United States of America





The United States of America (commonly referred to as the United States, the U.S., the USA, or America) is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its forty-eight contiguous states and Washington, D.C., the capital district, lie between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, bordered by Canada to the north and Mexico to the south. The state of Alaska is in the northwest of the continent, with Canada to its east and Russia to the west across the Bering Strait. The state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific. The country also possesses several territories in the Caribbean and Pacific. At 3.79 million square miles (9.83 million km2) and with about 308 million people, the United States is the third or fourth largest country by total area, and the third largest by land area and population. The United States is one of the world's most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many countries.[7] The U.S. economy is the largest national economy in the world, with an estimated 2008 gross domestic product (GDP) of US $14.4 trillion (a quarter of nominal global GDP and a fifth of global GDP at purchasing power parity).[4][8] Indigenous peoples, probably of Asian descent, have inhabited what is now the mainland United States for many thousands of years. This Native American population was greatly reduced after European contact by disease and warfare. The United States was founded by thirteen British colonies located along the Atlantic seaboard. On July 4, 1776, they issued the Declaration of Independence, which proclaimed their right to self-determination and their establishment of a cooperative union. The rebellious states defeated Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War, the first successful colonial war of independence.[9] The Philadelphia Convention adopted the current United States Constitution on September 17, 1787; its ratification the following year made the states part of a single republic with a strong central government. The Bill of Rights, comprising ten constitutional amendments guaranteeing many fundamental civil rights and freedoms, was ratified in 1791. In the 19th century, the United States acquired land from France, Spain, the United Kingdom, Mexico, and Russia, and annexed the Republic of Texas and the Republic of Hawaii. Disputes between the agrarian South and industrial North over states' rights and the expansion of the institution of slavery provoked the American Civil War of the 1860s. The North's victory prevented a permanent split of the country and led to the end of legal slavery in the United States. By the 1870s, the national economy was the world's largest.[10] The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the country's status as a military power. In 1945, the United States emerged from World War II as the first country with nuclear weapons and a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union left the United States as the sole superpower. The country accounts for two-fifths of global military spending and is a leading economic, political, and cultural force in the world.[11]

In the Metal Gear Solid series
In the MGS series the United States was one of the three countries to be part of a secret group called the Philosophers. Established after World War II, the US, China and the Soviet Union amassed a massive cache of funds accumulated from the two World Wars, which would later be known as the Philosophers' Legacy. However the superpowers began to squabble over the Legacy and this was supposedly one of the main causes to the Cold War. The US and the Soviet Union immediately embarked on a nuclear arms and space race in their attempts to dominate the other. But neither side went into war with each other, fearing nuclear retaliation.

In 1964, two years after the Cuban Missile Crisis, the US secretly planned an operation to first recover a Soviet rocket scientist that initially defected to the US and eliminate one of their own agents who defected to the Soviet Union. However the real purpose was to recover the Philosophers' Legacy that was in th hands of a rogue GRU Colonel Volgin. After the success of Operation Snake Eater however, the US only recovered half of the Legacy.

In 1970, the Pentagon and the CIA began to bicker between themselves over the Legacy. An incident in the Caribbean was instigated to end the American Philosophers by Major Zero and former Philosopher triple agent Ocelot. Their control over the United States was transferred to the modern successors named the Patriots. Comprising of those that were directly involved in Operation Snake Eater and were directly inspired by the Boss, they sought to bring the Boss' last will to fruition. However disagreements within the Patriots rose between Major Zero and Big Boss, and the latter left the Patriots after finding out about the Les Enfants Terribles project.

In 1974, the US had a major scare when it appeared that the Soviet Union launched their full nuclear arsenal against the US mainland. They prepared to retaliate until Big Boss called to notify them that it was a false alarm set up by CIA station chief Hot Coldman. As the Cold War drew to a close, the United States was gradually becoming under the influence of the Patriots, who sought to unify the world by control.

By 1995 the Patriots controlled all aspects of American life, pulling the strings such as the choosing of the US President behind closed doors. Big Boss prepared to rebel against the Patriots through the Outer Heaven Uprising in 1995 and the Zanzibar Land Disturbance four years later. The United States, under the control of the Patriots, saw their former hero as a terrorist and managed to foil him both times via Solid Snake, an agent of FOXHOUND. In the latter event the US saw potential of a new weapon called Metal Gear and secretly began building Metal Gear REX under the joint cooperation of ArmsTech and APRA to counter the effects of global military downsizing. By this time, the US was engaged in treaty talks with Russia to reduce their nuclear armaments. In the meantime Big Boss was recovered, still alive but heavily charred and kept in stasis by the Patriots. Zero extended his control over the American state to include the whole world in the meantime and commissioned the development of AIs to carry on Zero's interpretation of The Boss' will.

In 2005, the US was prepared to sign the START-3 treaty with Russia and reduce their nuclear armaments further when FOXHOUND rebelled and took over the Shadow Moses facility in Alaska, where Metal Gear REX was to be tested. In actuality the US president George Sears (aka Solidus Snake) masterminded the incident without the knowledge of the Patriots, to rebel against them. Solid Snake was called in once again to foil FOXHOUND's plans but the Patriots got wind of the terrorist action and worked behind the scenes to recover the bodies of the Genome soliders and REX's test data. The incident became public knowledge when Nastasha Romenenko published her book telling the Shadow Moses incident, leading to the Patriots sacking Solidus Snake as President and appointed James Johnson to the presidency, though putting up a public show of the supposed elections.

By the time of the Manhatten Incident in 2007 (and later 2009), the Patriots implemented nanomachines into the US military, supposedly to improve their soldiers combat skills and ID-tagged their weaponry and gear.

Appearances

 * Metal Gear Solid 3


 * Metal Gear Solid


 * Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes


 * Metal Gear Solid 2


 * Metal Gear Solid 4