Words and Expressions regarding the USA

American Regions	New England, Mid-Atlantic States, The South, The Midwest, The Southwest, The West
The Pilgrim Fathers	The people who left England because of their religion and wanted to start a new life in the new world.
The Mayflower	The ship the Pilgrim Fathers used to travel to the New World (USA)
The War of Independence	The colonists were unhappy because they had were controlled by Britain: - They had to pay tax - They did not get representation in the British parlament - They wanted to keep their own natural resources Therefore they started the war of independence between the colonists and Britain (1775-1783)
The Declaration of Independence	USA declared themselves independent already during the war in 1776, and wrote a document (the declaration of independence). After the war in 1783 they got independence, and in 1879 they got their Constitution.
The Founding Fathers	The men who wrote the Constitution are called the Founding Fathers. Among them is Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the USA (believed to be the father of the nation)
The Confederacy	It was eleven southern states who broke out and made their own constitution that allowed slavery.
The Civil War	The North wanted to make slavery illegal and the South wanted it to be legal. President A. Lincoln started the Civil War to keep USA together (1861-1865 and cost more than 600,000 Americans)
The Homestead Act	A pull factor in the USA which gave away free land. This land was originally inhabited by the Native Americans.
The Depression	In 1929 the stock market crashed and the period during the 1930s is called The Depression because of unemployment and poverty.
The New Deal	Franklin D. Roosevelt introduced the New Deal where he “cleared the table of cards and dealt them out again”. This was to stop the Depression. - Started building roads and other infrastructure to get people working - Public social welfare was introduced
Cultural imperialism	A nation forcing its cultural values on to another, usually weaker, nation.
Melting Pot	Everything is melted together. The idea of being American has been to adapt to American society by getting rid of much of one’s own cultural baggage.
Salad Bowl	Immigrants live side by side with their own cultural identities, rather than being melted together.
Assimilation	Assimilation is a socio-political response to demographic multi-ethnicity that supports or promotes the assimilation of ethnic minorities into the dominant culture. It is opposed to affirmative philosophy (for example, multiculturalism) which recognizes and works to maintain differences.
Federal	Is the national government. All of the states in USA are independent, but are supervised by the federal state.
Pschycology of abundance	USA has been a land of plenty and this kind of thinking has crept into American mentality. Americans are not generally prepared to limit their use of resources.
Individualism	Being individual and relying only on yourself to survive. Building yourself up from the very bottom to a successful career. This thinking comes from the early settlers who managed on their own.
Volunteerism	Being eager to help, often without rewards and this is common in USA.
Checks and balances	The federal power in the USA is divided into three branches of government. They all check on each other so neither of them gets too much power.
The Executive	One of the branches and is headed by a President, elected every four years. His job is to enforce laws.
The Legislative	Also called the Congress and is divided into - The House of Representatives - The Senate This branch’s job is to create laws.
The Judicial	Interpret laws.
The Congress	The Legislative branch and it creates laws.
The Bill of Rights	The Bill of Rights was introduced in 1791, and the aim was to specify the rights of individual citizens (among them are right to free speech, free religion and the right to own guns)

Image sources:
http://konradstankesmie.blogspot.com/2010/04/erling-fossen-om-hege-storhaug.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Freeman_homestead-certificate.jpg