The United States of America-the New Lands
The United States of America is a federal republic made up of fifty states and the District of Columbia. Its 9,529,063 square kilometers- nearly forty times the size of the United Kingdom- make it the fourth largest country in the world.
In the east it is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean and in the west by the Pacific Ocean; approximately 4,500 km of immensely varied land separate the east coast from the west coast. If you travel from east to west you cross no less than four time zones: Eastern Time (New York City), Central Time (Chicago), Mountain Time (Denver) and Pacific Time (Los Angeles). Each zone is an hour apart, so when it is 6pm in New York it is only 3 pm in Los Angeles.
In the north the USA borders Canada and in the south it borders Mexico.
Forty-eight states are conterminous – each state borders with at least one other state-; the remaining two states of Alaska (which has become part of the Union in 1959) and the eight islands of Hawaii (the fiftieth state to be created in the same year), are situated near the Arctic Circle and 3,200 km away in the Pacific Ocean respectively. The United States also includes the island territories of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, both located in the Atlantic Ocean. The smallest state is Rhode Island (capital: Providence) with an area of 3,139 sq. km, the largest being Alaska (capital: Juneau) with its 1,530,693 sq. km. The second smallest state is Delaware (capital: Dover) which covers an area of 5,294 sq. km, the second largest state being Texas (691,027 sq. km.) its capital being Austin. The District of Columbia, the site of the capital city, Washington, has an area of 179 sq km.
Very broadly, the regions of the United States can be divided up in four main areas: The south, The Pacific coast states, the north central region (containing the Midwest) and the northeast. A. The Northeast The north-eastern region is made up of the six states of New England (Maine,