User:Skakkle/poop

Americans, or American people, are all the citizens of the United States of America. The country is home to people of different national origins. As a result, Americans do not base their ethnic identity on their nationality. With the exception of the Native American population, nearly all Americans or their ancestors immigrated within the past five centuries.

Despite its multi-ethnic composition, the culture held in common by Americans is citizenship, most referred to as mainstream American nationality, a Western culture largely derived from the traditions of Western European immigrants. It also includes influences of African-American culture. Westward expansion integrated the Creoles and Cajuns of Louisiana and the Hispanos of the Southwest and brought close contact with the culture of Mexico. Large-scale immigration in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries from Southern and Eastern Europe introduced a variety of elements. Immigration from Asia, Africa, and Latin America has also had impact. A cultural melting pot, or pluralistic salad bowl, describes the way in which generations of Americans have celebrated and exchanged distinctive cultural characteristics.