Nikiya Anton Bettey 2021: 05-06-2023-1101 - american history (caucasians, usa nac dom, america, americans, christians, yellow ivory white, etc.) draft

Saturday, May 6, 2023

05-06-2023-1101 - american history (caucasians, usa nac dom, america, americans, christians, yellow ivory white, etc.) draft

The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territories, nine Minor Outlying Islands,^[i] and 326 Indian reservations. The United States is the world's third-largest country by both land and total area.^[c] It shares land borders with Canada to its north and with Mexico to its south and has maritime borders with the Bahamas, Cuba, Russia, and other nations.^[j] With a population of over 333 million,^[k] it is the most populous country in the Americas and the third most populous in the world. The national capital of the United States is Washington, D.C., and its most populous city and principal financial center is New York City.

Indigenous peoples have inhabited the Americas for thousands of years. Beginning in 1607, British colonization led to the establishment of the Thirteen Colonies in what is now the Eastern United States. They quarreled with the British Crown over taxation and political representation, leading to the American Revolution and proceeding Revolutionary War. The United States declared independence on July 4, 1776, becoming the first nation-state founded on Enlightenment principles of unalienable natural rights, consent of the governed, and liberal democracy. The country began expanding across North America, spanning the continent by 1848. Sectional division surrounding slavery in the Southern United States led to the secession of the Confederate States of America, which fought the remaining states of the Union during the American Civil War (1861–1865). With the Union's victory and preservation, slavery was abolished nationally by the Thirteenth Amendment.

By 1900, the United States had established itself as a world power, becoming the world's largest economy. After Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the U.S. entered World War II on the Allied side. The aftermath of the war left the United States and the Soviet Union as the world's two superpowers and led to the Cold War. During the Cold War, both countries engaged in a struggle for ideological dominance but avoided direct military conflict. They also competed in the Space Race, which culminated in the 1969 landing of Apollo 11, making the U.S. the first and only nation to ever land humans on the Moon. With the Soviet Union's collapse and the subsequent end of the Cold War in 1991, the United States emerged as the world's sole superpower.

The United States government is a federal republic and a representative democracy with three separate branches of government. It has a bicameral national legislature composed of the House of Representatives, a lower house; and the Senate, an upper house based on equal representation for each state. Many policy issues are decentralized, with widely differing laws by jurisdiction. The U.S. ranks highly in international measures of quality of life, income and wealth, economic competitiveness, human rights, innovation, and education; it has low levels of perceived corruption and the highest median income per person of any polity in the world. It has high levels of incarceration and inequality and lacks universal health care. As a melting pot of cultures and ethnicities, the U.S. has been shaped by the world's largest immigrant population.

A developed country, the American economy accounts for approximately a quarter of global GDP and is the world's largest by GDP at market exchange rates. The United States is the world's largest importer and second-largest exporter. The United States is a founding member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States, NATO, and is a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. The U.S. is the foremost military power in the world and a dominant political, cultural, and scientific force internationally.

Etymology

The first documentary evidence of the phrase "United States of America" dates back to a letter from January 2, 1776, written by Stephen Moylan to Joseph Reed, George Washington's aide-de-camp. Moylan expressed his wish to go "with full and ample powers from the United States of America to Spain" to seek assistance in the revolutionary war effort.^[27]^[28]^[29] The first known publication of the phrase "United States of America" was in an anonymous essay in The Virginia Gazette newspaper in Williamsburg, on April 6, 1776.^[30]

By June 1776, the name "United States of America" had appeared in drafts of the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, prepared by John Dickinson^[31]^[32] and of the Declaration of Independence, written by Thomas Jefferson.^[31]

The phrase "United States" was originally plural in American usage. It described a collection of states—e.g., "the United States are..." The singular form became popular after the end of the Civil War and is now standard usage. A citizen of the United States is called an "American". "United States", "American", and "U.S." refer to the country adjectivally ("American values", "U.S. forces"). In English, the word "American" rarely refers to topics or subjects not directly connected with the United States.^[33]

History

Pre-Columbian period (before 1492)

Cliff Palace, located in present-day Colorado, was built by the Ancestral Puebloans between AD 1190 and 1260.

It is generally accepted that the first inhabitants of North America migrated from Siberia by way of the Bering land bridge and arrived at least 12,000 years ago; however, some evidence suggests an even earlier date of arrival.^[34]^[35]^[36] The Clovis culture, which appeared around 11,000 BC, is believed to represent the first wave of human settlement of the Americas.^[37]^[38] This was likely the first of three major waves of migration into North America; later waves brought the ancestors of present-day Athabaskans, Aleuts, and Eskimos.^[39]

Over time, indigenous cultures in North America grew increasingly sophisticated, and some, such as the pre-Columbian Mississippian culture in the southeast, developed advanced agriculture, architecture, and complex societies.^[40] The city-state of Cahokia is the largest, most complex pre-Columbian archaeological site in the modern-day United States.^[41] In the Four Corners region, Ancestral Puebloan culture developed from centuries of agricultural experimentation.^[42] The Algonquian are one of the most populous and widespread North American indigenous peoples. This grouping consists of the peoples who speak Algonquian languages.^[43] Historically, these peoples were prominent along the Atlantic Coast and into the interior along the Saint Lawrence River and around the Great Lakes. Before Europeans came into contact, most Algonquian settlements lived by hunting and fishing, although many supplemented their diet by cultivating corn, beans and squash (the "Three Sisters"). The Ojibwe cultivated wild rice.^[44] The Haudenosaunee confederation of the Iroquois, located in the southern Great Lakes region, was established at some point between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries.^[45]

Estimating the native population of North America during European contact is difficult.^[46]^[47] Douglas H. Ubelaker of the Smithsonian Institution estimated a population of 93,000 in the South Atlantic states and a population of 473,000 in the Gulf states,^[48] but most academics regard this figure as too low.^[46] Anthropologist Henry F. Dobyns believed the populations were much higher, suggesting around 1.1 million along the shores of the Gulf of Mexico, 2.2 million people living between Florida and Massachusetts, 5.2 million in the Mississippi Valley and tributaries, and around 700,000 people in the Florida peninsula.^[46]^[47]

Colonial period (1492–1763)

The Mayflower Compact signed on the Mayflower in 1620 set an early precedent for self-government and constitutionalism.

Claims of very early colonization of coastal New England by the Norse are disputed and controversial.^[49]^[50]^{[failed verification]} Christopher Columbus had landed in Puerto Rico on his 1493 voyage, and San Juan was settled by the Spanish a decade later.^[51] The first documented arrival of Europeans in the continental United States is that of Spanish conquistadors such as Juan Ponce de León, who made his first expedition to Florida in 1513.^{[citation needed]} The Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano, sent by France to the New World in 1525, encountered Native American inhabitants of what is now called New York Bay.^[52] The Spanish set up the first settlements in Florida and New Mexico, such as Saint Augustine, often considered the nation's oldest city,^[53] and Santa Fe. The French established their own settlements along the Mississippi River and Gulf of Mexico, notably New Orleans and Mobile.^[54]

Successful English colonization of the eastern coast of North America began with the Virginia Colony in 1607 at Jamestown and with the Pilgrims' colony at Plymouth in 1620.^[55]^[56] The continent's first elected legislative assembly, Virginia's House of Burgesses, was founded in 1619. Harvard College was established in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1636 as the first institution of higher education. The Mayflower Compact and the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut established precedents for representative self-government and constitutionalism that would develop throughout the American colonies.^[57]^[58] Many English settlers were dissenting Christians who came seeking religious freedom. The native population of America declined after European arrival for various reasons,^[59]^[60]^[61] primarily from diseases such as smallpox and measles.^[62]^[63] By the mid-1670s, the British had defeated and seized the territory of Dutch settlers in New Netherland, in the mid-Atlantic region.

The United Colonies in 1775: * Dark Red = New England colonies. * Bright Red = Middle Atlantic colonies. * Red-brown = Southern colonies

In the early days of colonization, many European settlers experienced food shortages, disease, and conflicts with Native Americans, such as in King Philip's War. Native Americans were also often fighting neighboring tribes and European settlers. In many cases the natives and settlers came to depend on each other. Settlers traded for food and animal pelts; natives for guns, tools and other European goods.^[64] American Indians taught many settlers to cultivate corn, beans, and other foodstuffs. European missionaries and others felt it was important to "civilize" the Native Americans and urged them to adopt European agricultural practices and lifestyles.^[65]^[66] However, with the increased European colonization of North America, Native Americans were displaced and often killed during conflicts.^[67]

European settlers also began trafficking African slaves into Colonial America via the transatlantic slave trade.^[68] By the turn of the 18th century, slavery had supplanted indentured servitude as the main source of agricultural labor for the cash crops in the American South.^[69] Colonial society was divided over the religious and moral implications of slavery, and several colonies passed acts for or against the practice.^[70]^[71]

The Thirteen Colonies^[l] that would become the United States of America were administered by the British as overseas dependencies.^[72] All nonetheless had local governments with elections open to white male property owners, except Jews and Catholics in some areas.^[73]^[74] With very high birth rates, low death rates, and steady settlement, the colonial population grew rapidly, eclipsing Native American populations.^[75] The Christian revivalist movement of the 1730s and 1740s known as the Great Awakening fueled interest both in religion and in religious liberty.^[76]

During the Seven Years' War (1756–1763), known in the U.S. as the French and Indian War, British forces captured Canada from the French. The Treaty of Paris (1763) created a much smaller Province of Quebec, which still included the Ohio valley and the upper Mississippi valley, thereby isolating Canada's francophone population from the English-speaking colonial dependencies of Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and the Thirteen Colonies.^[relevant?] Excluding the Native Americans who lived there, the Thirteen Colonies had a population of over 2.1 million in 1770, about a third that of Britain. Despite continuing new arrivals, the rate of natural increase was such that by the 1770s only a small minority of Americans had been born overseas.^[77] The colonies' distance from Britain had allowed the development of self-government, but their unprecedented success motivated British monarchs to periodically seek to reassert royal authority.^[78]

Revolutionary period (1763–1789)

Declaration of Independence, a painting by John Trumbull, depicts the Committee of Five^[m] presenting the draft of the Declaration to the Continental Congress, June 28, 1776, in Philadelphia.

The American Revolution separated the Thirteen Colonies from the British Empire, and included the first successful war of independence by a non-European entity against a European power in modern history. By the 18th century the American Enlightenment and the political philosophies of liberalism were pervasive among leaders. Americans began to develop an ideology of "republicanism", asserting that government rested on the consent of the governed. They demanded their "rights as Englishmen" and "no taxation without representation".^[79]^[80] The British insisted on administering the colonies through a Parliament that did not have a single representative responsible for any American constituency, and the conflict escalated into war.^[81]

In 1774, the First Continental Congress passed the Continental Association, which mandated a colonies-wide boycott of British goods. The American Revolutionary War began the following year, catalyzed by events like the Stamp Act and the Boston Tea Party that were rooted in colonial disagreement with British governance.^{[citation needed]} The Second Continental Congress, an assembly representing the United Colonies, unanimously adopted the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776 (annually celebrated as Independence Day).^[82] The Declaration declared: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." Stephen Lucas called it "one of the best-known sentences in the English language",^[83] with historian Joseph Ellis writing that the document contains "the most potent and consequential words in American history".^[84]

In 1781, the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union established a decentralized government that operated until 1789.^[82] In 1777, the American victory at the Battle of Saratoga resulted in the capture of a British army, and led to France and their ally Spain joining in the war against them. After the surrender of a second British army at the siege of Yorktown in 1781, Britain signed a peace treaty. American sovereignty became internationally recognized, and the new nation took possession of substantial territory east of the Mississippi River, from what is today Canada in the north and Florida in the south.^[85]

As it became increasingly apparent that the Confederation was insufficient to govern the new country, nationalists advocated for and led the Philadelphia Convention of 1787 in writing the United States Constitution to replace it, ratified in state conventions in 1788.

Early national period (1789–1861)

The U.S. Constitution is the oldest and longest-standing written and codified national constitution in force today.^[86] Going into force in 1789, it reorganized the government into a federation administered by three branches (executive, judicial and legislative), on the principle of creating salutary checks and balances. George Washington, who had led the Continental Army to victory and then willingly relinquished power, was the first President elected under the new constitution. The Bill of Rights, forbidding federal restriction of personal freedoms and guaranteeing a range of legal protections, was adopted in 1791.^[87] The 1803 Louisiana Purchase almost doubled the nation's area.^[88] Tensions with Britain remained, leading to the War of 1812, which was fought to a draw.^[89] Spain ceded Florida and other Gulf Coast territory in 1819.^[90]

During the British Colonial era, slavery was legal in all of the American colonies, composed a longstanding institution in world history, and "challenges to its moral legitimacy were rare". However, during the Revolution, many in the colonies began to question the practice.^[91]

Regional divisions over slavery grew in the proceeding decades. In the North, several prominent Founding Fathers such as John Adams, Roger Sherman, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and Benjamin Franklin advocated for the abolition of slavery, and by the 1810s every state in the region had, with these emancipations being the first in the Atlantic World.^[92] In the South, the invention of the cotton gin spurred entrenchment of slavery, with regional elites and intellectuals increasingly viewing the institution as a positive good instead of a necessary evil.^[93] The Missouri Compromise (1820) admitted Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state and declared a policy of prohibiting slavery in the remaining Louisiana Purchase lands north of the 36°30′ parallel. The outcome de facto sectionalized the country into two factions: free states, which forbid slavery; and slave states, which protected the institution; it was controversial, widely seen as dividing the country along sectarian lines.^[94]

Although the federal government outlawed American participation in the Atlantic slave trade in 1807, after 1820, cultivation of the highly profitable cotton crop exploded in the Deep South, and along with it, the use of slave labor.^[95]^[96]^[97] The Second Great Awakening, especially in the period 1800–1840, converted millions to evangelical Protestantism. In the North, it energized multiple social reform movements, including abolitionism;^[98] in the South, Methodists and Baptists proselytized among slave populations.^[99]

In the late 18th century, American settlers began to expand further westward, some of them with a sense of manifest destiny.^[100]^[101] The 1803 Louisiana Purchase almost doubled the nation's area,^[102] Spain ceded Florida and other Gulf Coast territory in 1819,^[103] the Republic of Texas was annexed in 1845 during a period of expansionism,^[101] and the 1846 Oregon Treaty with Britain led to U.S. control of the present-day American Northwest.^[104] Additionally, the Trail of Tears in the 1830s exemplified the Indian removal policy that forcibly resettled Indians, further expanding acreage under mechanical cultivation and increasing surpluses for international markets. The displacement prompted a long series of American Indian Wars west of the Mississippi River^[105] and eventually conflict with Mexico.^[106] Most of these conflicts ended with the cession of Native American territory and their confinement to Indian reservations. Victory in the Mexican–American War resulted in the 1848 Mexican Cession of California and much of the present-day American Southwest, with the U.S. now spanning the continent.^[100]^[107] The California Gold Rush of 1848–1849 spurred migration to the Pacific coast, which led to the California Genocide^[108] and the creation of additional western states.^[109] Economic development was spurred by giving vast quantities of land, nearly 10% of the total area of the United States, to white European settlers as part of the Homestead Acts, as well as making land grants to private railroad companies and colleges.^[110] Prior to the Civil War, the prohibition or expansion of slavery into these territories exacerbated tensions over the debate around abolitionism.

Civil War and Reconstruction (1861–1877)

Status of the states, 1861

Slave states that seceded before April 15, 1861

Slave states that seceded after April 15, 1861

Union states that permitted slavery (border states)

Union states that banned slavery

Territories

Irreconcilable sectional conflict regarding the enslavement of those of black African descent^[111] was the primary cause of the American Civil War.^[112] With the 1860 election of Republican Abraham Lincoln, conventions in eleven slave states—all in the Southern United States—declared secession and formed the Confederate States of America, while the federal government (the "Union") maintained that secession was unconstitutional and illegitimate.^[113] On April 12, 1861, the Confederacy initiated military conflict by bombarding Fort Sumter, a federal garrison in Charleston harbor, South Carolina. The ensuing Civil War (1861–1865) was the deadliest military conflict in American history resulting in the deaths of approximately 620,000 soldiers from both sides and upwards of 50,000 civilians, almost all of them in the South.^[114]

Reconstruction began in earnest following the defeat of the Confederates. While President Lincoln attempted to foster friendship and forgiveness between the Union and the former Confederacy, his assassination on April 14, 1865 drove a wedge between North and South again.^{[citation needed]} Republicans in the federal government made it their goal to oversee the rebuilding of the South and to ensure the rights of African Americans. They persisted until the Compromise of 1877, when the Republicans agreed to cease enforcing the rights of African Americans in the South in order for Democrats to concede the presidential election of 1876.^{[citation needed]} Influential Southern whites, calling themselves "Redeemers", took local control of the South after the end of Reconstruction, beginning the nadir of American race relations. From 1890 to 1910, the Redeemers established so-called Jim Crow laws, disenfranchising almost all blacks and some impoverished whites throughout the region. Blacks would face racial segregation nationwide, especially in the South.^[115] They also lived under constant threat of vigilante violence, including lynching.^[116]

Gilded Age and Progressive Era (1877–1920)

National infrastructure, including telegraph and transcontinental railroads, spurred economic growth and greater settlement and development of the American Old West. After the American Civil War, new transcontinental railways made relocation easier for settlers, expanded internal trade, and increased conflicts with Native Americans.^[117] Electric light and the telephone drastically changed communication and urban life.^[118]

2:43

Film by Edison Studios showing immigrants at Ellis Island in New York Harbor, that was a major entry point for European immigration into the U.S.^[119]

Mainland expansion also included the purchase of Alaska from Russia in 1867.^[120] In 1893, pro-American elements in Hawaii overthrew the Hawaiian monarchy and formed the Republic of Hawaii, which the U.S. annexed in 1898. Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines were ceded by Spain in the same year, by the Treaty of Paris (1898) following the Spanish–American War.^[121] Neither the Foraker Act (1900), nor the Insular Cases (1901) accorded US citizenship to Puerto Ricans. One month prior to American entry into World War I, citizenship was extended to Puerto Ricans via the Jones–Shafroth Act (1917).^[122]^: 60–63 In November 1903, the US acquired a perpetual lease of the Panama Canal Zone via the Hay–Bunau-Varilla Treaty after providing naval aid preventing Colombia from putting down the rebellion which led to the creation of an independent Panama. The logistics of the November uprising were prepared in New York.^[122]^: 67 American Samoa was acquired by the United States in 1900 after the end of the Second Samoan Civil War.^[123] The U.S. Virgin Islands were purchased from Denmark in 1917.^[124]

Workers mass producing automobiles on an assembly line in Chicago in 1913. This model of manufacturing and economic growth became known as Fordism.^[125]

Rapid economic development during the late 19th and early 20th centuries fostered the rise of many prominent industrialists. Tycoons like Cornelius Vanderbilt, John D. Rockefeller, and Andrew Carnegie led the nation's progress in the railroad, petroleum, and steel industries. Banking became a major part of the economy, with J. P. Morgan playing a notable role. The United States also emerged as a pioneer of the automotive industry in the early 20th century. General Motors Corporation (GM), the company that would soon become the world's largest automaker, was founded in 1908 by William Durant.^[126] In the North, urbanization and an unprecedented influx of immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe supplied a surplus of labor for the country's industrialization.^[127] The American economy boomed, becoming the world's largest.^[128] These dramatic changes were accompanied by significant increases in economic inequality, immigration, and social unrest, which prompted the rise of organized labor along with populist, socialist, and anarchist movements.^[129]^[130]^[131] This period eventually ended with the advent of the Progressive Era, which saw significant reforms including health and safety regulation of consumer goods, the rise of labor unions, and greater antitrust measures to ensure competition among businesses and attention to worker conditions. The Great Migration beginning around 1910 also brought millions of African Americans to Northern urban centers from the rural South.^[132]

The last vestiges of the Progressive Era resulted in women's suffrage and alcohol prohibition.^[133]^[134]^[135] The first state to grant women the right to vote had been Wyoming, in 1869, followed by some other states^[136] before the women's rights movement won passage of a constitutional amendment granting nationwide women's suffrage in 1920.^[137]

The newly constructed Empire State Building in midtown Manhattan, 1932

Mushroom cloud formed by the Trinity Experiment in New Mexico, part of the Manhattan Project, the first detonation of a nuclear weapon in history, July 1945

The United States remained neutral from the outbreak of World War I in 1914 until 1917 when it joined the war as an "associated power" alongside the Allies of World War I, helping to turn the tide against the Central Powers. In 1919, President Woodrow Wilson took a leading diplomatic role at the Paris Peace Conference and advocated strongly for the U.S. to join the League of Nations. However, the Senate refused to approve this and did not ratify the Treaty of Versailles that established the League of Nations.^[138]

Roaring Twenties, Great Depression, New Deal, and World War II (1920–1945)

The 1920s and 1930s saw the rise of radio for mass communication and the invention of early television.^[139] The prosperity of the Roaring Twenties ended with the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and the onset of the Great Depression. After his election as President in 1932, Franklin D. Roosevelt responded with the New Deal economic policies.^[140] The Dust Bowl of the mid-1930s impoverished many farming communities and spurred a new wave of western migration.^[141]

At first neutral during World War II, the United States began supplying hundreds of billions worth of materiel to the Allies in March 1941. A total of $50.1 billion (equivalent to $719 billion in 2021) worth of supplies was shipped in 1941–1945, or 17% of the total war expenditures of the U.S.^[142] In all, $31.4 billion went to the United Kingdom, $11.3 billion to the Soviet Union, $3.2 billion to France, $1.6 billion to China, and the remaining $2.6 billion to other Allies. On December 7, 1941, the Empire of Japan launched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, prompting the United States to militarily join the Allies against the Axis powers, and in the following year, to intern about 120,000 Japanese and Japanese Americans.^[143]^[144] The U.S. pursued a "Europe first" defense policy,^[145] with the Philippines being invaded and occupied by Japan until the country's liberation by the U.S.-led forces in 1944–1945. During the war, the United States was one of the "Four Policemen"^[146] who met to plan the postwar world, along with Britain, the Soviet Union, and China.^[147]^[148] The United States emerged relatively unscathed from the war, and with even greater economic and military influence.^[149]

The United States played a leading role in the Bretton Woods and Yalta conferences, which signed agreements on new international financial institutions and Europe's postwar reorganization. As an Allied victory was achieved in Europe, a 1945 international conference held in San Francisco produced the United Nations Charter, which became active after the war.^[150] The United States developed the first nuclear weapons and used them on Japan in the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945; the Japanese subsequently surrendered on September 2, ending World War II.^[151]^[152]

Cold War (1945–1991)

Post–World War II economic expansion in the U.S. led to suburban development and urban sprawl, as shown in this aerial photograph of Levittown, Pennsylvania, c. 1959.

After World War II, the United States financed and implemented the Marshall Plan to help rebuild and economically revive war-torn Europe; disbursements paid between 1948 and 1952 would total $13 billion ($115 billion in 2021).^[153] Also at this time, geopolitical tensions between the United States and Soviet Russia led to the Cold War, driven by an ideological divide between capitalism and communism.^[154] The two countries dominated the military affairs of Europe, with the U.S. and its NATO allies on one side and the Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact satellite states on the other.^[155] Unlike the US, the USSR concentrated on its own recovery, seizing and transferring most of Germany's industrial plants, and it exacted war reparations from its Soviet Bloc satellites using Soviet-dominated joint enterprises.^[n]^[156] The U.S. sometimes opposed Third World movements that it viewed as Soviet-sponsored, occasionally pursuing direct action for regime change against left-wing governments.^[157] American troops fought the communist forces in the Korean War of 1950–1953,^[158] and the U.S. became increasingly involved in the Vietnam War (1955–1975), introducing combat forces in 1965.^[159] Their competition to achieve superior spaceflight capability led to the Space Race, which culminated in the U.S. becoming the first and only nation to land people on the Moon in 1969.^[158] While both countries engaged in proxy wars and developed powerful nuclear weapons, they avoided direct military conflict.^[155]

At home, the United States experienced sustained economic expansion, urbanization, and a rapid growth of its population and middle class following World War II. Construction of an Interstate Highway System transformed the nation's transportation infrastructure in decades to come.^[160]^[161] In 1959, the United States admitted Alaska and Hawaii to become the 49th and 50th states, formally expanding beyond the contiguous United States.^[162]

Martin Luther King Jr. gives his famous "I Have a Dream" speech at the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington, 1963.

The growing civil rights movement used nonviolence to confront racism, with Martin Luther King Jr. becoming a prominent leader.^[163] President Lyndon B. Johnson initiated legislation that led to a series of policies addressing poverty and racial inequalities, in what he termed the "Great Society". The launch of a "War on Poverty" expanded entitlements and welfare spending, leading to the creation of the Food Stamp Program, Aid to Families with Dependent Children, along with national health insurance programs Medicare and Medicaid.^[164] A combination of court decisions and legislation, culminating in the Civil Rights Act of 1968, made significant improvements.^[165]^[166]^[167] Meanwhile, a counterculture movement grew, which was fueled by opposition to the Vietnam War, mainstream experimentation with psychedelics and cannabis, the Black Power movement, and the sexual revolution.^[168] The women's movement in the U.S. broadened the debate on women's rights and made gender equality a major social goal. The 1960s Sexual Revolution liberalized American attitudes to sexuality and eventually spread to the rest of the developed world,^[169]^[170] and the 1969 Stonewall riots in New York City marked the beginning of the modern gay rights movement in the West.^[171]^[172]

The United States supported Israel during the Yom Kippur War; in response, the country faced an oil embargo from OPEC nations, sparking the 1973 oil crisis. The presidency of Richard Nixon saw the American withdrawal from Vietnam but also the Watergate scandal, which led to his resignation and a decline in public trust of government that expanded for decades.^[173] After a surge in female labor participation around the 1970s, by 1985, the majority of women aged 16 and over were employed.^[174] The 1970s and early 1980s also saw the onset of stagflation.

U.S. President Ronald Reagan (left) and Soviet general secretary Mikhail Gorbachev at the Geneva Summit in 1985

After his election in 1980, President Ronald Reagan responded to economic stagnation with neoliberal reforms and accelerated the rollback strategy towards the Soviet Union after its invasion of Afghanistan.^[175]^[176]^[177]^[178] During Reagan's presidency, the federal debt held by the public nearly tripled in nominal terms, from $738 billion to $2.1 trillion.^[179] This led to the United States moving from the world's largest international creditor to the world's largest debtor nation.^[180] The collapse of the USSR's network of satellite states in Eastern Europe in 1989 and the subsequent dissolution of the country itself in 1991 ended the Cold War with American victory,^[181]^[182]^[183]^[184] ensuring a global unipolarity^[185] in which the U.S. was unchallenged as the world's sole superpower.^[186]

Post-Cold War era (1991–present)

Fearing the spread of regional international instability from the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, in August 1991, President George H. W. Bush launched and led the Gulf War against Iraq, expelling Iraqi forces and dissolving the Iraqi-backed puppet state in Kuwait.^[187] During the administration of President Bill Clinton in 1994, the U.S. signed the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), causing trade among the U.S., Canada, and Mexico to soar.^[188] Due to the dot-com boom, stable monetary policy, and reduced social welfare spending, the 1990s saw the longest economic expansion in modern U.S. history.^[189]

The World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan during the September 11 attacks by the Islamic terrorist group Al-Qaeda in 2001

On September 11, 2001, al-Qaeda terrorist hijackers flew passenger planes into the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon near Washington, D.C., killing nearly 3,000 people.^[190] In response, President George W. Bush launched the war on terror, which included a nearly 20-year war in Afghanistan from 2001 to 2021 and the 2003–2011 Iraq War.^[191]^[192] Government policy designed to promote affordable housing,^[193] widespread failures in corporate and regulatory governance,^[194] and historically low interest rates set by the Federal Reserve^[195] led to a housing bubble in 2006. This culminated in the financial crisis of 2007–2008 and the Great Recession, the nation's largest economic contraction since the Great Depression.^[196]

Barack Obama, the first multiracial^[197] President with African-American ancestry, was elected in 2008 amid the financial crisis.^[198] By the end of his second term, the stock market, median household income and net worth, and the number of persons with jobs were all at record levels, while the unemployment rate was well below the historical average.^[199]^[200]^[201]^[202]^[203] His signature legislative accomplishment was the Affordable Care Act (ACA), popularly known as "Obamacare". It represented the U.S. health care system's most significant regulatory overhaul and expansion of coverage since Medicare in 1965. As a result, the uninsured share of the population was cut in half, while the number of newly insured Americans was estimated to be between 20 and 24 million.^[204] After Obama served two terms, Republican Donald Trump was elected as the 45th president in 2016. His election is viewed as one of the biggest political upsets in American and world history.^[205] Trump held office through the first waves of the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting COVID-19 recession starting in 2020 that exceeded even the Great Recession earlier in the century.^[206]

Political polarization has become significant during the 2010s, with abortion access, same-sex marriage, the transgender rights movement, race, police brutality, immigration, and marijuana becoming center topics of debate. Several protests have since become among the largest in U.S. history.^[207]^[208] On January 6, 2021, supporters of the outgoing President Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol in an unsuccessful effort to disrupt the Electoral College vote count that would confirm Democrat Joe Biden as the 46th president.^[209] In 2022, the Supreme Court ruled that there is no constitutional right to an abortion, causing another wave of protests.^[210] The United States responded significantly to Russia and Belarus after their invasion of Ukraine, with the country applying harsh sanctions on Russia and sending tens of billions of dollars of military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine.^[211]

Geography

Topographic map of the United States

The 48 contiguous states and the District of Columbia occupy a combined area of 3,119,885 square miles (8,080,470 km²). Of this area, 2,959,064 square miles (7,663,940 km²) is contiguous land, composing 83.65% of total U.S. land area.^[212]^[213] About 15% is occupied by Alaska, a state in northwestern North America, with the remainder in Hawaii, a state and archipelago in the central Pacific, and the five populated but unincorporated insular territories of Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.^[214] Measured by only land area, the United States is third in size behind Russia and China, and just ahead of Canada.^[215]

Denali, or Mount McKinley, in Alaska, the highest mountain peak in North America

The United States is the world's third- or fourth-largest nation by total area (land and water), ranking behind Russia and Canada and nearly equal to China. The ranking varies depending on how two territories disputed by China and India are counted, and how the total size of the United States is measured.^[c]^[216]

The coastal plain of the Atlantic seaboard gives way further inland to deciduous forests and the rolling hills of the Piedmont.^[217] The Appalachian Mountains and the Adirondack massif divide the eastern seaboard from the Great Lakes and the grasslands of the Midwest.^[218] The Mississippi–Missouri River, the world's fourth longest river system, runs mainly north–south through the heart of the country. The flat, fertile prairie of the Great Plains stretches to the west, interrupted by a highland region in the southeast.^[218]

The Rocky Mountains, west of the Great Plains, extend north to south across the country, peaking at over 14,000 feet (4,300 m) in Colorado.^[219] Farther west are the rocky Great Basin and deserts such as the Chihuahua, Sonoran, and Mojave.^[220] The Sierra Nevada and Cascade mountain ranges run close to the Pacific coast, both ranges also reaching altitudes higher than 14,000 feet (4,300 m). The lowest and highest points in the contiguous United States are in the state of California,^[221] and only about 84 miles (135 km) apart.^[222] At an elevation of 20,310 feet (6,190.5 m), Alaska's Denali is the highest peak in the country and in North America.^[223] Active volcanoes are common throughout Alaska's Alexander and Aleutian Islands, and Hawaii consists of volcanic islands. The supervolcano underlying Yellowstone National Park in the Rockies is the continent's largest volcanic feature.^[224]

Climate

Köppen climate types of the U.S.

The United States, with its large size and geographic variety, includes most climate types. To the east of the 100th meridian, the climate ranges from humid continental in the north to humid subtropical in the south.^[225]

The Great Plains west of the 100th meridian are semi-arid. Many mountainous areas of the American West have an alpine climate. The climate is arid in the Great Basin, desert in the Southwest, Mediterranean in coastal California, and oceanic in coastal Oregon and Washington and southern Alaska. Most of Alaska is subarctic or polar. Hawaii and the southern tip of Florida are tropical, as well as its territories in the Caribbean and the Pacific.^[226]

States bordering the Gulf of Mexico are prone to hurricanes, and most of the world's tornadoes occur in the country, mainly in Tornado Alley areas in the Midwest and South.^[227] Overall, the United States receives more high-impact extreme weather incidents than any other country in the world.^[228]

Extreme weather has become more frequent in the U.S., with three times the number of reported heat waves as in the 1960s. Of the ten warmest years ever recorded in the 48 contiguous states, eight have occurred since 1998. In the American Southwest, droughts have become more persistent and more severe.^[229]

Biodiversity and conservation

The bald eagle has been the national bird of the United States since 1782.^[230]

The U.S. is one of 17 megadiverse countries containing large numbers of endemic species: about 17,000 species of vascular plants occur in the contiguous United States and Alaska, and more than 1,800 species of flowering plants are found in Hawaii, few of which occur on the mainland.^[231] The United States is home to 428 mammal species, 784 birds, 311 reptiles, and 295 amphibians,^[232] and 91,000 insect species.^[233]

There are 63 national parks which are managed by the National Park Service, and hundreds of other federally managed parks, forests, and wilderness areas managed by it and other agencies.^[234] Altogether, the government owns about 28% of the country's land area,^[235] mostly in the western states.^[236] Most of this land is protected, though some is leased for oil and gas drilling, mining, logging, or cattle ranching, and about .86% is used for military purposes.^[237]^[238]

Environmental issues include debates on oil and nuclear energy, dealing with air and water pollution, the economic costs of protecting wildlife,^{[further explanation needed]} logging and deforestation,^[239]^[240] and climate change.^[241]^[242] The most prominent environmental agency is the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), created by presidential order in 1970.^[243] The idea of wilderness has shaped the management of public lands since 1964, with the Wilderness Act.^[244] The Endangered Species Act of 1973 is intended to protect threatened and endangered species and their habitats, which are monitored by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service.^[245]

As of 2020, the U.S. ranked 24th among 180 nations in the Environmental Performance Index.^[246] The country joined the Paris Agreement on climate change in 2016, and has many other environmental commitments.^[247] It withdrew from the Paris Agreement in 2020^[248] but rejoined it in 2021.^[249]

Government and politics

The United States Capitol, where Congress meets: the Senate, left; the House, right

The White House, residence and workplace of the U.S. President

The Supreme Court Building, where the nation's highest court sits

The United States is a federal republic of 50 states, a federal district, five territories and several uninhabited island possessions.^[250]^[251]^[252] It is the world's oldest surviving federation, and, according to the World Economic Forum, the oldest democracy as well.^[253] It is a liberal representative democracy "in which majority rule is tempered by minority rights protected by law."^[254] Major democracy indexes uniformly classify the country as a liberal democracy.^[255] The 2022 Corruption Perceptions Index and Global Corruption Barometer rank the United States as having low levels of both actual and perceived corruption.^[256]^[257]

The U.S. Constitution serves as the country's supreme legal document, establishing the structure and responsibilities of the federal government and its relationship with the individual states. The Constitution has been amended 27 times;^[258] the first ten amendments (Bill of Rights) and the Fourteenth Amendment form the central basis of Americans' individual rights. All laws and governmental procedures are subject to judicial review, and any law can be voided if the courts determine that it violates the Constitution. The principle of judicial review, not explicitly mentioned in the Constitution, was established by the Supreme Court in Marbury v. Madison (1803).^[259]

In the American federal system, sovereignty is shared between two levels of government: federal and state. Citizens of the states are also governed by local governments, which are administrative divisions of the states. The territories are administrative divisions of the federal government. Governance on many issues is decentralized, with widely differing state laws on abortion, cannabis, the death penalty,^[o] guns, economic policy, and other issues.^[263] States have increasingly restricted so-called "conversion therapy".^[264]^[265] Prostitution is only legal in several counties of Nevada.^[266]

The United States has operated under an uncodified informal two-party system for most of its history, although other parties have run candidates.^[267] What the two major parties are has changed over time: the Republicans and Democrats presently are, and the country is currently in either the Fifth or Sixth Party System.^[268] Both parties have no formal central organization at the national level that controls membership, elected officials or political policies; thus, each party has traditionally had factions and individuals that deviated from party positions.^[269] Since the 2000s, the country has suffered from significant political polarization.^[270]

Federal government

The federal government comprises three branches, which are headquartered in Washington, D.C. and regulated by a system of checks and balances defined by the Constitution.^[271]

Legislative: The bicameral Congress, made up of the Senate and the House of Representatives, makes federal law, declares war, approves treaties, has the power of the purse,^[272] and has the power of impeachment, by which it can remove sitting members of the federal government.^[273]
Executive: The president is the commander-in-chief of the military, can veto legislative bills before they become law (subject to congressional override), and appoints the members of the Cabinet (subject to Senate approval) and other officers, who administer and enforce federal laws and policies through their respective agencies.^[274]
Judicial: The Supreme Court and lower federal courts, whose judges are appointed by the President with Senate approval, interpret laws and overturn those they find unconstitutional.^[275]

The lower house, the House of Representatives, has 435 voting members, each representing a congressional district for a two-year term. House seats are apportioned among the states by population. Each state then draws single-member districts to conform with the census apportionment. The District of Columbia and the five major U.S. territories each have one member of Congress—these members are not allowed to vote.^[276]

The upper house, the Senate, has 100 members with each state having two senators, elected at large to six-year terms; one-third of Senate seats are up for election every two years. The District of Columbia and the five major U.S. territories do not have senators.^[276] The Senate is unique among upper houses in being the most prestigious and powerful portion of the country's bicameral system; political scientists have frequently labeled it the "most powerful upper house" of any government.^[277]

The President serves a four-year term and may be elected to the office no more than twice. The President is not elected by direct vote, but by an indirect electoral college system in which the determining votes are apportioned to the states and the District of Columbia.^[278] The Supreme Court, led by the chief justice of the United States, has nine members, who serve for life. They are appointed by the sitting President when a vacancy becomes available.^[279]

Political subdivisions

Each of the 50 states holds jurisdiction over a geographic territory, where it shares sovereignty with the federal government. They are subdivided into counties or county equivalents, and further divided into municipalities. The District of Columbia is a federal district that contains the capital of the United States, the city of Washington.^[280] Each state has an amount of presidential electors equal to the number of their representatives plus senators in Congress, and the District of Columbia has three electors.^[281] Territories of the United States do not have presidential electors, therefore people there cannot vote for the president.^[276]

Citizenship is granted at birth in all states, the District of Columbia, and all major U.S. territories except American Samoa.^[p]^[285]^[282] The United States observes limited tribal sovereignty of the American Indian nations, like states' sovereignty. American Indians are U.S. citizens and tribal lands are subject to the jurisdiction of the U.S. Congress and the federal courts. Like the states, tribes have some autonomy restrictions. They are prohibited from making war, engaging in their own foreign relations, and printing or issuing independent currency.^[286] Indian reservations are usually contained within one state, but there are 12 reservations that cross state boundaries.^[287]

Foreign relations

The United Nations headquarters has been situated along the East River in Midtown Manhattan since 1952. The United States is a founding member of the UN.

The United States has an established structure of foreign relations, and it had the world's second-largest diplomatic corps in 2019.^[288] It is a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council,^[289] and home to the United Nations headquarters.^[290] The United States is also a member of the G7,^[291] G20,^[292] and OECD intergovernmental organizations.^[293] Almost all countries have embassies and many have consulates (official representatives) in the country. Likewise, nearly all nations host formal diplomatic missions with United States, except Iran,^[294] North Korea,^[295] and Bhutan.^[296] Though Taiwan does not have formal diplomatic relations with the U.S., it maintains close, if unofficial, relations. The United States also regularly supplies Taiwan with military equipment to deter potential Chinese aggression.^[297]

The United States has a "Special Relationship" with the United Kingdom^[298] and strong ties with Canada,^[299] Australia,^[300] New Zealand,^[301] the Philippines,^[302] Japan,^[303] South Korea,^[304] Israel,^[305] and several European Union countries (France, Italy, Germany, Spain, and Poland).^[306] The U.S. works closely with its NATO allies on military and national security issues, and with nations in the Americas through the Organization of American States and the United States–Mexico–Canada Free Trade Agreement. In South America, Colombia is traditionally considered to be the closest ally of the United States.^[307] The U.S. exercises full international defense authority and responsibility for Micronesia, the Marshall Islands and Palau through the Compact of Free Association.^[308] The U.S. has become a key ally of Ukraine since Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 and began an invasion of Ukraine in 2022, significantly deteriorating relations with Russia in the process.^[309] The U.S. has also experienced a deterioration of relations with China and grown closer to Taiwan.^[310]^[311]^[312]

Military

B-2 Spirit, the stealth heavy strategic bomber of the USAF

The Pentagon, near Washington, D.C., is home to the U.S. Department of Defense.

The President is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces and appoints its leaders, the secretary of defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The Department of Defense, which is headquartered at the Pentagon near Washington, D.C., administers five of the six service branches, which are made up of the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, and Space Force. The Coast Guard is administered by the Department of Homeland Security in peacetime and can be transferred to the Department of the Navy in wartime.^[313] The United States spent $877 billion on its military in 2022, 39% of global military spending, accounting for 3.5% of the country's GDP.^[314]^[315] The U.S. has more than 40% of the world's nuclear weapons, the second-largest amount after Russia.^[316]

In 2019, all six branches of the U.S. Armed Forces reported 1.4 million personnel on active duty.^[317] The Reserves and National Guard brought the total number of troops to 2.3 million.^[317] The Department of Defense also employed about 700,000 civilians, not including contractors.^[318] Military service in the United States is voluntary, although conscription may occur in wartime through the Selective Service System.^[319] The United States has the third-largest combined armed forces in the world, behind the Chinese People's Liberation Army and Indian Armed Forces.^[320]

Today, American forces can be rapidly deployed by the Air Force's large fleet of transport aircraft, the Navy's 11 active aircraft carriers, and Marine expeditionary units at sea with the Navy, and Army's XVIII Airborne Corps and 75th Ranger Regiment deployed by Air Force transport aircraft. The Air Force can strike targets across the globe through its fleet of strategic bombers, maintains the air defense across the United States, and provides close air support to Army and Marine Corps ground forces.^[321]^[322]

The Space Force operates the Global Positioning System (GPS, also widespread in civilian use worldwide), the Eastern and Western Ranges for all space launches, and the United States's Space Surveillance and Missile Warning networks.^[323]^[324]^[325] The military operates about 800 bases and facilities abroad,^[326] and maintains deployments greater than 100 active duty personnel in 25 foreign countries.^[327]

Law enforcement and crime

There are about 18,000 U.S. police agencies from local to federal level in the United States.^[328] Law in the United States is mainly enforced by local police departments and sheriff's offices. The state police provides broader services, and federal agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the U.S. Marshals Service have specialized duties, such as protecting civil rights, national security and enforcing U.S. federal courts' rulings and federal laws.^[329] State courts conduct most civil and criminal trials,^[330] and federal courts handle designated crimes and appeals from the state criminal courts.^[331]

As of 2020, the United States has an intentional homicide rate of 7 per 100,000 people.^[332] A cross-sectional analysis of the World Health Organization Mortality Database from 2010 showed that United States homicide rates "were 7.0 times higher than in other high-income countries, driven by a gun homicide rate that was 25.2 times higher."^[333]

As of 2014 and 2018, the United States had the largest prison population and highest documented incarceration rate in the world respectively.^[334]^[335] In 2019, the total prison population for those sentenced to more than a year was 1,430,800, corresponding to a ratio of 419 per 100,000 residents and the lowest since 1995.^[336] Some think tanks place that number higher, such as Prison Policy Initiative's estimate of 2.3 million.^[337] Various states have attempted to reduce their prison populations via government policies and grassroots initiatives.^[338]

Economy

The U.S. dollar (featuring George Washington) is the currency most used in international transactions and is the world's foremost reserve currency.^[339]

The New York Stock Exchange on Wall Street, the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed companies^[340]

Midtown Manhattan, the world's largest central business district^[341]

According to the International Monetary Fund, the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) of $25.4 trillion constitutes 25% of the gross world product at market exchange rates and over 15% of the gross world product at purchasing power parity (PPP).^[342]^[14] From 1983 to 2008, U.S. real compounded annual GDP growth was 3.3%, compared to a 2.3% weighted average for the rest of the G7.^[343] The country ranks first in the world by nominal GDP,^[344] second by GDP (PPP),^[14] seventh by nominal GDP per capita,^[342] and eighth by GDP (PPP) per capita.^[14] As of 2022, the United States was ranked 25th out of 169 countries on the Social Progress Index, which measures "the extent to which countries provide for the social and environmental needs of their citizens."^[345] The U.S. has been the world's largest economy since at least 1900.^[346]

The United States is at or near the forefront of technological advancement and innovation^[347] in many economic fields, especially in artificial intelligence; computers; pharmaceuticals; and medical, aerospace and military equipment.^[348] The nation's economy is fueled by abundant natural resources, a well-developed infrastructure, and high productivity.^[349] It has the second-highest total-estimated value of natural resources, valued at US$44.98 trillion in 2019, although sources differ on their estimates. Americans have the highest average household and employee income among OECD member states.^[350] In 2013, they had the sixth-highest median household income, down from fourth-highest in 2010.^[351]^[352]

The U.S. dollar is the currency most used in international transactions and is the world's foremost reserve currency, backed by the country's dominant economy, its military, the petrodollar system, and its linked eurodollar and large U.S. treasuries market.^[339] Several countries use it as their official currency and in others it is the de facto currency.^[353]^[354] New York City is the world's principal financial center, with the largest economic output, and the epicenter of the principal American metropolitan economy.^[355]^[356]^[357] The New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq are the world's largest stock exchanges by market capitalization and trade volume.^[358]^[359]

The largest U.S. trading partners are China, the European Union, Canada, Mexico, India, Japan, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and Taiwan.^[360] The United States is the world's largest importer and the second-largest exporter after China.^[361] It has free trade agreements with several countries, including the USMCA.^[362] The U.S. ranked second in the Global Competitiveness Report in 2019, after Singapore.^[363] Many of the world's largest companies, such as Alphabet (Google), Amazon, AT&T, Apple, Coca-Cola, Disney, General Motors, McDonald's, Nike, Meta, Microsoft, Pepsi, and Walmart, were founded and are headquartered in the United States.^[364] Of the world's 500 largest companies, 124 are headquartered in the U.S.^[364]

While its economy has reached a post-industrial level of development, the United States remains an industrial power.^[365] As of 2018, the U.S. is the second-largest manufacturing nation after China.^[366] In 2013, the U.S. national debt to GDP ratio surpassed 100% when both debt and GDP were approximately $16.7 trillion.^[367]

Income and poverty

At US$69,392 in 2020, the United States was ranked first in the world by average yearly wage based on the OECD data, and it had the world's highest median income at US$46,625 in 2021.^[368]^[369] Despite the fact that the U.S. only accounted for 4.24% of the global population, American citizens collectively possessed 30.2% of the world's total wealth as of 2021, the largest percentage of any country.^[370] The U.S. also ranks first in the number of dollar billionaires and millionaires, with 724 billionaires (as of 2021)^[371] and nearly 22 million millionaires (2021).^[372]

The United States has a smaller welfare state and redistributes less income through government action than most other high-income countries.^[373] The U.S. ranked the 52nd highest in income inequality among 167 countries in 2014,^[374] and the highest compared to the rest of the developed world in 2018.^[375]^[335]

Wealth in the United States is highly concentrated; the richest 10% of the adult population own 72% of the country's household wealth, while the bottom 50% own just 2%.^[376] Income inequality in the U.S. remains at record highs,^[377] with the top fifth of earners taking home more than half of all income^[378] and giving the U.S. one of the widest income distributions among OECD members.^[379] The United States is the only advanced economy that does not guarantee its workers paid vacation nationally^[380] and is one of a few countries in the world without federal paid family leave as a legal right.^[381] The United States also has a higher percentage of low-income workers than almost any other developed nation, largely because of a weak collective bargaining system and lack of government support for at-risk workers.^[382]

There were about 567,715 sheltered and unsheltered homeless persons in the U.S. in January 2019, with almost two-thirds staying in an emergency shelter or transitional housing program.^[383] Attempts to combat homelessness include the Section 8 housing voucher program and implementation of the Housing First strategy across all levels of government.^[384]

In 2011, 16.7 million children lived in food-insecure households, about 35% more than 2007 levels, though only 845,000 U.S. children (1.1%) saw reduced food intake or disrupted eating patterns at some point during the year, and most cases were not chronic.^[385] As of June 2018, 40 million people, roughly 12.7% of the U.S. population, were living in poverty, including 13.3 million children;^[335] the poverty threshold in the United States was at $12,880 for a single-person household and $26,246 for a family of four in 2021.^[386]^[387] As of 2019, 2% of the U.S. population earned less than $10 per day.^[388] 0.25% of the U.S. population lived below the international poverty line of $2.15 per day in 2020.^[389]^[390]

Science, technology, and energy

U.S. astronaut Buzz Aldrin saluting the flag on the Moon during the Apollo 11, 1969. The United States is the only country that has sent crewed missions to the lunar surface.

The United States has been a leader in technological innovation since the late 19th century and scientific research since the mid-20th century. Methods for producing interchangeable parts and the establishment of a machine tool industry enabled the U.S. to have large-scale manufacturing of sewing machines, bicycles, and other items in the late 19th century. In the early 20th century, factory electrification, the introduction of the assembly line, and other labor-saving techniques created the system of mass production.^[391] In the 21st century, approximately two-thirds of research and development funding comes from the private sector.^[392] In 2022, the United States was the country with the second-highest number of published scientific papers.^[393] As of 2021, the U.S. ranked second by the number of patent applications, and third by trademark and industrial design applications.^[394] In 2021, the United States launched a total of 51 spaceflights (China reported 55).^[395] The U.S. had 2,944 active satellites in space in December 2021, the highest number of any country.^[396]

In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell was awarded the first U.S. patent for the telephone. Thomas Edison's research laboratory developed the phonograph, the first long-lasting light bulb, and the first viable movie camera.^[397] The Wright brothers in 1903 made the first sustained and controlled heavier-than-air powered flight, and the automobile companies of Ransom E. Olds and Henry Ford popularized the assembly line in the early 20th century.^[398] The rise of fascism and Nazism in the 1920s and 30s led many European scientists, such as Albert Einstein, Enrico Fermi, and John von Neumann, to immigrate to the United States.^[399] During World War II, the Manhattan Project. developed nuclear weapons, ushering in the Atomic Age. During the Cold War, competition for superior missile capability led to the Space Race between the United States and Soviet Union.^[400]^[401] The great American technological breakthroughs of the 20th century stem from the invention of the transistor in the 1950s, a key component in almost all modern electronics, which led to the development of microprocessors, software, personal computers, and the Internet.^[402] In 2022, the United States ranked 2nd in the Global Innovation Index.^[403] The United States also developed the Global Positioning System, which is the world's pre-eminent satellite navigation system.^[404]

As of 2019, the United States receives approximately 80% of its energy from fossil fuels.^[405] In 2019, the largest source of the country's energy came from petroleum (36.6%), followed by natural gas (32%), coal (11.4%), renewable sources (11.4%), and nuclear power (8.4%).^[405] Americans constitute less than 5% of the world's population, but consume 17% of the world's energy.^[406] They account for about 25% of the world's petroleum consumption, while producing only 6% of the world's annual petroleum supply.^[407] The U.S. ranks as second-highest emitter of greenhouse gases, exceeded only by China.^[408]

Transportation

Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport is the world's busiest by passenger traffic.^[409]

The United States's rail network, nearly all standard gauge, is the longest in the world, and exceeds 293,564 km (182,400 mi).^[410] It handles mostly freight, with intercity passenger service primarily provided by Amtrak, a government-managed company that took over services previously run by private companies, to all but four states.^[411]^[412]

Personal transportation is dominated by automobiles, which operate on a network of 4 million miles (6.4 million kilometers) of public roads, making it the longest network in the world.^[413]^[414] The United States became the first country in the world to have a mass market for vehicle production and sales, and mass market production process.^[415] As of 2022, the United States is the second-largest manufacturer of motor vehicles^[416] and is home to Tesla, the world's most valuable car company.^[417] General Motors held the title of the world's best-selling automaker from 1931 to 2008.^[418] Currently, the U.S. has the world's second-largest automobile market by sales^[419] and the highest vehicle ownership per capita in the world, with 816.4 vehicles per 1,000 Americans (2014).^[420] In 2017, there were 255 million non-two wheel motor vehicles, or about 910 vehicles per 1,000 people.^[421]

The civil airline industry is entirely privately owned and has been largely deregulated since 1978, while most major airports are publicly owned.^[422] The three largest airlines in the world by passengers carried are U.S.-based; American Airlines is number one after its 2013 acquisition by US Airways.^[423] Of the world's 50 busiest passenger airports, 16 are in the United States, including the top five and the busiest, Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport.^[424]^[425] As of 2020, there are 19,919 airports in the United States, of which 5,217 are designated as "public use", including for general aviation and other activities.^[426]

Of the fifty busiest container ports, four are located in the United States, of which the busiest is the Port of Los Angeles.^[427] The country's inland waterways are the world's fifth-longest, and total 41,009 km (25,482 mi).^[428]

Demographics

Population

Historical population
Census	Pop.	Note	%±
1790	3,929,326		—
1800	5,308,483		35.1%
1810	7,239,881		36.4%
1820	9,638,453		33.1%
1830	12,866,020		33.5%
1840	17,069,453		32.7%
1850	23,191,876		35.9%
1860	31,443,321		35.6%
1870	38,925,598		23.8%
1880	50,189,209		28.9%
1890	62,979,766		25.5%
1900	76,212,168		21.0%
1910	92,228,496		21.0%
1920	106,021,537		15.0%
1930	122,775,046		15.8%
1940	132,164,569		7.6%
1950	150,697,361		14.0%
1960	179,323,175		19.0%
1970	203,392,031		13.4%
1980	226,545,805		11.4%
1990	248,709,873		9.8%
2000	281,421,906		13.2%
2010	308,745,538		9.7%
2020	331,449,281		7.4%
2022 (est.)	333,287,557	^[429]	0.6%
U.S. Decennial Census

The U.S. Census Bureau reported 331,449,281 residents as of April 1, 2020,^[q]^[430] making the United States the third most populous nation in the world, after China and India.^[431] According to the Bureau's U.S. Population Clock, on January 28, 2021, the U.S. population had a net gain of one person every 100 seconds, or about 864 people per day.^[432] In 2018, 52% of Americans age 15 and over were married, 6% were widowed, 10% were divorced, and 32% had never been married.^[433] In 2021, America's total fertility rate stood at 1.7 children per woman,^[434] and it had the world's highest rate of children (23%) living in single-parent households in 2019.^[435]

The United States has a diverse population; 37 ancestry groups have more than one million members.^[436] White Americans with ancestry from Europe, the Middle East or North Africa, form the largest racial and ethnic group at 57.8% of the United States population.^[437]^[438] Hispanic and Latino Americans form the second-largest group and are 18.7% of the United States population. African Americans constitute the nation's third-largest ancestry group and are 12.1% of the total United States population.^[436] Asian Americans are the country's fourth-largest group, composing 5.9% of the United States population, while the country's 3.7 million Native Americans account for about 1%.^[436] In 2020, the median age of the United States population was 38.5 years.^[431]

Immigration

The United States has by far the highest number of immigrant population in the world, with 50,661,149 people.^[439]^[440] In 2018, there were almost 90 million immigrants and U.S.-born children of immigrants in the United States, accounting for 28% of the overall U.S. population.^[441] In 2017, out of the U.S. foreign-born population, some 45% (20.7 million) were naturalized citizens, 27% (12.3 million) were lawful permanent residents, 6% (2.2 million) were temporary lawful residents, and 23% (10.5 million) were unauthorized immigrants.^[442]

The United States led the world in refugee resettlement for decades, admitting more refugees than the rest of the world combined.^[443]

Language

American English is the de facto national language of the United States. Although there is no official language at the federal level, some laws—such as U.S. naturalization requirements—standardize English, and most states have declared English as the official language.^[444] Three states and four U.S. territories have recognized local or indigenous languages in addition to English, including Hawaii (Hawaiian),^[445] Alaska (twenty Native languages),^[r]^[446] South Dakota (Sioux),^[447] American Samoa (Samoan), Puerto Rico (Spanish), Guam (Chamorro), and the Northern Mariana Islands (Carolinian and Chamorro).

In Puerto Rico, Spanish is more widely spoken than English.^[448]

According to the American Community Survey, in 2010 some 229 million people (out of the total U.S. population of 308 million) spoke only English at home. More than 37 million spoke Spanish at home, making it the second most commonly used language in the United States. Other languages spoken at home by one million people or more include Chinese (2.8 million), Tagalog (1.6 million), Vietnamese (1.4 million), French (1.3 million), Korean (1.1 million), and German (1 million).^[449]

The most widely taught foreign languages in the United States, in terms of enrollment numbers from kindergarten through university undergraduate education, are Spanish, French, and German. Other commonly taught languages include Latin, Japanese, American Sign Language, Italian, and Chinese.^[450]^[451]

Religion

Self-identified religious affiliation in the United States (2023 The Wall Street Journal-NORC poll):^[452]

Protestantism (26%)

Catholicism (21%)

"Just Christian" (20%)

Mormonism (2%)

Unitarianism (1%)

Judaism (2%)

Buddhism (2%)

Other religious affilation (2%)

Islam (1%)

Nothing in particular (12%)

Agnosticism (8%)

Atheism (4%)

Religious affilation in the United States is among the most diverse in the world^[453] and varies significantly by region^[454] and age.^[455]

The First Amendment guarantees the free exercise of religion and forbids Congress from passing laws respecting its establishment.^[456]^[457] The country has the world's largest Christian population^[458] and a majority of Americans identify as Christian, predominately Catholic, mainline Protestant, or evangelical. However, most do not consider religion an important part of their life,^[452] do not regularly attend religious services,^[452] and have low confidence in religious institutions.^[459] Until the 1990s, the country was a significant outlier among highly developed countries, notably having a high level of religiosity and wealth, although this has lessened since.^[460]^[461]

According to Gallup, 81% of Americans believe in some conception of a God^[462] while "31% report attending a church, synagogue, mosque or temple weekly or nearly weekly today."^[463] In the "Bible Belt", located within the Southern United States, evangelical Protestantism plays a significant role culturally. New England and the Western United States tend to be less religious.^[454] Around 6% of Americans claim a non-Christian faith;^[460] the largest of which are Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism.^[464] The United States either has the first or second-largest Jewish population in the world, the largest outside of Israel.^[465] "Ceremonial deism" is common in American culture.^[456]^[466] Around 30% of Americans describe themselves as having no religion.^[460] Membership in a house of worship fell from 70% in 1999 to 47% in 2020.^[467]

Urbanization

About 82% of Americans live in urban areas, including suburbs;^[216] about half of those reside in cities with populations over 50,000.^[468] In 2008, 273 incorporated municipalities had populations over 100,000, nine cities had more than one million residents, and four cities (New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Houston) had populations exceeding two million.^[469] Many U.S. metropolitan populations are growing rapidly, particularly in the South and West.^[470]

v t e Largest metropolitan areas in the United States 2021 MSA population estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau
	Rank	Name	Region	Pop.	Rank	Name	Region	Pop.
New York Los Angeles	1	New York	Northeast	19,768,458	11	Boston	Northeast	4,899,932	Chicago Dallas–Fort Worth
	2	Los Angeles	West	12,997,353	12	Riverside–San Bernardino	West	4,653,105
	3	Chicago	Midwest	9,509,934	13	San Francisco	West	4,623,264
	4	Dallas–Fort Worth	South	7,759,615	14	Detroit	Midwest	4,365,205
	5	Houston	South	7,206,841	15	Seattle	West	4,011,553
	6	Washington, D.C.	South	6,356,434	16	Minneapolis–Saint Paul	Midwest	3,690,512
	7	Philadelphia	Northeast	6,228,601	17	San Diego	West	3,286,069
	8	Atlanta	South	6,144,050	18	Tampa–St. Petersburg	South	3,219,514
	9	Miami	South	6,091,747	19	Denver	West	2,972,566
	10	Phoenix	West	4,946,145	20	Baltimore	South	2,838,327

Education

Photograph of the University of Virginia

The University of Virginia, founded by Thomas Jefferson, is one of the many public colleges and universities in the United States.

American public education is operated by state and local governments and regulated by the United States Department of Education through restrictions on federal grants. In most states, children are required to attend school from the age of five or six (beginning with kindergarten or first grade) until they turn 18 (generally bringing them through twelfth grade, the end of high school); some states allow students to leave school at 16 or 17.^[471] Of Americans 25 and older, 84.6% graduated from high school, 52.6% attended some college, 27.2% earned a bachelor's degree, and 9.6% earned graduate degrees.^[472] The basic literacy rate is approximately 99%.^[216]^[473]

The United States has many private and public institutions of higher education. There are also local community colleges with generally more open admission policies, shorter academic programs, and lower tuition.^[474] The U.S. spends more on education per student than any nation in the world,^[475] spending an average of $12,794 per year on public elementary and secondary school students in the 2016–2017 school year.^[476] As for public expenditures on higher education, the U.S. spends more per student than the OECD average, and more than all nations in combined public and private spending.^[477] Despite some student loan forgiveness programs in place,^[478] student loan debt has increased by 102% in the last decade,^[479] and exceeded 1.7 trillion dollars as of 2022.^[480]

The large majority of the world's top universities, as listed by various ranking organizations, are in the United States, including 19 of the top 25, and the most prestigious – the Harvard University.^[481]^[482]^[483]^[484] The country also has by far the most Nobel Prize winners in history, with 403 (having won 406 awards).^[485]

Health

The Texas Medical Center in downtown Houston is the largest medical complex in the world.^[486]

In a preliminary report, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced that U.S. life expectancy at birth had dropped to 76.4 years in 2021 (73.2 years for men and 79.1 years for women), down 0.9 years from 2020. This was the second year of overall decline, and the chief causes listed were the COVID-19 pandemic, accidents, drug overdoses, heart and liver disease, and suicides.^[487]^[488] Life expectancy was highest among Asians and Hispanics and lowest among Blacks and American Indian–Alaskan Native (AIAN) peoples.^[489]^[490] Starting in 1998, the average life expectancy in the U.S. fell behind that of other wealthy industrialized countries, and Americans' "health disadvantage" gap has been increasing ever since.^[491] The U.S. also has one of the highest suicide rates among high-income countries,^[492] and approximately one-third of the U.S. adult population is obese and another third is overweight.^[493]

In 2010, coronary artery disease, lung cancer, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases, and traffic collisions caused the most years of life lost in the U.S. Low back pain, depression, musculoskeletal disorders, neck pain, and anxiety caused the most years lost to disability. The most harmful risk factors were poor diet, tobacco smoking, obesity, high blood pressure, high blood sugar, physical inactivity, and alcohol consumption. Alzheimer's disease, substance use disorders, kidney disease, cancer, and falls caused the most additional years of life lost over their age-adjusted 1990 per-capita rates.^[494] Teenage pregnancy and abortion rates in the U.S. are substantially higher than in other Western nations, especially among blacks and Hispanics.^[495]

The U.S. health care system far outspends that of any other nation, measured both in per capita spending and as a percentage of GDP but attains worse health care outcomes when compared to peer nations.^[496] The United States is the only developed nation without a system of universal health care, and a significant proportion of the population that does not carry health insurance.^[497] The U.S., however, is a global leader in medical innovation, measured either in terms of revenue or the number of new drugs and devices introduced.^[498]^[499] The Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity ranked the United States 11th in its World Index of Healthcare Innovation; it concluded that the U.S. dominates science & technology, which "was on full display during the COVID-19 pandemic, as the U.S. government [delivered] coronavirus vaccines far faster than anyone had ever done before," but lags behind in fiscal sustainability, with "[government] spending [...] growing at an unsustainable rate."^[500]

Government-funded health care coverage for the poor (Medicaid, established in 1965) and for those age 65 and older (Medicare, begun in 1966) is available to Americans who meet the programs' income or age qualifications. In 2010, former President Obama passed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act or ACA,^[s]^[501] with the law roughly halving the uninsured share of the population according to the CDC.^[502] Multiple studies have concluded that ACA had reduced the mortality of enrollees.^[503]^[504]^[505] However, its legacy remains controversial.^[506]

Culture and society

The Statue of Liberty, a large teal bronze sculpture on a stone pedestal

The Statue of Liberty (Liberty Enlightening the World), a gift from France, has become an iconic symbol of the American Dream.^[507]

Americans have traditionally been characterized by a unifying belief in an "American creed" emphasizing liberty, equality under the law, democracy, social equality, property rights, and a preference for limited government.^[508]^[509] Individualism,^[510] having a strong work ethic,^[511] competitiveness,^[512] and altruism^[513]^[514]^[515] are also cited values. According to a 2006 study by the Charities Aid Foundation, Americans donated 1.44% of total GDP to charity, the highest in the world by a large margin.^[516] The United States is home to a wide variety of ethnic groups, traditions, and values,^[517]^[518] and exerts major cultural influence on a global scale,^[519]^[520] with the phenomenon being termed Americanization.^[521] As such, the U.S. is considered a cultural superpower.^[522]

Nearly all present Americans or their ancestors came from Eurafrasia ("the Old World") within the past five centuries.^[523] Mainstream American culture is a Western culture largely derived from the traditions of European immigrants with influences from many other sources, such as traditions brought by slaves from Africa.^[517]^[524] More recent immigration from Asia and especially Latin America has added to a cultural mix that has been described as a homogenizing melting pot, and a heterogeneous salad bowl, with immigrants contributing to, and often assimilating into, mainstream American culture.^[517] The American Dream, or the perception that Americans enjoy high social mobility, plays a key role in attracting immigrants.^[525] Whether this perception is accurate has been a topic of debate.^[526]^[527]^[528] While mainstream culture holds that the United States is a classless society,^[529] scholars identify significant differences between the country's social classes, affecting socialization, language, and values.^[530] Americans tend to greatly value socioeconomic achievement, but being ordinary or average is promoted by some as a noble condition.^[531]

The United States is considered to have the strongest protections of free speech of any country in the world under the First Amendment,^[532] with the Supreme Court ruling that flag desecration, hate speech, blasphemy, and lese-majesty are all forms of protected expression.^[533]^[534]^[535] A 2016 Pew Research Center poll found that Americans were the most supportive of free expression of any polity measured.^[536] They are also the "most supportive of freedom of the press and the right to use the Internet without government censorship."^[537] It is a socially progressive country^[538] with permissive attitudes surrounding human sexuality.^[539] LGBT rights in the U.S. are among the most advanced in the world.^[539]^[540]^[541]

Literature and visual arts

Mark Twain, American author and humorist

In the 18th and early 19th centuries, American art and literature took most of their cues from Europe, contributing to Western culture. Writers such as Washington Irving, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allan Poe, and Henry David Thoreau established a distinctive American literary voice by the middle of the 19th century. Mark Twain and poet Walt Whitman were major figures in the century's second half; Emily Dickinson, virtually unknown during her lifetime, is recognized as an essential American poet.^[542]

In the 1920s, the New Negro Movement coalesced in Harlem, where many writers had migrated (some coming from the South, others from the West Indies). Its pan-African perspective was a significant cultural export during the Jazz Age in Paris and as such was a key early influence on the négritude philosophy.^[543]

There have been a multitude of candidates for the "Great American Novel"—works seen as embodying and examining the essence and character of the United States—including Herman Melville's Moby-Dick (1851), Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852), Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885), F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby (1925), John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath (1939), Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird (1960), Toni Morrison's Beloved (1987), and David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest (1996).^[544]^[545]^[546]

Thirteen U.S. citizens have won the Nobel Prize in Literature, most recently Louise Glück, Bob Dylan, and Toni Morrison.^[547] Earlier laureates William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway and John Steinbeck have also been recognized as influential 20th century writers.^[548]

In the visual arts, the Hudson River School was a mid-19th-century movement in the tradition of European naturalism. The 1913 Armory Show in New York City, an exhibition of European modernist art, shocked the public and transformed the U.S. art scene.^[549] Georgia O'Keeffe, Marsden Hartley, and others experimented with new, individualistic styles, which would become known as American modernism.

Major artistic movements such as the abstract expressionism of Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning and the pop art of Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein developed largely in the United States. The tide of modernism and then postmodernism has brought global fame to American architects such as Frank Lloyd Wright, Philip Johnson, and Frank Gehry.^[550] Major photographers include Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Steichen, Dorothea Lange, Edward Weston, James Van Der Zee, and Ansel Adams.^[551]

The most notable American architectural innovation has been the skyscraper. By some measures, what came to be known as a "skyscraper" in the modern world, first appeared in Chicago with the 1885 completion of the world's first largely steel-frame structure, the Home Insurance Building. One culturally significant early skyscraper was New York City's Woolworth Building designed by architect Cass Gilbert. Raising previous technological advances to new heights, 793 ft (233 m), it was the world's tallest building in 1913–1930.^[552] The 1916 Zoning Resolution setback law, which remained in effect until 1960, allowed structures to rise to any height as long as it reduced the area of each tower floor to one quarter of the structure's ground floor area.^[553]

Cinema and theater

The iconic Hollywood Sign in Los Angeles, California

The United States movie industry has a worldwide influence and following. Hollywood, a northern district of Los Angeles, California, is the leader in motion picture production and the most recognizable movie industry in the world.^[554]^[555]^[556] The major film studios of the United States are the primary source of the most commercially successful and most ticket selling movies in the world.^[557]^[558]

The world's first commercial motion picture exhibition was given in New York City in 1894, using the Kinetoscope.^[559] Since the early 20th century, the U.S. film industry has largely been based in and around Hollywood, although in the 21st century an increasing number of films are not made there, and film companies have been subject to the forces of globalization.^[560] The Academy Awards, popularly known as the Oscars, have been held annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences since 1929,^[561] and the Golden Globe Awards have been held annually since January 1944.^[562]

Director D. W. Griffith, an American filmmaker during the silent film period, was central to the development of film grammar, and producer/entrepreneur Walt Disney was a leader in both animated film and movie merchandising.^[563] Directors such as John Ford redefined the image of the American Old West, and, like others such as John Huston, broadened the possibilities of cinema with location shooting. The industry enjoyed its golden years, in what is commonly referred to as the "Golden Age of Hollywood", from the early sound period until the early 1960s,^[564] with screen actors such as John Wayne and Marilyn Monroe becoming iconic figures.^[565]^[566] In the 1970s, "New Hollywood" or the "Hollywood Renaissance"^[567] was defined by grittier films influenced by French and Italian realist pictures of the post-war period.^[568]

The 21st century has been marked by the rise of the American streaming platforms, such as Netflix, Disney+, Paramount+, and Apple TV+, which came to rival traditional cinema.^[569]^[570]

Mainstream theater in the United States derives from the old European theatrical tradition and has been heavily influenced by the British theater.^[571] The central hub of the American theater scene has been Manhattan, with its divisions of Broadway, off-Broadway, and off-off-Broadway.^[572] Many movie and television stars have gotten their big break working in New York productions. Outside New York City, many cities have professional regional or resident theater companies that produce their own seasons, with some works being produced regionally with hopes of eventually moving to New York. The biggest-budget theatrical productions are musicals. U.S. theater also has an active community theater culture, which relies mainly on local volunteers who may not be actively pursuing a theatrical career.^[573]

Music

The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville, Tennessee

American folk music encompasses numerous music genres, variously known as traditional music, traditional folk music, contemporary folk music, or roots music. Many traditional songs have been sung within the same family or folk group for generations, and sometimes trace back to such origins as the British Isles, Mainland Europe, or Africa.^[574]

Among America's earliest composers was William Billings who, born in Boston, composed patriotic hymns in the 1770s;^[575] Billings was a part of the First New England School, who dominated American music during its earliest stages. Anthony Heinrich was the most prominent composer before the Civil War. From the mid- to late 1800s, John Philip Sousa of the late Romantic era composed numerous military songs—particularly marches—and is regarded as one of America's greatest composers.^[576]

The rhythmic and lyrical styles of African-American music have significantly influenced American music at large, distinguishing it from European and African traditions. The Smithsonian Institution states, "African-American influences are so fundamental to American music that there would be no American music without them."^[577] Country music developed in the 1920s, and rhythm and blues in the 1940s. Elements from folk idioms such as the blues and what is known as old-time music were adopted and transformed into popular genres with global audiences. Jazz was developed by innovators such as Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington early in the 20th century.^[578] Known worldwide and singing in a wide variety of genres, Aretha Franklin is widely considered to be the all-time greatest American singer.^[579]

Elvis Presley and Chuck Berry were among the pioneers of rock and roll in the mid-1950s. Rock bands such as Metallica, the Eagles, and Aerosmith are among the highest grossing in worldwide sales.^[580]^[581]^[582] In the 1960s, Bob Dylan emerged from the folk revival to become one of America's most celebrated songwriters.^[583] Mid-20th-century American pop stars such as Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra,^[584] and Elvis Presley became global celebrities,^[578] as have artists of the late 20th century such as Prince, Michael Jackson, Madonna, Whitney Houston, and Mariah Carey.^[585]^[586] American professional opera singers have reached the highest level of success in that form, including Renée Fleming, Leontyne Price, Beverly Sills, Nelson Eddy, and many others.^[587]

American popular music, as part of the wider U.S. pop culture, has a worldwide influence and following.^[588] Taylor Swift, Miley Cyrus, Ariana Grande, Eminem, Lady Gaga, Selena Gomez, and many other contemporary artists dominate global streaming rankings.^[589]

The United States has the world's largest music market with a total retail value of $4.9 billion in 2014.^[590] The American music industry includes a number of fields, ranging from record companies to radio stations and community orchestras. Most of the world's major record companies are based in the U.S.; they are represented by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).^[591]

Mass media

The Comcast Center in Philadelphia, headquarters of the Comcast Corporation, which is the nation's largest multinational telecommunications conglomerate^{[citation needed]}

The four major broadcasters in the U.S. are the National Broadcasting Company (NBC), Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS), American Broadcasting Company (ABC), and Fox Broadcasting Company (FOX). The four major broadcast television networks are all commercial entities. Cable television offers hundreds of channels catering to a variety of niches.^[592] As of 2021, about 83% of Americans over age 12 listen to broadcast radio, while about 41% listen to podcasts.^[593] As of September 30, 2014, there are 15,433 licensed full-power radio stations in the U.S. according to the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC).^[594] Much of the public radio broadcasting is supplied by NPR, incorporated in February 1970 under the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967.^[595]

Internationally well-known U.S. newspapers include The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and USA Today.^[596] More than 800 publications are produced in Spanish, the second most commonly used language in the United States behind English.^[597]^[598] With very few exceptions, all the newspapers in the U.S. are privately owned, either by large chains such as Gannett or McClatchy, which own dozens or even hundreds of newspapers; by small chains that own a handful of papers; or, in a situation that is increasingly rare, by individuals or families. Major cities often have alternative newspapers to complement the mainstream daily papers, such as New York City's The Village Voice or Los Angeles' LA Weekly. The five most popular websites used in the U.S. are Google, YouTube, Amazon, Yahoo, and Facebook, with all of them being American companies.^[599]

Widely regarded as the birthplace of the modern video gaming industry,^[600] the United States is the world's second-largest video game market by revenue.^[601] Major publishers headquartered in the United States are Sony Interactive Entertainment, Take-Two, Activision Blizzard, Electronic Arts, Xbox Game Studios, Bethesda Softworks, Epic Games, Valve, Warner Bros., Riot Games, and others.^[602]^[603] There are 444 publishers, developers, and hardware companies in California alone.^[604]

Cuisine

A cheeseburger served with fries and coleslaw

Early settlers were introduced by Native Americans to such indigenous, non-European foods as turkey, sweet potatoes, corn, squash, and maple syrup. They and later immigrants combined these with foods they had known, such as wheat flour,^[605] beef, and milk to create a distinctive American cuisine.^[606]^[607] Homegrown foods are part of a shared national menu on one of America's most popular holidays, Thanksgiving, when many Americans make or purchase traditional foods to celebrate the occasion.^[608] The American fast food industry, the world's first and largest, is also often viewed as being a symbol of U.S. marketing dominance. Companies such as McDonald's,^[609] Burger King, Pizza Hut, Kentucky Fried Chicken, and Domino's Pizza among others, have numerous outlets around the world,^[610] and pioneered the drive-through format in the 1940s.^[611] Characteristic American dishes such as apple pie, fried chicken, doughnuts, french fries, macaroni and cheese, ice cream, pizza, hamburgers, and hot dogs derive from the recipes of various immigrants.^[612]^[613] Mexican dishes such as burritos and tacos and pasta dishes freely adapted from Italian sources are widely consumed.^[614]

American chefs have been influential both in the food industry and in popular culture. Some important 19th-century American chefs include Charles Ranhofer of Delmonico's Restaurant in New York, and Bob Payton, who is credited with bringing American-style pizza to the UK.^[615] Later, chefs Charles Scotto, Louis Pacquet, John Massironi founded the American Culinary Federation in 1930, taking after similar organizations across Europe. In the 1940s, Chef James Beard hosted the first nationally televised cooking show I Love to Eat. His name is also carried by the foundation and prestigious cooking award recognizing excellence in the American cooking community.^[616]^[617] Since Beard, many chefs and cooking personalities have taken to television, and the success of the Cooking Channel and Food Network have contributed to the popularity of American cuisine. Probably the best-known television chef was Julia Child who taught French cuisine in her weekly show, The French Chef.^[618] In 1946, the Culinary Institute of America was founded by Katharine Angell and Frances Roth. This would become the United States' most prestigious culinary school, where many of the most talented American chefs would study prior to successful careers.^[619]^[620]

Sports

American football is the most popular sport in the United States.

The most popular spectator sports in the U.S. are American football, basketball, baseball, soccer, and ice hockey, according to a 2017 Gallup poll.^[621] While most major U.S. sports such as baseball and American football have evolved out of European practices, basketball, volleyball, skateboarding, and snowboarding are American inventions, some of which have become popular worldwide.^[622] Lacrosse and surfing arose from Native American and Native Hawaiian activities that predate European contact.^[623] The market for professional sports in the United States was roughly $69 billion in July 2013, roughly 50% larger than that of all of Europe, the Middle East, and Africa combined.^[624]

American football is by several measures the most popular spectator sport in the United States;^[625] the National Football League (NFL) has the highest average attendance of any sports league in the world, and the Super Bowl is watched by tens of millions globally.^[626] Baseball has been regarded as the U.S. national sport since the late 19th century, with Major League Baseball being the top league. Basketball and ice hockey are the country's next two most popular professional team sports, with the top leagues being the National Basketball Association and the National Hockey League, which are also the premier leagues worldwide for these sports. The most-watched individual sports in the U.S. are golf and auto racing, particularly NASCAR and IndyCar.^[627]^[628] On the collegiate level, earnings for the member institutions exceed $1 billion annually,^[629] and college football and basketball attract large audiences, as the NCAA Final Four is one of the most watched national sporting events.^[630]

Eight Olympic Games have taken place in the United States. The 1904 Summer Olympics in St. Louis, Missouri, were the first-ever Olympic Games held outside of Europe.^[631] The Olympic Games will be held in the U.S. for a ninth time when Los Angeles hosts the 2028 Summer Olympics. U.S. athletes have won a total of 2,959 medals (1,173 gold) at the Olympic Games, by far the most of any country.^[632]^[633]^[634]^[635]

In soccer, the men's national soccer team qualified for eleven World Cups, while the women's national team has won the FIFA Women's World Cup and Olympic soccer tournament four times each.^[636] The United States hosted the 1994 FIFA World Cup and will host the 2026 FIFA World Cup along with Canada and Mexico.^[637]

United States of America
Flag Coat of arms
Motto: "In God We Trust"^[1]
Other traditional mottos:^[2]
Anthem: "The Star-Spangled Banner"^[3] 1:19
Show globe (states and D.C. only)Show the U.S. and its territoriesShow all
Capital	Washington, D.C. 38°53′N 77°01′W
Largest city	New York City 40°43′N 74°00′W
Official languages	None at the federal level
Recognized regional languages	State and territorial level: English French Hawaiian Samoan Spanish Others ^[a]
National language	English (de facto)
Ethnic groups (2020)^[4]^[5]^[6]	57.8% White 18.7% Latino 12.1% Black 5.9% Asian 0.7% Native American 0.2% Pacific Islander 4.1% multiracial 0.5% other
Religion (2021)^[7]	63% Christianity 40% Protestantism 21% Catholicism 2% other Christian 29% no religion 1% Buddhism 1% Hinduism 1% Islam 1% Judaism 2% other 2% unanswered
Demonym(s)	American^[b]^[8]
Government	Federal presidential constitutional republic and a liberal representative democracy^[9]

• President	Joe Biden
• Vice President	Kamala Harris
• House Speaker	Kevin McCarthy
• Chief Justice	John Roberts
Legislature	Congress
• Upper house	Senate
• Lower house	House of Representatives
Independence from Great Britain

• Revolution	March 22, 1765
• Declaration	July 4, 1776
• Confederation	March 1, 1781
• Recognized	September 3, 1783
• Constitution	June 21, 1788
• Last Amendment	May 5, 1992
Area
• Total area	3,796,742 sq mi (9,833,520 km²)^[10] (3rd [c])
• Water (%)	4.66^[11] (2015)
• Land area	3,531,905 sq mi (9,147,590 km²) (3rd)
Population
• 2022 estimate	333,287,557^[12]
• 2020 census	331,449,281^[d]^[13] (3rd)
• Density	87/sq mi (33.6/km²) (185th)
GDP (PPP)	2023 estimate
• Total	$26.855 trillion^[14] (2nd)
• Per capita	$80,035^[14] (8th)
GDP (nominal)	2023 estimate
• Total	$26.855 trillion^[14] (1st)
• Per capita	$80,035^[14] (7th)
Gini (2020)	39.4^[e]^[15] medium
HDI (2021)	0.921^[16] very high · 21st
Currency	U.S. dollar ($) (USD)
Time zone	UTC−4 to −12, +10, +11
• Summer (DST)	UTC−4 to −10^[f]
Date format	mm/dd/yyyy^[g]
Driving side	right^[h]
Calling code	+1
ISO 3166 code	US
Internet TLD	.com, .us^[17]

Christianity
Χρῑστῐᾱνισμός
Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Christian Quarter of the Old City, Jerusalem
Type	Universal religion
Classification	Abrahamic
Scripture	Bible
Theology	Monotheistic
Region	Worldwide
Language	Koine Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Syriac, Coptic, Slavonic, Aramaic, English, Amharic, Vernacular
Headquarters	Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem, Moscow, Canterbury, Geneva and others
Territory	Christendom
Founder	Jesus Christ, according to sacred tradition
Origin	1st century AD Judaea, Roman Empire
Separated from	Second Temple Judaism & Hellenistic Judaism
Separations
See list
Members	c. 2.4 billion (referred to as Christians)

Anthropology

Anything from the Caucasus region
- Peoples of the Caucasus – Diverse group comprising more than 50 ethnic groups
- Languages of the Caucasus – Diverse languages between the Black and Caspian seas
- Caucasian Exarchate (1917–1920), an ecclesiastical exarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church in the Caucasus region
Caucasian race – Obsolete racial classification of humans
White people – Racial classification
Caucasus hunter-gatherer – Anatomically modern human genetic lineage identified in 2015

Languages

Other uses

Certain types of animals:
- Brown Caucasian cattle, a cattle breed
- Caucasian honey bee, a sub-species of the western honey bee
- North Caucasian pig, a pig breed
- Caucasian snowcock, a type of bird
- Caucasian Shepherd Dog, a dog breed
Caucasian (newspaper), newspaper published between 1889 and 1913
Caucasian, a nickname for a white Russian (cocktail)

History of the concept

The Caucasus as the origin of humanity and the peak of beauty

In the eighteenth century, the prevalent view among European scholars was that the human species had its origin in the region of the Caucasus Mountains.^[22] This view was based upon the Caucasus being the location for the purported landing point of Noah's Ark – from whom the Bible states that humanity is descended – and the location for the suffering of Prometheus, who in Hesiod's myth had crafted humankind from clay.^[22]

In addition, the most beautiful humans were reputed by Europeans to be the stereotypical "Circassian beauties" and the Georgian people; both Georgia and Circassia are in the Caucasus region.^[23]^[22] The "Circassian beauty" stereotype had its roots in the Middle Ages, while the reputation for the attractiveness of the Georgian people was developed by early modern travellers to the region such as Jean Chardin.^[22]^[24]

Göttingen School of History

Christoph Meiners' 1785 treatise The Outline of History of Mankind was the first work to use the term Caucasian (Kaukasisch) in its wider racial sense. (click on image for English translation of the text)

The term Caucasian as a racial category was first introduced in the 1780s by members of the Göttingen School of History – notably Christoph Meiners in 1785 and Johann Friedrich Blumenbach in 1795^[b]^{[page needed]}—it had originally referred in a narrow sense to the native inhabitants of the Caucasus region.^[25]

In his The Outline of History of Mankind (1785), the German philosopher Christoph Meiners first used the concept of a "Caucasian" (Kaukasisch) race in its wider racial sense.^[b]^{[page needed]}^[26] Meiners' term was given wider circulation in the 1790s by many people.^[c] Meiners imagined that the Caucasian race encompassed all of the ancient and most of the modern native populations of Europe, the aboriginal inhabitants of West Asia (including the Phoenicians, Hebrews and Arabs), the autochthones of Northern Africa (Berbers, Egyptians, Abyssinians and neighboring groups), the Indians, and the ancient Guanches.^[36]

Drawing of the skull of a Georgian female by Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, used as an archetype for the Caucasian racial characteristics in his 1795 De Generis Humani Varietate

It was Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, a colleague of Meiners', who later came to be considered one of the founders of the discipline of anthropology, who gave the term a wider audience, by grounding it in the new methods of craniometry and Linnean taxonomy.^[37] Blumenbach did not credit Meiners with his taxonomy, although his justification clearly points to Meiners' aesthetic viewpoint of Caucasus origins.^[38] In contrast to Meiners, however, Blumenbach was a monogenist—he considered all humans to have a shared origin and to be a single species. Blumenbach, like Meiners, did rank his Caucasian grouping higher than other groups in terms of mental faculties or potential for achievement^[37] despite pointing out that the transition from one race to another is so gradual that the distinctions between the races presented by him are "very arbitrary".^[39]

Alongside the anthropologist Georges Cuvier, Blumenbach classified the Caucasian race by cranial measurements and bone morphology in addition to skin pigmentation.^[40] Following Meiners, Blumenbach described the Caucasian race as consisting of the native inhabitants of Europe, West Asia, the Indian peninsula, and North Africa.^{[citation needed]} This usage later grew into the widely used color terminology for race, contrasting with the terms Negroid, Mongoloid, and Australoid.^[41]

Carleton Coon

There was never consensus among the proponents of the "Caucasoid race" concept regarding how it would be delineated from other groups such as the proposed Mongoloid race. Carleton S. Coon (1939) included the populations native to all of Central and Northern Asia, including the Ainu people, under the Caucasoid label. However, many scientists maintained the racial categorizations of color established by Meiners' and Blumenbach's works, along with many other early steps of anthropology, well into the late 19th and mid-to-late 20th centuries, increasingly used to justify political policies, such as segregation and immigration restrictions, and other opinions based in prejudice. For example, Thomas Henry Huxley (1870) classified all populations of Asian nations as Mongoloid. Lothrop Stoddard (1920) in turn classified as "brown" most of the populations of the Middle East, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, Central Asia and South Asia. He counted as "white" only European peoples and their descendants, as well as a few populations in areas adjacent to or opposite southern Europe, in parts of Anatolia and parts of the Rif and Atlas mountains.

In 1939, Coon argued that the Caucasian race had originated through admixture between Homo neanderthalensis and Homo sapiens of the "Mediterranean type" which he considered to be distinct from Caucasians, rather than a subtype of it as others had done.^[42] While Blumenbach had erroneously thought that light skin color was ancestral to all humans and the dark skin of southern populations was due to sun, Coon thought that Caucasians had lost their original pigmentation as they moved North.^[42] Coon used the term "Caucasoid" and "White race" synonymously.^[43]

In 1962, Coon published The Origin of Races, wherein he proposed a polygenist view, that human races had evolved separately from local varieties of Homo erectus. Dividing humans into five main races, and argued that each evolved in parallel but at different rates, so that some races had reached higher levels of evolution than others.^[15] He argued that the Caucasoid race had evolved 200,000 years prior to the "Congoid race", and hence represented a higher evolutionary stage.^[44]

Coon argued that Caucasoid traits emerged prior to the Cro-Magnons, and were present in the Skhul and Qafzeh hominids.^[45] However, these fossils and the Predmost specimen were held to be Neanderthaloid derivatives because they possessed short cervical vertebrae, lower and narrower pelves, and had some Neanderthal skull traits. Coon further asserted that the Caucasoid race was of dual origin, consisting of early dolichocephalic (e.g. Galley Hill, Combe-Capelle, Téviec) and Neolithic Mediterranean Homo sapiens (e.g. Muge, Long Barrow, Corded), as well as Neanderthal-influenced brachycephalic Homo sapiens dating to the Mesolithic and Neolithic (e.g. Afalou, Hvellinge, Fjelkinge).^[46]

Coon's theories on race were much disputed in his lifetime,^[44] and are considered pseudoscientific in modern anthropology.^[47]^[48]^[49]^[50]^[51]

Criticism based on modern genetics

After discussing various criteria used in biology to define subspecies or races, Alan R. Templeton concludes in 2016: "[T]he answer to the question whether races exist in humans is clear and unambiguous: no."^[52]^: 360

Racial anthropology

Armenian man of Armenoid type

Irish man of Mediterranean type

Bisharin man of Hamitic type

Afghan man of Iranid type

Danish man of Nordic type

Tajik man of Alpine type

Hindu man of 'mixed' Aryan type

Catalan man of Iberian type

Illustrations of "Caucasoid subraces" from Man, Past and Present by Augustus Henry Keane (1899)

Physical traits

Skull and teeth

Drawing from Petrus Camper's theory of facial angle, Blumenbach and Cuvier classified races, through their skull collections based on their cranial features and anthropometric measurements. Caucasoid traits were recognised as: thin nasal aperture ("nose narrow"), a small mouth, facial angle of 100–90°, and orthognathism, exemplified by what Blumenbach saw in most ancient Greek crania and statues.^[53]^[54] Later anthropologists of the 19th and early 20th century such as James Cowles Prichard, Charles Pickering, Broca, Paul Topinard, Samuel George Morton, Oscar Peschel, Charles Gabriel Seligman, Robert Bennett Bean, William Zebina Ripley, Alfred Cort Haddon and Roland Dixon came to recognize other Caucasoid morphological features, such as prominent supraorbital ridges and a sharp nasal sill.^[55] Many anthropologists in the 20th century used the term "Caucasoid" in their literature, such as William Clouser Boyd, Reginald Ruggles Gates, Carleton S. Coon, Sonia Mary Cole, Alice Mossie Brues and Grover Krantz replacing the earlier term "Caucasian" as it had fallen out of usage.^[56]

Classification

Meyers Konversations-Lexikon (1885–1890) ethnographic map

Caucasoid:

Aryans

Semitic

Hamitic

Negroid:

African Negro

Khoikhoi

Melanesian

Negrito

Australoid

Uncertain:

Dravida & Sinhalese

Mongoloid:

North Mongol

Chinese & Indochinese

Korean & Japanese

Tibetan & Burmese

Malay

Polynesian

Maori

Micronesian

Eskimo & Inuit

American

In the 19th century Meyers Konversations-Lexikon (1885–1890), Caucasoid was one of the three great races of humankind, alongside Mongoloid and Negroid. The taxon was taken to consist of a number of subtypes. The Caucasoid peoples were usually divided into three groups on ethnolinguistic grounds, termed Aryan (Indo-European), Semitic (Semitic languages), and Hamitic (Hamitic languages i.e. Berber-Cushitic-Egyptian).^[57]

19th century classifications of the peoples of India were initially uncertain if the Dravidians and the Sinahalese were Caucasoid or a separate Dravida race, but by and in the 20th century, anthropologists predominantly declared Dravidians to be Caucasoid.^[58]^[59]^[60]

Historically, the racial classification of the Turkic peoples was sometimes given as "Turanid". Turanid racial type or "minor race", subtype of the Europid (Caucasian) race with Mongoloid admixtures, situated at the boundary of the distribution of the Mongoloid and Europid "great races".^[61]^[62]

There was no universal consensus of the validity of the "Caucasoid" grouping within those who attempted to categorize human variation. Thomas Henry Huxley in 1870 wrote that the "absurd denomination of 'Caucasian'" was in fact a conflation of his Xanthochroi (Nordic) and Melanochroi (Mediterranean) types.^[63]

Subraces

The postulated subraces vary depending on the author, including but not limited to Mediterranean, Atlantid, Nordic, East Baltic, Alpine, Dinaric, Turanid, Armenoid, Iranid, Indid, Arabid, and Hamitic.^[64]

H.G. Wells argued that across Europe, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, West Asia, Central Asia and South Asia, a Caucasian physical stock existed. He divided this racial element into two main groups: a shorter and darker Mediterranean or Iberian race and a taller and lighter Nordic race. Wells asserted that Semitic and Hamitic populations were mainly of Mediterranean type, and Aryan populations were originally of Nordic type. He regarded the Basques as descendants of early Mediterranean peoples, who inhabited western Europe before the arrival of Aryan Celts from the direction of central Europe.^[65]

The "Northcaucasian race" is a sub-race proposed by Carleton S. Coon (1930).^[66] It comprises the native populations of the North Caucasus, the Balkars, Karachays and Vainakh (Chechens and Ingushs).^[67]^[68]

An introduction to anthropology, published in 1953,^[69] gives a more complex classification scheme:

"Archaic Caucasoid Races": Ainu people in Japan, Australoid race, Dravidian peoples, and Vedda
"Primary Caucasoid Races": Alpine race, Armenoid race, Mediterranean race, and Nordic race
"Secondary or Derived Caucasoid Races": Dinaric race, East Baltic race, and Polynesian race^[70]

Usage in the United States

Besides its use in anthropology and related fields, the term "Caucasian" has often been used in the United States in a different, social context to describe a group commonly called "white people".^[71] "White" also appears as a self-reporting entry in the U.S. Census.^[72] Naturalization as a United States citizen was restricted to "free white persons" by the Naturalization Act of 1790, and later extended to other resident populations by the Naturalization Act of 1870, Indian Citizenship Act of 1924 and Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952. The Supreme Court in United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind (1923) decided that Asian Indians were ineligible for citizenship because, though deemed "Caucasian" anthropologically, they were not white like European descendants since most laypeople did not consider them to be "white" people. This represented a change from the Supreme Court's earlier opinion in Ozawa v. United States, in which it had expressly approved of two lower court cases holding "high caste Hindus" to be "free white persons" within the meaning of the naturalization act. Government lawyers later recognized that the Supreme Court had "withdrawn" this approval in Thind.^[73] In 1946, the U.S. Congress passed a new law establishing a small immigration quota for Indians, which also permitted them to become citizens. Major changes to immigration law, however, only later came in 1965, when many earlier racial restrictions on immigration were lifted.^[74] This resulted in confusion about whether American Hispanics are included as "white", as the term Hispanic originally applied to Spanish heritage but has since expanded to include all people with origins in Spanish speaking countries. In other countries, the term Hispanic is rarely used.

The United States National Library of Medicine often used the term "Caucasian" as a race in the past. However, it later discontinued such usage in favor of the more narrow geographical term European, which traditionally only applied to a subset of Caucasoids.^[75]

Notes

The traditional anthropological term Caucasoid is a conflation of the demonym Caucasian and the Greek suffix eidos (meaning "form", "shape", "resemblance") implying a resemblance to the native inhabitants of the Caucasus. It etymologically contrasts with the terms Negroid, Mongoloid and Australoid.^[1] For a contrast with the "Mongolic" or Mongoloid race, see footnote #4 pp. 58–59 in Beckwith, Christopher (2009). Empires of the Silk Road: A History of Central Eurasia from the Bronze Age to the Present. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-13589-2. OCLC 800915872.

Cited by contributing editor to a group of four works by Baum,^[8] Woodward,^[9] Rupke,^[10] and Simon.^[11]

Cited by contributing editor to a group of nine works by Mario,^[27] Isaac,^[28] Schiebinger,^[29] Rupp-Eisenreich,^[30] Dougherty,^[31] Hochman,^[32] Mikkelsen,^[33] Painter,^[34] and Binden.^[35]

References

Freedman, B. J. (1984). "For debate... Caucasian". British Medical Journal. Routledge. 288 (6418): 696–98. doi:10.1136/bmj.288.6418.696. PMC 1444385. PMID 6421437.

Pearson, Roger (1985). Anthropological glossary. R. E. Krieger Pub. Co. p. 79. ISBN 9780898745108. Retrieved July 21, 2015.

Templeton, A. (2016). "Evolution and Notions of Human Race". In Losos, J.; Lenski, R. (eds.). How Evolution Shapes Our Lives: Essays on Biology and Society. Princeton; Oxford: Princeton University Press. pp. 346–361. doi:10.2307/j.ctv7h0s6j.26. ... the answer to the question whether races exist in humans is clear and unambiguous: no.

Wagner, Jennifer K.; Yu, Joon-Ho; Ifekwunigwe, Jayne O.; Harrell, Tanya M.; Bamshad, Michael J.; Royal, Charmaine D. (February 2017). "Anthropologists' views on race, ancestry, and genetics". American Journal of Physical Anthropology. 162 (2): 318–327. doi:10.1002/ajpa.23120. PMC 5299519. PMID 27874171.

American Association of Physical Anthropologists (March 27, 2019). "AAPA Statement on Race and Racism". American Association of Physical Anthropologists. Retrieved June 19, 2020.

Coon, Carleton Stevens (1939). The Races of Europe. New York: The Macmillan Company. pp. 400–401. This third racial zone stretches from Spain across the Straits of Gibraltar to Morocco, and thence along the southern Mediterranean shores into Arabia, East Africa, Mesopotamia, and the Persian highlands; and across Afghanistan into India [...] The Mediterranean racial zone stretches unbroken from Spain across the Straits of Gibraltar to Morocco, and thence eastward to India [...] A branch of it extends far southward on both sides of the Red Sea into southern Arabia, the Ethiopian highlands, and the Horn of Africa.

Coon, Carleton Stevens; Hunt, Edward E. (1966). The Living Races of Man. London: Jonathan Cape. p. 93. Late Capsians from North Africa are clearly Caucasoid and, more specifically, almost entirely Mediterranean.

Baum 2006, pp. 84–85: "Finally, Christoph Meiners (1747–1810), the University of Göttingen 'popular philosopher' and historian, first gave the term Caucasian racial meaning in his Grundriss der Geschichte der Menschheit (Outline of the History of Humanity; 1785) ... Meiners pursued this 'Göttingen program' of inquiry in extensive historical-anthropological writings, which included two editions of his Outline of the History of Humanity and numerous articles in Göttingisches Historisches Magazin"

William R. Woodward (June 9, 2015). Hermann Lotze: An Intellectual Biography. Cambridge University Press. p. 260. ISBN 978-1-316-29785-8. ... the five human races identified by Johann Friedrich Blumenbach – Negroes, American Indians, Malaysians, Mongolians, and Caucasians. He chose to rely on Blumenbach, leader of the Göttingen school of comparative anatomy

Nicolaas A. Rupke (2002). Göttingen and the Development of the Natural Sciences. Wallstein-Verlag. ISBN 978-3-89244-611-8. For it was at Gottingen in this period that the outlines of a system of classification were laid down in a manner that still shapes the way in which we attempt to comprehend the different varieties of humankind – including usage of such terms as 'Caucasian'.

Charles Simon-Aaron (2008). The Atlantic Slave Trade: Empire, Enlightenment, and the Cult of the Unthinking Negro. Lewiston, New York: Edwin Mellen Press. ISBN 978-0-7734-5197-1. Here, Blumenbach placed the white European at the apex of the human family; he even gave the European a new name – i.e., Caucasian. This relationship also inspired the academic labors of Karl Otfried Muller, C. Meiners and K. A. Heumann, the more important thinkers at Gottingen for our project. (This list is not intended to be exhaustive.)

Pickering, Robert (2009). The Use of Forensic Anthropology. CRC Press. p. 82. ISBN 978-1-4200-6877-1.

Pickering, Robert (2009). The Use of Forensic Anthropology. CRC Press. p. 109. ISBN 978-1-4200-6877-1.

Johann Friedrich Blumenbach (1865). Thomas Bendyshe (ed.). The Anthropological Treatises of Johann Friedrich Blumenbach. Anthropological Society. pp. 265, 303, 367. ISBN 9780878211241.

Caspari, Rachel (2003). "From types to populations: A century of race, physical anthropology, and the American Anthropological Association" (PDF). American Anthropologist. 105 (1): 65–76. doi:10.1525/aa.2003.105.1.65. hdl:2027.42/65890.

"Race".

Bhopal, R.; Donaldson, L. (1998). "White, European, Western, Caucasian, or what? Inappropriate labeling in research on race, ethnicity, and health". American Journal of Public Health. 88 (9): 1303–1307. doi:10.2105/ajph.88.9.1303. PMC 1509085. PMID 9736867.

Baum 2006, p. 3,18.

Herbst, Philip (June 15, 1997). The color of words: an encyclopaedic dictionary of ethnic bias in the United States. Intercultural Press. ISBN 978-1-877864-97-1. Though discredited as an anthropological term and not recommended in most editorial guidelines, it is still heard and used, for example, as a category on forms asking for ethnic identification. It is also still used for police blotters (the abbreviated Cauc may be heard among police) and appears elsewhere as a euphemism. Its synonym, Caucasoid, also once used in anthropology but now dated and considered pejorative, is disappearing.

Mukhopadhyay, Carol C. (June 30, 2008). "Getting Rid of the Word 'Caucasian'". In Mica Pollock (ed.). Everyday Antiracism: Getting Real About Race in School. New Press. pp. 14–. ISBN 978-1-59558-567-7. Yet there is one striking exception in our modem racial vocabulary: the term 'Caucasian'. Despite being a remnant of a discredited theory of racial classification, the term has persisted into the twenty-first century, within as well as outside of the educational community. It is high time we got rid of the word Caucasian. Some might protest that it is 'only a label'. But language is one of the most systematic, subtle, and significant vehicles for transmitting racial ideology. Terms that describe imagined groups, such as Caucasian, encapsulate those beliefs. Every time we use them and uncritically expose students to them, we are reinforcing rather than dismantling the old racialized worldview. Using the word Caucasian invokes scientific racism, the false idea that races are naturally occurring, biologically ranked subdivisions of the human species and that Caucasians are the superior race. Beyond this, the label Caucasian can even convey messages about which groups have culture and are entitled to recognition as Americans.

Dewanjuly, Shaila (July 6, 2013). "Has 'Caucasian' Lost Its Meaning?". The New York Times. Retrieved March 16, 2018. AS a racial classification, the term Caucasian has many flaws, dating as it does from a time when the study of race was based on skull measurements and travel diaries ... Its equivalents from that era are obsolete – nobody refers to Asians as 'Mongolian' or blacks as 'Negroid'. ... There is no legal reason to use it. It rarely appears in federal statutes, and the Census Bureau has never put a checkbox by the word Caucasian. (White is an option.) ... The Supreme Court, which can be more colloquial, has used the term in only 64 cases, including a pair from the 1920s that reveal its limitations ... In 1889, the editors of the original Oxford English Dictionary noted that the term Caucasian had been 'practically discarded'. But they spoke too soon. Blumenbach's authority had given the word a pseudoscientific sheen that preserved its appeal. Even now, the word gives discussions of race a weird technocratic gravitas, as when the police insist that you step out of your 'vehicle' instead of your car ... Susan Glisson, who as the executive director of the William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation in Oxford, Miss., regularly witnesses Southerners sorting through their racial vocabulary, said she rarely hears 'Caucasian'. 'Most of the folks who work in this field know that it's a completely ridiculous term to assign to whites,' she said. 'I think it's a term of last resort for people who are really uncomfortable talking about race. They use the term that's going to make them be as distant from it as possible.'

Baum 2006, p. 82.

Figal 2010, pp. 81–84.

Chardin, 1686, Journal du voyage du chevalier Chardin en Perse et aux Indes Orientales par la Mer Noire et par la Colchide, p.204, "Le sang de Géorgie est le plus beau d'Orient, et je puis dire du monde, je n'ai pas remarqué un laid visage en ce païs la, parmi l'un et l'autre sexe: mais j'y en ay vû d'Angeliques."

For example, such as in the Allgemeine Erdbeschreibung published by Meyer in 1777: Allgemeine Erdbeschreibung: Asien - Volume 3. Meyer. 1777. p. 1435.

Meiners, Christoph (1785). Grundriss der Geschichte der Menschheit. Im Verlage der Meyerschen Buchhandlung. pp. 25–.

Luigi Marino, I Maestri della Germania (1975) OCLC 797567391; translated into German as Praeceptores Germaniae: Göttingen 1770–1820 OCLC 34194206

B. Isaac, The invention of racism in classical antiquity, Princeton University Press, 2004, p. 105 OCLC 51942570

Londa Schiebinger, The Anatomy of Difference: Race and Sex in Eighteenth-Century Science, Eighteenth-Century Studies, Vol. 23, No. 4, Special Issue: The Politics of Difference, Summer, 1990, pp. 387–405

B. Rupp-Eisenreich, "Des Choses Occultes en Histoire des Sciences Humaines: le Destin de la 'Science Nouvelle' de Christoph Meiners", L'Ethnographie v.2 (1983), p. 151

F. Dougherty, "Christoph Meiners und Johann Friedrich Blumenbach im Streit um den Begriff der Menschenrasse," in G. Mann and F. Dumont, eds., Die Natur des Menschen , pp. 103–04

Hochman, Leah (October 10, 2014). The Ugliness of Moses Mendelssohn: Aesthetics, Religion & Morality in the Eighteenth Century. Routledge. pp. 74–. ISBN 978-1-317-66997-5.

Mikkelsen, Jon M. (August 1, 2013). Kant and the Concept of Race: Late Eighteenth-Century Writings. SUNY Press. pp. 196–. ISBN 978-1-4384-4363-8.

Painter, N. "Why White People are Called Caucasian?" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on October 20, 2013. Retrieved October 9, 2006.

Another online document reviews the early history of race theory.18th and 19th Century Views of Human Variation The treatises of Blumenbach can be found online here.

The New American Cyclopaedia: A Popular Dictionary of General Knowledge, Volume 4. Appleton. 1870. p. 588.

Bhopal R (December 2007). "The beautiful skull and Blumenbach's errors: the birth of the scientific concept of race". BMJ. 335 (7633): 1308–09. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.969.2221. doi:10.1136/bmj.39413.463958.80. PMC 2151154. PMID 18156242.

Baum 2006, p. 88: "The connection between Meiners's ideas about a Caucasian branch of humanity and Blumenbach's later conception of a Caucasian variety (eventually, a Caucasian race) is not completely clear. What is clear is that the two editions of Meiners's Outline were published between the second edition of Blumenbach's On the Natural Variety of Mankind and the third edition, where Blumenbach first used the term Caucasian. Blumenbach cited Meiners once in 1795, but only to include Meiners's 1793 division of humanity into "handsome and white" and "ugly and dark" peoples among several alternative "divisions of the varieties of mankind." Yet Blumenbach must have been aware of Meiners's earlier designation of Caucasian and Mongolian branches of humanity, as the two men knew each other as colleagues at the University of Göttingen. The way that Blumenbach embraced the term Caucasian suggests that he worked to distance his own anthropological thinking from that of Meiners while recovering the term Caucasian for his own more refined racial classification: he made no mention of Meiners's 1785 usage and gave the term a new meaning.

German: "sehr willkürlich": Johann Friedrich Blumenbach (1797). Handbuch der Naturgeschichte. p. 61. Retrieved May 24, 2020. Alle diese Verschiedenheiten fließen aber durch so mancherley Abstufungen und Uebergänge so unvermerkt zusammen, daß sich keine andre, als sehr willkürliche Grenzen zwischen ihnen festsetzen lassen.

On the Natural Variety of Mankind, 3rd ed. (1795) in Bendyshe: 264–65; "racial face," 229.

Freedman, B. J. (1984). "For debate... Caucasian". British Medical Journal. Routledge. 288 (6418): 696–98. doi:10.1136/bmj.288.6418.696. PMC 1444385. PMID 6421437.

Coon, Carleton (April 1939). The Races of Europe. The Macmillan Company. p. 51.

The Races of Europe, Chapter XIII, Section 2 Archived May 11, 2006, at archive.today

Jackson, J. P. Jr. (2001). ""In Ways Unacademical": The Reception of Carleton S. Coon's The Origin of Races". Journal of the History of Biology. 34 (2): 247–85. doi:10.1023/a:1010366015968. S2CID 86739986.

The Origin of Races. Random House Inc., 1962, p. 570.

Coon, Carleton Stevens (1939). The Races of Europe. The Macmillan Company. pp. 26–28, 50–55.

Sachs Collopy, Peter (2015). "Race Relationships: Collegiality and Demarcation in Physical Anthropology". Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences. 51 (3): 237–260. doi:10.1002/jhbs.21728. PMID 25950769.

Spickard, Paul (2016). "The Return of Scientific Racism? DNA Ancestry Testing, Race, and the New Eugenics Movement". Race in Mind: Critical Essays. University of Notre Dame Press. p. 157. doi:10.2307/j.ctvpj76k0.11. ISBN 978-0-268-04148-9. JSTOR j.ctvpj76k0.11. For more than four decades beginning in the late 1930s, the Harvard anthropologist Carleton Coon wrote a series of big books for an ever shrinking audience in which he pushed a pseudoscientific racial angle of analysis.

Selcer, Perrin (2012). "Beyond the Cephalic Index: Negotiating Politics to Produce UNESCO's Scientific Statements on Race". Current Anthropology. 53 (S5): S180. doi:10.1086/662290. S2CID 146652143. Most disturbingly for liberal anthropologists, the new generation of racist "pseudoscience" threatened to return to mainstream respectability in 1962 with the publication of Carleton Coon's The Origin of Races (Coon 1962).

Loewen, James W. (2005). Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism. New York: New Press. p. 462. ISBN 9781565848870. Carleton Coon, whose The Origin of Races [...] claimed that Homo sapiens evolved five different times, blacks last. Its poor reception by anthropologists, followed by evidence from archaeology and paleontology that mankind evolved once, and in Africa, finally put an end to such pseudoscience.

Regal, Brian (2011). "The Life of Grover Krantz". Searching for Sasquatch. Palgrave Studies in the History of Science and Technology. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 93–94. doi:10.1057/9780230118294_5. ISBN 978-0-230-11829-4. Carleton Coon fully embraced typology as a way to determine the basis of racial and ethnic difference [...] Unfortunately for him, American anthropology increasingly equated typology with pseudoscience.

Templeton, A. (2016). EVOLUTION AND NOTIONS OF HUMAN RACE. In Losos J. & Lenski R. (Eds.), How Evolution Shapes Our Lives: Essays on Biology and Society (pp. 346-361). Princeton; Oxford: Princeton University Press. doi:10.2307/j.ctv7h0s6j.26.

"Miriam Claude Meijer, Race and Aesthetics in the Anthropology of Petrus Camper", 1722–1789, Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1999, pp. 169–74.

Bertoletti, Stefano Fabbri. 1994. The anthropological theory of Johann Friedrich Blumenbach. In Romanticism in science, science in Europe, 1790–1840.

See individual literature for such Caucasoid identifications, while the following article gives a brief overview: How "Caucasoids" Got Such Big Crania and Why They Shrank: From Morton to Rushton, Leonard Lieberman, Current Anthropology, Vol. 42, No. 1, February 2001, pp. 69–95.

"People and races", Alice Mossie Brues, Waveland Press, 1990, notes how the term Caucasoid replaced Caucasian.

Meyers Konversations-Lexikon, 4th edition, 1885–90, T11, p. 476.

Wright, Arnold (1915). Southern India, Its History, People, Commerce, and Industrial Resources. Foreign and Colonial Compiling and Publishing Company. p. 69.

Sharma, Ram Nath; Sharma, Rajendra K. (1997). Anthropology. Atlantic Publishers & Dist. p. 109. ISBN 978-81-7156-673-0.

Mhaiske, Vinod M.; Patil, Vinayak K.; Narkhede, S. S. (January 1, 2016). Forest Tribology And Anthropology. Scientific Publishers. p. 5. ISBN 978-93-86102-08-9.

Simpson, George Eaton; Yinger, John Milton (1985). Racial and cultural minorities: an analysis of prejudice and discrimination, Environment, development, and public policy. Springer. p. 32. ISBN 978-0-306-41777-1.

American anthropologist, American Anthropological Association, Anthropological Society of Washington (Washington, D.C,), 1984 v. 86, nos. 3–4, p. 741.

T. H. Huxley, "On the Geographical Distribution of the Chief Modifications of Mankind", Journal of the Ethnological Society of London (1870).

Grolier Incorporated (2001) [First published 1833]. Encyclopedia Americana, Volume 6. Grolier Incorporated. p. 85. ISBN 978-0-7172-0134-1.

Wells, H. G. (1921). The outline of history, being a plain history of life and mankind. The Macmillan Company. pp. 119–123, 236–238. Retrieved August 8, 2017.

Carleton S. Coon, The Races of Europe (1930)^{[page needed]} Race and Racism: An Introduction (see also) by Carolyn Fluehr-Lobban, pp 127–133, December 8, 2005, ISBN 0759107955 Dmitry Bogatenkov; Stanislav Drobyshev. "Anthropology and Ethnic History" (in Russian). Peoples' Friendship University of Russia.

Dmitry Bogatenkov; Stanislav Drobyshev. "Racial variety of Mankind, section 5.5.3" (in Russian). Peoples' Friendship University of Russia.

School Bakai - Ethnogenesis the North Caucasus indigenous population

Beals, Ralph L.; Hoijer, Harry (1953). An Introduction to Anthropology. New York: The Macmillan Company.

Listed according to: Nida, Eugene Albert (1954). Customs and Cultures: Anthropology for Christian Missions. New York: Harper and Brothers. p. 283.

Painter, Nell Irvin (2003). "Collective Degradation: Slavery and the Construction of Race. Why White People are Called Caucasian" (PDF). Yale University. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 20, 2013. Retrieved October 9, 2006.

Karen R. Humes; Nicholas A. Jones; Roberto R. Ramirez, eds. (March 2011). "Definition of Race Categories Used in the 2010 Census" (PDF). United States Census Bureau. p. 3. Retrieved April 25, 2014.

Coulson, Doug (2015). "British Imperialism, the Indian Independence Movement, and the Racial Eligibility Provisions of the Naturalization Act: United States v. Thind Revisited". Georgetown Journal of Law & Modern Critical Race Perspectives. 7: 1–42. SSRN 2610266.

"Not All Caucasians Are White: The Supreme Court Rejects Citizenship for Asian Indians", History Matters

"Other Notable MeSH Changes and Related Impact on Searching: Ethnic Groups and Geographic Origins". NLM Technical Bulletin. 335 (Nov–Dec). 2003. The MeSH term Racial Stocks and its four children (Australoid Race, Caucasoid Race, Mongoloid Race, and Negroid Race) have been deleted from MeSH in 2004. A new heading, Continental Population Groups, has been created with new identification that emphasize geography.

Bibliography

Camberg, Kim (December 13, 2005). "Long-term tensions behind Sydney riots". BBC News. Retrieved March 3, 2007.
Figal, Sara Eigen (April 15, 2010). Heredity, Race, and the Birth of the Modern. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-135-89161-9.
Leroi, Armand Marie (March 14, 2005). "A Family Tree in Every Gene". The New York Times. p. A23.
Lewontin, Richard (2005). "Confusions About Human Races". Race and Genomics, Social Sciences Research Council. Retrieved December 28, 2006.
Painter, Nell Irvin (2003). "Collective Degradation: Slavery and the Construction of Race. Why White People are Called Caucasian" (PDF). Yale University. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 20, 2013. Retrieved October 9, 2006.
Risch N, Burchard E, Ziv E, & Tang H (July 2002). "Categorization of humans in biomedical research: genes, race and disease". Genome Biol. 3 (7): comment2007.2001–12. doi:10.1186/gb-2002-3-7-comment2007. PMC 139378. PMID 12184798.
Rosenberg NA, Pritchard JK, Weber JL, et al. (December 2002). "Genetic structure of human populations". Science. 298 (5602): 2381–85. Bibcode:2002Sci...298.2381R. doi:10.1126/science.1078311. PMID 12493913. S2CID 8127224.
Rosenberg NA, Mahajan S, Ramachandran S, Zhao C, Pritchard JK, & Feldman MW (December 2005). "Clines, Clusters, and the Effect of Study Design on the Inference of Human Population Structure". PLOS Genet. 1 (6): e70. doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.0010070. PMC 1310579. PMID 16355252.
Templeton, Alan R. (September 1998). "Human races: A genetic and evolutionary perspective". American Anthropologist. 100 (3): 632–50. doi:10.1525/aa.1998.100.3.632. JSTOR 682042.

Literature

Augstein, HF (1999). "From the Land of the Bible to the Caucasus and Beyond". In Harris, Bernard; Ernst, Waltraud (eds.). Race, Science and Medicine, 1700–1960. New York: Routledge. pp. 58–79. ISBN 978-0-415-18152-5.
Baum, Bruce (2006). The rise and fall of the Caucasian race: a political history of racial identity. New York: New York University Press. ISBN 978-0-8147-9892-8.
Blumenbach, Johann Friedrich (1775) On the Natural Varieties of Mankind – the book that introduced the concept
Cavalli-Sforza, Luigi Luca (2000). Genes, Peoples and Languages. London: Allen Lane. ISBN 978-0-7139-9486-5.
Gould, Stephen Jay (1981). The Mismeasure of Man. New York: Norton. ISBN 978-0-393-01489-1. – a history of the pseudoscience of race, skull measurements, and IQ inheritability
Guthrie, Paul (1999). The Making of the Whiteman: From the Original Man to the Whiteman. Chicago: Research Associates School Times. ISBN 978-0-948390-49-4.
Piazza, Alberto; Cavalli-Sforza, Luigi Luca & Menozzi, Paolo (1996). The History and Geography of Human Genes. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-02905-4. – a major reference of modern population genetics
Stoddard, Theodore Lothrop (1924). Racial Realities in Europe. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.
Wolf, Eric R. & Cole, John N. (1999). The Hidden Frontier: Ecology and Ethnicity in an Alpine Valley. Berkeley, California: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-21681-5.

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Scientific racism‎ (7 C, 62 P)

Pages in category "Biological anthropology"

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The Caucasian War (Russian: Кавказская война, romanized: Kavkazskaya voyna) or Caucasus War was a 19th century military conflict between the Russian Empire and various peoples of the North Caucasus who resisted subjugation during the Russian conquest of the Caucasus. It consisted of a series of military actions waged by the Russian Imperial Army and Cossack settlers against the native inhabitants such as the Adyghe, Abaza–Abkhaz, Ubykhs, Chechens, and Dagestanis as the Tsars sought to expand.^[6]

Russian control of the Georgian Military Road in the center divided the Caucasian War into the Russo-Circassian War in the west and the conquest of Chechnya and Dagestan in the east. Other territories of the Caucasus (comprising contemporary eastern Georgia, southern Dagestan, Armenia and Azerbaijan) were incorporated into the Russian Empire at various times in the 19th century as a result of Russian wars with Persia.^[7] The remaining part, western Georgia, was taken by the Russians from the Ottomans during the same period.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caucasian_War

The history of Christianity concerns the Christian religion, Christian countries, and the Christians with their various denominations, from the 1st century to the present. Christianity originated with the ministry of Jesus, a Jewish teacher and healer who proclaimed the imminent Kingdom of God and was crucified c. AD 30–33 in Jerusalem in the Roman province of Judea.^[1] His followers believe that, according to the Gospels, he was the Son of God and that he died for the forgiveness of sins and was raised from the dead and exalted by God, and will return soon at the inception of God's kingdom.^[1]

The earliest followers of Jesus were apocalyptic Jewish Christians.^[1] The inclusion of Gentiles in the developing early Christian Church caused the separation of early Christianity from Judaism during the first two centuries of the Christian era.^[2] In 313, the Roman Emperor Constantine I issued the Edict of Milan legalizing Christian worship.^[3] In 380, with the Edict of Thessalonica put forth under Theodosius I, the Roman Empire officially adopted Trinitarian Christianity as its state religion, and Christianity established itself as a predominantly Roman religion in the state church of the Roman Empire.^[4] Various Christological debates about the human and divine nature of Jesus consumed the Christian Church for three centuries, and seven ecumenical councils were called to resolve these debates.^[5] Arianism was condemned at the First Council of Nicea (325), which supported the Trinitarian doctrine as expounded in the Nicene Creed.^[5]

In the Early Middle Ages, missionary activities spread Christianity towards the west and the north among Germanic peoples;^[6] towards the east among Armenians, Georgians, and Slavic peoples;^[7] in the Middle East among Syrians and Egyptians;^[8] in Eastern Africa among the Ethiopians;^[9] and further into Central Asia, China, and India.^[10] Christianity played a prominent role in the development of Western civilization, particularly in Europe from late antiquity and the Middle Ages.^[11]^[12] During the High Middle Ages, Eastern and Western Christianity grew apart, leading to the East–West Schism of 1054. Growing criticism of the Roman Catholic ecclesiastical structure and its corruption led to the Protestant Reformation and its related reform movements in the 15th and 16th centuries, which concluded with the European wars of religion that set off the split of Western Christianity. Since the Renaissance era, with the European colonization of the Americas and other continents actively instigated by the Christian churches,^[13]^[14]^[15]^[16] Christianity has expanded throughout the world.^[17] Today, there are more than two billion Christians worldwide^[18] and Christianity has become the world's largest religion.^[19] Within the last century, as the influence of Christianity has progressively waned in the Western world, Christianity continues to be the predominant religion in Europe (including Russia) and the Americas, and has rapidly grown in Asia as well as in the Global South and Third World countries, most notably in Latin America, China, South Korea, and much of Sub-Saharan Africa.^[20]^[21]^[22]^[23]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Christianity

Europe is a continent^[a] comprising the westernmost peninsulas of Eurasia,^[12]^[13] located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with both Africa and Asia. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east. Europe is commonly considered to be separated from Asia by the watershed of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Greater Caucasus, the Black Sea and the waterways of the Turkish Straits.^[14]

Europe covers about 10.18 million km² (3.93 million sq mi), or 2% of Earth's surface (6.8% of land area), making it the second-smallest continent (using the seven-continent model). Politically, Europe is divided into about fifty sovereign states, of which Russia is the largest and most populous, spanning 39% of the continent and comprising 15% of its population. Europe had a total population of about 745 million (about 10% of the world population) in 2021.^[2]^[3] The European climate is largely affected by warm Atlantic currents that temper winters and summers on much of the continent, even at latitudes along which the climate in Asia and North America is severe. Further from the sea, seasonal differences are more noticeable than close to the coast.

European culture is the root of Western civilisation, which traces its lineage back to ancient Greece and ancient Rome.^[15]^[16] The fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 CE and the related Migration Period marked the end of Europe's ancient history, and the beginning of the Middle Ages. The Renaissance began in Italy and spread to the rest of the continent, bringing a renewed interest in humanism, exploration, art, and science which led to the modern era. Since the Age of Discovery, started by Spain and Portugal, Europe played a predominant role in global affairs. Between the 16th and 20th centuries, European powers colonised at various times the Americas, almost all of Africa and Oceania, and the majority of Asia.

The Age of Enlightenment, the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars shaped the continent culturally, politically and economically from the end of the 17th century until the first half of the 19th century. The Industrial Revolution, which began in Great Britain at the end of the 18th century, gave rise to radical economic, cultural and social change in Western Europe and eventually the wider world. Both world wars began and were fought to a great extent in Europe, contributing to a decline in Western European dominance in world affairs by the mid-20th century as the Soviet Union and the United States took prominence.^[17] During the Cold War, Europe was divided along the Iron Curtain between NATO in the West and the Warsaw Pact in the East, until the Revolutions of 1989, Fall of the Berlin Wall and the Dissolution of the Soviet Union.

The European Union (EU) and the Council of Europe are two important international organizations aiming to represent the European continent on a political level. The Council of Europe was founded in 1948 with the idea of unifying Europe^[18] to achieve common goals and prevent future wars. Further European integration by some states led to the formation of the European Union, a separate political entity that lies between a confederation and a federation.^[19] The EU originated in Western Europe but has been expanding eastward since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. A majority of its members have adopted a common currency, the euro, and a large bloc of countries, the Schengen Area, have abolished internal border and immigration controls.

First map of the world according to Anaximander (6th century BCE)

Name

First map of the world according to Anaximander (6th century BCE)

In classical Greek mythology, Europa (Ancient Greek: Εὐρώπη, Eurṓpē) was a Phoenician princess. One view is that her name derives from the Ancient Greek elements εὐρύς (eurús) 'wide, broad', and ὤψ (ōps, gen. ὠπός, ōpós) 'eye, face, countenance', hence their composite Eurṓpē would mean 'wide-gazing' or 'broad of aspect'.^[20]^[21]^[22]^[23] Broad has been an epithet of Earth herself in the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European religion and the poetry devoted to it.^[20] An alternative view is that of Robert Beekes, who has argued in favour of a Pre-Indo-European origin for the name, explaining that a derivation from eurus would yield a different toponym than Europa. Beekes has located toponyms related to that of Europa in the territory of ancient Greece, and localities such as that of Europos in ancient Macedonia.^[24]

There have been attempts to connect Eurṓpē to a Semitic term for west, this being either Akkadian erebu meaning 'to go down, set' (said of the sun) or Phoenician 'ereb 'evening, west',^[25] which is at the origin of Arabic maghreb and Hebrew ma'arav. Martin Litchfield West stated that "phonologically, the match between Europa's name and any form of the Semitic word is very poor",^[26] while Beekes considers a connection to Semitic languages improbable.^[24]

Most major world languages use words derived from Eurṓpē or Europa to refer to the continent. Chinese, for example, uses the word Ōuzhōu (歐洲/欧洲), which is an abbreviation of the transliterated name Ōuluóbā zhōu (歐羅巴洲) (zhōu means "continent"); a similar Chinese-derived term Ōshū (欧州) is also sometimes used in Japanese such as in the Japanese name of the European Union, Ōshū Rengō (欧州連合), despite the katakana Yōroppa (ヨーロッパ) being more commonly used. In some Turkic languages, the originally Persian name Frangistan ('land of the Franks') is used casually in referring to much of Europe, besides official names such as Avrupa or Evropa.^[27]

Definition

Europe
Show national bordersHide national bordersShow all
Area	10,180,000 km² (3,930,000 sq mi)^[1] (6th)^[a]
Population	745,173,774 (2021; 3rd)^[2]^[3]
Population density	72.9/km² (188/sq mi) (2nd)
GDP (PPP)	$33.62 trillion (2022 est; 2nd)^[4]
GDP (nominal)	$24.02 trillion (2022 est; 3rd)^[5]
GDP per capita	$34,230 (2022 est; 3rd)^[c]^[6]
HDI	0.845^[7]
Religions	Christianity (76.2%)^[8] No religion (18.3%)^[8] Islam (4.9%)^[8] Other (0.6%)^[8]
Demonym	European
Countries	Sovereign (44–50) De facto (2–6)
Dependencies	External (5–6) Internal (3)
Languages	Most common: Russian German English French Italian Spanish Polish Ukrainian Romanian Dutch Serbo-Croatian
Time zones	UTC−1 to UTC+5
Internet TLD	.eu (European Union)
Largest cities	Largest urban areas: Moscow Paris London Istanbul^[b] Madrid Saint Petersburg Milan Barcelona Berlin Rome^[9]
UN M49 code	`150` – Europe `001` – World
a. ^ Figures include only European portions of transcontinental countries.^[n] b. ^ European side only. Istanbul is a transcontinental city which straddles both Asia and Europe. c. ^ "Europe" as defined by the International Monetary Fund.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europe

Venus (/ˈviːnəs/)^[a] is a Roman goddess, whose functions encompass love, beauty, desire, sex, fertility, prosperity, and victory. In Roman mythology, she was the ancestor of the Roman people through her son, Aeneas, who survived the fall of Troy and fled to Italy. Julius Caesar claimed her as his ancestor. Venus was central to many religious festivals, and was revered in Roman religion under numerous cult titles.

The Romans adapted the myths and iconography of her Greek counterpart Aphrodite for Roman art and Latin literature. In the later classical tradition of the West, Venus became one of the most widely referenced deities of Greco-Roman mythology as the embodiment of love and sexuality. She is usually depicted nude in paintings.

Venus
Goddess of love, beauty, desire, sex, fertility, prosperity and victory
Member of Dii Consentes
Venus rising from the sea, alluding to the birth-myth of Greek Aphrodite.^[1] From a garden wall at the Casa della Venere in conchiglia, Pompeii. Before AD 79
Planet	Venus
Symbols	rose, common myrtle
Day	Friday (dies Veneris)
Festivals	Veneralia Vinalia Rustica Vinalia Urbana
Personal information
Parents	Caelus
Consort	Mars and Vulcan
Children	Cupid (in later tradition); Aeneas (fathered by Anchises in Virgil's Aeneas)
Equivalents
Greek equivalent	Aphrodite
Indo-European equivalent	Priyah

The Birth of Venus, by Sandro Botticelli c. 1485–1486

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_(mythology)

Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, is a term used to describe the legal, economic, military, cultural and political customs that flourished in medieval Europe between the 9th and 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a way of structuring society around relationships that were derived from the holding of land in exchange for service or labour. Although it is derived from the Latin word feodum or feudum (fief),^[1] which was used during the Medieval period, the term feudalism and the system which it describes were not conceived of as a formal political system by the people who lived during the Middle Ages.^[2] The classic definition, by François Louis Ganshof (1944),^[3] describes a set of reciprocal legal and military obligations which existed among the warrior nobility and revolved around the three key concepts of lords, vassals, and fiefs.^[3]

A broader definition of feudalism, as described by Marc Bloch (1939), includes not only the obligations of the warrior nobility but the obligations of all three estates of the realm: the nobility, the clergy, and the peasantry, all of whom were bound by a system of manorialism; this is sometimes referred to as a "feudal society". Since the publication of Elizabeth A. R. Brown's "The Tyranny of a Construct" (1974) and Susan Reynolds's Fiefs and Vassals (1994), there has been ongoing inconclusive discussion among medieval historians as to whether feudalism is a useful construct for understanding medieval society.^[10]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feudalism

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoard

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cult

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clan

The colonial history of the United States covers the history of European colonization of North America from the early 17th century until the incorporation of the Thirteen Colonies into the United States after the Revolutionary War. In the late 16th century, England (British Empire), Kingdom of France, Spanish Empire, and the Dutch Republic launched major colonization programs in North America.^[1] The death rate was very high among early immigrants, and some early attempts disappeared altogether, such as the English Lost Colony of Roanoke. Nevertheless, successful colonies were established within several decades.

European settlers came from a variety of social and religious groups, including adventurers, farmers, indentured servants, tradesmen, and a very few from the aristocracy. Settlers included the Dutch of New Netherland, the Swedes and Finns of New Sweden, the English Quakers of the Province of Pennsylvania, the English Puritans of New England, the Virginian Cavaliers, the English Catholics and Protestant Nonconformists of the Province of Maryland, the "worthy poor" of the Province of Georgia, the Germans who settled the mid-Atlantic colonies, and the Ulster Scots of the Appalachian Mountains. These groups all became part of the United States when it gained its independence in 1776. Russian America and parts of New France and New Spain were also incorporated into the United States at later times. The diverse colonists from these various regions built colonies of distinctive social, religious, political, and economic style.

Over time, non-British colonies East of the Mississippi River were taken over and most of the inhabitants were assimilated. In Nova Scotia, however, the British expelled the French Acadians, and many relocated to Louisiana. No civil wars occurred in the Thirteen Colonies. The two chief armed rebellions were short-lived failures in Virginia in 1676 and in New York in 1689–1691. Some of the colonies developed legalized systems of slavery,^[2] centered largely around the Atlantic slave trade. Wars were recurrent between the French and the British during the French and Indian Wars. By 1760, France was defeated and its colonies were seized by Britain.

On the eastern seaboard, the four distinct English regions were New England, the Middle Colonies, the Chesapeake Bay Colonies (Upper South), and the Southern Colonies (Lower South). Some historians add a fifth region of the "Frontier", which was never separately organized.^[1] A significant percentage of the native Americans living in the eastern region had been ravaged by disease before 1620, possibly introduced to them decades before by explorers and sailors (although no conclusive cause has been established).^[3]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonial_history_of_the_United_States

The Southern Colonies within British America consisted of the Province of Maryland,^[1] the Colony of Virginia, the Province of Carolina (in 1712 split into North and South Carolina), and the Province of Georgia. In 1763, the newly created colonies of East Florida and West Florida would be added to the Southern Colonies by Great Britain until the Spanish Empire took back Florida. These colonies were the historical core of what would become the Southern United States, or "Dixie". They were located south of the Middle Colonies, albeit Virginia and Maryland (in their quality as northernmost colonies of the South) were also considered as the Chesapeake Colonies.

The colonies developed prosperous economies based on the cultivation of cash crops, such as tobacco,^[2] indigo,^[3] and rice.^[4] An effect of the cultivation of these crops was the presence of slavery in significantly higher proportions than in other parts of British America.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Colonies

British America comprised the colonial territories of the English Empire, and the successor British Empire, in the Americas from 1607 to 1783. These colonies were formally known as British America and the British West Indies just before the thirteen of the colonies declared their independence in the American Revolution (1765–1791) and formed the United States of America.^[2]

After the American Revolutionary War, the term British North America was used to refer to the remainder of Great Britain's possessions in what became Canada, and British West Indies to various islands and what became Belize. The term British North America was used in 1783, but it was more commonly used after the Report on the Affairs of British North America (1839), generally known as the Durham Report.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_America

All English overseas possessions in 1700, shortly before the Acts of Union of 1707

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_overseas_possessions#The_Americas

The Circassian genocide,^[6]^[7] or Tsitsekun,^[a]^[b] was the Russian Empire's systematic mass murder, ethnic cleansing, and expulsion of 80–97%^[9]^[10] of the Circassian population, around 800,000–1,500,000 people,^[9]^[11]^[12] during and after the Russo-Circassian War (1763–1864).^[4]^[13]^[14] The peoples planned for removal were mainly the Circassians, but other Muslim peoples of the Caucasus were also affected.^[13] Several methods used by Russian forces such as impaling and tearing the bellies of pregnant women were reported.^[4]^[15] Russian generals such as Grigory Zass described the Circassians as "subhuman filth", and glorified the mass murder of Circassian civilians,^[4]^[16]^[17] justified their use in scientific experiments,^[18] and allowed their soldiers to rape women.^[4]

During the Russo-Circassian War, the Russian Empire employed a genocidal strategy of massacring Circassian civilians. Only a small percentage who accepted Russification and resettlement within the Russian Empire were completely spared. The remaining Circassian population who refused were variously dispersed or killed en masse.^[19] Circassian villages would be located and burnt, systematically starved, or their entire population massacred.^[9] Leo Tolstoy reported that Russian soldiers would attack village houses at night.^[20] William Palgrave, a British diplomat who witnessed the events, adds that "their only crime was not being Russian".^[21] In 1864, "A Petition from Circassian leaders to Her Majesty Queen Victoria" was signed by the Circassians requesting humanitarian aid from the British Empire.^[22]^[23]^[24] In the same year, mass deportation was launched against the surviving population before the end of the war in 1864 and it was mostly completed by 1867.^[25] Some died from epidemics or starvation among the crowds of deportees and were reportedly eaten by dogs after their death.^[21] Others died when the ships underway sank during storms.^[12]

Calculations, including taking into account the Russian government's own archival figures, have estimated a loss of 80–97%^[26]^[27]^[28] of the Circassian population in the process. The displaced people were settled primarily to the Ottoman Empire.^[4] Sources state that as many as 1 to 1.5 million Circassians were forced to flee in total, but only half could make it to land.^[1]^[2] Ottoman archives show nearly 1 million migrants entering their land from the Caucasus by 1879, with nearly half of them dying on the shores as a result of diseases.^[3] If Ottoman archives are correct, it would make it the biggest genocide of the 19th century,^[29] and indeed, in support of the Ottoman archives, the Russian census of 1897 records only 150,000 Circassians, one tenth of the original number, still remaining in the now-conquered region.^[30]^[31]

As of 2021, Georgia was the only country to recognize the Circassian genocide.^[32] Russia actively denies the Circassian genocide,^[33]^[34]^[35] and classifies the events as a migration (Russian: Черкесское мухаджирство, lit. 'Circassian migrationism'). Some Russian nationalists in the Caucasus region continue to celebrate the day when the Circassian deportation was launched, 21 May (O.S), each year as a "holy conquest day". Circassians commemorate 21 May every year as the Circassian Day of Mourning commemorating the Circassian genocide.^[36] On 21 May, Circassians all over the world protest against the Russian government, especially in cities with large Circassian populations such as Kayseri and Amman, as well as other large cities such as Istanbul.^[37]^[38]

Background

In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, although it was already making attempts in the early 18th century, the Russian Empire began actively seeking to expand its territory to the south at the expense of the neighboring Ottoman Empire and Qajar Iran, and thus aimed to incorporate the Caucasus into its domain. Some areas proved easier to incorporate than others, largely depending on the nature of local political structures. Eastern Georgia for example, comprising the most powerful and dominant Georgian regions of Kartli and Kakheti had been under intermittent Iranian suzerainty since 1555. Russia eventually found itself able, through instability in the geopolitical situation of Georgia within Qajar Iran, to annex eastern Georgia in the early 19th century, ratified in the 1803 Treaty of Gulistan.^[39]

Russia endeavored to bring the entire Caucasus region under its control, conquering Armenia, Caucasian Azerbaijan, and southern Dagestan, while co-opting the nobility of other areas such as Lower Kabardia and parts of Dagestan. Although the Russians faced considerable resistance to incorporation in Dagestan and Georgia, as well as military resistance by the local government of Imereti, the regions they felt most difficult of all to incorporate were those that had not been conquered by foreign empires and did not have any local monopolies of power—which was the state of most Circassian territories, where resistance to absorption into the Russian Empire was most tenacious.^[40]

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Circassians Адыгэхэр
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History

Russian military and Circassian represent

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circassian_genocide

In March 1864, a surrounded Circassian army refused to surrender and committed mass suicide. Around the same time, a final battle took place in Qbaada in 1864 between the Circassian army of 20,000 men and women, consisting of local villagers and militia and a Russian army of 100,000 men, consisting of Cossack and Russian horsemen, infantry and artillery. The Circassians were defeated, and after the battle, masses of Circassians were driven to Sochi, where thousands died as they awaited deportation.^[106]

The last Circassian resistance, along with the coastal Abkhaz tribes of Pskhu, Akhtsipsou, Aibgo and Jigit were defeated and then killed en masse to the last man, woman and child, after which, on 21 May, Prince Mikhail Nikolayevich gathered the troops in a clearing in the area for a thanksgiving service.^[107] The Russian army began celebrating victory, as a military-religious parade was held, and 100 Circassian warriors were publicly mutilated in a public execution in order to establish authority.^[108] After this, the Russian army began increasing their efforts in raiding and burning Circassian villages, destroying fields to prevent return, cutting down trees, and driving the people to the Black Sea coast.

Russian military outpost on the Circassian frontier, 1845

Circassians leaving their villages

Circassian refugees

Abuses in the transport of refugees between Turkish cities were also noted, with one particular incident concerning a ship bound for Cyprus in which mutilated and decapitated bodies were found washed ashore, compounded by accounts of refugees being tied up and tossed overboard while still alive. On this particular Cyprus-bound ship, only one third of the refugees who had boarded survived.^[121] Another Russian observer, Olshevsky, also noted abuses by Turkish skippers, as well as bribes paid by Circassians to get onto departing ships, but he blamed most of all the Russian command under Yevdokimov for the situation:

Parade by Russian troops, symbolizing the end of the Caucasian War at a military encampment in Qbaada, 21 May 1864

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circassian_genocide

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyprus

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ottoman Archives
Başbakanlık Osmanlı Arşivleri
Country	Turkey
Location	Kağıthane , Istanbul

The Ottoman archives are a collection of historical sources related to the Ottoman Empire and a total of 39 nations whose territories one time or the other were part of this Empire, including 19 nations in the Middle East, 11 in the EU and Balkans, three in the Caucasus, two in Central Asia, Cyprus, as well as the Republic of Turkey.

The main collection, in the Başbakanlık Osmanlı Arşivleri (The Prime Minister's Ottoman Archives) in Istanbul, holds the central State Archives (Devlet arşivleri).

After more than a century in the center of the old city, the Ottoman state archives were relocated in 2013 to the Kağıthane district of Istanbul.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottoman_archives

Rome (Italian and Latin: Roma [ˈroːma] (listen)) is the capital city of Italy. It is also the capital of the Lazio region, the centre of the Metropolitan City of Rome, and a special comune named Comune di Roma Capitale. With 2,860,009 residents in 1,285 km² (496.1 sq mi),^[2] Rome is the country's most populated comune and the third most populous city in the European Union by population within city limits. The Metropolitan City of Rome, with a population of 4,355,725 residents, is the most populous metropolitan city in Italy.^[3] Its metropolitan area is the third-most populous within Italy.^[4] Rome is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, within Lazio (Latium), along the shores of the Tiber. Vatican City (the smallest country in the world)^[5] is an independent country inside the city boundaries of Rome, the only existing example of a country within a city. Rome is often referred to as the City of Seven Hills due to its geographic location, and also as the "Eternal City".^[6] Rome is generally considered to be the "cradle of Western civilization and Christian culture", and the centre of the Catholic Church.^[7]^[8]^[9]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rome

Untermensch (German pronunciation: [ˈʔʊntɐˌmɛnʃ] (listen), lit. 'underman', 'sub-man', 'subhuman'; plural: Untermenschen) is a Nazi term for non-Aryan people they deem as inferior, who were often referred to as "the masses from the East", that is Jews, Roma, and Slavs (mainly ethnic Poles, Ukrainians, Serbs, and later also Russians).^[1]^[2]^[3] The term was also applied to "mulatto" and black people.^[4] Jewish, Polish and Romani people, along with the physically and mentally disabled, as well as homosexuals and political dissidents, and on rare instances, POWs from Western Allied armies, were to be exterminated^[5] in the Holocaust.^[6]^[7] According to the Generalplan Ost, the Slavic population of East-Central Europe was to be reduced in part through mass murder in the Holocaust, with a majority expelled to Asia and used as slave labor in the Reich. These concepts were an important part of the Nazi racial policy.^[8]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Untermensch

The Ku Klux Klan (/ˌkuː klʌks ˈklæn, ˌkjuː-/),^[c] commonly shortened to the KKK or the Klan in recent decades, is an American white supremacist, right-wing terrorist, and hate group whose primary targets are African Americans, Hispanics, Jews,^[39]^[40]^[41] Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans,^[42] and Catholics, as well as immigrants, leftists, homosexuals,^[43]^[44] Muslims,^[45]^[46]^[47] atheists,^[27]^[28]^[29]^[30] and abortion providers.^[48]^[49]^[50]

Three separate Klans have existed in three non-overlapping time periods. Each comprised local chapters with little or no central direction. Each has advocated extremist reactionary positions such as white nationalism, anti-immigration and—especially in later iterations—Nordicism,^[51]^[52] antisemitism, anti-Catholicism, Prohibition, right-wing populism, anti-communism, homophobia,^[53]^[54]^[55]^[56] anti-atheism,^[27]^[28]^[29]^[30] Islamophobia, and anti-progressivism. The first Klan founded by Confederate veterans^[57] used terrorism—both physical assault and murder—against politically active Black people and their allies in the Southern United States in the late 1860s.

^{https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ku_Klux_Klan}

White is a racialized classification of people and a skin color specifier, generally used for people of European ancestry, although the definition can vary depending on context, nationality, and point of view.

Description of populations as "White" in reference to their skin color predates this notion and is occasionally found in Greco-Roman ethnography and other ancient or medieval sources, but these societies did not have any notion of a White or pan-European race. The term "White race" or "White people", defined by their light skin among other physical characteristics, entered the major European languages in the later seventeenth century, when the concept of a "unified White" achieved universal acceptance in Europe, in the context of racialized slavery and unequal social status in the European colonies. Scholarship on race distinguishes the modern concept from pre-modern descriptions, which focused on physical complexion rather than race. Prior to the modern era, no European peoples regarded themselves as "White", but rather defined their race, ancestry, or ethnicity in terms of their nationality.^[1] With a population ranging from around 1.1-1.2 billion people out of the global population of more than 8 billion, White people constitute around 15% of the global population.

Contemporary anthropologists and other scientists, while recognizing the reality of biological variation between different human populations, regard the concept of a unified, distinguishable "White race" as a social construct with no scientific basis.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_people

In general

European, an adjective referring to something of, from, or related to Europe
- Ethnic groups in Europe
- Demographics of Europe
- European cuisine, the cuisines of Europe and other Western countries

European, an adjective referring to something of, from, or related to the European Union

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European

Europeans are the focus of European ethnology, the field of anthropology related to the various ethnic groups that reside in the states of Europe. Groups may be defined by common genetic ancestry, common language, or both. Pan and Pfeil (2004) count 87^[clarify] distinct "peoples of Europe", of which 33^[clarify] form the majority population in at least one sovereign state, while the remaining 54^[clarify] constitute ethnic minorities. The total number of national minority populations in Europe is estimated at 105 million people, or 14% of 770 million Europeans.^[1] The Russians are the most populous among Europeans, with a population of roughly 120 million.^[2] There are no universally accepted and precise definitions of the terms "ethnic group" and "nationality". In the context of European ethnography in particular, the terms ethnic group, people, nationality and ethno-linguistic group, are used as mostly synonymous, although preference may vary in usage with respect to the situation specific to the individual countries of Europe.^[3]

Overview

About 20–25 million residents (3%)^{[year needed]} are members of diasporas of non-European origin.^{[citation needed]} The population of the European Union, with some 450 million residents, accounts for two thirds of the current European population.

Both Spain and the United Kingdom are special cases, in that the designation of nationality, Spanish and British, may controversially^{[citation needed]} take ethnic aspects, subsuming various regional ethnic groups (see nationalisms and regionalisms of Spain and native populations of the United Kingdom). Switzerland is a similar case, but the linguistic subgroups of the Swiss are discussed in terms of both ethnicity and language affiliations.

Linguistic classifications

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Of the total population of Europe of some 740 million (as of 2010), close to 90% (or some 650 million) fall within three large branches of Indo-European languages, these being:

Romance, including Aromanian, Arpitan, Catalan, Corsican, French and other Langues d'oïl, Friulian, Galician, Istro-Romanian, Italian, Ligurian, Ladino, Megleno-Romanian, Occitan, Portuguese, Romanian, Romansh, Sardinian and Spanish.
Germanic, including Danish, Dutch, English, Faroese, Frisian, German, Icelandic, Limburgish, Low Saxon, Luxembourgish, Norwegian, Scots, Swedish, and Yiddish.^[4] Afrikaans, a daughter language of Dutch, is spoken by some South African and Namibian migrant populations.
Slavic, including Belarusian, Bulgarian, Czech, Kashubian, Macedonian, Polish, Russian, Rusyn, Serbo-Croatian, Slovak, Slovenian, Sorbian and Ukrainian.

Three stand-alone Indo-European languages do not fall within larger sub-groups and are not closely related to those larger language families:

Greek (about 12 million)
Albanian (about 9 million)
Armenian (about 3.5 million)

In addition, there are also smaller sub-groups within the Indo-European languages of Europe, including:

Baltic, including Latvian, Lithuanian, Samogitian and Latgalian.
Celtic languages, including Breton, Cornish, Irish, Manx, Welsh, and Scottish Gaelic.
Iranic, mainly Ossetian in the Caucasus.
Indo-Aryan is represented by the Romani language spoken by Roma people of eastern Europe, and is at root related to the Indo-Aryan languages of the Indian subcontinent.

Besides the Indo-European languages, there are other language families on the European continent which are considered unrelated to Indo-European:

Uralic languages, including Estonian, Finnish, Hungarian, Komi, Livonian, Mari, Mordvin, Sámi, Samoyedic, and Udmurt.
Turkic languages, including Azeri, Bashkir, Chuvash, Gagauz, Kazakh, Nogai, Tatar, and Turkish.
Semitic languages, including: Assyrian Neo-Aramaic (spoken in parts of eastern Turkey and the Caucasus by Assyrian Christians), Hebrew (spoken by some Jewish populations), and Maltese. Arabic is spoken by some migrant communities from the Middle East and North Africa.
Kartvelian languages (also known as South Caucasian languages), including Georgian, Laz, Mingrelian, Svan, and Zan.
Northwest Caucasian languages, including Abkhaz, Abaza, Adyghe, Circassian, Kabardian, and Ubykh.
Northeast Caucasian languages, including Avar, Chechen, Dargin, Ingush, Lak, and Lezgian.
Language isolates: Basque, spoken in the Basque regions of Spain and France, is an isolate language, the only one in Europe, and is believed to be unrelated to any other language, living or extinct.
Mongolic languages exist in the form of Kalmyk, spoken in the South region of Russia.

History

Prehistoric populations

Simplified model for the demographic history of Europeans during the Neolithic period and the introduction of agriculture.^[5]

The Basques have been found to descend from the population of the late Neolithic or early Bronze Age directly.^[6]^[7] By contrast, Indo-European groups of Europe (the Centum, Balto-Slavic, and Albanian groups) migrated throughout most of Europe from the Pontic steppe. They are assumed to have developed in situ through admixture of earlier Mesolithic and Neolithic populations with Bronze Age, proto-Indo-Europeans.^[8]^[9]^[10] The Finnic peoples are assumed to also be descended from Proto-Uralic populations further to the east, nearer to the Ural Mountains, that had migrated to their historical homelands in Europe by about 3,000 years ago.^[11]

Reconstructed languages of Iron Age Europe include Proto-Celtic, Proto-Italic and Proto-Germanic, all of these Indo-European languages of the centum group, and Proto-Slavic and Proto-Baltic, of the satem group. A group of Tyrrhenian languages appears to have included Etruscan, Rhaetian, Lemnian, and perhaps Camunic. A pre-Roman stage of Proto-Basque can only be reconstructed with great uncertainty.

Regarding the European Bronze Age, the only relatively likely reconstruction is that of Proto-Greek (ca. 2000 BC). A Proto-Italo-Celtic ancestor of both Italic and Celtic (assumed for the Bell beaker period), and a Proto-Balto-Slavic language (assumed for roughly the Corded Ware horizon) has been postulated with less confidence. Old European hydronymy has been taken as indicating an early (Bronze Age) Indo-European predecessor of the later centum languages.

According to geneticist David Reich, based on ancient human genomes that his laboratory sequenced in 2016, Europeans descend from a mixture of four distinct ancestral components.^[12]

Historical populations

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Map of the Roman Empire and barbarian tribes in 125 AD.

Iron Age (pre-Great Migrations) populations of Europe known from Greco-Roman historiography, notably Herodotus, Pliny, Ptolemy and Tacitus:

Aegean: the Greek tribes, Pelasgians, and Anatolians.
Balkans: the Illyrians (List of ancient tribes in Illyria), Dacians, and Thracians.
Italian peninsula: the Camunni, Rhaetians, Lepontii, Adriatic Veneti, Gauls, Ligurians, Etruscans, Italic peoples and Greek and Phoenician colonies in its neighboring Italian islands.
Western/Central Europe: the Celts (list of peoples of Gaul, List of Celtic tribes), Rhaetians and Swabians, Vistula Veneti, Lugii and Balts.
Iberian peninsula and Pyrenees : the Pre-Roman peoples of the Iberian Peninsula (Iberians, Celts, Celtiberians, Lusitani, Basques, Turdetani), of the Pyrenean piedmont (Aquitani) between the Pyrenees and the Atlantic ocean, and Greek and Phoenician coastal Mediterranean colonies.
Sardinia and Corsica: the ancient Sardinians and Corsicans (also known as Nuragic and Torrean peoples), comprising the Corsi, Balares, Ilienses tribes and Phoenician colonies.
British Isles: the Celtic tribes in Britain and Ireland and Picts/Priteni.
Northern Europe: the Baltic Finns, Germanic peoples (list of Germanic peoples) and Normans.
Sicily: the Italic Sicels and Morgetes, the Sicani, Elymians and Greek and Phoenician colonies.
Eastern Europe: the Veneti (Early Slavs), Scythians and Sarmatians.
Armenian Highlands/Anatolia: the Armenians.

Historical immigration

The Great Migrations of Late Antiquity.

Map showing the distribution of Slavic tribes between the 7th–9th centuries AD.

Ethno-linguistic groups that arrived from outside Europe during historical times are:

Phoenician colonies in the Mediterranean (including regions in Spain, Malta, Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus and the Aegean), from about 1200 BC to the fall of Carthage after the Third Punic War in 146 BC.
Assyrian conquest of Cyprus, Southern Caucasus (including parts of modern Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan) and Cilicia during the Neo-Assyrian Empire (911–605 BC).
Iranian influence: Achaemenid control of Thrace (512–343 BC) and the Bosporan Kingdom, Cimmerians (possible Iranians), Scythians, Sarmatians, Alans, Ossetes.
The Jewish diaspora reached Europe in the Roman Empire period, the Jewish community in Italy dating to around AD 70 and records of Jews settling Central Europe (Gaul) from the 5th century (see History of the Jews in Europe).
The Hunnic Empire (5th century AD), converged with the Barbarian invasions, contributing to the formation of the First Bulgarian Empire.
The Slavic migrations (6th century AD), and the subsequent split into Eastern Slavs, Western Slavs and Southern Slavs.
Avar Khaganate (c. 560s–800).
The Bulgars (or Proto-Bulgarians), a semi-nomadic Turkic people, originally from Central Asia, eventually absorbed by the Slavs.
The Magyars (Hungarians), an Uralic-speaking people, and the Turkic Pechenegs and Khazars, arrived in Europe in about the 8th century (see Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin).
The Arabs conquered Cyprus, Crete, Sicily (establishing the Emirate of Sicily in 831, from which they would be expelled in 1224), some places along the coast of southern Italy, Malta, Greek Empire and most of Iberia (founding a polity known as Al-Andalus in 711, ruled also by Berber dynasties of the Almoravides and the Almohads, from whose domain they would be expelled in 1492).
Exodus of Maghreb Christians.^[13]
The western Kipchaks known as Cumans entered the lands of present-day Ukraine in the 11th century.
The Mongol/Tatar invasions (1223–1480), and Ottoman control of the Balkans (1389–1878). These medieval incursions account for the presence of European Turks and Tatars.
The Romani people arrived during the Late Middle Ages.
The Mongol Kalmyks arrived in Kalmykia in the 17th century.

History of European ethnography

Europa Regina (Representation of Europe printed by Sebastian Munster (1570).

Ethnographic map of Europe, The Times Atlas (1896).

The earliest accounts of European ethnography date from Classical Antiquity. Herodotus described the Scythians and Thraco-Illyrians. Dicaearchus gave a description of Greece itself, besides accounts of western and northern Europe. His work survives only fragmentarily, but was received by Polybius and others.

Roman Empire period authors include Diodorus Siculus, Strabo and Tacitus. Julius Caesar gives an account of the Celtic tribes of Gaul, while Tacitus describes the Germanic tribes of Magna Germania. A number of authors like Diodorus Siculus, Pausanias and Sallust depict the ancient Sardinian and Corsican peoples.

The 4th century Tabula Peutingeriana records the names of numerous peoples and tribes. Ethnographers of Late Antiquity such as Agathias of Myrina Ammianus Marcellinus, Jordanes and Theophylact Simocatta give early accounts of the Slavs, the Franks, the Alamanni and the Goths.

Book IX of Isidore's Etymologiae (7th century) treats de linguis, gentibus, regnis, militia, civibus (concerning languages, peoples, realms, war and cities). Ahmad ibn Fadlan in the 10th century gives an account of the Bolghar and the Rus' peoples. William Rubruck, while most notable for his account of the Mongols, in his account of his journey to Asia also gives accounts of the Tatars and the Alans. Saxo Grammaticus and Adam of Bremen give an account of pre-Christian Scandinavia. The Chronicon Slavorum (12th century) gives an account of the northwestern Slavic tribes.

Gottfried Hensel in his 1741 Synopsis Universae Philologiae published one of the earliest ethno-linguistic map of Europe, showing the beginning of the pater noster in the various European languages and scripts.^[14]^[15] In the 19th century, ethnicity was discussed in terms of scientific racism, and the ethnic groups of Europe were grouped into a number of "races", Mediterranean, Alpine and Nordic, all part of a larger "Caucasian" group.

The beginnings of ethnic geography as an academic subdiscipline lie in the period following World War I, in the context of nationalism, and in the 1930s exploitation for the purposes of fascist and Nazi propaganda, so that it was only in the 1960s that ethnic geography began to thrive as a bona fide academic subdiscipline.^[16]

The origins of modern ethnography are often traced to the work of Bronisław Malinowski, who emphasized the importance of fieldwork.^[17] The emergence of population genetics further undermined the categorisation of Europeans into clearly defined racial groups. A 2007 study on the genetic history of Europe found that the most important genetic differentiation in Europe occurs on a line from the north to the south-east (northern Europe to the Balkans), with another east–west axis of differentiation across Europe, separating the indigenous Basques, Sardinians and Sami from other European populations. Despite these stratifications it noted the unusually high degree of European homogeneity: "there is low apparent diversity in Europe with the entire continent-wide samples only marginally more dispersed than single population samples elsewhere in the world."^[18]^[19]^[20]

Minorities

Gagauz people in Moldova

Sámi family in Lapland of Finland, 1936.

The total number of national minority populations in Europe is estimated at 105 million people, or 14% of Europeans.^[1]

The member states of the Council of Europe in 1995 signed the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities. The broad aims of the convention are to ensure that the signatory states respect the rights of national minorities, undertaking to combat discrimination, promote equality, preserve and develop the culture and identity of national minorities, guarantee certain freedoms in relation to access to the media, minority languages and education and encourage the participation of national minorities in public life. The Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities defines a national minority implicitly to include minorities possessing a territorial identity and a distinct cultural heritage. By 2008, 39 member states had signed and ratified the convention, with the notable exception of France.

Indigenous minorities

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Definitions of what constitutes indigenous minority groups in Europe can vary widely. One criterion is the so-called "time element", or how long the original inhabitants of a land occupied it before the arrival of later settlers. As there is no fixed time frame, the answer to the question of what groups constitute indigenous minorities is often context-dependent. The most extreme view claims that all Europeans are "descendants of previous waves of immigrants", and as such, the countries of Europe are no different than the United States or Canada with regards to who settled where.^[21]

Some groups that claim indigenous minority status in Europe include the Uralic Nenets, Samoyed, and Komi peoples of northern Russia; Circassians of southern Russia and the North Caucasus; Crimean Tatars, Krymchaks and Crimean Karaites of Crimea (Ukraine); Sámi peoples of northern Norway, Sweden, and Finland and northwestern Russia (in an area also referred to as Sápmi); Galicians of Galicia, Spain; Catalans of Principality of Catalonia, Spain and southern France; Basques of Basque Country, Spain and southern France; and the Sorbian people of Germany and Poland.^{[citation needed]}

Non-indigenous minorities

Expulsions of Jews in Europe from 1100 to 1600

Many non-European ethnic groups and nationalities have migrated to Europe over the centuries. Some arrived centuries ago. However, the vast majority arrived more recently, mostly in the 20th and 21st centuries. Often, they come from former colonies of the British, Dutch, French, Portuguese and Spanish empires.

Western Asians
- Turks: There were 10 million Turks living in Western Europe and the Balkans in 1997 (excluding Northern Cyprus and Turkey).^[22] By 2010 there was up to 15 million Turks living in the European Union (i.e. excluding Turkish communities in Turkey as well as several Balkan countries and former USSR countries which are not in the EU).^[23] According to Dr Araks Pashayan 10 million "Euro-Turks" alone were living in Germany, France, the Netherlands and Belgium in 2012.^[24] In addition, there is 500,000 Turks in the UK (2011 estimate),^[25]^[26] 500,000 in Austria (2011 estimate)^[26]^[27] 150,000 in Sweden,^[28] 120,000 in Switzerland,^[29] 70,000 in Denmark (2008 estimate),^[30] as well as growing communities in Italy, Lichtenstein, Finland and Spain. In addition, over one million Turks were living in the Balkans in 2019 (especially in Bulgaria, Greece, Kosovo, North Macedonia and Romania),^[31] and approximately 400,000 Meskhetian Turks were living in the Eastern European regions of the Post-Soviet states (i.e. Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Russia and Ukraine) in 2014.^[32]
- Jews: approx. 2.0 million, mostly in France, the UK, Russia and Germany. They are descended from the Israelites of the Middle East (Southwest Asia),^[33]^[34]^[35]^[36]^[37]^[38]^[39]^[40] originating from the historical kingdoms of Israel and Judah.^[41]^[42]^[43]^[44]
  - Ashkenazi Jews: approx. 1.4 million, mostly in the United Kingdom, France, Russia, Germany and Ukraine. They are believed by scholars to have arrived from Israel via southern Europe^[45]^[46]^[47]^[48]^[49] in the Roman era^[50] and settled in France and Germany towards the end of the first millennium. The Nazi Holocaust wiped out the vast majority during World War II and forced most to flee, with many of them going to Israel.
  - Sephardi Jews: approx. 0.3 million, mostly in France. They arrived via Spain and Portugal in the pre-Roman^[51] and Roman^[52] eras, and were forcibly converted or expelled in the 15th and 16th centuries.
  - Mizrahi Jews: approx. 0.3 million, mostly in France, via Islamic-majority countries of the Middle East.
  - Italqim: approx. 50,000, mostly in Italy, since the 2nd century BC.
  - Romaniotes: approx. 6,000, mostly in Greece, with communities dating at least from the 1st century AD.
  - Crimean Karaites (Karaim): less than 4,000, mostly in Ukraine, Poland and Lithuania. They arrived in Crimea in the Middle Ages.
- Assyrians: mostly in Sweden and Germany, as well as in Russia, Armenia, Denmark and Great Britain (see Assyrian diaspora). Assyrians have been present in Eastern Turkey since the Bronze Age (circa 2000 BCE).
- Kurds: approx. 2.5 million, mostly in the UK, Germany, Sweden and Turkey.
- Iraqi diaspora: mostly in the UK, Germany and Sweden, and can be of varying ethnic origin, including Arabs, Assyrians, Kurds, Armenians, Shabaks, Mandeans, Turks, Kawliya and Yezidis.
- Lebanese diaspora: especially in France, Netherlands, Germany, Cyprus and the UK.^[53]
- Syrian diaspora: Largest number of Syrians live in Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden and can be of varying ethnic origin, including; Arabs, Assyrians, Kurds, Armenians, Arameans, Turks, Mhallami and Yezidis.
Africans
- North Africans (North African Arabs, Egyptian Copts, and Berbers): approx. 5 million, mostly in France, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands and Sweden. The bulk of North African migrants are Moroccans, although France also has a large number of Algerians, and others may be from Egypt (including Copts), Libya and Tunisia.
- Horn Africans (Somalis, Ethiopians, Eritreans, Djiboutians, and the Northern Sudanese): approx. 700,000, mostly in Scandinavia, the UK, the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Finland, and Italy. Majority arrived to Europe as refugees. Proportionally few live in Italy despite former colonial ties, most live in the Nordic countries.
- Sub-Saharan Africans (many ethnicities including Afro-Caribbeans, African-Americans, Afro-Latinos and others by descent): approx. 5 million, mostly in the UK and France, with smaller numbers in the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal and elsewhere.^[54]
Latin Americans: approx. 2.2 million, mainly in Spain and to a lesser extent Italy and the UK.^[55] See also Latin American Britons (80,000 Latin American born in 2001).^[56]
- Brazilians: around 280,000 in Portugal, and 50,000 in Italy and Germany each (mainly German-Brazilians).^[57]^[58]
- Chilean refugees escaping the Augusto Pinochet regime of the 1970s formed communities in France, Sweden, the UK, former East Germany and the Netherlands.
- Mexicans: about 21,000 in Spain^[59] and 14,000 in Germany^[60]
- Venezuelans: around 520,000 mostly in Spain (200,000), Portugal (100,000), France (30,000), Germany (20,000), UK (15,000), Ireland (5,000), Italy (5,000) and the Netherlands (1,000).^{[citation needed]}
South Asians: approx. 3–4 million, mostly in the UK but reside in smaller numbers in Germany and France.

A Roma makes a complaint to a local magistrate in Hungary, by Sándor Bihari, 1886
- Romani (Gypsies): approx. 4 or 10 million (although estimates vary widely), dispersed throughout Europe but with large numbers concentrated in the Balkans area, they are of ancestral South Asian and European descent,^[61] originating from the northern regions of the Indian subcontinent.
- Indians: approx. 2 million, mostly in the UK, also in Netherlands, Italy, in Germany and France.
- Pakistanis: approx. 1,000,000, mostly in the UK, but also in France, Spain, Germany and Italy.
- Bangladeshi residing in Europe estimated at over 500,000, mostly in the UK.
- Sri Lankans: approx. 200,000, mainly in the UK.
- Nepalese: approx. 50,000 in the UK.
- Afghans, about 100,000 to 200,000, most happen to live in the UK, but Germany and Sweden are destinations for Afghan immigrants since the 1960s.
Southeast Asians
- Filipinos: above 1 million, mostly in Italy, the UK, France, Germany, and Spain.
- Others of multiple nationalities, ca. total 1 million, such as Indonesians in the Netherlands, Thais in the UK and Sweden, Vietnamese in France and former East Germany, and Cambodians in France, together with Burmese, Malaysian, Singaporean, Timorese and Laotian migrants. See also Vietnamese people in the Czech Republic.
East Asians
- Chinese: approx. 1.7 million, mostly in France, Russia, the UK, Spain, Italy and the Netherlands.
- Japanese: mostly in the UK and a sizable community in Düsseldorf, Germany.
- Koreans: 100,000 estimated (excludes a possible 100,000 more in Russia), mainly in the UK, France and Germany. See also Koryo-saram.
- Mongolians in Germany.
North Americans
- U.S. and Canadian expatriates: American British and Canadian British, Canadiens and Acadians in France, as well as Americans/Canadians of European ancestry residing elsewhere in Europe.
  - African Americans (i.e. African American British) who are Americans of black/African ancestry reside in other countries. In the 1920s, African-American entertainers established a colony in Paris (African American French) and descendants of World War II/Cold War-era black American soldiers stationed in France, Germany and Italy are well known.
Others
- European diaspora – Australians, New Zealanders, South Africans (mostly White South Africans of Afrikaner and British descent), and white Namibians, Zimbabweans, Kenyans, Malawians and Zambians mainly in the UK, together with white Angolans and Mozambicans, mainly of Portuguese descent.
- Pacific Islanders: A small population of Tahitians of Polynesian origin in mainland France, Fijians in the United Kingdom from Fiji and Māori in the United Kingdom of the Māori people of New Zealand, a small number of Tongans and Samoans, also in the United Kingdom.
- Indigenous peoples of the Americas, a scant few in the European continent of American Indian ancestry (often Latin Americans in Spain, France and the UK; Inuit in Denmark), but most may be children or grandchildren of U.S. soldiers from American Indian tribes by intermarriage with local European women.

European identity

Historical

Personifications of Sclavinia, Germania, Gallia, and Roma, bringing offerings to Otto III; from a gospel book dated 990.

Medieval notions of a relation of the peoples of Europe are expressed in terms of genealogy of mythical founders of the individual groups. The Europeans were considered the descendants of Japheth from early times, corresponding to the division of the known world into three continents, the descendants of Shem peopling Asia and those of Ham peopling Africa. Identification of Europeans as "Japhetites" is also reflected in early suggestions for terming the Indo-European languages "Japhetic".

In this tradition, the Historia Brittonum (9th century) introduces a genealogy of the peoples of the Migration Period based on the sixth-century Frankish Table of Nations as follows,

The first man that dwelt in Europe was Alanus, with his three sons, Hisicion, Armenon, and Neugio. Hisicion had four sons, Francus, Romanus, Alamanus, and Bruttus. Armenon had five sons, Gothus, Valagothus, Cibidus, Burgundus, and Longobardus. Neugio had three sons, Vandalus, Saxo, and Boganus.

From Hisicion arose four nations—the Franks, the Latins, the Germans, and Britons; from Armenon, the Gothi, Valagothi, Cibidi, Burgundi, and Longobardi; from Neugio, the Bogari, Vandali, Saxones, and Tarincgi. The whole of Europe was subdivided into these tribes.^[62]

The text goes then on to list the genealogy of Alanus, connecting him to Japheth via eighteen generations.

European culture

European culture is largely rooted in what is often referred to as its "common cultural heritage".^[63] Due to the great number of perspectives which can be taken on the subject, it is impossible to form a single, all-embracing conception of European culture.^[64] Nonetheless, there are core elements which are generally agreed upon as forming the cultural foundation of modern Europe.^[65] One list of these elements given by K. Bochmann includes:^[66]

A common cultural and spiritual heritage derived from Greco-Roman antiquity, Christianity, the Renaissance and its Humanism, the political thinking of the Enlightenment, and the French Revolution, and the developments of Modernity, including all types of socialism;^[67]
A rich and dynamic material culture that has been extended to the other continents as the result of industrialization and colonialism during the "Great Divergence";^[67]
A specific conception of the individual expressed by the existence of, and respect for, a legality that guarantees human rights and the liberty of the individual;^[67]
A plurality of states with different political orders, which are condemned to live together in one way or another;^[67]
Respect for peoples, states and nations outside Europe.^[67]

Berting says that these points fit with "Europe's most positive realisations".^[68] The concept of European culture is generally linked to the classical definition of the Western world. In this definition, Western culture is the set of literary, scientific, political, artistic and philosophical principles which set it apart from other civilizations. Much of this set of traditions and knowledge is collected in the Western canon.^[69] The term has come to apply to countries whose history has been strongly marked by European immigration or settlement during the 18th and 19th centuries, such as the Americas, and Australasia, and is not restricted to Europe.

Religion

Eurobarometer Poll 2005 chart results

Since the High Middle Ages, most of Europe has been dominated by Christianity. There are three major denominations: Roman Catholic, Protestant and Eastern Orthodox, with Protestantism restricted mostly to Northern Europe, and Orthodoxy to East and South Slavic regions, Romania, Moldova, Greece, and Georgia. The Armenian Apostolic Church, part of the Oriental Church, is also in Europe – another branch of Christianity (world's oldest National Church). Catholicism, while typically centered in Western Europe, also has a very significant following in Central Europe (especially among the Germanic, Western Slavic and Hungarian peoples/regions) as well as in Ireland (with some in Great Britain).

Christianity has been the dominant religion shaping European culture for at least the last 1700 years.^[70]^[71]^[72]^[73]^[74] Modern philosophical thought has very much been influenced by Christian philosophers such as St Thomas Aquinas and Erasmus, and throughout most of its history, Europe has been nearly equivalent to Christian culture.^[75] The Christian culture was the predominant force in western civilization, guiding the course of philosophy, art, and science.^[76]^[77] The notion of "Europe" and the "Western World" has been intimately connected with the concept of "Christianity and Christendom" many even attribute Christianity for being the link that created a unified European identity.^[78]

Christianity is still the largest religion in Europe; according to a 2011 survey, 76.2% of Europeans considered themselves Christians.^[79]^[80] Also according to a study on Religiosity in the European Union in 2012, by Eurobarometer, Christianity is the largest religion in the European Union, accounting for 72% of the EU's population.^[81] As of 2010 Catholics were the largest Christian group in Europe, accounting for more than 48% of European Christians. The second-largest Christian group in Europe were the Orthodox, who made up 32% of European Christians. About 19% of European Christians were part of the Protestant tradition.^[82] Russia is the largest Christian country in Europe by population, followed by Germany and Italy.^[82]

Islam has some tradition in the Balkans and the Caucasus due to conquest and colonization from the Ottoman Empire in the 16th to 19th centuries, as well as earlier though discontinued long-term presence in much of Iberia as well as Sicily. Muslims account for the majority of the populations in Albania, Azerbaijan, Kosovo, Northern Cyprus (controlled by Turks), and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Significant minorities are present in the rest of Europe. Russia also has one of the largest Muslim communities in Europe, including the Tatars of the Middle Volga and multiple groups in the Caucasus, including Chechens, Avars, Ingush and others. With 20th-century migrations, Muslims in Western Europe have become a noticeable minority. According to the Pew Forum, the total number of Muslims in Europe in 2010 was about 44 million (6%),^[83]^[84] while the total number of Muslims in the European Union in 2007 was about 16 million (3.2%).^[85]

Judaism has a long history in Europe, but is a small minority religion, with France (1%) the only European country with a Jewish population in excess of 0.5%. The Jewish population of Europe is composed primarily of two groups, the Ashkenazi and the Sephardi. Ancestors of Ashkenazi Jews likely migrated to Central Europe at least as early as the 8th century, while Sephardi Jews established themselves in Spain and Portugal at least one thousand years before that. Jews originated in the Levant where they resided for thousands of years until the 2nd century AD, when they spread around the Mediterranean and into Europe, although small communities were known to exist in Greece as well as the Balkans since at least the 1st century BC. Jewish history was notably affected by the Holocaust and emigration (including Aliyah, as well as emigration to America) in the 20th century. The Jewish population of Europe in 2010 was estimated to be approximately 1.4 million (0.2% of European population) or 10% of the world's Jewish population.^[86] In the 21st century, France has the largest Jewish population in Europe,^[86]^[87] followed by the United Kingdom, Germany, Russia and Ukraine.^[87]

In modern times, significant secularization since the 20th century, notably in secularist France, Estonia and the Czech Republic. Currently, distribution of theism in Europe is very heterogeneous, with more than 95% in Poland, and less than 20% in the Czech Republic and Estonia. The 2005 Eurobarometer poll^[88] found that 52% of EU citizens believe in God. According to a Pew Research Center Survey in 2012 the Religiously Unaffiliated (Atheists and Agnostics) make up about 18.2% of the European population in 2010.^[89] According to the same Survey the Religiously Unaffiliated make up the majority of the population in only two European countries: Czech Republic (76%) and Estonia (60%).^[89]

Pan-European identity

"Pan-European identity" or "Europatriotism" is an emerging sense of personal identification with Europe, or the European Union as a result of the gradual process of European integration taking place over the last quarter of the 20th century, and especially in the period after the end of the Cold War, since the 1990s. The foundation of the OSCE following the 1990s Paris Charter has facilitated this process on a political level during the 1990s and 2000s.

From the later 20th century, 'Europe' has come to be widely used as a synonym for the European Union even though there are millions of people living on the European continent in non-EU member states. The prefix pan implies that the identity applies throughout Europe, and especially in an EU context, and 'pan-European' is often contrasted with national identity.^[90]

European ethnic groups by sovereign state

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Country	Majority	%	Regional majorities	Minorities^[a]
Albania	Albanians	97%^[91]^[92]		Greeks ≈3%,^[93] and other 2% (Aromanians, Romani, Macedonians, Montenegrins, Bulgarians, Bosniaks, Jews and Serbs).^[94]
Armenia^[b]	Armenians^[c]	98.1%		Russians, Yazidis, Assyrians, Kurds, Greeks, Jews, Loms and Ukrainians.
Azerbaijan^[d]	Azerbaijanis^[c]	91.6%	Lezgin 2%	Armenians, Russians, Tats, Talysh, Kurds, Avars, Turks, Tatars, Ukrainians, and Poles.
Belarus	Belarusians	83.7%		Russians 8.3%, Poles 3.1%, Ukrainians 1.7%, and other 3.2%. (2009 census)
Belgium	Flemings	58%	Walloons 31%, Germans 1%	mixed or other (i.e. Luxembourgers, Eastern Europeans or Southern Europeans, Africans and Asians, and Latin Americans) 10%.
Bosnia and Herzegovina	Bosniaks	50.11%	Serbs 30.78%, Croats 15.43%	Albanians, Macedonians, Roma and Turks (2013 census)
Bulgaria	Bulgarians	84%	Turks 8.8%	Roma 5%, Others 2% (including Russian, Armenian, Crimean Tatars, Sarakatsani, and "Vlach" [Romanians and Aromanians]). (2001 census)^[95]
Croatia	Croats	91.6%		Serbs 3.2%, other 5.2% (including Bosniaks, Roma, Albanians, Italians, Hungarians and others). (2021 census)^[96]
Czech Republic	Czechs	90.4%	Moravians 3.7%	Slovaks 1.9%, and other 4%. (including Bulgarians, Croats, Germans, Poles, Roma and Vietnamese). (2001 census)
Denmark	Danes	90%^[97]	Faroese, Greenlanders	other Scandinavians, Germans, Frisians, other European, indigenous Greenlandic people and others.
Estonia	Estonians	68.8%		Russians 24.2% , Ukrainians 2.0%, Belarusians 0.8%, Finns 0.6%.
Finland	Finns	93.4%	Finland-Swedes 5.6%, Sami 0.1%	Russians 1.1%, Estonians 0.7%, Romani 0.1% and Latvians 0.5%. (2019) also Somalis, Germans, Macedonians and Iranians
Georgia^[d]^[98]	Georgians^[c]	86.8%		Russians, Azerbaijanis, Tats, Armenians, Ukrainians, Greeks, Ossetians
Greece	Greeks	93%	includes linguistic minorities 3%	Albanians 4% and other (i.e. Aromanians, Megleno-Romanians, Cretan Turks and Macedonian/Greek Slavic 3%. (2001 census)^[e]
Hungary	Hungarians	92.3%		Romani 1.9%, Germans 1.2%, other (i.e. Croats, Romanians, Bulgarians, Turks and Rusyns) or unknown 4.6%. (2001 census)
Iceland	Icelanders	91%		other (non-native/immigrants – mainly Polish, Lithuanians, Danes, Germans and Latvians) 9%.^[99]
Ireland	Irish	87.4%	Ulster Scots and Irish Travellers 1.6%	other white (large numbers of Lithuanian, Latvian, Polish and Ukrainian migration) 7.5%, Asian 1.3%, black 1.1%, mixed 1.1%. (2006 census)
Italy	Italians	91.7%	Southtyroleans in South Tyrol (Bavarian and Ladin People), Franco-Provençal in Aosta Valley	Historical ethno-linguistic minorities (Sardinian, French, Occitan, Arpitan, Croatian, Albanian, Catalan, Austrian, Greek, Ladin, Friulian, Slovene and Roma minorities),^[100]^[101] regional language native speakers (Gallo-Italic, Neapolitan, Sicilian),^[102] other Europeans (mostly Romanians, Albanians, Ukrainians and Polish) 4%, North African Arabs 1% and others (i.e. Chinese, Filipino, Indian, Black African and Latin American) 2.5%.^[103]^[104]^[105]^[106]
Kazakhstan^[d]	Kazakhs^[c]	63.1%	Russians 23.7%	Uzbeks, Ukrainians, Uyghurs, Tatars, Kyrgyz, Tajiks, Germans, Poles and Koreans.
Kosovo^[f]	Albanians	92%	Serbs 4%	other 4% (Bosniaks, Gorani, Croats, Jews, Romani, Turks and Ashkali and Egyptians).
Latvia	Latvians	62.1%^[107]	Livonians 0.1%	Russians 26.9%, Belarusian 3.3%, Ukrainian 2.2%, Polish 2.2%, Lithuanian 1.2%, and other 2.0%. (2011)
Lithuania	Lithuanians	86.67%		Poles 5.61%, Russians 4.78%, Belarusians 1.34%, Ukrainians 0.69%, other 2.25% (2015 census)
Malta	Maltese	95.3%^[108]
Moldova	Moldovans^[g]	75.1%	Gagauzs 4.6%, Bulgarians 1.9%	Romanians^[g] 7%, Ukrainians 6.6%, Russians 4.1%, and other 0.8% (2014 census).
Montenegro	Montenegrins	44.98%	Serbs 28.73%	Bosniaks 8.65%, Albanians 4.91%, and other (Croats, Turks, Greeks, Romani and Macedonians) 12,73%. (2011 census)
North Macedonia	Macedonians	64%	Albanians 25.2%, Turks 4%	Romani 2.7%, Serbs 1.8%, and other (i.e. Aromanians, Greeks, Bulgarians, Megleno-Romanians, Gorani, and Croats) 2.2%. (2002 census)
Norway	Norwegians^[h]	85–87%	Sami 0.7%^[i]^[109] Kvens 0.2%^[110]	Poles 2.10%. A variety of other ethnicities with background from 219 countries that together make up approximately 15% (Swedes, Danes, Somalis, Arabs, Kurds, Vietnamese, Germans, Lithuanians, Russians and different South Asian ethnicities) (2020).^[111]
Poland	Poles	97%		Germans 0.4%, Belarusians 0.1%, Ukrainians 0.1%, other and unspecified (i.e. Silesians, Kashubians, Masurians and Prussian Lithuanians) 2.7%, and about 5,000 Polish Jews reported to reside in the country. (2002 census)
Portugal	Portuguese	95%	Portuguese Mirandese speakers 15.000~ (i.e. Mirandese-language speakers)	other 5% – other Europeans (British, German, French, Spanish, Romanians, Bulgarians, Hungarians, Croats, Ukrainians, Moldavians, Russians, Serbs, Kosovars and Albanians); Africans from Portuguese-speaking Africa, Brazilians, Chinese, Indians, Jews, Portuguese Gypsies and Latin Americans.
Romania	Romanians	83.4%	Hungarians 6.1%	Romani 3.0%, Germans 0.2%, Ukrainians 0.2%, Turks 0.2%, Russians 0.1% (2011 census)
^[d] Russia	Russians	81%	Tatars 3.9%, Chuvashes 1%, Chechens 1%, Ossetians 0.4%, Kabardin 0.4%, Ingushes 0.3%, Kalmyks 0.1%	Ukrainians 1.4%, Bashkir 1.2%, Armenians 0.9%, Avars 0.7%, Mordvins 0.5% and other. (2010 census, includes Asian Russia, excludes unspecified people (3.94% of population)).^[112]^[113]
Serbia^[j]	Serbs	83%		Hungarians 3.9%, Romani 1.4%, Yugoslavs 1.1%, Bosniaks 1.8%, Montenegrin 0.9%, and other 8%. i.e. Macedonians, Slovaks, Romanians, Croats, Ruthenes, Bulgarians, Germans, Albanians, and other (2002 census).
Slovakia	Slovaks	86%	Hungarians 9.7%	Romani 1.7%, Rusyn/Ukrainian 1%, other and unspecified 1.8% (2001 census)
Slovenia	Slovenes	83.1%		Serbs 2%, Croats 1.8%, Bosniaks 1.1%, other (Dalmatian Italians, ethnic Germans, Hungarians and Romanians) and/or unspecified 12% (2002 census).
Sweden	Swedes	88%	Finns (Tornedalians), Sami people	foreign-born or first-generation immigrants: Finns (Sweden-Finns), Yugoslavs (Serbs, Croats, and Bosniaks), Danes, Norwegians, Russians, Arabs (Lebanese and Syrians), Syriacs, Greeks, Turks, Iranians, Iraqis, Pakistanis, Thais, Koreans, and Chileans.^[114]^[115]
Switzerland	Swiss Germans	65%^[116]	French 18%, Italians 10%^[116]	Romansh people in Grisons
Turkey^[d]	Turks	75%	Kurds 18%	Other 7%: Albanians, Arabs, Armenians (including Hemshin), Assyrians, Azerbaijanis, Bosniaks, Bulgarians (including Pomaks), Chechens, Circassians, Crimean Tatars, Georgians (including Laz), Greeks, Romani, Ossetians and Zaza.
Ukraine	Ukrainians	77.8%	Russians 17.3%	Belarusians 0.6%, Moldovans^[g] 0.5%, Crimean Tatars 0.5%, Bulgarians 0.4%, Hungarians 0.3%, Romanians 0.3%, Poles 0.3%, Jews 0.2%, Armenians 0.1%, Urums 0.1% and other 1.8% (2001 census).

Notes

Percentages from the CIA Factbook unless indicated otherwise.

Located in Asia, but sometimes considered part of Europe because of cultural ties, see boundaries of Europe.

Non-European ethnic group

Transcontinental country, see boundaries of Europe.

Percents represent citizenship, since Greece does not collect data on ethnicity.

partially recognized state, see international recognition of Kosovo.

There is an ongoing controversy in Moldova over whether Moldovans' self-identification constitute a subgroup of Romanians or a separate ethnic group.

There is no legal or generally accepted definitions of who is of Norwegian ethnicity in Norway. 87% of population have at least one parent who is born in Norway^{[citation needed]}.

In Norway, there is no clear legal definition of who is Sami. Therefore, exact numbers are not possible.

Excluding Kosovo

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Pashayan, Araks (2012), "Integration of Muslims in Europe and the Gülen", in Weller, Paul; Ihsan, Yilmaz (eds.), European Muslims, Civility and Public Life: Perspectives On and From the Gülen Movement, Continuum International Publishing Group, ISBN 978-1-4411-0207-2, There are around 10 million Euro-Turks living in the European Union countries of Germany, France, the Netherlands and Belgium.

Home Affairs Committee (2011). "Implications for the Justice and Home Affairs area of the accession of Turkey to the European Union" (PDF). The Stationery Office. p. Ev 34.

The Guardian (1 August 2011). "UK immigration analysis needed on Turkish legal migration, say MPs". Retrieved 1 August 2011. The Home Office says that there are about 150,000 Turkish nationals living in Britain at present, with about 500,000 people of Turkish origin living in the country altogether. But Germany, Austria, the Netherlands and France all have larger Turkish communities which are more likely to attract a new wave of legal migration.

Mölzer, Andreas. "In Österreich leben geschätzte 500.000 Türken, aber kaum mehr als 10–12.000 Slowenen". Archived from the original on 2012-07-22. Retrieved 30 October 2020.

Sayıner, Arda (2018). "Ankara Historia". Daily Sabah. Having said that, a few thousand Swedish citizens currently live in Turkey and the number went up 60 percent in 2017. According to Hyden, Turkish hospitality played an important part behind this increase. She said around 150,000 Turkish citizens live in Sweden, which has a total population of 10 million.

Türken in der Schweiz – Zahlen und Fakten zur Diaspora vom Bosporus, Aargauer Zeitung, 2017, retrieved 1 November 2020

Larsen, Nick Aagaard (2008), Tyrkisk afstand fra Islamisk Trossamfund, Danish Broadcasting Corporation, retrieved 1 November 2020, Ud af cirka 200.000 muslimer i Danmark har 70.000 tyrkiske rødder, og de udgør dermed langt den største muslimske indvandrergruppe.

Dursun-Özkanca, Oya (2019), Turkey–West Relations: The Politics of Intra-alliance Opposition, Cambridge University Press, p. 40, ISBN 978-1108488624, One-fifth of the Turkish population is estimated to have Balkan origins. Additionally, more than one million Turks live in Balkan countries, constituting a bridge between these countries and Turkey.

Al Jazeera (2014). "Ahıska Türklerinin 70 yıllık sürgünü". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 2016-07-05.

В России проживает около миллиона иудеев [About 1 million Jews live in Russia]. interfax-religion.ru (in Russian). 26 February 2015. Archived from the original on 27 December 2019. Retrieved 11 June 2020.

Tubb 1998, pp. 13–14

Ann E. Killebrew, Biblical Peoples and Ethnicity. An Archaeological Study of Egyptians, Canaanites, Philistines and Early Israel 1300-1100 B.C.E. (Archaeology and Biblical Studies), Society of Biblical Literature, 2005

Schama, Simon (18 March 2014). The Story of the Jews: Finding the Words 1000 BC-1492 AD. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-233944-7.

* "In the broader sense of the term, a Jew is any person belonging to the worldwide group that constitutes, through descent or conversion, a continuation of the ancient Jewish people, who were themselves descendants of the Hebrews of the Old Testament."

"The Jewish people as a whole, initially called Hebrews (ʿIvrim), were known as Israelites (Yisreʾelim) from the time of their entrance into the Holy Land to the end of the Babylonian Exile (538 BC)."

Jew at Encyclopædia Britannica

"Israelite, in the broadest sense, a Jew, or a descendant of the Jewish patriarch Jacob" Israelite at Encyclopædia Britannica

"Hebrew, any member of an ancient northern Semitic people that were the ancestors of the Jews." Hebrew (People) at Encyclopædia Britannica

Ostrer, Harry (19 April 2012). Legacy: A Genetic History of the Jewish People. Oxford University Press, USA. ISBN 978-0-19-970205-3.

Brenner, Michael (13 June 2010). A Short History of the Jews. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-14351-4.

Scheindlin, Raymond P. (1998). A Short History of the Jewish People: From Legendary Times to Modern Statehood. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-513941-9.

Adams, Hannah (1840). The History of the Jews: From the Destruction of Jerusalem to the Present Time. Sold at the London Society House and by Duncan and Malcom, and Wertheim.

Diamond, Jared (1993). "Who are the Jews?" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 July 2011. Retrieved 8 November 2010. Natural History 102:11 (November 1993): 12–19.

Hammer, M. F.; Redd, A. J.; Wood, E. T.; Bonner, M. R.; Jarjanazi, H.; Karafet, T.; Santachiara-Benerecetti, S.; Oppenheim, A.; Jobling, M. A.; Jenkins, T.; Ostrer, H.; Bonne-Tamir, B. (2000). "Jewish and Middle Eastern non-Jewish populations share a common pool of Y-chromosome biallelic haplotypes". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 97 (12): 6769–6774. Bibcode:2000PNAS...97.6769H. doi:10.1073/pnas.100115997. PMC 18733. PMID 10801975.

Wade, Nicholas (9 May 2000). "Y Chromosome Bears Witness to Story of the Jewish Diaspora". The New York Times. Retrieved 10 October 2012.

Behar, Doron M.; Metspalu, Mait; Baran, Yael; Kopelman, Naama M.; Yunusbayev, Bayazit; Gladstein, Ariella; Tzur, Shay; Sahakyan, Havhannes; Bahmanimehr, Ardeshir; Yepiskoposyan, Levon; Tambets, Kristiina; Khusnutdinova, Elza K.; Kusniarevich, Aljona; Balanovsky, Oleg; Balanovsky, Elena; Kovacevic, Lejla; Marjanovic, Damir; Mihailov, Evelin; Kouvatsi, Anastasia; Traintaphyllidis, Costas; King, Roy J.; Semino, Ornella; Torroni, Antonio; Hammer, Michael F.; Metspalu, Ene; Skorecki, Karl; Rosset, Saharon; Halperin, Eran; Villems, Richard; Rosenberg, Noah A. (2013). "No Evidence from Genome-Wide Data of a Khazar Origin for the Ashkenazi Jews". Human Biology Open Access Pre-Prints (Paper 41). Archived from the original on 11 October 2014. Retrieved 11 June 2020.

Costa, Marta D.; Pereira, Joana B.; Pala, Maria; Fernandes, Verónica; Olivieri, Anna; Achilli, Alessandro; Perego, Ugo A.; Rychkov, Sergei; Naumova, Oksana; Hatina, Jiři; Woodward, Scott R.; Eng, Ken Khong; Macaulay, Vincent; Carr, Martin; Soares, Pedro; Pereira, Luísa; Richards, Martin B. (8 October 2013). "A substantial prehistoric European ancestry amongst Ashkenazi maternal lineages". Nature Communications. 4: 2543. Bibcode:2013NatCo...4.2543C. doi:10.1038/ncomms3543. PMC 3806353. PMID 24104924.

Lazaridis, Iosif; Patterson, Nick; Mittnik, Alissa; Renaud, Gabriel; Mallick, Swapan; Kirsanow, Karola; Sudmant, Peter H; Schraiber, Joshua G; Castellano, Sergi; Lipson, Mark; Berger, Bonnie; Economou, Christos; Bollongino, Ruth; Fu, Qiaomei; Bos, Kirsten I; Nordenfelt, Susanne; Li, Heng; Cesare de Filippo; Prüfer, Kay; Sawyer, Susanna; Posth, Cosimo; Haak, Wolfgang; Hallgren, Fredrik; Fornander, Elin; Rohland, Nadin; Delsate, Dominique; Francken, Michael; Guinet, Jean-Michel; Wahl, Joachim; et al. (2013). "Ancient human genomes suggest three ancestral populations for present-day Europeans". Nature. 513 (7518): 409–13. arXiv:1312.6639. Bibcode:2014Natur.513..409L. doi:10.1038/nature13673. PMC 4170574. PMID 25230663.

Gregory Cochran, Henry Harpending, The 10,000 Year Explosion: How Civilization Accelerated Human Evolution, Basic Books, 2009 pp. 195–196.

Moses ben Machir, in Seder Ha-Yom, p. 15a, Venice 1605 (Hebrew)

Josephus Flavius, Antiquities, xi.v.2

"Petition for expatriate voting officially launched". The Daily Star. 14 July 2012.

Sachs, Susan (5 February 2007). "France's blacks stand up to be counted". The Globe and Mail. Archived from the original on 11 June 2020. Retrieved 11 June 2020.

"Latin American Immigration to Southern Europe". Migrationinformation.org. 28 June 2007. Retrieved 12 December 2017.

Born Abroad – Countries of birth, BBC News

"Comunidade Brasileira no Exterior - Estimativas referentes ao ano de 2020" (PDF) (in Portuguese). Ministry of External Relations. 14 September 2020. Retrieved 24 February 2021.

"Brasiliani in Italia - statistiche e distribuzione per regione". Tuttitalia.it (in Italian). Retrieved 2022-06-07.

"Población extranjera por Nacionalidad, comunidades, Sexo y Año". INE.

"Archived copy". www.destatis.de. Archived from the original on 16 November 2010. Retrieved 11 January 2022.

Kalaydjieva, L; Gresham, D; Calafell, F (2001). "Genetic studies of the Roma (Gypsies): a review". BMC Med. Genet. 2: 5. doi:10.1186/1471-2350-2-5. PMC 31389. PMID 11299048.

ab Hisitione autem ortae sunt quattuor gentes Franci, Latini, Albani et Britti. ab Armenone autem quinque: Gothi, Valagothi, Gebidi, Burgundi, Longobardi. a Neguio vero quattuor Boguarii, Vandali, Saxones et Turingi. trans. J. A. Giles. London: Henry G. Bohn, 1848.

Cf. Berting (2006:51).

Cederman (2001:2) remarks: "Given the absence of an explicit legal definition and the plethora of competing identities, it is indeed hard to avoid the conclusion that Europe is an essentially contested concept." Cf. also Davies (1996:15); Berting (2006:51).

Cf. Jordan-Bychkov (2008:13), Davies (1996:15), Berting (2006:51–56).

K. Bochmann (1990) L'idée d'Europe jusqu'au XXè siècle, quoted in Berting (2006:52). Cf. Davies (1996:15): "No two lists of the main constituents of European civilization would ever coincide. But many items have always featured prominently: from the roots of the Christian world in Greece, Rome and Judaism to modern phenomena such as the Enlightenment, modernization, romanticism, nationalism, liberalism, imperialism, totalitarianism."

Berting 2006, p. 52

Berting 2006, p. 51

Duran (1995:81)

Religions in Global Society – Page 146, Peter Beyer – 2006

Cambridge University Historical Series, An Essay on Western Civilization in Its Economic Aspects, p.40: Hebraism, like Hellenism, has been an all-important factor in the development of Western Civilization; Judaism, as the precursor of Christianity, has indirectly had had much to do with shaping the ideals and morality of western nations since the christian era.

Caltron J.H Hayas, Christianity and Western Civilization (1953), Stanford University Press, p.2: That certain distinctive features of our Western civilization — the civilization of western Europe and of America— have been shaped chiefly by Judaeo – Graeco – Christianity, Catholic and Protestant.

Horst Hutter, University of New York, Shaping the Future: Nietzsche's New Regime of the Soul And Its Ascetic Practices (2004), p.111:three mighty founders of Western culture, namely Socrates, Jesus, and Plato.

Fred Reinhard Dallmayr, Dialogue Among Civilizations: Some Exemplary Voices (2004), p.22: Western civilization is also sometimes described as "Christian" or "Judaeo- Christian" civilization.

Dawson, Christopher; Glenn Olsen (1961). Crisis in Western Education (reprint ed.). p. 108. ISBN 978-0-8132-1683-6.

Koch, Carl (1994). The Catholic Church: Journey, Wisdom, and Mission. Early Middle Ages: St. Mary's Press. ISBN 978-0-88489-298-4.

Dawson, Christopher; Glenn Olsen (1961). Crisis in Western Education (reprint ed.). ISBN 978-0-8132-1683-6.

Dawson, Christopher; Glenn Olsen (1961). Crisis in Western Education (reprint ed.). p. 108. ISBN 9780813216836.

"Regional Distribution of Christians". Pewforum.org. 19 December 2011. Retrieved 12 December 2017.

"Global Christianity: A Report on the Size and Distribution of the World's Christian Population" (PDF), Pew Research Center, 383, Pew Research Center, p. 130, 2011, archived from the original (PDF) on 5 August 2013, retrieved 14 August 2013

"Discrimination in the EU in 2012" (PDF), Special Eurobarometer, 383, European Union: European Commission, p. 233, 2012, archived from the original (PDF) on 2 December 2012, retrieved 14 August 2013

"Global Christianity – A Report on the Size and Distribution of the World's Christian Population". 19 December 2011.

"The Future of the Global Muslim Population". Pewforum.org. 27 January 2011. Retrieved 12 December 2017.

"Table: Muslim Population by Country". Pewforum.org. 27 January 2011. Retrieved 12 December 2017.

"In Europa leben gegenwärtig knapp 53 Millionen Muslime" [Almost 53 million Muslims live in Europe at present]. Islam.de (in German). 8 May 2007. Retrieved 15 January 2016.

Lipka, Michael. "The continuing decline of Europe's Jewish population".

"Jews". December 18, 2012.

"EC.Europa.eu" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 May 2006.

"Religiously Unaffiliated". Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life Project. 18 December 2012. Retrieved 22 February 2015.

This is particularly the case among proponents of the so-called confederalist or neo-functionalist position on European integration. Eder and Spohn (2005:3) note: "The evolutionary thesis of the making of a European identity often goes with the assumption of a simultaneous decline of national identities. This substitution thesis reiterates the well-known confederalist/neo-functionalist position in the debate on European integration, arguing for an increasing replacement of the nation-state by European institutions, against the intergovernmentalist/realist position, insisting on the continuing primacy of the nation-state."

"Country Policy and Information Note Albania: Ethnic minority groups" (PDF).

"Population: Demographic Situation, Languages and Religions". 9 October 2017.

The Greeks: the land and people since the war. James Pettifer. Penguin, 2000. ISBN 0-14-028899-6

"CIA Factbook 2010". Retrieved 26 July 2010.

"Census 2001, Population by Districts and Ethnic Groups as of 01.03.2001". Nsi.bg. Retrieved 26 August 2010.

"Popis stanovništva" [Population census] (in Croatian). Croatian Bureau of Statistics.

Persons of Danish origin: 4 985 415. Total population: 5 511 451 Statistics Denmark

https://www.un.org/depts/DGACM/RegionalGroups.shtml United Nations Regional Eastern European Group

"Background – Hagstofa". Hagstofa. Retrieved 12 December 2017.

"Legge 482". www.camera.it.

Refugees, United Nations High Commissioner for. "Refworld – World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples – Italy". Refworld.org. Retrieved 12 December 2017.

"Endangered languages: the full list". The Guardian Datablog facts are sacred. Retrieved 2 October 2022.

"Indicatori demografici". Istat.it. 30 November 2014. Retrieved 12 December 2017.

"CITTADINI NON COMUNITARI REGOLARMENTE SOGGIORNANTI : Anni 2013–2014" (PDF). Istat.it. Retrieved 12 December 2017.

"Cittadini Stranieri. Popolazione residente per sesso e cittadinanza al 31 Dicembre 2012 Italia – Tutti i Paesi". Demo.istat.it. Retrieved 12 December 2017.

Италианските българи (in Bulgarian). 24 Chasa. Archived from the original on 8 June 2015.

"On key provisional results of Population and Housing Census 2011 | Latvijas statistika". Csb.gov.lv. 18 January 2012. Retrieved 13 August 2012.

"MALTA : general data". Populstat.info. Archived from the original on 25 June 2009. Retrieved 12 December 2017.

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regionaldepartementet, Kommunal- og (8 December 2000). "St.meld. nr. 15 (2000–2001)". Regjeringa.no.

Personer med innvandringsbakgrunn, etter innvandringskategori, landbakgrunn og kjønn. 1. januar 2012 ( Archived 18 September 2012 at the Wayback Machine SSB (Statistics Norway), Retrieved 6 November 2012

Официальный сайт Всероссийской переписи населения 2010 года. Информационные материалы об окончательных итогах Всероссийской переписи населения 2010 года Archived 6 October 2014 at the Wayback Machine

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Andrews, Peter A.; Benninghaus, Rüdiger (2002), Ethnic Groups in the Republic of Turkey, Reichert, ISBN 978-3-89500-325-7
Banks, Marcus (1996), Ethnicity: Anthropological Constructions, Routledge
Berting, J. (2006), Europe: A Heritage, a Challenge, a Promise, Eburon Academic Publishers, ISBN 978-90-5972-120-3
Cederman, Lars-Erik (2001), "Political Boundaries and Identity Trade-Offs", in Cederman, Lars-Erik (ed.), Constructing Europe's Identity: The External Dimension, London: Lynne Rienner Publishers, pp. 1–34
Cole, J. W.; Wolf, E. R. (1999), The Hidden Frontier: Ecology and Ethnicity in an Alpine Valley, University of California Press, ISBN 978-0-520-21681-5
Davies, N. (1996), Europe: A History, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-820171-7
Dow, R. R.; Bockhorn, O. (2004), The Study of European Ethnology in Austria, Progress in European Ethnology, Ashgate Publishing, ISBN 978-0-7546-1747-1
Eberhardt, Piotr; Owsinski, Jan (2003), Ethnic Groups and Population Changes in Twentieth-century Central Eastern Europe, M.E. Sharpe, ISBN 978-0-7656-0665-5
Eder, Klaus; Spohn, Willfried (2005). Collective Memory and European Identity: The Effects of Integration and Enlargement. Burlington: Ashgate Publishing Company. ISBN 978-0-7546-4401-9.
Gresham, D.; et al. (2001), "Origins and divergence of the Roma (Gypsies)", American Journal of Human Genetics, 69 (6): 1314–1331, doi:10.1086/324681, PMC 1235543, PMID 11704928 Online article
Karolewski, Ireneusz Pawel; Kaina, Viktoria (2006), European Identity: Theoretical Perspectives and Empirical Insights, LIT Verlag, ISBN 978-3-8258-9288-3
Jordan-Bychkov, T.; Bychkova-Jordan, B. (2008), The European Culture Area: A Systematic Geography, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield, ISBN 978-0-7425-1628-1
Latham, Robert Gordon (1854), The Native Races of the Russian Empire, Hippolyte Baillière (London) Full text on google books
Laitin, David D. (2000), Culture and National Identity: "the East" and European Integration, Robert Schuman Centre
Gross, Manfred (2004), Romansh: Facts & Figures, Lia Rumantscha, ISBN 978-3-03900-037-1 Online version
Levinson, David (1998), Ethnic Groups Worldwide: A Ready Reference Handbook, Greenwood Publishing Group, ISBN 978-1-57356-019-1 part I: Europe, pp. 1–100.
Hobsbawm, E. J.; Kertzer, David J. (1992), "Ethnicity and Nationalism in Europe Today", Anthropology Today, 8 (1): 3–8, doi:10.2307/3032805, JSTOR 3032805
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Panikos Panayi, Outsiders: A History of European Minorities (London: Hambledon Press, 1999)
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Subcategories

This category has the following 19 subcategories, out of 19 total.

A

Alans‎ (2 C, 9 P)

Ancient Slavs‎ (2 P)

B

Ancient tribes in the Balkans‎ (6 C, 30 P)

Ancient tribes of the British Isles‎ (2 C)

C

Celtic tribes‎ (2 C, 1 P)

Celts‎ (10 C, 34 P)

D

Roman Dacia‎ (3 C, 94 P)

F

Ancient peoples of France‎ (1 C, 2 P)

G

Ancient peoples of Georgia (country)‎ (23 P)

Ancient tribes in Greece‎ (7 C, 10 P)

Greek people‎ (49 C, 2 P)

R

Romans‎ (6 C, 1 P)

Ancient peoples of Russia‎ (8 C, 25 P)

U

Ancient peoples of Ukraine‎ (1 P)

Pages in category "Ancient peoples of Europe"

The following 14 pages are in this category, out of 14 total. This list may not reflect recent changes.

A

Androphagi

C

E

Ethnic groups in Europe

F

Fenni

G

Greeks

I

Illyrians

L

Ligures

O

Osi (tribe)

R

Roman people

S

T

Turcilingi

V

Victohali

Categories:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Ancient_peoples_of_Europe

Italy (Italian: Italia [iˈtaːlja] (listen)), officially the Italian Republic^[a]^[11]^[12] or the Republic of Italy,^[13]^[14] is a country in Southern^[15]^[16]^[17] and Western^[18]^{[note 1]} Europe. Located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, it consists of a peninsula delimited by the Alps and surrounded by several islands; its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical region.^[19] Italy shares land borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia and the enclaved microstates of Vatican City and San Marino. It has a territorial exclave in Switzerland, Campione, and some islands in the African Plate. Italy covers an area of 301,230 km² (116,310 sq mi), with a population of about 60 million.^[20] It is the third-most populous member state of the European Union, the sixth-most populous country in Europe, and the tenth-largest country in the continent by land area. Italy's capital and largest city is Rome.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italy

In the English language, the word nigger is a racial slur used against black people, especially African Americans. Starting in the 1980s, references to nigger have been progressively replaced by the euphemism "the N-word", notably in cases where nigger is mentioned but not directly used.^[1] In an instance of linguistic reappropriation, the term nigger is also used casually and fraternally among African Americans, most commonly in the form of nigga, whose spelling originated from the phonological system of African-American English.^[1]^[2]

The word nigger, then spelled in English neger or niger, appeared in the 16th century as an adaptation of French nègre, itself from Spanish negro. They go back to the Latin adjective niger ([ˈnɪɡɛr]), meaning "black".^[1]^[2] It was initially seen as a relatively neutral term, essentially synonymous with the English word negro. Rather than demonstrating a hostile meaning of the word itself, early attested uses during the Atlantic slave trade (16th–19th century) often conveyed a patronizing tone that reflects the underlying attitudes held towards black people by their white authors. Building up on these mildly disparaging social meanings, the word took on a derogatory connotation from the mid-18th century onward, to the extent that it had "degenerated into an overt slur" by the middle of the 19th century. Some authors kept on using the term in a neutral sense up until the later part of the 20th century, at which point the use of nigger became increasingly seen as controversial regardless of its context or intent.^[1]^[2]^[3]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigger

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denmark

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_nobility_and_royalty

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/England

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_nobility

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Russian_monarchs

Catherine II^[a] (born Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst; 2 May 1729 – 17 November 1796),^[b] most commonly known as Catherine the Great,^[c] was the reigning empress of Russia from 1762 to 1796. She came to power after overthrowing her husband, Peter III. Under her long reign, inspired by the ideas of the Enlightenment, Russia experienced a renaissance of culture and sciences, which led to the founding of many new cities, universities, and theatres, along with large-scale immigration from the rest of Europe and the recognition of Russia as one of the great powers of Europe.

Catherine the Great

Catherine II, c. 1780s painted by Alexander Roslin

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catherine_the_Great

Peter III

Portrait by Lucas Conrad Pfandzelt, c. 1761

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_III_of_Russia

Peter I

Portrait by Jean-Marc Nattier, 1717

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_the_Great

The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territories, nine Minor Outlying Islands,[i] and 326 Indian reservations. The United States is the world's third-largest country by both land and total area.[c] It shares land borders with Canada to its north and with Mexico to its south and has maritime borders with the Bahamas, Cuba, Russia, and other nations.[j] With a population of over 333 million,[k] it is the most populous country in the Americas and the third most populous in the world. The national capital of the United States is Washington, D.C., and its most populous city and principal financial center is New York City.

Indigenous peoples have inhabited the Americas for thousands of years. Beginning in 1607, British colonization led to the establishment of the Thirteen Colonies in what is now the Eastern United States. They quarreled with the British Crown over taxation and political representation, leading to the American Revolution and proceeding Revolutionary War. The United States declared independence on July 4, 1776, becoming the first nation-state founded on Enlightenment principles of unalienable natural rights, consent of the governed, and liberal democracy. The country began expanding across North America, spanning the continent by 1848. Sectional division surrounding slavery in the Southern United States led to the secession of the Confederate States of America, which fought the remaining states of the Union during the American Civil War (1861–1865). With the Union's victory and preservation, slavery was abolished nationally by the Thirteenth Amendment.

By 1900, the United States had established itself as a world power, becoming the world's largest economy. After Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the U.S. entered World War II on the Allied side. The aftermath of the war left the United States and the Soviet Union as the world's two superpowers and led to the Cold War. During the Cold War, both countries engaged in a struggle for ideological dominance but avoided direct military conflict. They also competed in the Space Race, which culminated in the 1969 landing of Apollo 11, making the U.S. the first and only nation to ever land humans on the Moon. With the Soviet Union's collapse and the subsequent end of the Cold War in 1991, the United States emerged as the world's sole superpower.

The United States government is a federal republic and a representative democracy with three separate branches of government. It has a bicameral national legislature composed of the House of Representatives, a lower house; and the Senate, an upper house based on equal representation for each state. Many policy issues are decentralized, with widely differing laws by jurisdiction. The U.S. ranks highly in international measures of quality of life, income and wealth, economic competitiveness, human rights, innovation, and education; it has low levels of perceived corruption and the highest median income per person of any polity in the world. It has high levels of incarceration and inequality and lacks universal health care. As a melting pot of cultures and ethnicities, the U.S. has been shaped by the world's largest immigrant population.

A developed country, the American economy accounts for approximately a quarter of global GDP and is the world's largest by GDP at market exchange rates. The United States is the world's largest importer and second-largest exporter. The United States is a founding member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States, NATO, and is a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. The U.S. is the foremost military power in the world and a dominant political, cultural, and scientific force internationally.
Etymology
Further information: Names of the United States and Names for United States citizens

The first documentary evidence of the phrase "United States of America" dates back to a letter from January 2, 1776, written by Stephen Moylan to Joseph Reed, George Washington's aide-de-camp. Moylan expressed his wish to go "with full and ample powers from the United States of America to Spain" to seek assistance in the revolutionary war effort.[27][28][29] The first known publication of the phrase "United States of America" was in an anonymous essay in The Virginia Gazette newspaper in Williamsburg, on April 6, 1776.[30]

By June 1776, the name "United States of America" had appeared in drafts of the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, prepared by John Dickinson [31][32] and of the Declaration of Independence, written by Thomas Jefferson.[31]

The phrase "United States" was originally plural in American usage. It described a collection of states—e.g., "the United States are..." The singular form became popular after the end of the Civil War and is now standard usage. A citizen of the United States is called an "American". "United States", "American", and "U.S." refer to the country adjectivally ("American values", "U.S. forces"). In English, the word "American" rarely refers to topics or subjects not directly connected with the United States.[33]
History
Main article: History of the United States
For a topical guide, see Outline of United States history.
Pre-Columbian period (before 1492)
Further information: Native Americans in the United States and Pre-Columbian era

Cliff Palace, located in present-day Colorado, was built by the Ancestral Puebloans between AD 1190 and 1260.

It is generally accepted that the first inhabitants of North America migrated from Siberia by way of the Bering land bridge and arrived at least 12,000 years ago; however, some evidence suggests an even earlier date of arrival.[34][35][36] The Clovis culture, which appeared around 11,000 BC, is believed to represent the first wave of human settlement of the Americas.[37][38] This was likely the first of three major waves of migration into North America; later waves brought the ancestors of present-day Athabaskans, Aleuts, and Eskimos.[39]

Over time, indigenous cultures in North America grew increasingly sophisticated, and some, such as the pre-Columbian Mississippian culture in the southeast, developed advanced agriculture, architecture, and complex societies.[40] The city-state of Cahokia is the largest, most complex pre-Columbian archaeological site in the modern-day United States.[41] In the Four Corners region, Ancestral Puebloan culture developed from centuries of agricultural experimentation.[42] The Algonquian are one of the most populous and widespread North American indigenous peoples. This grouping consists of the peoples who speak Algonquian languages.[43] Historically, these peoples were prominent along the Atlantic Coast and into the interior along the Saint Lawrence River and around the Great Lakes. Before Europeans came into contact, most Algonquian settlements lived by hunting and fishing, although many supplemented their diet by cultivating corn, beans and squash (the "Three Sisters"). The Ojibwe cultivated wild rice.[44] The Haudenosaunee confederation of the Iroquois, located in the southern Great Lakes region, was established at some point between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries.[45]

Estimating the native population of North America during European contact is difficult.[46][47] Douglas H. Ubelaker of the Smithsonian Institution estimated a population of 93,000 in the South Atlantic states and a population of 473,000 in the Gulf states,[48] but most academics regard this figure as too low.[46] Anthropologist Henry F. Dobyns believed the populations were much higher, suggesting around 1.1 million along the shores of the Gulf of Mexico, 2.2 million people living between Florida and Massachusetts, 5.2 million in the Mississippi Valley and tributaries, and around 700,000 people in the Florida peninsula.[46][47]
Colonial period (1492–1763)
Further information: Colonial history of the United States, European colonization of the Americas, and Slavery in the colonial history of the United States

The Mayflower Compact signed on the Mayflower in 1620 set an early precedent for self-government and constitutionalism.

Claims of very early colonization of coastal New England by the Norse are disputed and controversial.[49][50][failed verification] Christopher Columbus had landed in Puerto Rico on his 1493 voyage, and San Juan was settled by the Spanish a decade later.[51] The first documented arrival of Europeans in the continental United States is that of Spanish conquistadors such as Juan Ponce de León, who made his first expedition to Florida in 1513.[citation needed] The Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano, sent by France to the New World in 1525, encountered Native American inhabitants of what is now called New York Bay.[52] The Spanish set up the first settlements in Florida and New Mexico, such as Saint Augustine, often considered the nation's oldest city,[53] and Santa Fe. The French established their own settlements along the Mississippi River and Gulf of Mexico, notably New Orleans and Mobile.[54]

Successful English colonization of the eastern coast of North America began with the Virginia Colony in 1607 at Jamestown and with the Pilgrims' colony at Plymouth in 1620.[55][56] The continent's first elected legislative assembly, Virginia's House of Burgesses, was founded in 1619. Harvard College was established in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1636 as the first institution of higher education. The Mayflower Compact and the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut established precedents for representative self-government and constitutionalism that would develop throughout the American colonies.[57][58] Many English settlers were dissenting Christians who came seeking religious freedom. The native population of America declined after European arrival for various reasons,[59][60][61] primarily from diseases such as smallpox and measles.[62][63] By the mid-1670s, the British had defeated and seized the territory of Dutch settlers in New Netherland, in the mid-Atlantic region.

The United Colonies in 1775: * Dark Red = New England colonies. * Bright Red = Middle Atlantic colonies. * Red-brown = Southern colonies

In the early days of colonization, many European settlers experienced food shortages, disease, and conflicts with Native Americans, such as in King Philip's War. Native Americans were also often fighting neighboring tribes and European settlers. In many cases the natives and settlers came to depend on each other. Settlers traded for food and animal pelts; natives for guns, tools and other European goods.[64] American Indians taught many settlers to cultivate corn, beans, and other foodstuffs. European missionaries and others felt it was important to "civilize" the Native Americans and urged them to adopt European agricultural practices and lifestyles.[65][66] However, with the increased European colonization of North America, Native Americans were displaced and often killed during conflicts.[67]

European settlers also began trafficking African slaves into Colonial America via the transatlantic slave trade.[68] By the turn of the 18th century, slavery had supplanted indentured servitude as the main source of agricultural labor for the cash crops in the American South.[69] Colonial society was divided over the religious and moral implications of slavery, and several colonies passed acts for or against the practice.[70][71]

The Thirteen Colonies [l] that would become the United States of America were administered by the British as overseas dependencies.[72] All nonetheless had local governments with elections open to white male property owners, except Jews and Catholics in some areas.[73][74] With very high birth rates, low death rates, and steady settlement, the colonial population grew rapidly, eclipsing Native American populations.[75] The Christian revivalist movement of the 1730s and 1740s known as the Great Awakening fueled interest both in religion and in religious liberty.[76]

During the Seven Years' War (1756–1763), known in the U.S. as the French and Indian War, British forces captured Canada from the French. The Treaty of Paris (1763) created a much smaller Province of Quebec, which still included the Ohio valley and the upper Mississippi valley, thereby isolating Canada's francophone population from the English-speaking colonial dependencies of Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and the Thirteen Colonies.[relevant?] Excluding the Native Americans who lived there, the Thirteen Colonies had a population of over 2.1 million in 1770, about a third that of Britain. Despite continuing new arrivals, the rate of natural increase was such that by the 1770s only a small minority of Americans had been born overseas.[77] The colonies' distance from Britain had allowed the development of self-government, but their unprecedented success motivated British monarchs to periodically seek to reassert royal authority.[78]
Revolutionary period (1763–1789)
Main articles: History of the United States (1776–1789) and 1789–1849
Further information: American Revolution, American Revolutionary War, Confederation period, and Territorial evolution of the United States

Declaration of Independence, a painting by John Trumbull, depicts the Committee of Five [m] presenting the draft of the Declaration to the Continental Congress, June 28, 1776, in Philadelphia.

The American Revolution separated the Thirteen Colonies from the British Empire, and included the first successful war of independence by a non-European entity against a European power in modern history. By the 18th century the American Enlightenment and the political philosophies of liberalism were pervasive among leaders. Americans began to develop an ideology of "republicanism", asserting that government rested on the consent of the governed. They demanded their "rights as Englishmen" and "no taxation without representation".[79][80] The British insisted on administering the colonies through a Parliament that did not have a single representative responsible for any American constituency, and the conflict escalated into war.[81]

In 1774, the First Continental Congress passed the Continental Association, which mandated a colonies-wide boycott of British goods. The American Revolutionary War began the following year, catalyzed by events like the Stamp Act and the Boston Tea Party that were rooted in colonial disagreement with British governance.[citation needed] The Second Continental Congress, an assembly representing the United Colonies, unanimously adopted the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776 (annually celebrated as Independence Day).[82] The Declaration declared: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." Stephen Lucas called it "one of the best-known sentences in the English language",[83] with historian Joseph Ellis writing that the document contains "the most potent and consequential words in American history".[84]

In 1781, the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union established a decentralized government that operated until 1789.[82] In 1777, the American victory at the Battle of Saratoga resulted in the capture of a British army, and led to France and their ally Spain joining in the war against them. After the surrender of a second British army at the siege of Yorktown in 1781, Britain signed a peace treaty. American sovereignty became internationally recognized, and the new nation took possession of substantial territory east of the Mississippi River, from what is today Canada in the north and Florida in the south.[85]

As it became increasingly apparent that the Confederation was insufficient to govern the new country, nationalists advocated for and led the Philadelphia Convention of 1787 in writing the United States Constitution to replace it, ratified in state conventions in 1788.
Early national period (1789–1861)

The U.S. Constitution is the oldest and longest-standing written and codified national constitution in force today.[86] Going into force in 1789, it reorganized the government into a federation administered by three branches (executive, judicial and legislative), on the principle of creating salutary checks and balances. George Washington, who had led the Continental Army to victory and then willingly relinquished power, was the first President elected under the new constitution. The Bill of Rights, forbidding federal restriction of personal freedoms and guaranteeing a range of legal protections, was adopted in 1791.[87] The 1803 Louisiana Purchase almost doubled the nation's area.[88] Tensions with Britain remained, leading to the War of 1812, which was fought to a draw.[89] Spain ceded Florida and other Gulf Coast territory in 1819.[90]

During the British Colonial era, slavery was legal in all of the American colonies, composed a longstanding institution in world history, and "challenges to its moral legitimacy were rare". However, during the Revolution, many in the colonies began to question the practice.[91]

Regional divisions over slavery grew in the proceeding decades. In the North, several prominent Founding Fathers such as John Adams, Roger Sherman, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and Benjamin Franklin advocated for the abolition of slavery, and by the 1810s every state in the region had, with these emancipations being the first in the Atlantic World.[92] In the South, the invention of the cotton gin spurred entrenchment of slavery, with regional elites and intellectuals increasingly viewing the institution as a positive good instead of a necessary evil.[93] The Missouri Compromise (1820) admitted Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state and declared a policy of prohibiting slavery in the remaining Louisiana Purchase lands north of the 36°30′ parallel. The outcome de facto sectionalized the country into two factions: free states, which forbid slavery; and slave states, which protected the institution; it was controversial, widely seen as dividing the country along sectarian lines.[94]

Although the federal government outlawed American participation in the Atlantic slave trade in 1807, after 1820, cultivation of the highly profitable cotton crop exploded in the Deep South, and along with it, the use of slave labor.[95][96][97] The Second Great Awakening, especially in the period 1800–1840, converted millions to evangelical Protestantism. In the North, it energized multiple social reform movements, including abolitionism;[98] in the South, Methodists and Baptists proselytized among slave populations.[99]

In the late 18th century, American settlers began to expand further westward, some of them with a sense of manifest destiny.[100][101] The 1803 Louisiana Purchase almost doubled the nation's area,[102] Spain ceded Florida and other Gulf Coast territory in 1819,[103] the Republic of Texas was annexed in 1845 during a period of expansionism,[101] and the 1846 Oregon Treaty with Britain led to U.S. control of the present-day American Northwest.[104] Additionally, the Trail of Tears in the 1830s exemplified the Indian removal policy that forcibly resettled Indians, further expanding acreage under mechanical cultivation and increasing surpluses for international markets. The displacement prompted a long series of American Indian Wars west of the Mississippi River [105] and eventually conflict with Mexico.[106] Most of these conflicts ended with the cession of Native American territory and their confinement to Indian reservations. Victory in the Mexican–American War resulted in the 1848 Mexican Cession of California and much of the present-day American Southwest, with the U.S. now spanning the continent.[100][107] The California Gold Rush of 1848–1849 spurred migration to the Pacific coast, which led to the California Genocide [108] and the creation of additional western states.[109] Economic development was spurred by giving vast quantities of land, nearly 10% of the total area of the United States, to white European settlers as part of the Homestead Acts, as well as making land grants to private railroad companies and colleges.[110] Prior to the Civil War, the prohibition or expansion of slavery into these territories exacerbated tensions over the debate around abolitionism.
Civil War and Reconstruction (1861–1877)
Main article: History of the United States (1849–1865)
Further information: Slave states and free states, American Civil War, and Reconstruction era
See also: Lost Cause of the Confederacy

Status of the states, 1861
Slave states that seceded before April 15, 1861
Slave states that seceded after April 15, 1861
Union states that permitted slavery (border states)
Union states that banned slavery
Territories

Irreconcilable sectional conflict regarding the enslavement of those of black African descent [111] was the primary cause of the American Civil War.[112] With the 1860 election of Republican Abraham Lincoln, conventions in eleven slave states—all in the Southern United States—declared secession and formed the Confederate States of America, while the federal government (the "Union") maintained that secession was unconstitutional and illegitimate.[113] On April 12, 1861, the Confederacy initiated military conflict by bombarding Fort Sumter, a federal garrison in Charleston harbor, South Carolina. The ensuing Civil War (1861–1865) was the deadliest military conflict in American history resulting in the deaths of approximately 620,000 soldiers from both sides and upwards of 50,000 civilians, almost all of them in the South.[114]

Reconstruction began in earnest following the defeat of the Confederates. While President Lincoln attempted to foster friendship and forgiveness between the Union and the former Confederacy, his assassination on April 14, 1865 drove a wedge between North and South again.[citation needed] Republicans in the federal government made it their goal to oversee the rebuilding of the South and to ensure the rights of African Americans. They persisted until the Compromise of 1877, when the Republicans agreed to cease enforcing the rights of African Americans in the South in order for Democrats to concede the presidential election of 1876.[citation needed] Influential Southern whites, calling themselves "Redeemers", took local control of the South after the end of Reconstruction, beginning the nadir of American race relations. From 1890 to 1910, the Redeemers established so-called Jim Crow laws, disenfranchising almost all blacks and some impoverished whites throughout the region. Blacks would face racial segregation nationwide, especially in the South.[115] They also lived under constant threat of vigilante violence, including lynching.[116]
Gilded Age and Progressive Era (1877–1920)
Main article: History of the United States (1865–1918)
Further information: Economic history of the United States, Immigration to the United States, Technological and industrial history of the United States, Gilded Age, and Progressive Era

National infrastructure, including telegraph and transcontinental railroads, spurred economic growth and greater settlement and development of the American Old West. After the American Civil War, new transcontinental railways made relocation easier for settlers, expanded internal trade, and increased conflicts with Native Americans.[117] Electric light and the telephone drastically changed communication and urban life.[118]
2:43

Film by Edison Studios showing immigrants at Ellis Island in New York Harbor, that was a major entry point for European immigration into the U.S.[119]

Mainland expansion also included the purchase of Alaska from Russia in 1867.[120] In 1893, pro-American elements in Hawaii overthrew the Hawaiian monarchy and formed the Republic of Hawaii, which the U.S. annexed in 1898. Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines were ceded by Spain in the same year, by the Treaty of Paris (1898) following the Spanish–American War.[121] Neither the Foraker Act (1900), nor the Insular Cases (1901) accorded US citizenship to Puerto Ricans. One month prior to American entry into World War I, citizenship was extended to Puerto Ricans via the Jones–Shafroth Act (1917).[122]: 60–63 In November 1903, the US acquired a perpetual lease of the Panama Canal Zone via the Hay–Bunau-Varilla Treaty after providing naval aid preventing Colombia from putting down the rebellion which led to the creation of an independent Panama. The logistics of the November uprising were prepared in New York.[122]: 67 American Samoa was acquired by the United States in 1900 after the end of the Second Samoan Civil War.[123] The U.S. Virgin Islands were purchased from Denmark in 1917.[124]

Workers mass producing automobiles on an assembly line in Chicago in 1913. This model of manufacturing and economic growth became known as Fordism.[125]

Rapid economic development during the late 19th and early 20th centuries fostered the rise of many prominent industrialists. Tycoons like Cornelius Vanderbilt, John D. Rockefeller, and Andrew Carnegie led the nation's progress in the railroad, petroleum, and steel industries. Banking became a major part of the economy, with J. P. Morgan playing a notable role. The United States also emerged as a pioneer of the automotive industry in the early 20th century. General Motors Corporation (GM), the company that would soon become the world's largest automaker, was founded in 1908 by William Durant.[126] In the North, urbanization and an unprecedented influx of immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe supplied a surplus of labor for the country's industrialization.[127] The American economy boomed, becoming the world's largest.[128] These dramatic changes were accompanied by significant increases in economic inequality, immigration, and social unrest, which prompted the rise of organized labor along with populist, socialist, and anarchist movements.[129][130][131] This period eventually ended with the advent of the Progressive Era, which saw significant reforms including health and safety regulation of consumer goods, the rise of labor unions, and greater antitrust measures to ensure competition among businesses and attention to worker conditions. The Great Migration beginning around 1910 also brought millions of African Americans to Northern urban centers from the rural South.[132]

The last vestiges of the Progressive Era resulted in women's suffrage and alcohol prohibition.[133][134][135] The first state to grant women the right to vote had been Wyoming, in 1869, followed by some other states[136] before the women's rights movement won passage of a constitutional amendment granting nationwide women's suffrage in 1920.[137]

The newly constructed Empire State Building in midtown Manhattan, 1932

Mushroom cloud formed by the Trinity Experiment in New Mexico, part of the Manhattan Project, the first detonation of a nuclear weapon in history, July 1945

The United States remained neutral from the outbreak of World War I in 1914 until 1917 when it joined the war as an "associated power" alongside the Allies of World War I, helping to turn the tide against the Central Powers. In 1919, President Woodrow Wilson took a leading diplomatic role at the Paris Peace Conference and advocated strongly for the U.S. to join the League of Nations. However, the Senate refused to approve this and did not ratify the Treaty of Versailles that established the League of Nations.[138]
Roaring Twenties, Great Depression, New Deal, and World War II (1920–1945)
Main article: History of the United States (1918–1945)
Further information: United States in World War I, Roaring Twenties, Great Depression in the United States, and Military history of the United States during World War II

The 1920s and 1930s saw the rise of radio for mass communication and the invention of early television.[139] The prosperity of the Roaring Twenties ended with the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and the onset of the Great Depression. After his election as President in 1932, Franklin D. Roosevelt responded with the New Deal economic policies.[140] The Dust Bowl of the mid-1930s impoverished many farming communities and spurred a new wave of western migration.[141]

At first neutral during World War II, the United States began supplying hundreds of billions worth of materiel to the Allies in March 1941. A total of $50.1 billion (equivalent to $719 billion in 2021) worth of supplies was shipped in 1941–1945, or 17% of the total war expenditures of the U.S.[142] In all, $31.4 billion went to the United Kingdom, $11.3 billion to the Soviet Union, $3.2 billion to France, $1.6 billion to China, and the remaining $2.6 billion to other Allies. On December 7, 1941, the Empire of Japan launched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, prompting the United States to militarily join the Allies against the Axis powers, and in the following year, to intern about 120,000 Japanese and Japanese Americans.[143][144] The U.S. pursued a "Europe first" defense policy,[145] with the Philippines being invaded and occupied by Japan until the country's liberation by the U.S.-led forces in 1944–1945. During the war, the United States was one of the "Four Policemen"[146] who met to plan the postwar world, along with Britain, the Soviet Union, and China.[147][148] The United States emerged relatively unscathed from the war, and with even greater economic and military influence.[149]

The United States played a leading role in the Bretton Woods and Yalta conferences, which signed agreements on new international financial institutions and Europe's postwar reorganization. As an Allied victory was achieved in Europe, a 1945 international conference held in San Francisco produced the United Nations Charter, which became active after the war.[150] The United States developed the first nuclear weapons and used them on Japan in the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945; the Japanese subsequently surrendered on September 2, ending World War II.[151][152]
Cold War (1945–1991)
Main articles: History of the United States (1945–1964), 1964–1980, 1980–1991, and 1991–2008

Post–World War II economic expansion in the U.S. led to suburban development and urban sprawl, as shown in this aerial photograph of Levittown, Pennsylvania, c. 1959.

After World War II, the United States financed and implemented the Marshall Plan to help rebuild and economically revive war-torn Europe; disbursements paid between 1948 and 1952 would total $13 billion ($115 billion in 2021).[153] Also at this time, geopolitical tensions between the United States and Soviet Russia led to the Cold War, driven by an ideological divide between capitalism and communism.[154] The two countries dominated the military affairs of Europe, with the U.S. and its NATO allies on one side and the Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact satellite states on the other.[155] Unlike the US, the USSR concentrated on its own recovery, seizing and transferring most of Germany's industrial plants, and it exacted war reparations from its Soviet Bloc satellites using Soviet-dominated joint enterprises.[n][156] The U.S. sometimes opposed Third World movements that it viewed as Soviet-sponsored, occasionally pursuing direct action for regime change against left-wing governments.[157] American troops fought the communist forces in the Korean War of 1950–1953,[158] and the U.S. became increasingly involved in the Vietnam War (1955–1975), introducing combat forces in 1965.[159] Their competition to achieve superior spaceflight capability led to the Space Race, which culminated in the U.S. becoming the first and only nation to land people on the Moon in 1969.[158] While both countries engaged in proxy wars and developed powerful nuclear weapons, they avoided direct military conflict.[155]

At home, the United States experienced sustained economic expansion, urbanization, and a rapid growth of its population and middle class following World War II. Construction of an Interstate Highway System transformed the nation's transportation infrastructure in decades to come.[160][161] In 1959, the United States admitted Alaska and Hawaii to become the 49th and 50th states, formally expanding beyond the contiguous United States.[162]

Martin Luther King Jr. gives his famous "I Have a Dream" speech at the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington, 1963.

The growing civil rights movement used nonviolence to confront racism, with Martin Luther King Jr. becoming a prominent leader.[163] President Lyndon B. Johnson initiated legislation that led to a series of policies addressing poverty and racial inequalities, in what he termed the "Great Society". The launch of a "War on Poverty" expanded entitlements and welfare spending, leading to the creation of the Food Stamp Program, Aid to Families with Dependent Children, along with national health insurance programs Medicare and Medicaid.[164] A combination of court decisions and legislation, culminating in the Civil Rights Act of 1968, made significant improvements.[165][166][167] Meanwhile, a counterculture movement grew, which was fueled by opposition to the Vietnam War, mainstream experimentation with psychedelics and cannabis, the Black Power movement, and the sexual revolution.[168] The women's movement in the U.S. broadened the debate on women's rights and made gender equality a major social goal. The 1960s Sexual Revolution liberalized American attitudes to sexuality and eventually spread to the rest of the developed world,[169][170] and the 1969 Stonewall riots in New York City marked the beginning of the modern gay rights movement in the West.[171][172]

The United States supported Israel during the Yom Kippur War; in response, the country faced an oil embargo from OPEC nations, sparking the 1973 oil crisis. The presidency of Richard Nixon saw the American withdrawal from Vietnam but also the Watergate scandal, which led to his resignation and a decline in public trust of government that expanded for decades.[173] After a surge in female labor participation around the 1970s, by 1985, the majority of women aged 16 and over were employed.[174] The 1970s and early 1980s also saw the onset of stagflation.

U.S. President Ronald Reagan (left) and Soviet general secretary Mikhail Gorbachev at the Geneva Summit in 1985

After his election in 1980, President Ronald Reagan responded to economic stagnation with neoliberal reforms and accelerated the rollback strategy towards the Soviet Union after its invasion of Afghanistan.[175][176][177][178] During Reagan's presidency, the federal debt held by the public nearly tripled in nominal terms, from $738 billion to $2.1 trillion.[179] This led to the United States moving from the world's largest international creditor to the world's largest debtor nation.[180] The collapse of the USSR's network of satellite states in Eastern Europe in 1989 and the subsequent dissolution of the country itself in 1991 ended the Cold War with American victory,[181][182][183][184] ensuring a global unipolarity [185] in which the U.S. was unchallenged as the world's sole superpower.[186]
Post-Cold War era (1991–present)
Main articles: History of the United States (1991–2008) and 2008–present

Fearing the spread of regional international instability from the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, in August 1991, President George H. W. Bush launched and led the Gulf War against Iraq, expelling Iraqi forces and dissolving the Iraqi-backed puppet state in Kuwait.[187] During the administration of President Bill Clinton in 1994, the U.S. signed the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), causing trade among the U.S., Canada, and Mexico to soar.[188] Due to the dot-com boom, stable monetary policy, and reduced social welfare spending, the 1990s saw the longest economic expansion in modern U.S. history.[189]

The World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan during the September 11 attacks by the Islamic terrorist group Al-Qaeda in 2001

On September 11, 2001, al-Qaeda terrorist hijackers flew passenger planes into the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon near Washington, D.C., killing nearly 3,000 people.[190] In response, President George W. Bush launched the war on terror, which included a nearly 20-year war in Afghanistan from 2001 to 2021 and the 2003–2011 Iraq War.[191][192] Government policy designed to promote affordable housing,[193] widespread failures in corporate and regulatory governance,[194] and historically low interest rates set by the Federal Reserve [195] led to a housing bubble in 2006. This culminated in the financial crisis of 2007–2008 and the Great Recession, the nation's largest economic contraction since the Great Depression.[196]

Barack Obama, the first multiracial [197] President with African-American ancestry, was elected in 2008 amid the financial crisis.[198] By the end of his second term, the stock market, median household income and net worth, and the number of persons with jobs were all at record levels, while the unemployment rate was well below the historical average.[199][200][201][202][203] His signature legislative accomplishment was the Affordable Care Act (ACA), popularly known as "Obamacare". It represented the U.S. health care system's most significant regulatory overhaul and expansion of coverage since Medicare in 1965. As a result, the uninsured share of the population was cut in half, while the number of newly insured Americans was estimated to be between 20 and 24 million.[204] After Obama served two terms, Republican Donald Trump was elected as the 45th president in 2016. His election is viewed as one of the biggest political upsets in American and world history.[205] Trump held office through the first waves of the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting COVID-19 recession starting in 2020 that exceeded even the Great Recession earlier in the century.[206]

Political polarization has become significant during the 2010s, with abortion access, same-sex marriage, the transgender rights movement, race, police brutality, immigration, and marijuana becoming center topics of debate. Several protests have since become among the largest in U.S. history.[207][208] On January 6, 2021, supporters of the outgoing President Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol in an unsuccessful effort to disrupt the Electoral College vote count that would confirm Democrat Joe Biden as the 46th president.[209] In 2022, the Supreme Court ruled that there is no constitutional right to an abortion, causing another wave of protests.[210] The United States responded significantly to Russia and Belarus after their invasion of Ukraine, with the country applying harsh sanctions on Russia and sending tens of billions of dollars of military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine.[211]
Geography
Main article: Geography of the United States

Topographic map of the United States

The 48 contiguous states and the District of Columbia occupy a combined area of 3,119,885 square miles (8,080,470 km2). Of this area, 2,959,064 square miles (7,663,940 km2) is contiguous land, composing 83.65% of total U.S. land area.[212][213] About 15% is occupied by Alaska, a state in northwestern North America, with the remainder in Hawaii, a state and archipelago in the central Pacific, and the five populated but unincorporated insular territories of Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.[214] Measured by only land area, the United States is third in size behind Russia and China, and just ahead of Canada.[215]

Denali, or Mount McKinley, in Alaska, the highest mountain peak in North America

The United States is the world's third- or fourth-largest nation by total area (land and water), ranking behind Russia and Canada and nearly equal to China. The ranking varies depending on how two territories disputed by China and India are counted, and how the total size of the United States is measured.[c][216]

The coastal plain of the Atlantic seaboard gives way further inland to deciduous forests and the rolling hills of the Piedmont.[217] The Appalachian Mountains and the Adirondack massif divide the eastern seaboard from the Great Lakes and the grasslands of the Midwest.[218] The Mississippi–Missouri River, the world's fourth longest river system, runs mainly north–south through the heart of the country. The flat, fertile prairie of the Great Plains stretches to the west, interrupted by a highland region in the southeast.[218]

The Rocky Mountains, west of the Great Plains, extend north to south across the country, peaking at over 14,000 feet (4,300 m) in Colorado.[219] Farther west are the rocky Great Basin and deserts such as the Chihuahua, Sonoran, and Mojave.[220] The Sierra Nevada and Cascade mountain ranges run close to the Pacific coast, both ranges also reaching altitudes higher than 14,000 feet (4,300 m). The lowest and highest points in the contiguous United States are in the state of California,[221] and only about 84 miles (135 km) apart.[222] At an elevation of 20,310 feet (6,190.5 m), Alaska's Denali is the highest peak in the country and in North America.[223] Active volcanoes are common throughout Alaska's Alexander and Aleutian Islands, and Hawaii consists of volcanic islands. The supervolcano underlying Yellowstone National Park in the Rockies is the continent's largest volcanic feature.[224]
Climate
Main articles: Climate of the United States and Climate change in the United States

Köppen climate types of the U.S.

The United States, with its large size and geographic variety, includes most climate types. To the east of the 100th meridian, the climate ranges from humid continental in the north to humid subtropical in the south.[225]

The Great Plains west of the 100th meridian are semi-arid. Many mountainous areas of the American West have an alpine climate. The climate is arid in the Great Basin, desert in the Southwest, Mediterranean in coastal California, and oceanic in coastal Oregon and Washington and southern Alaska. Most of Alaska is subarctic or polar. Hawaii and the southern tip of Florida are tropical, as well as its territories in the Caribbean and the Pacific.[226]

States bordering the Gulf of Mexico are prone to hurricanes, and most of the world's tornadoes occur in the country, mainly in Tornado Alley areas in the Midwest and South.[227] Overall, the United States receives more high-impact extreme weather incidents than any other country in the world.[228]

Extreme weather has become more frequent in the U.S., with three times the number of reported heat waves as in the 1960s. Of the ten warmest years ever recorded in the 48 contiguous states, eight have occurred since 1998. In the American Southwest, droughts have become more persistent and more severe.[229]
Biodiversity and conservation

Main articles: Fauna of the United States and Flora of the United States
Further information: Protected areas of the United States and Environmental movement in the United States

The bald eagle has been the national bird of the United States since 1782.[230]

The U.S. is one of 17 megadiverse countries containing large numbers of endemic species: about 17,000 species of vascular plants occur in the contiguous United States and Alaska, and more than 1,800 species of flowering plants are found in Hawaii, few of which occur on the mainland.[231] The United States is home to 428 mammal species, 784 birds, 311 reptiles, and 295 amphibians,[232] and 91,000 insect species.[233]

There are 63 national parks which are managed by the National Park Service, and hundreds of other federally managed parks, forests, and wilderness areas managed by it and other agencies.[234] Altogether, the government owns about 28% of the country's land area,[235] mostly in the western states.[236] Most of this land is protected, though some is leased for oil and gas drilling, mining, logging, or cattle ranching, and about .86% is used for military purposes.[237][238]

Environmental issues include debates on oil and nuclear energy, dealing with air and water pollution, the economic costs of protecting wildlife,[further explanation needed] logging and deforestation,[239][240] and climate change.[241][242] The most prominent environmental agency is the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), created by presidential order in 1970.[243] The idea of wilderness has shaped the management of public lands since 1964, with the Wilderness Act.[244] The Endangered Species Act of 1973 is intended to protect threatened and endangered species and their habitats, which are monitored by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service.[245]

As of 2020, the U.S. ranked 24th among 180 nations in the Environmental Performance Index.[246] The country joined the Paris Agreement on climate change in 2016, and has many other environmental commitments.[247] It withdrew from the Paris Agreement in 2020[248] but rejoined it in 2021.[249]
Government and politics
Main article: Politics of the United States
Further information: Political parties in the United States, Elections in the United States, Political ideologies in the United States, American patriotism, and American civil religion

The United States Capitol, where Congress meets: the Senate, left; the House, right

The White House, residence and workplace of the U.S. President

The Supreme Court Building, where the nation's highest court sits

The United States is a federal republic of 50 states, a federal district, five territories and several uninhabited island possessions.[250][251][252] It is the world's oldest surviving federation, and, according to the World Economic Forum, the oldest democracy as well.[253] It is a liberal representative democracy "in which majority rule is tempered by minority rights protected by law."[254] Major democracy indexes uniformly classify the country as a liberal democracy.[255] The 2022 Corruption Perceptions Index and Global Corruption Barometer rank the United States as having low levels of both actual and perceived corruption.[256][257]

The U.S. Constitution serves as the country's supreme legal document, establishing the structure and responsibilities of the federal government and its relationship with the individual states. The Constitution has been amended 27 times;[258] the first ten amendments (Bill of Rights) and the Fourteenth Amendment form the central basis of Americans' individual rights. All laws and governmental procedures are subject to judicial review, and any law can be voided if the courts determine that it violates the Constitution. The principle of judicial review, not explicitly mentioned in the Constitution, was established by the Supreme Court in Marbury v. Madison (1803).[259]

In the American federal system, sovereignty is shared between two levels of government: federal and state. Citizens of the states are also governed by local governments, which are administrative divisions of the states. The territories are administrative divisions of the federal government. Governance on many issues is decentralized, with widely differing state laws on abortion, cannabis, the death penalty,[o] guns, economic policy, and other issues.[263] States have increasingly restricted so-called "conversion therapy".[264][265] Prostitution is only legal in several counties of Nevada.[266]

The United States has operated under an uncodified informal two-party system for most of its history, although other parties have run candidates.[267] What the two major parties are has changed over time: the Republicans and Democrats presently are, and the country is currently in either the Fifth or Sixth Party System.[268] Both parties have no formal central organization at the national level that controls membership, elected officials or political policies; thus, each party has traditionally had factions and individuals that deviated from party positions.[269] Since the 2000s, the country has suffered from significant political polarization.[270]
Federal government
Main article: Government of the United States

The federal government comprises three branches, which are headquartered in Washington, D.C. and regulated by a system of checks and balances defined by the Constitution.[271] Legislative: The bicameral Congress, made up of the Senate and the House of Representatives, makes federal law, declares war, approves treaties, has the power of the purse,[272] and has the power of impeachment, by which it can remove sitting members of the federal government.[273]
Executive: The president is the commander-in-chief of the military, can veto legislative bills before they become law (subject to congressional override), and appoints the members of the Cabinet (subject to Senate approval) and other officers, who administer and enforce federal laws and policies through their respective agencies.[274]
Judicial: The Supreme Court and lower federal courts, whose judges are appointed by the President with Senate approval, interpret laws and overturn those they find unconstitutional.[275]

The lower house, the House of Representatives, has 435 voting members, each representing a congressional district for a two-year term. House seats are apportioned among the states by population. Each state then draws single-member districts to conform with the census apportionment. The District of Columbia and the five major U.S. territories each have one member of Congress—these members are not allowed to vote.[276]

The upper house, the Senate, has 100 members with each state having two senators, elected at large to six-year terms; one-third of Senate seats are up for election every two years. The District of Columbia and the five major U.S. territories do not have senators.[276] The Senate is unique among upper houses in being the most prestigious and powerful portion of the country's bicameral system; political scientists have frequently labeled it the "most powerful upper house" of any government.[277]

The President serves a four-year term and may be elected to the office no more than twice. The President is not elected by direct vote, but by an indirect electoral college system in which the determining votes are apportioned to the states and the District of Columbia.[278] The Supreme Court, led by the chief justice of the United States, has nine members, who serve for life. They are appointed by the sitting President when a vacancy becomes available.[279]
Political subdivisions
Main articles: Political divisions of the United States, State government in the United States, Local government in the United States, and U.S. state
Further information: List of states and territories of the United States, Indian reservation, and Territories of the United States
See also: Territorial evolution of the United States

Each of the 50 states holds jurisdiction over a geographic territory, where it shares sovereignty with the federal government. They are subdivided into counties or county equivalents, and further divided into municipalities. The District of Columbia is a federal district that contains the capital of the United States, the city of Washington.[280] Each state has an amount of presidential electors equal to the number of their representatives plus senators in Congress, and the District of Columbia has three electors.[281] Territories of the United States do not have presidential electors, therefore people there cannot vote for the president.[276]

Citizenship is granted at birth in all states, the District of Columbia, and all major U.S. territories except American Samoa.[p][285][282] The United States observes limited tribal sovereignty of the American Indian nations, like states' sovereignty. American Indians are U.S. citizens and tribal lands are subject to the jurisdiction of the U.S. Congress and the federal courts. Like the states, tribes have some autonomy restrictions. They are prohibited from making war, engaging in their own foreign relations, and printing or issuing independent currency.[286] Indian reservations are usually contained within one state, but there are 12 reservations that cross state boundaries.[287]

Foreign relations
Main articles: Foreign relations of the United States and Foreign policy of the United States

The United Nations headquarters has been situated along the East River in Midtown Manhattan since 1952. The United States is a founding member of the UN.

The United States has an established structure of foreign relations, and it had the world's second-largest diplomatic corps in 2019.[288] It is a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council,[289] and home to the United Nations headquarters.[290] The United States is also a member of the G7,[291] G20,[292] and OECD intergovernmental organizations.[293] Almost all countries have embassies and many have consulates (official representatives) in the country. Likewise, nearly all nations host formal diplomatic missions with United States, except Iran,[294] North Korea,[295] and Bhutan.[296] Though Taiwan does not have formal diplomatic relations with the U.S., it maintains close, if unofficial, relations. The United States also regularly supplies Taiwan with military equipment to deter potential Chinese aggression.[297]

The United States has a "Special Relationship" with the United Kingdom [298] and strong ties with Canada,[299] Australia,[300] New Zealand,[301] the Philippines,[302] Japan,[303] South Korea,[304] Israel,[305] and several European Union countries (France, Italy, Germany, Spain, and Poland).[306] The U.S. works closely with its NATO allies on military and national security issues, and with nations in the Americas through the Organization of American States and the United States–Mexico–Canada Free Trade Agreement. In South America, Colombia is traditionally considered to be the closest ally of the United States.[307] The U.S. exercises full international defense authority and responsibility for Micronesia, the Marshall Islands and Palau through the Compact of Free Association.[308] The U.S. has become a key ally of Ukraine since Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 and began an invasion of Ukraine in 2022, significantly deteriorating relations with Russia in the process.[309] The U.S. has also experienced a deterioration of relations with China and grown closer to Taiwan.[310][311][312]
Military
Main articles: United States Armed Forces and Military history of the United States

B-2 Spirit, the stealth heavy strategic bomber of the USAF

The Pentagon, near Washington, D.C., is home to the U.S. Department of Defense.

The President is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces and appoints its leaders, the secretary of defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The Department of Defense, which is headquartered at the Pentagon near Washington, D.C., administers five of the six service branches, which are made up of the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, and Space Force. The Coast Guard is administered by the Department of Homeland Security in peacetime and can be transferred to the Department of the Navy in wartime.[313] The United States spent $877 billion on its military in 2022, 39% of global military spending, accounting for 3.5% of the country's GDP.[314][315] The U.S. has more than 40% of the world's nuclear weapons, the second-largest amount after Russia.[316]

In 2019, all six branches of the U.S. Armed Forces reported 1.4 million personnel on active duty.[317] The Reserves and National Guard brought the total number of troops to 2.3 million.[317] The Department of Defense also employed about 700,000 civilians, not including contractors.[318] Military service in the United States is voluntary, although conscription may occur in wartime through the Selective Service System.[319] The United States has the third-largest combined armed forces in the world, behind the Chinese People's Liberation Army and Indian Armed Forces.[320]

Today, American forces can be rapidly deployed by the Air Force's large fleet of transport aircraft, the Navy's 11 active aircraft carriers, and Marine expeditionary units at sea with the Navy, and Army's XVIII Airborne Corps and 75th Ranger Regiment deployed by Air Force transport aircraft. The Air Force can strike targets across the globe through its fleet of strategic bombers, maintains the air defense across the United States, and provides close air support to Army and Marine Corps ground forces.[321][322]

The Space Force operates the Global Positioning System (GPS, also widespread in civilian use worldwide), the Eastern and Western Ranges for all space launches, and the United States's Space Surveillance and Missile Warning networks.[323][324][325] The military operates about 800 bases and facilities abroad,[326] and maintains deployments greater than 100 active duty personnel in 25 foreign countries.[327]
Law enforcement and crime
Main articles: Law enforcement in the United States and Crime in the United States

There are about 18,000 U.S. police agencies from local to federal level in the United States.[328] Law in the United States is mainly enforced by local police departments and sheriff's offices. The state police provides broader services, and federal agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the U.S. Marshals Service have specialized duties, such as protecting civil rights, national security and enforcing U.S. federal courts' rulings and federal laws.[329] State courts conduct most civil and criminal trials,[330] and federal courts handle designated crimes and appeals from the state criminal courts.[331]

As of 2020, the United States has an intentional homicide rate of 7 per 100,000 people.[332] A cross-sectional analysis of the World Health Organization Mortality Database from 2010 showed that United States homicide rates "were 7.0 times higher than in other high-income countries, driven by a gun homicide rate that was 25.2 times higher."[333]

As of 2014 and 2018, the United States had the largest prison population and highest documented incarceration rate in the world respectively.[334][335] In 2019, the total prison population for those sentenced to more than a year was 1,430,800, corresponding to a ratio of 419 per 100,000 residents and the lowest since 1995.[336] Some think tanks place that number higher, such as Prison Policy Initiative's estimate of 2.3 million.[337] Various states have attempted to reduce their prison populations via government policies and grassroots initiatives.[338]
Economy
Main article: Economy of the United States
Further information: Economic history of the United States, Taxation in the United States, United States federal budget, and Federal Reserve

The U.S. dollar (featuring George Washington) is the currency most used in international transactions and is the world's foremost reserve currency.[339]

The New York Stock Exchange on Wall Street, the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed companies[340]

Midtown Manhattan, the world's largest central business district [341]

According to the International Monetary Fund, the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) of $25.4 trillion constitutes 25% of the gross world product at market exchange rates and over 15% of the gross world product at purchasing power parity (PPP).[342][14] From 1983 to 2008, U.S. real compounded annual GDP growth was 3.3%, compared to a 2.3% weighted average for the rest of the G7.[343] The country ranks first in the world by nominal GDP,[344] second by GDP (PPP),[14] seventh by nominal GDP per capita,[342] and eighth by GDP (PPP) per capita.[14] As of 2022, the United States was ranked 25th out of 169 countries on the Social Progress Index, which measures "the extent to which countries provide for the social and environmental needs of their citizens."[345] The U.S. has been the world's largest economy since at least 1900.[346]

The United States is at or near the forefront of technological advancement and innovation [347] in many economic fields, especially in artificial intelligence; computers; pharmaceuticals; and medical, aerospace and military equipment.[348] The nation's economy is fueled by abundant natural resources, a well-developed infrastructure, and high productivity.[349] It has the second-highest total-estimated value of natural resources, valued at US$44.98 trillion in 2019, although sources differ on their estimates. Americans have the highest average household and employee income among OECD member states.[350] In 2013, they had the sixth-highest median household income, down from fourth-highest in 2010.[351][352]

The U.S. dollar is the currency most used in international transactions and is the world's foremost reserve currency, backed by the country's dominant economy, its military, the petrodollar system, and its linked eurodollar and large U.S. treasuries market.[339] Several countries use it as their official currency and in others it is the de facto currency.[353][354] New York City is the world's principal financial center, with the largest economic output, and the epicenter of the principal American metropolitan economy.[355][356][357] The New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq are the world's largest stock exchanges by market capitalization and trade volume.[358][359]

The largest U.S. trading partners are China, the European Union, Canada, Mexico, India, Japan, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and Taiwan.[360] The United States is the world's largest importer and the second-largest exporter after China.[361] It has free trade agreements with several countries, including the USMCA.[362] The U.S. ranked second in the Global Competitiveness Report in 2019, after Singapore.[363] Many of the world's largest companies, such as Alphabet (Google), Amazon, AT&T, Apple, Coca-Cola, Disney, General Motors, McDonald's, Nike, Meta, Microsoft, Pepsi, and Walmart, were founded and are headquartered in the United States.[364] Of the world's 500 largest companies, 124 are headquartered in the U.S.[364]

While its economy has reached a post-industrial level of development, the United States remains an industrial power.[365] As of 2018, the U.S. is the second-largest manufacturing nation after China.[366] In 2013, the U.S. national debt to GDP ratio surpassed 100% when both debt and GDP were approximately $16.7 trillion.[367]
Income and poverty
Main articles: Income in the United States and Poverty in the United States
Further information: Affluence in the United States and Income inequality in the United States

At US$69,392 in 2020, the United States was ranked first in the world by average yearly wage based on the OECD data, and it had the world's highest median income at US$46,625 in 2021.[368][369] Despite the fact that the U.S. only accounted for 4.24% of the global population, American citizens collectively possessed 30.2% of the world's total wealth as of 2021, the largest percentage of any country.[370] The U.S. also ranks first in the number of dollar billionaires and millionaires, with 724 billionaires (as of 2021)[371] and nearly 22 million millionaires (2021).[372]

The United States has a smaller welfare state and redistributes less income through government action than most other high-income countries.[373] The U.S. ranked the 52nd highest in income inequality among 167 countries in 2014,[374] and the highest compared to the rest of the developed world in 2018.[375][335]

Wealth in the United States is highly concentrated; the richest 10% of the adult population own 72% of the country's household wealth, while the bottom 50% own just 2%.[376] Income inequality in the U.S. remains at record highs,[377] with the top fifth of earners taking home more than half of all income[378] and giving the U.S. one of the widest income distributions among OECD members.[379] The United States is the only advanced economy that does not guarantee its workers paid vacation nationally[380] and is one of a few countries in the world without federal paid family leave as a legal right.[381] The United States also has a higher percentage of low-income workers than almost any other developed nation, largely because of a weak collective bargaining system and lack of government support for at-risk workers.[382]

There were about 567,715 sheltered and unsheltered homeless persons in the U.S. in January 2019, with almost two-thirds staying in an emergency shelter or transitional housing program.[383] Attempts to combat homelessness include the Section 8 housing voucher program and implementation of the Housing First strategy across all levels of government.[384]

In 2011, 16.7 million children lived in food-insecure households, about 35% more than 2007 levels, though only 845,000 U.S. children (1.1%) saw reduced food intake or disrupted eating patterns at some point during the year, and most cases were not chronic.[385] As of June 2018, 40 million people, roughly 12.7% of the U.S. population, were living in poverty, including 13.3 million children;[335] the poverty threshold in the United States was at $12,880 for a single-person household and $26,246 for a family of four in 2021.[386][387] As of 2019, 2% of the U.S. population earned less than $10 per day.[388] 0.25% of the U.S. population lived below the international poverty line of $2.15 per day in 2020.[389][390]
Science, technology, and energy
Main articles: Science and technology in the United States, Science policy of the United States, and Energy in the United States

U.S. astronaut Buzz Aldrin saluting the flag on the Moon during the Apollo 11, 1969. The United States is the only country that has sent crewed missions to the lunar surface.

The United States has been a leader in technological innovation since the late 19th century and scientific research since the mid-20th century. Methods for producing interchangeable parts and the establishment of a machine tool industry enabled the U.S. to have large-scale manufacturing of sewing machines, bicycles, and other items in the late 19th century. In the early 20th century, factory electrification, the introduction of the assembly line, and other labor-saving techniques created the system of mass production.[391] In the 21st century, approximately two-thirds of research and development funding comes from the private sector.[392] In 2022, the United States was the country with the second-highest number of published scientific papers.[393] As of 2021, the U.S. ranked second by the number of patent applications, and third by trademark and industrial design applications.[394] In 2021, the United States launched a total of 51 spaceflights (China reported 55).[395] The U.S. had 2,944 active satellites in space in December 2021, the highest number of any country.[396]

In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell was awarded the first U.S. patent for the telephone. Thomas Edison's research laboratory developed the phonograph, the first long-lasting light bulb, and the first viable movie camera.[397] The Wright brothers in 1903 made the first sustained and controlled heavier-than-air powered flight, and the automobile companies of Ransom E. Olds and Henry Ford popularized the assembly line in the early 20th century.[398] The rise of fascism and Nazism in the 1920s and 30s led many European scientists, such as Albert Einstein, Enrico Fermi, and John von Neumann, to immigrate to the United States.[399] During World War II, the Manhattan Project. developed nuclear weapons, ushering in the Atomic Age. During the Cold War, competition for superior missile capability led to the Space Race between the United States and Soviet Union.[400][401] The great American technological breakthroughs of the 20th century stem from the invention of the transistor in the 1950s, a key component in almost all modern electronics, which led to the development of microprocessors, software, personal computers, and the Internet.[402] In 2022, the United States ranked 2nd in the Global Innovation Index.[403] The United States also developed the Global Positioning System, which is the world's pre-eminent satellite navigation system.[404]

As of 2019, the United States receives approximately 80% of its energy from fossil fuels.[405] In 2019, the largest source of the country's energy came from petroleum (36.6%), followed by natural gas (32%), coal (11.4%), renewable sources (11.4%), and nuclear power (8.4%).[405] Americans constitute less than 5% of the world's population, but consume 17% of the world's energy.[406] They account for about 25% of the world's petroleum consumption, while producing only 6% of the world's annual petroleum supply.[407] The U.S. ranks as second-highest emitter of greenhouse gases, exceeded only by China.[408]
Transportation
Main article: Transportation in the United States

Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport is the world's busiest by passenger traffic.[409]

The United States's rail network, nearly all standard gauge, is the longest in the world, and exceeds 293,564 km (182,400 mi).[410] It handles mostly freight, with intercity passenger service primarily provided by Amtrak, a government-managed company that took over services previously run by private companies, to all but four states.[411][412]

Personal transportation is dominated by automobiles, which operate on a network of 4 million miles (6.4 million kilometers) of public roads, making it the longest network in the world.[413][414] The United States became the first country in the world to have a mass market for vehicle production and sales, and mass market production process.[415] As of 2022, the United States is the second-largest manufacturer of motor vehicles[416] and is home to Tesla, the world's most valuable car company.[417] General Motors held the title of the world's best-selling automaker from 1931 to 2008.[418] Currently, the U.S. has the world's second-largest automobile market by sales[419] and the highest vehicle ownership per capita in the world, with 816.4 vehicles per 1,000 Americans (2014).[420] In 2017, there were 255 million non-two wheel motor vehicles, or about 910 vehicles per 1,000 people.[421]

The civil airline industry is entirely privately owned and has been largely deregulated since 1978, while most major airports are publicly owned.[422] The three largest airlines in the world by passengers carried are U.S.-based; American Airlines is number one after its 2013 acquisition by US Airways.[423] Of the world's 50 busiest passenger airports, 16 are in the United States, including the top five and the busiest, Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport.[424][425] As of 2020, there are 19,919 airports in the United States, of which 5,217 are designated as "public use", including for general aviation and other activities.[426]

Of the fifty busiest container ports, four are located in the United States, of which the busiest is the Port of Los Angeles.[427] The country's inland waterways are the world's fifth-longest, and total 41,009 km (25,482 mi).[428]
Demographics
Main articles: Americans, Demographics of the United States, Race and ethnicity in the United States, Religion in the United States, and Family structure in the United States
Population
See also: List of U.S. states by population
Historical population CensusPop.Note%±
1790 3,929,326
—
1800 5,308,483
35.1%
1810 7,239,881
36.4%
1820 9,638,453
33.1%
1830 12,866,020
33.5%
1840 17,069,453
32.7%
1850 23,191,876
35.9%
1860 31,443,321
35.6%
1870 38,925,598
23.8%
1880 50,189,209
28.9%
1890 62,979,766
25.5%
1900 76,212,168
21.0%
1910 92,228,496
21.0%
1920 106,021,537
15.0%
1930 122,775,046
15.8%
1940 132,164,569
7.6%
1950 150,697,361
14.0%
1960 179,323,175
19.0%
1970 203,392,031
13.4%
1980 226,545,805
11.4%
1990 248,709,873
9.8%
2000 281,421,906
13.2%
2010 308,745,538
9.7%
2020 331,449,281
7.4%
2022 (est.) 333,287,557 [429] 0.6%
U.S. Decennial Census

The U.S. Census Bureau reported 331,449,281 residents as of April 1, 2020,[q][430] making the United States the third most populous nation in the world, after China and India.[431] According to the Bureau's U.S. Population Clock, on January 28, 2021, the U.S. population had a net gain of one person every 100 seconds, or about 864 people per day.[432] In 2018, 52% of Americans age 15 and over were married, 6% were widowed, 10% were divorced, and 32% had never been married.[433] In 2021, America's total fertility rate stood at 1.7 children per woman,[434] and it had the world's highest rate of children (23%) living in single-parent households in 2019.[435]

The United States has a diverse population; 37 ancestry groups have more than one million members.[436] White Americans with ancestry from Europe, the Middle East or North Africa, form the largest racial and ethnic group at 57.8% of the United States population.[437][438] Hispanic and Latino Americans form the second-largest group and are 18.7% of the United States population. African Americans constitute the nation's third-largest ancestry group and are 12.1% of the total United States population.[436] Asian Americans are the country's fourth-largest group, composing 5.9% of the United States population, while the country's 3.7 million Native Americans account for about 1%.[436] In 2020, the median age of the United States population was 38.5 years.[431]
Immigration

The United States has by far the highest number of immigrant population in the world, with 50,661,149 people.[439][440] In 2018, there were almost 90 million immigrants and U.S.-born children of immigrants in the United States, accounting for 28% of the overall U.S. population.[441] In 2017, out of the U.S. foreign-born population, some 45% (20.7 million) were naturalized citizens, 27% (12.3 million) were lawful permanent residents, 6% (2.2 million) were temporary lawful residents, and 23% (10.5 million) were unauthorized immigrants.[442]

The United States led the world in refugee resettlement for decades, admitting more refugees than the rest of the world combined.[443]
Language
Main article: Languages of the United States

American English is the de facto national language of the United States. Although there is no official language at the federal level, some laws—such as U.S. naturalization requirements—standardize English, and most states have declared English as the official language.[444] Three states and four U.S. territories have recognized local or indigenous languages in addition to English, including Hawaii (Hawaiian),[445] Alaska (twenty Native languages),[r][446] South Dakota (Sioux),[447] American Samoa (Samoan), Puerto Rico (Spanish), Guam (Chamorro), and the Northern Mariana Islands (Carolinian and Chamorro).

In Puerto Rico, Spanish is more widely spoken than English.[448]

According to the American Community Survey, in 2010 some 229 million people (out of the total U.S. population of 308 million) spoke only English at home. More than 37 million spoke Spanish at home, making it the second most commonly used language in the United States. Other languages spoken at home by one million people or more include Chinese (2.8 million), Tagalog (1.6 million), Vietnamese (1.4 million), French (1.3 million), Korean (1.1 million), and German (1 million).[449]

The most widely taught foreign languages in the United States, in terms of enrollment numbers from kindergarten through university undergraduate education, are Spanish, French, and German. Other commonly taught languages include Latin, Japanese, American Sign Language, Italian, and Chinese.[450][451]
Religion
Main article: Religion in the United States
See also: List of religious movements that began in the United States

Self-identified religious affiliation in the United States (2023 The Wall Street Journal-NORC poll):[452]
Protestantism (26%)
Catholicism (21%)
"Just Christian" (20%)
Mormonism (2%)
Unitarianism (1%)
Judaism (2%)
Buddhism (2%)
Other religious affilation (2%)
Islam (1%)
Nothing in particular (12%)
Agnosticism (8%)
Atheism (4%)

Religious affilation in the United States is among the most diverse in the world [453] and varies significantly by region [454] and age.[455]

The First Amendment guarantees the free exercise of religion and forbids Congress from passing laws respecting its establishment.[456][457] The country has the world's largest Christian population [458] and a majority of Americans identify as Christian, predominately Catholic, mainline Protestant, or evangelical. However, most do not consider religion an important part of their life,[452] do not regularly attend religious services,[452] and have low confidence in religious institutions.[459] Until the 1990s, the country was a significant outlier among highly developed countries, notably having a high level of religiosity and wealth, although this has lessened since.[460][461]

According to Gallup, 81% of Americans believe in some conception of a God [462] while "31% report attending a church, synagogue, mosque or temple weekly or nearly weekly today."[463] In the "Bible Belt", located within the Southern United States, evangelical Protestantism plays a significant role culturally. New England and the Western United States tend to be less religious.[454] Around 6% of Americans claim a non-Christian faith;[460] the largest of which are Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism.[464] The United States either has the first or second-largest Jewish population in the world, the largest outside of Israel.[465] "Ceremonial deism" is common in American culture.[456][466] Around 30% of Americans describe themselves as having no religion.[460] Membership in a house of worship fell from 70% in 1999 to 47% in 2020.[467]
Urbanization
Main articles: Urbanization in the United States and List of United States cities by population

About 82% of Americans live in urban areas, including suburbs;[216] about half of those reside in cities with populations over 50,000.[468] In 2008, 273 incorporated municipalities had populations over 100,000, nine cities had more than one million residents, and four cities (New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Houston) had populations exceeding two million.[469] Many U.S. metropolitan populations are growing rapidly, particularly in the South and West.[470]

v
t
e
Largest metropolitan areas in the United States

2021 MSA population estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau

Rank Name Region Pop. Rank Name Region Pop.

New York

Los Angeles 1 New York Northeast 19,768,458 11 Boston Northeast 4,899,932
Chicago

Dallas–Fort Worth
2 Los Angeles West 12,997,353 12 Riverside–San Bernardino West 4,653,105
3 Chicago Midwest 9,509,934 13 San Francisco West 4,623,264
4 Dallas–Fort Worth South 7,759,615 14 Detroit Midwest 4,365,205
5 Houston South 7,206,841 15 Seattle West 4,011,553
6 Washington, D.C. South 6,356,434 16 Minneapolis–Saint Paul Midwest 3,690,512
7 Philadelphia Northeast 6,228,601 17 San Diego West 3,286,069
8 Atlanta South 6,144,050 18 Tampa–St. Petersburg South 3,219,514
9 Miami South 6,091,747 19 Denver West 2,972,566
10 Phoenix West 4,946,145 20 Baltimore South 2,838,327

Education
Main articles: Education in the United States and Higher education in the United States

The University of Virginia, founded by Thomas Jefferson, is one of the many public colleges and universities in the United States.

American public education is operated by state and local governments and regulated by the United States Department of Education through restrictions on federal grants. In most states, children are required to attend school from the age of five or six (beginning with kindergarten or first grade) until they turn 18 (generally bringing them through twelfth grade, the end of high school); some states allow students to leave school at 16 or 17.[471] Of Americans 25 and older, 84.6% graduated from high school, 52.6% attended some college, 27.2% earned a bachelor's degree, and 9.6% earned graduate degrees.[472] The basic literacy rate is approximately 99%.[216][473]

The United States has many private and public institutions of higher education. There are also local community colleges with generally more open admission policies, shorter academic programs, and lower tuition.[474] The U.S. spends more on education per student than any nation in the world,[475] spending an average of $12,794 per year on public elementary and secondary school students in the 2016–2017 school year.[476] As for public expenditures on higher education, the U.S. spends more per student than the OECD average, and more than all nations in combined public and private spending.[477] Despite some student loan forgiveness programs in place,[478] student loan debt has increased by 102% in the last decade,[479] and exceeded 1.7 trillion dollars as of 2022.[480]

The large majority of the world's top universities, as listed by various ranking organizations, are in the United States, including 19 of the top 25, and the most prestigious – the Harvard University.[481][482][483][484] The country also has by far the most Nobel Prize winners in history, with 403 (having won 406 awards).[485]
Health
See also: Health care in the United States, Health care reform in the United States, and Health insurance in the United States

The Texas Medical Center in downtown Houston is the largest medical complex in the world.[486]

In a preliminary report, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced that U.S. life expectancy at birth had dropped to 76.4 years in 2021 (73.2 years for men and 79.1 years for women), down 0.9 years from 2020. This was the second year of overall decline, and the chief causes listed were the COVID-19 pandemic, accidents, drug overdoses, heart and liver disease, and suicides.[487][488] Life expectancy was highest among Asians and Hispanics and lowest among Blacks and American Indian–Alaskan Native (AIAN) peoples.[489][490] Starting in 1998, the average life expectancy in the U.S. fell behind that of other wealthy industrialized countries, and Americans' "health disadvantage" gap has been increasing ever since.[491] The U.S. also has one of the highest suicide rates among high-income countries,[492] and approximately one-third of the U.S. adult population is obese and another third is overweight.[493]

In 2010, coronary artery disease, lung cancer, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases, and traffic collisions caused the most years of life lost in the U.S. Low back pain, depression, musculoskeletal disorders, neck pain, and anxiety caused the most years lost to disability. The most harmful risk factors were poor diet, tobacco smoking, obesity, high blood pressure, high blood sugar, physical inactivity, and alcohol consumption. Alzheimer's disease, substance use disorders, kidney disease, cancer, and falls caused the most additional years of life lost over their age-adjusted 1990 per-capita rates.[494] Teenage pregnancy and abortion rates in the U.S. are substantially higher than in other Western nations, especially among blacks and Hispanics.[495]

The U.S. health care system far outspends that of any other nation, measured both in per capita spending and as a percentage of GDP but attains worse health care outcomes when compared to peer nations.[496] The United States is the only developed nation without a system of universal health care, and a significant proportion of the population that does not carry health insurance.[497] The U.S., however, is a global leader in medical innovation, measured either in terms of revenue or the number of new drugs and devices introduced.[498][499] The Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity ranked the United States 11th in its World Index of Healthcare Innovation; it concluded that the U.S. dominates science & technology, which "was on full display during the COVID-19 pandemic, as the U.S. government [delivered] coronavirus vaccines far faster than anyone had ever done before," but lags behind in fiscal sustainability, with "[government] spending [...] growing at an unsustainable rate."[500]

Government-funded health care coverage for the poor (Medicaid, established in 1965) and for those age 65 and older (Medicare, begun in 1966) is available to Americans who meet the programs' income or age qualifications. In 2010, former President Obama passed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act or ACA,[s][501] with the law roughly halving the uninsured share of the population according to the CDC.[502] Multiple studies have concluded that ACA had reduced the mortality of enrollees.[503][504][505] However, its legacy remains controversial.[506]
Culture and society
Main articles: Culture of the United States and Society of the United States

The Statue of Liberty (Liberty Enlightening the World), a gift from France, has become an iconic symbol of the American Dream.[507]

Americans have traditionally been characterized by a unifying belief in an "American creed" emphasizing liberty, equality under the law, democracy, social equality, property rights, and a preference for limited government.[508][509] Individualism,[510] having a strong work ethic,[511] competitiveness,[512] and altruism [513][514][515] are also cited values. According to a 2006 study by the Charities Aid Foundation, Americans donated 1.44% of total GDP to charity, the highest in the world by a large margin.[516] The United States is home to a wide variety of ethnic groups, traditions, and values,[517][518] and exerts major cultural influence on a global scale,[519][520] with the phenomenon being termed Americanization.[521] As such, the U.S. is considered a cultural superpower.[522]

Nearly all present Americans or their ancestors came from Eurafrasia ("the Old World") within the past five centuries.[523] Mainstream American culture is a Western culture largely derived from the traditions of European immigrants with influences from many other sources, such as traditions brought by slaves from Africa.[517][524] More recent immigration from Asia and especially Latin America has added to a cultural mix that has been described as a homogenizing melting pot, and a heterogeneous salad bowl, with immigrants contributing to, and often assimilating into, mainstream American culture.[517] The American Dream, or the perception that Americans enjoy high social mobility, plays a key role in attracting immigrants.[525] Whether this perception is accurate has been a topic of debate.[526][527][528] While mainstream culture holds that the United States is a classless society,[529] scholars identify significant differences between the country's social classes, affecting socialization, language, and values.[530] Americans tend to greatly value socioeconomic achievement, but being ordinary or average is promoted by some as a noble condition.[531]

The United States is considered to have the strongest protections of free speech of any country in the world under the First Amendment,[532] with the Supreme Court ruling that flag desecration, hate speech, blasphemy, and lese-majesty are all forms of protected expression.[533][534][535] A 2016 Pew Research Center poll found that Americans were the most supportive of free expression of any polity measured.[536] They are also the "most supportive of freedom of the press and the right to use the Internet without government censorship."[537] It is a socially progressive country[538] with permissive attitudes surrounding human sexuality.[539] LGBT rights in the U.S. are among the most advanced in the world.[539][540][541]
Literature and visual arts
Main articles: American literature, American philosophy, Architecture of the United States, and Visual art of the United States

Mark Twain, American author and humorist

In the 18th and early 19th centuries, American art and literature took most of their cues from Europe, contributing to Western culture. Writers such as Washington Irving, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allan Poe, and Henry David Thoreau established a distinctive American literary voice by the middle of the 19th century. Mark Twain and poet Walt Whitman were major figures in the century's second half; Emily Dickinson, virtually unknown during her lifetime, is recognized as an essential American poet.[542]

In the 1920s, the New Negro Movement coalesced in Harlem, where many writers had migrated (some coming from the South, others from the West Indies). Its pan-African perspective was a significant cultural export during the Jazz Age in Paris and as such was a key early influence on the négritude philosophy.[543]

There have been a multitude of candidates for the "Great American Novel"—works seen as embodying and examining the essence and character of the United States—including Herman Melville's Moby-Dick (1851), Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852), Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885), F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby (1925), John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath (1939), Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird (1960), Toni Morrison's Beloved (1987), and David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest (1996).[544][545][546]

Thirteen U.S. citizens have won the Nobel Prize in Literature, most recently Louise Glück, Bob Dylan, and Toni Morrison.[547] Earlier laureates William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway and John Steinbeck have also been recognized as influential 20th century writers.[548]

In the visual arts, the Hudson River School was a mid-19th-century movement in the tradition of European naturalism. The 1913 Armory Show in New York City, an exhibition of European modernist art, shocked the public and transformed the U.S. art scene.[549] Georgia O'Keeffe, Marsden Hartley, and others experimented with new, individualistic styles, which would become known as American modernism.

Major artistic movements such as the abstract expressionism of Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning and the pop art of Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein developed largely in the United States. The tide of modernism and then postmodernism has brought global fame to American architects such as Frank Lloyd Wright, Philip Johnson, and Frank Gehry.[550] Major photographers include Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Steichen, Dorothea Lange, Edward Weston, James Van Der Zee, and Ansel Adams.[551]

The most notable American architectural innovation has been the skyscraper. By some measures, what came to be known as a "skyscraper" in the modern world, first appeared in Chicago with the 1885 completion of the world's first largely steel-frame structure, the Home Insurance Building. One culturally significant early skyscraper was New York City's Woolworth Building designed by architect Cass Gilbert. Raising previous technological advances to new heights, 793 ft (233 m), it was the world's tallest building in 1913–1930.[552] The 1916 Zoning Resolution setback law, which remained in effect until 1960, allowed structures to rise to any height as long as it reduced the area of each tower floor to one quarter of the structure's ground floor area.[553]
Cinema and theater
Main articles: Cinema of the United States and Theater in the United States

The iconic Hollywood Sign in Los Angeles, California

The United States movie industry has a worldwide influence and following. Hollywood, a northern district of Los Angeles, California, is the leader in motion picture production and the most recognizable movie industry in the world.[554][555][556] The major film studios of the United States are the primary source of the most commercially successful and most ticket selling movies in the world.[557][558]

The world's first commercial motion picture exhibition was given in New York City in 1894, using the Kinetoscope.[559] Since the early 20th century, the U.S. film industry has largely been based in and around Hollywood, although in the 21st century an increasing number of films are not made there, and film companies have been subject to the forces of globalization.[560] The Academy Awards, popularly known as the Oscars, have been held annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences since 1929,[561] and the Golden Globe Awards have been held annually since January 1944.[562]

Director D. W. Griffith, an American filmmaker during the silent film period, was central to the development of film grammar, and producer/entrepreneur Walt Disney was a leader in both animated film and movie merchandising.[563] Directors such as John Ford redefined the image of the American Old West, and, like others such as John Huston, broadened the possibilities of cinema with location shooting. The industry enjoyed its golden years, in what is commonly referred to as the "Golden Age of Hollywood", from the early sound period until the early 1960s,[564] with screen actors such as John Wayne and Marilyn Monroe becoming iconic figures.[565][566] In the 1970s, "New Hollywood" or the "Hollywood Renaissance"[567] was defined by grittier films influenced by French and Italian realist pictures of the post-war period.[568]

The 21st century has been marked by the rise of the American streaming platforms, such as Netflix, Disney+, Paramount+, and Apple TV+, which came to rival traditional cinema.[569][570]

Mainstream theater in the United States derives from the old European theatrical tradition and has been heavily influenced by the British theater.[571] The central hub of the American theater scene has been Manhattan, with its divisions of Broadway, off-Broadway, and off-off-Broadway.[572] Many movie and television stars have gotten their big break working in New York productions. Outside New York City, many cities have professional regional or resident theater companies that produce their own seasons, with some works being produced regionally with hopes of eventually moving to New York. The biggest-budget theatrical productions are musicals. U.S. theater also has an active community theater culture, which relies mainly on local volunteers who may not be actively pursuing a theatrical career.[573]
Music
Main article: Music of the United States

The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville, Tennessee

American folk music encompasses numerous music genres, variously known as traditional music, traditional folk music, contemporary folk music, or roots music. Many traditional songs have been sung within the same family or folk group for generations, and sometimes trace back to such origins as the British Isles, Mainland Europe, or Africa.[574]

Among America's earliest composers was William Billings who, born in Boston, composed patriotic hymns in the 1770s;[575] Billings was a part of the First New England School, who dominated American music during its earliest stages. Anthony Heinrich was the most prominent composer before the Civil War. From the mid- to late 1800s, John Philip Sousa of the late Romantic era composed numerous military songs—particularly marches—and is regarded as one of America's greatest composers.[576]

The rhythmic and lyrical styles of African-American music have significantly influenced American music at large, distinguishing it from European and African traditions. The Smithsonian Institution states, "African-American influences are so fundamental to American music that there would be no American music without them."[577] Country music developed in the 1920s, and rhythm and blues in the 1940s. Elements from folk idioms such as the blues and what is known as old-time music were adopted and transformed into popular genres with global audiences. Jazz was developed by innovators such as Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington early in the 20th century.[578] Known worldwide and singing in a wide variety of genres, Aretha Franklin is widely considered to be the all-time greatest American singer.[579]

Elvis Presley and Chuck Berry were among the pioneers of rock and roll in the mid-1950s. Rock bands such as Metallica, the Eagles, and Aerosmith are among the highest grossing in worldwide sales.[580][581][582] In the 1960s, Bob Dylan emerged from the folk revival to become one of America's most celebrated songwriters.[583] Mid-20th-century American pop stars such as Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra,[584] and Elvis Presley became global celebrities,[578] as have artists of the late 20th century such as Prince, Michael Jackson, Madonna, Whitney Houston, and Mariah Carey.[585][586] American professional opera singers have reached the highest level of success in that form, including Renée Fleming, Leontyne Price, Beverly Sills, Nelson Eddy, and many others.[587]

American popular music, as part of the wider U.S. pop culture, has a worldwide influence and following.[588] Taylor Swift, Miley Cyrus, Ariana Grande, Eminem, Lady Gaga, Selena Gomez, and many other contemporary artists dominate global streaming rankings.[589]

The United States has the world's largest music market with a total retail value of $4.9 billion in 2014.[590] The American music industry includes a number of fields, ranging from record companies to radio stations and community orchestras. Most of the world's major record companies are based in the U.S.; they are represented by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).[591]
Mass media
Further information: Mass media in the United States
See also: Newspapers in the United States, Television in the United States, Internet in the United States, Radio in the United States, and Video games in the United States

The Comcast Center in Philadelphia, headquarters of the Comcast Corporation, which is the nation's largest multinational telecommunications conglomerate[citation needed]

The four major broadcasters in the U.S. are the National Broadcasting Company (NBC), Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS), American Broadcasting Company (ABC), and Fox Broadcasting Company (FOX). The four major broadcast television networks are all commercial entities. Cable television offers hundreds of channels catering to a variety of niches.[592] As of 2021, about 83% of Americans over age 12 listen to broadcast radio, while about 41% listen to podcasts.[593] As of September 30, 2014, there are 15,433 licensed full-power radio stations in the U.S. according to the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC).[594] Much of the public radio broadcasting is supplied by NPR, incorporated in February 1970 under the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967.[595]

Internationally well-known U.S. newspapers include The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and USA Today.[596] More than 800 publications are produced in Spanish, the second most commonly used language in the United States behind English.[597][598] With very few exceptions, all the newspapers in the U.S. are privately owned, either by large chains such as Gannett or McClatchy, which own dozens or even hundreds of newspapers; by small chains that own a handful of papers; or, in a situation that is increasingly rare, by individuals or families. Major cities often have alternative newspapers to complement the mainstream daily papers, such as New York City's The Village Voice or Los Angeles' LA Weekly. The five most popular websites used in the U.S. are Google, YouTube, Amazon, Yahoo, and Facebook, with all of them being American companies.[599]

Widely regarded as the birthplace of the modern video gaming industry,[600] the United States is the world's second-largest video game market by revenue.[601] Major publishers headquartered in the United States are Sony Interactive Entertainment, Take-Two, Activision Blizzard, Electronic Arts, Xbox Game Studios, Bethesda Softworks, Epic Games, Valve, Warner Bros., Riot Games, and others.[602][603] There are 444 publishers, developers, and hardware companies in California alone.[604]
Cuisine
Main article: American cuisine
Further information: List of American regional and fusion cuisines

A cheeseburger served with fries and coleslaw

Early settlers were introduced by Native Americans to such indigenous, non-European foods as turkey, sweet potatoes, corn, squash, and maple syrup. They and later immigrants combined these with foods they had known, such as wheat flour,[605] beef, and milk to create a distinctive American cuisine.[606][607] Homegrown foods are part of a shared national menu on one of America's most popular holidays, Thanksgiving, when many Americans make or purchase traditional foods to celebrate the occasion.[608] The American fast food industry, the world's first and largest, is also often viewed as being a symbol of U.S. marketing dominance. Companies such as McDonald's,[609] Burger King, Pizza Hut, Kentucky Fried Chicken, and Domino's Pizza among others, have numerous outlets around the world,[610] and pioneered the drive-through format in the 1940s.[611] Characteristic American dishes such as apple pie, fried chicken, doughnuts, french fries, macaroni and cheese, ice cream, pizza, hamburgers, and hot dogs derive from the recipes of various immigrants.[612][613] Mexican dishes such as burritos and tacos and pasta dishes freely adapted from Italian sources are widely consumed.[614]

American chefs have been influential both in the food industry and in popular culture. Some important 19th-century American chefs include Charles Ranhofer of Delmonico's Restaurant in New York, and Bob Payton, who is credited with bringing American-style pizza to the UK.[615] Later, chefs Charles Scotto, Louis Pacquet, John Massironi founded the American Culinary Federation in 1930, taking after similar organizations across Europe. In the 1940s, Chef James Beard hosted the first nationally televised cooking show I Love to Eat. His name is also carried by the foundation and prestigious cooking award recognizing excellence in the American cooking community.[616][617] Since Beard, many chefs and cooking personalities have taken to television, and the success of the Cooking Channel and Food Network have contributed to the popularity of American cuisine. Probably the best-known television chef was Julia Child who taught French cuisine in her weekly show, The French Chef.[618] In 1946, the Culinary Institute of America was founded by Katharine Angell and Frances Roth. This would become the United States' most prestigious culinary school, where many of the most talented American chefs would study prior to successful careers.[619][620]
Sports
Main article: Sports in the United States
See also: Professional sports leagues in the United States, National Collegiate Athletic Association, and United States at the Olympics

American football is the most popular sport in the United States.

The most popular spectator sports in the U.S. are American football, basketball, baseball, soccer, and ice hockey, according to a 2017 Gallup poll.[621] While most major U.S. sports such as baseball and American football have evolved out of European practices, basketball, volleyball, skateboarding, and snowboarding are American inventions, some of which have become popular worldwide.[622] Lacrosse and surfing arose from Native American and Native Hawaiian activities that predate European contact.[623] The market for professional sports in the United States was roughly $69 billion in July 2013, roughly 50% larger than that of all of Europe, the Middle East, and Africa combined.[624]

American football is by several measures the most popular spectator sport in the United States;[625] the National Football League (NFL) has the highest average attendance of any sports league in the world, and the Super Bowl is watched by tens of millions globally.[626] Baseball has been regarded as the U.S. national sport since the late 19th century, with Major League Baseball being the top league. Basketball and ice hockey are the country's next two most popular professional team sports, with the top leagues being the National Basketball Association and the National Hockey League, which are also the premier leagues worldwide for these sports. The most-watched individual sports in the U.S. are golf and auto racing, particularly NASCAR and IndyCar.[627][628] On the collegiate level, earnings for the member institutions exceed $1 billion annually,[629] and college football and basketball attract large audiences, as the NCAA Final Four is one of the most watched national sporting events.[630]

Eight Olympic Games have taken place in the United States. The 1904 Summer Olympics in St. Louis, Missouri, were the first-ever Olympic Games held outside of Europe.[631] The Olympic Games will be held in the U.S. for a ninth time when Los Angeles hosts the 2028 Summer Olympics. U.S. athletes have won a total of 2,959 medals (1,173 gold) at the Olympic Games, by far the most of any country.[632][633][634][635]

In soccer, the men's national soccer team qualified for eleven World Cups, while the women's national team has won the FIFA Women's World Cup and Olympic soccer tournament four times each.[636] The United States hosted the 1994 FIFA World Cup and will host the 2026 FIFA World Cup along with Canada and Mexico.[637]
See also Index of United States–related articles
Lists of U.S. state topics
Outline of the United States

United States of America

Flag

Coat of arms
Motto: "In God We Trust"[1]

Other traditional mottos:[2]
Anthem: "The Star-Spangled Banner"[3]
1:19

Show globe (states and D.C. only)Show the U.S. and its territoriesShow all
Capital Washington, D.C.
38°53′N 77°01′W
Largest city New York City
40°43′N 74°00′W
Official languages None at the federal level
Recognized regional languages State and territorial level:
English
French
Hawaiian
Samoan
Spanish
Others [a]
National language English (de facto)
Ethnic groups
(2020)[4][5][6]
57.8% White
18.7% Latino
12.1% Black
5.9% Asian
0.7% Native American
0.2% Pacific Islander
4.1% multiracial
0.5% other
Religion
(2021)[7]
63% Christianity 40% Protestantism
21% Catholicism
2% other Christian
29% no religion
1% Buddhism
1% Hinduism
1% Islam
1% Judaism
2% other
2% unanswered
Demonym(s) American [b][8]
Government Federal presidential constitutional republic and a liberal representative democracy [9]

• President Joe Biden

• Vice President Kamala Harris

• House Speaker Kevin McCarthy

• Chief Justice John Roberts
Legislature Congress

• Upper house Senate

• Lower house House of Representatives
Independence
from Great Britain

• Revolution March 22, 1765

• Declaration July 4, 1776

• Confederation March 1, 1781

• Recognized September 3, 1783

• Constitution June 21, 1788

• Last Amendment May 5, 1992
Area

• Total area 3,796,742 sq mi (9,833,520 km2)[10] (3rd [c])

• Water (%) 4.66[11] (2015)

• Land area 3,531,905 sq mi (9,147,590 km2) (3rd)
Population

• 2022 estimate 333,287,557[12]

• 2020 census 331,449,281[d][13] (3rd)

• Density 87/sq mi (33.6/km2) (185th)
GDP (PPP) 2023 estimate

• Total $26.855 trillion[14] (2nd)

• Per capita $80,035[14] (8th)
GDP (nominal) 2023 estimate

• Total $26.855 trillion[14] (1st)

• Per capita $80,035[14] (7th)
Gini (2020) 39.4[e][15]
medium
HDI (2021) 0.921[16]
very high · 21st
Currency U.S. dollar ($) (USD)
Time zone UTC−4 to −12, +10, +11

• Summer (DST) UTC−4 to −10[f]
Date format mm/dd/yyyy[g]
Driving side right[h]
Calling code +1
ISO 3166 code US
Internet TLD .com, .us [17]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States

Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.4 billion followers representing one-third of the global population.[1][2] Its adherents, known as Christians, are estimated to make up a majority of the population in 157 countries and territories.[3] Most Christians believe that Jesus is the Son of God, whose coming as the Messiah was prophesied in the Hebrew Bible (called the Old Testament in Christianity) and chronicled in the New Testament.[4]

Christianity remains culturally diverse in its Western and Eastern branches, as well as in its doctrines concerning justification and the nature of salvation, ecclesiology, ordination, and Christology. The creeds of various Christian denominations generally hold in common Jesus as the Son of God—the Logos incarnated—who ministered, suffered, and died on a cross, but rose from the dead for the salvation of mankind; and referred to as the gospel, meaning the "good news". Describing Jesus' life and teachings are the four canonical gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, with the Old Testament as the gospel's respected background.

Christianity began in the 1st century as a Judaic sect with Hellenistic influence, in the Roman province of Judea. The disciples of Jesus spread their faith around the Eastern Mediterranean area, despite significant persecution. The inclusion of Gentiles led Christianity to slowly separate from Judaism (2nd century). Emperor Constantine the Great decriminalized Christianity in the Roman Empire by the Edict of Milan (313), later convening the Council of Nicaea (325) where Early Christianity was consolidated into what would become the State church of the Roman Empire (380). The Church of the East and Oriental Orthodoxy both split over differences in Christology (5th century),[5] while the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church separated in the East–West Schism (1054). Protestantism split in numerous denominations from the Catholic Church in the Reformation era (16th century). Following the Age of Discovery (15th–17th century), Christianity expanded throughout the world via missionary work, extensive trade[6] and colonialism. Christianity played a prominent role in the development of Western civilization, particularly in Europe from late antiquity and the Middle Ages.[7][8][9][10]

The six major branches of Christianity are the Catholic Church (1.3 billion), Protestantism (800 million),[note 1] the Eastern Orthodox Church (220 million), the Oriental Orthodox churches (60 million),[12][13] the Church of the East (0.6 million), and Restorationism (35 million),[14] though thousands of smaller church communities exist despite efforts toward unity (ecumenism).[15] Despite a decline in adherence in the West, Christianity remains the dominant religion in the region, with about 70% of that population identifying as Christian.[16][17] Christianity is growing in Africa and Asia, the world's most populous continents.[16] Christians remain greatly persecuted in many regions of the world, particularly in the Middle East, North Africa, East Asia, and South Asia.[18][19]
Christianity
Χρῑστῐᾱνισμός

Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Christian Quarter of the Old City, Jerusalem
Type Universal religion
Classification Abrahamic
Scripture Bible
Theology Monotheistic
Region Worldwide
Language Koine Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Syriac, Coptic, Slavonic, Aramaic, English, Amharic, Vernacular
Headquarters Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem, Moscow, Canterbury, Geneva and others
Territory Christendom
Founder Jesus Christ, according to sacred tradition
Origin 1st century AD
Judaea, Roman Empire
Separated from Second Temple Judaism & Hellenistic Judaism
Separations

See list
Members c. 2.4 billion (referred to as Christians)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity

Caucasian may refer to:

AnthropologyAnything from the Caucasus region Peoples of the Caucasus – Diverse group comprising more than 50 ethnic groups
Languages of the Caucasus – Diverse languages between the Black and Caspian seas
Caucasian Exarchate (1917–1920), an ecclesiastical exarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church in the Caucasus region
Caucasian race – Obsolete racial classification of humans
White people – Racial classification
Caucasus hunter-gatherer – Anatomically modern human genetic lineage identified in 2015
LanguagesNorthwest Caucasian languages
Northeast Caucasian languages
South Caucasian languages
Dené–Caucasian languages
Other usesCertain types of animals: Brown Caucasian cattle, a cattle breed
Caucasian honey bee, a sub-species of the western honey bee
North Caucasian pig, a pig breed
Caucasian snowcock, a type of bird
Caucasian Shepherd Dog, a dog breed
Caucasian (newspaper), newspaper published between 1889 and 1913
Caucasian, a nickname for a white Russian (cocktail)
See alsoCaucasophobia, racism in Russia toward native Caucasus inhabitants
Caucasia (disambiguation)
Caucasian peoples (disambiguation)
Caucasus (disambiguation)
Kavkazsky (disambiguation)

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The Caucasian race (also Caucasoid,[a] Europid, or Europoid)[2] is an obsolete racial classification of humans based on a now-disproven theory of biological race.[3][4][5] The Caucasian race was historically regarded as a biological taxon which, depending on which of the historical race classifications was being used, usually included ancient and modern populations from all or parts of Europe, Western Asia, Central Asia, South Asia, North Africa, and the Horn of Africa.[6][7]

First introduced in the 1780s by members of the Göttingen school of history,[b] the term denoted one of three purported major races of humankind (those three being Caucasoid, Mongoloid, and Negroid).[12] In biological anthropology, Caucasoid has been used as an umbrella term for phenotypically similar groups from these different regions, with a focus on skeletal anatomy, and especially cranial morphology, without regard to skin tone.[13] Ancient and modern "Caucasoid" populations were thus not exclusively "white", but ranged in complexion from white-skinned to dark brown.[14]

Since the second half of the 20th century, physical anthropologists have switched from a typological understanding of human biological diversity towards a genomic and population-based perspective, and have tended to understand race as a social classification of humans based on phenotype and ancestry as well as cultural factors, as the concept is also understood in the social sciences.[15]

In the United States, the root term Caucasian is still in use as a synonym for white or of European, Middle Eastern, or North African ancestry,[16][17][18] a usage that has been criticized.[19][20][21]
History of the concept
The Caucasus as the origin of humanity and the peak of beauty

In the eighteenth century, the prevalent view among European scholars was that the human species had its origin in the region of the Caucasus Mountains.[22] This view was based upon the Caucasus being the location for the purported landing point of Noah's Ark – from whom the Bible states that humanity is descended – and the location for the suffering of Prometheus, who in Hesiod's myth had crafted humankind from clay.[22]

In addition, the most beautiful humans were reputed by Europeans to be the stereotypical "Circassian beauties" and the Georgian people; both Georgia and Circassia are in the Caucasus region.[23][22] The "Circassian beauty" stereotype had its roots in the Middle Ages, while the reputation for the attractiveness of the Georgian people was developed by early modern travellers to the region such as Jean Chardin.[22][24]
Göttingen School of History

Christoph Meiners' 1785 treatise The Outline of History of Mankind was the first work to use the term Caucasian (Kaukasisch) in its wider racial sense. (click on image for English translation of the text)

The term Caucasian as a racial category was first introduced in the 1780s by members of the Göttingen School of History – notably Christoph Meiners in 1785 and Johann Friedrich Blumenbach in 1795[b][page needed]—it had originally referred in a narrow sense to the native inhabitants of the Caucasus region.[25]

In his The Outline of History of Mankind (1785), the German philosopher Christoph Meiners first used the concept of a "Caucasian" (Kaukasisch) race in its wider racial sense.[b][page needed][26] Meiners' term was given wider circulation in the 1790s by many people.[c] Meiners imagined that the Caucasian race encompassed all of the ancient and most of the modern native populations of Europe, the aboriginal inhabitants of West Asia (including the Phoenicians, Hebrews and Arabs), the autochthones of Northern Africa (Berbers, Egyptians, Abyssinians and neighboring groups), the Indians, and the ancient Guanches.[36]

Drawing of the skull of a Georgian female by Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, used as an archetype for the Caucasian racial characteristics in his 1795 De Generis Humani Varietate

It was Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, a colleague of Meiners', who later came to be considered one of the founders of the discipline of anthropology, who gave the term a wider audience, by grounding it in the new methods of craniometry and Linnean taxonomy.[37] Blumenbach did not credit Meiners with his taxonomy, although his justification clearly points to Meiners' aesthetic viewpoint of Caucasus origins.[38] In contrast to Meiners, however, Blumenbach was a monogenist—he considered all humans to have a shared origin and to be a single species. Blumenbach, like Meiners, did rank his Caucasian grouping higher than other groups in terms of mental faculties or potential for achievement[37] despite pointing out that the transition from one race to another is so gradual that the distinctions between the races presented by him are "very arbitrary".[39]

Alongside the anthropologist Georges Cuvier, Blumenbach classified the Caucasian race by cranial measurements and bone morphology in addition to skin pigmentation.[40] Following Meiners, Blumenbach described the Caucasian race as consisting of the native inhabitants of Europe, West Asia, the Indian peninsula, and North Africa.[citation needed] This usage later grew into the widely used color terminology for race, contrasting with the terms Negroid, Mongoloid, and Australoid.[41]
Carleton Coon

There was never consensus among the proponents of the "Caucasoid race" concept regarding how it would be delineated from other groups such as the proposed Mongoloid race. Carleton S. Coon (1939) included the populations native to all of Central and Northern Asia, including the Ainu people, under the Caucasoid label. However, many scientists maintained the racial categorizations of color established by Meiners' and Blumenbach's works, along with many other early steps of anthropology, well into the late 19th and mid-to-late 20th centuries, increasingly used to justify political policies, such as segregation and immigration restrictions, and other opinions based in prejudice. For example, Thomas Henry Huxley (1870) classified all populations of Asian nations as Mongoloid. Lothrop Stoddard (1920) in turn classified as "brown" most of the populations of the Middle East, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, Central Asia and South Asia. He counted as "white" only European peoples and their descendants, as well as a few populations in areas adjacent to or opposite southern Europe, in parts of Anatolia and parts of the Rif and Atlas mountains.

In 1939, Coon argued that the Caucasian race had originated through admixture between Homo neanderthalensis and Homo sapiens of the "Mediterranean type" which he considered to be distinct from Caucasians, rather than a subtype of it as others had done.[42] While Blumenbach had erroneously thought that light skin color was ancestral to all humans and the dark skin of southern populations was due to sun, Coon thought that Caucasians had lost their original pigmentation as they moved North.[42] Coon used the term "Caucasoid" and "White race" synonymously.[43]

In 1962, Coon published The Origin of Races, wherein he proposed a polygenist view, that human races had evolved separately from local varieties of Homo erectus. Dividing humans into five main races, and argued that each evolved in parallel but at different rates, so that some races had reached higher levels of evolution than others.[15] He argued that the Caucasoid race had evolved 200,000 years prior to the "Congoid race", and hence represented a higher evolutionary stage.[44]

Coon argued that Caucasoid traits emerged prior to the Cro-Magnons, and were present in the Skhul and Qafzeh hominids.[45] However, these fossils and the Predmost specimen were held to be Neanderthaloid derivatives because they possessed short cervical vertebrae, lower and narrower pelves, and had some Neanderthal skull traits. Coon further asserted that the Caucasoid race was of dual origin, consisting of early dolichocephalic (e.g. Galley Hill, Combe-Capelle, Téviec) and Neolithic Mediterranean Homo sapiens (e.g. Muge, Long Barrow, Corded), as well as Neanderthal-influenced brachycephalic Homo sapiens dating to the Mesolithic and Neolithic (e.g. Afalou, Hvellinge, Fjelkinge).[46]

Coon's theories on race were much disputed in his lifetime,[44] and are considered pseudoscientific in modern anthropology.[47][48][49][50][51]
Criticism based on modern genetics
See also: Race and genetics

After discussing various criteria used in biology to define subspecies or races, Alan R. Templeton concludes in 2016: "[T]he answer to the question whether races exist in humans is clear and unambiguous: no."[52]: 360
Racial anthropology

Armenian man of Armenoid type

Irish man of Mediterranean type

Bisharin man of Hamitic type

Afghan man of Iranid type

Danish man of Nordic type

Tajik man of Alpine type

Hindu man of 'mixed' Aryan type

Catalan man of Iberian type
Illustrations of "Caucasoid subraces" from Man, Past and Present by Augustus Henry Keane (1899)
Physical traits
Skull and teeth

Drawing from Petrus Camper's theory of facial angle, Blumenbach and Cuvier classified races, through their skull collections based on their cranial features and anthropometric measurements. Caucasoid traits were recognised as: thin nasal aperture ("nose narrow"), a small mouth, facial angle of 100–90°, and orthognathism, exemplified by what Blumenbach saw in most ancient Greek crania and statues.[53][54] Later anthropologists of the 19th and early 20th century such as James Cowles Prichard, Charles Pickering, Broca, Paul Topinard, Samuel George Morton, Oscar Peschel, Charles Gabriel Seligman, Robert Bennett Bean, William Zebina Ripley, Alfred Cort Haddon and Roland Dixon came to recognize other Caucasoid morphological features, such as prominent supraorbital ridges and a sharp nasal sill.[55] Many anthropologists in the 20th century used the term "Caucasoid" in their literature, such as William Clouser Boyd, Reginald Ruggles Gates, Carleton S. Coon, Sonia Mary Cole, Alice Mossie Brues and Grover Krantz replacing the earlier term "Caucasian" as it had fallen out of usage.[56]
Classification

Meyers Konversations-Lexikon (1885–1890) ethnographic map
Caucasoid:
Aryans
Semitic
Hamitic
Negroid:
African Negro
Khoikhoi
Melanesian
Negrito
Australoid
Uncertain:
Dravida & Sinhalese Mongoloid:
North Mongol
Chinese & Indochinese
Korean & Japanese
Tibetan & Burmese
Malay
Polynesian
Maori
Micronesian
Eskimo & Inuit
American

In the 19th century Meyers Konversations-Lexikon (1885–1890), Caucasoid was one of the three great races of humankind, alongside Mongoloid and Negroid. The taxon was taken to consist of a number of subtypes. The Caucasoid peoples were usually divided into three groups on ethnolinguistic grounds, termed Aryan (Indo-European), Semitic (Semitic languages), and Hamitic (Hamitic languages i.e. Berber-Cushitic-Egyptian).[57]

19th century classifications of the peoples of India were initially uncertain if the Dravidians and the Sinahalese were Caucasoid or a separate Dravida race, but by and in the 20th century, anthropologists predominantly declared Dravidians to be Caucasoid.[58][59][60]

Historically, the racial classification of the Turkic peoples was sometimes given as "Turanid". Turanid racial type or "minor race", subtype of the Europid (Caucasian) race with Mongoloid admixtures, situated at the boundary of the distribution of the Mongoloid and Europid "great races".[61][62]

There was no universal consensus of the validity of the "Caucasoid" grouping within those who attempted to categorize human variation. Thomas Henry Huxley in 1870 wrote that the "absurd denomination of 'Caucasian'" was in fact a conflation of his Xanthochroi (Nordic) and Melanochroi (Mediterranean) types.[63]
Subraces

The postulated subraces vary depending on the author, including but not limited to Mediterranean, Atlantid, Nordic, East Baltic, Alpine, Dinaric, Turanid, Armenoid, Iranid, Indid, Arabid, and Hamitic.[64]

H.G. Wells argued that across Europe, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, West Asia, Central Asia and South Asia, a Caucasian physical stock existed. He divided this racial element into two main groups: a shorter and darker Mediterranean or Iberian race and a taller and lighter Nordic race. Wells asserted that Semitic and Hamitic populations were mainly of Mediterranean type, and Aryan populations were originally of Nordic type. He regarded the Basques as descendants of early Mediterranean peoples, who inhabited western Europe before the arrival of Aryan Celts from the direction of central Europe.[65]

The "Northcaucasian race" is a sub-race proposed by Carleton S. Coon (1930).[66] It comprises the native populations of the North Caucasus, the Balkars, Karachays and Vainakh (Chechens and Ingushs).[67][68]

An introduction to anthropology, published in 1953,[69] gives a more complex classification scheme: "Archaic Caucasoid Races": Ainu people in Japan, Australoid race, Dravidian peoples, and Vedda
"Primary Caucasoid Races": Alpine race, Armenoid race, Mediterranean race, and Nordic race
"Secondary or Derived Caucasoid Races": Dinaric race, East Baltic race, and Polynesian race[70]
Usage in the United States
Further information: Race in the United States

Besides its use in anthropology and related fields, the term "Caucasian" has often been used in the United States in a different, social context to describe a group commonly called "white people".[71] "White" also appears as a self-reporting entry in the U.S. Census.[72] Naturalization as a United States citizen was restricted to "free white persons" by the Naturalization Act of 1790, and later extended to other resident populations by the Naturalization Act of 1870, Indian Citizenship Act of 1924 and Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952. The Supreme Court in United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind (1923) decided that Asian Indians were ineligible for citizenship because, though deemed "Caucasian" anthropologically, they were not white like European descendants since most laypeople did not consider them to be "white" people. This represented a change from the Supreme Court's earlier opinion in Ozawa v. United States, in which it had expressly approved of two lower court cases holding "high caste Hindus" to be "free white persons" within the meaning of the naturalization act. Government lawyers later recognized that the Supreme Court had "withdrawn" this approval in Thind.[73] In 1946, the U.S. Congress passed a new law establishing a small immigration quota for Indians, which also permitted them to become citizens. Major changes to immigration law, however, only later came in 1965, when many earlier racial restrictions on immigration were lifted.[74] This resulted in confusion about whether American Hispanics are included as "white", as the term Hispanic originally applied to Spanish heritage but has since expanded to include all people with origins in Spanish speaking countries. In other countries, the term Hispanic is rarely used.

The United States National Library of Medicine often used the term "Caucasian" as a race in the past. However, it later discontinued such usage in favor of the more narrow geographical term European, which traditionally only applied to a subset of Caucasoids.[75]
See also Race (human categorization)
Race and genetics
Anthropometry
Leucism
Race and ethnicity in the United States Census
Notes

The traditional anthropological term Caucasoid is a conflation of the demonym Caucasian and the Greek suffix eidos (meaning "form", "shape", "resemblance") implying a resemblance to the native inhabitants of the Caucasus. It etymologically contrasts with the terms Negroid, Mongoloid and Australoid.[1] For a contrast with the "Mongolic" or Mongoloid race, see footnote #4 pp. 58–59 in Beckwith, Christopher (2009). Empires of the Silk Road: A History of Central Eurasia from the Bronze Age to the Present. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-13589-2. OCLC 800915872.

Cited by contributing editor to a group of four works by Baum,[8] Woodward,[9] Rupke,[10] and Simon.[11]

Cited by contributing editor to a group of nine works by Mario,[27] Isaac,[28] Schiebinger,[29] Rupp-Eisenreich,[30] Dougherty,[31] Hochman,[32] Mikkelsen,[33] Painter,[34] and Binden.[35]
References

Freedman, B. J. (1984). "For debate... Caucasian". British Medical Journal. Routledge. 288 (6418): 696–98. doi:10.1136/bmj.288.6418.696. PMC 1444385. PMID 6421437.

Pearson, Roger (1985). Anthropological glossary. R. E. Krieger Pub. Co. p. 79. ISBN 9780898745108. Retrieved July 21, 2015.

Templeton, A. (2016). "Evolution and Notions of Human Race". In Losos, J.; Lenski, R. (eds.). How Evolution Shapes Our Lives: Essays on Biology and Society. Princeton; Oxford: Princeton University Press. pp. 346–361. doi:10.2307/j.ctv7h0s6j.26. ... the answer to the question whether races exist in humans is clear and unambiguous: no.

Wagner, Jennifer K.; Yu, Joon-Ho; Ifekwunigwe, Jayne O.; Harrell, Tanya M.; Bamshad, Michael J.; Royal, Charmaine D. (February 2017). "Anthropologists' views on race, ancestry, and genetics". American Journal of Physical Anthropology. 162 (2): 318–327. doi:10.1002/ajpa.23120. PMC 5299519. PMID 27874171.

American Association of Physical Anthropologists (March 27, 2019). "AAPA Statement on Race and Racism". American Association of Physical Anthropologists. Retrieved June 19, 2020.

Coon, Carleton Stevens (1939). The Races of Europe. New York: The Macmillan Company. pp. 400–401. This third racial zone stretches from Spain across the Straits of Gibraltar to Morocco, and thence along the southern Mediterranean shores into Arabia, East Africa, Mesopotamia, and the Persian highlands; and across Afghanistan into India [...] The Mediterranean racial zone stretches unbroken from Spain across the Straits of Gibraltar to Morocco, and thence eastward to India [...] A branch of it extends far southward on both sides of the Red Sea into southern Arabia, the Ethiopian highlands, and the Horn of Africa.

Coon, Carleton Stevens; Hunt, Edward E. (1966). The Living Races of Man. London: Jonathan Cape. p. 93. Late Capsians from North Africa are clearly Caucasoid and, more specifically, almost entirely Mediterranean.

Baum 2006, pp. 84–85: "Finally, Christoph Meiners (1747–1810), the University of Göttingen 'popular philosopher' and historian, first gave the term Caucasian racial meaning in his Grundriss der Geschichte der Menschheit (Outline of the History of Humanity; 1785) ... Meiners pursued this 'Göttingen program' of inquiry in extensive historical-anthropological writings, which included two editions of his Outline of the History of Humanity and numerous articles in Göttingisches Historisches Magazin"

William R. Woodward (June 9, 2015). Hermann Lotze: An Intellectual Biography. Cambridge University Press. p. 260. ISBN 978-1-316-29785-8. ... the five human races identified by Johann Friedrich Blumenbach – Negroes, American Indians, Malaysians, Mongolians, and Caucasians. He chose to rely on Blumenbach, leader of the Göttingen school of comparative anatomy

Nicolaas A. Rupke (2002). Göttingen and the Development of the Natural Sciences. Wallstein-Verlag. ISBN 978-3-89244-611-8. For it was at Gottingen in this period that the outlines of a system of classification were laid down in a manner that still shapes the way in which we attempt to comprehend the different varieties of humankind – including usage of such terms as 'Caucasian'.

Charles Simon-Aaron (2008). The Atlantic Slave Trade: Empire, Enlightenment, and the Cult of the Unthinking Negro. Lewiston, New York: Edwin Mellen Press. ISBN 978-0-7734-5197-1. Here, Blumenbach placed the white European at the apex of the human family; he even gave the European a new name – i.e., Caucasian. This relationship also inspired the academic labors of Karl Otfried Muller, C. Meiners and K. A. Heumann, the more important thinkers at Gottingen for our project. (This list is not intended to be exhaustive.)

Pickering, Robert (2009). The Use of Forensic Anthropology. CRC Press. p. 82. ISBN 978-1-4200-6877-1.

Pickering, Robert (2009). The Use of Forensic Anthropology. CRC Press. p. 109. ISBN 978-1-4200-6877-1.

Johann Friedrich Blumenbach (1865). Thomas Bendyshe (ed.). The Anthropological Treatises of Johann Friedrich Blumenbach. Anthropological Society. pp. 265, 303, 367. ISBN 9780878211241.

Caspari, Rachel (2003). "From types to populations: A century of race, physical anthropology, and the American Anthropological Association" (PDF). American Anthropologist. 105 (1): 65–76. doi:10.1525/aa.2003.105.1.65. hdl:2027.42/65890.

"Race".

Bhopal, R.; Donaldson, L. (1998). "White, European, Western, Caucasian, or what? Inappropriate labeling in research on race, ethnicity, and health". American Journal of Public Health. 88 (9): 1303–1307. doi:10.2105/ajph.88.9.1303. PMC 1509085. PMID 9736867.

Baum 2006, p. 3,18.

Herbst, Philip (June 15, 1997). The color of words: an encyclopaedic dictionary of ethnic bias in the United States. Intercultural Press. ISBN 978-1-877864-97-1. Though discredited as an anthropological term and not recommended in most editorial guidelines, it is still heard and used, for example, as a category on forms asking for ethnic identification. It is also still used for police blotters (the abbreviated Cauc may be heard among police) and appears elsewhere as a euphemism. Its synonym, Caucasoid, also once used in anthropology but now dated and considered pejorative, is disappearing.

Mukhopadhyay, Carol C. (June 30, 2008). "Getting Rid of the Word 'Caucasian'". In Mica Pollock (ed.). Everyday Antiracism: Getting Real About Race in School. New Press. pp. 14–. ISBN 978-1-59558-567-7. Yet there is one striking exception in our modem racial vocabulary: the term 'Caucasian'. Despite being a remnant of a discredited theory of racial classification, the term has persisted into the twenty-first century, within as well as outside of the educational community. It is high time we got rid of the word Caucasian. Some might protest that it is 'only a label'. But language is one of the most systematic, subtle, and significant vehicles for transmitting racial ideology. Terms that describe imagined groups, such as Caucasian, encapsulate those beliefs. Every time we use them and uncritically expose students to them, we are reinforcing rather than dismantling the old racialized worldview. Using the word Caucasian invokes scientific racism, the false idea that races are naturally occurring, biologically ranked subdivisions of the human species and that Caucasians are the superior race. Beyond this, the label Caucasian can even convey messages about which groups have culture and are entitled to recognition as Americans.

Dewanjuly, Shaila (July 6, 2013). "Has 'Caucasian' Lost Its Meaning?". The New York Times. Retrieved March 16, 2018. AS a racial classification, the term Caucasian has many flaws, dating as it does from a time when the study of race was based on skull measurements and travel diaries ... Its equivalents from that era are obsolete – nobody refers to Asians as 'Mongolian' or blacks as 'Negroid'. ... There is no legal reason to use it. It rarely appears in federal statutes, and the Census Bureau has never put a checkbox by the word Caucasian. (White is an option.) ... The Supreme Court, which can be more colloquial, has used the term in only 64 cases, including a pair from the 1920s that reveal its limitations ... In 1889, the editors of the original Oxford English Dictionary noted that the term Caucasian had been 'practically discarded'. But they spoke too soon. Blumenbach's authority had given the word a pseudoscientific sheen that preserved its appeal. Even now, the word gives discussions of race a weird technocratic gravitas, as when the police insist that you step out of your 'vehicle' instead of your car ... Susan Glisson, who as the executive director of the William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation in Oxford, Miss., regularly witnesses Southerners sorting through their racial vocabulary, said she rarely hears 'Caucasian'. 'Most of the folks who work in this field know that it's a completely ridiculous term to assign to whites,' she said. 'I think it's a term of last resort for people who are really uncomfortable talking about race. They use the term that's going to make them be as distant from it as possible.'

Baum 2006, p. 82.

Figal 2010, pp. 81–84.

Chardin, 1686, Journal du voyage du chevalier Chardin en Perse et aux Indes Orientales par la Mer Noire et par la Colchide, p.204, "Le sang de Géorgie est le plus beau d'Orient, et je puis dire du monde, je n'ai pas remarqué un laid visage en ce païs la, parmi l'un et l'autre sexe: mais j'y en ay vû d'Angeliques."

For example, such as in the Allgemeine Erdbeschreibung published by Meyer in 1777: Allgemeine Erdbeschreibung: Asien - Volume 3. Meyer. 1777. p. 1435.

Meiners, Christoph (1785). Grundriss der Geschichte der Menschheit. Im Verlage der Meyerschen Buchhandlung. pp. 25–.

Luigi Marino, I Maestri della Germania (1975) OCLC 797567391; translated into German as Praeceptores Germaniae: Göttingen 1770–1820 OCLC 34194206

B. Isaac, The invention of racism in classical antiquity, Princeton University Press, 2004, p. 105 OCLC 51942570

Londa Schiebinger, The Anatomy of Difference: Race and Sex in Eighteenth-Century Science, Eighteenth-Century Studies, Vol. 23, No. 4, Special Issue: The Politics of Difference, Summer, 1990, pp. 387–405

B. Rupp-Eisenreich, "Des Choses Occultes en Histoire des Sciences Humaines: le Destin de la 'Science Nouvelle' de Christoph Meiners", L'Ethnographie v.2 (1983), p. 151

F. Dougherty, "Christoph Meiners und Johann Friedrich Blumenbach im Streit um den Begriff der Menschenrasse," in G. Mann and F. Dumont, eds., Die Natur des Menschen , pp. 103–04

Hochman, Leah (October 10, 2014). The Ugliness of Moses Mendelssohn: Aesthetics, Religion & Morality in the Eighteenth Century. Routledge. pp. 74–. ISBN 978-1-317-66997-5.

Mikkelsen, Jon M. (August 1, 2013). Kant and the Concept of Race: Late Eighteenth-Century Writings. SUNY Press. pp. 196–. ISBN 978-1-4384-4363-8.

Painter, N. "Why White People are Called Caucasian?" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on October 20, 2013. Retrieved October 9, 2006.

Another online document reviews the early history of race theory.18th and 19th Century Views of Human Variation The treatises of Blumenbach can be found online here.

The New American Cyclopaedia: A Popular Dictionary of General Knowledge, Volume 4. Appleton. 1870. p. 588.

Bhopal R (December 2007). "The beautiful skull and Blumenbach's errors: the birth of the scientific concept of race". BMJ. 335 (7633): 1308–09. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.969.2221. doi:10.1136/bmj.39413.463958.80. PMC 2151154. PMID 18156242.

Baum 2006, p. 88: "The connection between Meiners's ideas about a Caucasian branch of humanity and Blumenbach's later conception of a Caucasian variety (eventually, a Caucasian race) is not completely clear. What is clear is that the two editions of Meiners's Outline were published between the second edition of Blumenbach's On the Natural Variety of Mankind and the third edition, where Blumenbach first used the term Caucasian. Blumenbach cited Meiners once in 1795, but only to include Meiners's 1793 division of humanity into "handsome and white" and "ugly and dark" peoples among several alternative "divisions of the varieties of mankind." Yet Blumenbach must have been aware of Meiners's earlier designation of Caucasian and Mongolian branches of humanity, as the two men knew each other as colleagues at the University of Göttingen. The way that Blumenbach embraced the term Caucasian suggests that he worked to distance his own anthropological thinking from that of Meiners while recovering the term Caucasian for his own more refined racial classification: he made no mention of Meiners's 1785 usage and gave the term a new meaning.

German: "sehr willkürlich": Johann Friedrich Blumenbach (1797). Handbuch der Naturgeschichte. p. 61. Retrieved May 24, 2020. Alle diese Verschiedenheiten fließen aber durch so mancherley Abstufungen und Uebergänge so unvermerkt zusammen, daß sich keine andre, als sehr willkürliche Grenzen zwischen ihnen festsetzen lassen.

On the Natural Variety of Mankind, 3rd ed. (1795) in Bendyshe: 264–65; "racial face," 229.

Freedman, B. J. (1984). "For debate... Caucasian". British Medical Journal. Routledge. 288 (6418): 696–98. doi:10.1136/bmj.288.6418.696. PMC 1444385. PMID 6421437.

Coon, Carleton (April 1939). The Races of Europe. The Macmillan Company. p. 51.

The Races of Europe, Chapter XIII, Section 2 Archived May 11, 2006, at archive.today

Jackson, J. P. Jr. (2001). ""In Ways Unacademical": The Reception of Carleton S. Coon's The Origin of Races". Journal of the History of Biology. 34 (2): 247–85. doi:10.1023/a:1010366015968. S2CID 86739986.

The Origin of Races. Random House Inc., 1962, p. 570.

Coon, Carleton Stevens (1939). The Races of Europe. The Macmillan Company. pp. 26–28, 50–55.

Sachs Collopy, Peter (2015). "Race Relationships: Collegiality and Demarcation in Physical Anthropology". Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences. 51 (3): 237–260. doi:10.1002/jhbs.21728. PMID 25950769.

Spickard, Paul (2016). "The Return of Scientific Racism? DNA Ancestry Testing, Race, and the New Eugenics Movement". Race in Mind: Critical Essays. University of Notre Dame Press. p. 157. doi:10.2307/j.ctvpj76k0.11. ISBN 978-0-268-04148-9. JSTOR j.ctvpj76k0.11. For more than four decades beginning in the late 1930s, the Harvard anthropologist Carleton Coon wrote a series of big books for an ever shrinking audience in which he pushed a pseudoscientific racial angle of analysis.

Selcer, Perrin (2012). "Beyond the Cephalic Index: Negotiating Politics to Produce UNESCO's Scientific Statements on Race". Current Anthropology. 53 (S5): S180. doi:10.1086/662290. S2CID 146652143. Most disturbingly for liberal anthropologists, the new generation of racist "pseudoscience" threatened to return to mainstream respectability in 1962 with the publication of Carleton Coon's The Origin of Races (Coon 1962).

Loewen, James W. (2005). Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism. New York: New Press. p. 462. ISBN 9781565848870. Carleton Coon, whose The Origin of Races [...] claimed that Homo sapiens evolved five different times, blacks last. Its poor reception by anthropologists, followed by evidence from archaeology and paleontology that mankind evolved once, and in Africa, finally put an end to such pseudoscience.

Regal, Brian (2011). "The Life of Grover Krantz". Searching for Sasquatch. Palgrave Studies in the History of Science and Technology. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 93–94. doi:10.1057/9780230118294_5. ISBN 978-0-230-11829-4. Carleton Coon fully embraced typology as a way to determine the basis of racial and ethnic difference [...] Unfortunately for him, American anthropology increasingly equated typology with pseudoscience.

Templeton, A. (2016). EVOLUTION AND NOTIONS OF HUMAN RACE. In Losos J. & Lenski R. (Eds.), How Evolution Shapes Our Lives: Essays on Biology and Society (pp. 346-361). Princeton; Oxford: Princeton University Press. doi:10.2307/j.ctv7h0s6j.26.

"Miriam Claude Meijer, Race and Aesthetics in the Anthropology of Petrus Camper", 1722–1789, Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1999, pp. 169–74.

Bertoletti, Stefano Fabbri. 1994. The anthropological theory of Johann Friedrich Blumenbach. In Romanticism in science, science in Europe, 1790–1840.

See individual literature for such Caucasoid identifications, while the following article gives a brief overview: How "Caucasoids" Got Such Big Crania and Why They Shrank: From Morton to Rushton, Leonard Lieberman, Current Anthropology, Vol. 42, No. 1, February 2001, pp. 69–95.

"People and races", Alice Mossie Brues, Waveland Press, 1990, notes how the term Caucasoid replaced Caucasian.

Meyers Konversations-Lexikon, 4th edition, 1885–90, T11, p. 476.

Wright, Arnold (1915). Southern India, Its History, People, Commerce, and Industrial Resources. Foreign and Colonial Compiling and Publishing Company. p. 69.

Sharma, Ram Nath; Sharma, Rajendra K. (1997). Anthropology. Atlantic Publishers & Dist. p. 109. ISBN 978-81-7156-673-0.

Mhaiske, Vinod M.; Patil, Vinayak K.; Narkhede, S. S. (January 1, 2016). Forest Tribology And Anthropology. Scientific Publishers. p. 5. ISBN 978-93-86102-08-9.

Simpson, George Eaton; Yinger, John Milton (1985). Racial and cultural minorities: an analysis of prejudice and discrimination, Environment, development, and public policy. Springer. p. 32. ISBN 978-0-306-41777-1.

American anthropologist, American Anthropological Association, Anthropological Society of Washington (Washington, D.C,), 1984 v. 86, nos. 3–4, p. 741.

T. H. Huxley, "On the Geographical Distribution of the Chief Modifications of Mankind", Journal of the Ethnological Society of London (1870).

Grolier Incorporated (2001) [First published 1833]. Encyclopedia Americana, Volume 6. Grolier Incorporated. p. 85. ISBN 978-0-7172-0134-1.

Wells, H. G. (1921). The outline of history, being a plain history of life and mankind. The Macmillan Company. pp. 119–123, 236–238. Retrieved August 8, 2017.

Carleton S. Coon, The Races of Europe (1930)[page needed] Race and Racism: An Introduction (see also) by Carolyn Fluehr-Lobban, pp 127–133, December 8, 2005, ISBN 0759107955 Dmitry Bogatenkov; Stanislav Drobyshev. "Anthropology and Ethnic History" (in Russian). Peoples' Friendship University of Russia.

Dmitry Bogatenkov; Stanislav Drobyshev. "Racial variety of Mankind, section 5.5.3" (in Russian). Peoples' Friendship University of Russia.

School Bakai - Ethnogenesis the North Caucasus indigenous population

Beals, Ralph L.; Hoijer, Harry (1953). An Introduction to Anthropology. New York: The Macmillan Company.

Listed according to: Nida, Eugene Albert (1954). Customs and Cultures: Anthropology for Christian Missions. New York: Harper and Brothers. p. 283.

Painter, Nell Irvin (2003). "Collective Degradation: Slavery and the Construction of Race. Why White People are Called Caucasian" (PDF). Yale University. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 20, 2013. Retrieved October 9, 2006.

Karen R. Humes; Nicholas A. Jones; Roberto R. Ramirez, eds. (March 2011). "Definition of Race Categories Used in the 2010 Census" (PDF). United States Census Bureau. p. 3. Retrieved April 25, 2014.

Coulson, Doug (2015). "British Imperialism, the Indian Independence Movement, and the Racial Eligibility Provisions of the Naturalization Act: United States v. Thind Revisited". Georgetown Journal of Law & Modern Critical Race Perspectives. 7: 1–42. SSRN 2610266.

"Not All Caucasians Are White: The Supreme Court Rejects Citizenship for Asian Indians", History Matters

"Other Notable MeSH Changes and Related Impact on Searching: Ethnic Groups and Geographic Origins". NLM Technical Bulletin. 335 (Nov–Dec). 2003. The MeSH term Racial Stocks and its four children (Australoid Race, Caucasoid Race, Mongoloid Race, and Negroid Race) have been deleted from MeSH in 2004. A new heading, Continental Population Groups, has been created with new identification that emphasize geography.
Bibliography Camberg, Kim (December 13, 2005). "Long-term tensions behind Sydney riots". BBC News. Retrieved March 3, 2007.
Figal, Sara Eigen (April 15, 2010). Heredity, Race, and the Birth of the Modern. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-135-89161-9.
Leroi, Armand Marie (March 14, 2005). "A Family Tree in Every Gene". The New York Times. p. A23.
Lewontin, Richard (2005). "Confusions About Human Races". Race and Genomics, Social Sciences Research Council. Retrieved December 28, 2006.
Painter, Nell Irvin (2003). "Collective Degradation: Slavery and the Construction of Race. Why White People are Called Caucasian" (PDF). Yale University. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 20, 2013. Retrieved October 9, 2006.
Risch N, Burchard E, Ziv E, & Tang H (July 2002). "Categorization of humans in biomedical research: genes, race and disease". Genome Biol. 3 (7): comment2007.2001–12. doi:10.1186/gb-2002-3-7-comment2007. PMC 139378. PMID 12184798.
Rosenberg NA, Pritchard JK, Weber JL, et al. (December 2002). "Genetic structure of human populations". Science. 298 (5602): 2381–85. Bibcode:2002Sci...298.2381R. doi:10.1126/science.1078311. PMID 12493913. S2CID 8127224.
Rosenberg NA, Mahajan S, Ramachandran S, Zhao C, Pritchard JK, & Feldman MW (December 2005). "Clines, Clusters, and the Effect of Study Design on the Inference of Human Population Structure". PLOS Genet. 1 (6): e70. doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.0010070. PMC 1310579. PMID 16355252.
Templeton, Alan R. (September 1998). "Human races: A genetic and evolutionary perspective". American Anthropologist. 100 (3): 632–50. doi:10.1525/aa.1998.100.3.632. JSTOR 682042.
Literature Augstein, HF (1999). "From the Land of the Bible to the Caucasus and Beyond". In Harris, Bernard; Ernst, Waltraud (eds.). Race, Science and Medicine, 1700–1960. New York: Routledge. pp. 58–79. ISBN 978-0-415-18152-5.
Baum, Bruce (2006). The rise and fall of the Caucasian race: a political history of racial identity. New York: New York University Press. ISBN 978-0-8147-9892-8.
Blumenbach, Johann Friedrich (1775) On the Natural Varieties of Mankind – the book that introduced the concept
Cavalli-Sforza, Luigi Luca (2000). Genes, Peoples and Languages. London: Allen Lane. ISBN 978-0-7139-9486-5.
Gould, Stephen Jay (1981). The Mismeasure of Man. New York: Norton. ISBN 978-0-393-01489-1. – a history of the pseudoscience of race, skull measurements, and IQ inheritability
Guthrie, Paul (1999). The Making of the Whiteman: From the Original Man to the Whiteman. Chicago: Research Associates School Times. ISBN 978-0-948390-49-4.
Piazza, Alberto; Cavalli-Sforza, Luigi Luca & Menozzi, Paolo (1996). The History and Geography of Human Genes. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-02905-4. – a major reference of modern population genetics
Stoddard, Theodore Lothrop (1924). Racial Realities in Europe. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.
Wolf, Eric R. & Cole, John N. (1999). The Hidden Frontier: Ecology and Ethnicity in an Alpine Valley. Berkeley, California: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-21681-5.

v
t
e
Historical definitions of race

v
t
e
White people

Authority control: National
France
BnF data
Israel
United States

Categories: Historical definitions of race
Biological anthropology
Pseudoscience

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caucasian_race

Subcategories

This category has the following 13 subcategories, out of 13 total.

Human evolution‎ (11 C, 116 P)

A

Anthropometry‎ (5 C, 47 P)

F

Forensic anthropology‎ (2 C, 7 P)

G

Human genetics‎ (17 C, 63 P)

H

Hair color‎ (1 C, 12 P)

O

Osteology‎ (1 C, 15 P)

P

Paleoanthropology‎ (7 C, 19 P)

Paleopathology‎ (2 C, 2 P)

Phrenology‎ (2 C, 17 P)

Physical anthropologists‎ (3 C, 59 P)

Physiognomy‎ (1 C, 13 P)

Primatology‎ (7 C, 29 P)

S

Scientific racism‎ (7 C, 62 P)

Pages in category "Biological anthropology"

The following 61 pages are in this category, out of 61 total. This list may not reflect recent changes.

Biological anthropology
Obligate nasal breathing

A Acceleration (human development)
Anthropometric history
Anthropometry
Anthropopithecus
Aquiline nose
Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team
ASUDAS
Australo-Melanesian

B Body farm

C Canadian Association for Physical Anthropology
Canine fossa
Capoid race
Caspian race
Caucasian race
Cementochronology
Cephalic index
Cephalic index in cats and dogs
Cranid

D Deep social mind

E Endocast
Ethiopid race

F Fischer–Saller scale
Fluctuating asymmetry
Forensic anthropology

G Guatemalan Forensic Anthropology Foundation

H Heel–ball index
History of anthropometry
Hominid dental morphology evolution
Human genetic clustering
Human genetic variation
Human hair color
Human Universals

I Inclusive fitness in humans
Institute of Human Origins

M Maceration (bone)
Mankind Quarterly
Martin scale
Martin–Schultz scale
Janet Monge
Mongoloid
Mouth breathing

N Negroid
Neuroanthropology
Nigrescence

O Osteology
Osteoware
Ovulatory shift hypothesis

P Paleoanthropology
Paleopathology
Phrenology
Pignet Index
Post-orbital constriction
Prognathism

R Race and genetics
Recent human evolution

S Social Bonding and Nurture Kinship
Somatotype and constitutional psychology

U University of Tennessee Anthropological Research Facility
USC Jane Goodall Research Center
Categories: Anthropology
Human biology
Race (human categorization)
Hidden category: Commons category link is on Wikidata

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Biological_anthropology
Pages in category "Historical definitions of race"

The following 48 pages are in this category, out of 48 total. This list may not reflect recent changes.

Historical race concepts

A Alpine race
Americanoid
Arabid race
Armenoid race
Aryan race
Atlantid race
Australo-Melanesian
Australoid race

C Capoid race
Caspian race
Caucasian race
Curse of Ham

D Dinaric race
Dow v. United States
Dynastic race theory

E East Baltic race
Egon Freiherr von Eickstedt
Ethiopid race

H Hamites
Honorary whites

I Historical definitions of races in India
Indid race
Indo people
Irano-Afghan race
Italian racial laws

J Japhetites

L Lamanites
Carl Linnaeus
Pál Lipták

M Malay race
Manifesto of Race
Martial race
Mediterranean race
Mediterraneanism
Mongoloid

N Negroid
Nigrescence
Nordic race

P Pamirid race

R Race Life of the Aryan Peoples
The Race Question
Racial policy of Nazi Germany

S Semitic people

T Telingan
Turanid race
Typology (anthropology)

U Untermensch
Categories: History of eugenics
Race (human categorization)
Scientific racism
Hidden category: Commons category link is on Wikidata

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Historical_definitions_of_race

The Caucasian War (Russian: Кавказская война, romanized: Kavkazskaya voyna) or Caucasus War was a 19th century military conflict between the Russian Empire and various peoples of the North Caucasus who resisted subjugation during the Russian conquest of the Caucasus. It consisted of a series of military actions waged by the Russian Imperial Army and Cossack settlers against the native inhabitants such as the Adyghe, Abaza–Abkhaz, Ubykhs, Chechens, and Dagestanis as the Tsars sought to expand.[6]

Russian control of the Georgian Military Road in the center divided the Caucasian War into the Russo-Circassian War in the west and the conquest of Chechnya and Dagestan in the east. Other territories of the Caucasus (comprising contemporary eastern Georgia, southern Dagestan, Armenia and Azerbaijan) were incorporated into the Russian Empire at various times in the 19th century as a result of Russian wars with Persia.[7] The remaining part, western Georgia, was taken by the Russians from the Ottomans during the same period.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caucasian_War

The history of Christianity concerns the Christian religion, Christian countries, and the Christians with their various denominations, from the 1st century to the present. Christianity originated with the ministry of Jesus, a Jewish teacher and healer who proclaimed the imminent Kingdom of God and was crucified c. AD 30–33 in Jerusalem in the Roman province of Judea.[1] His followers believe that, according to the Gospels, he was the Son of God and that he died for the forgiveness of sins and was raised from the dead and exalted by God, and will return soon at the inception of God's kingdom.[1]

The earliest followers of Jesus were apocalyptic Jewish Christians.[1] The inclusion of Gentiles in the developing early Christian Church caused the separation of early Christianity from Judaism during the first two centuries of the Christian era.[2] In 313, the Roman Emperor Constantine I issued the Edict of Milan legalizing Christian worship.[3] In 380, with the Edict of Thessalonica put forth under Theodosius I, the Roman Empire officially adopted Trinitarian Christianity as its state religion, and Christianity established itself as a predominantly Roman religion in the state church of the Roman Empire.[4] Various Christological debates about the human and divine nature of Jesus consumed the Christian Church for three centuries, and seven ecumenical councils were called to resolve these debates.[5] Arianism was condemned at the First Council of Nicea (325), which supported the Trinitarian doctrine as expounded in the Nicene Creed.[5]

In the Early Middle Ages, missionary activities spread Christianity towards the west and the north among Germanic peoples;[6] towards the east among Armenians, Georgians, and Slavic peoples;[7] in the Middle East among Syrians and Egyptians;[8] in Eastern Africa among the Ethiopians;[9] and further into Central Asia, China, and India.[10] Christianity played a prominent role in the development of Western civilization, particularly in Europe from late antiquity and the Middle Ages.[11][12] During the High Middle Ages, Eastern and Western Christianity grew apart, leading to the East–West Schism of 1054. Growing criticism of the Roman Catholic ecclesiastical structure and its corruption led to the Protestant Reformation and its related reform movements in the 15th and 16th centuries, which concluded with the European wars of religion that set off the split of Western Christianity. Since the Renaissance era, with the European colonization of the Americas and other continents actively instigated by the Christian churches,[13][14][15][16] Christianity has expanded throughout the world.[17] Today, there are more than two billion Christians worldwide [18] and Christianity has become the world's largest religion.[19] Within the last century, as the influence of Christianity has progressively waned in the Western world, Christianity continues to be the predominant religion in Europe (including Russia) and the Americas, and has rapidly grown in Asia as well as in the Global South and Third World countries, most notably in Latin America, China, South Korea, and much of Sub-Saharan Africa.[20][21][22][23]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Christianity

Europe is a continent [a] comprising the westernmost peninsulas of Eurasia,[12][13] located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with both Africa and Asia. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east. Europe is commonly considered to be separated from Asia by the watershed of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Greater Caucasus, the Black Sea and the waterways of the Turkish Straits.[14]

Europe covers about 10.18 million km2 (3.93 million sq mi), or 2% of Earth's surface (6.8% of land area), making it the second-smallest continent (using the seven-continent model). Politically, Europe is divided into about fifty sovereign states, of which Russia is the largest and most populous, spanning 39% of the continent and comprising 15% of its population. Europe had a total population of about 745 million (about 10% of the world population) in 2021.[2][3] The European climate is largely affected by warm Atlantic currents that temper winters and summers on much of the continent, even at latitudes along which the climate in Asia and North America is severe. Further from the sea, seasonal differences are more noticeable than close to the coast.

European culture is the root of Western civilisation, which traces its lineage back to ancient Greece and ancient Rome.[15][16] The fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 CE and the related Migration Period marked the end of Europe's ancient history, and the beginning of the Middle Ages. The Renaissance began in Italy and spread to the rest of the continent, bringing a renewed interest in humanism, exploration, art, and science which led to the modern era. Since the Age of Discovery, started by Spain and Portugal, Europe played a predominant role in global affairs. Between the 16th and 20th centuries, European powers colonised at various times the Americas, almost all of Africa and Oceania, and the majority of Asia.

The Age of Enlightenment, the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars shaped the continent culturally, politically and economically from the end of the 17th century until the first half of the 19th century. The Industrial Revolution, which began in Great Britain at the end of the 18th century, gave rise to radical economic, cultural and social change in Western Europe and eventually the wider world. Both world wars began and were fought to a great extent in Europe, contributing to a decline in Western European dominance in world affairs by the mid-20th century as the Soviet Union and the United States took prominence.[17] During the Cold War, Europe was divided along the Iron Curtain between NATO in the West and the Warsaw Pact in the East, until the Revolutions of 1989, Fall of the Berlin Wall and the Dissolution of the Soviet Union.

The European Union (EU) and the Council of Europe are two important international organizations aiming to represent the European continent on a political level. The Council of Europe was founded in 1948 with the idea of unifying Europe[18] to achieve common goals and prevent future wars. Further European integration by some states led to the formation of the European Union, a separate political entity that lies between a confederation and a federation.[19] The EU originated in Western Europe but has been expanding eastward since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. A majority of its members have adopted a common currency, the euro, and a large bloc of countries, the Schengen Area, have abolished internal border and immigration controls.

First map of the world according to Anaximander (6th century BCE)

Name

Further information: Europa (consort of Zeus)

First map of the world according to Anaximander (6th century BCE)

In classical Greek mythology, Europa (Ancient Greek: Εὐρώπη, Eurṓpē) was a Phoenician princess. One view is that her name derives from the Ancient Greek elements εὐρύς (eurús) 'wide, broad', and ὤψ (ōps, gen. ὠπός, ōpós) 'eye, face, countenance', hence their composite Eurṓpē would mean 'wide-gazing' or 'broad of aspect'.[20][21][22][23] Broad has been an epithet of Earth herself in the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European religion and the poetry devoted to it.[20] An alternative view is that of Robert Beekes, who has argued in favour of a Pre-Indo-European origin for the name, explaining that a derivation from eurus would yield a different toponym than Europa. Beekes has located toponyms related to that of Europa in the territory of ancient Greece, and localities such as that of Europos in ancient Macedonia.[24]

There have been attempts to connect Eurṓpē to a Semitic term for west, this being either Akkadian erebu meaning 'to go down, set' (said of the sun) or Phoenician 'ereb 'evening, west',[25] which is at the origin of Arabic maghreb and Hebrew ma'arav. Martin Litchfield West stated that "phonologically, the match between Europa's name and any form of the Semitic word is very poor",[26] while Beekes considers a connection to Semitic languages improbable.[24]

Most major world languages use words derived from Eurṓpē or Europa to refer to the continent. Chinese, for example, uses the word Ōuzhōu (歐洲/欧洲), which is an abbreviation of the transliterated name Ōuluóbā zhōu (歐羅巴洲) (zhōu means "continent"); a similar Chinese-derived term Ōshū (欧州) is also sometimes used in Japanese such as in the Japanese name of the European Union, Ōshū Rengō (欧州連合), despite the katakana Yōroppa (ヨーロッパ) being more commonly used. In some Turkic languages, the originally Persian name Frangistan ('land of the Franks') is used casually in referring to much of Europe, besides official names such as Avrupa or Evropa.[27]
Definition
Further information: Boundaries between the continents of Earth § Asia and Europe
See also: List of transcontinental countries

Europe
Show national bordersHide national bordersShow all
Area 10,180,000 km2 (3,930,000 sq mi)[1] (6th)[a]
Population 745,173,774 (2021; 3rd)[2][3]
Population density 72.9/km2 (188/sq mi) (2nd)
GDP (PPP) $33.62 trillion (2022 est; 2nd)[4]
GDP (nominal) $24.02 trillion (2022 est; 3rd)[5]
GDP per capita $34,230 (2022 est; 3rd)[c][6]
HDI 0.845[7]
Religions
Christianity (76.2%)[8]
No religion (18.3%)[8]
Islam (4.9%)[8]
Other (0.6%)[8]
Demonym European
Countries Sovereign (44–50)
De facto (2–6)
Dependencies External (5–6)
Internal (3)
Languages Most common:
Russian
German
English
French
Italian
Spanish
Polish
Ukrainian
Romanian
Dutch
Serbo-Croatian
Time zones UTC−1 to UTC+5
Internet TLD .eu (European Union)
Largest cities Largest urban areas:
Moscow
Paris
London
Istanbul [b]
Madrid
Saint Petersburg
Milan
Barcelona
Berlin
Rome [9]
UN M49 code 150 – Europe
001 – World

a. ^ Figures include only European portions of transcontinental countries.[n]
b. ^ European side only. Istanbul is a transcontinental city which straddles both Asia and Europe.
c. ^ "Europe" as defined by the International Monetary Fund.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europe

Venus (/ˈviːnəs/)[a] is a Roman goddess, whose functions encompass love, beauty, desire, sex, fertility, prosperity, and victory. In Roman mythology, she was the ancestor of the Roman people through her son, Aeneas, who survived the fall of Troy and fled to Italy. Julius Caesar claimed her as his ancestor. Venus was central to many religious festivals, and was revered in Roman religion under numerous cult titles.

The Romans adapted the myths and iconography of her Greek counterpart Aphrodite for Roman art and Latin literature. In the later classical tradition of the West, Venus became one of the most widely referenced deities of Greco-Roman mythology as the embodiment of love and sexuality. She is usually depicted nude in paintings.
Venus

Goddess of love, beauty, desire, sex, fertility, prosperity and victory
Member of Dii Consentes

Venus rising from the sea, alluding to the birth-myth of Greek Aphrodite.[1] From a garden wall at the Casa della Venere in conchiglia, Pompeii. Before AD 79
Planet Venus
Symbols rose, common myrtle
Day Friday (dies Veneris)
Festivals Veneralia
Vinalia Rustica
Vinalia Urbana
Personal information
Parents Caelus
Consort Mars and Vulcan
Children Cupid (in later tradition); Aeneas (fathered by Anchises in Virgil's Aeneas)
Equivalents
Greek equivalent Aphrodite
Indo-European equivalent Priyah

The Birth of Venus, by Sandro Botticelli c. 1485–1486

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_(mythology)

Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, is a term used to describe the legal, economic, military, cultural and political customs that flourished in medieval Europe between the 9th and 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a way of structuring society around relationships that were derived from the holding of land in exchange for service or labour. Although it is derived from the Latin word feodum or feudum (fief),[1] which was used during the Medieval period, the term feudalism and the system which it describes were not conceived of as a formal political system by the people who lived during the Middle Ages.[2] The classic definition, by François Louis Ganshof (1944),[3] describes a set of reciprocal legal and military obligations which existed among the warrior nobility and revolved around the three key concepts of lords, vassals, and fiefs.[3]

A broader definition of feudalism, as described by Marc Bloch (1939), includes not only the obligations of the warrior nobility but the obligations of all three estates of the realm: the nobility, the clergy, and the peasantry, all of whom were bound by a system of manorialism; this is sometimes referred to as a "feudal society". Since the publication of Elizabeth A. R. Brown's "The Tyranny of a Construct" (1974) and Susan Reynolds's Fiefs and Vassals (1994), there has been ongoing inconclusive discussion among medieval historians as to whether feudalism is a useful construct for understanding medieval society.[10]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feudalism

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoard

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cult

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clan

The colonial history of the United States covers the history of European colonization of North America from the early 17th century until the incorporation of the Thirteen Colonies into the United States after the Revolutionary War. In the late 16th century, England (British Empire), Kingdom of France, Spanish Empire, and the Dutch Republic launched major colonization programs in North America.[1] The death rate was very high among early immigrants, and some early attempts disappeared altogether, such as the English Lost Colony of Roanoke. Nevertheless, successful colonies were established within several decades.

European settlers came from a variety of social and religious groups, including adventurers, farmers, indentured servants, tradesmen, and a very few from the aristocracy. Settlers included the Dutch of New Netherland, the Swedes and Finns of New Sweden, the English Quakers of the Province of Pennsylvania, the English Puritans of New England, the Virginian Cavaliers, the English Catholics and Protestant Nonconformists of the Province of Maryland, the "worthy poor" of the Province of Georgia, the Germans who settled the mid-Atlantic colonies, and the Ulster Scots of the Appalachian Mountains. These groups all became part of the United States when it gained its independence in 1776. Russian America and parts of New France and New Spain were also incorporated into the United States at later times. The diverse colonists from these various regions built colonies of distinctive social, religious, political, and economic style.

Over time, non-British colonies East of the Mississippi River were taken over and most of the inhabitants were assimilated. In Nova Scotia, however, the British expelled the French Acadians, and many relocated to Louisiana. No civil wars occurred in the Thirteen Colonies. The two chief armed rebellions were short-lived failures in Virginia in 1676 and in New York in 1689–1691. Some of the colonies developed legalized systems of slavery,[2] centered largely around the Atlantic slave trade. Wars were recurrent between the French and the British during the French and Indian Wars. By 1760, France was defeated and its colonies were seized by Britain.

On the eastern seaboard, the four distinct English regions were New England, the Middle Colonies, the Chesapeake Bay Colonies (Upper South), and the Southern Colonies (Lower South). Some historians add a fifth region of the "Frontier", which was never separately organized.[1] A significant percentage of the native Americans living in the eastern region had been ravaged by disease before 1620, possibly introduced to them decades before by explorers and sailors (although no conclusive cause has been established).[3]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonial_history_of_the_United_States

The Southern Colonies within British America consisted of the Province of Maryland,[1] the Colony of Virginia, the Province of Carolina (in 1712 split into North and South Carolina), and the Province of Georgia. In 1763, the newly created colonies of East Florida and West Florida would be added to the Southern Colonies by Great Britain until the Spanish Empire took back Florida. These colonies were the historical core of what would become the Southern United States, or "Dixie". They were located south of the Middle Colonies, albeit Virginia and Maryland (in their quality as northernmost colonies of the South) were also considered as the Chesapeake Colonies.

The colonies developed prosperous economies based on the cultivation of cash crops, such as tobacco,[2] indigo,[3] and rice.[4] An effect of the cultivation of these crops was the presence of slavery in significantly higher proportions than in other parts of British America.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Colonies

British America comprised the colonial territories of the English Empire, and the successor British Empire, in the Americas from 1607 to 1783. These colonies were formally known as British America and the British West Indies just before the thirteen of the colonies declared their independence in the American Revolution (1765–1791) and formed the United States of America.[2]

After the American Revolutionary War, the term British North America was used to refer to the remainder of Great Britain's possessions in what became Canada, and British West Indies to various islands and what became Belize. The term British North America was used in 1783, but it was more commonly used after the Report on the Affairs of British North America (1839), generally known as the Durham Report.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_America

All English overseas possessions in 1700, shortly before the Acts of Union of 1707

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_overseas_possessions#The_Americas

The Circassian genocide,[6][7] or Tsitsekun,[a][b] was the Russian Empire's systematic mass murder, ethnic cleansing, and expulsion of 80–97%[9][10] of the Circassian population, around 800,000–1,500,000 people,[9][11][12] during and after the Russo-Circassian War (1763–1864).[4][13][14] The peoples planned for removal were mainly the Circassians, but other Muslim peoples of the Caucasus were also affected.[13] Several methods used by Russian forces such as impaling and tearing the bellies of pregnant women were reported.[4][15] Russian generals such as Grigory Zass described the Circassians as "subhuman filth", and glorified the mass murder of Circassian civilians,[4][16][17] justified their use in scientific experiments,[18] and allowed their soldiers to rape women.[4]

During the Russo-Circassian War, the Russian Empire employed a genocidal strategy of massacring Circassian civilians. Only a small percentage who accepted Russification and resettlement within the Russian Empire were completely spared. The remaining Circassian population who refused were variously dispersed or killed en masse.[19] Circassian villages would be located and burnt, systematically starved, or their entire population massacred.[9] Leo Tolstoy reported that Russian soldiers would attack village houses at night.[20] William Palgrave, a British diplomat who witnessed the events, adds that "their only crime was not being Russian".[21] In 1864, "A Petition from Circassian leaders to Her Majesty Queen Victoria" was signed by the Circassians requesting humanitarian aid from the British Empire.[22][23][24] In the same year, mass deportation was launched against the surviving population before the end of the war in 1864 and it was mostly completed by 1867.[25] Some died from epidemics or starvation among the crowds of deportees and were reportedly eaten by dogs after their death.[21] Others died when the ships underway sank during storms.[12]

Calculations, including taking into account the Russian government's own archival figures, have estimated a loss of 80–97%[26][27][28] of the Circassian population in the process. The displaced people were settled primarily to the Ottoman Empire.[4] Sources state that as many as 1 to 1.5 million Circassians were forced to flee in total, but only half could make it to land.[1][2] Ottoman archives show nearly 1 million migrants entering their land from the Caucasus by 1879, with nearly half of them dying on the shores as a result of diseases.[3] If Ottoman archives are correct, it would make it the biggest genocide of the 19th century,[29] and indeed, in support of the Ottoman archives, the Russian census of 1897 records only 150,000 Circassians, one tenth of the original number, still remaining in the now-conquered region.[30][31]

As of 2021, Georgia was the only country to recognize the Circassian genocide.[32] Russia actively denies the Circassian genocide,[33][34][35] and classifies the events as a migration (Russian: Черкесское мухаджирство, lit. 'Circassian migrationism'). Some Russian nationalists in the Caucasus region continue to celebrate the day when the Circassian deportation was launched, 21 May (O.S), each year as a "holy conquest day". Circassians commemorate 21 May every year as the Circassian Day of Mourning commemorating the Circassian genocide.[36] On 21 May, Circassians all over the world protest against the Russian government, especially in cities with large Circassian populations such as Kayseri and Amman, as well as other large cities such as Istanbul.[37][38]
Background
Main article: Russian conquest of the Caucasus

In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, although it was already making attempts in the early 18th century, the Russian Empire began actively seeking to expand its territory to the south at the expense of the neighboring Ottoman Empire and Qajar Iran, and thus aimed to incorporate the Caucasus into its domain. Some areas proved easier to incorporate than others, largely depending on the nature of local political structures. Eastern Georgia for example, comprising the most powerful and dominant Georgian regions of Kartli and Kakheti had been under intermittent Iranian suzerainty since 1555. Russia eventually found itself able, through instability in the geopolitical situation of Georgia within Qajar Iran, to annex eastern Georgia in the early 19th century, ratified in the 1803 Treaty of Gulistan.[39]

Russia endeavored to bring the entire Caucasus region under its control, conquering Armenia, Caucasian Azerbaijan, and southern Dagestan, while co-opting the nobility of other areas such as Lower Kabardia and parts of Dagestan. Although the Russians faced considerable resistance to incorporation in Dagestan and Georgia, as well as military resistance by the local government of Imereti, the regions they felt most difficult of all to incorporate were those that had not been conquered by foreign empires and did not have any local monopolies of power—which was the state of most Circassian territories, where resistance to absorption into the Russian Empire was most tenacious.[40]

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Circassian nationalism
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Circassians
Адыгэхэр

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Surviving
Abadzekh
Besleney
Bzhedug
Chemirgoy
Hatuqway
Kabardian
Natukhaj
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Destroyed or barely existing
Ademey
Chebsin
Cherchenay
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Languages and dialects

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History

Russian military and Circassian represent

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circassian_genocide

In March 1864, a surrounded Circassian army refused to surrender and committed mass suicide. Around the same time, a final battle took place in Qbaada in 1864 between the Circassian army of 20,000 men and women, consisting of local villagers and militia and a Russian army of 100,000 men, consisting of Cossack and Russian horsemen, infantry and artillery. The Circassians were defeated, and after the battle, masses of Circassians were driven to Sochi, where thousands died as they awaited deportation.[106]

The last Circassian resistance, along with the coastal Abkhaz tribes of Pskhu, Akhtsipsou, Aibgo and Jigit were defeated and then killed en masse to the last man, woman and child, after which, on 21 May, Prince Mikhail Nikolayevich gathered the troops in a clearing in the area for a thanksgiving service.[107] The Russian army began celebrating victory, as a military-religious parade was held, and 100 Circassian warriors were publicly mutilated in a public execution in order to establish authority.[108] After this, the Russian army began increasing their efforts in raiding and burning Circassian villages, destroying fields to prevent return, cutting down trees, and driving the people to the Black Sea coast.

Russian military outpost on the Circassian frontier, 1845

Circassians leaving their villages

Circassian refugees

Abuses in the transport of refugees between Turkish cities were also noted, with one particular incident concerning a ship bound for Cyprus in which mutilated and decapitated bodies were found washed ashore, compounded by accounts of refugees being tied up and tossed overboard while still alive. On this particular Cyprus-bound ship, only one third of the refugees who had boarded survived.[121] Another Russian observer, Olshevsky, also noted abuses by Turkish skippers, as well as bribes paid by Circassians to get onto departing ships, but he blamed most of all the Russian command under Yevdokimov for the situation:

Parade by Russian troops, symbolizing the end of the Caucasian War at a military encampment in Qbaada, 21 May 1864

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circassian_genocide

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyprus

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ottoman Archives
Başbakanlık Osmanlı Arşivleri
Country Turkey
Location Kağıthane , Istanbul

The Ottoman archives are a collection of historical sources related to the Ottoman Empire and a total of 39 nations whose territories one time or the other were part of this Empire, including 19 nations in the Middle East, 11 in the EU and Balkans, three in the Caucasus, two in Central Asia, Cyprus, as well as the Republic of Turkey.

The main collection, in the Başbakanlık Osmanlı Arşivleri (The Prime Minister's Ottoman Archives) in Istanbul, holds the central State Archives (Devlet arşivleri).

After more than a century in the center of the old city, the Ottoman state archives were relocated in 2013 to the Kağıthane district of Istanbul.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottoman_archives

Rome (Italian and Latin: Roma [ˈroːma] (listen)) is the capital city of Italy. It is also the capital of the Lazio region, the centre of the Metropolitan City of Rome, and a special comune named Comune di Roma Capitale. With 2,860,009 residents in 1,285 km2 (496.1 sq mi),[2] Rome is the country's most populated comune and the third most populous city in the European Union by population within city limits. The Metropolitan City of Rome, with a population of 4,355,725 residents, is the most populous metropolitan city in Italy.[3] Its metropolitan area is the third-most populous within Italy.[4] Rome is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, within Lazio (Latium), along the shores of the Tiber. Vatican City (the smallest country in the world)[5] is an independent country inside the city boundaries of Rome, the only existing example of a country within a city. Rome is often referred to as the City of Seven Hills due to its geographic location, and also as the "Eternal City".[6] Rome is generally considered to be the "cradle of Western civilization and Christian culture", and the centre of the Catholic Church.[7][8][9]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rome

Untermensch (German pronunciation: [ˈʔʊntɐˌmɛnʃ] (listen), lit. 'underman', 'sub-man', 'subhuman'; plural: Untermenschen) is a Nazi term for non-Aryan people they deem as inferior, who were often referred to as "the masses from the East", that is Jews, Roma, and Slavs (mainly ethnic Poles, Ukrainians, Serbs, and later also Russians).[1][2][3] The term was also applied to "mulatto" and black people.[4] Jewish, Polish and Romani people, along with the physically and mentally disabled, as well as homosexuals and political dissidents, and on rare instances, POWs from Western Allied armies, were to be exterminated [5] in the Holocaust.[6][7] According to the Generalplan Ost, the Slavic population of East-Central Europe was to be reduced in part through mass murder in the Holocaust, with a majority expelled to Asia and used as slave labor in the Reich. These concepts were an important part of the Nazi racial policy.[8]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Untermensch

The Ku Klux Klan (/ˌkuː klʌks ˈklæn, ˌkjuː-/),[c] commonly shortened to the KKK or the Klan in recent decades, is an American white supremacist, right-wing terrorist, and hate group whose primary targets are African Americans, Hispanics, Jews,[39][40][41] Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans,[42] and Catholics, as well as immigrants, leftists, homosexuals,[43][44] Muslims,[45][46][47] atheists,[27][28][29][30] and abortion providers.[48][49][50]

Three separate Klans have existed in three non-overlapping time periods. Each comprised local chapters with little or no central direction. Each has advocated extremist reactionary positions such as white nationalism, anti-immigration and—especially in later iterations—Nordicism,[51][52] antisemitism, anti-Catholicism, Prohibition, right-wing populism, anti-communism, homophobia,[53][54][55][56] anti-atheism,[27][28][29][30] Islamophobia, and anti-progressivism. The first Klan founded by Confederate veterans[57] used terrorism—both physical assault and murder—against politically active Black people and their allies in the Southern United States in the late 1860s.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ku_Klux_Klan

White is a racialized classification of people and a skin color specifier, generally used for people of European ancestry, although the definition can vary depending on context, nationality, and point of view.

Description of populations as "White" in reference to their skin color predates this notion and is occasionally found in Greco-Roman ethnography and other ancient or medieval sources, but these societies did not have any notion of a White or pan-European race. The term "White race" or "White people", defined by their light skin among other physical characteristics, entered the major European languages in the later seventeenth century, when the concept of a "unified White" achieved universal acceptance in Europe, in the context of racialized slavery and unequal social status in the European colonies. Scholarship on race distinguishes the modern concept from pre-modern descriptions, which focused on physical complexion rather than race. Prior to the modern era, no European peoples regarded themselves as "White", but rather defined their race, ancestry, or ethnicity in terms of their nationality.[1] With a population ranging from around 1.1-1.2 billion people out of the global population of more than 8 billion, White people constitute around 15% of the global population.

Contemporary anthropologists and other scientists, while recognizing the reality of biological variation between different human populations, regard the concept of a unified, distinguishable "White race" as a social construct with no scientific basis.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_people
In generalEuropean, an adjective referring to something of, from, or related to Europe Ethnic groups in Europe
Demographics of Europe
European cuisine, the cuisines of Europe and other Western countries
European, an adjective referring to something of, from, or related to the European Union European Union citizenship
Demographics of the European Union

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European

Europeans are the focus of European ethnology, the field of anthropology related to the various ethnic groups that reside in the states of Europe. Groups may be defined by common genetic ancestry, common language, or both. Pan and Pfeil (2004) count 87[clarify] distinct "peoples of Europe", of which 33[clarify] form the majority population in at least one sovereign state, while the remaining 54[clarify] constitute ethnic minorities. The total number of national minority populations in Europe is estimated at 105 million people, or 14% of 770 million Europeans.[1] The Russians are the most populous among Europeans, with a population of roughly 120 million.[2] There are no universally accepted and precise definitions of the terms "ethnic group" and "nationality". In the context of European ethnography in particular, the terms ethnic group, people, nationality and ethno-linguistic group, are used as mostly synonymous, although preference may vary in usage with respect to the situation specific to the individual countries of Europe.[3]
Overview
Further information: Demographics of Europe

About 20–25 million residents (3%)[year needed] are members of diasporas of non-European origin.[citation needed] The population of the European Union, with some 450 million residents, accounts for two thirds of the current European population.

Both Spain and the United Kingdom are special cases, in that the designation of nationality, Spanish and British, may controversially[citation needed] take ethnic aspects, subsuming various regional ethnic groups (see nationalisms and regionalisms of Spain and native populations of the United Kingdom). Switzerland is a similar case, but the linguistic subgroups of the Swiss are discussed in terms of both ethnicity and language affiliations.
Linguistic classifications
Further information: Languages of Europe

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Of the total population of Europe of some 740 million (as of 2010), close to 90% (or some 650 million) fall within three large branches of Indo-European languages, these being:
Romance, including Aromanian, Arpitan, Catalan, Corsican, French and other Langues d'oïl, Friulian, Galician, Istro-Romanian, Italian, Ligurian, Ladino, Megleno-Romanian, Occitan, Portuguese, Romanian, Romansh, Sardinian and Spanish.
Germanic, including Danish, Dutch, English, Faroese, Frisian, German, Icelandic, Limburgish, Low Saxon, Luxembourgish, Norwegian, Scots, Swedish, and Yiddish.[4] Afrikaans, a daughter language of Dutch, is spoken by some South African and Namibian migrant populations.
Slavic, including Belarusian, Bulgarian, Czech, Kashubian, Macedonian, Polish, Russian, Rusyn, Serbo-Croatian, Slovak, Slovenian, Sorbian and Ukrainian.

Three stand-alone Indo-European languages do not fall within larger sub-groups and are not closely related to those larger language families: Greek (about 12 million)
Albanian (about 9 million)
Armenian (about 3.5 million)

In addition, there are also smaller sub-groups within the Indo-European languages of Europe, including: Baltic, including Latvian, Lithuanian, Samogitian and Latgalian.
Celtic languages, including Breton, Cornish, Irish, Manx, Welsh, and Scottish Gaelic.
Iranic, mainly Ossetian in the Caucasus.
Indo-Aryan is represented by the Romani language spoken by Roma people of eastern Europe, and is at root related to the Indo-Aryan languages of the Indian subcontinent.

Besides the Indo-European languages, there are other language families on the European continent which are considered unrelated to Indo-European: Uralic languages, including Estonian, Finnish, Hungarian, Komi, Livonian, Mari, Mordvin, Sámi, Samoyedic, and Udmurt.
Turkic languages, including Azeri, Bashkir, Chuvash, Gagauz, Kazakh, Nogai, Tatar, and Turkish.
Semitic languages, including: Assyrian Neo-Aramaic (spoken in parts of eastern Turkey and the Caucasus by Assyrian Christians), Hebrew (spoken by some Jewish populations), and Maltese. Arabic is spoken by some migrant communities from the Middle East and North Africa.
Kartvelian languages (also known as South Caucasian languages), including Georgian, Laz, Mingrelian, Svan, and Zan.
Northwest Caucasian languages, including Abkhaz, Abaza, Adyghe, Circassian, Kabardian, and Ubykh.
Northeast Caucasian languages, including Avar, Chechen, Dargin, Ingush, Lak, and Lezgian.
Language isolates: Basque, spoken in the Basque regions of Spain and France, is an isolate language, the only one in Europe, and is believed to be unrelated to any other language, living or extinct.
Mongolic languages exist in the form of Kalmyk, spoken in the South region of Russia.
History
Prehistoric populations
Further information: Genetic history of Europe, Prehistoric Europe, Eurasian nomads, Indo-European expansion, and Neolithic revolution

Simplified model for the demographic history of Europeans during the Neolithic period and the introduction of agriculture.[5]

The Basques have been found to descend from the population of the late Neolithic or early Bronze Age directly.[6][7] By contrast, Indo-European groups of Europe (the Centum, Balto-Slavic, and Albanian groups) migrated throughout most of Europe from the Pontic steppe. They are assumed to have developed in situ through admixture of earlier Mesolithic and Neolithic populations with Bronze Age, proto-Indo-Europeans.[8][9][10] The Finnic peoples are assumed to also be descended from Proto-Uralic populations further to the east, nearer to the Ural Mountains, that had migrated to their historical homelands in Europe by about 3,000 years ago.[11]

Reconstructed languages of Iron Age Europe include Proto-Celtic, Proto-Italic and Proto-Germanic, all of these Indo-European languages of the centum group, and Proto-Slavic and Proto-Baltic, of the satem group. A group of Tyrrhenian languages appears to have included Etruscan, Rhaetian, Lemnian, and perhaps Camunic. A pre-Roman stage of Proto-Basque can only be reconstructed with great uncertainty.

Regarding the European Bronze Age, the only relatively likely reconstruction is that of Proto-Greek (ca. 2000 BC). A Proto-Italo-Celtic ancestor of both Italic and Celtic (assumed for the Bell beaker period), and a Proto-Balto-Slavic language (assumed for roughly the Corded Ware horizon) has been postulated with less confidence. Old European hydronymy has been taken as indicating an early (Bronze Age) Indo-European predecessor of the later centum languages.

According to geneticist David Reich, based on ancient human genomes that his laboratory sequenced in 2016, Europeans descend from a mixture of four distinct ancestral components.[12]
Historical populations
Further information: History of Europe

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Map of the Roman Empire and barbarian tribes in 125 AD.

Iron Age (pre-Great Migrations) populations of Europe known from Greco-Roman historiography, notably Herodotus, Pliny, Ptolemy and Tacitus: Aegean: the Greek tribes, Pelasgians, and Anatolians.
Balkans: the Illyrians (List of ancient tribes in Illyria), Dacians, and Thracians.
Italian peninsula: the Camunni, Rhaetians, Lepontii, Adriatic Veneti, Gauls, Ligurians, Etruscans, Italic peoples and Greek and Phoenician colonies in its neighboring Italian islands.
Western/Central Europe: the Celts (list of peoples of Gaul, List of Celtic tribes), Rhaetians and Swabians, Vistula Veneti, Lugii and Balts.
Iberian peninsula and Pyrenees : the Pre-Roman peoples of the Iberian Peninsula (Iberians, Celts, Celtiberians, Lusitani, Basques, Turdetani), of the Pyrenean piedmont (Aquitani) between the Pyrenees and the Atlantic ocean, and Greek and Phoenician coastal Mediterranean colonies.
Sardinia and Corsica: the ancient Sardinians and Corsicans (also known as Nuragic and Torrean peoples), comprising the Corsi, Balares, Ilienses tribes and Phoenician colonies.
British Isles: the Celtic tribes in Britain and Ireland and Picts/Priteni.
Northern Europe: the Baltic Finns, Germanic peoples (list of Germanic peoples) and Normans.
Sicily: the Italic Sicels and Morgetes, the Sicani, Elymians and Greek and Phoenician colonies.
Eastern Europe: the Veneti (Early Slavs), Scythians and Sarmatians.
Armenian Highlands/Anatolia: the Armenians.
Historical immigration
Further information: Scythians, Huns, Turkic expansion, and Early Muslim conquests

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The Great Migrations of Late Antiquity.

Map showing the distribution of Slavic tribes between the 7th–9th centuries AD.

Ethno-linguistic groups that arrived from outside Europe during historical times are: Phoenician colonies in the Mediterranean (including regions in Spain, Malta, Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus and the Aegean), from about 1200 BC to the fall of Carthage after the Third Punic War in 146 BC.
Assyrian conquest of Cyprus, Southern Caucasus (including parts of modern Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan) and Cilicia during the Neo-Assyrian Empire (911–605 BC).
Iranian influence: Achaemenid control of Thrace (512–343 BC) and the Bosporan Kingdom, Cimmerians (possible Iranians), Scythians, Sarmatians, Alans, Ossetes.
The Jewish diaspora reached Europe in the Roman Empire period, the Jewish community in Italy dating to around AD 70 and records of Jews settling Central Europe (Gaul) from the 5th century (see History of the Jews in Europe).
The Hunnic Empire (5th century AD), converged with the Barbarian invasions, contributing to the formation of the First Bulgarian Empire.
The Slavic migrations (6th century AD), and the subsequent split into Eastern Slavs, Western Slavs and Southern Slavs.
Avar Khaganate (c. 560s–800).
The Bulgars (or Proto-Bulgarians), a semi-nomadic Turkic people, originally from Central Asia, eventually absorbed by the Slavs.
The Magyars (Hungarians), an Uralic-speaking people, and the Turkic Pechenegs and Khazars, arrived in Europe in about the 8th century (see Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin).
The Arabs conquered Cyprus, Crete, Sicily (establishing the Emirate of Sicily in 831, from which they would be expelled in 1224), some places along the coast of southern Italy, Malta, Greek Empire and most of Iberia (founding a polity known as Al-Andalus in 711, ruled also by Berber dynasties of the Almoravides and the Almohads, from whose domain they would be expelled in 1492).
Exodus of Maghreb Christians.[13]
The western Kipchaks known as Cumans entered the lands of present-day Ukraine in the 11th century.
The Mongol/Tatar invasions (1223–1480), and Ottoman control of the Balkans (1389–1878). These medieval incursions account for the presence of European Turks and Tatars.
The Romani people arrived during the Late Middle Ages.
The Mongol Kalmyks arrived in Kalmykia in the 17th century.
History of European ethnography

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Europa Regina (Representation of Europe printed by Sebastian Munster (1570).

Ethnographic map of Europe, The Times Atlas (1896).

The earliest accounts of European ethnography date from Classical Antiquity. Herodotus described the Scythians and Thraco-Illyrians. Dicaearchus gave a description of Greece itself, besides accounts of western and northern Europe. His work survives only fragmentarily, but was received by Polybius and others.

Roman Empire period authors include Diodorus Siculus, Strabo and Tacitus. Julius Caesar gives an account of the Celtic tribes of Gaul, while Tacitus describes the Germanic tribes of Magna Germania. A number of authors like Diodorus Siculus, Pausanias and Sallust depict the ancient Sardinian and Corsican peoples.

The 4th century Tabula Peutingeriana records the names of numerous peoples and tribes. Ethnographers of Late Antiquity such as Agathias of Myrina Ammianus Marcellinus, Jordanes and Theophylact Simocatta give early accounts of the Slavs, the Franks, the Alamanni and the Goths.

Book IX of Isidore's Etymologiae (7th century) treats de linguis, gentibus, regnis, militia, civibus (concerning languages, peoples, realms, war and cities). Ahmad ibn Fadlan in the 10th century gives an account of the Bolghar and the Rus' peoples. William Rubruck, while most notable for his account of the Mongols, in his account of his journey to Asia also gives accounts of the Tatars and the Alans. Saxo Grammaticus and Adam of Bremen give an account of pre-Christian Scandinavia. The Chronicon Slavorum (12th century) gives an account of the northwestern Slavic tribes.

Gottfried Hensel in his 1741 Synopsis Universae Philologiae published one of the earliest ethno-linguistic map of Europe, showing the beginning of the pater noster in the various European languages and scripts.[14][15] In the 19th century, ethnicity was discussed in terms of scientific racism, and the ethnic groups of Europe were grouped into a number of "races", Mediterranean, Alpine and Nordic, all part of a larger "Caucasian" group.

The beginnings of ethnic geography as an academic subdiscipline lie in the period following World War I, in the context of nationalism, and in the 1930s exploitation for the purposes of fascist and Nazi propaganda, so that it was only in the 1960s that ethnic geography began to thrive as a bona fide academic subdiscipline.[16]

The origins of modern ethnography are often traced to the work of Bronisław Malinowski, who emphasized the importance of fieldwork.[17] The emergence of population genetics further undermined the categorisation of Europeans into clearly defined racial groups. A 2007 study on the genetic history of Europe found that the most important genetic differentiation in Europe occurs on a line from the north to the south-east (northern Europe to the Balkans), with another east–west axis of differentiation across Europe, separating the indigenous Basques, Sardinians and Sami from other European populations. Despite these stratifications it noted the unusually high degree of European homogeneity: "there is low apparent diversity in Europe with the entire continent-wide samples only marginally more dispersed than single population samples elsewhere in the world."[18][19][20]
Minorities
Further information: Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities and European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages
Further information: Multilingual countries and regions of Europe

Gagauz people in Moldova

Sámi family in Lapland of Finland, 1936.

The total number of national minority populations in Europe is estimated at 105 million people, or 14% of Europeans.[1]

The member states of the Council of Europe in 1995 signed the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities. The broad aims of the convention are to ensure that the signatory states respect the rights of national minorities, undertaking to combat discrimination, promote equality, preserve and develop the culture and identity of national minorities, guarantee certain freedoms in relation to access to the media, minority languages and education and encourage the participation of national minorities in public life. The Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities defines a national minority implicitly to include minorities possessing a territorial identity and a distinct cultural heritage. By 2008, 39 member states had signed and ratified the convention, with the notable exception of France.
Indigenous minorities

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Definitions of what constitutes indigenous minority groups in Europe can vary widely. One criterion is the so-called "time element", or how long the original inhabitants of a land occupied it before the arrival of later settlers. As there is no fixed time frame, the answer to the question of what groups constitute indigenous minorities is often context-dependent. The most extreme view claims that all Europeans are "descendants of previous waves of immigrants", and as such, the countries of Europe are no different than the United States or Canada with regards to who settled where.[21]

Some groups that claim indigenous minority status in Europe include the Uralic Nenets, Samoyed, and Komi peoples of northern Russia; Circassians of southern Russia and the North Caucasus; Crimean Tatars, Krymchaks and Crimean Karaites of Crimea (Ukraine); Sámi peoples of northern Norway, Sweden, and Finland and northwestern Russia (in an area also referred to as Sápmi); Galicians of Galicia, Spain; Catalans of Principality of Catalonia, Spain and southern France; Basques of Basque Country, Spain and southern France; and the Sorbian people of Germany and Poland.[citation needed]
Non-indigenous minorities
Main article: Immigration to Europe
Further information: Jews and Judaism in Europe, Islam in Europe, Hinduism in Europe, Buddhism in Europe, and Afro-Europeans

Expulsions of Jews in Europe from 1100 to 1600

Many non-European ethnic groups and nationalities have migrated to Europe over the centuries. Some arrived centuries ago. However, the vast majority arrived more recently, mostly in the 20th and 21st centuries. Often, they come from former colonies of the British, Dutch, French, Portuguese and Spanish empires. Western Asians Turks: There were 10 million Turks living in Western Europe and the Balkans in 1997 (excluding Northern Cyprus and Turkey).[22] By 2010 there was up to 15 million Turks living in the European Union (i.e. excluding Turkish communities in Turkey as well as several Balkan countries and former USSR countries which are not in the EU).[23] According to Dr Araks Pashayan 10 million "Euro-Turks" alone were living in Germany, France, the Netherlands and Belgium in 2012.[24] In addition, there is 500,000 Turks in the UK (2011 estimate),[25][26] 500,000 in Austria (2011 estimate)[26][27] 150,000 in Sweden,[28] 120,000 in Switzerland,[29] 70,000 in Denmark (2008 estimate),[30] as well as growing communities in Italy, Lichtenstein, Finland and Spain. In addition, over one million Turks were living in the Balkans in 2019 (especially in Bulgaria, Greece, Kosovo, North Macedonia and Romania),[31] and approximately 400,000 Meskhetian Turks were living in the Eastern European regions of the Post-Soviet states (i.e. Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Russia and Ukraine) in 2014.[32]
Jews: approx. 2.0 million, mostly in France, the UK, Russia and Germany. They are descended from the Israelites of the Middle East (Southwest Asia),[33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40] originating from the historical kingdoms of Israel and Judah.[41][42][43][44] Ashkenazi Jews: approx. 1.4 million, mostly in the United Kingdom, France, Russia, Germany and Ukraine. They are believed by scholars to have arrived from Israel via southern Europe[45][46][47][48][49] in the Roman era[50] and settled in France and Germany towards the end of the first millennium. The Nazi Holocaust wiped out the vast majority during World War II and forced most to flee, with many of them going to Israel.
Sephardi Jews: approx. 0.3 million, mostly in France. They arrived via Spain and Portugal in the pre-Roman [51] and Roman[52] eras, and were forcibly converted or expelled in the 15th and 16th centuries.
Mizrahi Jews: approx. 0.3 million, mostly in France, via Islamic-majority countries of the Middle East.
Italqim: approx. 50,000, mostly in Italy, since the 2nd century BC.
Romaniotes: approx. 6,000, mostly in Greece, with communities dating at least from the 1st century AD.
Crimean Karaites (Karaim): less than 4,000, mostly in Ukraine, Poland and Lithuania. They arrived in Crimea in the Middle Ages.
Assyrians: mostly in Sweden and Germany, as well as in Russia, Armenia, Denmark and Great Britain (see Assyrian diaspora). Assyrians have been present in Eastern Turkey since the Bronze Age (circa 2000 BCE).
Kurds: approx. 2.5 million, mostly in the UK, Germany, Sweden and Turkey.
Iraqi diaspora: mostly in the UK, Germany and Sweden, and can be of varying ethnic origin, including Arabs, Assyrians, Kurds, Armenians, Shabaks, Mandeans, Turks, Kawliya and Yezidis.
Lebanese diaspora: especially in France, Netherlands, Germany, Cyprus and the UK.[53]
Syrian diaspora: Largest number of Syrians live in Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden and can be of varying ethnic origin, including; Arabs, Assyrians, Kurds, Armenians, Arameans, Turks, Mhallami and Yezidis.
Africans North Africans (North African Arabs, Egyptian Copts, and Berbers): approx. 5 million, mostly in France, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands and Sweden. The bulk of North African migrants are Moroccans, although France also has a large number of Algerians, and others may be from Egypt (including Copts), Libya and Tunisia.
Horn Africans (Somalis, Ethiopians, Eritreans, Djiboutians, and the Northern Sudanese): approx. 700,000, mostly in Scandinavia, the UK, the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Finland, and Italy. Majority arrived to Europe as refugees. Proportionally few live in Italy despite former colonial ties, most live in the Nordic countries.
Sub-Saharan Africans (many ethnicities including Afro-Caribbeans, African-Americans, Afro-Latinos and others by descent): approx. 5 million, mostly in the UK and France, with smaller numbers in the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal and elsewhere.[54]
Latin Americans: approx. 2.2 million, mainly in Spain and to a lesser extent Italy and the UK.[55] See also Latin American Britons (80,000 Latin American born in 2001).[56] Brazilians: around 280,000 in Portugal, and 50,000 in Italy and Germany each (mainly German-Brazilians).[57][58]
Chilean refugees escaping the Augusto Pinochet regime of the 1970s formed communities in France, Sweden, the UK, former East Germany and the Netherlands.
Mexicans: about 21,000 in Spain[59] and 14,000 in Germany[60]
Venezuelans: around 520,000 mostly in Spain (200,000), Portugal (100,000), France (30,000), Germany (20,000), UK (15,000), Ireland (5,000), Italy (5,000) and the Netherlands (1,000).[citation needed]
South Asians: approx. 3–4 million, mostly in the UK but reside in smaller numbers in Germany and France.

A Roma makes a complaint to a local magistrate in Hungary, by Sándor Bihari, 1886 Romani (Gypsies): approx. 4 or 10 million (although estimates vary widely), dispersed throughout Europe but with large numbers concentrated in the Balkans area, they are of ancestral South Asian and European descent,[61] originating from the northern regions of the Indian subcontinent.
Indians: approx. 2 million, mostly in the UK, also in Netherlands, Italy, in Germany and France.
Pakistanis: approx. 1,000,000, mostly in the UK, but also in France, Spain, Germany and Italy.
Bangladeshi residing in Europe estimated at over 500,000, mostly in the UK.
Sri Lankans: approx. 200,000, mainly in the UK.
Nepalese: approx. 50,000 in the UK.
Afghans, about 100,000 to 200,000, most happen to live in the UK, but Germany and Sweden are destinations for Afghan immigrants since the 1960s.
Southeast Asians Filipinos: above 1 million, mostly in Italy, the UK, France, Germany, and Spain.
Others of multiple nationalities, ca. total 1 million, such as Indonesians in the Netherlands, Thais in the UK and Sweden, Vietnamese in France and former East Germany, and Cambodians in France, together with Burmese, Malaysian, Singaporean, Timorese and Laotian migrants. See also Vietnamese people in the Czech Republic.
East Asians Chinese: approx. 1.7 million, mostly in France, Russia, the UK, Spain, Italy and the Netherlands.
Japanese: mostly in the UK and a sizable community in Düsseldorf, Germany.
Koreans: 100,000 estimated (excludes a possible 100,000 more in Russia), mainly in the UK, France and Germany. See also Koryo-saram.
Mongolians in Germany.
North Americans U.S. and Canadian expatriates: American British and Canadian British, Canadiens and Acadians in France, as well as Americans/Canadians of European ancestry residing elsewhere in Europe. African Americans (i.e. African American British) who are Americans of black/African ancestry reside in other countries. In the 1920s, African-American entertainers established a colony in Paris (African American French) and descendants of World War II/Cold War-era black American soldiers stationed in France, Germany and Italy are well known.
Others European diaspora – Australians, New Zealanders, South Africans (mostly White South Africans of Afrikaner and British descent), and white Namibians, Zimbabweans, Kenyans, Malawians and Zambians mainly in the UK, together with white Angolans and Mozambicans, mainly of Portuguese descent.
Pacific Islanders: A small population of Tahitians of Polynesian origin in mainland France, Fijians in the United Kingdom from Fiji and Māori in the United Kingdom of the Māori people of New Zealand, a small number of Tongans and Samoans, also in the United Kingdom.
Indigenous peoples of the Americas, a scant few in the European continent of American Indian ancestry (often Latin Americans in Spain, France and the UK; Inuit in Denmark), but most may be children or grandchildren of U.S. soldiers from American Indian tribes by intermarriage with local European women.
European identity
Historical
Further information: History of Western civilization

Personifications of Sclavinia, Germania, Gallia, and Roma, bringing offerings to Otto III; from a gospel book dated 990.

Medieval notions of a relation of the peoples of Europe are expressed in terms of genealogy of mythical founders of the individual groups. The Europeans were considered the descendants of Japheth from early times, corresponding to the division of the known world into three continents, the descendants of Shem peopling Asia and those of Ham peopling Africa. Identification of Europeans as "Japhetites" is also reflected in early suggestions for terming the Indo-European languages "Japhetic".

In this tradition, the Historia Brittonum (9th century) introduces a genealogy of the peoples of the Migration Period based on the sixth-century Frankish Table of Nations as follows, The first man that dwelt in Europe was Alanus, with his three sons, Hisicion, Armenon, and Neugio. Hisicion had four sons, Francus, Romanus, Alamanus, and Bruttus. Armenon had five sons, Gothus, Valagothus, Cibidus, Burgundus, and Longobardus. Neugio had three sons, Vandalus, Saxo, and Boganus.From Hisicion arose four nations—the Franks, the Latins, the Germans, and Britons; from Armenon, the Gothi, Valagothi, Cibidi, Burgundi, and Longobardi; from Neugio, the Bogari, Vandali, Saxones, and Tarincgi. The whole of Europe was subdivided into these tribes.[62]

The text goes then on to list the genealogy of Alanus, connecting him to Japheth via eighteen generations.
European culture
Main articles: Culture of Europe and Western culture

European culture is largely rooted in what is often referred to as its "common cultural heritage".[63] Due to the great number of perspectives which can be taken on the subject, it is impossible to form a single, all-embracing conception of European culture.[64] Nonetheless, there are core elements which are generally agreed upon as forming the cultural foundation of modern Europe.[65] One list of these elements given by K. Bochmann includes:[66] A common cultural and spiritual heritage derived from Greco-Roman antiquity, Christianity, the Renaissance and its Humanism, the political thinking of the Enlightenment, and the French Revolution, and the developments of Modernity, including all types of socialism;[67]
A rich and dynamic material culture that has been extended to the other continents as the result of industrialization and colonialism during the "Great Divergence";[67]
A specific conception of the individual expressed by the existence of, and respect for, a legality that guarantees human rights and the liberty of the individual;[67]
A plurality of states with different political orders, which are condemned to live together in one way or another;[67]
Respect for peoples, states and nations outside Europe.[67]

Berting says that these points fit with "Europe's most positive realisations".[68] The concept of European culture is generally linked to the classical definition of the Western world. In this definition, Western culture is the set of literary, scientific, political, artistic and philosophical principles which set it apart from other civilizations. Much of this set of traditions and knowledge is collected in the Western canon.[69] The term has come to apply to countries whose history has been strongly marked by European immigration or settlement during the 18th and 19th centuries, such as the Americas, and Australasia, and is not restricted to Europe.
Religion
Main articles: Religion in Europe and Christendom
Further information: Christianity in Europe, Islam in Europe, Hinduism in Europe, and Buddhism in Europe

Eurobarometer Poll 2005 chart results

Since the High Middle Ages, most of Europe has been dominated by Christianity. There are three major denominations: Roman Catholic, Protestant and Eastern Orthodox, with Protestantism restricted mostly to Northern Europe, and Orthodoxy to East and South Slavic regions, Romania, Moldova, Greece, and Georgia. The Armenian Apostolic Church, part of the Oriental Church, is also in Europe – another branch of Christianity (world's oldest National Church). Catholicism, while typically centered in Western Europe, also has a very significant following in Central Europe (especially among the Germanic, Western Slavic and Hungarian peoples/regions) as well as in Ireland (with some in Great Britain).

Christianity has been the dominant religion shaping European culture for at least the last 1700 years.[70][71][72][73][74] Modern philosophical thought has very much been influenced by Christian philosophers such as St Thomas Aquinas and Erasmus, and throughout most of its history, Europe has been nearly equivalent to Christian culture.[75] The Christian culture was the predominant force in western civilization, guiding the course of philosophy, art, and science.[76][77] The notion of "Europe" and the "Western World" has been intimately connected with the concept of "Christianity and Christendom" many even attribute Christianity for being the link that created a unified European identity.[78]

Christianity is still the largest religion in Europe; according to a 2011 survey, 76.2% of Europeans considered themselves Christians.[79][80] Also according to a study on Religiosity in the European Union in 2012, by Eurobarometer, Christianity is the largest religion in the European Union, accounting for 72% of the EU's population.[81] As of 2010 Catholics were the largest Christian group in Europe, accounting for more than 48% of European Christians. The second-largest Christian group in Europe were the Orthodox, who made up 32% of European Christians. About 19% of European Christians were part of the Protestant tradition.[82] Russia is the largest Christian country in Europe by population, followed by Germany and Italy.[82]

Islam has some tradition in the Balkans and the Caucasus due to conquest and colonization from the Ottoman Empire in the 16th to 19th centuries, as well as earlier though discontinued long-term presence in much of Iberia as well as Sicily. Muslims account for the majority of the populations in Albania, Azerbaijan, Kosovo, Northern Cyprus (controlled by Turks), and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Significant minorities are present in the rest of Europe. Russia also has one of the largest Muslim communities in Europe, including the Tatars of the Middle Volga and multiple groups in the Caucasus, including Chechens, Avars, Ingush and others. With 20th-century migrations, Muslims in Western Europe have become a noticeable minority. According to the Pew Forum, the total number of Muslims in Europe in 2010 was about 44 million (6%),[83][84] while the total number of Muslims in the European Union in 2007 was about 16 million (3.2%).[85]

Judaism has a long history in Europe, but is a small minority religion, with France (1%) the only European country with a Jewish population in excess of 0.5%. The Jewish population of Europe is composed primarily of two groups, the Ashkenazi and the Sephardi. Ancestors of Ashkenazi Jews likely migrated to Central Europe at least as early as the 8th century, while Sephardi Jews established themselves in Spain and Portugal at least one thousand years before that. Jews originated in the Levant where they resided for thousands of years until the 2nd century AD, when they spread around the Mediterranean and into Europe, although small communities were known to exist in Greece as well as the Balkans since at least the 1st century BC. Jewish history was notably affected by the Holocaust and emigration (including Aliyah, as well as emigration to America) in the 20th century. The Jewish population of Europe in 2010 was estimated to be approximately 1.4 million (0.2% of European population) or 10% of the world's Jewish population.[86] In the 21st century, France has the largest Jewish population in Europe,[86][87] followed by the United Kingdom, Germany, Russia and Ukraine.[87]

In modern times, significant secularization since the 20th century, notably in secularist France, Estonia and the Czech Republic. Currently, distribution of theism in Europe is very heterogeneous, with more than 95% in Poland, and less than 20% in the Czech Republic and Estonia. The 2005 Eurobarometer poll[88] found that 52% of EU citizens believe in God. According to a Pew Research Center Survey in 2012 the Religiously Unaffiliated (Atheists and Agnostics) make up about 18.2% of the European population in 2010.[89] According to the same Survey the Religiously Unaffiliated make up the majority of the population in only two European countries: Czech Republic (76%) and Estonia (60%).[89]
Pan-European identity
Main article: Pan-European identity

"Pan-European identity" or "Europatriotism" is an emerging sense of personal identification with Europe, or the European Union as a result of the gradual process of European integration taking place over the last quarter of the 20th century, and especially in the period after the end of the Cold War, since the 1990s. The foundation of the OSCE following the 1990s Paris Charter has facilitated this process on a political level during the 1990s and 2000s.

From the later 20th century, 'Europe' has come to be widely used as a synonym for the European Union even though there are millions of people living on the European continent in non-EU member states. The prefix pan implies that the identity applies throughout Europe, and especially in an EU context, and 'pan-European' is often contrasted with national identity.[90]
European ethnic groups by sovereign state

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Country Majority % Regional majorities Minorities[a]
Albania Albanians 97%[91][92]
Greeks ≈3%,[93] and other 2% (Aromanians, Romani, Macedonians, Montenegrins, Bulgarians, Bosniaks, Jews and Serbs).[94]
Armenia [b] Armenians [c] 98.1%
Russians, Yazidis, Assyrians, Kurds, Greeks, Jews, Loms and Ukrainians.
Azerbaijan [d] Azerbaijanis [c] 91.6% Lezgin 2% Armenians, Russians, Tats, Talysh, Kurds, Avars, Turks, Tatars, Ukrainians, and Poles.
Belarus Belarusians 83.7%
Russians 8.3%, Poles 3.1%, Ukrainians 1.7%, and other 3.2%. (2009 census)
Belgium Flemings 58% Walloons 31%, Germans 1% mixed or other (i.e. Luxembourgers, Eastern Europeans or Southern Europeans, Africans and Asians, and Latin Americans) 10%.
Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosniaks 50.11% Serbs 30.78%, Croats 15.43% Albanians, Macedonians, Roma and Turks (2013 census)
Bulgaria Bulgarians 84% Turks 8.8% Roma 5%, Others 2% (including Russian, Armenian, Crimean Tatars, Sarakatsani, and "Vlach" [Romanians and Aromanians]). (2001 census)[95]
Croatia Croats 91.6%
Serbs 3.2%, other 5.2% (including Bosniaks, Roma, Albanians, Italians, Hungarians and others). (2021 census)[96]
Czech Republic Czechs 90.4% Moravians 3.7% Slovaks 1.9%, and other 4%. (including Bulgarians, Croats, Germans, Poles, Roma and Vietnamese). (2001 census)
Denmark Danes 90%[97] Faroese, Greenlanders other Scandinavians, Germans, Frisians, other European, indigenous Greenlandic people and others.
Estonia Estonians 68.8%
Russians 24.2% , Ukrainians 2.0%, Belarusians 0.8%, Finns 0.6%.
Finland Finns 93.4% Finland-Swedes 5.6%, Sami 0.1% Russians 1.1%, Estonians 0.7%, Romani 0.1% and Latvians 0.5%. (2019) also Somalis, Germans, Macedonians and Iranians
Georgia [d][98] Georgians [c] 86.8%
Russians, Azerbaijanis, Tats, Armenians, Ukrainians, Greeks, Ossetians
Greece Greeks 93% includes linguistic minorities 3% Albanians 4% and other (i.e. Aromanians, Megleno-Romanians, Cretan Turks and Macedonian/Greek Slavic 3%. (2001 census)[e]
Hungary Hungarians 92.3%
Romani 1.9%, Germans 1.2%, other (i.e. Croats, Romanians, Bulgarians, Turks and Rusyns) or unknown 4.6%. (2001 census)
Iceland Icelanders 91%
other (non-native/immigrants – mainly Polish, Lithuanians, Danes, Germans and Latvians) 9%.[99]
Ireland Irish 87.4% Ulster Scots and Irish Travellers 1.6% other white (large numbers of Lithuanian, Latvian, Polish and Ukrainian migration) 7.5%, Asian 1.3%, black 1.1%, mixed 1.1%. (2006 census)
Italy Italians 91.7% Southtyroleans in South Tyrol (Bavarian and Ladin People), Franco-Provençal in Aosta Valley Historical ethno-linguistic minorities (Sardinian, French, Occitan, Arpitan, Croatian, Albanian, Catalan, Austrian, Greek, Ladin, Friulian, Slovene and Roma minorities),[100][101] regional language native speakers (Gallo-Italic, Neapolitan, Sicilian),[102] other Europeans (mostly Romanians, Albanians, Ukrainians and Polish) 4%, North African Arabs 1% and others (i.e. Chinese, Filipino, Indian, Black African and Latin American) 2.5%.[103][104][105][106]
Kazakhstan [d] Kazakhs [c] 63.1% Russians 23.7% Uzbeks, Ukrainians, Uyghurs, Tatars, Kyrgyz, Tajiks, Germans, Poles and Koreans.
Kosovo [f] Albanians 92% Serbs 4% other 4% (Bosniaks, Gorani, Croats, Jews, Romani, Turks and Ashkali and Egyptians).
Latvia Latvians 62.1%[107] Livonians 0.1% Russians 26.9%, Belarusian 3.3%, Ukrainian 2.2%, Polish 2.2%, Lithuanian 1.2%, and other 2.0%. (2011)
Lithuania Lithuanians 86.67%
Poles 5.61%, Russians 4.78%, Belarusians 1.34%, Ukrainians 0.69%, other 2.25% (2015 census)
Malta Maltese 95.3%[108]

Moldova Moldovans [g] 75.1% Gagauzs 4.6%, Bulgarians 1.9% Romanians [g] 7%, Ukrainians 6.6%, Russians 4.1%, and other 0.8% (2014 census).
Montenegro Montenegrins 44.98% Serbs 28.73% Bosniaks 8.65%, Albanians 4.91%, and other (Croats, Turks, Greeks, Romani and Macedonians) 12,73%. (2011 census)
North Macedonia Macedonians 64% Albanians 25.2%, Turks 4% Romani 2.7%, Serbs 1.8%, and other (i.e. Aromanians, Greeks, Bulgarians, Megleno-Romanians, Gorani, and Croats) 2.2%. (2002 census)
Norway Norwegians [h] 85–87% Sami 0.7%[i][109] Kvens 0.2%[110] Poles 2.10%. A variety of other ethnicities with background from 219 countries that together make up approximately 15% (Swedes, Danes, Somalis, Arabs, Kurds, Vietnamese, Germans, Lithuanians, Russians and different South Asian ethnicities) (2020).[111]
Poland Poles 97%
Germans 0.4%, Belarusians 0.1%, Ukrainians 0.1%, other and unspecified (i.e. Silesians, Kashubians, Masurians and Prussian Lithuanians) 2.7%, and about 5,000 Polish Jews reported to reside in the country. (2002 census)
Portugal Portuguese 95% Portuguese Mirandese speakers 15.000~ (i.e. Mirandese-language speakers) other 5% – other Europeans (British, German, French, Spanish, Romanians, Bulgarians, Hungarians, Croats, Ukrainians, Moldavians, Russians, Serbs, Kosovars and Albanians); Africans from Portuguese-speaking Africa, Brazilians, Chinese, Indians, Jews, Portuguese Gypsies and Latin Americans.
Romania Romanians 83.4% Hungarians 6.1% Romani 3.0%, Germans 0.2%, Ukrainians 0.2%, Turks 0.2%, Russians 0.1% (2011 census)
[d] Russia Russians 81% Tatars 3.9%, Chuvashes 1%, Chechens 1%, Ossetians 0.4%, Kabardin 0.4%, Ingushes 0.3%, Kalmyks 0.1% Ukrainians 1.4%, Bashkir 1.2%, Armenians 0.9%, Avars 0.7%, Mordvins 0.5% and other. (2010 census, includes Asian Russia, excludes unspecified people (3.94% of population)).[112][113]
Serbia [j] Serbs 83%
Hungarians 3.9%, Romani 1.4%, Yugoslavs 1.1%, Bosniaks 1.8%, Montenegrin 0.9%, and other 8%. i.e. Macedonians, Slovaks, Romanians, Croats, Ruthenes, Bulgarians, Germans, Albanians, and other (2002 census).
Slovakia Slovaks 86% Hungarians 9.7% Romani 1.7%, Rusyn/Ukrainian 1%, other and unspecified 1.8% (2001 census)
Slovenia Slovenes 83.1%
Serbs 2%, Croats 1.8%, Bosniaks 1.1%, other (Dalmatian Italians, ethnic Germans, Hungarians and Romanians) and/or unspecified 12% (2002 census).
Sweden Swedes 88% Finns (Tornedalians), Sami people foreign-born or first-generation immigrants: Finns (Sweden-Finns), Yugoslavs (Serbs, Croats, and Bosniaks), Danes, Norwegians, Russians, Arabs (Lebanese and Syrians), Syriacs, Greeks, Turks, Iranians, Iraqis, Pakistanis, Thais, Koreans, and Chileans.[114][115]
Switzerland Swiss Germans 65%[116] French 18%, Italians 10%[116] Romansh people in Grisons
Turkey [d] Turks 75% Kurds 18% Other 7%: Albanians, Arabs, Armenians (including Hemshin), Assyrians, Azerbaijanis, Bosniaks, Bulgarians (including Pomaks), Chechens, Circassians, Crimean Tatars, Georgians (including Laz), Greeks, Romani, Ossetians and Zaza.
Ukraine Ukrainians 77.8% Russians 17.3% Belarusians 0.6%, Moldovans [g] 0.5%, Crimean Tatars 0.5%, Bulgarians 0.4%, Hungarians 0.3%, Romanians 0.3%, Poles 0.3%, Jews 0.2%, Armenians 0.1%, Urums 0.1% and other 1.8% (2001 census).

See also

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Wikisource has original text related to this article:
Ethnic groups in Europe European diaspora
Central Asians
Demographics of Europe
Emigration from Europe European American
White Latin American
Ethnic groups in the Middle East
Eurolinguistics
Federal Union of European Nationalities
Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities
Genetic history of Europe Y-DNA haplogroups in populations of Europe
Immigration to Europe Afro-Europeans
Turks in Europe
Languages of Europe
List of ethnic groups
Nomadic peoples of Europe
Peoples of the Caucasus
White people
Notes

Percentages from the CIA Factbook unless indicated otherwise.

Located in Asia, but sometimes considered part of Europe because of cultural ties, see boundaries of Europe.

Non-European ethnic group

Transcontinental country, see boundaries of Europe.

Percents represent citizenship, since Greece does not collect data on ethnicity.

partially recognized state, see international recognition of Kosovo.

There is an ongoing controversy in Moldova over whether Moldovans' self-identification constitute a subgroup of Romanians or a separate ethnic group.

There is no legal or generally accepted definitions of who is of Norwegian ethnicity in Norway. 87% of population have at least one parent who is born in Norway[citation needed].

In Norway, there is no clear legal definition of who is Sami. Therefore, exact numbers are not possible.

Excluding Kosovo
References

Christoph Pan, Beate Sibylle Pfeil (2002), Minderheitenrechte in Europa. Handbuch der europäischen Volksgruppen, Braumüller, ISBN 3700314221 (Google Books, snippet view). Also 2006 reprint by Springer (Amazon, no preview) ISBN 3211353070. Pan, Christoph; Pfeil, Beate Sibylle (2002). Minderheitenrechte in Europa. ISBN 9783700314226. Archived from the original on 5 December 2015. Retrieved 14 August 2015.

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Cederman (2001:2) remarks: "Given the absence of an explicit legal definition and the plethora of competing identities, it is indeed hard to avoid the conclusion that Europe is an essentially contested concept." Cf. also Davies (1996:15); Berting (2006:51).

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Overview map of the peoples of Europe

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Ethnic groups in Europe

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Indigenous peoples of the world by continent

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Ethnicity

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White people

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Western world and culture

Pan, Christoph; Pfeil, Beate S. (2003). "The Peoples of Europe by Demographic Size, Table 1". National Minorities in Europe: Handbook. Wien: Braumueller. p. 11f. ISBN 978-3-7003-1443-1. (a breakdown by country of these 87 groups is given in Table 5, pp. 17–31.)
Categories: Ethnic groups in Europe
Ancient peoples of Europe

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnic_groups_in_Europe

Subcategories

This category has the following 19 subcategories, out of 19 total.

A

Alans‎ (2 C, 9 P)

Ancient Slavs‎ (2 P)

B

Ancient tribes in the Balkans‎ (6 C, 30 P)

Ancient tribes of the British Isles‎ (2 C)

C

Celtic tribes‎ (2 C, 1 P)

Celts‎ (10 C, 34 P)

D

Roman Dacia‎ (3 C, 94 P)

F

Ancient peoples of France‎ (1 C, 2 P)

G

Ancient peoples of Georgia (country)‎ (23 P)

Ancient tribes in Greece‎ (7 C, 10 P)

Greek people‎ (49 C, 2 P)

H

Ancient tribes in Hungary‎ (1 C, 6 P)

I

Pre-Roman peoples of the Iberian Peninsula‎ (5 C, 59 P)

Iron Age peoples of Europe‎ (3 C, 10 P)

Ancient peoples of Italy‎ (12 C, 34 P)

P

Pre-Indo-Europeans‎ (14 C, 50 P)

R

Romans‎ (6 C, 1 P)

Ancient peoples of Russia‎ (8 C, 25 P)

U

Ancient peoples of Ukraine‎ (1 P)

Pages in category "Ancient peoples of Europe"

The following 14 pages are in this category, out of 14 total. This list may not reflect recent changes.

A Androphagi

C Caspians
Casuari

E Ethnic groups in Europe

F Fenni

G Greeks

I Illyrians

L Ligures

O Osi (tribe)

R Roman people

S Secusses
Sporoi

T Turcilingi

V Victohali
Categories: Ancient Europe
Ancient peoples by continent
European people by period
Historical ethnic groups of Europe

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Ancient_peoples_of_Europe

Italy (Italian: Italia [iˈtaːlja] (listen)), officially the Italian Republic[a][11][12] or the Republic of Italy,[13][14] is a country in Southern [15][16][17] and Western [18][note 1] Europe. Located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, it consists of a peninsula delimited by the Alps and surrounded by several islands; its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical region.[19] Italy shares land borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia and the enclaved microstates of Vatican City and San Marino. It has a territorial exclave in Switzerland, Campione, and some islands in the African Plate. Italy covers an area of 301,230 km2 (116,310 sq mi), with a population of about 60 million.[20] It is the third-most populous member state of the European Union, the sixth-most populous country in Europe, and the tenth-largest country in the continent by land area. Italy's capital and largest city is Rome.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italy

In the English language, the word nigger is a racial slur used against black people, especially African Americans. Starting in the 1980s, references to nigger have been progressively replaced by the euphemism "the N-word", notably in cases where nigger is mentioned but not directly used.[1] In an instance of linguistic reappropriation, the term nigger is also used casually and fraternally among African Americans, most commonly in the form of nigga, whose spelling originated from the phonological system of African-American English.[1][2]

The word nigger, then spelled in English neger or niger, appeared in the 16th century as an adaptation of French nègre, itself from Spanish negro. They go back to the Latin adjective niger ([ˈnɪɡɛr]), meaning "black".[1][2] It was initially seen as a relatively neutral term, essentially synonymous with the English word negro. Rather than demonstrating a hostile meaning of the word itself, early attested uses during the Atlantic slave trade (16th–19th century) often conveyed a patronizing tone that reflects the underlying attitudes held towards black people by their white authors. Building up on these mildly disparaging social meanings, the word took on a derogatory connotation from the mid-18th century onward, to the extent that it had "degenerated into an overt slur" by the middle of the 19th century. Some authors kept on using the term in a neutral sense up until the later part of the 20th century, at which point the use of nigger became increasingly seen as controversial regardless of its context or intent.[1][2][3]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigger

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denmark

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_nobility_and_royalty

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/England

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_nobility

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Russian_monarchs

Catherine II[a] (born Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst; 2 May 1729 – 17 November 1796),[b] most commonly known as Catherine the Great,[c] was the reigning empress of Russia from 1762 to 1796. She came to power after overthrowing her husband, Peter III. Under her long reign, inspired by the ideas of the Enlightenment, Russia experienced a renaissance of culture and sciences, which led to the founding of many new cities, universities, and theatres, along with large-scale immigration from the rest of Europe and the recognition of Russia as one of the great powers of Europe.

Catherine the Great
Catherine II, c. 1780s painted by Alexander Roslin

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catherine_the_Great

Peter III
Portrait by Lucas Conrad Pfandzelt, c. 1761
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_III_of_Russia
Peter I
Portrait by Jean-Marc Nattier, 1717
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_the_Great
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonial_history_of_the_United_States

Blog Archive

Saturday, May 6, 2023

05-06-2023-1101 - american history (caucasians, usa nac dom, america, americans, christians, yellow ivory white, etc.) draft

Etymology

History

Pre-Columbian period (before 1492)

Colonial period (1492–1763)

Revolutionary period (1763–1789)

Early national period (1789–1861)

Civil War and Reconstruction (1861–1877)

Gilded Age and Progressive Era (1877–1920)

Roaring Twenties, Great Depression, New Deal, and World War II (1920–1945)

Cold War (1945–1991)

Post-Cold War era (1991–present)

Geography

Climate

Biodiversity and conservation

Government and politics

Federal government

Political subdivisions

Foreign relations

Military

Law enforcement and crime

Economy

Income and poverty

Science, technology, and energy

Transportation

Demographics

Population

Immigration

Language

Religion

Urbanization

Education

Health

Culture and society

Literature and visual arts

Cinema and theater

Music

Mass media

Cuisine

Sports

See also

Anthropology

Languages

Other uses

See also

History of the concept

The Caucasus as the origin of humanity and the peak of beauty

Göttingen School of History

Carleton Coon

Criticism based on modern genetics

Racial anthropology

Physical traits

Skull and teeth

Classification

Subraces

Usage in the United States

See also

Notes

References

Bibliography

Literature

Subcategories

A

F

G

H

O

P

S

Pages in category "Biological anthropology"

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H