The United States is a relatively young country that occupies over 9 million square kilometres between Canada and Mexico. Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam, Wake and Midway form part of the overseas territories of the country as annexed or as associated free states with internal self-governing bodies.Originally inhabited by about one and a half million American Indians, the country became a nation of immigrants who came first from West and Northern Europe, then from Asia and Latin America, in search of land, freedom and better living conditions. Spanish explorers, attracted by gold, established themselves in Florida, Texas and the western part of the country, the French set up as fur traders, and the British were the first to colonise on a large scale, followed by waves of Irish, Germans, Dutch and Swedes. From Africa, people were taken against their will to provide slave labour for the southern colonists.
In order to survive, immigrants had to learn to organise and govern themselves, which wasn't easy for people who came from different cultural backgrounds and who had to undergo periods of famine, diseases, Indian attacks and unfavourable weather conditions. White people took away the Indians. land through treaties, war or threat.
The white man's civilisation cut down forests, built railways and big cities. Indians were displaced and confined to reservations. Groups such as the Chinese, Russians, Jews and Rumanians, who arrived later, were not welcomed by the older immigration groups, who felt the newcomers were overcrowding their cities and taking away their jobs. The newcomers were greeted with hostility and prejudice. Therefore, they formed their own ethnic neighbourhoods where they maintained their languages and customs.
