Americas

America

America is a double continent, which consists of North America ( Central America ) and South America. One can divide America into North, Central, and South America.

America extends its north -south axis from 84 degrees north latitude (Cape Morris Jessup ) to 56 ° South latitude ( Cape Horn ). This corresponds to about 15,000 km north to south. The easternmost point is on Greenland at 11 degrees west longitude and the westernmost also in North America on the 172 degrees east on the Aleuteninsel Attu. The double continent has a land area of about 43 million km ², which is slightly smaller than Asia. In America, over 900 million people.

Naming

The name America was the name of the Italian Amerigo Vespucci (1451-1512) derived, who discovered the mouth of the Amazon and the first of them wrote that the continent during the trans-Atlantic trips, discovered by Christopher Columbus India or Asia is not, but rather an independent continent could be.

As the Freiburg cartographer Martin Waldseemüller was working on a new edition of the Geographia of Ptolemy, whose colleague, the poet Matthias ring man, just Vespucci's travel reports had read and kept him falsely for the discoverer of the new world. Ring man wrote the accompanying publication for Waldseemüller drawn map, which appeared together with her on April 25, 1507 under the title Cosmographiae Introductio. In it he wrote:

" [I ] ch do not see why not ( this part of the world ) after the explorer Amerigo, a man of wise spirit, Amerige ', ie, the land of Americus or America would be called: because both Europe and Asia are names that derive from women. "

Copies of the map spread faster than Waldseemüller was able to correct the error. In its widest selections of work by 1513 the name "America" ​​no longer appeared, instead, he pointed out that the continent " by Christopher Columbus discovered on behalf of the king of Castile " had been. Until his death he wanted " the newly discovered continent, Brazil 'or' parrot country ' " call. Just a few years after the appearance of this card the experts spoke only of America, probably because this was a successful neologism. Subsequent attempts by other cartographers, to name the continent by Columbus, only led to the appointment of Colombia. The heirs of Columbus arrived in the 16th century by a court process that Columbus was enshrined as the discoverer of America.

Alternative designations of this continent are double Continent, Western Hemisphere, New World, Overseas (inaccurate), West festivals ( obsolete), fourth continent (deprecated; counted from a European point of view), West Indies ( outdated, still for the Caribbean ).

The term "Indian " for the Native Americans was created by the error, if it were at the coast reached a part of Asia. In the Iberian world and in colonial America the continent was until well into the 18th century still called Indias, " The India ". The English term Indian can mean both "Indian" and "Indian ". To distinguish the Native Americans are usually called American Indians or Native Americans in Canada as Aboriginal or First Nations.

Subdivision

Classically, one divides the Americas on in North, Central and South America. This is also useful in plate tectonic terms, since North America mostly mostly on the South American plate and Central America rests on the North American Plate, South America on the Caribbean plate. Due to the political boundary-making that is not based on plate tectonics, but there are variations of this assignment.

North America

To North America include Greenland, Canada, USA, Mexico and several island states. From Cape Morris Jessup (Greenland 83 ° 39 ' n latitude) to the Isthmus of Darien (Panama 8 ° N. ), there are about 10,000 km. The highest peak of North America is located in Alaska, Mount McKinley ( 6,194 m). The Upper lake with an area of about 82,000 square kilometers, is the second largest lake in the world (after the Caspian Sea).

Central America

The portion south of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec is referred to as Central America. Central America along with the Caribbean islands is called Central America. Central America is generally not regarded as a separate continent, but regarded as belonging to the majority of North America.

In Central America, there are many active volcanoes on the Pacific coast. The Lago de Nicaragua has hundreds of islands, of which some are also active volcanoes. This lake was formed by volcanic enclosure from the Pacific Ocean, which have formed here by sharks and swordfish unique freshwater varieties. In Central America, the Panama Canal is located.

South America

More than half of South America 's tropical area. In the western area dominates the largest mountains in America, the Andes, the landscape. The highest mountain in both South America and the entire double continent is 6962.97 meters above the obvious to the Chilean border in the Argentine province of Mendoza, Aconcagua glaciated. The Andes caused by the subduction of the so-called Nazca plate under the South American plate. Along the very tectonically active western coast there is a chain of volcanoes that runs further south to the Tierra del Fuego volcano called and Geysirtundra out.

Between the Andes and the Pacific is the extremely arid Atacama Desert in northern Chile today.

In the northeast there is the hill country of Guiana and south of the Amazon basin with the Amazon, its countless tributaries, fertile flood plains and jungles. The Amazon carries a fifth of the fresh water flowing into the sea. The basin is bounded on the south by the highly weathered Brazilian highlands.

Anglo-Saxon and Latin American interpretation

In English-speaking North and South America are considered separate continents. "America" ​​is incorrectly (such as " America " in German ) used as a short form for the United States, while the double continent is referred to as "The Americas ". In Latin America and the Spanish and Portuguese-speaking Europe " América " is considered a continent.

Total American Organizations

There are few organizations such as the Organization of American States and the planned American Free Trade Agreement, relating to the entire double continent. Most American organizations and Covenants only affect Latin America and the Caribbean.