Americas

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For other uses, see America (disambiguation).

The Americas

Area 42,549,000 km2

(16,428,000 sq mi)

Population 964,920,000[1]

GDP (nominal) $27.43 trillion[1]

GDP per capita $28,428[1]

HDI 0.736[2]

Demonym American,[3] New Worlder[4](see usage)

Countries 35

Languages Spanish, English, Portuguese, French, Haitian

Creole, Quechua, Guaraní, Aymara, Nahuatl, Dutch and many

others
 Time zones UTC−10:00 to UTC

Largest cities Largest metropolitan areas

Largest cities

List[show]

UN M.49 code 019 – Americas

001 – World

1990s CIA political map of the Americas in Lambert azimuthal equal-area projection

The Americas (also collectively

called America; French: Amérique, Dutch: Amerika, Spanish and Portuguese: América) comprise the
totality of the continents of North and South America.[5][6][7] Together, they make up most of the land in
Earth's western hemisphere and comprise the New World.
Along with their associated islands, they cover 8% of Earth's total surface area and 28.4% of its land
area. The topography is dominated by the American Cordillera, a long chain of mountains that runs the
length of the west coast. The flatter eastern side of the Americas is dominated by large river basins, such
as the Amazon, St. Lawrence River / Great Lakes basin, Mississippi, and La Plata. Since the Americas
extend 14,000 km (8,700 mi) from north to south, the climate and ecology vary widely, from the
arctic tundra of Northern Canada, Greenland, and Alaska, to the tropical rain forests in Central
America and South America.
Humans first settled the Americas from Asia between 42,000 and 17,000 years ago. A second migration
of Na-Dene speakers followed later from Asia. The subsequent migration of the Inuit into
the neoarctic around 3500 BCE completed what is generally regarded as the settlement by
the indigenous peoples of the Americas.
 The first known European settlement in the Americas was by the Norse explorer Leif
Erikson.[8] However, the colonization never became permanent and was later abandoned. The
Spanish voyages of Christopher Columbus from 1492 to 1502 resulted in permanent contact with
European (and subsequently, other Old World) powers, which led to the Columbian exchange and
inaugurated a period of exploration, conquest, and colonization whose effects and consequences persist
to the present.
Diseases introduced from Europe and West Africa devastated the indigenous peoples, and the European
powers colonized the Americas.[9] Mass emigration from Europe, including large numbers of indentured
servants, and importation of African slaves largely replaced the indigenous peoples.
Decolonization of the Americas began with the American Revolution in the 1770s and largely ended
with the Spanish–American War in the late 1890s. Currently, almost all of the population of the
Americas resides in independent countries; however, the legacy of the colonization and settlement by
Europeans is that the Americas share many common cultural traits, most notably Christianity and the use
of Indo-European languages: primarily Spanish, English, Portuguese, French, and to a lesser
extent Dutch.
The Americas are home to over a billion inhabitants, two-thirds of which reside in the United
States, Brazil, or Mexico. It is home to eight megacities (metropolitan areas with ten million inhabitants
or more): New York City (23.9 million), Mexico City (21.2 million), São Paulo(21.2 million), Los
Angeles (18.8 million), Buenos Aires (15.6 million),[10] Rio de Janeiro (13.0 million), Bogotá (10.4
million), and Lima(10.1 million).

Contents

 1Etymology and naming

 2History
o 2.1Settlement
o 2.2Pre-Columbian era
o 2.3European colonization
 3Geography
o 3.1Extent
o 3.2Geology
o 3.3Topography
o 3.4Climate
o 3.5Hydrology
o 3.6Ecology
 4Countries and territories
 5Demography
o 5.1Population
o 5.2Largest urban centers
o 5.3Ethnology
o 5.4Religion
o 5.5Languages
 6Terminology
o 6.1English
o 6.2Spanish
o 6.3Portuguese
o 6.4French
o 6.5Dutch
 7Multinational organizations
 8Economy
 9See also
 10Notes
 11References
 12Further reading
 13External links

Etymology and naming[edit]

Main article: Naming of the Americas

America is named after Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci.[11]

The name America was first recorded in 1507. Christie's auction house says a two-dimensional globe
created by Martin Waldseemüller was the earliest recorded use of the term.[12] The name was also used
(together with the related term Amerigen) in the Cosmographiae Introductio, apparently written
by Matthias Ringmann, in reference to South America.[13] It was applied to both North and South
America by Gerardus Mercator in 1538. America derives from Americus, the Latin version of Italian
explorer Amerigo Vespucci's first name. The feminine form America accorded with the feminine names
of Asia, Africa, and Europa.[14]
In modern English, North and South America are generally considered separate continents, and taken
together are called America[15][16][17] or the Americas in the plural. When conceived as a unitary continent,
the form is generally the continent of America in the singular. However, without a clarifying context,
singular America in English commonly refers to the United States of America.[17]
Historically, in the English-speaking world, the term America used to refer to a single continent until the
1950s (as in Van Loon's Geography of 1937): According to historians Kären Wigen and Martin W.
Lewis,[18]
While it might seem surprising to find North and South America still joined into a single continent in a
book published in the United States in 1937, such a notion remained fairly common until World War II.
[...] By the 1950s, however, virtually all American geographers had come to insist that the visually
distinct landmasses of North and South America deserved separate designations.
This shift did not seem to happen in Romance-speaking countries
(including France, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Romania, and the Romance-speaking countries of Latin
America and Africa), where America is still considered a continent encompassing the North
America and South America subcontinents,[19][20] as well as Central America.[21][22][23][24][25]

History[edit]
Main article: History of the Americas
Settlement[edit]
Further information on theories of Paleo-Indian migration: Settlement of the Americas

Map of early human migrations based on the Out of Africa theory.[26]

The first inhabitants migrated into the Americas from Asia. Habitation sites are known in Alaska and
the Yukon from at least 20,000 years ago, with suggested ages of up to 40,000 years.[27][28][29] Beyond that,
the specifics of the Paleo-Indian migration to and throughout the Americas, including the dates and
routes traveled, are subject to ongoing research and discussion.[30]Widespread habitation of the Americas
occurred during the late glacial maximum, from 16,000 to 13,000 years ago.[29][31]

Statue representing the Americas at Palazzo Ferreria, in Valletta, Malta

The traditional theory has been that these early migrants moved into the Beringia land bridge between
eastern Siberia and present-day Alaska around 40,000–17,000 years ago,[32] when sea levels were
significantly lowered during the Quaternary glaciation.[30][33] These people are believed to have followed
herds of now-extinct pleistocene megafauna along ice-free corridors that stretched between
the Laurentideand Cordilleran ice sheets.[34] Another route proposed is that, either on foot or
using primitive boats, they migrated down the Pacific coast to South America.[35] Evidence of the latter
would since have been covered by a sea level rise of hundreds of meters following the last ice
age.[36] Both routes may have been taken, although the genetic evidences suggests a single founding
population.[37] The micro-satellite diversity and distributions specific to South American Indigenous
people indicates that certain populations have been isolated since the initial colonization of the region.[38]
A second migration occurred after the initial peopling of the Americas;[39] Na Dene speakers found
predominantly in North American groups at varying genetic rates with the highest frequency found
among the Athabaskans at 42% derive from this second wave.[40] Linguists and biologists have reached a
similar conclusion based on analysis of Amerindian language groups and ABO blood group
systemdistributions.[39][41][42][43] Then the people of the Arctic small tool tradition a broad cultural entity
that developed along the Alaska Peninsula, around Bristol Bay, and on the eastern shores of the Bering
Strait around 2,500 BCE (4,500 years ago) moved into North America.[44] The Arctic small tool tradition,
a Paleo-Eskimo culture branched off into two cultural variants, including the Pre-Dorset, and
the Independence traditions of Greenland.[45] The descendants of the Pre-Dorset cultural group,
the Dorset culture was displaced by the final migrants from the Bering sea coast line the ancestors of
modern Inuit, the Thule people by 1000 Common Era (CE).[45] Around the same time as the Inuit
migrated into Greenland, Viking settlersbegan arriving in Greenland in 982 and Vinland shortly
thereafter, establishing a settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows, near the northernmost tip
of Newfoundland.[46] The Viking settlers quickly abandoned Vinland, and disappeared from Greenland
by 1500.[47]
Pre-Columbian era[edit]
Main article: Pre-Columbian era

Parkin Site, a Mississippian site in Arkansas, circa 1539

The pre-Columbian era incorporates all period subdivisions in the history and prehistory of the
Americas before the appearance of significant European influences on the American continents,
spanning the time of the original settlement in the Upper Paleolithic to European colonization during
the Early Modern period. The term Pre-Columbian is used especially often in the context of the
great indigenous civilizations of the Americas, such as those of Mesoamerica (the Olmec, the Toltec,
the Teotihuacano, the Zapotec, the Mixtec, the Aztec, and the Maya) and
the Andes (Inca, Moche, Muisca, Cañaris).
Many pre-Columbian civilizations established characteristics and hallmarks which included permanent
or urban settlements, agriculture, civic and monumental architecture, and complex societal hierarchies.
Some of these civilizations had long faded by the time of the first permanent European arrivals (c. late
15th–early 16th centuries), and are known only through archeological investigations. Others were
contemporary with this period, and are also known from historical accounts of the time. A few, such as
the Maya, had their own written records. However, most Europeans of the time viewed such texts as
pagan, and much was destroyed in Christian pyres. Only a few hidden documents remain today, leaving
modern historians with glimpses of ancient culture and knowledge.[48]
European colonization[edit]
Main article: European colonization of the Americas
Christopher Columbus leads expedition to the New World, 1492.

Although there had been previous trans-oceanic contact, large-scale European colonization of the
Americas began with the first voyage of Christopher Columbus in 1492. The first Spanish settlement in
the Americas was La Isabela in northern Hispaniola. This town was abandoned shortly after in favor
of Santo Domingo de Guzmán, founded in 1496, the oldest American city of European foundation. This
was the base from which the Spanish monarchy administered its new colonies and their expansion. Santo
Domingo was subject to frequent raids by English and French pirates. On the continent, Panama City on
the Pacific coast of Central America, founded on August 15, 1519, played an important role, being the
base for the Spanish conquest of South America. The spread of new diseases brought by Europeans and
Africans killed many of the inhabitants of North America and South America,[49][50] with a
general population crash of Native Americansoccurring in the mid-16th century, often well ahead of
European contact.[51] European immigrants were often part of state-sponsored attempts to found colonies
in the Americas. Migration continued as people moved to the Americas fleeing religious persecution or
seeking economic opportunities. Millions of individuals were forcibly transported to the Americas
as slaves, prisoners or indentured servants.

Map showing the dates of independence from European powers. Black signifies areas that are dependent
territories or parts of countries with a capital outside the Americas.

Decolonization of the Americas began with the American Revolution and the Haitian Revolution in the
late 1700s. This was followed by numerous Latin American wars of independence in the early 1800s.
Between 1811 and 1825, Paraguay, Argentina, Chile, Gran Colombia, the United Provinces of Central
America, Mexico, Brazil, Peru, and Bolivia gained independence from Spain and Portugal in armed
revolutions. After the Dominican Republic won independence from Haiti, it was re-annexed by Spain in
1861, but reclaimed its independence in 1865 at the conclusion of the Dominican Restoration War. The
last violent episode of decolonization was the Cuban War of Independencewhich became the Spanish–
American War, which resulted in the independence of Cuba in 1898, and the transfer of sovereignty
over Puerto Rico from Spain to the United States.
Peaceful decolonization began with the purchase by the United States of Louisiana from France in
1803, Florida from Spain in 1819, of Alaska from Russia in 1867, and the Danish West Indies from
Denmark in 1916. Canada became independent of the United Kingdom, starting with the Balfour
Declaration of 1926, Statute of Westminster 1931, and ending with the patriation of the Canadian
Constitution in 1982. The Dominion of Newfoundland similarly achieved partial independence under the
Balfour Declaration and Statute of Westminster, but was re-absorbed into the United Kingdom in 1934.
It was subsequently confederated with Canada in 1949.
The remaining European colonies in the Caribbean began to achieve peaceful independence well
after World War II. Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago became independent in 1962,
and Guyana and Barbados both achieved independence in 1966. In the 1970s,
the Bahamas, Grenada, Dominica, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines all became independent
of the United Kingdom, and Suriname became independent of the Netherlands. Belize, Antigua and
Barbuda, and Saint Kitts and Nevis achieved independence from the United Kingdom in the 1980s.

Geography[edit]
Further information: Geography of North America and Geography of South America

Satellite photo of the Americas

Extent[edit]
The Americas make up most of the land in Earth's western hemisphere.[52] The northernmost point of the
Americas is Kaffeklubben Island, which is the most northerly point of land on Earth.[53] The
southernmost point is the islands of Southern Thule, although they are sometimes considered part
of Antarctica.[54] The mainland of the Americas is the world's longest north-to-south landmass. The
distance between its two polar extremities, the Boothia Peninsula in northern Canada and Cape
Froward in Chilean Patagonia, is roughly 14,000 km (8,700 mi).[55] The mainland's most westerly point is
the end of the Seward Peninsula in Alaska; Attu Island, further off the Alaskan coast to the west, is
considered the westernmost point of the Americas. Ponta do Seixas in northeastern Brazil forms the
easternmost extremity of the mainland,[55] while Nordostrundingen, in Greenland, is the most easterly
point of the continental shelf.
Geology[edit]
South America broke off from the west of the supercontinent Gondwana around 135 million years ago,
forming its own continent.[56]Around 15 million years ago, the collision of the Caribbean Plate and
the Pacific Plate resulted in the emergence of a series of volcanoes along the border that created a
number of islands. The gaps in the archipelago of Central America filled in with material eroded off
North America and South America, plus new land created by continued volcanism. By three million
years ago, the continents of North America and South America were linked by the Isthmus of Panama,
thereby forming the single landmass of the Americas.[57] The Great American Interchange resulted in
many species being spread across the Americas, such as
the cougar, porcupine, opossums, armadillos and hummingbirds.[58]
Topography[edit]

Aconcagua, in Argentina, is the highest peak in the Americas

The geography of the western Americas is dominated by the American cordillera, with
the Andes running along the west coast of South America[59] and the Rocky Mountains and other North
American Cordillera ranges running along the western side of North America.[60] The 2,300-kilometer-
long (1,400 mi) Appalachian Mountains run along the east coast of North America
from Alabama to Newfoundland.[61] North of the Appalachians, the Arctic Cordillera runs along the
eastern coast of Canada.[62]
The largest mountain ranges are the Andes and Rocky Mountains. The Sierra Nevada and the Cascade
Range reach similar altitudes as the Rocky Mountains, but are significantly smaller. In North America,
the greatest number of fourteeners are in the United States, and more specifically in the U.S. state
of Colorado. The highest peaks of the Americas are located in the Andes,
with Aconcagua of Argentina being the highest; in North America Denali (Mount McKinley) in the U.S.
state of Alaska is the tallest.
Between its coastal mountain ranges, North America has vast flat areas. The Interior Plains spread over
much of the continent, with low relief.[63] The Canadian Shield covers almost 5 million km² of North
America and is generally quite flat.[64] Similarly, the north-east of South America is covered by the
flat Amazon Basin.[65] The Brazilian Highlands on the east coast are fairly smooth but show some
variations in landform, while farther south the Gran Chaco and Pampas are broad lowlands.[66]
Climate[edit]
Climate zones of the Americas in the Köppen climate classification system.

The climate of the Americas varies significantly from region to region. Tropical rainforest
climate occurs in the latitudes of the Amazon, American cloud forests, Florida and Darien Gap. In
the Rocky Mountains and Andes, dry and continental climates are observed. Often the higher altitudes of
these mountains are snow-capped.
Southeastern North America is well known for its occurrence of tornadoes and hurricanes, of which the
vast majority of tornadoes occur in the United States' Tornado Alley.[67] Often parts of the Caribbean are
exposed to the violent effects of hurricanes. These weather systems are formed by the collision of dry,
cool air from Canada and wet, warm air from the Atlantic.
Hydrology[edit]
With coastal mountains and interior plains, the Americas have several large river basins that drain the
continents. The largest river basin in North America is that of the Mississippi, covering the second
largest watershed on the planet.[68] The Mississippi-Missouri river system drains most of 31 states of the
U.S., most of the Great Plains, and large areas between the Rocky and Appalachian mountains. This
river is the fourth longest in the world and tenth most powerful in the world.
In North America, to the east of the Appalachian Mountains, there are no major rivers but rather a series
of rivers and streams that flow east with their terminus in the Atlantic Ocean, such as the Hudson
River, Saint John River, and Savannah River. A similar instance arises with central Canadian rivers that
drain into Hudson Bay; the largest being the Churchill River. On the west coast of North America, the
main rivers are the Colorado River, Columbia River, Yukon River, Fraser River, and Sacramento River.
The Colorado River drains much of the Southern Rockies and parts of the Great Basin and Range
Province. The river flows approximately 1,450 miles (2,330 km) into the Gulf of California,[69] during
which over time it has carved out natural phenomena such as the Grand Canyon and created phenomena
such as the Salton Sea. The Columbia is a large river, 1,243 miles (2,000 km) long, in central western
North America and is the most powerful river on the West Coast of the Americas. In the far northwest of
North America, the Yukon drains much of the Alaskan peninsula and flows 1,980 miles
(3,190 km)[70] from parts of Yukon and the Northwest Territory to the Pacific. Draining to the Arctic
Ocean of Canada, the Mackenzie River drains waters from the Arctic Great Lakes of Arctic Canada, as
opposed to the Saint-Lawrence River that drains the Great Lakes of Southern Canada into the Atlantic
Ocean. The Mackenzie River is the largest in Canada and drains 1,805,200 square kilometers
(697,000 sq mi).[71]
The largest river basin in South America is that of the Amazon, which has the highest volume flow of
any river on Earth.[72] The second largest watershed of South America is that of the Paraná River, which
covers about 2.5 million km².[73]
Ecology[edit]
North America and South America began to develop a shared population of flora and fauna around 2.5
million years ago, when continental drift brought the two continents into contact via the Isthmus of
Panama. Initially, the exchange of biota was roughly equal, with North American genera migrating into
South America in about the same proportions as South American genera migrated into North America.
This exchange is known as the Great American Interchange. The exchange became lopsided after
roughly a million years, with the total spread of South American genera into North America far more
limited in scope than the spread on North American genera into South America.[74]

Countries and territories[edit]

See also: List of sovereign states and dependent territories in the Americas
There are 35 sovereign states in the Americas, as well as an autonomous country of Denmark,
three overseas departments of France, three overseas collectivities of France,[75] and one uninhabited
territory of France, eight overseas territories of the United Kingdom, three constituent countries of
the Netherlands, three public bodies of the Netherlands, two unincorporated territories of the United
States, and one uninhabited territory of the United States.[76]

Pop.
Languages
Area Population density
Country or territory [note 1] (official Capital
(km²)[77] (per
in bold)
km²)

Anguilla (United
91
Kingdom)