The United States of America is a country in North America. It has an area of 9.4 million sq km and a population of 219 million (as of Jan. 1, 1979). The capital city is Washington, D.C. The country is divided administratively into 50 states and the Federal District of Columbia. The states are divided into counties. Since 1959 the USA has consisted of three, noncontiguous physiographic divisions—the coterminous states, Alaska, and the Hawaiian Islands—which vary in size, level of development, and population. The coterminous states (within the USA’s pre-1959 borders) have an area of 7.8 million sq km and a population of 202 million (1970 census). They border Canada on the north, Mexico on the south, the Pacific Ocean on the west, the Atlantic Ocean on the east, and the Gulf of Mexico on the southeast. Alaska occupies the northwestern part of North America and includes many islands, for example, the Aleutians. The Hawaiian Islands are situated in the Pacific Ocean (see HAWAII and HAWAIIAN ISLANDS ). For statistical purposes the USA is divided into nine census bureau Table 1. Area and population of the United States Regions and states Area (thousand sq km) Population (thousands, 1970 census) Capital 1The city of Washington, D.C. is coextensive with the District of Columbia. North New England ............... 172.6 11,842 Maine ............... 86.0 992 Augusta New Hampshire ............... 24.1 738 Concord Vermont ............... 24.9 444 Montpelier Massachusetts ............... 21.5 5,689 Boston Rhode Island ............... 3.2 947 Providence Connecticut ............... 12.9 3,032 Hartford Middle Atlantic ............... 266.1 37,199 New York ............... 128.4 18,237 Albany New Jersey ............... 20.3 7,168 Trenton Pennsylvania ............... 117.4 11,794 Harrisburg East North Central ............... 643.1 40,253 Ohio ............... 106.7 10,652 Columbus Indiana ............... 94.1 5,194 Indianapolis Illinois ............... 146.1 11,114 Springfield Michigan ............... 150.3 8,875 Lansing Wisconsin ............... 145.4 4,418 Madison West North Central ............... 1,339.7 16,320 Minnesota ............... 217.8 3,805 St. Paul Iowa ............... 145.8 2,824 Des Moines Missouri ............... 180.4 4,677 Jefferson City North Dakota ............... 183.1 618 Bismarck South Dakota ............... 199.5 666 Pierre Nebraska ............... 200.0 1,483 Lincoln Kansas ............... 213.1 2,247 Topeka South South Atlantic ............... 722.3 30,671 Delaware ............... 5.3 548 Dover Maryland ............... 27.4 3,922 Annapolis Virginia ............... 105.7 4,648 Richmond West Virginia ............... 62.6 1,744 Charleston North Carolina ............... 136.5 5,082 Raleigh South Carolina ............... 80.4 2,591 Columbia Georgia ............... 152.5 4,590 Atlanta Florida ............... 151.7 6,789 Tallahassee District of Columbia ............... 0.2 757 1 East South Central ............... 471.3 12,804 Kentucky ............... 104.6 3,219 Frankfort Tennessee ............... 109.4 3,924 Nashville Alabama ............... 133.7 3,444 Montgomery Mississippi ............... 123.6 2,217 Jackson West South Central ............... 1,136.4 19,320 Arkansas ............... 137.5 1,923 Little Rock Louisiana ............... 125.7 3,641 Baton Rouge Oklahoma ............... 181.1 2,559 Oklahoma City Texas ............... 692.1 11,197 Austin West Mountain ............... 2,237.3 8,282 Montana ............... 381.1 694 Helena Idaho ............... 216.4 713 Boise Wyoming ............... 253.6 332 Cheyenne Colorado ............... 269.9 2,207 Denver New Mexico ............... 315.1 1,016 SantaFe Arizona ............... 295.0 1,771 Phoenix Utah ............... 219.9 1,059 Salt Lake City Nevada ............... 286.3 489 Carson City Pacific ............... 2,374.3 26,522 Washington ............... 176.6 3,409 Olympia Oregon ............... 251.2 2,091 Salem California ............... 411.0 19,953 Sacramento Alaska ............... 1,518.8 300 Juneau Hawaii ............... 16.7 796 Honolulu regions. Historically the territory of the coterminous states has been divided into three principal regions: the North, South, and West (see Table 1). Possessions of the USA in the West Indies include Puerto Rico (area, 8,900 sq km; population, 3.2 million in 1976), which has the formal status of a commonwealth, and the Virgin Islands (area, 300 sq km; population, 95,000). Possessions in the Pacific Ocean include Guam (area, 500 sq km; population, 96,000), American Samoa (area, 200 sq km; population, 30,000), and a number of smaller islands. Also under US administration are the UN trust territories of the Caroline, Mariana, and Marshall islands in the Western Pacific.

The USA is a federal republic consisting of 50 states. Its Constitution was drafted in 1787 by a constitutional convention held in Philadelphia. Prior to 1787 the Articles of Confederation, adopted in 1781, had functioned as a constitution. The Constitution is concisely worded, and many of its articles are general in nature. Hence, its interpretation, the duty of the Supreme Court, is vitally important. A very complicated procedure has been set up for adding amendments to the Constitution. The amendments are proposed by Congress or by a constitutional convention convoked by Congress on the petition of the legislatures of two-thirds of the states. An amendment has the force of law after it has been ratified by the legislatures or special conventions of three-fourths of the states. Since 1787, 26 amendments have been adopted. The first ten amendments, known as the Bill of Rights, were adopted in 1789. The amendments subsequently adopted are as follows: Eleventh Amendment (1798), limiting the jurisdiction of the federal courts; Twelfth Amendment (1804), establishing a procedure for electing the president, including the election of the president and vice-president by the House of Representatives if none of the candidates receives a majority of the electoral votes; Thirteenth Amendment (1865), abolishing slavery; Fourteenth Amendment (1868), protecting the life, liberty, and property of citizens through due process of law and setting up a system for the apportionment of representatives in Congress; Fifteenth Amendment (1870), prohibiting discrimination in voting; Sixteenth Amendment (1913), giving Congress the power to levy and collect taxes on incomes; Seventeenth Amendment (1913), establishing the procedure for senatorial elections, including the introduction of the popular election of senators; Eighteenth Amendment (1919), prohibiting the production and sale of alcoholic beverages (the “dry law”); Nineteenth Amendment (1920), granting women the right to vote; Twentieth Amendment (1933), establishing the date for the beginning of the terms of office of the president, vice-president, senators, and representatives; Twenty-first Amendment (1933), abolishing the Eighteenth Amendment; Twenty-second Amendment (1951), prohibiting the same person from being elected president more than twice; Twenty-third Amendment (1961), granting the residents of Washington D.C. the right to vote for president and vice-president; Twenty-fourth Amendment (1964), abolishing the poll tax; Twenty-fifth Amendment (1967), establishing a procedure for filling in a vacancy in the office of the president or vice-president by confirmation of the Congress; Twenty-sixth Amendment (1971), setting the voting age at 18 or older. A twenty-seventh amendment to the Constitution, granting equal rights to women, was proposed in 1972 but has not yet been ratified by enough states. The US Constitution is theoretically constructed on the principle of the separation of powers. It stipulates that legislative power belongs to the Congress, executive power to the president, and judicial power to the Supreme Court. The area of competence of each of these powers is clearly defined. The president, the head of state and government, is elected by the population for a four-year term by means of indirect election (by way of the Electoral College). The vice-president is on the same ballot as the president; for electoral purposes they never come from the same state. The Constitution provides that the president must be a natural-born citizen who is at least 35 years of age and has lived in the USA for at least 14 years. A president can be removed from office only by impeachment, a special procedure provided for by the Constitution for indicting persons in the federal service, including the president and Supreme Court justices, for such crimes as committing treason and accepting bribes. Impeachment is initiated by the House of Representatives; the case is tried by the Senate, with conviction requiring a two-thirds vote of the senators present. An official who is found guilty is removed from office and may subsequently be tried before an ordinary court like any other citizen. Impeachment has been initiated 12 times; only four cases ended in conviction. A president was impeached only once, in 1868. In 1974, President Nixon was forced to resign when threatened with impeachment. The president’s powers are very broad. They include the right to veto bills passed by Congress; a presidential veto may, however, be overridden by repassage of the bill by a two-thirds majority of both houses. The president drafts a national budget and sends messages to Congress, setting forth his own legislative program. In addition, the president is the commander in chief of the armed forces and has the power to conclude international treaties and executive agreements (the latter without the advice and consent of the Senate). The president may order the commencement of military operations. He has the authority to make appointments to the highest positions, with the advice and consent of the Senate; he also has the unilateral right to dismiss these officials. The president also has the right of pardon. The administrative establishment subordinate to the president consists of the cabinet, the executive office of the president, and various administrative agencies and commissions. The cabinet, which includes 12 department heads (secretaries) and a number of persons having the rank of cabinet members, is a consultative body without any constitutional powers. The president selects the members of the cabinet, and cabinet meetings are held at the president’s request. Cabinet members may not be members of Congress. The executive office of the president coordinates domestic and foreign policy. Its agencies include the White House Office, the National Security Council, the Office of Management and Budget, the Domestic Council, and the Council of Economic Advisers. The executive branch also includes a number of administrative and independent agencies, for example, the National Labor Relations Board, the Federal Reserve System, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the International Communication Agency, and the Civil Service Commission. Congress consists of two houses—the Senate and the House of Representatives—which are chosen by direct election. The Senate has 100 members (two from each state), elected for six-year terms. Only one-third of the Senate seats become vacant in any single election year. A senator must be at least 30 years old, a US citizen for at least nine years, and a resident of the state he or she represents. The vice-president is the president of the Senate. The House of Representatives consists of 435 members, elected for two-year terms. A representative must be at least 25 years old, a US citizen for at least seven years, and a resident of the state he or she represents. The presiding officer elected by the House is the speaker. Congressional business is conducted along party lines, with each party electing its own leaders. Permanent (standing) and temporary congressional committees do the preparatory work on legislation; bills coming out of the committees are later introduced onto the floors of both houses for action. After the 1978 elections, the membership of the House of Representatives included 276 Democrats and 159 Republicans, and the membership of the Senate included 58 Democrats, 41 Republicans, and one Independent. Congress’ area of competence is defined by the Constitution. The principal functions of Congress are law-making and the approval of a national budget. Congress also regulates commerce with foreign countries and among the states. It has the right to declare war, to conclude treaties concerning loans, and to raise and support armies. Legislative initiative belongs to the members of both houses, and the powers of the houses are considered to be equal. The Senate, however, has the exclusive right to ratify international treaties and to confirm the president’s appointment of certain high-ranking officials, including cabinet secretaries and ambassadors. Money bills may be introduced only in the House of Representatives. The Constitution defines the general principles of election law. Electoral systems, even for federal elections, are basically established by the states. In the late 1960’s and early 1970’s a number of electoral reforms were carried out: poll taxes were abolished, the legal minimum voting age was lowered to 18, and the literacy requirement was dropped. However, there are still numerous means of preventing citizens, especially Negroes, from voting; for example, most states have a residency requirement, ranging from one month to one year. Elections are characterized by absenteeism—the conscious nonparticipation of eligible voters. For example, only 63 percent of eligible voters participated in the presidential election in 1960, 61 percent in 1964 and 1968, and 55 percent in 1972. The states have various nominating systems, including nomination by petition and nomination by party convention. Twenty-six states hold primaries, or preliminary elections, in which the voters choose a candidate to represent the state party organization. Each party may nominate only one candidate for president, and this candidate is selected at the party’s national convention. The results of elections are determined by the majority system; in other words, the winning candidate is the one who receives the majority of votes. There are laws limiting campaign spending, but they are systematically circumvented. The judicial system includes federal, state, and local courts. The federal system consists of 89 district courts, 11 circuit (appellate) courts, and the Supreme Court. All federal judges are appointed by the president with the advice and consent of the Senate. The Supreme Court is composed of nine justices. It has original jurisdiction in certain important types of cases, but it basically considers appeals from lower court rulings. Moreover, the Supreme Court carries out the function of constitutional supervision. The national judicial system also includes a number of special courts, for example, the Customs Court, the Tax Court, the Court of Claims, and the Court of Military Appeals. The states have their own judicial systems, headed by state supreme courts. Each state has its own constitution; most state constitutions have been in effect since the late 18th century. Legislative power belongs to the state legislatures, which are elected for terms ranging from two to four years. Executive power belongs to a governor, who is popularly elected for a term of two to four years; judicial power belongs to the state supreme court. All legislatures are bicameral, with the exception of Nebraska’s single-house legislature. Each state has set up its own system of local government. Counties and large cities have governing boards and mayors, and in a number of cities a small commission is elected to run the city. Also widespread is the city manager system, whereby a person is hired to run a city under the supervision of an elected council.

REFERENCES Gromyko, A. A. Kongress SShA. (Vybory, organizatsiia, polnomochiia). Moscow, 1957.

Gromakov, B. S. Ocherki po istorii antidemokraticheskogo zakono datel’stva SShA. Moscow, 1958.

Mishin, A. A. Gosudarstvennyi stroi SShA. Moscow, 1958.

Boichenko, G. G. Konstitutsiia SShA. Moscow, 1959.

“Konstitutsiia SShA.” In the collection Konstitutsii gosudarstv ameri-kanskogo kontinenia, vol. 3. Moscow, 1959.

Gitsenko, K. F. Sudebnaia sistema SShA i ee klassovaia sushchnost’. Moscow, 1961.

Mamaev, V. A. Reglament kongressa SShA. Moscow, 1962.

Marinin, S. B. SShA: Politika i upravlenie. Moscow, 1967.

Krylov, B. S. SShA: Federalizm, shtaty i mestnoe upravlenie. Moscow, 1968.

Kalenskii, V. G. Politicheskaia nauka v SShA. Moscow, 1969.

Belonogov, A. M. Belyi dom i kapitolii: Partnery i soperniki. Mos cow, 1974.

M. V. B AGLAI

Most of the territory of the USA lies in the subtropical and temperate belts of North America; it stretches from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. Alaska is situated in the subarctic and arctic belts and borders on the Pacific and Arctic oceans. Occupying the tropical belt are southern Florida and the Hawaiian Islands. Coasts. The coastline of the mainland USA is 22,860 km long. The Atlantic coast is low-lying, bordered by a broad shelf reaching 300 km in width, and strongly dissected by bays (river estuaries and lagoons). The Pacific coast is hilly and bordered by a shelf reaching 100 km in width. The northern Pacific coast, along Washington and southern Alaska, is characterized by branching systems of fjords and straits separated from the ocean by islands. Terrain. Mountains and tablelands occupy about one-half of the mainland USA. The western part of the country, including almost all of Alaska, consists of the high mountain ranges, tablelands, and plateaus of the Cordilleran mountain system. Great elevations and dissected surfaces characterize the Appalachian Mountains (Appalachia). The Northern Appalachians extend to the Atlantic Ocean, but the Southern Appalachians are separated from the ocean by the flat Atlantic Coastal Plain. West of Appalachia is the southern part of the Laurentian Upland (with elevations ranging from 300 to 400 m) and the Interior Plains, which include the Central Lowland, the Great Plains, and the Gulf Coastal Plain. The Central Lowland has elevations from 200 and 500 m; it is characterized by hilly, morainal terrain in the north and by eroded terrain in the central and southern parts. The Great Plains, which are situated west of 97°-98° W long., constitute a strongly dissected piedmont plateau of the Cordilleras. They have elevations ranging from 500 m in the east to 1,600 m in the foothills; in certain regions the network of valleys is so dense that the territory is unsuitable for economic use. The Gulf Coastal Plain, with elevations reaching 150 m, is swampy near the coast and bordered by a belt of marshes. The Cordilleras consist basically of a number of mountain chains, with maximum elevations from 3,000 to 5,000 m, and a broad band of interior tablelands and plateaus. In Alaska the ranges extend mainly from west to east, and in the northern section they are bordered by the flat Arctic Slope. They include the Brooks Range, the Yukon Plateau, the Aleutian Range, the Alaska Range, the Kenai Mountains, the Chugach Mountains, and the St. Elias Mountains. The Alaska Range includes Mount McKinley, which at 6,193 m is the highest peak in the USA and all of North America. In the coterminous USA the Cordilleras are oriented from north to south. Their eastern edge is formed by the Rocky Mountains, which reach elevations of almost 4,400 m. To the west of the Rockies lie the volcanic Columbia Plateau, the deserts of the Great Basin (an area of closed depressions—the largest of which is Death Valley), and the Colorado Plateau. These intermontane plateaus are typified by the alternation of flat areas (at elevations of approximately 2,000 m) and mountain massifs (at elevations reaching 3,000–3,500 m) with numerous deep river canyons. The plateaus and tablelands are bounded on the west by a narrow belt formed by the volcanic Cascade Mountains and the Sierra Nevada (with elevations greater than 4,400 m), which farther to the west border on the belt of valleys, including the Willamette Valley, the Central Valley, and Lower California. The strongly dissected Coast Ranges, which have elevations reaching 2,400 m, extend along the Pacific coastline. The Hawaiian Islands are a group of volcanoes, with elevations as high as 4,205 m. Geological structure and mineral resources. The country’s interior and northern parts correspond to the southern part of the North American Shield. In the Great Lakes region the basement is exposed in two outcrops of the Canadian Shield: the southeastern outcrop forms the Adirondack Mountains, and the southwestern outcrop forms the Superior Highland, which is partly buried. Located to the south is the midcontinental platform, with a mantle of Paleozoic (Upper Cambrian-Carboniferous) deposits on a Precambrian basement. The principal geological structures running east to west are the Cincinnati anticline, the Michigan and Illinois synclines, the Wisconsin dome, the Ozark uplift, and the Forest City, Salinas, and Dodge City synclines. The Folded Appalachians are represented in the USA by the southern part of the Northern Appalachians and by the Southern Appalachians. In the east and south the Paleozoic fold system of Appalachia is concealed under Mesozoic and Cenozoic deposits of the Atlantic Coastal Plain, Peninsular Florida, and the northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico. The thickness of the mantle greatly increases toward the ocean and the gulf (reaching 12–16 km); the subsidence of the basement is interrupted by relative uplifts (for example, the Sabine, Monroe, and Jackson uplifts). Data obtained from borings show that the buried continuation of the Appalachian system in Mississippi sharply changes its southeast-northwest orientation for a latitudinal direction and comes to the surface in the Ouachita Mountains. The Ouachita Mountains are characterized by sedimentary beds deposited at the end of the Paleozoic to the north on the deep Arkansas syn-cline. To the west of the mountains the Paleozoic fold zone is covered by a younger sedimentary mantle, enveloping the Bend anticline; it appears again in the Marathon Mountains on the Mexican border. Stretching along the Pacific coast is a considerable portion of the late Mesozoic-Cenozoic fold system of the Cordilleras, which attain their greatest width, about 1,600 km, within the USA. In the east the Cordilleras include the western edge of an ancient platform that underwent intensive dislocation during the Cretaceous (the eastern section of the Rocky Mountains). South of this region is the Colorado Plateau, to the north of which is seen an alternation of oval depressions and fault-block uplifts of a Precambrian basement. The depressions are filled with thin carbonate Paleozoic deposits and thick terrigenous beds of Mesozoic and Lower Paleozoic age. Stretching farther to the west is the miogeosyncline of the Rocky Mountains, which is marked by a complex thrust faulting of sedimentary beds and whose principal tectonic deformation occurred during the Laramide orogeny. The Coast Ranges are separated from the Sierra Nevada by the Great Valley, a vast trough filled with Cretaceous and Cenozoic deposits. The ranges are cleaved from the north-northwest to the south-southeast by the San Andreas fault, which is associated with repeated, at times catastrophic, earthquakes (for example, the San Francisco earthquake of 1906). In addition to the Great Valley, thick terrigenous Cenozoic deposits developed on the coast of southern California, where they underwent intensive folding, and in Oregon and Washington. The Cascade Range, which extends through these three states, is a chain of young volcanoes; their eruptions consist primarily of andesitic lavas. The Columbia Plateau is formed of thick mantles of Miocene basalts. The most important mineral resources of the USA are the deposits of petroleum and natural gas distributed over the North American Platform. Major Paleozoic deposits are located in the Appalachian, Arkansas, and Anadarko downwarps, as well as in the Michigan Basin. Mesozoic deposits are found in the Eastern Rocky Mountains and in the sedimentary mantle of the Atlantic Coastal Plain, and Paleozoic and Mesozoic deposits are located in the West Texan downwarp, Peninsular Florida, and the shelf of the Gulf of Mexico. Important petroleum and natural gas deposits are also found in Cretaceous and Cenozoic Cordilleran depressions near Los Angeles, as well as in Paleozoic and Mesozoic beds of the Arctic Slope of northern Alaska and in the Cenozoic depression of the Cook Inlet in southern Alaska. The USA has substantial reserves of coal in Middle and Upper Carboniferous beds in the Illinois and Pittsburgh basins, as well as in the Appalachian downwarp. There also are coal-bearing Cretaceous and Paleogenic deposits in the Rocky Mountains. Large iron deposits are found in the Precambrian basement of the shield near Lake Superior and in the Colorado Plateau. Sedimentary deposits of uranium are located in the Colorado Plateau and in the eastern part of the Rocky Mountains. The Cordilleras have numerous deposits of nonferrous metals, including copper (at Bingham, Utah), lead (at Tintic), zinc (at Tintic), mercury (at Almadén, Calif.), gold, molybdenum, and tungsten. There are seams of lead-zinc deposits in the carbonate strata of the platform. Climate. The climate is temperate and subtropical marine on the Pacific coast, continental-marine on the Atlantic coast, continental in the Interior Plains, and extremely continental in the interior plateaus and tablelands of the Cordilleras. Northern Alaska has an arctic climate with very severe winters and cold summers, southern Alaska has a subarctic marine climate, and the Yukon tablelands of central Alaska have a continental climate. The contrasts between the climatic conditions of various regions are most pronounced in the winter. For example, the average January temperature is −30°C in Fort Yukon, – 1.6°C in Juneau, – 13.3°C in Duluth, – 3.7°C in Chicago, – 0.8°C in New York, 1°C in Washington, 12.3°C in Los Angeles, and 20°C in Miami. The record low temperature of – 64°C was recorded in the Yukon tablelands. Temperatures below 0°C have been recorded throughout the USA, with the exception of the Southwest (southern California), the southern part of Florida, and the Hawaiian Islands. Variations in temperature are not so great in the summer, except for the interior plateau regions of the Cordilleras, where extremely hot weather persists. The average July temperature is 15°C in Fairbanks, 14°C in San Francisco, 23°C in New York, 25°C in Washington, 27°C in New Orleans, and 32°C in Yuma. The record high temperature for the USA and the entire western hemisphere was 56.7°C in Death Valley. In the northern part of the Interior Plains the growing season lasts 180 to 190 days; south of 38° N lat. crop growing is possible year-round. The annual precipitation totals 3,000–4,000 mm in southeastern Alaska and western Washington, 1,500–2,000 mm in the Southeast, 300 mm in the interior foothills of the Rocky Mountains, 1,500 mm in the eastern parts of the Interior Plains, and less than 100 mm in places in the interior tablelands and plateaus. The slopes of the Cordilleras are covered with snow throughout the winter, as is the northeastern part of the country (north of 40°N lat.). There is considerable air pollution in the USA, especially in large cities and industrial centers. Each year toxic gases and as much as 215 million tons of dust enter the atmosphere. Rivers and lakes. In the mainland USA the average annual flow depth is 27 cm; the total flow volume is 1,600 cu km. The water resources vary from year to year. The annual flow depth is 60–120 cm in western Washington and western Oregon, 40–100 cm in Appalachia, 20–40 cm in the Central Lowland, 10–20 cm in the Great Plains, and as little as 10 cm in the interior tablelands and plateaus. The largest rivers are the Mississippi (with an annual flow rate of 180 cu km), St. Lawrence (with an annual flow rate of 67 cu km), and the Columbia (with a flow rate of 60 cu km). The regimen of most of the rivers is irregular, especially in regions with a continental climate. The St. Lawrence River, which rises in the Great Lakes, has a regular regimen. The largest lakes—Lakes Superior, Huron, Michigan, Erie, and Ontario—are located in the northern part of the country. More than half of their area belongs to the USA; the remainder is Canadian territory. A number of important closed salt lakes, for example, the Great Salt Lake, are located in the lowlands of the Great Basin. There are numerous karst and lagoon-type lakes in Florida. Alaska has a number of large lakes of glacier-tectonic origin, for example, Lake Iliamna. Total groundwater reserves amount to 60,000 cu km, of which 85 cu km are replenished each year. The rivers and lakes are used extensively to supply water for industrial purposes, public consumption, and irrigation. They are also used for the production of electric energy and for shipping. The greatest reserves of water power are in the West, particularly in the Columbia River basin. The water intake in 1975 totaled 540 cu km, while losses without return (for the most part, to irrigation) totaled 130 cu km. Because of the increased pollution of lakes and rivers, especially in the northeastern and southwestern areas, purification measures are being implemented. Soils. The soil cover is characterized by a change of single soil types both with latitude and as one travels from the oceans toward the country’s interior. In the Northeast, in the foothills of the Appalachians, and in the Great Lakes region there is a predominance of soddy-podzols and brown forest soils, which in the southern states change to red and yellow soils. These soils are highly productive, although they require substantial amounts of fertilizer. The western part of the Central Lowland has prairie soils with a high humus content; these extremely fertile soils are used for the cultivation of such highly productive crops as soybeans and corn. Under the more arid and continental climatic conditions of the Great Plains, chernozem and chestnut soils formed. Brown and gray-brown soils are typical south of 38° N lat. The interior plateaus and tablelands of the Cordilleras, which are characterized by a very arid climate, have brown semidesert soils and subtropical desert soils. Also widespread in the plains region soddy-car-bonate soils (Great Lakes region, Gulf Coastal Plain), alluvial soils (Mississippi Valley), and meadow-swamp soils. The mountain regions are characterized by brown forest soils and brown soils. The principal soil cover in Alaska is composed of tundra, soddy-peaty, and cryogenic-taiga soils. The Hawaiian Islands have ferralitic soils. More than 72 million hectares (ha) of land have been damaged by erosion, primarily in the western part of the Great Plains. Each year about 3 billion tons of soil are carried away by water and wind. Dust storms are also observed. Soil salinization has become more intensive, as has the pollution of soil by industrial discharges and pesticides. Flora. Prior to the arrival of the European settlers, nearly one-half of the territory of what is now the USA was occupied by forests. Forests covered the entire eastern section and most of the slopes of the Cordilleras; a substantial area of the Interior Plains was occupied by steppes. By the 1970’s more than 50 percent of the forests had been cut down, and the steppes were plowed under. Only in the mountain regions has vegetation been preserved in its original form. In the Northeast and near the Great Lakes coniferous-broadleaf forests of pine, spruce, fir, maple, linden, and ash are encountered; also common are meadows and plowed areas. To the south, in the lower elevations of the Appalachians (up to 800 m), coniferous-broadleaf forests are replaced by broadleaf forests of oak, maple, sumac, tulip trees, and plane trees. Magnolias, laurels, and other hard-leaved evergreens occur in these forests south of 35°-39° N lat. The high-grass prairie vegetation that previously predominated in the Central Lowland is no longer extant. West of 100° W long., the prairies give way to arid low-grass steppes, which have been plowed under only in some isolated sections and are used extensively as pasture. Steppes are also characteristic of certain isolated regions of the Cordilleras. The deserts and semideserts of the Great Basin are characterized by wormwood, orache, and other shrubs and subshrubs; large cacti and other succulents occur south of 38° N lat. Coniferous forests predominate in the Cordilleras. Pine forests cover the principal, most arid, portions of the slopes; spruce-fir forests occur higher up in less arid sections; and subalpine and alpine meadows are found above 2,100–3,300 m. Widespread along the Pacific coast are forests of Douglas fir, Sitka spruce, and canoe cedar. The giant sequoia and one other sequoia species are encountered in California. In the arid Southwest, forests give way to thickets of hard-leaved shrubs and trees. Sparse coniferous forests and tundra vegetation are prevalent in Alaska; the forests are of the northern taiga type. The forested area of the USA totals 315 million ha. Commercial forests occupy 210 million ha and include a timber reserve of 15 billion cu m. Fauna. The mixed-forest zone is inhabited by the brown bear, lynx, wolverine, and fisher. The white-tailed deer, the bay lynx, the Eastern chipmunk, the star-nosed mole, and various species of bats are encountered in the forests of Appalachia. The southeastern USA is characterized by a fauna consisting of a mixture of boreal and tropical species. Its wildlife includes alligators, alligator snappers, peccaries, opossums, flamingos, pelicans, and hummingbirds. Steppe fauna has been preserved in the Southeast only in small numbers: examples are bison (extant only in preserves), pronghorn, brockets, coyotes, kit foxes, and rattlesnakes. There are numerous local varieties of skunks, badgers, and ground squirrels. The semideserts and deserts are inhabited by various rodents and reptiles. The Cordilleran slopes are the habitat of mountain goats, bighorn sheep, and grizzly bears (mainly in Alaska); the southern slopes are inhabited by jaguars, armadillos, and cacomistles. The animal life of Alaska includes numerous taiga and tundra species, for example, caribou. The Aleutian Islands are frequented by valuable marine mammals, including sea otters and seals. Important commercial fishes found in the coastal waters of the Atlantic Ocean include the Atlantic cod and the Atlantic herring in the north and the Atlantic menhaden in the south. Commercially valuable marine animals in the Pacific Ocean include salmon, halibut, tuna, crabs, shrimp, and oysters. On the whole, the wildlife of the USA is sharply decreasing in number. Preserves. As of 1970, the USA had approximately 4,000 national parks, national monuments, state parks, wildlife preserves, and recreational areas. The largest national parks are Yellowstone, Yosemite, Sequoia, Grand Canyon, Everglades, Redwood, and Carlsbad Caverns. Natural regions. The USA is made up of a number of natural regions. Appalachia, a mountainous region of medium elevations, is covered primarily by mixed and broad-leaved forests. The Laurentian Upland, which within the borders of the USA includes only a region west of Lake Superior, is marked by a hilly morainal terrain, coniferous forests, and numerous lakes and swamps. The Central Lowland, whose terrain is hilly in the north and more gently rolling in the south, is strongly dissected by ravines and valleys. Its soils—brown forest soils and chernozems—have been cultivated almost throughout the region. The Central Lowland has several large navigable rivers, including the Mississippi and its tributaries. The Atlantic and Gulf coastal plains have a flat surface; there are occasional marshes along the coasts. The forests of the coastal plains consist of evergreens—pines in the arid sections and a predominance of deciduous species in more humid areas. The Great Plains, a broad piedmont plateau of the Cordilleras, is strongly dissected by river valleys and ravines, which in some places form badlands (see BADLANDS ). Low-grass steppe vegetation predominates in the Great Plains. The Cordilleras of the mainland USA constitute a mountainous region with high ranges extending mainly parallel to the Pacific coast and with a chain of interior plateaus and tablelands. The region is divided into three parts: (1) the Rocky Mountains—a long chain of short ranges broken up by basins, (2) the Intermontane Plateaus—a belt of plateaus, tablelands, and extensive flat basins broken up by short ranges and massifs, and (3) the Pacific Mountain System—two parallel chains of high mountains, the Cascade-Sierra Province in the east and the Coast Ranges in the west, divided by the Willamette Valley in the north and the Central Valley in the south. The mountains are covered by dense coniferous forests. The Central Valley consists of steppes, which have been plowed under, and semideserts; there are regions of scrub vegetation in the extreme southwest. The Alaskan Cordilleras are divided into three regions: (1) the Brooks Range and the plateau and lowlands bordering it on the north, (2) the Yukon Tableland, and (3) the Southern High-mountain Region, which includes the Alaskan Range, the St. Elias Mountains, the Chugash Mountains, the Kenai Mountains, the Aleutian Range, and the Aleutian Islands, as well as the valleys and basins separating the various mountain ranges.

REFERENCES Ignat’ev, G. M. Severnaia Amerika: Fizicheskaia geografiia. Moscow, 1965.

Buzovkin, B. A. Klimal Soedinennykh Shtatov Ameriki. Leningrad, 1960.

Parson, R. Priroda pred”iavliaet schet. Moscow, 1969. (Translated from English.)

Thornbury, W. D. Regional Geomorphology of the United States. [2nd ed.] New York [1965].

Hunt, C. B. Physiography of the United States. San Francisco-London, 1967.

Iseri, K. T., and W. B. Langbein. Large Rivers of the United States. Washington, D.C., 1974.

Climatic Atlas of the United States. Washington, D.C., 1968.

N. A. B OGDANOV, V. E. K HAIN (geological structure and mineral resources), and G. M. I GNATEV (physical geography)

The population of the USA consists principally of Americans, a nation formed in the process of the mixing and ethnic integration of the descendants of settlers from Europe. In the 17th and 18th centuries most immigrants were from England, Scotland, Holland, Germany, and Ireland. The English formed the nucleus of the American people. The immigration of the third quarter of the 19th century was primarily from Germany, Ireland, England, and the Scandinavian countries. In the last quarter of the 19th century there was an influx of new Americans from Italy, Austria-Hungary, Russia, and other Southern and Eastern European countries. During the 20th century immigrants from other parts of the Americas—Canada, Mexico, and the West Indies—have constituted an ever increasing portion of the total immigration. In the 17th and 18th centuries many Negro slaves were brought from Africa. All these groups were gradually assimilated: they adopted the English language (its American variant) and took part in creating the American culture. This process was accompanied by economic and other types of discrimination, to which, in changing forms, various groups of the population were subjected. An internal heterogeneity continues to be characteristic of the American nation. Standing out particularly are the Negroes, who number about 23 million (this figure and subsequent estimates are based on the 1970 census) and who have formed their own ethnic group within the American nation. Immigrants make up transitional ethnic groups, which are continuously being renewed by fresh settlers and eroded by the processes of assimilation. It is impossible to draw a precise dividing line between such transitional groups and the American nation proper. The number of Americans in the narrow sense of the word—including Negroes and immigrants (beginning with the third generation)—is approximately 180 million. Of the total US population, 16.5 percent is represented by persons who have lived in the USA for a comparatively short time (two generations) and who have retained their own native language to a considerable extent. This portion of the population includes 4.2 million persons from Italy, approximately 4 million from Mexico, 3.6 million from Germany, 3 million from Canada, 2.5 million from Great Britain, 2.4 million from Poland, 2.3 million from Russia, 1.7 million from the Scandinavian countries, 1.5 million from Ireland, 1.4 million from Puerto Rico, 591,000 from Japan (a considerable number have settled in the Hawaiian Islands), 435,000 from China, and 343,000 from the Philippines. There are 5.9 million Jews (calculated on the basis of religious faith). The remnants of the indigenous population are not numerous: American Indians total about 800,000 (a considerable number of them live on reservations), and Eskimo number approximately 30,000. The official language of the USA is English, with 79 percent of the country’s population considering it their native language. Many second-generation Americans, while retaining many of the old country’s customs and traditions, nevertheless do speak English. At the same time a number of groups retain the language of their forebears in the third and subsequent generations. Along with a continuing assimilation, tendencies have been observed toward the isolation and internal consolidation of a number of ethnic groups (ethnocentrism), and toward an intensification of the movement against the discrimination of Negroes and American Indians. Approximately 55 percent of the US population are Protestants of various denominations (Baptists, Methodists, Lutherans, Presbyterians, and many others), and about 37 percent are Roman Catholics. The remainder of the population consists of the Eastern Orthodox, Jews, and—to a lesser extent—Muslims, Buddhists, and adherents of other religious faiths. The official calendar is the Gregorian. M. I A . B ERZINA The rapid population growth during the 19th and the early 20th centuries was caused by a high natural increase (accounting for a 2.5 percent population increase by the turn of the 20th century) and large immigration. Between 1820 and 1920 approximately 39 million immigrants entered the country. With the passage of restrictive legislation after World War I (1914–18), immigration declined. In 1965 a new immigration law was promulgated, which was basically just as restrictive as the earlier legislation. Since World War II (1939–45) the average number of immigrants entering the country has totaled about 400,000 a year. Table 2a. Population of the United States Year Population 1790 ............... 3,929,000 1800 ............... 5,308,000 1850 ............... 23,192,000 1900 ............... 76,212,000 1910 ............... 92,288,000 1920 ............... 106,021,000 1930 ............... 123,202,000 1940 ............... 132,165,000 1950 ............... 151,326,000 1960 ............... 179,323,000 1970 ............... 203,212,000 1974 ............... 211,900,000 1977 ............... 217,700,000 Table 2a shows the dynamics of the US population. Since the mid-19th century the natural population growth rate has declined; by 1970 it had declined to 0.8 percent. The decrease was the result of a decline in the birth rate and a stabilization of the death rate. Scientific and technological progress has brought about a shift in the occupational makeup of the US work force. During the past 20 years there has been a great increase among white-collar workers in the proportion of highly skilled specialists (for example, scientists and engineers), managers, and highly paid civil servants and office workers. Among hired workers (in the area of physical labor) the proportion of persons engaged in the service fields has increased. Table 2b shows the shifts in the population’s occupational makeup. Table 2b. Occupational make-up of the employed population (percentage of total) 1940 1950 1960 1970 Highly skilled specialists ............... 7.5 8.6 11.4 13.0 Managers and high-level civil servants ............... 7.3 8.7 8.4 10.4 Office workers ............... 9.6 12.3 15.0 17.2 Trade employees ............... 67 70 7.5 7.5 Industrial and construction workersh ............... 39.8 41.1 39.6 33.8 Workers in the service field ............... 11.7 10.5 11.8 13.3 Farmers ............... 10.4 74 32 2.9 Hired farm laborers ............... 7.0 4.4 2.4 1.9 In 1970 there were 82 million persons in the labor force, including 51.5 million men and 30.5 million women. About 2,840,000 persons worked in agriculture, lumbering, and fishing, 630,000 in mining, 19,838,000 in manufacturing, 4,572,000 in construction, 16,473,000 in business and hotel management, 3,902,000 in transportation and communications, 5,133,000 in finance and insurance, 25,162,000 in community, social, and domestic services, and 3,497,000 in other industries. More than 90 percent of the labor force consists of hired workers. Although low-paid white-collar and blue-collar workers constitute about 40 percent of the work force, they receive only 12 percent of the total salaries and wages. About 20 percent of the highest paid workers receive 46 percent of all earnings. The monopolistic bourgeoisie, which receives huge profits, constitutes less than 1 percent of the economically active population. More than half of the US population is concentrated in the North, but this region’s proportion of the country’s population has been decreasing as a result of internal migration during the postwar years. There has been noticeable population growth in the West and South. Between 1960 and 1976 the portion of the population in the West increased from 15 to 18 percent, the portion of the population in the South increased from 28 to 32 percent, and the portion of the population in the North decreased from 56 to 50 percent. In 1970, California was the most highly populated state, with 19.9 million persons, followed by New York, with 18.2 million persons. The average population density is about 24 persons per sq km. The eastern half of the country is more densely populated, with the highest densities found in the old industrial states in the Northeast (for example, New Jersey, with 336 persons per sq km). West of the Mississippi River the density decreases, and in the mountain states of the Cordilleras it ranges from 1.3 (in Wyoming) to 8.4 persons per sq km. In California the population density is 48.6 persons per sq km. The least populated region in the USA is Alaska, where the population density is 0.2 persons per sq km. The process of urbanization has intensified. The urban population accounted for 45.7 percent of the total US population in 1910 and 69.9 percent in 1960. In 1970 approximately 149.3 million persons, or 73.5 percent of the total population, lived in cities or suburbs. (In American statistics, cities have a population of 2,500 or greater. Counted separately are the “farm” population and rural “nonfarm” population living in mining, lumbering, and trading settlements inhabited by less than 2,500 persons.) The greatest level of urbanization has taken place in the northeastern states, where the urban population constitutes 80 percent of the population, and in California, where the urban population constitutes 90 percent of the total. Large cities—those with more than 100,000 inhabitants —account for only 2 percent of the total number of cities, but they have a concentration of 38 percent of the urban population. Cities having 1 million or more inhabitants (within city limits in 1976) are New York (7.4 million), Chicago (3.1 million), Los Angeles (2.7 million), Philadelphia (1.8 million), Detroit (1.4 million), and Houston (1.5 million). Other major cities with populations greater than 500,000 within their administrative limits (1976 estimates) include Baltimore (827,000), Boston (618,000), Cleveland (626,000), Columbus (533,000), Dallas (849,000), Indianapolis (709,000), Jacksonville (532,000), Memphis (668,000), Milwaukee (661,000), New Orleans (581,000), Phoenix (680,000), St. Louis (519,000), San Antonio (784,000), San Diego (789,000), San Francisco (663,000), San Jose (574,000), and Washington, D.C. (700,000). As a result of the concentration of population around large cities, the suburbs have grown rapidly. Encompassing more and more territory, they form metropolitan regions of small and medium-sized towns. The USA is divided into standard metropolitan statistical areas (SMSA’s). The 1970 census listed 7,062 cities and 243 SMSA’s; in 1976 there were 277 SMSA’s. The largest SMS A was the New York City region, with more than 10 million inhabitants. A belt of densely populated areas stretches along the Atlantic coast and forms a megalopolis of 40 million inhabitants. The megalopolis is composed of 34 large SMSA’s that have merged together; it encompasses the Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington metropolitan areas. Similar megalopolises are developing along the Pacific coast and the shores of the Great Lakes. In 1970, 52 percent of urban dwellers lived in the suburbs of metropolitan areas. Ethnic minorities frequently form their own neighborhoods, and congested Negro ghettos have become typical of large cities. Landlords collect high rents for unmaintained housing, which has become catastrophically obsolete. The socioeconomic problems of US cities are becoming more critical, aggravated by racial discrimination and a high level of unemployment. Emissions from numerous industrial plants and the exhaust fumes from motor vehicles, along with industrial wastes dumped into bodies of water, have led to a worsening of living conditions in the cities. One of the most urgent problems facing US cities is environmental protection.

M. G. S OLOV’EVA

Primitive communal structure among the peoples of North America. Prior to the European colonization of North America, the land was populated by Indians and Eskimo, whose ancestors probably migrated to America from Northeast Asia by way of the Bering Sea region about 20,000 or 30,000 years ago. The Indians and Eskimo were at different stages of a primitive communal structure. The Eskimo, who lived along the Arctic coast of North America, engaged primarily in hunting. The Indian tribes of the northwestern coast of North America, including the Tlingit and Haida tribes, engaged in fishing and the hunting of marine mammals. Social relations were characterized by a transition from a matriarchal to a patriarchal family structure; patriarchal slavery and barter had already appeared. In the Southwest the agricultural tribes, such as the Pueblos and the Pimas, were the most developed. The Indians of California, who lagged behind the other peoples of North America in level of development, engaged in gathering, fishing, and hunting. The Plains were inhabited by nomadic hunting tribes. Along with features of a matriarchate, many Plains tribes exhibited the beginnings of a patriarchal family structure. The tribes of settled farmers in the East, for example, the Iroquois, Algonquins, and Muskogee, were acquainted with hoe land cultivation; they also engaged in hunting and gathering. According to rough estimates the territory of the present-day USA was inhabited by about 1 million Indians during the 16th century. By the time of European colonization many tribes had established tribal and military alliances, such as the League of the Iroquois and the Creek Confederacy. A league of seven Dakota tribes presented very stubborn resistence to the Europeans. Colonial period (1607–1775). America was discovered by Columbus in 1492. The colonization of North America by Europeans began in the following century, with the establishment of colonies by Spain, France, England, Holland, and Sweden. Alaska was discovered and settled by the Russians in the 18th century. Spanish and Russian settlements were founded in California in the late 18th century and early 19th century, respectively. Most of the European settlers were from England. The English established their first permanent settlement in the south (in Virginia) in 1607; their first permanent northern settlement (in Massachusetts) was founded in 1620. After seizing the Dutch colony of New Netherland (as a result of wars with Holland), England expanded its possessions along the Atlantic coast. As a result of the Seven Years’ War (1756–63), the English acquired Canada and Eastern Louisiana from France. The socioeconomic development of the 13 English colonies in North America had as its basis elements of the capitalist order. (The New England colonies were Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Rhode Island; the Middle Atlantic colonies were New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware; and the Southern colonies were Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia.) The New England and Middle Atlantic colonies primarily had a small-scale farming economy; in the second half of the 17th century capitalist manufacturing began to develop. There were also certain elements of feudalism in agriculture, although attempts by the ruling upper classes to monopolize rights to the land and to establish feudal rule in the vast uncolonized lands were doomed to failure. Conflicts between the American farmers and feudal elements were often resolved by the granting of squatter’s rights and, in certain instances, by armed struggle against large landowners. The social struggle, which took on various forms, included a number of anticolonial uprisings, for example, the one led by N. Bacon in Virginia in 1676 and the one led by J. Leisler in New York from 1689 to 1691. Particularly important in the socioeconomic development of the colonies was slavery. The extensive use of slave labor was brought about primarily by the comparatively easy acquisition of land by the colonists. As a consequence, the number of people making up the labor force in the colonies was extremely limited, and the wages of freemen were high. A stratum of “white slaves” was formed, consisting of immigrants who had entered into bondage-type agreements with shipowners and merchants, as well as of political outcasts, criminals, and debtors. Gradually the use of white slaves was replaced by the more economical Negro slavery. The first group of “black slaves” was brought from Africa to Virginia at the beginning of the 17th century. In the southern colonies Negro slave labor served as the basis for the plantation economy, which was based primarily on tobacco cultivation until the late 18th century. As the economic development of the colonies proceeded apace, conflicts with the mother country arose. The English bourgeoisie regarded the colonies as a source of raw materials and a market for English industry. Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries the English government adopted various measures to suppress industrial development in the colonies. However, the development of capitalism, the gradual establishment of a unified market in the colonies, and the strengthening of ties among the colonies led to the emergence of a North American nation. A progressive bourgeois ideology resulted from the struggle against church regulations, religious fanaticism, and superstition. Leading representatives of the American Enlightenment included B. Franklin and T. Jefferson. A direct cause of the mass movement against the mother country during the 1760’s was the policy pursued by Great Britain in the colonies after the Seven Years’ War. In 1763 the British government prohibited the colonists from settling beyond the Allegheny Mountains. It also adopted stiff measures against smuggling, a practice in which almost all American merchants were engaged. The Stamp Act, enacted by the British Parliament in 1765, affected almost every colonist, since it placed a tax on commercial and legal documents, periodicals, and all other printed matter. Representatives of the emerging American colonial bourgeoisie convoked the Stamp Act Congress in 1765 to voice their refusal to recognize the mother country’s right to tax the colonies when they were not represented in the British Parliament. Thus, in essence, the question of authority was posed. A number of political revolutionary organizations were founded in the colonies. Chief among them were the Sons of Liberty and the committees of correspondence—mass organizations of artisans, laborers, farmers, and members of the urban petite bourgeoisie. Beginning in the mid-1760’s a chain of uncoordinated disturbances and uprisings took place, leading eventually to a victorious war for independence. American Revolution (1775–83) and the formation of the USA. The period of colonial development paved the way for the American Revolution, the first bourgeois revolution on the American continent. The Revolution was unique in that it was at the same time a national-liberation, national-unification, and antifeudal movement. The popular masses played a decisive role in the Revolution, but political leadership belonged to the bourgeoisie, which formed a bloc with the plantation owners. The Revolution brought about the overthrow of the colonial yoke and the formation of an independent nation—the United States of America. On July 4,1776, the Second Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence. In accordance with the Peace Treaty of Versailles of 1783, Great Britain recognized American independence. The Revolution eliminated elements of feudalism in landownership. The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 converted the western lands into general state property; this extremely important progressive measure created the prerequisites for the capitalist development of agriculture in the northern part of the country. The Revolution did not, however, resolve all the problems confronting the new nation. For example, slavery was not abolished in the South, and the class struggle intensified. The economic difficulties of the postwar period laid all the burdens on the shoulders of the workers. Shays’ Rebellion (1786–87) and a number of other uprisings by poor farmers attempted to further the Revolution by plebeian methods; the uprisings were suppressed by armed force. The Constitution of 1787 officially established the USA as a federal republic, consisting initially of 13 states. The centralization of power provided for by the Constitution was intended to put an end to attempts to further the Revolution. At the same time, the strengthening of central authority and other provisions of the Constitution facilitated the unification of the states and the growth of capitalist relations. G. Washington, commander in chief of the American troops during the Revolution, was the first president of the USA. In 1791 the first ten amendments to the Constitution, which are known as the Bill of Rights, were adopted. Proposed in 1789 in response to pressure from the popular masses, the amendments assured the fundamental democratic liberties. End of the 18th century to the Civil War (1861–65). The formation of an independent nation created the conditions for the rapid development of capitalism in the USA. Other important factors favorable to capitalist growth included the existence of extensive lands and natural resources, large-scale immigration from Europe, and an influx of foreign capital. The prerequisites for an industrial revolution were established by the beginning of the 19th century. Industrialization was uneven in nature: during the first half of the 19th century it was localized for the most part in the Northeast, spreading subsequently to the northwestern states. The formation of a bourgeoisie and a proletariat occurred in the industrialized regions. The industrial revolution first manifested itself primarily in the production of cotton and woolen goods. From the 1820’s through the 1840’s revolutionary changes also took place in other sectors of industry. The expansion of the domestic market led to a revolution in transportation during the first quarter of the 19th century. In 1807, R. Fulton built the world’s first steamboat. Between 1828 and 1830 the first railroad was built, connecting the city of Baltimore with the Ohio River; by 1855 there were about 30,000 km of railroad track in the USA. The industrial revolution in the Northeast paralleled the colonization of the West. The struggle concerning land distribution was the most important aspect of the class struggle in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The Ordinance of 1785, in the interests of land speculators, sanctioned the sale of public lands only in tracts of no less than 640 acres. As a result of pressure from the farmers’ and workers’ movement, the government was compelled to gradually reduce the size of the tracts, to permit the sale of land on an installment basis, and to make other concessions. These changes led to increased settlement of western lands. In 1790, 110,000 persons lived west of the Allegheny Mountains, in 1810, 660,000, and in 1840, 4.6 million. In the colonized regions of the West there was a rapid process of differentiation and a shift from patriarchal households to capitalist farmer households. While profound changes in industry and agriculture occurred in the North, a reactionary slaveholding system continued to predominate in the South. The destiny of the slaveholding South was greatly influenced by the growth of the textile industry in Great Britain during the industrial revolution and by the appearance of a new commercial crop—cotton. The number of Negro slaves in the South increased from 678,000 in 1790 to 4 million in 1860. In 1790 the USA produced about 3,000 bales of cotton (409.5 kg per bale); by 1860 cotton production had increased to 3,841,000 bales. Given the expansive nature of the plantation system of farming and the increased exploitation of Negro slaves, an unlimited reserve of free land was required. By the 1830’s the regions of plantation farming had been extended westward—to the Gulf of Mexico and the Mississippi River Basin. The simultaneous development of two social systems—capitalist production in the North and slavery in the South—later led to their confrontation, which spilled over into a second bourgeois revolution. During the acute political struggle of 1789–91, the Federalist and Democratic-Republican (Anti-Federalist) political parties were organized. The Federalists represented the interests of the commercial big bourgeoisie, bankers, and land speculators. They sought to strengthen centralized authority and limit bourgeois democratic liberties. The Democratic-Republicans derived their support from a bloc of mixed social makeup, including farmers, village merchants, the urban petite bourgeoisie, and plantation owners. They advocated greater access to land for the farmers, a democratization of the Constitution, and broader rights to the states. In foreign policy the Federalists leaned toward Great Britain, and the Democratic-Republicans toward Revolutionary France. In the interests of the commercial-financial bourgeoisie a law was passed in 1790 providing for government assumption of state debt bonds, most of which had been bought up by speculators. In 1791 the First Bank of the USA was opened. The secretary of the treasury, the Federalist A. Hamilton, conducted an economic policy encouraging national industry and trade through the increase of tariff duties and the attraction of capital to the USA. The Federalists’ desire for economic and political rapprochement with Great Britain found expression in the USA’s neutrality during the war of the European allied powers against Revolutionary France. In 1798 the Federalist J. Adams (president, 1797–1801) enacted the Alien Act, directed against revolutionary emigrants from France and Ireland, and the Sedition Act, which authorized the imprisonment of persons who criticized the government’s actions. The Federalists encountered resistance from democratic forces, who united around the Democratic-Republicans to ensure the victory of T. Jefferson in the presidential election of 1800. Jefferson (president, 1801–09) abolished the Alien and Sedition Acts and implemented a number of progressive measures. Laws enacted in 1800 and 1804 led to a partial agrarian reform: the size of tracts being sold from public holdings was reduced to 160 acres, with a reduction of sale prices and a deferment of payments. Desiring to strengthen its international position, the USA established diplomatic relations with Russia in 1808–09. Great Britain remained the USA’s principal antagonist in the early years of the 19th century. Taking advantage of the USA’s military weakness and economic dependence on Great Britain, the English bourgeoisie continued efforts to restore British domination of the former colonies. The ruling circles of the USA, seeking to expand US territory, attempted to win control of Canada. In June 1812 the USA declared war on Great Britain; in 1814 the two countries signed the Treaty of Ghent, which recognized prewar American-Canadian borders. In 1803 the USA purchased Louisiana—a region west of the Mississippi River whose size almost equaled that of the entire USA—from France for $15 million. In accordance with a treaty of 1819, Spain was compelled to cede Florida to the USA; Florida had been annexed de facto by the USA even earlier. In 1823, J. Monroe proclaimed the Monroe Doctrine, which at that time was directed against European intervention in the western hemisphere. However, from the very beginning the doctrine reflected US expansionist tendencies with regard to Latin America and US pretensions to dominate the entire American continent. After the War of 1812, the Federalist Party in effect ceased to exist; power remained in the hands of the Democratic-Republicans until 1828. During the terms of the Democratic-Republican presidents J. Madison (1809–17), J. Monroe (1817–25), and J. Q. Adams (1825–29) a number of important measures were enacted to aid industrial development (for example, the protective tariffs of 1816, 1824, and 1828). By the end of the 1820’s, as the slaveholders attempted to strengthen their political position, a conflict arose between the North and the South concerning the issue of slavery, an issue that threatened to split the country. The Missouri Compromise of 1820, which prohibited slavery north of 36° 30’ N lat., did not eliminate the contradictions but merely postponed the confrontation between the capitalist North and the slaveholding South. In the late 1820’s the American proletariat entered the political arena for the first time. Working conditions were extremely poor: the length of the workday was between 12 and 14 hours, and the employment of women and children was prevalent. The formation of a working class was furthered by European immigration and the overflow of the labor force from northeastern cities to newly settled regions. Until the reserve supply of free lands was used up, the “lateral” spread of capitalism was possible, and the sharp conflicts that had arisen between labor and capital did not assume their final form. This also had an effect both on the ideology and the organizational forms of the labor movement. The first labor parties were founded in the late 1820’s. Consisting of local associations of workers and artisans, they advocated the implementation of democratic political and social reforms within an individual state or city. In the early years of the labor movement the Utopian socialist ideas of Fourier and Owen became widespread among the workers and the radical intelligentsia. The heightened political struggle between the bourgeoisie and the slaveholders and an upswing in the movement for democratic reforms led to the disintegration of the Democratic-Republican Party. In 1828 the Democratic Party of the USA was formed, which during its initial period united farmers, many planter-slaveholders, and some members of the bourgeoisie. A. Jackson, the candidate of the Democratic Party, was the victor in the presidential election of 1828. His presidency was characterized by political maneuvering among the slaveholders, the bourgeoisie, and the farmers. A number of democratic reforms were carried out. In the new western states constitutions were adopted providing suffrage for the entire white male population, laws authorizing imprisonment for debt were abolished, and labor organizations that previously had been nonregistered were allowed to function without government interference. The workers’ and farmers’ movement was the principal force in carrying out democratic measures. The mass nature of the squatter-farmers’ movement led to the adoption of the Preemption Act of 1841, which gave the squatter first opportunity to buy his claim (not more than 160 acres) at the minimum price of $1.25 an acre. During Jackson’s presidency, Indian tribes were forced west of the Mississippi River, and about 20 million acres of land were taken away from them. By the 1840’s the Democratic Party had become the party of slaveholders, bankers, and the commercial bourgeoisie. It maintained political control of the country, except for brief intervals, until 1860. The bourgeois Whig Party, which took shape in 1834, was victorious in only two presidential elections, in 1840 and 1848. The Whigs opposed a strengthening of federal authority, advocated industrial development in both the North and the South, and maintained a compromise position regarding slavery. In 1836 the USA effected the separation of Texas from Mexico, and in 1845 Texas was annexed by a unilateral act of the USA. As a result of the Mexican War (1846–48) the USA annexed almost half of Mexico, and in accordance with the American-Mexican treaty of 1853 (the Gadsden Treaty) approximately 120,000 more sq km were taken from Mexico. In 1846 the USA acquired from Great Britain a large part of Oregon, a vast region on the Pacific coast. US involvement in countries of the Far East began in the 1840’s. The USA imposed inequitable treaties upon China (1844 and 1858) and Japan (1854) and participated in the suppression of the Taiping Rebellion of 1850–64 in China. The early 1830’s marked the beginnings of a mass national abolitionist movement, which advocated the immediate abolition of slavery. Leading abolitionists were W. L. Garrison and F. Douglass. The Underground Railroad, an underground organization established by the abolitionists, helped Negro slaves escape from the southern states. The chief impulse of the abolitionist movement was the Negro people’s struggle for their own liberation. The entire history of the slaveholding South is punctuated by a series of uncoordinated disturbances and armed uprisings. The most important of these were the insurrection of slaves led by Gabriel near Richmond (1800), the conspiracy of Denmark Vesey in South Carolina (1822), and the Nat Turner rebellion in Virginia (1831). Labor organizations took part in the struggle against slavery. After the defeat of the Revolution of 1848–49 in Germany, thousands of German immigrants came to the USA. Among the immigrants were leaders of the Communist League, including J. Weydemeyer, F. Sorge, and F. Jacobi, on whose initiative the first Marxist organizations in the USA were founded in 1852. The Communist Club was organized in New York in 1857. The 1850’s were marked by an accelerated revolutionary crisis. In 1850, California was admitted to the USA as a nonslaveholding state. As a result, the balance of free and slave states, a balance that had been maintained with difficulty for 30 years by the slaveholders, was destroyed. Political power still remained in the hands of the planters. In 1850a fugitive slave law was enacted, requiring authorities in the northern states to capture fugitive slaves and return them to their owners. The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 provided that settlers would themselves determine whether to establish free or slave states. In 1857 the US Supreme Court handed down a decision in the Dred Scott case, wherein it held that a slave remained the property of his master in any state. Between 1854 and 1856 clashes between farmers and slaveholders in Kansas grew into an armed struggle, during the course of which the government supported the slaveholders. The de facto abrogation of the Missouri Compromise and the civil war in Kansas led to the disbanding of the Whig Party, the breaking away of the “northern wing” of the Democratic Party, and the formation of the new Republican Party (1854). The Republican Party platform, which advocated the limiting of slavery to territory where it existed, the granting of free land to settlers in the West, and the encouragement of industry, was supported by the industrial bourgeoisie, farmers, and workers. As the struggle against slavery became more acute, a revolutionary trend crystallized within the abolitionist movement. On Oct. 16, 1859, an armed uprising against slavery was led by John Brown. Although the uprising was crushed, it served as a powerful impetus for intensifying the struggle of slaves, workers, and farmers against slavery. In 1860 the Republican candidate, A. Lincoln, won the presidential election. The slaveholders, who had been preparing a counterrevolutionary insurrection for a long time, adopted a resolution calling for the secession of the slave states. Civil War (1861–65) and Reconstruction (to the end of the 1870’s). The abrupt sharpening of the contradictions between “two social systems—the system of slavery and the system of free labor” (K. Marx, in K. Marx and F. Engels, Soch., 2nd ed., vol. 15, p. 355) led to the bourgeois revolution of 1861–77. The revolution consisted of two stages: the Civil War (1861–65), during which slavery was abolished and a military defeat was inflicted on the counterrevolutionaries, and Reconstruction (1865–77), during which the struggle to complete the bourgeois-democratic changes in the South continued. The revolution changed the social structure of the South and resolved in a democratic manner the agrarian question in the western part of the country, granting settlers the right to acquire lands from the public domain. Throughout most of the USA a final victory had been gained in the farmers’ path of capitalist development in agriculture. All power passed into the hands of the bourgeoisie. In the struggle against the planters, the leading role belonged to those among the bourgeoisie who recognized the necessity of abolishing slavery and, after prolonged hesitation, embarked upon the path of revolutionary action. However, the decisive contribution to the defeat of the rebels was made by the popular masses: it was their lengthy and insurmountable pressure that made the transition to revolutionary war inevitable. During Reconstruction the revolution proceeded with less intensity and a narrowed base, localized mainly in the South. The former slaves, who had struggled for their social and political rights, became the most revolutionary force. The democratic resolution of the agrarian question in the South was one of the principal tasks of the revolution. The bourgeoisie, however, having used the struggle of the Negroes in order to strengthen its own political power, refused to resolve the agrarian question, proceeded to work out an accommodation with the planters, and subsequently attempted to “restore everything possible, and do everything possible and impossible for the most shameless and despicable oppression of the Negroes” (V. I. Lenin, Poln. sobr. soch., 5th ed., vol. 27, p. 142). The abolition of slavery and the undermining of the power of the southern planters opened the way for rapid capitalist development as early as the first decade after the war. It was during this period that the industrial revolution in the USA was completed. Intensive railroad construction made possible the establishment of permanent economic ties throughout the country and the expansion of the domestic market. Between 1867 and 1873 about 54,000 km of railroads were built. The socioeconomic development of the USA, accompanied by an intensified exploitation of the toiling masses, caused a sharpening of the contradictions between labor and capital. In 1866, W. Sylvis organized the National Labor Union, which was active until the early 1870’s. The first national trade labor union in American history, the National Labor Union, supported ties with the First International. After the Civil War the influence of the socialists increased. In 1867 sections of the First International were organized, and in 1872 the General Council of the First International moved its headquarters to the USA. US foreign policy during Reconstruction was characterized primarily by an effort to strengthen US influence on the American continent and to weaken the influence of Great Britain and the other European powers. In 1867 tsarist Russia, burdened by the vestiges of serfdom and incapable of defending remote Russian settlements, sold Alaska and the Aleutian Islands to the USA. The transition to imperialism (from the end of the 1870’s to the 1890’s). During the last quarter of the 19th century the USA was transformed into a mighty industrial power, ranking first in world industrial output by 1894. Growth in industrial production was linked to the concentration of production and the centralization of capital, on the basis of which monopoly capitalism took shape. The formation of trusts in industry, railroading, and banking was intensive. The largest US monopolies at the close of the 19th century were the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey, the Carnegie Steel Company, the American Sugar Refining Company, the General Electric Company, the Consolidated Tobacco Company, and the Amalgamated Copper Company. Corporations and large trusts accounted for about 70 percent of the entire industrial output. The economic process of concentrating production and capital was accompanied by a consolidation of political power in the hands of the emerging financial oligarchy, within which the principal role was played by representatives of the northern bourgeoisie. The two-party political system, which received its final form after the Civil War, was the political instrument that allowed the big bourgeoisie to maintain power and to put down resistance by the exploited classes. By 1900 both the Republican and the Democratic parties had become the parties of big capital. The oppressive yoke of the monopolies invoked protest from various segments of the population. Demonstrations by the working class were harshly suppressed by the authorities. Rough justice was meted out to demonstrating Pennsylvania miners in 1874–75 and to striking railroad workers in 1877. In 1886 a demonstration of labor unionists in Chicago was put down by the authorities; some of the leaders of the demonstration were arrested, put on trial, and executed. In 1892 troops fired upon striking steelworkers at the Homestead mill of the Carnegie Steel Company, and in 1894 shots were fired upon railroad workers participating in the strike against the Pullman Company. The workers’ struggle during the 1880’s for an eight-hour workday marked the beginning of the mass labor movement in the USA. Active in this movement were the Noble Order of the Knights of Labor, which was founded in 1869, and the American Federation of Labor (AFL), which was founded in 1881. The latter, an organization of skilled workers, became the leading force in the labor movement, although its leadership, headed by S. Gompers, adopted a course of cooperation with management. During this period an organized socialist movement emerged, under the leadership of F. A. Sorge. In 1876 various socialist groups merged to form the Socialist Labor Party. The petit bourgeois farmers’ movement, whose representatives included the Grangers, Greenbackers, and Populists, was antimonopolistic. In 1891 the Populists formed the Populist, or People’s, Party, which formulated a number of democratic proposals. The Antitrust League (1899) also opposed the yoke of the monopolies. An antiimperialist movement emerged, protesting the policy of intensified expansionism that was being pursued at the end of the 19th century by the ruling circles of the USA. Under pressure from monopolies, which required new markets to sell their goods and invest capital, the USA attempted military expansion in Korea (1871–82), annexed the Hawaiian Islands (1893, officially in 1898), and unleashed a war against Spain (1898). As a result of the war with Spain, the USA seized the Philippines, Guam, and Puerto Rico and established a protectorate over Cuba. In the Far East the USA proclaimed the open door doctrine. The period of imperialism (until the end of World War 1). At the end of the 19th century the USA entered the stage of imperialism. The entire economic and political system was influenced by the big trusts, which V. I. Lenin called “the highest expression of the economics of imperialism or monopoly capitalism” (Poln. sobr. soch., 5th ed., vol. 30, p. 94). The influence of the financial oligarchy also extended to the state machinery. Political corruption and bribe-taking became the norm of political life. Corruption in business and politics brought about a movement among the bourgeois intelligentsia and the urban petite bourgeoisie for such progressive reforms as a purging of corruption in elections and a democratization of electoral laws. In the labor movement a shift was observed toward expanding the social base by attracting broader masses of unskilled workers to the movement. The ideas of the Russian Revolution of 1905–06 also spread to the USA. In 1905 the labor organization Industrial Workers of the World was organized; its leadership included W. Haywood, E. Debs, and D. De Leon. In the first decades of the 20th century the strike movement developed into sharp class conflicts, for example, the coal-miners’ strikes of 1900–02 and 1906–07, the struggle of the working class for freedom of speech in 1909–11, and the textile-workers’ strike in Lawrence, Mass., in 1912. Especially bloody was the coal-miners’ strike in Colorado in 1914; the strike resulted in the Ludlow Massacre, in which the authorities fired on the miners and their families. The Socialist Party of the USA, which was organized in 1900–01, had a membership of 120,000 by the tenth or 11th year of its existence. However, an intraparty struggle between the left revolutionary wing and the right-centrist leadership weakened the movement, and by 1912 the right-centrist wing had gained the upper hand. The Negro movement for social rights also intensified during the early years of the 20th century; in 1909 the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was formed. The spread of socialist ideas, the growth of the labor movement, and an increase in demonstrations by petit bourgeois progressives compelled the US government to resort in its domestic policies to the methods of bourgeois reformism. T. Roosevelt, who became president in 1901, considered reforms an antidote to socialism. His successor, W. H. Taft (president, 1909–13), conducted an openly conservative policy, which provoked opposition within the Republican Party. In the 1912 elections the progressive Republicans left the party and formed the Progressive Republican Party. The new party had a liberal, reformist platform and nominated Roosevelt as its presidential candidate. The split within the Republican Party facilitated the victory of the Democratic candidate, W. Wilson, in the 1912 presidential election. Wilson proclaimed the demagogic program of a New Freedom. The principal accomplishment of his administration was the establishment of the Federal Reserve System (1913), which fully served the interests of the financial oligarchy. In foreign policy both the Republican and Democratic parties pursued an imperialist course. Under President Roosevelt, who used a policy of force (the “big stick”), the USA acquired freedom of action from Great Britain in 1901 to build a canal across the Isthmus of Panama; in 1903 the USA seized the Canal Zone. There was US intervention in Cuba in 1906 and 1912 and in Nicaragua in 1912; the USA also dealt harshly with Filipino insurgents. In the Far East, attempts by American monopolies to obtain advantageous concessions encountered resistance from Great Britain, Japan, and Russia. During the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–05, the USA took a pro Japanese position. When World War I began, the USA proclaimed its neutrality. American monopolies took upon themselves the role of suppliers and creditors to the warring states, primarily to the countries of the Entente. At the same time, seeking to share in the redivision of the world, the USA prepared for war. The USA hoped to occupy a dominant position when the warring countries had weakened each other. On Apr. 6, 1917, the USA entered the war on the side of the Entente. In May 1917 universal conscription was introduced. It was not until the spring of 1918 that American troops played a significant role in combat. In May 1918 there were only nine American divisions at the various fronts; by November 1918 the number of American divisions had increased to 42. During US involvement in the war, the ruling circles at the home front conducted a policy of economic regulation. This policy, in conjunction with a growth of political reaction, reflected the development of state-monopoly capitalism and ensured the large monopolies of colossal incomes. At the same time, the standard of living of the popular masses greatly worsened. The workers responded to tax and price increases with a number of strikes. In return the government intensified repression and carried out mass arrests; among those imprisoned were Debs and Hay wood. A split took place in the Socialist Party: the right wing supported the government, and the left wing opposed the war. During the war, American monopolies firmly established their economic domination in Latin America. The USA also carried out military interventions in Mexico (1914 and 1916), Haiti (1915), the Dominican Republic (1916), and Cuba (1912 and 1917). It forced Denmark to sell the Virgin Islands. In the Far East, however, American expansion was kept in check by Japanese imperialism. After the overthrow of tsarism in Russia, the USA supported the bourgeois Provisional Government. The period of the general crisis of capitalism. During World War I the economic potential of the USA grew considerably, as did the country’s role in the world capitalist economy. Many countries became economically dependent on the USA. The intensified transformation of monopoly capitalism into state-monopoly capitalism led to the financial oligarchy’s control over all spheres of social life. Nevertheless, the internal contradictions of American capitalism grew more acute with the onset of the general crisis of capitalism. There was an abrupt deepening of the gulf of inequality, dividing the financial-industrial elite from the millions of toilers, whose position greatly worsened as a result of the postwar economic crisis of 1920–21 and the chronic depression in a number of economic sectors, including agriculture. The Great October Socialist Revolution in Russia inspired increased strike activity, in 1919 more than 4 million workers participated in strikes. The Hands Off Russia movement appeared, and the antimonopolistic struggle of the farmers became more active. The left wing in the Socialist Party gained strength and defended the principles of revolutionary Marxism. In September 1919 two Communist parties were organized: the Communist Labor Party of America, headed by J. Reed, and the Communist Party of America, headed by C. Ruthenberg. In 1921 the two parties merged to form a single party. There was a sharp increase in openly reactionary tendencies (for example, the Red scare) in the domestic policy of the ruling class. As a result of the repression and persecution of progressive elements, the labor and democratic movement was weakened by the early 1920’s, and the Communist Party was forced to operate underground. Social legislation was in effect frozen. Myths about “prosperity” and the “uniqueness” of American capitalism became widespread. The Republican administration that came into power in 1921 followed a course of noninterference in business. It rejected price controls and regulation of production, thereby encouraging wild speculation and supporting capitalism’s oppression of the toiling masses. Corruption and embezzlement penetrated the highest government circles, which included President W. Harding (1921–23) and members of his cabinet. The USA’s reaction to the victory of the Socialist Revolution in Russia was hostile. The American ruling circles, together with the governments of Great Britain, France, and Japan, organized armed intervention against Soviet Russia and, after the failure of this effort, refused to recognize the Soviet state. At the same time, the Wilson administration sought to bring about a situation whereby the USA, in accordance with its new economic might, would occupy the dominant position among the major world powers; this conflicted with the interests of other imperialist countries, primarily Great Britain and Japan. The USA convened the Washington Conference on Naval Limitations (1921–22), at which important concessons were obtained from its rivals. The US ruling circles hoped to increase their influence in China by means of the open door policy. Armed intervention was carried out on the side of the Chinese counterrevolutionary forces by the USA and other imperialist forces (for example, the shelling of Nanking by American warships in 1927). In Latin America the USA pursued a policy of direct diplomatic and military dictation. C. Coolidge’s Republican administration (1923–29) continued American military intervention in Haiti and in Nicaragua, where an anti-imperialist liberation movement had developed. The USA also infringed upon Mexico’s sovereignty, as well as upon that of other Latin American countries. In the hopes of establishing control over the German economy, the USA sought to revive German militarism and Germany’s military-industrial potential. It participated in the drawing up of reparations plans for Germany—the Dawes Plan of 1924 and the Young Plan of 1929. The comparatively prosperous economic situation that existed between 1924 and 1928 ensured a Republican victory in the 1928 presidential election. However, in the first year of H. Hoover’s administration the USA became the center of the 1929–33 global economic crisis, which greatly exacerbated the basic contradictions of American capitalism. In no other country did the economic crisis assume such a devastating and all-encompassing character. Industrial production between mid-1929 and July 1932 decreased by approximately 50 percent, and by 1933 about 17 million Americans were unemployed. Agricultural production plummeted, leading to the ruination of great numbers of farmers. The Hoover administration gave no assistance to the unemployed, the farmers, or the urban middle classes but instead implemented a series of measures aimed at providing support for the monopolies. In 1930 a high protective tariff went into effect, and in 1932 the government established the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, which used federal monies to assist big capital. The Federal Farm Board was created to implement a number of “stabilization” measures, but these measures did not provide any positive results for the farmers. The USA continued its nonrecognition of the USSR in the hopes of keeping the Soviet state in international isolation. It supported reactionary regimes in Latin America. The US position in Europe favored German revanche; at the London Conference of 1930 the USA refused to discuss the question of guarantees against German aggression. In the Far East the USA did not try to prevent Japan’s occupation of Northeast China in 1931, since it hoped to suppress, with Japan’s assistance, the revolutionary movement of the Chinese people and subsequently to direct Japanese aggression against the USSR. However, the threat of Japan’s deep penetration into mainland China alarmed the US ruling circles, which feared a possible weakening of American influence in the region. Hence, the foundation was laid for the future conflict between Japan and the USA. The growing poverty of broad strata of American workers led to an intensification of the class struggle. Demonstrations by the unemployed, organized by the Communist Party of the USA, took place throughout the country during the crisis of 1929–33. Labor unions, whose initiative had been fettered for a long time by the capitulatory policy of the leadership of the AFL, became more active. The upswing in the working class’s struggle was followed by the rapid growth of the farmers’ movement. By 1932 the bankruptcy of the administration’s domestic policy was so evident that even influential circles of the bourgeoisie no longer supported Hoover. The opposition rallied around F. D. Roosevelt, the leader of the Democrats, who condemned Hoover’s policies and promised a New Deal for the country. Roosevelt’s reforms were aimed at rendering the economy “controllable” by means of the intensive development of state-monopoly capitalism. Through the granting of certain concessions to workers and farmers, Roosevelt sought to reduce the white heat of the class struggle and to avert revolutionary activity. In the area of social reform the administration initially tried to stay within the framework of moderate bourgeois liberalism, but the growing struggle of the popular masses for social change compelled the government at times to go beyond the restrictions it had set for itself. The most important of Roosevelt’s reforms was the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA, enacted June 16, 1933), which made possible the implementation of several measures providing for state regulation of economic activity. The act protected labor’s right to organize and bargain collectively with management (art. 7a). A number of other laws were enacted to stabilize the economy; these included measures for the reform of the financial system, for the administration of public works projects, and for the regulation of agriculture (for example, measures implemented by the Agricultural Adjustment Administration). Also enacted was legislation providing aid to the unemployed. Despite the expectations of liberal bourgeois leaders, the reforms did not lead to social harmony. Trade unions grew rapidly in number; of particular importance was the organization of industrial trade unions in the principal sectors of industry. Sitdown strikes became widespread. There was growth in the youth and Negro movements, and antifascist and antiwar organizations became more active. In the mid-1930’s the struggle between the progressive and conservative wings of the labor movement became acute. At the 1935 AFL convention there was an open split between the conservative majority and the left wing. The Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) was organized in the late 1930’s; many of its founding members were Communists. The radicalization of the masses frightened the reactionaries, who considered the growth of the “rebellious spirit” to be a result of liberal reforms. However, the democratic forces compelled Roosevelt to take several new steps to the left. In 1935 the administration pushed a number of laws through Congress, including the Wagner Act regulating labor relations (which was based on Article 7a of the NIRA), a law providing social security and pensions for the elderly, widows, and orphans, laws earmarking supplementary funds for public works projects, and a law establishing a minimum wage. The new legislation was a victory for the toiling masses, whose support subsequently assured Roosevelt a decisive majority in the 1936 election. The popularity of the New Deal was so great that, despite economic difficulties, the Democrats were also victorious in the 1940 election, with Roosevelt being elected to a third term (an event unprecedented in US history). Roosevelt’s foreign policy was more flexible than that of his predecessors. In November 1933 diplomatic relations were established between the USA and the USSR. Roosevelt declared that the USA intended to follow a “good neighbor policy” in Latin America; this meant that the old policy of direct dictation would be replaced by more masked forms of economic and political expansion. In 1934 the USA granted autonomy to the Philippines. In European affairs the USA, advocating a policy of appeasement, did not favor collective security, thereby playing into the hands of the fascist powers. Citing a law on neutrality that had been adopted in 1935, the US government did not oppose the Italian aggression in Ethiopia (1935–36) or the Italo-German intervention in Spain (1936–39). In January 1937 the US Congress imposed an embargo on the export of arms to Spain, in essence encouraging intervention against the Spanish Republic. Although the USA verbally condemned Japan’s aggression in the Far East, it did not break off economic ties with Japan and continued to export war materials. In a speech of Oct. 5,1937, Roosevelt called for a “quarantine” against aggressors. However, in 1938 the USA gave de facto recognition to Hitler’s Anschluss of Austria and facilitated the conclusion of the Munich Pact of 1938. This policy of “going along” with fascist aggression encouraged the outbreak of World War II (1939–45). World War II. After the outbreak of war in Europe, the USA, owing to increased orders for military supplies, was finally able (in 1940) to surpass its industrial production level of 1929. The monopolies carried out a renewal of fixed capital and made largescale capital investments in almost all branches of the national economy. State-monopolistic tendencies were further developed. Special governmental bodies were established to direct the wartime economy; members of such bodies included representatives and agents of big capital. Experiments were begun in the production of atomic weapons. Recognizing the threat presented to the USA’s international position by a strengthened fascist Germany, the American government rendered increasing amounts of aid to Great Britain and France, and in November 1939 Congress lifted the arms embargo. After Germany’s attack on Belgium in May 1940, the USA declared that its sympathies were with the victims of aggression. There developed a movement of cooperation with the peoples fighting against Nazism. The Lend-Lease Act of March 1941 provided for the granting of loans and the lease of arms. On Aug. 14, 1941, Roosevelt and W. Churchill, the prime minister of Great Britain, proclaimed the Atlantic Charter, which in general terms discussed war aims and the postwar arrangement of the world. After fascist Germany’s treacherous attack on the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, Roosevelt announced (June 24) the USA’s resolve to render aid to the USSR. Meanwhile, relations between the USA and Japan sharply worsened. On December 7, Japan made a surprise attack on American naval bases at Pearl Harbor (Hawaiian Islands), on the Philippines, and on the islands of Guam, Wake, and Midway. War began between the two powers. On December 11, Germany and Italy declared war on the USA. The USA was among the signatories of the Declaration by United Nations of Jan.