
President Theodore Roosevelt (1901-1909), who claimed a hegemonic
position of power over the Latin American states (Big Stick). Thus, in
1903, the United States detached Panama from Colombia in order to allow
the newly formed state to cede sovereignty over the Panama Canal to
itself.
During the First World War, the United States remained
formally neutral until 1917, but supported the Entente mainly by
resupply deliveries. On February 1, 1917, as a countermeasure, Germany
declared unrestricted submarine war, after which the United States
declared war on Germany on April 6 and introduced conscription on June
5. After its victory over Russia, the German Empire sent the liberated
troops to the Western Front and organized a last futile offensive in the
spring of 1918. The American troops arriving in France finally shifted
the balance of forces in favor of the Allies. After the military
victory, President Woodrow Wilson (1913-1921) tried to establish a
stable post-war order in Europe, making the right of peoples to
self-determination and the formation of a League of Nations a maxim on
the basis of his 14-point program. This plan failed: on the one hand,
the English and the French refused to implement Wilson's plan in favor
of a victory peace with the German Reich, on the other hand, the US
Senate refused to join the League of Nations, so that the now largest
political power in the world was absent from this body and returned to
isolationism.
As a result of the costly war and the subsequent
reconstruction, the Europeans had become debtors of the United States.
The outstanding economic role of the United States was especially
evident when the stock market crash in October 1929 (Black Thursday with
price losses on the Dow Jones of up to 12.8% in one day) was followed by
the Great Depression. This led to a year-long internal crisis (Great
Depression) in the United States with about 15 million unemployed and
about 125 million inhabitants in 1932. Under President Franklin D.
Roosevelt implemented profound economic and social reforms with the New
Deal. Among other things, the financial markets were regulated
(Glass-Steagall Act) and the Social Security Act of 1935 created the
foundations of an American welfare state. In addition, numerous public
construction projects such as roads, bridges, airports and dams have
been realized.
At the outbreak of the Second World War, the United States initially
remained neutral, but initially supported Great Britain under the Loan
and Lease Act, and since 1941, after the break of the Hitler-Stalin
Pact, also the Soviet Union massively with capital and arms supplies.
Following the attack on Pearl Harbor by Japanese forces on December 7,
1941, they declared war on Japan and received declarations of war from
Germany and Italy a short time later. As in the First World War, the
industrial potential of the United States was decisive for the victory
of the Allies. The surrender of the German Reich in May and the
surrender of Japan in August 1945 ended the Second World War.
The
US had made high profits in the Second World War with low casualties.
Their total losses amounted to 300,000 killed and 670,000 wounded, less
than 0.5% of the population. The country was the only one to emerge from
the war economically strengthened and at the end of the war alone had a
nuclear weapon of mass destruction. The United States had become a
superpower with a global presence.
The Bretton Woods system,
founded back in 1944, established the dollar as an international leading
and reserve currency with a gold standard. It corresponded to the
American ideas of free world trade and open markets.
The United
States was instrumental in the founding of the United Nations on June
26, 1945 in San Francisco, which took place in agreement with the Soviet
Union. However, a confrontation with the former war ally Stalin soon
became apparent, which led to the Cold War. President Harry S. Truman
pursued an anti-communist containment policy, which found its expression
in the Truman doctrine. In a departure from the isolationist Monroe
doctrine, the latter granted military and economic aid to all countries
in order to preserve their independence. The United States supported
Greece and Turkey and launched the Marshall Plan, which was designed to
economically stabilize Western Europe. The Cold War reached its first
peak with the Berlin blockade in 1948/49, to which the United States
responded with the Berlin Airlift. In 1949, NATO was established as a
military alliance between the United States, Canada and Western Europe.
The nuclear arms race that was now beginning between NATO and the
Warsaw Pact, which provided both sides with a multiple "overkill
capacity" from the 1960s, and which was at the same time seen as a race
of social systems, led to confrontations and proxy wars, such as the
Korean War (1950-1953), the Cuban Missile crisis (1962), in which the
world barely escaped a Third World War, or the Vietnam War. The Nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty and the SALT negotiations (1968 and 1969)
attempted to defuse the dangerous situation.
The Cold War, which
was not openly fought only in the industrialized countries, led to the
fact that many Americans considered communism an enemy image.
Domestically, this led to a climate of suspicion and control, which is
referred to as the "McCarthy era". The Republican Senator Joseph
McCarthy distinguished himself in the Senate Committee on Un-American
Activities (HUAC) by suspecting filmmakers, politicians and military men
in particular as communists and expecting denunciations. Anyone who
refused to testify had to expect a professional ban. The hearings were
often televised. When McCarthy finally came to suspect President
Eisenhower, he was ousted by the Senate in 1954.
The Vietnam War,
which the United States intervened in in 1964 after the Tonkin incident,
having previously sent military advisers, turned into a military and
moral fiasco, which ended with the withdrawal of US troops in 1973. The
credibility as a propagator of democratic values suffered here and also
in other areas of conflict with the support of numerous military
dictators or the support of military coups, such as those Mobutu in the
Congo, then called "Zaire", or the military coups against the
democratically elected governments of Guatemala (1954), Brazil (1964)
and Chile (1973).
In addition to social and political movements,
three assassination attempts shook the nation and with it the world in
the 1960s: the assassination of President John F. Kennedy (1963), the
assassination of the preacher and civil rights activist Martin Luther
King, who was the figurehead of the non–violent struggle for the rights
of blacks (1968) - and in the same year the assassination of the
Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, a younger brother
of the assassinated president.
The Blacks had been formally freed
from slavery in 1865, but already in the course of the reconstruction of
the war-torn South, the southern states had passed laws restricting
their civil rights again (Jim Crow laws). Although they emphasized the
same rights, they also provided for racial segregation. Only the Civil
Rights Movement was able to eliminate the last formal unequal treatment.
A very important step was the abolition of racial segregation in public
institutions by the Supreme Court in 1954. However, the schooling of
blacks had to be enforced in part with the help of the National Guard,
because the governors of the southern states (especially George Wallace
from Alabama) insisted on their state rights until the end of the 1960s,
which included racial segregation.
In 1964, under President
Lyndon B. Johnson, who succeeded Kennedy in office after his
assassination in 1963, was himself elected in 1964 and remained in
office until 1969, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed, which
declared racial segregation illegal in the United States. In 1965,
Johnson passed another law, the Voting Rights Act, which prohibited any
discrimination against African Americans in elections. Finally, the
Civil Rights Act of 1968 was passed by Congress, which prohibited
discrimination of any kind by law. Even though President Johnson had
experienced a decline in his approval rating as a result of the war in
Vietnam, he was able to initiate further important reforms within the
framework of his Great Society program, which in particular concerned
the fight against poverty, the intensification of the education system
and consumer protection. In fact, the number of US citizens living in
poverty decreased by about half. In addition, a new immigration law was
passed in 1965, which significantly eased the restrictions introduced in
1924 and led to increased immigration from Latin America and Asia, which
in the long run initiated a significant demographic change.
In
addition to the movement against the Vietnam War, those that were
directed against discrimination within society were of great influence.
This was first the women's rights movement, then the gay rights
movement, which, however, was confronted with the legislations of the
respective states. So-called "sodomy laws", which until 1962 had banned
the practice of male homosexuality, as well as "deviant sexual
practices" of heterosexual couples in many states, were partially
repealed. When the Supreme Court upheld these laws in 1987, they still
existed in the majority of the states and were not repealed by the
Supreme Court until the Lawrence vs. Texas decision of June 26, 2003.
The Watergate affair about a burglary and an eavesdropping attack on
Democratic Party offices in the Watergate building complex, which
President Richard Nixon probably knew about and in which he tried to
obstruct the FBI investigation, developed into the biggest scandal in
American post-war history. To avoid the threat of impeachment, Nixon
resigned in 1974.
The oil crisis in 1974 and the Iranian hostage
crisis in 1979, as well as the consequences of the Vietnam War, caused a
lack of orientation in foreign policy. An economic crisis hit especially
the heavy industrial area in the states of Pennsylvania, Ohio, West
Virginia, Indiana and Michigan, the so-called Rust Belt. This led to
ethnically motivated unrest in the southern states, which favored the
electoral success of Republican Ronald Reagan.
Thus, the entry
into office of the Reagan administration marked a paradigm shift in
American politics, both at home and in foreign policy. Society has
become highly polarized economically. His eight years of government
until 1989 were characterized by a liberal economic policy
(reaganomics), the reduction of state subsidies and social benefits,
savings in public administration and tax cuts in the upper income
groups. Christian faith and strict anti-communism made him an example
for the conservative circles. His opponents saw him as a lobbyist for
corporations and defense companies.
The contradictory domestic
and foreign policy towards states that did not respect human rights, the
lack of understanding for other cultural circles and the resulting
misjudgments were evident in foreign policy up to the Iraq War. If
people had already supported dictator Saddam Hussein after the outbreak
of the First Gulf War between Iran and Iraq (1980-1988) out of fear of
the fundamentalist circles in Tehran, mistakes were accumulating, as in
the Iran-Contra affair, in which the United States had supplied weapons
to Iran in 1986 through the mediation of security adviser Robert
McFarlane and Colonel Oliver North in order to support the opponents of
the Sandinistas in Nicaragua from these proceeds. The supply of money
and weapons to the Mujahideen in Afghanistan also proved to be
double-edged: although the Soviet Union had to withdraw its troops after
ten years, radical Islamic groups were strengthened at the same time.
Reagan repeatedly referred to the Soviet Union as the "evil empire",
using religious terminology. The expenditure on armaments was increased
and a so-called "Star Wars program" (SDI project, "Star Wars") was
launched. At the Geneva Summit Conference (1985) and in 1986, he met
with his Soviet counterpart Mikhail Gorbachev for disarmament
negotiations called START (Strategic Arms Reduction Talks). In 1991, the
"Cold War" ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Under Democratic President Bill Clinton (1993-2001), there was a
prolonged economic upswing. The end of the Cold War and the "New
Economy", which had its starting point in the USA, favored economic
consolidation. The neglect of the cities was stopped – crime-ridden
neighborhoods in the metropolises such as New York, Miami and Los
Angeles recovered.
Nevertheless, in 1996, the receipt of social
assistance was reduced to two years in a row and a total of five years,
which reduced the number of recipients.
President Clinton's
foreign policy was led by Secretary of State Warren Christopher during
his first term and Madeleine Albright during his second. She was the
first woman in this post.
The unsuccessful engagement in Somalia,
begun under George Bush Sr., was aimed at the disempowerment of the "war
Lords", especially Mohammed Aidids. After the devastating battle of
Mogadishu, the special operations forces withdrew from the country. The
invasion of Haiti in 1994 also brought the democratically elected
Jean-Bertrand Aristide back to power and the military dictator Raoul
Cédras was deposed, but it did not solve the social problems of the
state.
After the European states had not succeeded in pacifying
the region after the breakup of Yugoslavia, US troops intervened in the
Bosnian War and Kosovo War against Serbian units of autocrat Slobodan
Milošević in 1995 (Operation Deliberate Force) and 1999 (Operation
Allied Force) within the framework of NATO. Attempts to achieve peace
between Israel and Palestine in the Middle East suffered a serious
setback with the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin.
Clinton
responded to provocations by Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein with sporadic
airstrikes, as well as in Sudan and Afghanistan after terrorist attacks
on the US embassy in Nairobi and a US warship in Yemen. These attacks
have already been blamed on Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network.
After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 on the World Trade
Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, President George W.
Bush announced a worldwide war on terrorism, which was initially
approved by a large part of the population. Bush, similar to Reagan,
identified an "axis of evil" (axis of evil), to which he attributed
so-called rogue states (rogue states). These included Iran, Iraq, Cuba
and North Korea.
In October 2001, the radical Islamic Taliban
regime, which had hosted Osama bin Laden, was overthrown by a campaign
in Afghanistan. Also in the name of the war on terrorism, the Third Gulf
War against Iraq began in March 2003 with the aim of overthrowing the
dictator Saddam Hussein. Under the pretext that he possessed weapons of
mass destruction and had contacts with Bin Laden, the United States
attacked without a UN mandate.
Despite a quick victory, Iraq
could not be pacified. Some states of the "Coalition of the Willing"
withdrew their comparatively small quotas back in the spring of 2004. In
June 2004, the government was handed over to an Iraqi interim
government.
George W. Bush's turn to a strategic concept of
preemption was seen as a departure from the previously pursued American
foreign and security policy, which was based on deterrence, containment
and the influence of "soft power", which means the attractiveness of
economic and cultural over military influence.
From 2007 onwards,
a financial crisis was looming, mainly based on a credit and real estate
bubble, which caused the biggest economic problems that had existed
since the Great Depression. Barack Obama, a Democratic senator from
Illinois and the first African-American and multiethnic president, was
elected during the crisis in November 2008 and ordered measures and
reforms to stimulate the economy and mitigate the negative consequences
of the crisis. Among other things, the American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act was enacted, which provided for tax cuts as well as
investments and expenses for health care, infrastructure or unemployment
insurance, among others. The unemployment rate declined again after the
peak of the crisis. The Dodd-Frank Act, the largest financial market
reform in recent decades, was also passed. A greater focus was also
placed on environmental policy during Obama's tenure. Although Obama
intended to keep the increase in debt below the level of the previous
government, the national debt also increased significantly in the
following years.
In 2010, the Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare")
was passed to reform the health care system. The number of citizens
without health insurance dropped significantly in the following years;
the reform remained controversial with regard to effectiveness and
affordability.
At the end of 2011, the US troop withdrawal in
Iraq was completed and the occupation of Iraq officially ended. On
December 31, 2014, the combat mission of the NATO-led ISAF mission in
Afghanistan was terminated and the US troops were withdrawn, except for
a small unit that remains in the Resolute Support follow-up mission. At
the end of 2014, Obama surprisingly announced the restoration of
diplomatic relations between the United States and Cuba. In 2015, the
Obama administration participated in a nuclear agreement with Iran.
The right-wing populist Republican Donald Trump, the first president
with no previous military or political experience before taking office,
was elected in November 2016.
The United States has been the most
affected by the COVID-19 pandemic worldwide. By the end of May 2020,
over 1,000,000 Americans had been infected and more than 100,000 had
died, and by February 2021, over 500,000 people had died with the virus.
Due to the economic consequences of the measures to reduce the spread of
the virus, more than 30 million Americans lost their jobs in the USA
during the COVID-19 pandemic. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the opioid
crisis in the USA, which had begun at the turn of the millennium,
reached its temporary peak. From 1999 to June 2022, about 948,000 people
died of a drug overdose in the United States.
The death of
African-American George Floyd during a police operation on May 25, 2020
triggered demonstrations against racism and police violence by the Black
Lives Matter movement. Riots broke out in numerous cities in the USA –
night curfews were imposed in more than 40 cities. In many cities, the
National Guard was also used to support the police.
In the 2020
presidential election, Democratic challenger Joe Biden defeated
incumbent Donald Trump. However, as the first president in the history
of the United States, the latter did not recognize his defeat. He
claimed to have become the victim of electoral fraud and enticed violent
supporters to an attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, in which 5
people died. On January 20, Biden took office as president.
American culture is characterized by the diversity of ethnic
influences and traditions brought by numerous immigrant groups. It was
not until the 1930s that a unified American popular culture emerged
through the mass media. Various cultural scientists have dealt with the
typical American mentality, compared self-image and foreign images and
formulated so-called cultural standards of behavior from them.
The early cultural production in the United States was mainly
characterized by the English "leading culture", which, however, quickly
gained independence due to the new, unique circumstances. The African
slaves were forbidden to practice their cultural traditions and to
produce their own culture, so that they had to orient themselves
strongly to European patterns. However, elements of their original
cultures could be maintained in secret.
In the 20th century,
American artists broke away from the role models of the Old World. The
different cultural disciplines were expanded in new directions.
The contemporary art and entertainment scene in the United States
included the rejuvenation of music, new developments in modern dance,
the use of native American themes in theater, film production in its
entire range and the globalization of the visual arts.
In the
United States – similar to Germany, but unlike in France – there is no
central Ministry of Culture that controls a nationwide cultural policy.
This fact reflects the conviction that there are areas in social life in
which the government should play only a small or no role at all. The two
national endowments for the Arts and Humanities – the "National
Endowment for the Arts" (NEA) and the "National Endowment for the
Humanities" (NEH) – provide grants to support individual artists and
scholars as well as institutions active in the field of the arts and
humanities. Since the "Republican Revolution" in 1994, in which the
Republicans won the majority in Congress, both foundations as well as
the public broadcasters PBS and NPR have been repeatedly threatened by
funding cuts, often accompanied by the accusation that they pursued a
"left" policy in favor of an "elite". In particular, art that is
critically viewed by Christian-fundamentalist or strongly Roman Catholic
circles becomes a target point of these threats.
While the NEA's
budget, which amounted to 115 million US dollars in 2003, was modest
compared to the cultural funding of other countries, private donations
have always made up the majority of cultural funding. These private
donations were estimated at about 12.1 billion US dollars for the year
2002.
The cultural forms of the approximately 350 Indian groups considered
tribes, whose members call themselves American Indians or Native
Americans and live in the main part of the United States, are not
uniform, the 225 recognized Alaska Native tribes living in Alaska also
differ significantly, especially the groups in Hawaii. Within the
country, between city and country, as well as between ethnic groups, the
differences are very large. They developed their own identities and
cultural structures that can be assigned to cultural areas, the number
of languages was very high, but many of them are threatened with
extinction. The largest language with about 150,000 speakers is the
Navajo.
On the Pacific coast, the culture was dominated by
fishing, or whaling, as with the Makah in northwest Washington. There
are huge totem poles there, the largest of which stands in Washington.
In the inland, mounted hunting, gathering and river fishing
predominated. In the great plains, the plains, the focus was on bison
hunting, in others on elk. Due to the arrival of the horse, an
equestrian nomadism developed from the 17th century onwards, which set
wide-ranging movements of peoples in motion. The East, on the other
hand, was largely depopulated from 1830 (Path of Tears), so that the
Indian cultural influence was less felt here for a long time.
Similar to literature, the Indian art scene not only pursues traditional
elements, but also combines them with European-inspired means of
American culture. Other Indian artists produce detached from these
traditions in their genres and with their means. Most of the literature
focuses on ecological problems, poverty and violence, dehumanized
technology or spirituality. The written tradition dates back to the
early 19th century. William Apes: The Experience of William Apes, a
Native of the Forest (1831), a Pequot, George Copway, an Anishinabe and
Elias Johnson, a Tuscarora are early examples. The novella Laughing Boy
by Oliver La Farge (1929) was not resumed until the 1960s. The Kiowa N.
Scott Momaday received the Pulitzer Prize for House Made of Dawn in
1969, Vine Deloria published Custer Died For Your Sins. An Indian
Manifesto. Dee Brown's Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee from 1970 broke the
national framework.
A significant contribution of the United States to world culture is
the development of jazz, which is considered the first independent form
of music in the United States, as well as blues and country, from the
merger of which rock and roll emerged in the 1950s. This musical culture
is unique due to the confluence of African-American and European
folklore and today forms a central basis of the popular culture of the
Western world.
Since 1959, the Grammy Awards have been presented
annually by the Recording Academy in Los Angeles in currently 78
categories to artists such as singers, composers, musicians as well as
production managers and sound engineers. The Grammy is considered the
highest international award for artists and recording teams.
Even before the establishment of the first English colony in America
in 1607, there were Spanish dramas and Native American tribes performing
plays.
Founded in 1809 by the circus of Pepin and Breschard, the
Walnut Street Theater is the oldest theater in America that is actively
operating to this day.
Although numerous formerly popular forms
of theatre such as Minstrel shows and vaudeville acts have gradually
disappeared from the American stage landscape over time, theatre remains
a popular contemporary art form in the United States.
Some of the
most important American playwrights and stage authors of the modern era
include Edward Albee, August Wilson, Tony Kushner, David Henry Hwang,
John Guare and Wendy Wasserstein.
The literary production did not tie in any way to the traditions of
the Indians, but began with travelogues and historiography, in addition
there were diaries and theological literature. The first printed book
was the Bay Psalm Book of 1640. The most important Puritan poets were
Edward Taylor and Anne Bradstreet (The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in
America, London 1650).
In 1704, Sarah Kemble Knight wrote the
report of a trip from Boston to New York (The Journal of Madam Knight),
with which the landscape forced an argument for the first time. With the
reports of captivity among Indians, intercultural contacts and
strangeness also penetrated the literature, such as Mary Rowlandson or
John Smith's account of his alleged rescue by Pocahontas. The Magnalia
Christi Americana (1702) by Cotton Mather is considered the most
important work of Puritan historiography.
Numerous political
essays and satires, read in England as well as in the United States,
came from the pen of Benjamin Franklin. Patriotism left its mark on the
literature of the founding years. Philip Freneau became the "poet of the
American Revolution" and drew a benevolent image of the Indians. Webster
compiled his An American Dictionary of the English Language from 1806 to
1828. His spelling is responsible for numerous differences between
American and British English.
Charles Brockden Brown took up the
English tradition of the Gothic novel and is considered a pioneer of the
psychological novel. Washington Irving and James Fenimore Cooper were
influenced by the historical novels of Sir Walter Scott. Irving is often
called the founder of the short story. Cooper captured the frontier
experience in the "Leather Stocking" (1823-1841) and presented Indians
as "noble savages".
American Romanticism, often referred to as
the American Renaissance, reached its peak over 30 years after the
European one. It was from Ralph Waldo Emerson that transcendentalism
originated. He referred to Immanuel Kant's Transcendental philosophy,
but combined it with Far Eastern and Indian philosophy. His The American
Scholar of 1837 was called the "cultural Declaration of Independence" of
the United States.
Henry David Thoreau lived in a log cabin for
two years. In the 1960s, his pursuit of an alternative life plan made
his Walden, reporting on these two years, a cult book of the hippie
movement. Thoreau's political essay Civil Disobedience (1849) influenced
Martin Luther King as well as the environmental movement.
Walt
Whitman emphasized physicality in free verse, while Nathaniel Hawthorne
was characterized by a deep skepticism. His subjects were guilt,
punishment and intolerance, for example in the company of his Puritan
ancestors. In the Blithedale Masquerade of 1841 he described the failure
of a utopian commune.
Herman Melville's Moby Dick (1851) was a
reflection on the questions of existence, about good and evil, the
limitations of human cognition. This and his late works, like Bartleby
the Scribe, were recognized only long after his death.
Edgar
Allan Poe's short stories influenced the development of fantasy and
horror literature, with the double murder in the Rue Morgue he invented
the detective story. By means of a poetry theory (The philosophy of
composition, The poetic principle), Poe succeeded in developing poetry
into the field of symbolist and onomatopoeic linguistic art.
The
conflict between the Northern and southern states over slavery was also
carried out by literary means. In 1789, the autobiography Olaudah
Equiano was published, Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852)
became a bestseller in the North.
Outstanding are Faulkner's
Yoknapatawpha novels (1930s), Stephen Vincent Benét's John Brown's Body
(1928) and last but not least Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind
(1936). The southerners vacillated between nostalgia and sharp
criticism. The poet and musician Sidney Lanier wrote gloomy odes, Kate
Chopin about the Creole-influenced society of Louisiana. Mark Twain's
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885) or Frank Norris’ local color
literature exposed regional idiosyncrasies and dialects.
The mass
misery in the cities became an issue. Jack London moved to the Far North
(Call of the Wild) during the Klondike Gold Rush. Like London, Frank
Norris belonged to the radical literary scene of San Francisco. His
novels dealt with the hard life in California, the supposed Promised
Land (Greed for Gold, 1899). Upton Sinclair exposed the abuses in
Chicago's slaughterhouses in The Swamp (1906).
T. S. Eliot or W.
H. Auden, Ezra Pound and Hilda Doolittle (H. D.) are considered
representatives of modernity. Many American writers spent some time in
Europe; Stein created for them the term ("Lost Generation"). John Dos
Passos wrote the most famous big city novel with Manhattan Transfer.
When the anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti were executed in 1927, John Dos
Passos, Langston Hughes and Edna St. Vincent Millay held a vigil in
front of the prison gates. Many writers turned to socialism.
"Proletarian literature" reached its peak with works such as Dos Passos'
U.S.A. trilogy (1930-1936) and John Steinbeck's Fruits of Wrath (1939).
The twelve authors of the pamphlet I'll Take My Stand and their
successors became known as Southern Agrarians; they opposed rationality,
industrialization and urbanization. In 1922, Eliot published probably
the most famous poem of English-speaking modernism: The Desert Land.
Gertrude Stein's poems are often more committed to sound than to
meaning. The concise style of Ernest Hemingway represents one extreme of
prose, the rampant sentences of William Faulkner represent the opposite.
His work (Nobel Prize for Literature in 1950) was celebrated in France
in particular by Jean-Paul Sartre and other existentialists, in Germany
by Gottfried Benn. However, he probably had the greatest influence on
Latin American literature, especially magical realism. Sherwood Anderson
and Thomas Wolfe were Faulkner's role models. F. Scott Fitzgerald's
works observed the upscale society of New York or the exiled bohème, and
so he became the chronicler of the "wild twenties". In The Great Gatsby
(1925), he took up the American success myth.
With the Harlem
Renaissance, a heyday of African-American literature began around 1920,
strongly influenced by Alain LeRoy Locke's anthology The New Negro
(1925). Richard Wright and Ralph Ellison belonged to the generation that
followed the Harlem Renaissance and found role models in it, but whose
optimism had given way to resignation. Wright's Native Son (1940) and
Ellison's The Invisible Man (1951) are considered the central works.
After the Second World War, Norman Mailer's The Naked and the Dead
and Gore Vidal's Williwaw, James Jones’ Damned for All Eternity and
Herman Wouk's The Caine was their destiny appeared. Mailer processed his
involvement in the anti-war movement into Heere aus der Nacht, for which
he invented "faction" (a new formation of fact and fiction) as a new
genre of literature. Vidal caused a scandal in 1948 with Closed Circle,
one of the first gay novels.
Henry Miller maintained a negative
attitude: the air-conditioned Nightmare (1945) is one of his titles and
at the same time his mock name for the United States. He gained a
reputation as an author of scandals with the Tropic of Cancer (1934) and
the Tropic of Capricorn (1939). However, his works – as well as the
trilogy Nexus, Plexus, Sexus (1948-1960) – are more interesting as a
spiritual biography and testimonies of mystical inclinations.
In
the late 1940s, a new literary bohème was formed around Allen Ginsberg,
Jack Kerouac, Gregory Corso and William S. Burroughs, which was called
the Beat Generation. The cultural influence of the beat poets can be
seen in the fact that the nonconformist youth movement around 1960 was
named after them as beatniks. Ginsberg's poems stand in the tradition of
Whitman in their free form, in radical individualism and visionary urge,
but at the same time are ironic-desperate comments on the state of
society. Thus, in the 1960s he became a symbolic figure of the hippies.
Jack Kerouac's best-known novel On the Road describes a journey of
two young men on the run from constraints and in search of sensual
pleasures and spiritual fulfillment as an alternative to materialism and
compulsion to conform. A central figure of the hippie movement also
became Ken Kesey with A flew over the cuckoo's nest.
In the 1960s
and 1970s, in the narrow sense, experimental authors such as Vladimir
Nabokov, Thomas Pynchon and John Barth were called "postmodern". Today,
the entire literature production from about 1960 onwards is often
understood under the term postmodernism, because it is understood as a
product of a postmodern society. Ways of collaborative literary creation
are being tested by systems such as NaNoWriMo.
The United States has always played a pioneering role in the process of media penetration of all areas of daily life that took place in the 20th century. Already in the first half of the 19th century, the emergence of a tabloid press can be observed. Also, the mass distribution of radio, television, computers and the Internet began here earlier than in the rest of the world. In 2000, more than 50% of American households already owned at least one personal computer, and more than 40% used the Internet.
Already in the founding colonies a newspaper business developed
rapidly. The first newspaper banned by the British, however, called
Publick occurrences, Both Foreign and Domestik, appeared as early as
1690. At the beginning of the 18th century, newspapers were already
published regularly, including many German-speaking ones. The first
German-language newspaper in the territory of the present-day United
States was the Philadelphische Zeitung, founded by Benjamin Franklin in
1732. In the years of the revolution, the joy of publication of
immigrants of mainly English and German descent increased sharply. When
the Declaration of Independence was adopted in 1776, it first appeared
in the German-speaking Pennsylvanian State Messenger. The statement was
not published in the English-language press until later.
Freedom
of the press was given a prominent place in the First Amendment of the
Constitution in 1791. In the United States, there was an early
conviction that the general good was best achieved by a "free trade of
ideas", as Oliver W. Holmes put it in 1919. This feature of the first
amendment was confirmed by the Supreme Court in 1969: "It is the right
of the viewers and listeners, not the right of the broadcasters, which
is paramount. It is the purpose of the First Amendment to preserve an
uninhibited marketplace of ideas in which truth will ultimately prevail,
rather than to maintain monopoly of that market“.
Reporters
Without Borders considers the situation to be satisfactory for press
freedom. Since President Biden took office, the reliability and
transparency of government communications has improved. According to the
NGO, however, structural weaknesses persist, such as the disappearance
of local media and a widespread distrust of so-called "mainstream
media".
Time Warner is a media company with numerous business areas. Time Warner includes the film and television studio Warner Bros., the pay-TV channel Home Box Office (HBO) and Time Inc. Book and magazine publishers. Viacom is an American media company with interests in MTV Networks and Paramount Pictures. NBC Universal is the third largest media company in the world, after Time Warner and Viacom. NBC Universal includes the US broadcasters National Broadcasting Company (NBC), USA Network and MSNBC, as well as the film company Universal Studios. News Corporation is a media conglomerate owned by Rupert Murdoch. News Corporation has numerous holdings in film and television companies, newspaper and book publishers. The investments include, among others, the companies 20th Century Fox, Fox Broadcasting Company, New York Post and Dow Jones (Wall Street Journal).
Since its beginnings as an independent nation, the United States has
promoted science and inventions by facilitating the free exchange of
ideas, the dissemination of knowledge and by welcoming creative people
from all over the world. The Constitution reflects the desire for
scientific activity. It gives the Congress the authority to "[...]
promote the progress of science and useful arts by granting authors and
inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and
discoveries for a limited time [...]". This provision is the basis for
the patent and trademark system of the United States.
Two of the
founding fathers of the United States were themselves well-known
scientists. Benjamin Franklin conducted a series of experiments to prove
that lightning is a kind of electricity, and invented the lightning rod.
Thomas Jefferson studied agriculture and introduced new varieties of
rice, olive tree and grass to the New World.
In the 19th century,
the leading new ideas in natural science and mathematics came from Great
Britain, France and Germany, but in many cases they were not received.
Due to the long distance between the United States and the countries of
origin of Western science and production, it was often necessary to
develop their own approaches. Researchers and inventors from the United
States were lagging behind in the development of theories, but they
excelled in the applied natural sciences. Against this background, a
large number of important inventions occurred. Great American inventors
are Robert Fulton (steamship), Samuel F. B. Morse (Telegraph), Eli
Whitney (cotton ginning machine), Cyrus McCormick (mower), the Wright
brothers (motorized airplane) and Thomas Alva Edison, the most prolific
inventor with more than one thousand inventions.
In the second
half of the 20th century, American scientists were increasingly
recognized for their contributions to science, the formulation of
concepts and theories. This change is also evident in the winners of the
Nobel Prizes in physics and chemistry. Among the Nobel Prize winners in
the first half of the century – from 1901 to 1950 – Americans
represented only a small minority in the natural sciences. Since 1950,
scientists working in the United States have received about half of the
Nobel Prizes awarded in the natural sciences. From the very beginning,
the processing of non-Anglo-Saxon research was subject to severe
restrictions due to the fact that the only common language was English.
If in the post-war years higher education was considered a public
good, and research was considered a national resource, then in the 1980s
this changed. Education lost its intrinsic value, it was increasingly
subject to capitalist market rules, was considered more as a personal
investment and thus a private asset and a means of market success. While
until well into the 1970s, an advanced academic degree was equated with
social success, the changed mentality generated an oversupply of
doctoral candidates, and, in view of the increasing costs, a decreasing
willingness to get involved in social sciences and humanities.
The United States has been running an active space program, NASA, since
1958.
Traditional American cuisine uses local ingredients such as turkey,
venison, potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn, pumpkin and maple syrup, which
were used by the Native Americans and the first European settlers. Wheat
is the most widely used type of grain.
Soul food, the cuisine of
the former African slaves, is especially popular in the southern United
States and among African Americans. Syncretic cuisines such as the
Creole, cajun and Tex-Mex are also popular. Dishes such as apple pie,
fried chicken, hamburgers and hot dogs come from recipes of various
immigrants. French fries, Mexican dishes such as burritos and tacos, as
well as pizza and pasta dishes, borrowed from Italian cuisine, are
common. Americans mostly prefer coffee over tea. Furthermore, orange
juice and milk-containing breakfast drinks are consumed.
The fast
food industry was the first to introduce drive-in service in the 1930s.
During the 1980s and 1990s, Americans' food energy intake increased by
24%. Frequent eating in fast food restaurants is associated with
obesity, which is widespread in the United States. Sweetened soft drinks
are popular and account for nine percent of Americans' dietary energy
intake.
The United States has a distinct sports culture in the de facto
national sports of American football, baseball and basketball.
Professional leagues that are played at the international level are the
NFL (American football), the MLB (baseball), the NBA (basketball) and
the NHL (ice hockey). American sport is in the interplay between
isolationism and internationalism.
So far, the Olympic Games have
been held in the United States eight times. The country ranks first in
the eternal medal table of the Olympic Games with a total of 2803 medals
(including 1119 gold ones) (as of March 6, 2017).
In 1968,
Special Olympics was founded by Eunice Kennedy-Shriver. Special Olympics
United States participated in Special Olympics World Games several
times. The association has announced its participation in the Special
Olympics World Summer Games 2023 in Berlin. The delegation will be
supported by Bremen and Bremerhaven before the games as part of the Host
Town Program.
A division into competitive and popular sports does
not exist as in the German understanding. Rather, a number of certain
secondary sports have developed, the importance of which is not measured
by the (incidentally rather low) commercialization and processing in the
nationwide media, but by the dissemination at schools and by the mass of
regional disputes. In addition to football (American English: soccer),
these sports include the widespread lacrosse.
Typical for the
American sports events is a high emphasis on the entertainment effect as
well as the integrative character of the sport. Characteristic of the
great demand for the entertainment value of sports is, in addition to
the consistently elaborate use of show and choreographic elements
(lighting, cheerleaders) in some sports, a mostly harmless staging of
action and violence, for example in wrestling.
In addition, the
United States is the initiator of a further subjective classification of
various sports, which, with the conscious creation of a sense of life,
are mainly practiced as a casual leisure activity. In addition to tennis
and bodybuilding, this includes various trendy sports.
The great
hopes that the society of the United States places in the integrating
effect of sports become clear in view of the opportunities for
advancement in it. A significant part of the scholarships for
universities is awarded to sports talents. The accusation, often voiced
at home and abroad, that such scholarship holders would not be able to
pass intellectually at a university without their athletic abilities is
rarely true, since great importance is attached to academic performance
and sports practice is curtailed in case of poor academic performance.
In a mode developed over time for the national sports, the so-called
drafting system, the first access rights to the best talents of a year
are granted to the weakest clubs, interspersed with certain
coincidences.
In contrast to lacrosse, the leadership of the
sport of football in the United States is trying to connect to the much
more widespread sports of American football, baseball, basketball and
ice hockey. The top division, Major League Soccer, is trying to bridge
differences between the North American and European understanding of
sports. In the 1970s, top international players switched to American
clubs. For example, New York Cosmos signed Pelé in 1975 and Franz
Beckenbauer in 1977. In addition, Los Angeles Galaxy signed David
Beckham in 2007, and in 2010 Thierry Henry was signed by the New York
Red Bulls. From 2011 to 2016, Jürgen Klinsmann was the head coach of the
United States national football team. Women's football in the United
States is much more successful internationally than men's football.
Motorsport is also very popular in the United States. The most
popular racing series are NASCAR and INDYCAR. Famous are the 500 miles
from Indianapolis and the Speedweek in Daytona Beach. Every year, the
Formula 1 and the MotoGP Motorcycle World Championships are also hosted
in the United States. Dirt track races with the Grand National
Championships are also very popular in motorcycle sports. A successful
speedway scene has been established in California since the early 1970s
and has brought five world champions to the United States with its
speedway professionals Bruce Penhall, Shawn Moran, Sam Ermolenko, Billy
Hamill and Greg Hancock, who have won six individual Speedway world
Championships together. Shawn Moran became the long track world champion
in 1983.
There is also a different understanding of the holidays in the United States than in Europe. In principle, holidays established by the government apply only to its officials and employees, including employees of the Post office. However, many holidays have also become common in the economy because of their cultural anchoring. The holidays in the United States, with the exception of the Christmas and New Year holidays, are non-religious, that is, primarily patriotic in nature, due to the strict separation of the state and the church.
The United States has a common border with Canada, which is a total
of 8,895 kilometers long (with about 2,477 kilometers between Alaska and
Canada), and one with Mexico, which is 3,326 kilometers long. The total
length of the US land borders is 12,221 kilometers. The coastline on the
Atlantic, Pacific and Gulf of Mexico covers a total of 19,924
kilometers.
The state covers a land area of 9,161,924 km2, in
addition there are 664,706 km2 of water areas, resulting in a national
territory of 9,826,630 km2.
The north-south extension between the
Canadian and the Mexican border is about 2,500 kilometers, the extension
between the Atlantic and the Pacific is about 4,500 kilometers. The main
part of the country lies approximately between the 24th and 49th
northern latitude and between the 68th and 125th western longitude and
is divided into four time zones (see Time zones in the United States).
The northernmost city in the USA is UtqiaġVik in Alaska, the
southernmost place is Hawaiian Ocean View in Hawaii.
The area has a clear division. For example, mountain ranges such as
the volcanic cascade range, the fold mountains of the Rocky Mountains
and the Appalachians extend from north to south. While extensive forests
exist on their weather side, huge dry areas with desert or grasslands
(prairies) extend in their slipstream. The river systems of the United
States, such as those of the Mississippi and Missouri, made dense
settlement possible at an early stage, while the surrounding arid
regions are still sparsely populated today.
The highest mountain
in the United States is Denali in Alaska at 6190 m, the lowest point is
the Badwater depression in Death Valley at 85.5 m below sea level.
Denali and Badwater are also the highest and lowest points on the North
American continent.
The most important influencing factor for the climate is the polar
jet stream (Polarfrontjetstream), which brings extensive low pressure
areas from the North Pacific. If the lows combine with those from the
Atlantic coast, they bring heavy snowfalls in winter as Nor'easters.
Since no mountain range runs west-eastwards, winter storms often bring
large amounts of snow far to the south, while in summer the heat reaches
far northwards to Canada.
The areas between the mountain ranges
have correspondingly high temperature extremes, as well as a more or
less severe drought, which is increasing to the south and west. The
Pacific coast, on the other hand, is a very rainy, often foggy area in
the north. The area around the Gulf of Mexico is already subtropical
with high temperatures in summer and often high humidity. In addition,
the area is often reached by tropical cyclones.
There is an
Arctic climate in Alaska. The mountains there are the highest in the
United States (Denali, 6190 meters). Hawaii, whose Mauna Kea is 4205
meters high, on the other hand, has a tropical climate.
The areas on the east coast up to the Great Lakes were heavily
forested until the 19th century, the west coast in the area of the
temperate rainforest of sometimes extremely tall trees with growth
heights of over 100 meters. Of these areas, only a few have remained,
such as the Redwoods or the Hoh Rainforest. Large areas have been
converted to arable land or cultivated, the vast majority are now
occupied by industrial forests. The biodiversity of the drier grasslands
has also been greatly reduced in the course of agricultural use.
However, protected areas and measures led to the fact that many of the
more than 17,000 vascular plant species could be saved. Hawaii alone has
1,800 flowering plants (covered), many of which are endemic.
Around 400 mammal, 750 bird and 500 reptile and amphibian species as
well as well over 90,000 insect species form part of the fauna, with a
separate law protecting endangered species since 1973. 58 National parks
in the still large remaining wilderness regions and several hundred
other protected areas predominantly have a great biodiversity, which
stands in clear contrast to the widespread monocultures. First of all,
due to the large number of endemic species, genera and families, the
great diversity of species, or rather, the diversity of species. Due to
its biodiversity and diverse ecosystems, the USA is one of the
megadiversity countries on Earth. Only the Mediterranean hard-leaved
vegetation of the flora province of California is internationally listed
as a biodiversity hotspot due to the great threat to nature.
Historically, some important developments in nature conservation stem from the history of the United States: the national park idea and with it the Yellowstone National Park, the world's first large-scale protected area of this kind, originated in the United States. As a national authority, the Senate established the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) to look after all national protected areas. On the one hand, US-American NGOs such as Conservation International are world leaders in nature and resource protection. On the other hand, the United States is one of the few countries that has not signed the most important international agreement, the Biodiversity Convention, to date.
In 2021, 83 percent of the inhabitants of the United States lived in cities. in 2020, 323 localities had more than 100,000 inhabitants and there were 56 metropolitan regions with more than one million inhabitants (with only ten cities). The largest metropolitan areas in 2021 were New York City (19.8 million), Los Angeles (13.0 million), Chicago (9.5 million), Dallas (7.8 million), Houston (7.2 million), Washington, D.C. (6.4 million) and Philadelphia (6.2 million). The main agglomerations are located between New York and the Great Lakes, in California and Arizona, as well as in Texas and, to a lesser extent, in Florida. With 33 inhabitants per square kilometer, the USA is a rather sparsely populated country. The east of the country is much more densely populated than the west.
The population has been growing continuously since 1610. Forecasts
predict a further increase by 2050: by 2025, according to a United
Nations forecast, the population will grow to 358 million inhabitants,
and in 2050, according to this, more than 408 million people will live
in the country.
Since 1790, the Constitution has provided for a
census to be held every ten years, the so-called United States Census.
Immigrants had a significant share of the increase in the population.
Thus, since the Immigration and Naturalization Services Act of 1965, the
number of people born abroad has increased fivefold, namely from 9.6
million in 1970 to about 49.8 million in 2017. In the 1990s, the number
of immigrants increased to one million per year. In 2000, the proportion
of people born abroad was 11.1 percent of the total population. By 2017,
it increased to 15.3%. At the same time, almost 3 million Americans
lived abroad. Most of them in Mexico (900,000), Canada (310,000), the
United Kingdom (190,000), Germany (140,000) and Australia (120,000).
In 2020, the number of inhabitants grew by 0.4%, or about 1.3
million. The number of births per woman was statistically 1.6 in 2020.
The birth rate of Hispanics and Latinos is higher than that of the rest
of the population. As of 2019, the proportion of whites under the age of
15 is below 50%. More than half of the newborns have been non-white
since 2020 at the latest.
For every 1000 inhabitants, there were
a total of 12.5 births and 8.2 deaths in 2016. The median age of the
population in 2020 was 38.3 years. Of the countries of the
industrialized world, the USA has one of the youngest and fastest
growing populations.
The original inhabitants of the country, the Indians ("Native
Americans" or "American Indians"), now make up only about one percent of
the population. Only in Alaska they reach a double-digit percentage of
the population. Other focal points are Oklahoma, California, Arizona,
New Mexico and South Dakota. They do not form a unity; culture, language
and religion differ from people to people. There are a total of 562
recognized tribes, in addition there are 245 groups that are not
currently recognized as a tribe.
The first colonial immigrants on
the continent populated by Indians were Europeans, initially primarily
of Spanish, French and English origin. With them came slaves from the
17th century, mostly from West Africa. From the middle of the 18th and
increasingly towards the middle of the 19th century, Europeans of
German-speaking and Irish origin followed. Later, immigrants from other
regions of Europe joined, mainly Italians, Scandinavians and Eastern
Europeans, including Eastern European Jews. In the second half of the
19th century, there was immigration from East Asia and the Near East. In
addition to economic motives, religious or political persecution also
played a role for many.
According to a survey by the United
States Census Bureau, whites made up 57.8% of the population in 2019.
Hispanics and Latinos make up the second largest group with a share of
18.7% of the population. African Americans made up just over 13 percent.
They live mainly in the south and in the large industrial cities of the
north. Asian Americans, mostly with a migrant background and/or descent
from China, Japan, Korea, India and the Philippines, make up around six
percent. During the census in 2019, over 43 million people declared a
German origin. This makes Americans of German descent the largest
population group in the United States.
In 2018, there were almost
90 million immigrants and US-born children of immigrants living in the
United States, making up 28% of the US population.
Especially in
the southwest of the United States and in Florida there is a high
proportion of the population of Latin American origin, who are generally
referred to as "Hispanics" or "Latinos" there. Many of them strongly
adhere to their culture and language. Their share in the US has grown
steadily in recent decades (to 17 percent by 2013), as many Latin
Americans flee to the north from economic hardship. They often come as
illegal immigrants.
There are big differences in the social
structure between white and black population. On average, blacks have a
lower income, a shorter life expectancy and a poorer education. They are
both more often victims and perpetrators in a homicide and are more
often sentenced to death. The causes of this and possible ways of
solving the problem are controversial. Not only in the southern states,
residential areas and non-public institutions – such as churches or
private organizations – are often actually separated by ethnicity,
although the formal separation is now illegal and frowned upon.
The most widely spoken language of the United States is American
English. Despite certain advantages of a common language, the United
States has not established a single official language. Every year since
1973, a legislative proposal has been submitted to the US Congress to
declare English the national language. But this plan was rejected every
time. However, all official documents are written in English. English is
the official language in thirty-two states; individual states and
territories define themselves as bilingual, trilingual or multilingual,
such as Hawaii, Alaska, Guam or Puerto Rico. 227 Million inhabitants
speak only English, all other languages together make up more than 60
million speakers. Almost 18% of Americans did not speak English at home
in 2006.
The proportion of people who speak Spanish is
particularly high (10% as their mother tongue), with many immigrants
speaking only their native Spanish and some of them living in their own
neighborhoods in cities (for example, East Los Angeles or Union City).
Spanish is widely spoken, especially in the southwest, as well as in
Miami. In California, their share is about 30%, however, many,
especially the younger of them, are bilingual. About 30 to 40 million
people live in the United States, quite a few of them illegally under
foreign law. Documents and signage are increasingly being translated
into Spanish, but this phenomenon is usually limited to the region.
In addition to English and Spanish, Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese,
French, Korean and German are also widely spoken. Especially in cases
where the mixing with the rest of the population is low, the brought
language is retained in the following generations (for example, by the
Amish in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois).
In addition,
many other languages are spoken by other immigrants as well as the
languages of the Indians or Hawaiians. In total, in 2011, the census
noted 382 languages, of which 169 are Native American. However, the
latter have only about 400,000 speakers, of which about 150,000 are
Navajo. In 2nd and 3rd place, with less than 20,000 speakers each, the
language of the Yupik in Alaska and that of the Dakota (from the Sioux
language family) follow. According to the 2015 census, more than 350
languages were still in use among the US population, of which 150 were
indigenous languages.
The government does not keep a register of the religious status of
residents. The United States Census Bureau is not allowed to ask
questions about religious affiliation itself, but publishes the results
of other surveys. In a survey by the Pew Research Center in 2014, about
25.4% of the population described themselves as Evangelical Protestants,
20.8% as Roman Catholic, 14.7% as mainline Protestants, 6.5% belong to
traditional black Protestant churches. Among the smaller Christian
churches, 1.6% are Mormons and 0.8% are Jehovah's Witnesses, 0.5% were
members of an Orthodox Church. The non-Christian religious communities
include 1.9% Jews, 0.9% Muslims and 0.7% Buddhists. 22.8% of the
respondents did not state any religious conviction, of which explicitly
3.1% were atheists and 4.0% agnostics.
In summary, around 70.6%
of Christians and 5.9% of followers of non-Christian religions lived in
the USA in 2014. In a 2008 survey, 82% of Americans described religion
as important or very important for their lives (55% very important). 65%
of women described religion as very important for their lives compared
to 44% of men. According to this survey, 54% of the US population pray
at least once a day, a figure that is 10% in France, 19% in Germany, 32%
in Poland, 42% in Turkey and 69% in Brazil.
According to a study
by the Gallup Institute, about 73% of the population were Christians in
2016 (48.9% Protestants of various currents, 23% Catholics and 1.8%
Mormons). Judaism remains the largest non-Christian religion in the
United States, accounting for 2.1% of the population. 0.8% of the
population are Muslims, 2.5% belong to other religions. 18.2% of the
respondents belonged to the non-denominational/atheist/agnostic group.
The regional distribution of the denominations varies; while the
majority of Catholics live in New England, the southern states are
Evangelical. The center of the Mormons is located in Utah and the
surrounding states (Nevada, Idaho); especially in the south of the USA
on the border with Mexico and due to Cuban emigration in the Greater
Miami area, predominantly Catholic Latinos live. The centers of the
Jewish population are such metropolises as New York and its environs,
Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco and southeast Florida.
According to sociologists such as Dennis Gilbert of Hamilton College,
in 1998 society consisted of six social classes with a determinable
share of the total population: an upper class (about 1%), consisting of
the most prominent, wealthy and powerful citizens; an upper middle class
(about 15%), consisting of highly qualified professionals such as
doctors, professors, lawyers; a lower middle class (about 32%),
consisting of well-educated professionals such as school teachers and
craftsmen; a working class (about 32%), which consists of industrial
workers and blue-collar workers (blue-collar workers), as well as
ordinary employees, and finally a subclass (about 20%), which breaks up
into two groups. Their upper group consists of the "working poor", the
working poor who work in low-paid jobs without insurance or only
part-time. The lower group does not work and is dependent on public
welfare, which is very small in the United States (unemployed poor).
It is striking that members of these lower classes usually live in
certain neighborhoods of the big cities, while the middle class in the
1960s to 1980s moved to the suburbs, which are beyond the borders of the
big cities, but still within the metropolitan regions. The proportion of
the poor among blacks and Hispanics is disproportionately high (about
30%).
Between 1977 and 1999, incomes in the richest hundredth of
the population increased by 115% after tax deduction. Real wages for 60%
of employees have fallen by 20% during this period. The number of
Americans living in poverty increased by 1.7 million people in 2002 to a
total of 34.6 million. The number of people living in extreme poverty
(less than half of the official poverty line) increased from 13.4
million in 2001 to 14.1 million in 2002. The poverty and child poverty
rates vary greatly between ethnic groups. In 2009, 7.1 million (18.7
percent) of people over the age of 65 were affected by the NAS poverty
definition. in 2013, 47 million people in 23 million households in the
U.S., or 20% of U.S. households, used government food stamps. 90% of
Americans have an income of $30,000?, this corresponds to the level of
1965. An evaluation of the census data from 2010 also revealed that
around 1.5 million households have to live practically without any
money. They have an income of less than 2 dollars per person per day,
but sometimes receive food vouchers or material allowances and sometimes
live in publicly paid apartments. However, a significant proportion is
completely cut off from the money economy.
Even households with
incomes well above the federal poverty line can often be addressed as
working poor due to the high cost of living in their region, if and to
the extent that they are unable to build up reserves or savings. At the
end of 2014, around 25% of households with middle-class incomes between
the ages of 40 and 55 had net assets of less than $ 17,500 (excluding
any owner-occupied residential property and pension entitlements).
Overall, it can be stated that the gap between the poorest and the
top of society has widened dramatically in recent years: according to an
estimate by the Levy Economics Institute of Bard College (USA), the
upper class, i.e. the top 1% of the population, owned 37.1% of the total
wealth of the United States in 2009, which is an increase of 3.7%
compared to 2001. The bottom 80% of the population, on the other hand,
owns only 12.3% of the total wealth, which corresponds to a decrease of
3.3% for corresponds to the same period.
In 2017, according to
Forbes, there were 585 billionaires in the United States (27% of all
billionaires in the world), making the United States the country with
the most billionaires in the world. 7 of the 10 richest people in the
world in 2018 were Americans. The richest man in America and the world
was Jeff Bezos, whose fortune of $ 112 billion was higher than the
economic output of Kenya (as of February 2018). In 2005, the richest
percent of the American population earned an income of $ 524 billion,
which was 37% higher than that of the poorest 20% of the population ($
383 billion). For example, the average wealth of all US families was $
692,000; the more meaningful median value of wealth was $ 97,300.
From 1951 to 1960, 2.5 million people immigrated annually, a total of
4.5 million between 1971 and 1980 and a total of over 10 million in the
1990s. In 2003, 463,204 people received US citizenship, and from 1997 to
2003 the average was about 634,000. In 2015, there were 46,627,102
foreign-born residents, accounting for 14.5% of the population, making
the United States the largest number of migrants in the world. A large
proportion of the foreign-born residents were of Latin American origin,
mainly from Mexico and Central America. In recent years, migration from
Asian countries such as China, India, Vietnam, South Korea and the
Philippines has increased.
As early as 1790, the United States
regulated immigration with the Naturalization Act, a law that was
supposed to promote immigration from Europe, but excluded blacks and
"unfree" and required a "good moral character". In 1882, the Chinese
were explicitly excluded with the Chinese Exclusion Act, a regulation
that was repeated slightly modified in 1943. In 1891, an immigration
commission was created, which annually established country quotas.
in 1921, the Emergency Quota Act for the first time regulated
immigration in such a way that Northern and Western Europeans were given
preference by freezing their share of the population according to the
census - a trend that was consolidated with the Immigration Act of 1924.
Immigration policy was particularly restrictive towards Asians at the
beginning of the 20th century.
It was not until 1965 that the
time of application and the region of the world were taken into account;
in addition, there were cases of family reunification. Since 1978, a
uniform quota has been applied to immigration to the United States. In
1970, 62% of Americans born abroad were still Europeans, but by 2000
this share had dropped to 15%.
Hispanics are the largest minority
in the United States. In 2000, there were 35.2 million Hispanics living
in the United States, compared to 54 million in 2013, resulting in a
percentage increase of 54 percent. Of the 54 million, 34.5 million were
of Mexican origin. Estimates of illegal immigrants vary between 7 and 20
million, most estimate their number at around 12 million. Every year,
hundreds of thousands cross the southern border illegally, including
tens of thousands of unaccompanied minors. The State Commission for
Human Rights in Mexico stated that in 2007 alone, 500 illegals were
killed while trying to cross the border – often by dying of thirst.
There were 4,700 Mexicans between 1995 and 2007.
In order to
combat illegal immigration from Mexico, President Bush signed the Secure
Fence Act in October 2006, which provided for the construction of a
1,100-kilometer border fortification. In addition, the support of
illegal immigrants became punishable by law.
As early as 1954,
the government had tried to deport 1.2 million Hispanics with Operation
Wetback – whereby the swear word "wetback" (Engl.; "Wetback") derived
from the Mexicans who had swum through the Rio Grande. in 1965, Mexican
immigration was restricted, with the Immigration Reform and Control Act
(IRCA) of 1986, illegal immigrants were legalized for the first time.
In 2015, about 627,000 people born in Germany lived in the United
States.
For comparisons of the propensity to violence over long periods of
time and long spatial distances, the rate of homicides is used as an
index. The United States had 5.3 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in 2017.
A peak was in 1991 with 9.7 cases. The rate of 5.3 is far higher than
that of Germany, which is at one. The average in Europe is 3 cases per
100,000 inhabitants, the global average is 6.1. East Asian states
average 0.6 cases per 100,000 inhabitants.
According to FBI
Uniform Crime Reporting, the crime rate in the United States has been
declining since the early 1990s. Violent crime peaked in 1991 with 758
cases per 100,000 inhabitants. In 2000, there were 507, in 2010 there
were still 405, and in 2018, 381 cases were recorded.
The United
States has the largest prison population in the world, both in absolute
terms and relative to the population. In 2008, over 2.4% of the
population of the United States were either in prison (2.3 million) or
were at large for parole (4.3 million) or for suspension of detention
(0.828 million). By 2011, the number of prisoners had risen to over 2.4
million. This puts the United States at the top of the world by far in
terms of the ratio of prison inmates to the number of inhabitants. The
crime rate, on the other hand, initially remained constant and even
decreased later.
During the 1960s, the proportion of prisoners
had fallen by about one percent annually and reached its lowest level in
1975 at 380,000. Since about 1980, the number has increased
significantly, so that in 1985 there were already 740,000, and at the
end of 1998 even two million. Two thirds of the prisoners come from
households that had less than half of the income defined as the poverty
threshold available.
In 2000, there were 133,610 people under the
age of 18 in prisons and juvenile detention centers in the United
States. In the United States, criminal liability begins far earlier than
in Germany. In many states, 7-year-olds can already be held accountable
for violating a criminal law, in most others this is the case from the
age of 11. in 2005, 1,403,555 under-18s were arrested. In 2003, it was
possible in 33 states to place mentally ill children and adolescents in
custody even if they had not violated criminal law.
African
Americans make up about 13 percent of the total population, but make up
38 percent of the prison population. Half of all murders in the United
States and about a third of all rapes are committed by African
Americans. A disproportionate share of blacks and Latinos can be seen in
the number of armed attackers. For example, between January and June
2008, a total of 98 percent of all assailants armed with firearms in New
York City were either black or Hispanic. In March 2015, 16 percent of
the inmates in American prisons were Mexican citizens, and another 7.5
percent of the inmates had other than American or Mexican citizenship.
Unlike almost all other states in the Western world, the death
penalty is carried out in numerous states of the United States, which
has been controversial for years, including in the United States itself.
A total of 23 states have abolished the death penalty, most recently
Virginia in March 2021. In the remaining states, the execution of death
sentences continues, even for people with intellectual disabilities and
those who were minors at the time of the accused act. There are more
than 3,200 men and women on death row, and almost 42% are
African-American.
The United States is a presidential state with a bicameral system. The form of government is based on a representative democracy.
The United States, according to the Articles of Confederation, has had its second constitution since its inception. It provides for a presidential, federal and republican political system that, horizontally, legislative, executive and judicial, as well as vertically, comparatively strictly separates the federal level from the states.
According to the Constitution, the strongest state body at the
federal level is the Congress, which exercises the legislative power. It
is composed of elected representatives from all 50 states. The Congress,
which consists of two chambers, has budgetary authority and the right to
initiate legislation. Among other things, Congress has a significant
influence on American politics as a result of the budget law to which it
is entitled. Only Congress has the right to enact federal laws and issue
declarations of war. Treaties with foreign countries are signed by the
president, but require ratification by the second chamber of Congress,
the Senate. In the case of important appointments (for example, to
cabinet posts or federal judicial posts, especially at the Supreme
Court), the Senate, after hearing the candidates, has the right to
confirm or reject the president's proposal.
The members of the
House of Representatives, the first chamber of the Congress, are elected
for two-year terms. Each representative represents one electoral
district of his state. The number of electoral districts is determined
by a census conducted every ten years. Senators are elected for six-year
terms. Their election takes place in stages, that is, one third of the
Senate is re-elected every two years. The Constitution provides that the
vice-president presides over the Senate. He does not have the right to
vote, except in the event of a tie.
Before a bill becomes a
federal law, it must have passed through both the House of
Representatives and the Senate. The proposal is first presented in one
of the two chambers, examined by one or more committees, amended,
rejected or accepted in the committee and then discussed in one of the
two chambers. As soon as it is accepted in this chamber, it is forwarded
to the other chamber. Only after both chambers have adopted the same
version of the bill, it will be submitted to the president for approval.
After that, the president has the opportunity to postpone the entry into
force of the law. After such a veto, Congress can pass a new bill or
finally overrule the president with two-thirds approval.
The head of state and government in personal union is the president,
who is at the head of the executive branch. He is also the
commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of the United States and,
together with the Secretary of Defense, forms the National Command
Authority (NCA), which alone is responsible for making the decision on
an attack by the United States with nuclear weapons. To do this, both
people must independently agree to the nuclear strike. The 46th
incumbent since January 20, 2021 has been Democrat Joe Biden, who was
elected on November 3, 2020. The President is represented by the
Vice-President elected with him. In the event of an early termination of
the president's term of office by the end of the term of office, the
latter takes his place completely, and he also chairs the Senate. The
current vice president is Democrat Kamala Harris.
In the event
that the Vice-President is prevented or absent, the Senate shall appoint
a "pro-tempore chairman", a temporary chairman. The members of the first
chamber, the House of Representatives elect their own chairman, the
"Speaker of the House of Representatives (Speaker)". The speaker and the
pro-tempore chairman are members of the strongest party in their
respective chambers. The speaker has been Democrat Nancy Pelosi since
2019, and Republican Senator Chuck Grassley has held the post of
pro-Tempore chairman since 2019.
At the head of the judiciary, which is also federally organized, is the Supreme Court. The Constitution, which came into force in 1787, the provisions of which are enforceable, has a great significance in the political system of the United States. It speaks for the success and stability of this Constitution that it has so far undergone only 27 amendments ("amendments").
In the United States, a two-party system has been formed, favored by
the relative majority voting law. These parties have been the Democrats
and the Republicans since the middle of the 19th century. The Democrats
are currently the largest party with 72 million registered supporters
(42.6%), followed by the Republicans with 55 million supporters (32.5%)
and 42 million voters registered without party preference (24.9%). At
the same time, both parties, which are not assigned a constitutional
role, can at most rudimentarily be subjected to a schematization, since
they already represent intra-party coalitions of different currents.
Topic-specific political currents and interest groups are more
likely to try to influence the deputies and other leaders of both major
parties than to establish independent parties. Examples include the
American Civil Liberties Union, the fundamental Christian Moral
Majority, and the Tea Party movement.
Smaller parties such as the
Greens, the Libertarian Party or the Communist Party of the USA are
insignificant, although in presidential elections the votes cast for the
Green candidate can sometimes be perceived as a – possibly decisive –
disadvantage for the Democratic candidate. A main exponent of the Green
Party of the United States for a while in the 1990s was Ralph Nader, who
entered the presidential campaign as the party's candidate in 1996 and
enjoys great fame at home and abroad as a "consumer advocate".
At
the state level, women's suffrage was achieved at different times. In
New Jersey, wealthy women had the right to vote since 1776 and voted
from 1787. When universal suffrage for men was introduced there, women
lost the right to vote. In 1918, Oklahoma, Michigan, South Dakota and
Texas (women's suffrage in primaries) came in last. In some states, even
after 1920, restrictions such as reading and writing tests and poll
taxes were still used to exclude blacks from voting. At the federal
level, the Constitution of 13. In September 1788, there were no
restrictions on the gender of the two chambers with regard to the right
to stand for election. However, it was not until 1920, with the entry
into force of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution of the United
States, that all restrictions on the right to vote on the basis of
gender were explicitly prohibited in the USA, giving women the full
right to vote at all levels. The American presidential election of 1920
was the first in which women's suffrage came into play.
The heartland includes 48 of the 50 states as well as the District of
Columbia (federal District with the capital Washington D.C.), which are
located within a common border (so-called "Lower 48"), while Alaska and
Hawaii are outside the heartland (Continental United States).
At
the founding of the United States, there were thirteen states, which
were gradually joined by other territories in the course of the western
expansion up to the Mississippi. After Texas, the connecting wave
skipped the sparsely populated mountain ranges and continued especially
with California and Oregon after the middle of the 19th century. This
development was completed only during the First World War. In 1959, the
Pacific island group of Hawaii, as well as Alaska, located to the
northwest, bordering Russia via the 100 km wide Bering Strait, became
part of the United States as federal states.
In 2002, according to the Census and Census Bureau, there were 87,900
local government units in the United States, including localities,
counties, settlements, school and other districts. More than
three-quarters of the citizens of the United States live in large cities
or their suburbs (list of cities in the United States).
A county
is a subunit of most states and roughly comparable to a county. In
Louisiana, they are called "parish"; in Alaska, these administrative
units do not exist, but only statistical subdivisions. In addition,
there are cities in Virginia and Missouri that are not assigned to any
county. In the case of large cities (for example, Philadelphia), it
happens that the boundaries of the city and county are the same; the
city of New York even occupies five counties, each of which is called a
"borough". It is not uncommon for cities and even villages to cross a
county border. The forms of government of the counties and their powers
vary greatly from state to state, sometimes even within a state, if the
parliament of the corresponding state has specified different forms for
selection. Almost all of them take out loans and collect taxes. They
have employees, are very often responsible for overseeing elections, and
build and maintain roads and bridges (sometimes on behalf of the federal
or state government). Social welfare programs are partly run by them,
partly also by the townships, which, especially in the Midwest, are not
congruent with the municipalities, which with an area of 36 square miles
were determined at the land survey from the 18th century.
A
special aspect of some smaller cities, which is rare and predominantly
found in the New England states, is the "town meeting". Once a year –
more often if necessary - all registered voters of a city come to a
public meeting and elect officials, discuss local politics and make laws
for the functioning of the government. As a group, they decide on road
construction and repair, construction of public buildings and
facilities, taxes and the city budget. The "town meeting", which has
existed for two centuries, is often the purest form of democracy, in
which government power is not delegated, but is exercised directly and
regularly by all citizens. However, the vast majority of citizens know
only representative democracy.
In addition to the states and the District of Columbia (area of the capital Washington, D.C.), there are external territories with differently regulated autonomy. The largest outlying areas are Puerto Rico in the Caribbean and Guam in the Pacific.
An important role in American domestic politics is played mainly by moral and ethical issues, such as the limits of freedom of expression, the right to abortion, the justification of the death penalty, the political recognition of homosexuality, the rights of minorities, or the question of what role religious values should play in public life.
Most states have gun laws that are extremely liberal by international
standards. The right to bear arms is traditionally held in high esteem
in the United States, as it is protected by the Second Amendment of the
Constitution ("[...] right to bear arms [...]"). Private individuals can
therefore acquire firearms and ammunition without major difficulties and
carry the weapons openly. In total, there are more than 200 million
privately owned pistols and rifles in the United States.
The
existing legal situation is controversial in the United States. Her
critics see this as a cause for the high number of 350,000 armed crimes
and 11,000 murder victims every year, as well as in particular the
numerous rampages, mainly in schools and universities, as criminals
could arm themselves more easily. Proponents of liberal gun laws such as
the National Rifle Association (NRA) deny this connection and point to
low murder rates in countries such as Switzerland, Canada or New
Zealand, where a disproportionate number of weapons are also privately
owned. Furthermore, they argue that criminals would mostly get into
possession of weapons illegally, which is why private individuals should
at least be given the opportunity to defend themselves.
The health care system of the United States is – especially in
research – partly world–leading, but in other areas - especially in
general patient and insurance care – partly in a desolate state. About $
1.8 trillion is spent on the health care system annually. This is about
17 percent of the total US economic output. Compared to Germany, this is
almost twice as high per capita. About 47 million Americans, about 16%
of the total population, are not covered by health insurance − but this
is not exclusively for income reasons (about a third of the uninsured
have a household income of $ 50,000 or more) or because of old age and
the associated risk of illness (about 40 percent of the uninsured are
between 18 and 35 years old). In addition, there is a high number of
unreported illegal immigrants who also do not have health insurance.
Many of those who are insured have to pay for all medical services,
others who are in a health insurance (HMO) have to endure bureaucratic
paperwork and long waiting times with restrictions on the choice of
doctors. In 1993, President Clinton failed with the attempt to introduce
a uniform statutory compulsory health insurance. In 2010, under
President Obama, laws were passed to gradually reform the health care
system by 2018. The new President Donald Trump, who was elected at the
end of 2016, announced that he would completely or partially abolish and
replace the health care reform again.
The high level of obesity
has taken on the character of a national health crisis in the 21st
century. According to data from the World Health Organization, in 2014,
67.8 percent of Americans of legal age were overweight, and 33.7% of the
more than 300 million inhabitants were even severely overweight. This is
one of the highest rates in the world and causes an annual cost of
hundreds of billions of dollars.
According to The World Factbook,
life expectancy in the United States was 80.6 years in 2022, ranking
46th in the world, which is a deterioration of 23 places compared to
1984 and one of the worst values in the developed world. The reasons
given are lack of health insurance and obesity. The life expectancy of
the black population is 73.3 years. Then there are the risks of poverty.
In December 2009, for example, 38.97 million people were dependent on
food stamps. In 2013, there were 47 million people in 23 million
households, which is 20% of all US households.
The United States is a welfare state in which transfers are often jointly financed and organized by the federal government and the states. Legal regulations of the federal states can exert considerable influence on social policy. The public pension insurance Social Security provides basic social protection in old age at the federal level.
The United States has the second largest CO2 emissions in the world
after China. The share of global CO2 emissions is 17.7 percent (year
2011).
In the climate protection index 2020 (as of December
2019), the USA was in 61st place and thus in the last place of all the
countries surveyed. They performed very poorly in all rated categories.
In particular, the lack of a national climate protection strategy and
the withdrawal from the international climate protection agreement
carried out under President Trump were criticized.
In the United
States, the share of renewable energy is increasing slightly. In 2017,
they accounted for 11 percent of energy consumption and 17 percent of
energy production.
in 2002, the government published a strategy
to reduce the greenhouse gases of the US economy by 18 percent (by
2012). This should lead to a reduction in CO2 emissions of 160 million
tonnes. Internationally, the measures are criticized as completely
inadequate. Bill Clinton had the Kyoto Protocol signed towards the end
of his term of office, which is not binding due to the lack of
ratification by Congress. The emerging countries were not obliged to
reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the treaty, and a strong sense of
sovereignty, especially in the Senate, plays an important role.
Environmental disasters and actions of environmentalists, among them
former presidential candidate Al Gore, have initiated a change in
consciousness. Barack Obama initiated a change of course in climate
policy. In December 2012, he declared the fight against climate change
to be one of the three most important issues for the new term. In his
inauguration speech in January 2013, he highlighted the fight against
climate change and the expansion of renewable energies as a priority for
the coming years and announced a focus on renewable energies in which
the US should become a leader, rather than ignoring global development.
In the United States, climate change and the dependence on oil
imports are also discussed, above all, from the point of view of
international security.
So far, climate protection policy has
primarily relied on voluntary measures and research funding. Some states
(especially California) enforced stricter rules. The main environmental
authority at the federal level is the Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA), which environmentalists criticize for its low activity.
The foreign policy of the United States is based on an attitude that
has great similarities with political realism. This is contrasted by an
unusually strong idealism that has been unbroken since the independence
movement, whose origin lies in the anti-European affects of the
revolution and which in some schools of foreign policy thought justifies
the belief in a historically unique mission of the United States
(American exceptionalism, in English "American uniqueness"). Despite
frequent tensions between aspiration and practice, this bipolarity of
American foreign policy persists because of many similarities. For
example, the ideal of the greatest possible freedom of contract in a
liberal social and world order converges with the economic dependence of
the United States on overseas trade in advocating free trade.
Among the real-political interests that the official foreign policy of
the United States advocates, in addition to guaranteeing the global
security of its citizens and their relatives, is the protection of the
United States from external attacks and the constant availability of
resources that are central to the country's economy. The ideological
interests that are supposed to guide and justify the long-term actions
of the United States consist in advocating for human rights, in the
democratic-plebiscitary political formation of sovereign states by their
state peoples and a global market-economic system.
In its
concrete implementation, foreign policy has increasingly developed from
a passive to a formative role. From its foundation until the Second
World War, isolationism prevailed, that is, the deliberate neglect of
foreign policy in favor of internal development and cultivation. If this
attitude was expressed most strongly by the Monroe doctrine in the
period of consolidation of the country, then in the era of imperialism,
until the First World War, it increasingly relaxed in order to be
completely discredited by the attack on Pearl Harbor. At the same time,
American-style internationalism suddenly gained in importance as a
result of the confrontation with the Soviet Union during the Cold War.
This was supported by an institutionalistic practice, i.e. the
establishment of transnational bodies for long-term cooperation with
states. This was done either in association with states that represented
similar interests in order to strengthen them, or to bridge political
differences with states that had opposing interests. The United States
is therefore the initiator and co-founder of numerous multinational
bodies and organizations, such as the United Nations, the World Trade
Organization (formerly GATT), the World Bank and NATO or the CSCE. At
the same time, the policy of the United States has been guarding against
a possible curtailment of its own sovereignty by international
agreements since its existence. For example, the United States opposes
the signing of international climate protection agreements such as the
Kyoto Protocol, the support of the International Criminal Court and the
Ottawa Convention against the Proliferation of Anti-Personnel Mines.
Therefore, bilateral trade and defense agreements, despite their
universal claim, play a much greater role than, for example, with most
members of the European Union.
Depending on the global focus on
domestic policy, the United States gives priority to individual foreign
policy efforts and sums them up into morally reinforced terms. These
include the "War on Terrorism" (War on Terrorism), the War on Drugs (War
on Drugs) and the fight against poverty (War on Poverty).
Due to
the outstanding political, economic and military position of the United
States and its increasingly offensive influence on the politics and
economy of the entire international community, the country's foreign
policy is polarizing like no other. Above all, the numerous military
interventions abroad, the worldwide social upheavals caused by
globalization, human rights violations in dealing with suspected
terrorists and prisoners of war, the worldwide automated mass
surveillance and the sometimes illegal influence or operations of the
CIA abroad are criticized. The scope of the activities of the US
intelligence services far exceeds those of other democratic states.
Allies of the United States can be found, among other things, in
NATO. In addition, they maintain close diplomatic and strategic
relations with nations outside NATO (see Major non-NATO ally). Some of
these are democratically and market-economically oriented countries that
see themselves existentially threatened by neighboring political actors,
such as Israel, South Korea or Taiwan, some are states that are closely
allied through historical events, such as Japan, the Philippines and
Australia, and some are, above all, strategically important partners,
such as Pakistan, Jordan and Kuwait. The United States has by far the
strongest relations with the United Kingdom, the only country with which
it cooperates even in such sensitive areas as nuclear technology.
According to its own data, the United States operates 766 military bases
of various sizes in 40 countries worldwide (of which 293 are in Germany,
111 in Japan and 105 in South Korea; as of 2006).
The armed Forces of the United States are the most expensive and
second largest military in the world in terms of numbers after the
Chinese People's Liberation Army. They are set up globally; the current
army doctrine stipulates that the United States must be able to wage two
regional wars victoriously at the same time worldwide. The armed forces
are increasingly exposed to asymmetric warfare. This development has
occurred in its history, especially since the Vietnam War.
In the
United States, the president is the commander-in-chief of the National
Armed Forces and appoints its chairman, the Secretary of Defense and the
Joint Chiefs of Staff. The Ministry of Defense manages the armed Forces,
which are divided into Army (Army; about 561,000 soldiers), Air Force
(Air Force; about 336,000 soldiers), Navy (Navy; about 330,000 soldiers)
and Marine Infantry (Marine Corps; about 202,000 soldiers), a total of
about 1,430,000 soldiers as of April 30, 2011.
The Coast Guard
(Coast Guard; around 44,000 men) is a civilian institution that is
subordinate to the Ministry of Internal Security in peace and can be
subordinated to the United States Department of the Navy in the event of
war. It has only relatively limited military capabilities. In addition,
each state maintains units of the National Guard (National Guard). These
are militia units that are usually subordinate to the governor of the
respective state, but can be deployed abroad as part of the army on the
instructions of the president. Military service is voluntary, although
conscription in wartime can take place through the Selective Service
System.
Furthermore, the states are authorized to set up their
own military units, the so-called state Guards, referred to as the State
Guard, State Military, State Defense Force, state militia or State
Military Reserve, depending on the state. These differ from the national
Guards in that they cannot be placed under the orders of the federation,
and the states are not obliged to establish them. Therefore, currently
only 22 states and the territory of Puerto Rico maintain such military
units.
The United States was the first nuclear power in the world
and, with the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, was the only
state to have used nuclear weapons in a war to date. American defense
companies are world leaders, especially in aviation. With regard to army
weapons, the US arms companies are losing importance. The military
expenditures of the United States in 2020 amounted to about $ 778
billion. Since the World Bank's records began in 1990, the United States
has continuously been the country with the highest annual military
spending in the world. The military spending of the United States in
2020 was three times higher than that of China, which ranks second in
the world.
Military developments, especially of a technological
nature, are groundbreaking, especially for the allies of the United
States in NATO. The state-critical tendency, which led to the fact that
the military of the United States had a small size in its history until
the United States entered World War II, was increasingly superimposed in
the Cold War by the fear of communism of many Americans. As a result,
the original idea that the military, as the ultimate instrument of state
power, poses a danger to citizens is dwindling.
Since the Second
World War, the support of friendly nations by larger arms shipments has
proven to be a tried and tested means of passive support in times of
crisis for the United States. In the Second World War, the law on loans
and leases made it possible to supply heavy equipment first to Great
Britain and the Commonwealth, and later also to the Soviet Union, which
greatly shifted the military balance to the detriment of the Axis
powers. After the Second World War, for example, Persia was helped to
gain supremacy in the Middle East by supplying modern aircraft, tanks
and missiles. When, as a result of the overthrow of the Shah's regime,
friendship with the United States turned into enmity, in the 1980s the
United States switched to supplying Iraq under Saddam Hussein, who
offered himself to the West as an opponent of Iran and waged the First
Gulf War against Iran.
With the ratification of various conventions, the United States has
assumed certain obligations, which also include the review of the human
rights situation in the United States by the UN Human Rights Council.
Nevertheless, criticism of the human rights situation in the United
States is often voiced, especially by private non-governmental
organizations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch:
Human Rights Watch, for example, criticizes in particular the death
penalty still practiced today, mistreatment by the police, the judiciary
or the military, the overcrowded prisons and, in some cases, inhumane
prison conditions. Some of these violate the UN Convention against
Torture and other international standards of humane treatment. For
example, prisoners often have to spend 23 hours in solitary confinement,
the light burns 24 hours a day, and physical exercise is allowed only
four hours a week in a small cell.
At this point, aspects of the
criticism of racial discrimination as a violation of human rights are
also addressed: with a population share of 13 percent, a rate of 43
percent of African Americans among those legally convicted is very high.
In some states of the United States, one in ten African Americans is
incarcerated. The number of prison inmates in the United States is
generally high: in 2001, there were 2.1 million Americans in prison, one
in every 146 adults. By 2011, this figure further increased to 2.4
million. In addition, at least 47 people died in police attacks in 2009
due to the use of electric shock weapons (see Amnesty International
Report 2010, USA).
Arrests and police or secret service actions
in connection with September 11, 2001 have also attracted international
attention. After the attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon,
1200 foreigners were arrested in the United States and held in custody
for a long time for various reasons. The Ministry of Justice has not
made public information about the identity of those arrested, the place
of their detention and whether they received legal assistance. The
principle of the presumption of innocence was not applied in these
cases. This was made possible by the USA PATRIOT Act of October 25,
2001, which entailed a restriction of American civil rights to a greater
extent. The law not only allows the police to wiretap and monitor people
without judicial authority, it also allows house searches, deportations
and the collection of private data without evidence of a crime. The most
far–reaching change, however, is the authority of the CIA foreign
intelligence Service to be allowed to operate in Germany from now on -
this has been strictly separated until now and was previously only
allowed to the Federal police FBI. The Military Commissions Act also
makes it possible to declare hostile persons as so-called "illegally
hostile combatants", as a result of which these persons can be convicted
by military courts (also on the basis of confessions obtained under
torture), without giving them the opportunity to invoke the Geneva
Conventions applicable to combatants or to sue against their treatment.
The situation of the prisoners in the American prison camp of the
Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba has also been sharply criticized by
many sides. More than 600 people from 42 nations are being held there,
mostly illegally, including a number of children under the age of 16.
Their status remains unclear, they are neither prisoners of war nor
criminals and, according to the United States, are in a legal vacuum, as
a result of which the laws in force in the United States are not
applicable there. However, this is not recognized internationally and is
considered contrary to international law. However, this allowed the
military to carry out measures contrary to international law, such as
torture or court hearings, without a right to defense. A legal review of
the torture practices systematically carried out under the former Bush
administration in secret detention centers of the CIA (black Sites),
such as simulated drowning ("waterboarding") of people, some of whom
were illegally abducted from other countries, has so far been omitted.
The conditions of detention in such military prison camps are often
inhumane: there are reports of physical abuse, the use of violence and
torture (e.g. dislocation of limbs, blows to the testicles, or total
deprivation of sleep and food), as well as humiliations of the dignity
and religion of the prisoners (e.g. by smearing the person with
excrement, or desecration of the Koran).
The UN Special
Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Executions expressed concern that between
2003 and May 2009 there were "far more than the officially reported 74
deaths among migrants in the custody of the immigration and customs
authorities".
In the course of the Iraq War, American soldiers
committed a series of massacres of civilians. Well-known examples are
the Haditha massacre, the Maqarr adh-Dhib massacre, the air strikes in
Baghdad on July 12, 2007, the Mahmudiyya massacre and the Abu Ghraib
torture scandal. Since 2001, there have also been repeated massacres of
civilians by members of the US Armed Forces in Afghanistan (including
the kill team murders in Afghanistan). In its war on terror, the United
States is increasingly relying on the deployment of combat drones in
other countries (for example, Yemen, Pakistan), thereby violating
international law and the human right to integrity. Between 2004 and
2009, the "Bureau for Investigative Journalism" registered 52 drone
attacks. There have been 264 since President Obama took office.
According to the research of the "Bureau for Investigative Journalism",
there have been between 2440 and 3113 deaths since the attacks began
until May 2012. The number of civilians among them is given as from 479
to 821, of which 174 are children. In addition, there are about 1200
injured.
The United States had a gross domestic product (GDP) of $ 21.4
trillion in 2020, making it the largest economy in the world. At
$57,324, they have the world's eight-highest GDP per capita. The
services sector generated about 77.6% of real GDP in 2012, of which
about a third was in the banking, insurance and real estate business.
Manufacturing contributed about 20.8%, agriculture - 1.6%. The structure
of the economy is strongly oriented towards consumption and services. In
2015, just under a third of global consumer spending was made in the
United States, making it by far the country with the largest consumer
spending. The consumption burden leads to a low savings rate of public
budgets.
The economy grew by 2.3% in 2019, the inflation rate was
1.8%. The unemployment rate was 9.6% in 2010 (the highest since 1982)
and fell almost linearly to 3.1% in 2019. The "hidden unemployment
rate", which includes employees who have given up looking for a job or
are underemployed, was 8.6% in June 2017, at the height of the financial
crisis it had been up to 17%.
Since the presidency of Ronald
Reagan, the state's interventions in economic processes have been
drastically reduced (see Reaganomics). Some sectors of the economy are
subject to supervision by a regulatory authority; for example, the
states monitor the supply of electricity through a public utility
commission.
The control by the Federal Reserve System ("Fed"),
which has existed since 1913 and took over the tasks of a state central
bank, has increased significantly since the financial crisis from 2007
onwards. Until then, it only intervened in economic events by
controlling the money supply or the level of key interest rates; since
then, it has also been acting as a guarantor and lender outside the
banking system. In 2014, it bought up $55 billion in government bonds
per month and holds 32.5% of all ten-year US government bonds. The
long-time chairman of the Fed was Alan Greenspan from 1987, followed by
Ben Bernanke in 2006, Janet Yellen in 2014 and Jerome Powell on February
5, 2018.
The USA was the world's largest sales market for
imported goods in 2016 and the second largest exporting nation on Earth
after China. The US trade balance showed a deficit of $ 505 billion in
2014: the volume of exports of goods and services in 2014 was $ 2,345.4
billion, goods and services were imported in the same period in the
amount of $ 2,850.5 billion. Both export and import volumes grew
compared to the previous year. The main consumer countries for US goods
in 2014 were Canada, Mexico, China, Japan, Great Britain and Germany.
The median for the annual gross income of American households was $
43,389; about 16% of all households had a gross income of over $
100,000. The top 20 percent of all households earned more than $ 88,030
gross per year, while the bottom fifth earned less than $ 18,500.
Education and ethnicity had a strong influence on income. While the
median gross household income for Asian households was $57,518 in 2006,
it was $30,134 for blacks. The same median was $ 25,900 for a person
with a high school degree, and $ 81,400 for people with an academic
degree.
The poverty threshold was set in 2006 at an annual income
of 20,614 US dollars (15,860 euros) for a family of four and 10,294 US
dollars (7920 euros) for a single person. 36.46 Million (≈ 15% of the
population) lived below this limit in 2005. In 2017, about 41 million
people were living in poverty. The gap between rich and poor in the USA
is wide (see the section "Social structure").
The minimum wage
was $ 7.25 per hour until 2014, with numerous variations in the states.
President Obama, by decree, as of January 1, 2015, raised the minimum
wage from $ 7.25 to $ 10.10 for employees whose employers work for the
government on a contract basis.
According to a study by Credit
Suisse, total household wealth (property less debt) amounted to $ 93.6
trillion in 2017. American households thus own almost a third of the
world's wealth. A total of 6.4% of adult Americans were wealth
millionaires. In the first quarter of 2018, household wealth exceeded
the $ 100 trillion mark for the first time, and in 2023 it was almost $
150 trillion.
The state budget in 2016 included expenditures of $ 3.89 trillion,
which was contrasted with revenues of $ 3.36 trillion. This results in a
budget deficit of 2.8% of GDP. The deficit was $ 530 billion. The US has
thus been able to make significant progress in fiscal consolidation in
recent years. An annual deficit of around 2.9 percent of GDP is expected
for 2017 to 2019. In 2020, the deficit was $ 3.1 trillion, reaching a
new record.
The national debt of the United States at the
beginning of January 2015 amounted to $ 18.08 trillion, or 104% of GDP.
According to the US Debt Clock in January 2015, local debts amount to
1.87 trillion US dollars, the debts of the 50 states total about 1.19
trillion US dollars. In August 2014, 34.4% of the national debt was
allocated to creditors from abroad, 65.6% to domestic creditors.
According to the US Treasury Department, China owns $ 1.27 trillion
worth of US government bonds at the end of 2013, making it the largest
foreign creditor of the United States, followed by Japan with $ 1.18
trillion and Belgium with $ 256 billion.
In the Logistics Performance Index, which is compiled by the World Bank and measures the quality of infrastructure, the United States ranked 14th among 160 countries in 2018. The United States thus has a powerful and state-of-the-art infrastructure. However, there is now a considerable need for investment in some areas.
The electricity consumption of the United States in 2014 was about
3,913 terawatt hours per year, with 12,950 kWh per year, the USA had the
tenth highest consumption per capita in the world. In 2015, 36% of
energy consumption was generated from petroleum, 16% from coal and 29%
from natural gas, 10% from renewable energy sources and 9% from nuclear
energy. In 2019, it was 35% from natural gas, 31% from petroleum, 14%
from coal, 12% from renewable sources and 8% from nuclear power. The
United States has been the world's largest consumer of petroleum for
decades and will continue to be by far the largest consumer of petroleum
in 2020. In 2015, 91% of the energy demand was covered by our own
production.
For many decades, oil, natural gas and coal were the
main sources of energy in the United States. in 2008, coal production
reached a peak (coal production maximum). Since then, it has decreased
again; in 2015 it was at the same level as in 1981. In 2015, natural gas
production reached a peak, primarily through the development of new
production areas and the use of fracking. Oil production has been
steadily declining since 1970. As of 2009, this process was reversed in
parallel with natural gas production by opening up new areas, for
example in Texas or North Dakota, and applying new production methods.
in 2015, the demand for oil was almost back to the same level as in
1972. The USA is the world's largest natural gas producer and, together
with Russia and Saudi Arabia, is one of the world's largest oil
producers. in 2016, liquefied natural gas (LNG) was exported from the US
mainland for the first time with the commissioning of the Sabine Pass
terminal in Louisiana. The legal ban on the export of crude oil was
lifted at the end of 2015.
Energy production from renewable
energies has been increasing significantly in the USA since 2001. The
total installed capacity of the photovoltaic systems reached 42.3 GW in
the 2nd quarter of 2020, that of the wind turbines 109.6 GW. By the end
of 2020, the installed wind power increased to 122.3 GW, 16% of the
total power of the world's wind turbines.
The job balance has
also shifted strongly towards renewable energies. For example, in 2016,
about 53,000 people were employed in the coal industry, while there were
about 475,000 jobs in the US solar and wind energy industry.
In a global comparison, the USA has a relatively well-developed and
safe water and drinking water system. The vast majority of American
households get their drinking water from the municipal supply systems.
The water supply systems can be in public as well as in private hands.
There are about 155,000 independent water suppliers. Although most of
the water supply systems receive groundwater, 68% of the population is
supplied with surface water, especially in the big cities.
For
several years, studies have shown that bottlenecks in the supply of
drinking water could increase due to various factors, such as a changing
climate and increasing population numbers. At the same time, authorities
and institutes of the individual states and the federal government are
identifying ways to improve water supply and management. While Israel
clears 86 percent of its wastewater and uses it in agriculture, the
United States only processes 8 percent of its wastewater.
The United States has a developed and technologically advanced communication system. There were about 122 million private landlines and 328 million mobile lines in 2015. The mobile network is constantly being expanded. The Internet, which originated in the USA, has become an important means of communication. In 2019, 89 percent of residents of the United States used the Internet. However, as of 2021, more than 35 percent of American households living in the countryside have minimal, if any, broadband access, according to government information.
There were 370,000 professional and 745,000 volunteer firefighters organized in the fire department in the United States nationwide in 2019. The proportion of women is eight percent. The American fire brigades were alerted to 37,272,000 operations in the same year, while 1,291,500 fires were extinguished. Here, 3,704 dead were recovered by the fire brigades during fires and 16,600 injured were rescued. The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) represents the American fire brigade and its fire brigade members in the World Fire Brigade Association CTIF.
The transport network has a polycentric structure: roads, railways
and air connections run mainly star-shaped towards the conurbations of
New York, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Chicago, Houston, Charlotte, Dallas,
Denver, Los Angeles and Seattle. With a total length of 6,586,610
kilometers, the United States has the longest road system in the world
(as of 2012).
Freight transport is mainly provided by railways
and trucks. With the exception of air traffic, which dominates in
long-distance traffic, passenger transport takes place almost
exclusively by road (individual transport or intercity buses). The
railway now handles only a fraction of the passenger traffic. In 2010,
87.2% (-1.7% compared to 2000) of passenger traffic was handled by motor
vehicles, 11.6% (+1.5%) of passenger kilometers were covered by
aircraft. Only 0.9% (+0.2%) was provided by regular services and 0.4%
(+0.1%) by rail.
Intercity bus transport is of great importance,
especially for transport within the federal states, but also for
long-distance routes.
The United States has a developed road network. For long- and
medium-distance traffic, there is a network of domestic and interstate
highways. However, as of April 2021, almost 300,000 kilometers of roads
and 45,000 bridges are "in miserable condition," according to the White
House.
The Interstate Highways are multi-lane highways that lie
between the individual states and connect the east and west coasts. The
Interstate Highway system, which was built from the 1950s onwards, is
over 75,000 km long and handles one fifth of the motorized traffic. The
new construction and maintenance is mainly financed by the federal
government. The United States Highways and States Highways are federal
highways that also lie between the different states. Many U.S. However,
highways also pass through cities and towns as local crossings and
usually have fewer lanes than the interstates. The United States
Highways are financed by the respective state. The state Routes, also
called state or provincial highways, are subordinate main and secondary
roads. Each state has its own system of street numbering and
designation, as well as its own signs. The condition and development of
the state routes may vary depending on the state and section of the
route. In some states, tolls may apply to certain sections of all types
of roads, bridges or tunnels.
There were more fatal accidents in
road traffic than in most other developed countries. in 2013, there were
a total of 10.6 traffic fatalities per 100,000 inhabitants in the United
States. By comparison, there were 4.3 deaths in Germany in the same
year. A total of 34,000 people were killed in road traffic as a result.
However, the very high motorization rate of the country must be taken
into account: in 2017, there were 910 motor vehicles per 1000
inhabitants in the USA. In Germany there were only 562 vehicles. With
over 255 million units, the USA has the largest vehicle fleet of all
states.
The railway, operated by various private companies, still plays a
major role in freight transport over long distances today. With a total
length of 293,564 kilometers in 2014, the United States has the longest
railway network in the world. The market is dominated by seven major
national railway companies. In addition, there are several hundreds of
other smaller companies. The importance of rail transport can no longer
be compared with the decades since the development of transport by the
transcontinental railways up to the middle of the 20th century.
Nevertheless, it has been increasing again for several years; between
2000 and 2012, the number of people carried by Amtrak has almost
doubled. Large parts of the route network are not electrified and are
served by diesel locomotives. Many routes are poorly developed and in a
state in need of rehabilitation. Freight transport has a much higher
productivity compared to other countries, the main cargo transported by
rail is coal (45% of the cargo volume).
In the urban conurbations
of the East Coast, California and the Chicago area, passenger transport
by rail has retained a certain role, which it has even been able to
expand again in some cases, for example with the Acela Express between
Washington D.C. and Boston, which reaches an average speed of 140 km /
h. The long routes between the urban agglomerations are served according
to the schedule, but the main importance here lies more in the tourist
area – comparable to rail cruises in Europe, also due to usually very
long travel times and low speeds. Overall, rail transport has only a
very small share of the total passenger traffic in the United States,
far less than in other states. Passenger services are mainly operated by
Amtrak.
The US government planned to build a high-speed network
on ten corridors between various major metropolitan areas, including on
the west coast in California and on the east coast, distributed by 2017.
This makes sense in the long term, especially due to the congested road
and air traffic. In total, the project should cost 53 billion US dollars
(about 39 billion euros), mainly financed by the economic stimulus
package of the United States. However, the Obama administration has
failed to get the necessary funds in the budget approved by Congress.
Air traffic is an important mode of passenger transport for long,
medium and also short distances. The United States has the largest and
most developed civil aviation system in the world. There are a total of
19,000 take-off and landing runways of various categories, of which 389
are larger. 88% of all passengers depart from the 62 largest airports in
the country. The largest American airlines are American Airlines, Delta
Air Lines, Southwest Airlines and United Airlines. Among the ten largest
airlines in the world in terms of passenger numbers, five American ones
are represented. In 2017, a total of over 849 million people were
transported by airlines registered in the country.
The largest
airport in the world by passenger volume is located in Atlanta. Other
major hubs are in Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth, New York,
Denver, San Francisco, Charlotte, Las Vegas and Miami. There are small
airports with scheduled operations in almost every small town.
Shipping lanes are primarily used for freight and freight transport.
Inland, the network of waterways covers 40,000 kilometers, half of which
is passable for all larger ships. There are about 230 berths. A total of
41 of the 50 states are connected to each other via the waterway.
Important inland waterways include the Mississippi River, which
stretches from New Orleans to Minneapolis, and the Ohio River Basin. In
2014, about 600 million tons of goods were transported by inland
waterway vessels, which accounted for 5% of commercial freight traffic.
On the coasts, the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway and the canals on the
Pacific coast are of importance. The largest cargo ports are located in
Boston, Chicago (via the St. Lawrence Main Shipping Route), New York,
Houston, Los Angeles and Louisiana, among others.
Cruise shipping
is of great importance; half of the worldwide passenger volume for
cruises comes from the United States, the Caribbean being by far the
most important destination.