North America is a continent entirely within the Northern Hemisphere and almost all within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, and to the southeast by South America and the Caribbean Sea. In 2013, its population was estimated at nearly 579 million people in 23 independent states, or about 7.5% of world’s population.
About North America in brief
North America is a continent entirely within the Northern Hemisphere and almost all within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, and to the southeast by South America and the Caribbean Sea. North America covers an area of about 24,709,000 square kilometers, about 16. 5% of the Earth’s land area and about 4. 8% of its total surface. In 2013, its population was estimated at nearly 579 million people in 23 independent states, or about 7.5% of world’s population, if nearby islands are included. The Americas are usually accepted as having been named after the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci by the German cartographers Martin Waldseemüller and Matthias Ringmann. Owing to Europe’s colonization of the Americas, most North Americans speak European languages such as English, Spanish or French, and their states’ cultures commonly reflect Western traditions. The United Nations formally recognizes North America as comprising three areas: Northern America, Central America, and The Caribbean. This has been formally defined by the UN Statistics Division. Geographically, the North American continent has many subregions and cultural, economic and geographic regions. These include those formed by those included in the Economic blocs, such as North American Trade Agreement and North American Linguistic blocs such as Greenland, Saint Pierre et Miquelon and Bermuda. The U.S., Canada, and Mexico are the three signatories of that treaty, with the Americas viewed as a six-continent model, with North America and North America comprising the United States, Canada, Mexico, and often Greenland and Saint Pierre and Miquelson.
In the limited context of the NorthAmerican Free Trade Agreement, the term covers Canada, the United. States, France, Portugal, Italy, Romania, and the countries of Latin America. The continent has been historically referred to by other names, and this was the first official name given to Mexico, North America was often referred to as Northern America. In 1538, Gerard Mercator used America on his map of the world for all the Western hemisphere. Some argue that because the convention is to use the surname for naming discoveries could be put in question. The name AMERICA or AMERRIQUE in the Mayan language means, a country of perpetually strong wind, or the Land of the Wind, and can mean… a spirit that breathes, life itself. The pre-Columbian era ended in 1492 with the beginning of the transatlantic migrations of European settlers during the Age of Discovery and the early modern period. In 1874, Thomas Belt proposed a derivation from the Amerrique mountains of Central America; the next year, Jules Marcou suggested that the name of the mountain range stemmed from indigenous American languages. Later, other mapmakers extended the name America to the northern continent. North America is the third-largest continent by area, following Asia and Africa,. and the fourth by population after Asia, Africa, and Europe.
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This page is based on the article North America published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 25, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
