The United States of America (United States of America) is a country of North America conformed by 50 states and a federal district. Also it has several located dependent territories in the Antilles and the Australian Continent. Its form of government is the one of a presidencialista and federal republic. Forty and eight of the states are in the region between Canada and Mexico. To these states it is called to them, more or less formally, the continental or contiguous United States and, sometimes, the 48 inferior ones. Alaska is in the zone the northwest of North America, separated of the other states by the Canadian territory of British Columbia. The archipelago of Hawaii, the state number 50, is located in the Pacific Ocean. The federal capital, Washington, are located in the District of Columbia, between the states from Maryland to the north and Virginia to the south.