c_&_c_v_iii_p

COUNTRIES and CULTURES of the WORLD, THEN and NOW, VOL. III

[Excerpt, P. 215-220]

Mexico (United Mexican States)

Population 96 million (2.2 % per year natural increase); area 1,965,000 sq. km. (756,000 sq. mi.); GDP $730 billion; average income $7900; literacy rate

90 percent. Some 60 percent of the people are Mestizo or mixed race, 30 percent are Amerindian, and 9 percent are white.

History. (See Ancient Civilizations for Mayans and Aztecs.) Man probably arrived in Mexico 40,000 years ago, crossing the land bridge from Asia into Alaska. They then migrated south, hunting mammoth and other animals. They settled in the Valley of Mexico before 1500 B.C. They made figures in clay of beautiful women, almost nude. They learned to anchor rafts of rich mud in the shallow lakes and grow large quantities of fruits and vegetables. The Olmec civilization carved stone heads several meters high of men in the area southeast of modern Veracruz. They were astronomers, developing a calendar. Zapotec Indians near Oaxaca and Mayan Indians in Yucatan established great civilizations not much later. Mayans copied and improved upon the Olmec calendar and system of writing numbers.

When Cortés arrived in 1519 the warlike Aztecs controlled much of Mexico. The Mayan civilization was in its decadent period. The Spanish made slaves of the Indians but they died fast from "White man's diseases" and the cruel treatment. A system of repartimiento or drafting the labor of Indians began. A few Blacks from Africa were brought in to work in mines and on the larger plantations. Spanish men often intermarried with local women. Various social and economics classes developed. Big land owners developed an aristocracy. In general, the whiter the skin, the higher the class, particularly if the individual had been born in Spain. Spain was interested primarily in what it could dig out or grow in Latin America, to take to Spain to make it richer. Spain, following a "mercantilist" policy toward its colonies, was not interested in manufacturing or other developments in "New Spain." Priests continued to convert the Indians, and some priests tried to improve their living conditions. Spain sent Dominican, Jesuit, Franciscan, Carmelite, and Augustine orders to "New Spain" or Mexico. The Catholic Church operated many schools to give a basic education and practical training, even to the lowest classes. Mexicans were taught that even if their existence under Spain was miserable, they would have a great life in heaven after they died. This helped to keep them from rebelling and slaughtering their Spanish masters.

Spain's main interest in Mexico and the rest of Latin America was its gold and silver. An aristocracy of landowners soon developed, like that in Spain. The landed aristocracy and rich minerals discouraged manufacturing and development, both in Spain and in its American colonies. The Indians were primarily a source of cheap labor, little more than slaves. Some of the wealthy throughout Latin America continue to look upon the poor Indian or Mestizo as little more than their slave.

When Napoleon invaded Spain in 1808 the desire for independence became stronger in Mexico and the rest of Latin America. Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, a priest, on September 16, 1810 asked his parishioners to fight the Spanish. That day is celebrated as Independence Day. Hidalgo led an armed group against Spanish troops. He won some battles but was captured. José María Morelos, also a priest, led another armed group against the Spanish. Both Hidalgo and Morelos were executed by the Spanish. However, a Spanish army officer, Augustín de Iturbide, decided to lead a group seeking independence. In 1821 Spain signed a treaty recognizing Mexico's independence. In 1824 Mexico adopted a constitution. Five years later it abolished slavery, 36 years before the U.S.A. In 1836 Texas declared its independence from Mexico. Nine years later the U.S.A. announced its intent to annex Texas.

In 1846 a Mexican army crossed the Rio Grande to reclaim its land. Mexican troops, often led by General Santa Anna, fought many battles but lost all of them. Leaders of armies of the U.S.A. included Gen. Zachary Taylor, Gen. Winfield Scott, and Capt. John Frémont. Taylor's men defeated a much larger Mexican army in the Veracruz area. Settlers from the U.S.A. in California fought Mexican settlers there, creating the "Bear Flag Republic." It was soon occupied by Frémont's troops. The USA's agent Nicholas Trist negotiated a treaty with Mexico on February 2, 1848. The U.S.A. got half of Mexico: the modern states of California, Nevada, Utah, Texas, and most of Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado, and part of Wyoming. The U.S.A. paid 15 million dollars to Mexico. When gold was discovered in 1849 California became even more important. Many men from the U.S.A. arrived, hoping to get rich. The boundary was still in dispute. In 1854 James Gadsden negotiated for the U.S.A. to purchase from Mexico a strip of land, now part of southern Arizona and New Mexico. The U.S.A. paid 10 million dollars for it. Mexicans were so mad that they overthrew their president, Santa Anna. In 1855 the Catholic Church was disestablished and much of its property was confiscated.

Mexico had a civil war, 1858-1861. Liberals won. Benito Juárez became president. March 21, his birthday, is a holiday. Mexico owed France money which it was unable to pay. Emperor Napoleon III of France in 1862 sent his troops to occupy Mexico. Archduke Maximillan of Austria and his wife Carlota were sent to Mexico to become emperor and empress. In 1867 guerrilla troops of Juárez captured Maximillan, convicted him in a court-martial, and executed him. May 5 is celebrated as a holiday (cinco de mayo) for the victory in Puebla against the French. The U.S.A., acting under the "Monroe Doctrine," of 1823 persuaded France to withdraw. The doctrine stated that intervention by a foreign power anyplace in the Americas "is an unfriendly act." Juárez died in 1872. Porfirio Díaz was dictator of Mexico most of the time 1880 to 1911. Díaz encouraged foreigners to invest in and to develop Mexico. Railroads, mining, factories, and oil production greatly increased, mostly by developers from the U.S.A. However, peasants lost much land they had held for generations, and workers were treated and paid poorly.

Armed bands led by "Pancho" Villa and others fought the government in several states of Mexico. November 20, when the Revolution began, is a holiday. My father, a teenage adventurer from Oklahoma, lived in San Luis Potosi in 1914-1915. He had a 45 caliber Colt pistol. He wanted to be in the action, either fighting with or against Pancho Villa. However, his village remained quiet, he traded his pistol for a horse and saddle, and returned to farming. In 1916 he volunteered for the navy of the U.S.A.

Díaz was forced to resign. Huerta became dictator. Troops of the U.S.A. arrived in Veracruz in 1914 to prevent a shipment of arms from going to Huerta. Huerta was overthrown. An army of the U.S.A. invaded Mexico in 1916-1917 to punish Pancho Villa. Zapata led an army of peasants, trying to get more rights for them. He was assassinated in 1919. Carranza became the ruler, then president in 1917 but he was assassinated in 1920. Mexico's new constitution permitted the taking of land if it did not serve a positive social purpose. Religious schools were abolished, religious groups were prohibited from owning property, and minerals in the ground were made the property of the government, not of the landowner. Obregón was elected president in 1920. He built many schools, redistributed some land to peasants, and encouraged the formation of a national union of workers, the CROM. Calles, president in 1924, redistributed more land to peasants. Cárdenas, president 1934-1940, redistributed far more land. Title to much of the land went to village groups, the ejido, to be worked in common. In 1938 foreign oil wells were expropriated. Three years later agreement was reached on payment.

Mexico spent and borrowed much money, based upon income from oil production. The peso dropped in value by nearly half during la crisis in 1982, and Mexico came close to reneging on payments of interest for its debt. When the world market price of oil dropped in 1986 Mexico was unable to pay its debts when they became due. The value of the peso dropped considerably in the 1980s. Many government-owned industries were sold to investors, mostly foreign. Effective January 1, 1994 Mexico joined the U.S.A. and Canada in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Beginning some 15 years earlier many corporations had closed a plant in the U.S.A. with high wage rates and opened a maquiladora manufacturing or assembly plant in Mexico. Many were built near the border with the U.S.A. Wages paid are much lower than in the U.S.A. but have been higher than Mexico's normal wages. The products made are sold to the U.S.A. or on the world market.

In early 1995 the peso was devalued slightly but it dropped by around 80 percent, despite a loan of more than 18 billion dollars from the International Monetary Fund and 20 billion more from the U.S.A. Those loans are being paid off fast. Prices in Mexico rose around 50 percent in 1995. The poor and middle-class are suffering. Inflation in 1996 is said to be dropping to around 40 percent per year. When a country that has a high rate of inflation needs cash it cannot tap the national banking system, because people do not leave much money in local banks. A country with a high rate of inflation may be required to borrow through the international banking system or investments in businesses, such as corporate stock. There is almost no savings in Mexican pesos. An agreement, reached in February, 1995, gave the U.S.A. some control over Mexico's economic matters. Under the NAFTA agreement, for 1995, Mexico had a 15 billion dollar trade surplus with the U.S.A. Mexicans were unable to buy many products of the U.S.A. due to the devaluation of the peso. Many economists had forecast a favorable balance of payments for the U.S.A.

One political party, the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, won nearly all of the elections since the 1940s. There have been many charges of corruption made against some presidents and other PRI leaders. Opposition political parties, both left (FDN) and right (PAN), have won votes in many areas. Early in 1994 peasants in Chiapas, in the extreme south, began a rebellion against the federal government. In March 1994 the candidate of the PRI for president was killed. Charges were made that members of the family and other friends of the then incumbent president were getting big payments, apparently from illegal drug dealers. Several presidents, with modest assets at the beginning of their term, were multimillionaires after six years, with many accounts in foreign banks. The Gulf, Suarez, Sonora, and Tiajuana cocaine cartels are said to operate with the full knowledge of Mexico's governing or recently-governing politicians.

Candidates spend fortunes to get elected, but expect to get it back from public funds if they are elected. In 1994 elections the PRI alone is reported to have spent 1.5 billion U.S.A. dollars. The PRI's Ernesto Zedillo was elected president. The party's previous candidate was assassinated in March, 1994.

BACKGROUND. Population of the Federal District (Mexico City) is around 20 million. It, Sao Paulo, and Tokyo are among the world's largest cities. Guadalajara has around 3.2 million, Monterrey has 2.9 million, Puebla has 1.8 million, Leon has 1.1 million, Ciudad Juárez has 800,000, and Acapulco has 650,000 people. Mexico has increased in population from 29 million in 1950 to 94 million in 1995, an increase of 224 percent in only 45 years! It must import food. Some 12 percent of the land is arable. There are 399 people per square km. of arable land. It is difficult to provide food, water, and jobs for so many people. It is also difficult to govern a country with a shortage of land, food, water, and jobs. More than half of Mexico's people are under age 20. Will they find jobs and housing, or will they emigrate to the U.S.A.? Will Mexico adopt an effective family planning program? Will many thousands starve to death?

Crude oil reserves were estimated in 1994 to be 51 million barrels. The north is mostly dry to very dry. The south is tropical and wet. The temperature depends largely upon elevation, although winters in most of the north can be quite cool. Minerals include oil, natural gas, sulphur, coal, copper, iron, silver, and gold. Mexico has many volcanoes. In 1943 Parícutin grew suddenly out of a cornfield to a height of 2,270 meters (7,446 ft.). The fish catch is 1.1 million metric tons per year.

Some 74 percent of the annual imports of 66 billion dollars came from the U.S.A. and 11 percent from Japan, in 1994. Some 74 percent of the exports of 51 billion dollars went to the U.S.A., and 8 percent to Japan in 1994. However, in 1995 Mexico's exports to the U.S.A. exceeded its imports from the U.S.A. by some 15 billion dollars. Mexico has a trade agreement with Venezuela and Columbia, in addition to the NAFTA agreement with Canada and the U.S.A. Half of Mexico's wealth is said to be held by some 24 family groups. Half of the families exist on 135 dollars per month or less.

There are 31 states plus the Federal District (Mexico City). The 500 members of the Chamber of deputies are elected for 3 years, the 64 senators are elected for 6 years. The president, senators, and deputies cannot succeed themselves.

Mexico City's January average high temperature is 21 degrees C, the average low is 5 C. The July average high temperature is 23 degrees C, the average low is 11 C. Mérida's January average high temperature is 28 degrees C, the average low is 17 C. The July average high temperature is 33 degrees C, the average low is 23 C. June through September are the wetter months in Mexico City and Mérida.

Eight years of school is mandatory. However, children in very poor families are required to work on the farm, in factories, or selling on streets. They may rarely go to school. In cities many students complete three years of secondary school, either a comprehensive program or a university preparatory program. The family unit is strong, as is loyalty to the home village. Outsiders find it difficult to be accepted in a village, where ejido land is owned in common. Ejido land cannot be rented or sold. Village families live on tortillas and beans, with some chili peppers, tomatoes, and onions, plus fresh fruits in season. It is often Mexico's poor, with little education, who emigrate, often illegally, to the U.S.A. to find work. However, Mexico also has a large group of educated, cultured people. There is a large middle class. In cities both the husband and wife may work outside of the home. Machismo or the belief that the male is supreme, is getting weak among middle class city families. Families in the crowded cities practice birth control and limit the family size. Families are largest in the poorest states and rural areas. More mouths to feed leads to the plowing and erosion of marginal land, the cutting of forests, starvation, and deeper poverty.

Mexican cooking is one of the seven or eight tastier cuisines in the world. However, much of the food, other than basic tortillas, frijoles (beans), and arroz or sopa seca (rice) has fatty cream added. Food is often picante (spicy). South of Guatemala, the food is rarely spicy. Strong spices were added to food throughout the world long ago to disguise the spoiled ingredients, especially meats. Burritos are a large tortilla made of flour, stuffed with beans, sometimes also with potatoes and onions. Chiles rellenos are non-spicy peppers stuffed, usually with batter and cheese, sometimes with ground beef and raisins. Chorizos are a spicy pork sausage. Enchiladas are a tortilla filled with chicken, beef, or cheese, sometimes served with a tomato sauce and sour cream. Guacamole is avocado, often mixed with onions and hot spices. Mole is a very spicy sauce with a great variety of ingredients, often served over poultry. Huevos rancheros are fried eggs on a corn (maize) tortilla, with tomato sauce overall. Pan dulce is bread, usually sweet, in many forms, bought at a bakery. Tacos are chopped lettuce, onions, tomatoes, and ground meat, in or with a thin pastry shell. Tamales are meat, often with chopped tomatoes and onion, or sometimes a sweet filling, wrapped in masa (ground corn meal soaked in lime juice), wrapped in a corn husk, and steamed. Tostadas are crispy chips made of fried corn tortillas, topped with meat, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, cheese, avocadas, and sour cream.

A local newspaper, the Noticias de Oaxaca, had an article stating that more than half of the 2,500 local prostitutes failed the public

[Excerpt, P,. 236-256]

CANADA

Population 30,000,000 (0.6 % per year natural increase); area 10,001,000 sq. km. (3,850,000 sq. mi.) including many large and small islands; GDP $640 billion; average income $22,760; literacy rate 96%

HISTORY. The Eskimos or Thule arrived and had spread out along the Arctic, from Alaska to Greenland, long before the white man arrived. They hunted whale with harpoons in kayaks, harpooned seals and fished through the ice, used dog sleds, and lived mostly in houses covered with animal skins in the summer and sod houses in winter. In Alaska and a few other places they made igloos, domed houses of snow. They also hunted caribou on land. At the time of Columbus there were probably 25,000 in Alaska, living around the west and northern edges. There were another 25,000 living from the Yukon east to Labrador, and in Greenland. They called themselves Inuit or "real people." White men copied the Esquimatsic used by the Abnaki Indians, meaning "eaters of raw flesh." They probably came from Siberia 50,000 to 5,000 years ago, gradually moving east.

The Indians (often called "First Peoples" in Canada or "Native Americans" in the U.S.A.) also arrived from Siberia at various times from 50,000 to 5,000 years ago. Diggers at Medicine Hat, Alberta found bones showing that Man had lived there 30,000 years ago. In Canada Indians included, in the Northwest, the Hare, Satudene, Dogrib, Kaska, Sekani, and Slave. In the North Central there were the Yellowknife, Chipewyan, and Cree. In the East there were the Naskapi, Algonkian, Huron, Iroquois, Abnaki, Penobscot, Malecite, Micmac, and Beothuk. In Canada's Southwest there were the Carrier, Sarcee, Blackfeet, Shushwap, and Lilooet. Along Canada's West Coast there were the Tlingit (who also lived on Alaska's southern coast), Tsimshian, Haida, Bellabella, Kwakiutl, and the Nootka of Vancouver Island. The culture of Indians varied greatly, depending upon the environment and the food. The rich West Coast Indians lived on salmon and built homes using cedar planks. The plains Indians lived by hunting buffalo and hunting and trapping small animals. The Algonkians, Iroquois, and other Eastern Indians made canoes and wigwams of bark. They hunted or trapped animals and made clothing from the skin. The Beothuk put grease and red ocher on their bodies. White settlers called them the "Red Indians."

Norsemen (Vikings) from Greenland established a colony on the north coast of Newfoundland around 1,000 A.D. Leif Ericson led a group that spent at least a winter in Vinland. Archaeologists have excavated what they believe to be a Viking settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows, northern Newfoundland. They found the walls of seven buildings. The large building, 21 by 17 m. (69 by 56 ft.), had several fireplaces, it is like a great hall that Vikings built. Iron slag from a primitive blacksmith was found. They found a spindle whorl used by Viking women to make yarn for weaving.

In 1497 John Cabot of England sailed along Canada's east coast. The next year he returned, also sailing along the coast of New England. He found much cod fish but no Northwest Passage to the Orient. In 1534 Jacques Cartier landed at Gaspé, Quebec and claimed the land for France. The next year he discovered the St. Lawrence River and sailed up it as far as Montreal. He named the land Kannata ("collection of huts"), which became Canada. In 1583 Humphrey Gilbert discovered Newfoundland and claimed the land for England. In 1608 Samuel de Champlain of France founded a settlement, now Quebec (City). In 1609 he discovered Lake Champlain. He made friends with Algonkians, traveled with Hurons, and later killed two Iroquois, making them enemies of the French for many years. Other explorers and pirates from Portugal, France, and England explored Canada. In 1617 Louis Hebert was Quebec's first colonist. In 1629 France sent many habitants (farmers) in addition to voyageurs (fur traders) to Quebec. In 1689 the British Paliament passed the Bill of Rights, a statement of an individual's rights and liberties. Hurons and Algonkians supplied French with furs, Iroquois supplied furs to the Dutch along the Hudson River. In the Treaty of Utrecht, 1713, France ceded to England the Hudson Bay area, Newfoundland, "Acadia," and much of Western Canada.

British colonists in "New England" (British Canada) soon outnumbered colonists and fur traders in New France. The British interpreted "Acadia" ceded to them by the French as being everything south of the St. Lawrence River. The French interpreted their ceding only the southern portion of the coast. France built a big fort, Louisbourg, 1720, on Cape Breton Island. The British built Fort Halifax in 1749. There were many battles of Iroquois against French colonists. Battles between British and American colonists (partly led by George Washington) against the French began in 1755. British captured much of the east coast and sent many of the French colonists, Acadians, to Louisiana. Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie, published by Longfellow in 1847, tells of the plight of the Acadiens, who became cajuns in Louisana. Those who took an oath of complete loyalty to Britain were permitted to stay. During the Seven Years War, 1756-1762, the main battle was at Quebec. British General Wolfe's troops attacked the city on the morning of September 13, 1759. General Wolfe was killed, French General Montcalm was shot and soon died. Quebec was captured by the British, and two years later they captured St. Johns, Newfoundland.

The British Parliament in 1774 passed the Quebec Act. British criminal law was applied but French civil law was permitted to remain. Freedom of religion was granted. British colonists living in Quebec were not happy. When the American Revolutionary War began in 1776, and France in 1778 began to help the American colonists, the French settlers in Quebec also wanted help from France. At least 35,000 Loyalists, friendly toward Britain, left the 13 American colonies, moving to New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Quebec. The British signed a peace treaty late in 1782. Britain did not permit colonists in Canada to have their own government, but it did not charge them for the cost of governing, as it had in the American Colonies.

The British Parliament founded Hudson's Bay Company in 1670 to trade with Indians for furs, giving household goods, rifles, whiskey, and other things. The French Pedlars (peddlers) competed with it, later forming the North West Company in 1783. Both Hudson's Bay and North West expanded, finally getting to the Pacific Ocean. Russian fur traders from Russian-controlled Alaska competed with them. In 1791 the Constitutional Act divided Quebec into Upper (close to the Atlantic) and Lower Canada (north of the Great Lakes). They were reunited in 1841, as Canada East and Canada West. James Cook and George Vancouver had explored the West Coast of Canada in the 1790s. Alexander MacKenzie made the first trip across North America in 1792-1793. David Thompson explored much of Western Canada and the Columbia River for the North West Company. In 1821 North West was absorbed by Hudson's Bay. Vancouver Island became a Hudson's Bay colony.

In Canada, unlike the U.S.A., there were few battles between Indians and Whites moving west, the Indians were needed to supply furs. The French Catholic voyageurs (fur traders) often took an Indian woman, their descendants were métis. French Catholic missionaries converted many of them in modern Manitoba and elsewhere. The War of 1812 was caused partly by Britain's blockade of Europe and Napoleon, which hurt America's trade with France. During the war the Americans invaded Canada, taking and burning Toronto, but they were unsuccessful in attempts to capture Quebec or Montreal. The British took Washington. The war ended with a draw, neither side winning, by the Treaty of Ghent, 1815.

British feared that rebellions in several areas of Canada in 1837-1838 might lead to a movement for independence. In 1844 James Polk won the American presidency with the slogan "54-40 or Fight." That would have made the Canada-U.S.A. border some 620 km. (385 mi.) farther north than it is now. Most Canadians now live within 160 km. (100 mi.) of the U.S.A. border. In 1849 the boundary of the Oregon Territory and Canada was resolved, at the 49th parallel. In 1848 Britain permitted local government, organized partly by Joseph Howe, Halifax newspaper publisher, in Nova Scotia. In 1857 Queen Victoria named Ottawa as Canada's national capital, far enough north to be better-protected against another invasion by the U.S.A.

In 1859 Canada established the first tariff, over the objection of Britain, to protect Canadian manufacturers. In 1866 the first Irish Fenian army invaded Canada, from the U.S.A. They wanted to take over Canada's government. In 1867 the Dominion of Canada was established. The American Civil War, 1861-1865 had shown problems that existed in that form of government. The British Empire form of loose confederation was copied in Canada. The American system had led to civil war. British Columbia in 1871 joined Canada, border disputes with America had been largely resolved, and the Canadian Pacific Railway was planned to help pull the country together. It was completed in 1885. It was a private company but depended upon government subsidies. The Canadian National trans-Canada line was built later, the government took it over. The Liberal and Conservative parties were formed. Later the Progressive Conservative party was formed. Discovery of gold on B.C.'s Fraser River in 1856 and on the Yukon's Klondike in 1896, helped bring people to the Far West. Secret ballot elections began in 1878. In 1869, and again in 1884 and 1885, Riel led the métis and some Indians in the prairies, in the Red River Rebellion against the control of the prairies by the confederation. In 1867 the U.S.A. bought Alaska from Russia. In 1903 American President Theodore Roosevelt threatened to go to war if America's version of the location of the border between Alaska and Canada was not accepted. Britain agreed with Roosevelt, Canadians were mad at Britain, and announced that Canada would handle its own foreign relations from then on. In 1906 Roald Amundsen was the first to traverse the Northwest Passage in a ship, arriving in Nome, Alaska. By 1905 nine provinces had joined the confederation, and Newfoundland joined in 1949.

Canada joined Britain in World Wars I and II. Many soldiers, sailors, and plane crews were killed. In the 1930s Canada suffered an economic depression, like the U.S.A. and Europe. Canada sent troops to the Korean War, and it was a founding member of NATO in 1949. In 1952 Britain appointed the first Canadian to be Governor General. In 1959 the St. Lawrence Seaway, a joint Canadian-U.S.A. project to improve navigation, was opened. The Trans-Canada Highway was completed in 1963, except for the road in Newfoundland, completed two years later. Many Canadians were critical of the war in Vietnam in the 1960s.

In 1990 Quebec failed to reach an agreement with all of the other provinces in negotiations at Lake Meech. In an October 1992 national referendum voters rejected a constitutional amendment stating that Quebec is a "distinct society." In 1992 voters approved splitting Northwest Territories, creating Nunavut, a territory for Inuits. In October 1993 elections the Liberal Party won a majority, and the NAFTA Free Trade Agreement with the U.S.A. and Mexico was ratified. Jean Chrétien became prime minister. In Quebec elections in February 1995 those who wanted to separate Quebec from Canada lost by a few votes. Most of the immigrants from abroad voted to stay with Canada. Late in 1996 Canada's government asked the supreme court to decide whether a province can secede. Quebec opposed the request.

BACKGROUND. Canada is the 2nd-largest country, after Russia. It extends 4,800 km. (3,000 mi.) north to south and 5,600 km. (3,500 mi.) east to west. Five percent of the land is arable. There are only 57 people per square km. of arable land. There are 10 provinces, and two territories: Yukon and Northwest Territories. Most people, 77 percent, live in urban areas.

Ottowa's January average high temperature is minus 7 degrees C, the average low is minus 16 C. It is the world's 2nd-coldest national capital in winter, after Moscow, which has an average January high of minus 9 and an average low of minus 16. Ottowa's July average high temperature is 27 degrees C, the average low is 14 C. November through January are the wetter months. Vancouver B.C.'s January average high temperature is 6 degrees C, the average low is 1 C. The July average high temperature is 21 degrees C, the average low is 13 C. November through January are the wetter months.

Some 40 percent of the people are British descendants, 27 percent are French, 20 percent are other Europeans, 1.5 percent are indigenous Indian or Eskimo, others are Asian, Latin American, or African. Some 46 percent are Roman Catholic, 16 percent are United Church, 10 percent are Anglican.

In the metropolitan area Toronto has 4.1 million, Montreal has 3.3 million, Vancouver has 1.7 million, Ottowa-Hull has 980,000, Edmonton has 900,000, Calgary has 820,000, Quebec has 680,000, and Winnipeg has 660,000 people.

Some 70 percent of Canada's manufacturing industry is owned by corporations in the U.S.A., including all of the automobile manufacturing. Nearly 80 percent of the oil and gas industry is owned by the U.S.A. Canada is a leading producer of nickel, copper, zinc, asbestos, molbdenum, and potash. Crude oil reserves are 5.1 billion barrels. There are 11.8 million cattle, 10.6 million pigs, and 660,000 sheep. The annual fish catch is 1.1 million metric tons. Some 75 percent of the exports of 134 billion dollars goes to the U.S.A., 9 percent to the European Union, and 5 percent to Japan. Some 69 percent of the imports of 125 billion dollars comes from the U.S. A., 8 percent comes from the European Union, and 5 percent comes from Japan. Thus, Canada has a 14 billion dollar favorable balance of payments with the U.S.A., its main trading partner. Inflation is around one percent and unemployment is around nine percent. The national debt at the beginning of calendar year 1997 was around 422 billion U.S.A. dollars, or 66 percent of the GDP. A high percentage of the debt is owned abroad.

The Constitution Act of 1982 incorporates the British North American Act of 1867. The constitution was approved by Britain and all provinces except Quebec. It provides that Canada is bilingual, English and French are official languages. Quebec passed a law in 1974 making French the official language, outside signs are only in French. Canada has the same king or queen as Britain, but Canada is not subordinate to Britain. It is a member of the British Commonwealth. The Governor General chooses the prime minister, who is the candidate of the majority party in the House of Commons (295 members, elected for 5 years). The Senate has 104 members, appointed for life. Each province has more authority, and the federal government has less authority, than states in the U.S.A. Each province has a premier and a cabinet. Canada's constitution seeks "Peace, order, and good government." The collective peace and security are important. In the U.S.A. some people interpret the constitution as emphasizing the rights of the individual, not the collective good. In 1995 a new law requires that all firearms, including rifles, be registered. Those who want a powerful weapon are usually considered to be "gun nuts."

A huge new territory, NUNAVUT, was carved recently out of Northwest Territories for the Native Peoples. It will have some 1,880,000 sq. km. (733,000 sq. mi.).

The Senate has 104 members, appointed for life. The 295 members of the House of Commons are elected. The Prime Minister is the leader of the majority party in the House. Elections can be called before 5 years is up.

Jean Chrétian, Liberal, has been Prime Minister since 1993. Brian Mulroney, Conservative, served 1984-1993. The New Democratics are also strong.

The Medical Services Act established, effective July 1968, a universal single-payer medical insurance plan. Costs are paid from sales taxes and general tax revenues. There was resistance at first in Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, and P.E.I. I was in three provinces, at different times, when physicians went on strike against being required to work only under the plan. However, disagreements have been resolved. The health plan is now the pride of Canadians. Physicians are pleased. Consumers get excellent care. The total cost is around 9 or 10 percent of the GDP. In the U.S. A., 44 million people are not covered by health care plans, yet the cost is 16 percent of the huge GDP. The universal single-payer plan, with the federal government distributing all payments to health care providers, has very low overhead, a tiny fraction of the administrative costs of plans in the U.S.A. Canada's health plan is not perfect, costs have risen, and some provinces have planned to charge a deductible and to limit coverage of some ailments. However, Canadians would not agree to cancel their medical plan. It is equal to similar plans throughout Europe, New Zealand, and in several Latin American countries. One of the main doubts about whether Canadians should ratify the NAFTA trade agreement with the U.S.A. in the late 1980s was whether it would weaken Canada's popular health plan.

Public primary schools have 6 or 7 years, junior high has 2 or 3, and high schools have 2 to 4 years, for a total of 12 years. In Ontario some students attend high school another year. There are two-year vocational or junior colleges, and many private and public universities.

QUEBEC has 15.5 percent of Canada's area and 25.5 percent of the people. Quebec is the capital.

NEW BRUNSWICK has 0.7 percent of Canada's area and 2.7 percent of the people. Fredricton is the capital.

NOVA SCOTIA has 0.5 percent of Canada's area and 3.3 percent of the people. Halifax is the capital.

NEWFOUNDLAND has 4.0 percent of Canada's area and 2.0 percent of the people. St. John's is the capital.

PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND has less than 0.1 percent of Canada's area and 0.5 percent of the people. Charlottetown is the capital.

ONTARIO has 10.7 percent of Canada's area and 38.2 percent of the people.

Toronto is the capital.

MANITOBA has 6.5 percent of Canada's area and 4.0 percent of the people.

Winnipeg is the capital.

SASKATCHEWAN has 6.5 percent of Canada's area and 3.5 percent of the people. Regina is the capital.

ALBERTA has 6.6 percent of Canada's area and 9.5 percent of the people.

Edmonton is the capital.

BRITISH COLUMBIA has 9.5 percent of Canada's area and 12.9 percent of the people. Victoria is the capital.

YUKON TERRITORY has 4.9 percent of Canada's area and 0.1 percent of the people. Whitehorse is the capital.

NORTHWEST TERRITORIES has 34.3 percent of Canada's area and 0.2 percent of the people. Yellowknife is the capital.

Quebec City, Plains of Abraham, where Britain's Wolf defeated France's Montcalm in 1755

TRAVELS, Summary: My wife and I completed three summer and one spring French "total immersion courses" at the University of Quebec in Chicoutimi, living with local families. We also completed a French total immersion summer course at Laval University, Quebec, living in dormitories. Each course was six weeks. The other students, our classmates, were "Anglophone" students at nearly all of Canada's English-speaking universities. They were in Quebec to improve their French--necessary to get a good job in a Canadian school, government, or corporation. My wife and I drove from the U.S.A.'s State of Washington to Quebec across Canada two times, and across the U.S.A. four times, in 1986, 1987, and 1988. [In 1990 we flew to and from Chicoutimi.] We have driven the entire Trans-Canada Highway, from Vancouver Island, B.C. to St John's, Newfoundland. In December 1995 we took the VIA Trans-Canada train from Toronto to Vancouver, B.C. In 1989 we drove from the State of Washington to Dawson Creek, then drove the Alcan Highway to Fairbanks and Anchorage, returning on the Alcan and Casiar highways. In July 1994 we flew to Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, and rented a car for two weeks of driving and hiking in the Yukon. We have also made other trips to B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan, Toronto, and Montreal.

Travels, Contents: 1. Quebec, French Schools, and side trips.

2. Driving the Trans-Canada Highway, Newfoundland to Vancouver Island, B.C., plus side trips.

3. Trans-Canada by Train

4. Driving from Washington State to Alaska via the Alcan and Casiar Highways, side trips in Yukon Territory.

1. Quebec, French Schools and Side Trips. In Rivière-du-Loup, Quebec, my wife and I left the Trans-Canada Highway, and took the ferry across the wide St. Lawrence River. It was more like a sea, 25 or 30 km. (16 to 19 mi.) across, hills on the north shore were faint in the distance. Big dolphin played with our boat, and we saw several whales. In Quebec road signs are only in French. In St. Simeon we left the ferry, driving north to the Petit Saguenay River and town with the same name. We got a room in the auberge, like a tourist home. The next morning we drove northwest, up the river valley, with evergreen and birch trees, and many blue lakes. Each town had brightly painted frame houses, with metal roofs, and one or two porches. There was a painted bien venu sign welcoming visitors, a statue of Christ, and an au revoir sign as we left the town. We passed the big bay on the wide Saguenay, the town of LA BAIE, with a sawmill, pulp mill, and ships. We crossed the Ha! Ha! River, arriving in CHICOUTIMI, population 70,000 on Canada Day, July 1, 1986.

We found the big building of the University of Quebec, met the friendly animateurs and animatrices (leaders), and registered for six weeks of classes, all in French. I had taken a course in conversational French and had traveled in France but I soon learned that I knew almost no French. Only two percent of the local people speak English, so one must learn French. After an exam I was placed in the debutante or beginners' class. All class discussion was in French. We had a bedroom in the apartment of a lady who was a gourmet cook. She spoke no English. The next year I told our teacher that the class understood only half of what she said during the first week. She said it was her first time to teach foreigners, she normally taught local française. She spoke no English. My wife had studied French a year longer than me, she was in the next class. We were soon into the routine: a continental breakfast at "home," four hours of class in French grammar, lunch at the cafeteria, paying with a meal ticket, an hour of afternoon class, then an hour of something special, such as singing folk songs, folk dances, or "conversation" in French. We usually returned home for dinner, but we had one evening a week of sports (volleyball, softball, or dance class), and a Friday evening social dance. We had homework and exams. Several hours a week we listened with earphones to French tapes, answering questions or repeating phrases. Most of the other students were English-speaking Canadians in their 20s, 75 or 80 percent were female. Several of the advanced students offered to tutor me evenings free, but I told them my wife was also at the school. I bought a Quebec or Montreal daily newspaper, reading articles and ads with an English-French dictionary handy. Beginning with the 3rd session I read French novels regularly. I made lists of words, separated by parts of speech or grammar. I continued the project for nine years of classes in French, Spanish, Italian, and German, until it became a book.

On our 2nd session in Chicoutimi we approached by a different route, turning north at TROIS-RIVIÈRES on Highway No. 155. We stopped in LA TUQUE, a big town with stone or brightly painted frame homes, painted metal roofs, and porches. A delightful movie was filmed there. We drove along the southeast shore of Lake St. Jean, then east to JONQUIÈRE. It has 75,000 or more people, a big hydroelectric dam on the Saguenay River, a pulp mill, and an aluminum mill. After getting a motel we walked two hours on the chilly curving streets of the pretty city.

The lady that we lived with during our first session was a gourmet cook. She baked a tortierie, a specialty in Quebec's Lake St. Jean area. It includes meat, onions, potatoes, and other vegetables. The wild bluets (blueberries) usually ripen in the first week of August. Local people rush to the woods to pick them. Our 2nd family was a friendly young retired couple. My wife and I had a nice basement room, with our own bath and TV. The lady was a good cook, and the husband made great salads with seven vegetables. Our room with the 3rd family was small and crowded, adjoining the TV, which was always left on all night. Entrances and exits were always at the rear door, where a pile of 20 or 30 shoes made walking difficult. Like many Quebecois and Europeans, we never wore street shoes in the house. The son was captain of the hockey team, he often arrived with the team and their heavy gear in the middle of the night, after a game. They had many relatives and friends from out of town, "crashing" anyplace, often staying for several days. The school offered to find another family for my wife and me, but everyone in our 3rd family were warm and friendly. We decided to stay. Their fresh milk was delivered in clear one-liter clear plastic bags. They didn't use napkins or wastebaskets, and had no books in the house. Our 4th family were also warm and friendly but they were well-educated, although they spoke no English. My wife and I had a room in the basement, another student lived in an adjoining room. I told the family that they had certain advantages: British diplomacy, French cooking, and American technology. He said "It isn't that way in Quebec. We have British cooking, French technology, and American diplomacy." We watched TV when we had time--a good way to learn a language. One practical program demonstrated how to put on and use a condom, but it would not be approved in a puritanical society, like the U.S.A. Each day I read the Press of Montreal, Le Devoir or Le Soleil of Quebec, or the Chicoutimi Quotodien.

The university staff was adept at making learning fun. We had spelling bees. Spelling French correctly is even more difficult than English, if in doubt, add an e or u. I represented my class three sessions in the evening quiz show competition. Our class often spent a few hours in a city park, playing sports or renting canoes. Logs blocked boats from the dangerous waterfall. One of our Friday evening soirees (parties) each session was a costume party in the big old stone pulp mill (la veille Pulperie). With only candle light, some of the staff, dressed as dungeon prisoners or castle ghosts, seemed realistic and scary. Another time they dressed as spiders, climbing on "webs" made with ropes, trapping some of the girls.

We usually had a weekly movie, in French. They included delightful Quebec movies, such as La guerre des tuques ("The War of the Woolen Caps," about boys in a town). Another was Crac, an animated film about how families entertained each other in the "Old Days." Mario is a warm but sad story about two brothers, one is mentally handicapped. He felt abandoned when his older brother found a girlfriend. Marie Chapdelaine is one of the America's best romantic novels (by Louis Hémon), made into a movie. It is about a Lake St. Jean girl of around 1900. Her fiancee, a logger, froze to death during a blizzard. Another movie, made in Montreal, was Anne Trister, a psychological study of two women. Les portes tournantes concerned a three-generation family of musicians.

Chicoutimi's Old Pulp Mill is now closed, it is a tourist attraction. It has slide shows on local history and frequent dramas in the evening. My wife and I saw plays in the Theater de L'Ete, or Summer Theater. A city park has chair lifts, in the winter two meters (7 ft.) of snow covers the ground. Most homes are one or two floors, modern, brick, with a porch and rocking chair, and mansard roof. Windows have three or four layers of glass to trap air during the cold winters. Many lawns have a three-person swing. Quebec fabricates concrete blocks and other products in beautiful artistic designs not available in most parts of the world. In summer part of Rue Racine, the main downtown street, is sometimes closed, and musicians entertain the crowds. Restaurants bring tables and chairs outside. Two large shopping malls are enclosed, popular during Canada's long winters, as well as in the summer. I could always walk along Rue Racine in the evening or weekends and meet at least one group of students that I knew. Quebec permits drinking alcohol at age 18, in other provinces it is age 21. Some young students, male and female, drank too much. Floods in the summer of 1996 did several hundred million dollars of damage in the Chicoutimi-Lake St. Jean area. Quebecois expect to get most of the flood relief money from Canada. If Quebec were a separate country there would be little money for flood relief.

The Quebecois, like northern Europeans, really enjoy warm summer days. I was surprised one day, returning from school, to see a young neighbor getting a sun tan all over, on the balcony of her apartment. She was hidden only by a wrought iron rail. Two students returned from high school, the girl sat on the bicycle handlebars, continuously kissing the boy, who was peddling.

Chicoutimi's Saguenay Museum has a great collection of local relics from the days of the voyageurs--fur trappers. We returned several times. Animal traps, a canoe made of birch bark with seams sealed with fir resin, furs, models of homes of local Huron and Algonkian Indians (a round dome, made of saplings), log cabins of the voyageurs, and 19th Century furniture are displayed. The museum has the skeleton of Alexis Trottier, 1860-1924, long distance runner. A tall man, he is said to have liked lonely wives, he often had to outrun outraged husbands.

A local barber, Arthur Villenueve, painted "primitive" pictures of local buildings, hills and rivers, plus airplanes, dragons, people and animals. The bright oil paintings are on the outside and inside walls and ceilings, upstairs and downstairs, of his modest frame home. Soon he was painting "primitive" oil paintings on canvas. A small painting began to sell for several hundred dollars each, so he stopped cutting hair and painted more. We visited his home several times, he always seemed to enjoy explaining what some of the paintings meant. He died around 1990.

Local cars and motorcycles often had no muffler. Quebecoise have a well earned reputation for being wild and careless drivers. In Sunday traffic a car sometimes passed a string of vehicles, oncoming cars with the right-of-way had the choice of suicide or going onto the shoulder or into the ditch. One Sunday afternoon two cars passed me in "no passing" zones, going double the speed limit. The same afternoon I went onto the shoulder two times to avoid a head-on collision with a passing vehicle. Some drivers ignored stop signs, as in France. Other drivers like to straddle the yellow line. The son of one of the families we lived with was a high officer in the police department. He said common traffic offenses were failure to stop at a stop sign or red light, and driving too fast. Chicoutimi, with 70,000 people, had more than 4,000 traffic accidents each year. The Canadian government, in efforts to reduce accidents, built Le Village de Securité Routiere near Chicoutimi. It was like a town, with streets, buildings, traffic signs and light, and small cars for children to drive, learning safety practices. We rode the "car" down an incline, crashing into a wall at only 10 km. (6 mi.) per hour. There was considerable pull on the shoulder and seat belt, especially around the belly. Our school's cafeteria had clearly marked smoking and no smoking sections. The Quebecois often smoked near a "no smoking" sign, though there were many empty seats in the smoking area. They have many traits, good and bad, similar to the French.

Several hours a week we performed Quebecois dances. Typical were the farandole (a chain--follow the leader), a contre-dance, Brandy boum (bumping hips together), the mouche (swatting flies, to the tune of Them were the Good Old Days), and the Petite Char (cart) de Jonquière. Another dance was la Bastringue or Bostraane, named after the popular song. We often accompanied songs with music made by clacking the cup of two spoons together or against our legs.

Near the end of each session we had a "Quebecois party." Each male wore jeans, checkered shirt, and red bandana around the neck, like an Old-Time local logger. The girls wore old-fashioned long dresses. The 300 or so students were divided into five or six large families, each with a common Quebecois surname: Trembley, Lavoir, Simard, Bolvin, Gagnard, and Bouchard. A père and mère (papa and mama) was selected for each family. Three times my wife and I were in the same big family and were selected as the papa and mama. The first contest was to see which papa could saw through a log 25 cm. (10 in.) in diameter the fastest. I won the first time, having sawed many logs as a farm boy. The mamas were then lined up to see which could hang the fastest a basket full of clothes on a line, using clothespins. One of the 40 or so girls in our family was chosen as our "daughter." We were to listen to proposals of marriage from a young man in each of the other four or five families. Many of the young suitors targeted our daughter, not knowing that the parents made the choice, not the daughter. The suitor who made promises to the parents got the girl. Next, the five mamas had a contest to see which could "milk the cow" fastest. The cows' teats were baloons filled with water. Men and some girls entered the contest to see who could drink a bottle of beer the fastest, putting the empty bottle upside-down on the head. The last two hours of the party was old Québécois dances, to the music of fiddles, Jews harps, and piano. Our talented dance teacher each session danced an Irish jig with a cup of water on his head. Some of our dances were like country square dances, one was a long circling farandole, like a snake, others were waltzes or folk dances. In some dances, when the music suddenly stopped each girl raced to find a man's lap to sit on, the losers had to drop out.

Each six-weeks session my class made at least two all-day picnic excursions, usually to Simon Couche, sometimes to Bec Sci or Village Vacances-Famille de Petit Saguenay. We played "get acquainted" and group games, volleyball, and had canoe races in the blue lake. The four sections of our class competed. The couple in the leading canoe were often upset into the water by students whose section was behind. Sometimes we put on swim suits and played in the shallow water. In the late afternoon we cooked hot dogs and marshmallows over a bonfire. Mosquito repellant kept away most of the little black flies and mosquitoes.

Near the end of each session we had evening sports competitions between the five or six classes in the gym. They included (1) walking on the hands like a wheelbarrow, one student carrying the legs, to bob for an apple, and return (2) a student pushed another in a grocery cart, around the track, (3) walking fast with a leg tied to the leg of another student, (4) jumping while legs are in a jute or burlap bag, and (5) putting on and taking off three outer garments, and picking up a clothespin with the teeth.

One evening in June 1990 we rode in yellow school buses to the town of La Baie to see the spectacle La fabuleuse histoire d'un royaume (The Fabulous History of A Kingdom). In a large auditorium, the magnificent huge stage included a river and hills, and a cast of more than 200 men, women, and children, mostly local, all wearing appropriate costumes. There was music and dancing. It began with Indians and wigwams, then early explorers and fur trappers in birch bark canoes. The French-Indian-English wars of the 1750s were shown, early settlers in log or plank buildings, and the boucherons (loggers). The "Big Fire" of 1870 burned forests, farms, and towns in a huge area near Lake St. Jean and Chicoutimi. Next, farmers, a one-room school, planters, horses and wagons, and a stagecoach arrived. World War I, early cars, men and women dancing the Charleston, the Great Depression, World War II, later prosperity, and the local Winter Carnival were realistically shown. The recorded music, in French, was easy to understand during the three hours thirty minutes program. Our school's director, Msr. Bouchard, won prizes for writing the script.

During each of the four class sessions we made a long day trip in school buses, going west around big LAKE ST. JEAN, some 40 km. (25 mi.) long. We always visited VAL JALBERT, a ghost town with the ruins of a pulp mill by the waterfall. It closed in 1927. Scores of big empty frame duplexes are eerie, we could imagine the big family that ate, slept, worked, and played in each house. The homes had no insulation or interior lining, they must have been cold when it was 40 below outside. We stopped two hours or more at the beach at POINTE BLUE. The girls put on bikinis, trying to get a little tan from the weak sun. The macho youths threw some of the girls into the cold water. Each summer the world's best swimmers compete for the 64 km. (40 mi.) round-trip swim across cold Lac St. Jean. ST. FELICIEN has one of Eastern Canada's best zoos. A little train with caged passengers takes visitors past caribou, moose, elk, deer, badger, bison, a bear and cub, wolves, prairie dogs, and other North Woods wildlife, running loose in a large area, plus elephants, lions, gorillas, seals, and birds elsewhere. There is a realistic Indian village with wigwams, and a fur trader's log cabin, with birch bark canoes. An old farmstead has a log cabin with front porch, barn, and a well. A logging village had a dormitory for the loggers, kitchen and dining area, and a building with logging and farming equipment.

When my wife and I returned from a two week vacation in the Atlantic Provinces between the end of a spring session and the beginning of a summer session, we took the ferry from Trois Pistoles, across the wide St. Lawrence River to Les Escoumins. We found delicious oysters and homards (lobsters) in the little restaurants. We drove northwest from TADOUSSAC, through the hills with spruce and birch trees, blue rivers with salmon and trout, and signs warning of moose. Some fir and spruce had turned brown from acid rains. Some of the pretty blue lakes were sterile, empty of fish. Each town near Lake St. Jean is picturesque, with a big Catholic Church. ALBANEL, west of the lake, is the farming center of the gourgan or bean industry. DOLBEAU has an annual Western rodeo. POINTE BLEUE has the Amerindian Museum, with artifacts showing how local Montagnais Indians lived, how they captured animals, prepared the skins, decorated and used the hides, and what they ate. MISTASSINI has the August blueberry festival. PERIBONKA is the start and finish of the great 64 km. (40 mi.) traverse swim across the lake. It has the Louis Hemon Museum, honoring the author of Marie Chapdelaine. Hemon worked on the Bedard farm, with the museum. Many paintings show scenes from the novel. The Bedard farm had an outside oven, storage bin, outhouse, and horsedrawn plows, potato planter, cultivator, mower, rake, and other implements. Exhibits at the museum include a trapper's cabin, a logging village with dormitory and cookhouse, a trapper's cabin, and more, all connected with board sidewalks. We continued to the Pointe-Taillon Conservation Park, on the north shore of Lake St. Jean. The beach was crowded, air temperature was 27 C, water was 18 C. We hiked on, coming to the nude beach. Some 100 young nude men and women lay in the sun. A group played volleyball. A park ranger sat, scrutinizing the nudists thoroughly, near a sign that read in French "Public Nudity Is A Criminal Offense." One attractive talented young woman played volleyball, bouncing around. I also sat awhile, to help the ranger study the criminals.

On the last evening of each session each section of each class put on a "skit," a short drama. We also had songs by the choral group, dances by the dance group, and individual singers and musicians. Some were very talented, including a classmate who sang with the Canadian Opera and a pretty Irish girl who specialized in dancing the jig. When diplomas were handed out the animateur/animatrice kissed each student, Quebécois/French style, on the cheek or lips. I was always busy saying goodbye to my many friends, in a similar manner.

We visited the "International Air show" at nearby large Bagotville Airport. Military planes of Canada and the U.S.A. could be inspected. They included the black B1 bomber, CF18 Hornets, helicopters, F15 Eagles, F16 Tomcats, British Tornados, and a huge C5 Galaxy cargo plane. Helicopters near us demonstrated stopping in the air, going sideways, and backwards. The CF18s flew at Mach 1.5 not far away (1.5 times the speed of sound), making a boooom long after the plane passed. The F15s and F16 flew low near us, sometimes flying straight up at great speed. A twin-engine firefighting plane dumped water not far from the spectators. Pilots in four Holiday Inn Pitts Special 2s did many acrobatics, often in formation. They did inside loops, snap and slow rolls, spins, tail slides, and falling leafs. Ten years earlier I took a course in acrobatic flying in a Citabria, doing many inside loops, snap and slow rolls, plus spins, but I would never try a tail slide, it requires perfect timing and is dangerous at the low alititude they flew. The British Tornado demonstrated flight faster than sound (it is claimed to fly at Mach 2.6), then it stopped in mid-air, turned around, backed up, then darted away, soon accelerating to faster than sound! The famous Canadian Snowbirds did precision formation and acrobatic flying, including sunbursts and difficult outside loops. They put on a great show.

Another excursion with students was a hike in Saguenay Conservation Park, uphill 4 km. (2.4 mi.) to Cap Trinité. In 1881 a bronze statue of Mary, 9 m. (30 ft.) high was erected on the hill some 365 m. (1,197 ft.) above the wide river. The Saguenay is called "Eastern North America's only fiord." Another hike began near L'Anse-St. Jean, which has a covered bridge, practical to keep ice and snow off of the roadway. We climbed Mt. Blanc, 610 m. (2,000 ft.) above the Saguenay River, providing great views of the fiord. We made several hikes in the area with students, including the "long randonnée," 20 km. (12 mi.) roundtrip.

We made a trip with our first "family" to Sainte Rose Du Nord, a quaint tourist town in the Saguenay Conservation Park. The private nature museum has many stuffed local animals: bear, beaver, marmot, fox, lynx, and hare. It has tree burls, lichens, mushrooms, and stuffed dolphin three or four meters long, from the river. The Caisse Popular is a bank not much larger than an outhouse. The little Presbyterian Church has attractive varnished wood benches. One chapel, the "oldest wood church in Canada," was built by Jesuits in 1747. During three sessions our school chartered a boat, the Marjolaine II or the C.S. Meridien for an all-day excursion from a dock in Chicoutimi, southeast on the Saguenay fiord, which National Geographic has called "the most beautiful river in Eastern North America." At Cap Trinité, with the big statue on the hill, we turned around. We stopped in the village of Ste. Rose du Nord for two hours.

I took a carload of students for a day excursion in the hilly CHARLEVOIX region above the St. Lawrence. The road is sometimes at the water's edge, then 400 m. (1,312 ft.) above it. St. Simeon has a nature center at Les Pallisades. One of the trails has labels with the name of plants. The epinette noir (black spruce), like some people, looks dead when it is probably alive. There are many sugar maples.

With several other students, we drove southeast to TADOUSSAC, and a trip of a few hours on the St. Lawrence River on La Chance III. On one trip the captain's black dog barked each time it saw a whale. Little local girls interrupted their singing and game of hand-clapping together, to excitedly call Baleine! Baleine! A naturalist aboard explained in French the habits of whales. We saw black fin whales up to 25 m. (82 ft.) long and white belugas more than 3 m. (10 ft.) long. We didn't see any humpbacks that day, but we saw them on other trips.

Each of our four sessions of six weeks included a weekend in QUEBEC, with more than 500,000 people, including suburbs. In six or eight yellow school buses we rode nearly three hours south, through the Lauentides Forest and the Jacques Cartier Conservation Park, named after the first European explorer in the area, in 1534. On our 2nd trip, when returning Sunday evening, a fresh mudslide in a heavy rain blocked Highway No. 175. We had to return to Quebec and go north on Highway No. 381, delaying us 8 hours. On our 4th trip we stopped to eat picnic lunches near Quebec at Chutes (Waterfalls) Montmorency. Each visit we stayed in Moraud Dormitory or Pavillon Moreau, of Laval University, in Sainte-Foy, a suburb 12 km. (7 mi.) west of the Old City. We divided ourselves up into pairs for each dorm room. Several times girls proposed that we share a room but I said my wife had made the request first. We shared rooms with toilets and baths. A sign should have been posted, either men or women. However, they were often not posted. There were far more girls than men. The toilets were in stalls, occasionally I discovered that my neighbor in the next stall was a girl. I found girls in the mens' shower several times. Once I arrived for a shower, but M--- in another section of my class, was there first. She looked much better nude than in her usual jeans and baggy blouse. I politely suggested that the women's shower was down the hall. She said in French "No problem. We can share."

We visited the aquarium. Next was the Museum of Quebec, with sculpture, paintings, photographs, and religious art. Most of the paintings are 19th and 20th centuries. We walked across the Champs de bataille or Plains of Abraham, in the National Battlefields Park, where the British Wolfe and French Montcalm and their armies fought in 1759 for the control of Canada. The park has several round stone towers for defense. The big citadel or fort is mostly underground, protected by a moat. It was built by British in 1825, and in the late 1980s was still used as a military base for 3,000 soldiers. The museum has uniforms, swords, rifles, and pistols used during 200 years. With a guide, we walked through a damp tunnel through stone walls 16 m. (52 ft.) thick to look at the ramparts and angled view holes.

Quebec's Centre Ville or downtown is North America's only walled city. Everyone must enter or leave at one of the old city gates. Streets are narrow, but much of the cobblestone has been paved. There are many tourists and shops. One girl about 20 wore a Tee shirt reading "The best bang since the big one." Is that false advertizing? Many of the small and medium-size restaurants are equal to those in France. The large stone Château-Frontenac has been remodeled into a nice hotel. The Place d' Armes has a monument to Samuel de Champlain (1567-1635), who explored much of the St. Lawrence and upper New York. In summer, street musicians, jugglers, unicycle riders, and others entertain visitors. Laval University's Geology School has a museum with many rocks and other exhibits. We always boarded school buses at the Quebec Parliament building for the return Sunday evening to Chicoutimi. We took a tour of Quebec's Parliament Building. The National Assembly meets in beautiful rooms. There are paintings and statues of explorers Samuel de Champlain, Louis Joliet (1645-1700), Jacques Marquette 1637-1675), and many more Quebec heroes.

The Museum of the Fort has a model of the Quebec area, and small lights to show the place of 18th Century battles, with a synchronized sound description in French of the battles. In Place Royal, down by the river, the "400 Years of Quebec History" tourist center has good exhibits on Old Quebec and Canada's Indians. The Seminary Museum has four floors of exhibits: paintings, religious crosses, incense burners, an Egyptian mummy, and old models to demonstrate the laws of physics. The Museum of Civilization, on the first floor, had exhibits of furniture and equipment from local homes. Horses wore round snowhoes, each some 30 cm. (12 in.) in diameter. An exhibit showing life in winter has big boats used like lifeboats, a fully equipped hut for fishing through a hole in the ice, including a small woodburning stove, but if the stove were too hot it might melt the ice and the fisherman would get a let-down feeling. Velocipedes (bicycles) in the 1890s had steel spikes in the wheels, for riding on ice.

Quebec's Wax Museum, on the 3rd floor, shows a realistic Madame Curie discovering radioactivity in Paris (she and her husband Pierre won the 1903 Nobel prize for physics), Louis Pasteur, Alexis Carrel the runner, and two meetings in Quebec's fort during World War II of Churchill, Roosevelt, and Canada's Prime Minister MacKenzie King. Henry Ford is shown working with the Edison Iluminating Company, where he was chief engineer beginning in 1890. The 2nd floor shows the signing of the Mayflower Compact, with Miles Standish and others of the Plymouth Colony. Another scene shows Mademoiselle De Vercher defending their cabin, shooting raiding Iroquois. Dollard is shown leading 16 French who killed 300 Iroquois in 1660. The meeting in Versailles in 1775 when Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, and Lafayette promised aid to Ben Franklin and the American Colonies, is shown. Franklin opposed another attempt to recapture Quebec from the British. During the Battle of Yorktown the meeting of George Washington, Rochambeau, and Hamilton is shown. The first floor shows Columbus meeting in Granada with Queen Isabella after the recent defeat of the Moors, and Columbus' ship Santa Maria.

My wife and I took a bus to Salle Albert-Rosseau in a cegep (junior college) to see the Arpage Vocal Group, Quebecois songs and traditional dances. They also did "Flashbacks" to their performances in 1958, 1964, 1967, 1971, and 1979. The 1967 performance featured rock music and miniskirts. In 1971 hippies with "love" and "peace" signs were featured. The next year, 1988, we saw Ornifle ou le courant d'air in the Sainte-Foy cegep. Written by Jean Anouilh, a French playwright, it is based somewhat upon Don Juan.

My wife and I also attended a six weeks French "total immersion" course at Laval Univerity in Quebec (City). It is larger, more formal, and less fun than Chicoutimi. I was in one dormitory, my wife was in another, across the big campus. A network of underground tunnels connects buildings, handy in winter or bad weather. I drove from Washington State and met my wife in Montreal, flying direct from her job in Pakistan. Quebec is an area with many tourists, so many local people respond in English when someone speaks French with an English accent. I later attended schools in France. The Chicoutimi accent is close to the French, but it is archaic, like Old French. Many people in Montreal and the Gaspé penninsula have a strong accent. Other students in my Quebec class included a pretty but naive Japanese university student. Once when our warm woman teacher suddenly hugged and kissed the Japanese girl on both cheeks, Quebecois style, the girl was astonished. Japanese don't readily accept bodily contact except from close friends in private. Near downtown, I found a used bookstore with a great supply of inexpensive novels, encyclopedias, and other books in French, and half-filled the car.

In a big bus my class went on an excursion to the Charlevoix Region, some 180 km. (112 mi.) northeast. In the picturesque village of BAIE ST. PAUL we stopped at the Centre d'art (Art Center) to look at paintings and tapestries by Rene Richard and other local artists. We took a big ferry on the wide St. Lawrence to the ISLE AUX COUDRES (island with a special kind of bush). We visited several artisans' shops, ate a nice lunch in an auberge, then we toured the island. The St. Louis Church was rebuilt in 1885. We saw several restored ancient goelette sailboats, then "Weeping Rock," a windmill built in 1618 with a stone base, and the place where Jacques Cartier landed in 1535.

In another bus excursion we rode south some 65 or 70 km. (41 to 44 mi.) along the Chaudière River to the BEAUCE REGION. Most of the older buildings are Normandie style (with a roof on all four sides), or Bretonne (with a roof on only two sides), Quebecoise (two or three floors, often with dormer windows), Anglo-Normandie (usually two floors, with dormer windows, and a porch in front), or Mansarde (with the roof including part of the upper walls, like many in Paris). Many locally made single-wide mobile homes are Mansarde-style. Colors are usually neutral, often white, not bright, like the Chicoutimi-Lake St. Jean region. We passed dairy farms, corn, potatoes, low hills, wide valleys, and clumps of maple trees. In ST. JOSEPH

we stopped at the Marius Barbeau Museum. It has old artifacts from the maple sugar and dairy farms, including wooden molds, a blacksmith's forge, a sleigh used by a physician in winter, and wooden pill boxes, all made locally. Displays show the great damage done to maple trees by acid rain "mostly from the States." Some 75 percent of the world's maple sugar comes from Quebec, the Beauce Region. Most of the rest comes from nearby Ontario, Vermont, and Maine. At the Deer Farm we watched them awhile, behind a high fence. Our nice lunch in BEAUCEVILLE at Au parc de l' Erable (Maple Sugar Park) had maple sirup poured over the potatoes, ham, and beans. Dessert was crepes with maple sirup. The farm has metal taps 2 or 3 cm. (an in.) deep in the trunk of maple trees, hooked up to black plastic pipes in the air. The sap or juice flows into a big vat. A wood fire boils it, making a gallon (3.85 L.) of sirup from 40 gallons of sap. It was in July. The manager brought "snow" (ice chips) from a refrigerator and poured maple sirup onto it. It is a popular delicacy for children of all ages. Leaving, we rode on the "Route du President Kennedy" southeast to the Pointe Couverte de Notre Dame de Pins, Quebec's largest covered bridge, 154.5 m. (507 ft.) long.

Another school excursion on July 26 was some 40 km. (24 mi.) east late one afternoon to STE. ANNE DE BEUPRE, a picturesque village popular with retired people. Each July 26 the large modern Catholic Church has a religious festival. There was a big crowd, including gypsies and Indians. The church has beautiful stained gass windows and furnishings. Another excursion by our class was to Chute Montmorency, with a lot of water falling, and a drop of 83 m. (272 ft.), 1.5 times the height of Niagara Falls. A dead pig floated in the whirlpool below the falls. How did it get trapped in the river? After a picnic lunch and games we returned to the university.

One weekend my wife and I drove 145 km. (90 mi.) northeast to stay with friends living in LA POCATIERE, Quebec. With our friends, we visited a nearby village with a river, used in the summer to float logs to a sawmill. From a hill with a ski jump, behind the town, we had a great view, north to the St. Lawrence and the Laurentide hills on the far side. We rode another 20 km. (12 mi.) northeast to the village of KAMOURASKA, made famous as the setting for Ann Hebert's sad novel Kamouraska. In areas with a bitter cold climate, why are so many novels sad?

I drove my wife and several students northeast to the ILE D'ORLEANS, crossing half of the St. Lawrence on a high bridge. I drove all around the picturesque island, some 25 km. (15 mi.) long. We bought fresh ripe raspberries and strawberries at roadside stands, washing them at a faucet, eating them like candy. St. Petronille was British headquarters in the late 1750s when British bombarded Quebec with ships' cannon. St. Laurent was the home of sea captains. In St. Jean we stopped to see the Manoir Maurvide-Genest, now a museum. Built in 1734, it has two floors of rough wood planks, fireplaces, upstairs bedrooms, a basement-cellar, and a chapel used by family and friends. Antique furnishings include pull toy animals and large wooden blocks. In the village of St. Francis the interior of the large stone church, built in 1734, had recently burned. In Ste. Famille we stopped to look at the large stone church, built 1743-1748, with three towers. After dinner of tortiére (meat-potatoes-vegetables pie) we returned to St. Jean and the Theatre Paul Hebert, to see Shaw's Pymalion, in French. It was well done, Hebert was one of the actors.

During the 11 day summer festival in July we enjoyed the free entertainment in Quebec's Centre Ville (old walled city). We also liked the many little restaurants, a good respite from university cafeteria food. We had several summer lightening storms with hard rain. The coeds sunning topless in bikinis below my window ran for shelter.

In each of our school sessions at the University of Quebec there was much discussion about whether Quebec should separate from Canada. Some of the teachers and other staff were for separating, some wanted to stay in Canada. We were shown a movie, La Confort et la Difference, about the 1979 referendum, which decided that Canada should not secede. My opinion is that it would be a disaster for the Atlantic Provinces and the rest of Canada, especially Quebec, if it should secede. Everyone is better off with Quebec in the confederation. Quebec certainly is "distinct" from the rest of Canada. It is not necessarily better or worse, but it is certainly different. Newfoundland is said to have voted against the Lake Meech proposals because Newfoundland was "cheated" by Quebec in negotiations over sharing costs and income of the huge hydroelectric project. Manitoba is said to have voted against the proposal because its Indians wanted to also be declared a "distinct society." In the 1995 referendum some 95 percent of Quebec's Allophones (Anglophones and immigrants) are said to have voted for Quebec to remain in Canada, while 60 percent of the Francaphones voted for independence. If Quebec should, in another referendum, vote for independence it is likely that all or the western half of Montreal, plus the Native Peoples (Indians) in Quebec would secede from Quebec. The result would be a bigger mess than it is today. Countries with two official languages, such as Canada and Belgium, have many additional problems. It is a great waste in Western Canada, where few people are native French speakers, to require that all notices and signs be in two languages. While French is a beautiful language, it usually requires 25 or 30 percent more space to convey a message in French than in English.

Other routes we drove in Quebec included a trip around the Gaspé Penninsula, and return across the middle of the Gaspé, in 1987. We took the ferry at St. Siméon across the wide St. Lawrence to Rivière-du-Loup, then drove east on Highway No. 132. Rimouski is a big town with a branch of the University of Quebec. We passed dairy farms with big barns and silos, and brightly painted two-story homes with dormer windows and a porch. In LES MÉCHINS we found a motel with a vacancy, and ate local lobster. The next day we continued east along the shore. The river, more like a sea, is too wide to see the far shore, even on a clear day. In STE. ANNE-DES-MOTS at headquarters for the GASPÉ NATIONAL PARK we watched a slide show program, and they made reservations for us in an auberge near the center of the park. We drove southeast, stopping at a depanneur or convenience store, for food supplies. We drove up a river valley in high forested hills to the auberge. Nearby we saw three caribou. After leaving our bags in the auberge we hiked in light rain 6 km. (3.6 mi.) up the trail to Mt. Albert Nord, from elevation about 100 m. (328 ft.) to the summit, 1,083 m. (3,552 ft.). The rocky trail had both granite and sedimentary rocks. The weather improved, we had a good view. A black pheasant with a red comb tried to lead us away from her nest. We saw tracks of both moose and caribou. We hiked through a snow bank, arctic tundra, and bushes, we were above timberline.

The next day we drove north to the shore, then east all day on Highway No. 132. We passed many villages, each with a big Catholic Church and brightly painted homes of local fishermen and "weekenders." In MARSONI we ate a nice snack, in MONT-ST.-PIERRE we stopped to look at a hatchery for Atlantic salmon. In GRAND-ALLÉE we drove across a covered bridge, and near CLORIDORME we ate a picnic lunch at tables on the shore in the cool wind. In LA-ANSE-À-VALLEAU we looked at the big yellow frame Manoir Le Boutiller, a mansion built for owners of a fishing company. In RIVIÉRE-AU-RENARD, entrance to the FORILLON NATIONAL PARK, we stopped for information. We got a room in a motel not far away, in CAPAUXOS, named after whalebones that were found nearby. We took a short hike in the park, seeing a bear cub. We warily looked, unsuccessfully, for its "big mama."

The next day we continued south, passing the big town of GASPÉ. The blue sea was nearly always in sight, below high cliffs and villages, some had racks of fish drying. Jacques Cartier stopped at Indian Head Rock, in the sea, in 1534. The soil became redder. In PERCÉ we took a boat to see the big PERCÉ ROCK in the sea. It is limestone, 85 m. (279 ft.) high, nearly a kilometer long, with a big hole nearly 20 m. (66 ft.) wide. Our boat continued around BONAVENTURE ISLAND. In the high cliffs we saw nests of thousands of cormorants, gannets, gulls, puffins, razorbills, kittiwakes, and other sea birds. We got off at the dock, ate a picnic lunch, and walked through a forest 3 km. to the far end. For more than an hour we watched the thousands of white gannets with light-yellow heads and black wingtips, in the crowded nesting area a few meters away, across a low fence. Each bird, about 40 cm. (16 in.) long, stood as tall as it could, then noisily told the other birds at least once an hour "this is my territory." Gannets often landed, soaring low, listening for the sound of its mate at the nest, then they rubbed bills and necks. At least every hour each bird pecked at the nearby birds, frequently stealing the grass and feathers from nearby nests, in all directions. I saw the stealing of one clump of grass and feathers by six birds, until it came back to the bird that had it when I first arrived. Younger birds, low in the pecking order, had a nest near the edge, where gulls often stole the egg to eat. There were a few black chicks. A bird leaves the nest, one at a time, to dive for fish. A park ranger explained to me in French the life of the birds. They reminded me of people, nice when they are alone, but thieves in a crowded city. We took a boat to shore, then drove south, getting a room at the Hotel Bonaventure, on the sea. The next day we drove west along the south shore of the Gaspé Penninsula, then crossed a bridge at Campbelltown, into New Brunswick.

We returned a week later to Campbelltown, then drove northwest on Highway No. 132, along the Matapedia River. There were few houses in the forested valley. In AMQUI we began to see the brightly painted houses, with porches, rocking chairs, and lawn swings, common in northern Quebec. Each town has a bien venu (welcome) sign, Catholic Church, municipal camping grounds, and au revoir sign. Soon the forests and sawmills changed to dairy farms, with hay and strawberries. In STE FLAVIE we got a room in a motel across from the "sea," then left to eat local homard (lobster). Our salad of croise de violon (fern tips) was delicious. The next day we took a ferry across the wide St. Lawrence, returning for the summer session of school in Chicoutimi.

[Excerpt, P. 285-302]

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Population 266 million (0.7 % per year natural increase); area 9,565,000 sq. km. (3,679,000 sq. mi.) including Alaska, Hawaii, the other 48 states, and the District of Columbia; GDP $7.25 trillion; average income $27,610; literacy rate 96% (For Hawaii see Pacific)

HISTORY. (See Mexico and Canada) When Columbus arrived in the Americas in 1492 there were around 350,000 Indians ("Native Americans") living in what is now the U.S.A. In the Northeast there were the Iroquois (Mohawk, Oneida, Nondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca), Penobscot, Massachusetts, Algonkian, Mohican, Delaware, Powhatan, and Erie. South of the Great Lakes the Fox, Sauk, Miami, Winnebago, and Kickapoo lived. The Southeast had the Apalachee, Alabamu, Natchez, and Caddo, plus the "5 Civilized Tribes"--Creek, Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Seminole. Prairie Indians of the Midwest were Wichita, Kansa, Missouri, Osage, Shawnee, Illinois, Ioway, Pawnee, Omaha, Ponca, and Mandan. Western Plains had the Commanche, Blackfeet, Crow, Teton Sioux, Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Kiowa. Sioux were also called Dakotas.

In the Southwest there were Papago, Pima, Apache, Pueblos, Zuñi, Navajo, and Hopi. The Great Basin of Utah and Nevada included Ute, Southern Paiute, Bannnock, and Shoshoni. California had Modoc, Yurok, Karok, Hupa, Maidu, and Mission. Northwest plateau Indians were the Yakima, Klickitat, Nez Percé, Flathead, Lillooet, and Shuswap. On the Northwest Coast the Tlingit, Tsimshian, Kwakiutl, Makah, Quileute, and Coast Salish lived. The above is not a complete list, there were many smaller tribes.

Each tribe had adapted to the environment. Some agricultural tribes lived in fixed villages or small cities. Hunters and food gatherers tended to settle more sparsely. Most tribes that lived mostly on fish were also sparsely settled. Many tribes migrated in the late spring, in the fall they returned to their winter home. There was a great variation in the way they lived. Horses in North America died more than 7,000 years ago. The Spanish brought the horse to North America, and many plains tribes and others quickly learned how to use the horse.

In 1513 Ponce De Leon, who may have sailed with Columbus on his 2nd voyage, explored Florida in 1513, looking for the "Fountain of Youth" or gold. When he returned in 1521 he was killed by Indians. Hernando De Soto had helped Spain's Pizarro conquer Peru. In 1539 he led a group of explorers from Florida's west coast, looking for gold, going north to Tennesse and west to the Mississippi River, finding only hostile Indians and malaria, he died in 1542. His men explored up the Arkansas River to perhaps the Oklahoma border before returning down the Mississippi River. They had been nearly killed by Indians near today's Mobile, Alabama. Francisco Vásquez de Coronado led a big group of men from Mexico east to Kansas and west to California, 1540-1542, without finding gold. Spanish founded St. Augustine, Florida and built a fort, in 1565. The British Sir Francis Drake attacked it in 1586.

In 1587 Sir Walter Raleigh established a colony of 117 men, women, and children in Virginia, but all disappeared by the next year, killed by Indians or starvation. Raleigh was thrown into the Tower of London by the new King James I in 1603 and kept in prison for 12 years, suspected of treason. In 1607 the British established a "permanent" settlement at Jamestown, Virginia. The colony grew tobacco to sell to Europe, and soon made many European men tobacco addicts. In 1609 Indians planned to kill Captain John Smith, but an Indian maid, Pocahontas, pleaded for his life. She married a colonist, John Rolfe and went to England, but soon died of smallpox. Colonists died at an alarming rate, from malaria, poor diet, tobacco, or Indians.

The French Samuel de Champlain settled Quebec in 1608 and explored part of modern New England and northern New York in 1609-1610. French established a chain of posts to collect furs around the Great Lakes. Spanish from Mexico founded Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1610. Louis Joliet and Jesuit Father Marquette went down the Mississippi River in 1673, to today's boundary between Arkansas and Louisiana. Fearing the Spanish near the Gulf of Mexico, they turned around. In 1682 another Frenchman, Robert de La Salle, a fur trader, went down the Mississippi River to its mouth, claiming the interior for France, naming it Louisiana. He quarreled with nearly everyone and was not popular in France, but France claimed the big interior of North America based upon his exploration. His men killed La Salle. In 1620 Calvanists (Puritans) in England, who were persecuted at home, sailed on the Mayflower for New England. They landed on Cape Cod, decided that the soil was poor, and landed at Plymouth, south of modern Boston, on December 26, 1620. At sea they drafted and signed the Mayflower Compact for self-government, agreeing to follow the vote of the majority, then a new idea. Headquarters was set up in the colony, not in England. During the first cold winter and for spring planting friendly Indians helped. The next fall the Pilgrims gave thanks for the harvest, establishing Thanksgiving.

In September, 1609 Henry Hudson, working for the Dutch, landed at New York Bay, and traded with Indians to buy Manhatten. He sailed far up the Hudson River, got the Indian chiefs drunk, and traded for furs. The Dutch East India Company encouraged many more Dutch settlers in "New Amsterdam" and "New Netherlands." In 1640 the British took New Amsterdam, changing its name to New York. In 1681 William Penn, a Quaker, was given a grant to establish a colony in what is now Pennsylvania, in payment of a debt the king owed to Penn's father. Colonists included German Lutherans, still suffering after the Thirty Years War, French Hugenots (Protestants) who had survived being killed in France, and other religious dissenters. English colonists moved in large numbers to Connecticut, then Rhode Island, and other parts of "New England." By 1733 the 13th and last English colony, Georgia, had been settled. Some of the colonies, especially in the north, were truly democratic, using town meetings to get a majority consensus. The colonies, all near the Atlantic, from north to south, were: New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. In 1776 some 2.5 million "law abiding smugglers" lived in the 13 colonies.

The colonies prospered, becoming almost self-sustaining, despite Britain's discouragement of manufacturing in the colonies. In 1763 the King of England's proclamation forbade westward expansion into Indian territory. Britain took several steps to control trade of the colonies, and to increase their taxes. Britain's Townshend Act of 1767 put taxes on many goods coming into the colonies. After objections all taxes were repealed in 1770 except on tea. On March 5, 1770 British troops fired into a crowd of protestors, killing five, the "Boston Massacre." In 1773 the cargo of tea on a ship was thrown overboard in Boston Harbor, protesting the tax on tea, the "Boston Tea Party." On April 18, 1775 William Dawes and Paul Revere rode in the Boston countryside, notifying people that British soldiers were on their way to Concord. The next day "Minutemen" fired at the British soldiers, 8 were killed, but 273 soldiers were shot.

Early in 1776 France and Spain agreed to supply arms to the colonies to fight Britain. On July 4, 1776 a resolution declaring independence of the colonies was passed in Philadelphia. It was signed at various times that summer by the 55 delegates plus Secretary Thomson. The first long sentence states:

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one peo- ple to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

Many "Tories" or "Loyalists" emigrated to Canada or to Britain. General George Washington led troops of the colonies. Suffering from a lack of food, uniforms, and weapons they lost many battles. One victory was in Trenton, New Jersey, when Washington crossed the Delaware River on Christmas Night, 1776, and captured an army of Hessian (German) troops. On November 15, 1777 the Continental Congress adopted the Articles of Confederation. In 1778 France sent a fleet to Philadelphia, the British evacuated the city. The British General Cornwallis surrendered to American and French in Yorktown, Virginia late in 1781. In 1782 Britain agreed to recognize America's independence, the Treaty of Paris was signed in 1783.

A stronger national government was needed to control the country. The convention in Philadelphia in 1787 drafted the constitution. It is a short document, still a good guide for citizens and courts. Several other countries have copied it, Poland was the first. The preamble states:

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

As of early 1996 it had been amended 27 times. The drafters of the constitution agreed to count a slave as equal to three-fifths of a White person. George Washington became the first president, in 1789. The very important Bill of Rights (the first 10 Amendments) became effective late in 1791.

Washington's "Farewell Address" in 1796 warned America not to make permanent alliances with any favorite nation, nor to maintain a big military establishment. After John Adams served four years, Thomas Jefferson was elected the 3rd president. Jefferson agreed to a strong national bank that Hamilton wanted, provided the capital was moved away from the "big" city of Philadelphia. In 1800 the capital was moved to Washington, D.C. In 1803 President Jefferson bought the huge Louisiana Territory from France for 15 million dollars. Napoleon needed cash to fight the other countries in Europe. In 1804-1806 Meriwether Lewis and William Clark made an overland expedition across the western two-thirds of the continent, to the Pacific Coast, to explore the huge new territory. The Journal they kept of the trip, and adventures with Indians, grizzly bear, buffalo, and nature is still a best seller.

In 1793 Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin. Cotton seed could now be easily separated, making cotton a cheap and easy-to-use textile. In 1790 Britain had many looms and cotton mills, they needed much cotton. Plantations in the South grew, using more Black slave labor. In 1808 Congress passed a law prohibiting the importation of more slaves. During the wars with Napoleon British ships blockaded Europe, hurting America's trade. The British Navy also stopped American ships at sea and took American sailors to work on British ships. Congress on June 18, 1812 declared war against Britain. America won several naval battles but the British captured Detroit and Washington, D.C. President Madison and his wife Dolly had to evacuate the White House, the British burned it and the Capital Building. American troops captured part of Canada, then a British possession. British soldiers attacked New Orleans, losing 2,000 men, while the Americans, led by Andrew Jackson, lost 71. Even the French creoles (cajuns) and pirates fought on the American side. The battle was on January 8, 1815. Neither side knew that the war had ended two weeks earlier by the signing of a treaty in Ghent.

In 1820 Congress' "Missouri Compromise" bill permitted Missouri to enter the Union as a state, but prohibited slavery north of the revised Mason and Dixon Line, extending from Missouri's southern border. In 1822 some slaves were sent back to Africa, to Sierra Leone. Later, Liberia was established near Sierra Leone, to receive slaves from the Americas. In 1833 Britain abolished slavery in all of its colonies. Beginning in the 1830s Indians in the U.S.A. were forcibly removed from areas that the Whites wanted, and sent to reservations in Indian Territory, now Oklahoma. In 1835 the White settlers from America who had moved to Texas announced that Texas was independent from Mexico. In 1836 a large Mexican army surrounded Texans in the Alamo, San Antonio. In 12 days all of the defenders were killed, including James Bowie, designer of a popular big knife, and David Crockett, a Tennesse woodsman. However, Texans won other battles and became independent. In the 1840s settlers began to travel across the continent in covered wagons, herding their livestock, to settle in the West. Many went to Oregon Terriory, in the Northwest, or in California, in the Southwest.

In 1844 Samuel F.B. Morse invented the telegraph, sending the first message from Washington to Baltimore. In 1861 a telegraph line was established across the continent, to the West Coast. In 1845 Texas was admitted to the U.S.A. as a state. Mexico declared war against the U.S.A. White settlers in California and several other parts of today's southwestern U.S.A. declared their independence from Mexico. The U.S.A. won the battles and the war, ending in 1846, taking a huge area.

Mormons, who practiced polygamy, had many disputes with their neighbors in Illinois. Joseph Smith was the founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, in 1830. He was killed by a mob in Nauvoo, Illinois, in 1844, when he was a jail prisoner. In 1847 Mormons began the pilgrimmage to the "Promised Land," a huge area which they called the State of Deseret, including part of modern Arizona and other states. In 1850 Congress created Utah Territory, much smaller. Some settlers had a covered wagon, others pushed their belongings in a wheelbarrow. The first year insects began to eat their crops, but seagulls from the Great Salt Lake arrived, eating the insects, saving the crops.

Gold was discovered in east-central California in 1848, bringing many prospectors and adventurists. In border areas between the free and pro-slavery states, tempers flared and skirmishes were fought between those who supported slavery, and those who opposed it. A controversial decision of the Supreme Court in 1857 ruled that a slave, Dred Scott, did not become free when he was taken to or entered a "free" state. The Underground Railroad, a network of volunteers, sheltered slaves escaping from the South. Many moved to Canada. Abraham Lincoln, who opposed slavery, was elected president in 1860. On February 4, 1861 six southern states ceded from the union, forming the Confederate States of America. They were South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. Later Virginia, Tennessee, Texas, Arkansas, and North Carolina joined. Jefferson Davis was chosen as president. Virginia split, the part with big plantations stayed with the Confederacy. The new state, with small hill farms, became West Virginia, it stayed in the Union. In the South the plantation aristocracy were often trained as military officers. The South began the war by firing on Fort Sumter, South Carolina in April. The South ("Rebels"), with better officers at first, won early battles. The Confederate Army wore grey or uniforms taken from prisoners, often dyed brown. The Union's army wore blue uniforms. On March 9, 1862 two ironclad ships, the North's Monitor and the South's Virginia (once the Merrimack), fought to a draw, neither was seriously damaged. Wooden ships were made obsolete. Machine guns, cannon, mortars, and observers in a high baloon, were used. On January 1, 1863 President Lincoln issued his "Emancipation Proclamation," freeing slaves everywhere, but it was largely ignored in the South. In the big battle of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, July 13, 1863, the North won. On November 19, 1863 Lincoln delivered a famous address at Gettysburg:

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate--we can not consecrate -- we cannot hallow--this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us--devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion--that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain--that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

The North had more people and industry, and its navy blockaded southern ports so it could not export cotton to Britain's textile mills. In 1864 Northern General Sherman's army fought through the South, captured Atlanta, and marched to the sea, burning and destroying everything. Robert E. Lee, the Southern General, surrendered to the North's General Ulysses Grant at Appottomax, Virginia on April 9, 1865. The North lost 360,000 men killed or dying from war wounds, the South lost 285,000. Together, another 400,000 died of sickness and disease, for more than a million casualties. Civil wars are often more destructive than foreign wars.

In 1858 the first successful trans-Atlantic cable connected the U.S.A. with Europe. In 1860 the Pony Express carried mail by fast horse riders, acting in relays, between St. Joseph, Missouri and Sacremento, California. It ended 16 months later when the first trans-continental telegraph line was completed. In 1867 the U.S.A. bought "Seward's Icebox," Alaska, from Russia for some 7.2 million dollars. In 1869 the first transcontinental railroad across the U.S.A. was completed, by the driving of the "golden spike" in northern Utah.

As more settlers moved to the West, some Indians, especially on the Great Plains, resented the loss of the buffalo. However, the horse and the new rifle, used by Indians and Whites, had already reduced the size of the buffalo herds. There were many battles with Indians, who wanted to retain their control of the land. Towns in the West often began as an army fort. Indian warriers, used to showing their bravery in fights with other tribes, were mostly subdued by Whites and their army by 1870. Col. George Custer, who treated Indians unusually cruelly, was ambushed and killed, along with 264 soldiers, by Sioux at Little Big Horn, Montana, on June 25, 1876. The last big battle with Indians was at Wounded Knee, South Dakota, in 1890. Indian families were forced to live on reservations. The men resisted farming, which they considered to be “squaw’s work.” Indian men have lost their traditional activities of hunting and warfare. Many have not learned new socially acceptable activitity. They often turn to alcohol, rather than mixing with White Man’s society, with its tough competition. Thus, today’s North American Indian may be compared with today’s Blacks in Africa below the Sahara: they can’t hunt or fight, they have lost their pride, and women do much of the agricultural work.

Black slaves were encouraged to be Christian, and to sing gospel songs. They thought that Moses and the Israelites (Hebrews) had been slaves in Egypt, as they were slaves. In 1860 there were 4.0 million slaves and 480,000 free Blacks in the U.S.A. Black spiritual music developed, many Blacks were great singers. Blacks in the South during slavery developed the "blues," lamenting about problems, lovers, and the law. Blacks developed "ragtime" around 1900, and "jazz" not much later. Soon the Whites, in the U.S.A. and Europe learned to appreciate the Blacks' music.

The Ku Klux Klan, consisting of local ruffians, businessmen, farmers, and others began to meet and organize in the South to intimidate Blacks so they would not vote. Hiding behind white hoods, they burned a cross at the premises to intimidate victims. Southern states also imposed a "poll tax" or payment of a dollar or so per year in order to vote in any election. Many Blacks could not afford to pay the tax, which was usually cumulative--all back taxes had to be paid before voting. In the mid-20th Century the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a poll tax is unconstitutional.

The U.S.A. had more and more manufacturing: textiles in New England, then in the South, plus iron, steel, copper, farm equipment, and household equipment. Labor unions were formed, both the American Federation of Labor craft unions of skilled tradesmen, and the big Knights of Labor, including workers in many industries, but also small businessmen. A strike and rally in Chicago for the eight hour day led to the Haymarket Riot in 1886, 11 were killed and 66 wounded. There was often a shortage of labor, in factories, on farms, and elsewhere, as adventurists moved west to the frontier. North Americans were always inventing something to save labor, the patent office expanded. The U.S.A., the "Land of Opportunity," welcomed immigrants, the poor, the religious dissenters, the victims of Europe's wars. Many arrived "steerage class" on ships at New York's Ellis Island. Most came from Northern Europe before 1900, then the majority came from eastern and southern Europe. In the past 30 years the majority have come from Latin America and Asia.

In 1898 the U.S.A and Spain fought after the battleship Maine blew up in the harbor at Havanna, Cuba. The U.S.A. acquired Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Phillipines, and Cuba became independent. In 1903 the U.S.A. persuaded Panama to declare its independence from Colombia, and it signed a treaty with Panama within a few months. The huge construction project of building the canal began in 1904, it was opened in 1914. The U.S.A. tried to stay neutral in World War I, which began in 1914, but German submarines began a policy in early 1917 to sink many ships of neutrals. The U.S.A. entered the war on April 6, 1917. My father's heavy cruiser, the S.S. San Diego, was torpeded by a German sub early in 1917, all aboard died. He had fallen on a dock in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, two days earlier, and missed the ship. His service papers, sea bag of personal belongings, and friends were lost. He then served two years in the Adriatic Sea on another heavy cruiser. German and French-British soldiers had been stalemated in trenches in eastern France and Belgium for many months. More than one million fresh troops of the U.S.A. ended the stalemate. The war ended on November 11, 1918, celebrated in several countries as Armistice Day. President Wilson tried to get agreement on his "14 Points" for peace, but France and a few other countries insisted upon punishing Germany. The League of Nations was formed, but the isolationist Senate of the U.S.A refused to ratify joining the League.

In 1920 women received the right to vote in the U.S.A., by the 19th Amendment to the Constitution. In 1924 Indians were made citizens of the U.S.A. On "Black Friday," October 29, 1929 the New York Stock Market crashed, stocks lost much of their value. In 1919 the Prohibition of alcoholic drinks became effective, making gangsters selling "bootleg" alcohol wealthy, creating many rival gangs, including Chicago's Al Capone. In 1933 Prohibition was repealed. The "Great Depression" began soon after the Stock Market Crash, and the high Smoot-Hawley Tariff in 1930 helped to spread the economic depression worldwide by reducing trade.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt, a Democrat, was elected in 1932. After a few months when banks were closed, he began to make big changes, in his "New Deal" program. The 48 states (Alaska and Hawaii became states in 1959) had considerable rights to govern and levy taxes, the federal government is limited to relations between the states, interstate commerce, and foreign affairs. At first the U.S. Supreme Court held that the Democratic Congress and Roosevelt had exceeded the authority of the federal government with some of the legislation. When a few older conservative judges retired, the court began to uphold laws, greatly expanding the auhority of the federal government. In the late 1930s legislation was passed establishing a Social Security pension system, minimum wage and other labor laws, the National Labor Relations Act to encourage labor unions, and to regulate many aspects of business and to protect consumers. The Civilian Conservation Corps began around 1934. It accepted young men, often from cities, trained them in discipline in a military-like setting, and taught them many skills, such as building trails, roads, and buildings in national parks. When I served in the army in 1946 and 1947 some of my friends had served in the "CCC," they were excellent soldiers. Also around 1934 the Works Progress Administration was organized. It hired unemployed men to build roads, bridges, public buildings, water works, sewage plants, and much more, paying them regular wages. Republicans said the "WPA" stood for "we piddle around," but they also did much work. My father, a poor but proud farmer, refused to work for the WPA, although many of our neighbors enjoyed the good pay. Roosevelt began a "Good Neighbor Policy" with countries in Latin America.

In 1931 Japan began to take land in China. In 1939 Germany, Italy, and the Soviet Union began to take neighboring countries. Later that year Britain, France, and much of Europe were at war with Germany and Italy. The U.S.A. began to supply Britain in 1939 and the Soviet Union in 1941 with all kinds of military weapons and supplies, plus food. On December 7, 1941 Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, Honululu, Hawaii. Germany declared war on the U.S.A. The U.S.A. was at war with Japan, Germany, and Italy. Japan was well prepared for war and took many islands and much of mainland Asia in the first year. The U.S.A. and Britain finally defeated German troops under the great General Rommel in North Africa in May 1943. The U.S.A. quickly converted factories, to build more ships, planes, weapons, and other military supplies than the world had ever seen before or since. Troops of the U.S. A. and Allies landed in Sicily in July 1943, on mainland Italy in October 1943, in Normandy, France, on "D Day," June 6, 1944, and in southern France near Toulon in August 1944. North American and British troops rushed east, Soviet troops rushed west, meeting in eastern Germany and western Czechoslovakia in the spring, 1945. Germany surrendered on May 8, "VE Day." The war in Japan continued more than three months longer. I was on a ship in Florida when I heard the news of Japan's surrender, on "VJ Day," August 14, 1945. The cost of the war for the world, in terms of people killed and wounded, property destroyed, and nations in debt, was far greater than any previous war.

On July 1, 1946 many wartime emergency laws in the U.S.A. ended. Price controls ended. Prices, forcibly kept low, went up, there were still many shortages. Labor unions led many long strikes. The Central Intelligence Agency (C.I.A.) was established in 1947, during the "Cold War" with the Soviet Union. Some of its activities have interfered with internal matters in foreign countries that should not be permitted in a democracy. However, its annual budget has continued to grow, although some of its employees have been found to be paid by foreign governments for counterspying. In 1947 Congress passed the Taft-Hartley law to limit the power of unions. It was passed over the veto by President Truman.

In 1947-1952 the U.S.A., under the Marshall Plan, gave more than 12 billion dollars to Europe and other countries to help rebuild their countries. It was recommended by Secretary of State George Marshall, approved by Democrat President Harry Truman and Congress. Much of that aid went to former enemies Germany, Italy, and Japan. It has been rare in history that the winner of a war has done so much to help defeated enemies. The "Cold War" between the "Western Bloc" and the "Communist Bloc" began in 1947. On April 1, 1948 the Soviet Union blocked the access to West Berlin by Allies, in an attempt to take over all of Berlin. An airlift by cargo planes defeated the attempt, the blockade was removed after 18 months. In 1948 the U.S.A. Supreme Court ruled that restrictions against Blacks in real estate deeds were unconstitutional. Blacks in cities such as Chicago expanded from the crowded "Black Belt" to other neighborhoods. In 1949 the Soviet Union exploded its first atomic bomb.

On June 25, 1950 Communist North Korea invaded South Korea. After a stalemate, hostilities ended in 1953, soon after General Eisenhower was elected president. (See Korea). In 1954 the U.S.A. Supreme Court ruled that schools could not be segregated by race. From 1951 through 1954 Senator Joseph McCarthy bullied and intimidated anyone with whom he disagreed, calling them "sympathetic to communism." The Senate belatedly censored him, on December 2, 1954. In 1955, after France left Vietnam, the U.S.A. began to train the South Vietnamese army. President Johnson, Democrat, greatly expanded the war, 1964-1970, over the protest of a majority of the people. President Nixon, Republican, fought a secret war in southeastern Asia for several more years. (See Vietnam). In 1971 males and females age 18 were granted the right to vote by the 26th Amendment to the Constitution.

In November, 1957 the Soviet Union launched a space ship around the Earth, carrying the dog, Laika. The U.S.A. began a crash program, expanded by President Kennedy, Democrat, in 1961, to build space rockets. In August 1959 the U.S.A. launched its first space ship in an orbit around the Earth. In July 1969 the U.S.A. sent three men to the moon and safely back to Earth, on Apollo 11. President Nixon encouraged the criminal break-in of an office in Washington's Watergate Building, he was forced to resign, due to impeachment proceedings, in August, 1974. Vice-president Gerald Ford became president.

Democrat candidate Jimmy Carter was elected president in 1976. He brought Israel's Begin and Egypt's el-Sadat to Camp David, Maryland in 1989, negotiating a partial agreement. However, an unsuccessful attempt to rescue hostages taken by Iran helped to defeat his attempt to be re-elected. Republican candidate Ronald Reagan was elected, in 1980. Reagan removed many government controls, cut income taxes, and greatly increased spending on the military. The national debt shot upward. Critics, including many Republicans, called his plans "voodoo economics." "Wheeler-dealer" speculators acquired savings and loan institutions. When many government controls were removed they took billions of dollars from the savings and loans insitutions. The taxpayers later paid some 200 billion dollars to rescue the institutions and their depositors. After Reagan served a 2nd term, Republican George Bush was elected in 1988. Iraq's Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait on August 2, 1990. To protect the flow of oil, needed by the many vehicles in the U.S.A., Bush had the military of the U.S.A. and its allies drive Hussein from Kuwait in February 1991. The national debt of the U.S.A. increased from around 908 billion dollars in 1981 to more than four trillion dollars at the end of Bush's term. The total national debt as a percentage of GDP rose from 34.4 percent in 1980 to 67.6 percent in 1992. It has shrunk some since then, as a percent of GDP. In 1992 Democrat Bill Clinton was elected as the 42nd president. He proposed AmeriCorps, a National Service Corps to train youths to work, somewhat like the CCC of the 1930s. It was established but Congress failed to provide enough money to operate it successfully.

BACKGROUND. Twenty percent of the land is arable. There are 138 people per square km. of arable land. The population has increased from 130 million in 1930 to 264 million in 1995, an increase of 103 percent in 65 years.

Los Angeles' January average high temperature is 18 degrees C, the average low is 7 C. The July average high temperature is 24 degrees C, the average low is 16 C. There is little rain, but December through March are the rainier months.

Dallas' January average high temperature is 13 degrees C, the average low is 2 C. The July average high temperature is 34 degrees C, the average low is 24 C. February through June are the rainier months.

New York's January average high temperature is 5 degrees C, the average low is minus 2 C. The July average high temperature is 29 degrees C, the average low is 21 C. December through May are the wetter months.

Some 9 percent of the people are Hispanic, 12 percent are Black, 3 percent are Asian or Pacific Islander, 1 percent are American Indian or Eskimo, and 75 percent are other White. In 1970 only 4.8 percent of the population were immigrants, in 1995 some 8.7 percent were immigrants. During the period 1870-1920 an average of 15 percent of the people were foreign born. Of the 22.6 million foreign-born living in the U.S.A. in 1995, 6.2 million came from Mexico, 1.0 million from the Phillipines, 805,000 from Cuba, and 718,000 from El Salvador. Others, in order, were from Canada, Germany, China, Dominican Republic, South Korea, Vietnam, and India. "Undocumented aliens" (illegal immigrants) are not eligible for many social programs. However, they can get education for their children and emergency medical care.

In the past immigrants have been fully integrated into American society, learning English. Immigrants quickly changed their habits, in efforts to become "good Americans." They became productive and respected citizens. Recently, some groups have not made efforts to learn English or to integrate into the American culture. I like to study and use other languages, I have learned four "foreign" languages. It is wise for immigrants to preserve the "mother tongue" and teach it to their children. However, anyone who expects to live in the U.S.A. should make great efforts to learn English. Children, whether Hispanic, French, German, or whatever should have help and tutoring available to help them learn English. When they learn basic English they can quickly learn course material taught in English. Countries that have two official languages, such as Canada and Belgium, have many problems.

Sixty-one percent are at least nominally Protestant, 25 percent are Catholic, 2 percent are Jewish, 5 percent are "other," and 7 percent are not religious.

There are 100 million cattle, 58 million pigs, and 11 million sheep. The annual fish catch is 3.3 million metric tons. Crude oil reserves are 24 billion barrels. The main minerals are coal, iron, copper, lead, zinc, molybdenum, bauxite, silver, potash, phosphates, and uranium. Copper is the only mineral in which the U.S.A is almost self-sufficient. Principal crops are corn (maize), wheat, soybeans, potatoes, barley, oats, sugar, fruits, and vegetables.

The debt as a percentage of the GDP is lower than in 14 European countries. Annual exports of 465 billion dollars go to Canada (22 percent), Japan (10 percent), Mexico (9 percent), and the United Kingdom (6 percent). Imports of 582 billion dollars come from Canada (19 percent), Japan (19 percent), and Mexico (7 percent). In 1994 the U.S.A. exported products worth 115.5 billion dollars to the European Union and imported products worth 118 billion from the EU. The U.S.A. provided 17.3 percent of the EU's imports and received 17.6 percent of the EU's exports. EU companies in the U.S.A. employ 2.8 million, and U.S.A. companies in the EU employ 2.7 million. In 1995 estimates of imports from China are 45 billion dollars, exports were around 12 billion. (See Canada, Mexico, Japan, and China for more figures on U.S.A. trade.)

The President is elected for a term of four years, and can be re-elected only once. The House of Representatives has 435 members elected for a two-year term. The Senate has 100 members, elected for a six-year term. Each state elects one or more members of the House, based upon the state's population. Each state also elects two senators. The minimum voting age is 18. There is at least one Federal trial court in each state. Federal courts handle cases that are claimed to be in violation of a federal law, or cases between states, sometimes between citizens of different states or nations. The federal government's revenue comes from an income tax on individuals, an income tax on corporations (although most have found ways to avoid paying taxes), tariffs, for services and fees, and excise taxes on the sale of gasoline, tobacco, alcohol, and a few other products. The Republican Party tends to be conservative, the Democrat Party is more liberal. The South(east) was long a place where the majority voted for Democrats. However, beginning in the 1960s, when Democrats sponsored civil rights laws protecting Blacks, many White southerners began to vote Republican. Attempts to establish a strong third party have not been successful.

Each of the 50 states has an elected governor and a legislature, consisting of two houses, except Nebraska, which has only the Senate. Each state has a court system that handles most of the civil and criminal cases. A particular matter or activity may come under the jurisdiction of both a state and the federal government. In case of conflict, the federal system or law controls.

Almost all states are divided into smaller units, counties and cities. Louisiana has parishes instead of counties. In New England states the township is an important unit of government. The revenue of states comes from income taxes (four states do not have an income tax), property (real estate and personal property), sales, transactions, and licenses. Total federal, state, and local taxes for a typical middle income family is around 38 percent of income.

Each state has a public school system. Cities have a kindergarten and 12 years of public school. Primary (elementary) school is usually 6 years, junior high school is 2 or 3 years, and high school is 3 or 4 years. Some states have 5 years of primary school and a "middle school" that begins in grade 6. Tuition is free, there may be a charge for books, sports, music, and other activities. School uniforms have been rare but there is much support for requiring uniforms. The quality of the schools varies from "poor" to "excellent." In poorer neighborhoods, or in schools in large cities, maintaining discipline and keeping out illegal drugs and weapons is a major problem. Several states require that a student pass a comprehensive exam before moving into middle school or high school. There is much support for more exams, to evaluate both what the student has learned and the schools.