The Americas can be roughly divided into two major cultural regions Latin
America, which includes North America
south of the Rio Grande, the islands of the West Indies, and all of
South America; and Anglo-America, which includes Canada and the United
States. The term Middle America is sometimes used to
designate Mexico, Central America, and the West Indies
collectively.
The name America is derived from that of the Italian explorer and
friend of Christopher Columbus, Amerigo Vespucci, who
made several voyages
to the Western Hemisphere and, perhaps more important, described
his travels there in letters to friends in Italy. One of these letters,
published in 1504, used the term Mundus Novus (“New
World”) in referring to South America. The letter circulated from hand to
hand, and a copy reached the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller,
who was apparently unaware of Columbus’ voyage of 1498, during which he had
discovered the continent of South America
Waldseemüller included some of Vespucci’s writings in his
Cosmographiae introductio (1507; Introduction to Cosmography) and observed that
“another fourth part [of the inhabited earth] had been discovered by Americus
Vespucius,” and he suggested that the new land be called America, in
recognition of that explorer’s voyages. Waldseemüller’s book was widely
read, and the new appellation was eventually universally accepted
The Americas, or
America, are the lands of the Western Hemisphere or New World,
comprising the Continents of North America and South America with
their associated Islands and Regions. America may be ambiguous in
English, as it is more commonly used to refer to the United States
of America. The Americas cover 8.3% of the Earth's total surface
area (28.4% of its land area) and contain about 13.5% of the human
population (about 900 million people)
South America broke off from the west of the super continent
Gondwanaland around 135 million years ago (Ma), forming its own
continent. Starting around 15 Ma, the collision of the Caribbean
Plate and the Pacific Plate resulted in 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 3 Ma, the continents of North America and South
America were linked by the Isthmus of Panama, thereby forming the
single landmass of the Americas.
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