S. S. HIGH SCHOOL & Jr.

COLLEGE MORBA
STANDARD: Xth
DIVISION: B
NAME OF THE STUDENT: MISBA ABDUL KADIR
D DHANSAY
SEAT NO.:
SUBJECT: ENGLISH ASSIGNMENT
TOPIC: TOP 10 RICH COUNTRIES
SUBJECT TEACHER: Mr. ARSHAD ALI Sir
ACADEMIC YEAR: 2021-2022

1
 INDEX

Sr No. TOPIC Page

No.

1 UNITED STATE OF AMERICA 3

2 CHINA 4
3 JAPAN 5
4 GERMANY 6
5 UNITED KINGDOM 7
6 FRANCE 8
7 INDIA 9
8 ITALY 10
9 BRAZIL 11
10 CANADA 12

2
 UNITED STATE OF AMERICA

The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United

States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists
of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territories, 326 Indian reservations,
and some minor possessions.[h] At 3.8 million square miles (9.8 million square kilometers), it
is the world's third- or fourth-largest country by geographic area.[c] The United States shares
significant land borders with Canada to the north and Mexico to the south as well as limited
maritime borders with the Bahamas, Cuba, and Russia.[22] With a population of more than 331
million people, it is the third most populous country in the world. The national
capital is Washington, D.C., and the most populous city is New York City.

The United States is a highly developed country, accounts for approximately a quarter of

global GDP, and is the world's largest economy by GDP at market exchange rates. By value,
the United States is the world's largest importer and second-largest exporter of goods.
Although its population is only 4.2% of the world's total, it holds 29.4% of the total wealth in
the world, the largest share held by any country. Making up more than a third of global
military spending, it is the foremost military power in the world and internationally a
leading political, cultural, and scientific force

According to the International Monetary Fund, the U.S. GDP of $22.7 trillion constitutes

24% of the gross world product at market exchange rates and over 16% of the gross world
product at purchasing power parity.[313][15] In October 2021 the United States had a national
debt of $28.8 trillion.[314]
The United States is the largest importer of goods and second-largest
exporter, though exports per capita are relatively low. In 2010, the total U.S. trade
deficit was $635 billion. Canada, China, Mexico, Japan, and the European Union are its top
trading partners.
From 1983 to 2008, U.S. real compounded annual GDP growth was 3.3%, compared to a
2.3% weighted average for the rest of the G7. The country ranks fifth in the world in nominal
GDP per capita and seventh in GDP per capita at PPP. The U.S. dollar is the world's
primary reserve currency.
In 2009, the private sector was estimated to constitute 86.4% of the economy. While its
economy has reached a post-industrial level of development, the United States remains an
industrial power. In August 2010, the American labor force consisted of 154.1 million people
(50%). With 21.2 million people, the public sector is the leading field of employment. The
largest private employment sector is health care and social assistance, with 16.4
million people. It has a smaller welfare state and redistributes less income through
government action than most other high-income countries.

3
 CHINA
China is one of the world's oldest civilizations: it has the oldest continuous civilization
near Yellow River region[18] There is archaeological evidence over 5,000 years old.[19] China
also has one of the world's oldest writing systems (and the oldest in use today). China has
been the source of many major inventions.[19] Geographically, China’s longest river is
the Yangtze River which runs through mega cities and is home to many species. It is the
world’s third longest river.

China is the origin of Eastern martial arts, called Kung Fu or its first name Wushu. China is
also the home of the well-respected Spa Monastery and Wading Mountains. Martial art
started more for the purpose of survival, defense, and warfare than art. Over time some art
forms have branched off, while others have retained their distinct Chinese flavor.
China has had renowned artists including Wong Fei Hung (Huang Fei Hung or Hwang Fei
Hung) and many others. Art has also co-existed with a variety of paints including the more
standard 18 colors. Legendary and controversial moves like Big Mark are also praised and
talked about within the culture.
China has many traditional festivals, such as Spring Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, Mid-
autumn Festival and so on. The most important is Chinese New Year. People in China will
have holidays to celebrate these festivals.
Ancient China was one of the first civilizations and was active since the 2nd millennium
BC as a feudal society. Chinese civilization was also one of the few to invent writing,[19] with
the others being Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley civilization, the Maya civilization,
the Minoan civilization of ancient Greece, and Ancient Egypt.[22] It reached its golden age
during the Tang Dynasty (c. A.D. 10th century). Home of Confucianism and Daoism, it had
great influence on nearby countries including Japan, Korea, and Vietnam in the areas of
political system, philosophy, religion, art, writing and literature. China is home to some of the
oldest artwork in the world. Statues and pottery, as well as decorations made of jade, are
some classic examples.
Before the Qin Dynasty united China, there were hundreds of small states that fought each
other for hundreds of years in a war to control China. This is known as the Warring States
Period. Although the continuing wars made people suffer, it was at this time when many
great philosophies were born, including Confucianism and Daoism. Confucianism and
Daoism alone have been the foundation of many social values seen in modern eastern-Asian
cultures today.

Its geography mostly looked like that of modern China, except with northern and western
edges that varied. It was often attacked by northern nomadic people such as the Turkic
peoples and the Mongols led by Genghis Khan and Kublai Khan. During the history of
ancient China, the northern nomadic people and the Chinese people had been fighting each
other and taking turns to rule the land and the people of China. However, when the northern
people beat the Chinese people and came to rule the kingdom, they also Incorporated the
Chinese way of living and became like the Chinese. Many of the strongest dynasties of China
were ruled by the northern people, including the Qin, Tang, Yuan (Mongolian), and Qing.
Each time, they also brought new elements into the Chinese culture.

4
 JAPAN
Japan is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is
bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the
north toward the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south. Japan is a part of the Ring of Fire,
and spans an archipelago of 6852 islands covering 377,975 square kilometers
(145,937 sq mi); the five main islands are Hokkaido, Honshu (the
"mainland"), Shikoku, Kyushu, and Okinawa. Tokyo is the nation's capital and largest city;
other major cities include Yokohama, Osaka, Nagoya, Sapporo, Fukuoka, Kobe, and Kyoto.
Japan is the eleventh-most populous country in the world, as well as one of the most densely
populated and urbanized. About three-fourths of the country's terrain is mountainous,
concentrating its population of 125.36 million on narrow coastal plains. Japan is divided
into 47 administrative prefectures and eight traditional regions. The Greater Tokyo Area is
the most populous metropolitan area in the world, with more than 37.4 million residents.
Japan has been inhabited since the Upper Paleolithic period (30,000 BC), though the first
written mention of the archipelago appears in a Chinese chronicle (the Book of Han) finished
in the 2nd century AD. Between the 4th and 9th centuries, the kingdoms of Japan became
unified under an emperor and the imperial court based in Heian-kyō. Beginning in the 12th
century, political power was held by a series of military dictators (shōgun) and feudal lords
(daimyō), and enforced by a class of warrior nobility (samurai). After a century-long period
of civil war, the country was reunified in 1603 under the Tokugawa shogunate, which
enacted an isolationist foreign policy. In 1854, a United States fleet forced Japan to open
trade to the West, which led to the end of the shogunate and the restoration of imperial
power in 1868. In the Meiji period, the Empire of Japan adopted a Western-modeled
constitution and pursued a program of industrialization and modernization. Amidst a rise in
militarism and overseas colonization, Japan invaded China in 1937 and entered World War
II as an Axis power in 1941. After suffering defeat in the Pacific War and two atomic
bombings, Japan surrendered in 1945 and came under a seven-year Allied occupation, during
which it adopted a new constitution. Under the 1947 constitution, Japan has maintained
a unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy with a bicameral legislature, the National
Diet.
Japan is a great power and a member of numerous international organizations, including
the United Nations (since 1956), the OECD, and the Group of Seven. Although it
has renounced its right to declare war, the country maintains Self-Defense Forces that rank as
one of the world's strongest militaries. After World War II, Japan experienced record growth
in an economic miracle, becoming the second-largest economy in the world by 1990. As of
2021, the country's economy is the third-largest by nominal GDP and the fourth-largest by
PPP. Ranked "very high" on the Human Development Index, Japan has one of the
world's highest life expectancies, though it is experiencing a decline in population. A global
leader in the automotive and electronics industries, Japan has made significant contributions
to science and technology. The culture of Japan is well known around the world, including
its art, cuisine, music, and popular culture, which encompasses
prominent comic, animation and video game industries

5
 GERMANY
Germany officially the Federal Republic of Germany,[e] is a country in Central Europe. It
is the second-most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member
state of the European Union. Germany is situated between the Baltic and North seas to the
north, and the Alps to the south; it covers an area of 357,022 square kilometers
(137,847 sq mi), with a population of over 83 million within its 16 constituent states. It
borders Denmark to the north, Poland and the Czech Republic to the
east, Austria and Switzerland to the south, and France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and
the Netherlands to the west. The nation's capital and largest city is Berlin, and its financial
centre is Frankfurt; the largest urban area is the Ruhr.
Various Germanic tribes have inhabited the northern parts of modern Germany since classical
antiquity. A region named Germania was documented before AD 100. In the 10th century,
German territories formed a central part of the Holy Roman Empire. During the 16th
century, northern German regions became the centre of the Protestant Reformation.
Following the Napoleonic Wars and the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806,
the German Confederation was formed in 1815. In 1871, Germany became a nation-state
when most of the German states unified into the Prussian-dominated German Empire.
After World War I and the German Revolution of 1918–1919, the Empire was replaced by
the semi-presidential Weimar Republic.
The Nazi seizure of power in 1933 led to the establishment of a dictatorship, World War II,
and the Holocaust. After the end of World War II in Europe and a period of Allied
occupation, Germany was divided into the Federal Republic of Germany, generally known
as West Germany, and the German Democratic Republic, East Germany. The Federal
Republic of Germany was a founding member of the European Economic Community and
the European Union, while the German Democratic Republic was a communist Eastern
Bloc state and member of the Warsaw Pact. After the fall of communism, German
reunification saw the former East German states join the Federal Republic of Germany on 3
October 1990—becoming a federal parliamentary republic.
Germany is a great power with a strong economy; it has the largest economy in Europe, the
world's fourth-largest economy by nominal GDP, and the fifth-largest by PPP. As a global
leader in several industrial, scientific and technological sectors, it is both the world's third-
largest exporter and importer of goods. As a developed country, which ranks very high on
the Human Development Index, it offers social security and a universal health care system,
environmental protections, and a tuition-free university education. Germany is a member of
the United Nations, NATO, the G7, the G20, and the OECD. It has the third-greatest
number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
German is the official and predominant spoken language in Germany. It is one of 24 official
and working languages of the European Union, and one of the three procedural languages of
the European Commission. German is the most widely spoken first language in the European
Union, with around 100 million native speakers.
Recognized native minority languages in Germany are Danish, Low German, Low
Rhenish, Sorbian, Romany, North Frisian and Saterland Frisian; they are officially protected
by the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. The most used immigrant
languages are Turkish, Arabic, Kurdish, Polish, the Balkan languages and Russian. Germans
are typically multilingual: 67% of German citizens claim to be able to communicate in at
least one foreign language and 27% in at least two.

6
 UNITED KINGDOM
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland or simply the United
Kingdom (UK) is a sovereign country in Western Europe. It is a constitutional
monarchy that is made up of four separate countries: England, Wales, Scotland and Northern
Ireland. It is a member of the United Nations, the Commonwealth, NATO, the G8, and
formerly the EU. It had the sixth largest economy in the world by nominal GDP in 2019.
Around 66 million people live in the UK (2018). They can be divided into four
big nationalities based on the countries where they live (or where they were born or
their ancestry).

 England is the biggest country, where most people in the UK live. People who
live in England are called English. Their native language is called English, which
is spoken by most people in England.
 Scotland, north of England, is the second biggest country. People who live there
are called Scottish, and a Scottish person may be called a Scottish. Some speak a
language other than English: Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic language. Scottish English,
on the other hand, is a version of English.
 Wales is to the west of England. Its people are called Welsh and they have their
own Celtic language which is also called Welsh. Not everyone in Wales can speak
Welsh, but almost everyone can speak English.
 Northern Ireland is the smallest country. Unlike the other three countries, it is not
on the island of Great Britain: it is part of the island called Ireland. Northern
Ireland takes up about a sixth of Ireland (with the Republic of Ireland taking up
the remainder). People who live in Northern Ireland are either Irish, British, or
Northern Irish. The people who live here usually speak English.
About 95 per cent of the UK's population are English speakers. 5.5 per cent of the population
speak languages brought to the UK as a result of relatively recent immigration.
The UK has many cities. London is the biggest city in the UK and is the nation's capital city.
There are also other big cities in England
including Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, Bristol and Newcastle upon Tyne.
Scotland has the big cities of Edinburgh and Glasgow. Cardiff and Swansea are in Wales
and Derry and Belfast is in Northern Ireland.
Between the 17th and mid 20th-centuries, Britain was a world power. It became a colonial
empire that controlled large areas of Africa, Asia, North America and Oceania. At its height
in 1922, more than 458 million people lived in the British Empire, one-fifth of the Earth's
population. Its area was 13,012,000 square miles: almost a quarter of the Earth's land area.
The empire was sometimes called 'the empire on which the sun never sets', meaning the sun
is always shining on at least one of its territories. Almost all countries left and became
independent from the empire in the 20th century, although Britain keeps links with most
countries of its former empire.
The United Kingdom is a developed country with the sixth largest economy in the world. It
was a superpower during the 18th, 19th and early 20th century and was considered since the

7
early 1800s to be the most powerful and influential nation in the world, in politics, economics
(For it was the wealthiest country at the time.) and in military strength.

FRANCE
France officially the French Republic (French: République française, French pronunciation
is a country whose metropolitan territory is in Western Europe and that also includes
various overseas islands and territories in other continents.[10] Metropolitan France extends
from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to
the Atlantic Ocean. It is often referred to as Hexagon ("The Hexagon") because of the shape
of its territory. France is a unitary semi-presidential republic with its main ideals expressed in
the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.
Metropolitan France is bordered (clockwise from the north)
by Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Monaco, Andorra, and Spain. The
overseas departments and collectivities of France also share land borders
with Brazil and Suriname (bordering French Guiana), and the Netherlands
Antilles (bordering Saint-Martin). France is linked to the United Kingdom by the Channel
Tunnel, which passes under the English Channel.
France is the largest country in the European Union and the second largest in Europe. It has
been one of the world's most powerful countries for many centuries. During the 17th and 18th
centuries, France colonized much of North America. During the 19th and early 20th
centuries, France built one of the largest colonial empires of the time, including large parts
of North, West and Central Africa, Southeast Asia, and many Pacific islands. France is
a developed country and has the fifth largest economy[11] in the world, according to nominal
GDP figures. It is the most visited country in the world, with 82 million foreign visitors every
year.[12] France was one of the first members of the European Union, and has the largest land
area of all members. It is also a founding member of the United Nations, and a member of
the Francophonie, the G8, NATO, and the Latin Union. It is one of the five permanent
members of the United Nations Security Council. France owns the largest number of nuclear
weapons with active warheads, and the largest number of nuclear power plants, in the
European Union.
France's official language is French, which is also official in 29 other countries. Some other
French speaking countries include Haiti, Cameroon, and Niger. An interesting fact is that the
French king Louis XIX only enjoyed 20 minutes of royal fame after his father Charles X
abdicated, leaving him to ascend the French throne in July 1830.
France is a member of the G8 group of leading industrialized countries. France has the
eighth-largest economy in the world by Gross domestic product (GDP) (which takes into
account how much it costs to live in different countries and inflation rates). France and 11
other European Union members jointly launched the euro on 1 January 1999 and started
using it in 2002.
France's economy has nearly 2.9 million registered companies. The government has a
considerable influence over railway, electricity, aircraft, and telecommunications firms (as it
owns big companies like SNCF and EDF (French electricity)). France has an important
aerospace (design of aircraft and spacecraft) industry led by Airbus. It can also
launch rockets from French Guiana.

8
France has invested a lot in nuclear power. This made France the smallest producer of carbon
dioxide among the seven most industrialized countries in the world.

INDIA
India officially the Republic of India is a country in South Asia. It is second largest country
in population and seventh largest country by land area. It is also the most
populous democracy in the world, bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian
Sea on the southwest, and the Bay of Bengal on the southeast. It has seven
neighbors: Pakistan in north-west, China in north, and Myanmar in east and Sri Lanka in
south. The Andaman and Nicobar Islands, a union territory of India, is also
near Thailand and Indonesia along with Myanmar.
The capital of India is New Delhi. India is a peninsula, bound by the Indian Ocean in the
south, the Arabian Sea on the west and Bay of Bengal in the east. The coastline of India is of
about 7,517 km (4,671 mi) long. India has the third largest military force in the world and is
also a nuclear weapon state.
India's economy became the world's fastest growing in the G20 developing nations during the
last quarter of 2014, replacing the People's Republic of China.
[14]
 India's literacy and wealth are also rising. According to New World Wealth, India is the
seventh richest country in the world with a total individual wealth of $5.6 trillion. However, it
still has many social and economic issues like poverty and corruption. India is a founding
member of the WORLD TRADE ORGANISATION (WTO), and has signed the Kyoto
Protocol.
India has the fourth largest number of spoken languages per country in the world, only
behind Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, and Nigeria. People of many different religions live
there, including the five most popular world religions: Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Islam,
and Christianity. The first three religions originated from the Indian subcontinent along with
Jainism.
The National emblem of India shows four lions standing back-to-back. The lions symbolise
power, pride, confidence, and courage (bravery). Only the government can use this emblem,
according to the State Emblem of India (Prohibition of Improper Use) Act, 2005
The name India comes from the Greek word, Indus. This came from the word sindhu, which
in time turned into Hind or Hindi or Hindu. The preferred native name or endonym is
"Bharat" in Hindi and other Indian languages as contrasted with names from outsiders. Some
of the national symbols are:

 National anthem: Jana Gana Mana

 National song: Vande Mataram

 National animal: Bengal tiger

 National bird: Peacock

 National flower: Lotus
9
  National tree: Banyan
 National river: Ganges (Ganga)
 National fruit: Mango
 National heritage animal: Elephant

ITALY
Italy is a country in Southern Europe. It is a member of the European Union. Its official
name is Repubblica Italian. The Italian flag is green, white and red. Italy is a democratic
republic.
Italy is a founding member of the European Union. Its president is Sergio Mattarella. Its
prime minister is Mario Draghi. Italy is also a member of the G7, as it has the eighth
largest gross domestic product in the world.
Italy has become famous for its wine and its food. Some foods are different between regions.
Famous dishes include various types of pasta, pizza, and grapes. Olives are much used.
In the 8th and 7th centuries BC, Greeks began a large colonization drive, including southern
Italy such as Magna Graecia. This was because of various reasons, including demographic
crisis (famine, overcrowding, climate change, etc.), the search for new commercial outlets
and ports, and expulsion from their homeland.
Before 1861, Italy was made up of smaller kingdoms and city-states.
The country's capital, Rome, is one of the most famous cities in the world. It was the capital
of the Roman Empire. Other famous cities in Italy
include, Venice, Naples, Turin, Genoa, Florence, Palermo, and Milan
Italy has a modern social welfare system. The labor market is relatively strength. Many
foreigners, especially from Romania, work in Italy where the wages are much higher. But
there could have been much more workers on the labor market because men and women
already retired in the age of 57 and the unemployment rate is relatively high at 8.2 percent.
Italy's modern society has been built up through loans. Now the country has a very
high debt of 1.9 trillion euros or 120 percent of the country's total GDP. The government
cannot pay back the loans during the time period the EU wants.
Most people in Italy are Roman Catholics, but the Catholic Church is no longer officially
the state religion. 87.8% of the people said they were Roman Catholic. Only about a third
said they were active members (36.8%). There are also other Christian groups in Italy, more
than 700,000 Eastern Orthodox Christians. 180,000 of them belong to the Greek Orthodox
Church.[29]
550,000 are Pentecostals and Evangelicals (0.8%). 235,685 Jehovah's
Witnesses (0.4%) 30,000 Waldensians, 25,000 Seventh-day Adventists, 22,000 Mormons,
20,000 Baptists, 7,000 Lutherans, 4,000 Methodists. The country's oldest religious minority is
the Jewish community. It has roughly 45,000 people. It is no longer the largest non-Christian
group.

10
About 825,000 Muslims live in Italy. Most of them immigrated. (1.4% of the total
population) Only 50,000 are Italian citizens. In addition, there are 50,000 Buddhists
70,000 Sikh] and 70,000 Hindus in Italy.
The head of state is Sergio Mattarella. He became President of the Italian Republic in
February 2015. The first president was Enrico De Nicola.

BRAZIL
Brazil is a country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country. The country has
about 209 million people. The capital of Brazil is Brasília. Brazil was named
after brazilwood, which is a tree that once grew very well along the Brazilian coast

The first people to come to Brazil came around 9,000 B.C.[10] That group of indigenous
people is often called the South American Indians and probably came from North America.
They practiced hunting, foraging, and farming.[11] Over thousands of years, many different
indigenous peoples were living there.
Pedro Álvarez Cabral was the first European to see Brazil. He saw it in 1500. He was
from Portugal and the Portuguese kingdom claimed Brazil. Soon, Portugal colonized Brazil
and created colonies all along the coastline. They began to
import black slaves from Africa and force them to work.[12] Because of the violence of the
slave masters, many of these slaves would run away into the forest and create their own
communities called quilombos.
In the late 1500s and early 1600s, the Dutch and the French tried to take land in Brazil.
Dutch, French, and Portuguese started moving inland further than the Treaty of
Tordesillas said they could. This caused some fights with the Spaniards (people from Spain)
and indigenous peoples in the area.
In 1822, Brazil claimed to be its own country and not a part of Portugal anymore. Soon there
was civil war. Meanwhile, the quilombos survived and Brazil was bringing in more slaves
than any other country in the Americas, even though many countries were beginning to
legally abolish slavery. This led to an increase in slave revolts, especially in the 1860s and
1880s, which forced the government to change the system in order to keep the country stable.
Slavery was legally abolished in 1888.
In 1889, there was a military coup, and Pedro II had to leave the country. In 1889, Brazil
became a republic. The only people who could vote were people who owned land. There
were some uprisings in the 1920s because some people thought the government was unfairly
helping coffee growers. Brazil joined the Allies during World War II.
During the 1960s, the military leader Castelo Branco overthrew the government and created
a dictatorship that was supported by the United States. It was very anti-communist and
they imprisoned, tortured, or killed many people on the left. Since then, the country has
become more democratic, but some people feel that there are still big problems
in health, education, crime, poverty and social inequality.president
The official language of Brazil is Portuguese. Brazil is the only country in South America
that speaks Portuguese.

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Some people in Brazil speak German dialects. That came from German immigrants. 2% of
Brazilians speak German as their first language. Yiddish is spoken by the elders of
the Jewish community.

CANADA
Canada is a country in North America. It is north of the United States. Its land reaches from
the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and the Arctic Ocean to the
north. Canada's area is 9.98 million square kilometers (3.85 million square miles), so it is the
world's second largest country by total area but only the fourth largest country by land area. It
has the world's longest coastline which touches three oceans. Canada has ten provinces and
three territories. Most parts of the country have a cold or severely cold winter climate, but
areas to the south are warm in summer. Much of the land is forests or tundra, with the Rocky
Mountains towards the west. About four fifths of Canada's 38 million people live in urban
areas near the southern border with the US, the longest between any two countries in the
world. The national capital is Ottawa, and the largest city is Toronto. Other large cities
include Montreal, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Quebec City, Winnipeg and Hamilton.
The name "Canada" probably comes from the Huron-Iroquois word "Kanata," meaning
"village" or "settlement." In 1535, two Aboriginal youths told French explorer Jacques
Cartier about the route to Kanata; they were actually referring to the village of Standalone,
the site of the present-day City of Québec.
Aboriginal people lived in the places that are now Canada for a long time. In 1537
the French started a colony and the British Empire soon followed. The two empires fought
several wars and in the late 18th century only British North America remained with what is
more or less Canada today. The country was formed with the British North America Act on
July 1, 1867, from several colonies. Over time, more provinces and territories became part of
Canada. In 1931, Canada achieved near total independence with the Statute of Westminster
1931, and became completely independent when the Canada Act 1982 removed the last
remaining ties of legal dependence on the Parliament of the United Kingdom.
Canada is a federal parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy, with Queen
Elizabeth II as its head of state. The country is officially bilingual at the federal level,
meaning that citizens have the right to communicate with the government in either English or
French. Immigration to Canada has made it one of the world's most ethnically diverse
and multicultural nations. Its economy is the eleventh largest in the world, and relies mainly
on natural resources and well-developed international trade networks. Canada's relationship
with its neighbor and biggest trading partner, the U.S., has a big impact on
its economy and culture.
Canada is a developed country and has the tenth highest nominal per capita income globally
as well as the tenth highest ranking in the Human Development Index. It ranks among the
highest in international measurements of government transparency, civil liberties, quality of
life, economic freedom, and education. Canada is a Commonwealth realm member of
the Commonwealth of Nations, a member of the Francophonie, and part of several major
international and intergovernmental institutions or groupings including the United Nations,

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the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the G8, the G20, the North American Free Trade
Agreement and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum.
By total area (including its waters), Canada is the second-largest country in the world, after
Russia. By land area alone, Canada ranks fourth. It has the longest border with water
(coastline) of any country in the world. It is next to the Pacific, Arctic, and Atlantic Oceans.
It is the only country in the world to be next to three oceans at once. It has six time zones.

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