From perilous beginnings on the shores of a wilderness continent, the United States of America has become a leader of nations and the bastion of freedom for the world. This frontier wilderness, so far removed from the civilization of Europe and for so many centuries hidden from it altogether, has given birth to the highest civilization the world has ever known. Originally settled as an outpost of Europe, this land quickly became the country to which Europe and the rest of the world looked for leadership, protection, and inspiration toward higher planes of freedom, responsibility, and human dignity.