Difference between revisions of "Americas"

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-[[Image:America map.jpg|thumb|right|375px|The Americas]]
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-The '''Americas''' are a pair of continents in the Western Hemisphere, including the entire [[North America|North American]] continent and the entire [[South America|South American]] continent. They cover over 8.3% of the Earth's total surface and constitute 28.4% of its total landmass. 14% of the human population lives in the Americas.
-The word "America" is often used in US to refer particularly to the [[United States of America]].
-'''''[[America (continent)| The Americas]] ''''' is a general term usually meaning North, Central and South America collectively.
-{{Clear}}
-''The most common origin given for the name America is derived from that of the Italian merchant and navigator [[Amerigo Vespucci]], one of the earliest European explorers of the New World.  However, a competing theory has been put forward by Dr. Basil Cottle that America may have been named after a senior collector of Customs at Bristol, Richard Amerik, who was also one of the chief investors in the second transatlantic voyage of John Cabot (the first recorded European to set foot on American soil in May 1497),<ref> [http://www.britannia.com/celtic/wales/facts/facts1.html#americaname] </ref>.  How reliable each theory is is open to question as there are no contempory documents of the time that detail how the name America was arrived at.''
-''The climatic zones of the two continents are quite different. In North America, subarctic climate prevails in the north, gradually warming southward and finally becoming tropical near the southern isthmus. In South America, the climate in the north is tropical, becoming cooler southward, and finally becoming a cold, marine climate'' [http://www.britannica.com/eb/topic-20369/Americas America] Encyclopædia Britannica.
-America is also understood as one of the five continents of the globe, with an area of 16,000,000 square miles, and been larger than Europe and Africa together. Its length from the northern limit of Alaska to the southern limit of Chile is 8,700 miles.
-Throughout history eight Europeans countries have controlled different parts of the Americas, they are [[Denmark]], which still controls [[Greenland]], [[France]], which has in the past controlled, [[Canada]], [[Haiti]], [[Louisiana]] and other places, [[Netherlands]], which founded a colony in North America called [[New Netherlands]], which contained parts of what is now [[Delaware]], [[New Jersey]], [[New York]], and [[Connecticut]], [[Portugal]] in the past controlled [[Brazil]], [[Russia]], used to own [[Alaska]], which Russia later sold to the [[United States of America]], [[Spain]] in the past controlled most of what is now [[Central America|Central]] and [[South America]], [[Puerto Rico]], [[Cuba]], [[Dominican republic|Dominican Republic]], and large parts of the Southern part of [[North America]], including [[Mexico]],  and much of the Southern half of the [[United States]], including [[California]], [[Florida]], which Spain ceded to the [[United States of America]] in 1819, [[Nevada]], [[Texas]], [[Utah]], and parts of what is now, [[Arizona]], [[Colorado]], [[Kansas]], [[New Mexico]], [[Oklahoma]] and [[Wyoming]]. Sweden in the past founded a colony in North America, called [[New Sweden]], which contained parts of what are now [[Delaware]], [[New Jersey]], and [[Pennsylvania]], the [[United Kingdom]] in the past controlled the [[thirteen colonies]], which would later become the [[United States of America]], and also controlled [[Canada]], [[Jamaica]], [[Belize]], [[Antigua and Barbuda]], [[Trinidad and Tobago]], [[Barbados]] and other places in the Americas.
-== External links ==
-*[http://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/flags_of_the_americas.htm National Flags of the Americas and the Caribbean.]
-== References ==
-<references/>
-[[Category:Geography]]
-[[Category:Continents]]

Difference between revisions of "Americas"

Revision as of 14:17, January 24, 2010

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