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Geography. North America is the third largest of the seven continents. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. North America is dominated by its three largest countries: Canada, Mexico, and the United States.
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The Americas are usually accepted as having been named after the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci by the German cartographers Martin Waldseemüller and Matthias Ringmann. Vespucci, who explored South America between 1497 and 1502, was the first European to suggest that the Americas were not the East Indies, but a different landmass previously unkno...
The term North America maintains various definitions in accordance with location and context. In Canadian English, North America may be used to refer to the United States and Canada together. Alternatively, usage sometimes includes Greenland and Mexico (as in the North American Free Trade Agreement), as well as offshore islands. The UN geoscheme fo...
Geologic history
Laurentia is an ancient craton which forms the geologic core of North America; it formed between 1.5 and 1.0 billion years ago during the Proterozoic eon. The Canadian Shield is the largest exposure of this craton. From the Late Paleozoic to Early Mesozoic eras, North America was joined with the other modern-day continents as part of the supercontinent Pangaea, with Eurasia to its east. One of the results of the formation of Pangaea was the Appalachian Mountains, which formed some 480 million...
Pre-Columbian
The indigenous peoples of North America have many creation myths by which they assert that they have been present on the land since its creation. The specifics of Paleo-Indian migration to and throughout the Americas, including the exact dates and routes traveled, are subject to ongoing research and discussion. The traditional theory has been that these early migrants moved into the Beringia land bridge between eastern Siberia and present-day Alaska around 25,000 to 11,000 years ago. The few...
Colonial period
During the Age of Discovery, Europeans explored and staked claims to various parts of North America. Upon their arrival in the "New World", the Native American population declined substantially, because of violent conflicts with the invaders and the introduction of European diseases to which the Native Americans lacked immunity. Native culture changed drastically and their affiliation with political and cultural groups also changed. Several linguistic groups died out, and others changed quite...
North America occupies the northern portion of the landmass generally referred to as the New World, the Western Hemisphere, the Americas, or simply America (which, less commonly, is considered by some as a single continent with North America a subcontinent). North America's only land connection to South America is at the Isthmus of Panama. The cont...
Economically, Canada and the United States are the wealthiest and most developed nations in the continent, followed by Mexico, a newly industrialized country. The countries of Central America and the Caribbean are at various levels of economic and human development. For example, small Caribbean island-nations, such as Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago,...
Canada and the United States were both former British colonies. There is frequent cultural interplay between the United States and English-speaking Canada. Greenland shares some cultural ties with the indigenous people of Canada but is considered Nordic and has strong Danish ties due to centuries of colonization by Denmark. Spanish-speaking North A...
North America's GDP per capita was evaluated in October 2016 by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to be $41,830, making it the richest continent in the world, followed by Oceania. Canada, Mexico, and the United States have significant and multifaceted economic systems. The United States has the largest economy of all three countries and in the ...
Map of North America, from 1621The totality of North America seen by the Apollo 16 crew, with Canadabeing covered by cloudsCanada , the United States , and Mexico make up the largest part of the continent of North America. The countries of Central America also are part of the continent, and several islands, including the West Indies and Greenland , are associated with North America. It is third in size and fourth in population among Earth’s continents.
Geography of North America: Lesson for Kids. Explore the diverse geography of North America. Learn about the major bodies of water on and around the continent, temperature regions...
