Americas

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Americas
Americas (orthographic projection).svg
Area 42,549,000 km2
Population 910,720,588 (July 2008 est.)
Pop. density 21/km2 (55/sq mi)
Demonym American
Countries 35
Dependencies 23
List of sovereign states and dependent territories in the Americas
Languages Spanish, English, Portuguese,
French, Quechua, Haitian Creole, Guaraní, Aymara, Dutch and many others
Time Zones UTC-10 to UTC

The Americas, or America,[1][2] (Spanish: América, Portuguese: América, French: Amérique, Quechua: Amirika, Guaraní: Amérika, Aymara: Amërika, Dutch: Amerika)[3] are lands in the Western hemisphere, also known as the New World. In English, the plural form the Americas is often used to refer to the landmasses of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions while the singular form America is primarily used to refer to the United States of America.[2][4][5] 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).

Contents

[edit] History

CIA political map of the Americas in an equal-area projection
Main article: History of the Americas

[edit] Settlement

For more details on theories of Paleo-Indian migration, see Models of migration to the New World.

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.[6] 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,[7] when sea levels were significantly lowered due to the Quaternary glaciation.[6][8] These people are believed to have followed herds of now-extinct pleistocene megafauna along ice-free corridors that stretched between the Laurentide and Cordilleran ice sheets.[9] Another route proposed is that, either on foot or using primitive boats, they migrated down the Pacific Northwest coast to South America.[10] Evidence of the latter would since have been covered by a sea level rise of hundreds of meters following the last ice age.[11]

Archaeologists contend that Paleo-Indians migration out of Beringia (eastern Alaska), ranges somewhere between 40,000 and 16,500 years ago.[12][13][14] The few agreements achieved to date are the origin from Central Asia, with widespread habitation of the Americas during the end of the last glacial period, or more specifically what is known as the late glacial maximum, around 16,000–13,000 years before present.[14][15]

The Inuit migrated into the Arctic section of North America in another wave of migration, arriving around 1000 CE.[16] Around the same time as the Inuit migrated into North America, Viking settlers began arriving in Greenland in 982 and Vinland shortly thereafter, establishing a settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows, near the northernmost tip of Newfoundland.[17] The Viking settlers quickly abandoned Vinland, and disappeared from Greenland by 1500.[18]

[edit] Pre-Columbian era

Main article: Pre-Columbian era
Mississippian site in Arkansas, Parkin Site, circa 1539. Illustration by Herb Roe.

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.

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 archaeological 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 heretical, and much was destroyed in Christian pyres. Only a few hidden documents remain today, leaving modern historians with glimpses of ancient culture and knowledge.[19]

According to both indigenous American and European accounts and documents, American civilizations at the time of European encounter possessed many impressive accomplishments. For instance, the Aztecs built one of the most impressive cities in the world, Tenochtitlan, the ancient site of Mexico City, with an estimated population of 200,000. American civilizations also displayed impressive accomplishments in astronomy and mathematics.[20]

[edit] European colonization of the Americas

Main article: European colonization of the Americas

Large-scale European colonization of the Americas began shortly after the voyages of Christopher Columbus starting in 1492. The first Spanish settlement on the continent was Panama City on the Pacific coast of Central America founded on August 5, 1519. Panama City was the base for the Spanish conquering of South America. The spread of new diseases brought by Europeans and Africans killed many of the inhabitants of North America and South America,[21][22] with a general population crash of Native Americans occurring in the mid-16th century, often well ahead of European contact.[23] Native peoples and European colonizers came into widespread conflict, resulting in what David Stannard has called a genocide of the indigenous populations.[24] Early 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.

[edit] Etymology and naming

World map of Waldseemüller, which first named America (in the map over Paraguay), Germany, 1507

The earliest known use of the name America for this landmass dates from April 25, 1507, where it was used for what is now known as South America. It first appears on a small globe map with twelve time zones, together with the largest wall map made to date, both created by the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller in Saint-Dié-des-Vosges in France. These were the first maps to show the Americas as a land mass separate from Asia. An accompanying book, Cosmographiae Introductio, anonymous but apparently written by Waldseemüller's collaborator Matthias Ringmann,[25] states, "I do not see what right any one would have to object to calling this part [that is, the South American mainland], after Americus who discovered it and who is a man of intelligence, Amerigen, that is, the Land of Americus, or America: since both Europa and Asia got their names from women". Americus Vespucius is the Latinized version of the Florentine explorer Amerigo Vespucci's name, and America is the feminine form of Americus. Amerigen is explained as Amerigo plus gen, the accusative case of the Greek word for 'earth', and meaning 'land of Amerigo'.[25] (See etymology.) Amerigo itself is an Italian form of the medieval Latin Emericus (see also Saint Emeric of Hungary), which through the German form Heinrich (in English, Henry) derived from the Germanic name Haimirich.[26]

Vespucci was apparently unaware of the use of his name to refer to the new landmass, as Waldseemüller's maps did not reach Spain until a few years after his death.[25] Ringmann may have been misled into crediting Vespucci by the widely published Soderini Letter, a sensationalized version of one of Vespucci's actual letters reporting on the mapping of the South American coast, which glamorized his discoveries and implied that he had recognized that South America was a continent separate from Asia; in fact, it is not known what Vespucci believed on this count, and he may have died believing what Columbus had, that they had reached the East Indies in Asia rather than a new continent.[27] Spain officially refused to accept the name America for two centuries, saying that Columbus should get credit, and Waldseemüller's later maps, after he had ceased collaboration with Ringmann, did not include it; however, usage was established when Gerardus Mercator applied the name to the entire New World in his 1538 world map. Acceptance may have been aided by the "natural poetic counterpart" that the name America made with Asia, Africa, and Europa.[25]

Map of America by Jonghe, c. 1770

[edit] Geology

South America broke off from the west of the supercontinent Gondwanaland around 135 million years ago (Ma), forming its own continent.[28] Starting around 15 Ma, 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 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.[29]

[edit] Geography

Further information: Geography of North America and Geography of South America

[edit] Extent

The northernmost point of the Americas is Kaffeklubben Island, which is the northernmost point of land on Earth.[30] The southernmost point is the islands of Southern Thule, although they are sometimes considered part of Antarctica.[31] The easternmost point is Nordostrundingen. The westernmost point is Attu Island.

The mainland of the Americas is the longest north-to-south landmass on Earth. At its longest, it stretches roughly 14,000 kilometres, (just under 8700 miles) from the Boothia Peninsula in northern Canada to Cape Froward in Chilean Patagonia. The westernmost point of the mainland of the Americas is the end of the Seward Peninsula in Alaska, while Ponta do Seixas in northeastern Brazil forms the mainland's easternmost extremity.[32]

[edit] Topography

Aconcagua, the highest mountain in the Americas, located in Argentina

The western geography of the Americas is dominated by the American cordillera, with the Andes running along the west coast of South America[33] and the Rocky Mountains and other Western Cordillera ranges running along the western side of North America.[34] The 2300 km long (1429 mile long) Appalachian Mountains run along the east coast of North America from Alabama to Newfoundland.[35] North of the Appalachians, the Arctic Cordillera runs along the eastern coast of Canada.[36]

Between its coastal mountain ranges, North America has vast flat areas. The Interior Plains spread over much of the continent with low relief.[37] The Canadian Shield covers almost 5 million km² of North America and is generally quite flat.[38] Similarly, the north-east of South America is covered by the flat Amazon Basin.[39] The Brazilian Highlands on the east coast are fairly smooth but show some variations in landform, while further south the Gran Chaco and Pampas are broad lowlands.[40]

[edit] Hydrology

With coastal mountains and interior plains, the Americas have several large river basins that drain the continents. The largest river basin in South America is that of the Amazon, which has the highest volume flow of any river on Earth.[41] The largest river basin in North America is that of the Mississippi, covering the second largest watershed on the planet.[42] The second largest watershed of South America is that of the Paraná River, which covers about 2.5 million km².[43]

[edit] Demography

[edit] Population

Further information: List of sovereign states and dependent territories in the Americas by population
Mexico City, Mexico
New York City, United States

The total population of the Americas is about 859,000,000 people and is divided as follows:[citation needed]

[edit] Largest urban centers

See also: Largest cities in the Americas and List of metropolitan areas in the Americas by population

The most populous cities in the Americas are Mexico City, capital of Mexico; New York City, largest city in the United States; and São Paulo, largest city proper in Brazil and the Americas. These urban centers each hold titles for being the largest due to varying criteria. Factors such as the city proper, metropolitan area, and urban agglomeration concepts are used in determining population.

City Country Metropolitan Area Rank City Proper Rank
Mexico City  Mexico 20,137,152 1st 8,851,080 2nd
New York City  United States 18,897,109 2nd 8,175,133 3rd
São Paulo  Brazil 19,672,582 3rd 11,244,369 1st

[edit] Ethnology

Ethnic Groups in the Americas

The population of the Americas is made up of the descendants of seven large ethnic groups and their combinations.

The majority of the population live in Latin America, named for its predominant cultures whose roots lie in Latin Europe (including the two dominant languages, Spanish and Portuguese, both neolatin), more specifically in the Iberian nations of Portugal and Spain (hence the use of the term Ibero-America as a synonym). Latin America is typically contrasted with Anglo-America (where English, a Germanic language, is prevalent) which comprises Canada (with the exception of francophone Canada rooted in Latin Europe (France): see Québec and Acadia) and the United States. Both are located in North America and present predominantly Anglo-Saxon and Germanic roots.

[edit] Religion

The most prevalent faiths in the Americas are as follows:

Other faiths include Sikhism; Buddhism; Hinduism; Bahá'í; a wide variety of indigenous religions, many of which can be categorized as animistic; new age religions and many African and African-derived religions. Syncretic faiths can also be found throughout the continent.

[edit] Languages

Main articles: Indigenous languages of the Americas, Languages of North America, and Languages of South America
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Languages spoken in the Americas

Various languages are spoken in the Americas. Some are of European origin, others are spoken by indigenous peoples or are the mixture of various idioms like the different creoles.

The dominant language of Latin America is Spanish, though the largest nation in Latin America, Brazil, speaks Portuguese. Small enclaves of French-, Dutch- and English-speaking regions also exist in Latin America, notably in French Guiana, Suriname and Belize respectively, and Haitian Creole, of French origin, is dominant in the nation of Haiti. Native languages are more prominent in Latin America than in Anglo-America, with Nahuatl, Quechua, Aymara and Guaraní as the most common. Various other native languages are spoken with less frequency across both Anglo-America and Latin America. Creole languages other than Haitian Creole are also spoken in parts of Latin America.

The dominant language of Anglo-America, as the name suggests, is English. French is also official in Canada, where it is the predominant language in Québec and an official language in New Brunswick along with English. It is also an important language in the U.S. state of Louisiana, and in parts of New Hampshire, Maine, and Vermont. Spanish has kept an ongoing presence in the Southwestern United States, which formed part of the Viceroyalty of New Spain, especially in California and New Mexico, where a distinct variety of Spanish spoken since the 17th century has survived. It has more recently become widely spoken in other parts of the United States due to heavy immigration from Latin America. High levels of immigration in general have brought great linguistic diversity to Anglo-America, with over 300 languages known to be spoken in the United States alone, but most languages are spoken only in small enclaves and by relatively small immigrant groups.

The nations of Guyana, Suriname, and Belize are generally considered not to fall into either Anglo-America or Latin America due to lingual differences with Latin America, geographic differences with Anglo-America, and cultural and historical differences with both regions; English is the primary language of Guyana and Belize, and Dutch is the official and written language of Suriname.

Most of the non-native languages have, to different degrees, evolved differently from the mother country, but are usually still mutually intelligible. Some have combined, however, which has even resulted in completely new languages, such as Papiamento, which is a combination of Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch (representing the respective colonizers), native Arawak, various African languages, and, more recently English. Portuñol, a mixture of Portuguese and Spanish, is spoken in the border regions of Brazil and neighboring Spanish-speaking countries.[64] More specifically, Riverense Portuñol is spoken by around 100,000 people in the border regions of Brazil and Uruguay. Due to immigration, there are many communities where other languages are spoken from all parts of the world—especially in the United States, Brazil, Argentina and Canada, four very important destinations for immigrants— and half of the population of Uruguay is thought to be of Italian descent.

[edit] Terminology

Subdivisions of the Americas
Map Legend
LocationNSAm.png
  North America (NA)
  South America (SA)
  May be included in
       either NA or SA
LocationNSAm2.png
  North America (NA)
  May be included in NA
  Central America
  Caribbean
  South America
LocationNSAm3.png
  North America (NA)
  May be included in NA

       Northern America

  Middle America (MA)
  Caribbean (may be
        included in MA)
  South America (SA)
  May be included
        in MA or SA
LocationNSAngloLatin.png
  Anglo-America (A-A)
  May be included in A-A
  Latin America (LA)
  May be included in LA
Further information: Americas (terminology)

[edit] America/Americas

Use of the word America to refer to the relevant lands and regions of the Western hemisphere remains fairly common;[65] for example, for unofficial purposes the International Olympic Committee considers "America" one of the five populated continents, as represented by the five rings on the Olympic flag.[66]

People in the United States of America generally refer to the landmasses of North America and South America as (the) Americas (plural and generally with the definite article), to US citizens as Americans and the United States as America.[48][67] Since the 19th century, this sense is primary in English, not without uncertainties.[5] However, use of the term in this context may cause offense to people from Canada and Latin America[68] and, thus, they avoid this usage and prefer constructed terms derived from United States or North America.[69][70][71] In Canada, its southern neighbor is often referred to as "the United States", "the U.S.A.", or (informally) "the States," while citizens are generally referred to as Americans.[70] English dictionaries and compendiums differ regarding usage and rendition.[72][73][74]

[edit] American

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Main article: American (word)

[edit] English usage

People unconnected with the United States rarely call themselves American. The English-speaking world normally uses the word to refer to a permanent resident of the United States of America, or a person born in the U.S. and identified with it. Canadians abroad typically resent being referred to as "Americans".[70]

[edit] Spanish usage

The Spanish American colonies at their maximum extent (after the Peace of Paris, 1783)

In Spanish, América is the name of a single continent composed of the subcontinents of Sudamérica and Norteamérica, the land bridge of Centroamérica, and the islands of the Antillas. Americano/a in Spanish refers to a person from América in a similar way that europeo or europea refers to a person from Europa. The terms sudamericano/a, centroamericano/a, antillano/a and norteamericano/a can be used to more specifically refer to the location where a person may live.

Citizens of the United States of America are normally referred to by the term estadounidense (rough literal translation: "United-Statesian") instead of americano or americana, and the country's name itself is often translated as Estados Unidos de América (United States of America). Also, the term norteamericano (North American) may refer to a citizen of the United States. This term is primarily used to refer to citizens of the United States, rarely those of other North American countries.[75]

[edit] Portuguese usage

In Portuguese, the word americano refers to the whole of the Americas. But, in Brazil and Portugal, it is widely used to refer to the citizens of the United States. The least ambiguous terms, estadunidense (used in Brazil, something like "United Statesian" or "estadounidense" in Spanish), and "ianque"—the Portuguese version of "Yankee"—are rarely used. América, however, is rarely used as synonym to the country, and almost never in print and in more formal environments, where the US is called either Estados Unidos da América (i.e. United States of America) or simply Estados Unidos (i.e. United States). There is some difference between the usage of these words in Portugal and in Brazil, with the Portuguese being more prone to apply the term América to the country.

[edit] French usage

In French, as in English, the word américain can be confusing as it can be used to refer either to the United States, or to the American continents.

The noun Amérique sometimes refers to the whole as one continent, and sometimes two continents, southern and northern; the United States is generally referred to as les États-Unis d'Amérique, les États-Unis, or les USA. However, the use of Amérique to refer to the United States does still have some currency in France.

The adjective américain is most often used for things relating to the United States; however, it may also be used for things relating to the American continents. Books by United States authors translated from English are often described as "traduit de l'américain".

Things relating to the United States can be referred to without ambiguity by the words états-unien, étasunien, or étatsunien, although this usage is rare.

[edit] Dutch usage

In Dutch, the word Amerika mostly refers to the United States. Although the United States is equally often referred to as de Verenigde Staten or de VS, Amerika relatively rarely refers to the Americas, but it is the only commonly used Dutch word for the Americas. This often leads to ambiguity and to stress that something concerns the Americas as a whole, Dutch uses a combination, namely Noord- en Zuid-Amerika (North and South America).

Latin America is generally referred to as Latijns Amerika or, less frequently, Zuid-Amerika (South America).

The adjective amerikaans is most often used for things or people relating to the United States. There are no alternative words to distinguish between things relating to the United States or to the Americas. Dutch uses the local alternative for things relating to elsewhere in the Americas, such as Argentijns for Argentine, etc.

[edit] Russian usage

In the 19th century in Russia the word "America" was used for a traditional continent such as Europe and Asia. In the 20th century these traditional continents are known as "parts of the world". Now the term "continent" means any of six large continuous landmasses (Eurasia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, and Australia). Now the word Ameriсa refers to the United States more often than to America as a "part of the world". There is no term equivalent to "Americas" in Russian.

[edit] Countries and territories

See also: List of countries and territories in the Americas
Map showing the dates of independence from European powers. Black signifies areas that are dependent territories of countries considered non-American

[edit] Sovereign states

There are 35 sovereign states in the Americas, 23 in North America and 12 in South America:

[edit] Overseas regions, dependencies, colonies

The following is a list of overseas regions, dependencies and other polities in the Americas that do not fall into the category "sovereign states". They are grouped under the states that control them.

 Denmark


 France

 United Kingdom

 Netherlands


 United States

[edit] Multinational organizations in the Americas

[edit] See also

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ america - Definition from the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. Retrieved on January 27, 2008.
  2. ^ a b america. Dictionary.com. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/america (accessed: January 27, 2008).
  3. ^ Source for translations is Geonames. "Continents". Fröhlich, Werner. http://www.geonames.de/land.html#ame. Retrieved 2010-10-07. 
  4. ^ Marjorie Fee and Janice MacAlpine, Oxford Guide to Canadian English Usage (2008) page 36 says "In Canada, American is used almost exclusively in reference to the United States and its citizens." Likewise, The New Zealand Oxford Dictionary, The Canadian Oxford Dictionary, The Australian Oxford Dictionary and The Concise Oxford English Dictionary all specify the USA in their definition of "America".
  5. ^ a b "America." The Oxford Companion to the English Language (ISBN 0-19-214183-X). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: Oxford University Press, p. 33: "[16c: from the feminine of Americus, the Latinized first name of the explorer Amerigo Vespucci (1454-1512). A claim is also made for the name of Richard Ameryk, sheriff of Bristol and patron of John Cabot (Giovanni Caboto), the 16c Anglo-Italian explorer of North America. The name America first appeared on a map in 1507 by the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller, referring to the area now called Brazil]. Since the 16c, a name of the western hemisphere, often in the plural Americas and more or less synonymous with the New World. Since the 18c, a name of the United States of America. The second sense is now primary in English: ... However, the term is open to uncertainties: ..."
  6. ^ a b "Atlas of the Human Journey-The Genographic Project". National Geographic Society.. 1996-2008. https://genographic.nationalgeographic.com/genographic/atlas.html?era=e003. Retrieved 2009-10-06. 
  7. ^ Wells, Spencer; Read, Mark (2002) (Digitised online by Google books). The Journey of Man - A Genetic Odyssey. Random House. pp. 138–140. ISBN 0-8129-7146-9. http://books.google.com/books?id=WAsKm-_zu5sC&lpg=PP1&dq=The%20Journey%20of%20Man&pg=PA138#v=onepage&q&f=true. Retrieved 2009-11-21. 
  8. ^ Fitzhugh, Drs. William; Goddard, Ives; Ousley, Steve; Owsley, Doug; Stanford., Dennis. "Paleoamerican". Smithsonian Institution Anthropology Outreach Office. http://www.si.edu/Encyclopedia_SI/nmnh/origin.htm. Retrieved 2009-01-15. 
  9. ^ "The peopling of the Americas: Genetic ancestry influences health". Scientific American. http://www.physorg.com/news169474130.html. Retrieved 2009-11-17. 
  10. ^ "Alternate Migration Corridors for Early Man in North America". American Antiquity, Vol. 44, No. 1 (Jan., 1979), p2. http://archaeology.about.com/gi/o.htm?zi=1/XJ&zTi=1&sdn=archaeology&cdn=education&tm=25&f=00&tt=13&bt=1&bts=1&zu=http%3A//www.jstor.org/stable/279189. Retrieved 2009-11-17. 
  11. ^ "68 Responses to “Sea will rise ‘to levels of last Ice Age’”". Center for Climate Systems Research, Columbia University. http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2009/01/sea-will-rise-to-levels-of-last-ice-age/. Retrieved 2009-11-17. 
  12. ^ "Introduction". Government of Canada. Parks Canada. 2009. http://www.pc.gc.ca/eng/docs/r/pfa-fap/sec1.aspx. Retrieved 2010-01-09. "Canada's oldest known home is a cave in Yukon occupied not 12,000 years ago like the U.S. sites, but at least 20,000 years ago" 
  13. ^ "Pleistocene Archaeology of the Old Crow Flats". Vuntut National Park of Canada. 2008. http://yukon.taiga.net/vuntutrda/archaeol/info.htm. Retrieved 2010-01-10. "However, despite the lack of this conclusive and widespread evidence, there are suggestions of human occupation in the northern Yukon about 24,000 years ago, and hints of the presence of humans in the Old Crow Basin as far back as about 40,000 years ago." 
  14. ^ a b "Jorney of mankind". Brad Shaw Foundation. http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/journey/. Retrieved 2009-11-17. 
  15. ^ "A single and early migration for the peopling of the Americas supported by mitochondrial DNA sequence data". The National Academy of Sciences of the US. National Academy of Sciences. http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=20009. Retrieved 2009-10-10. 
  16. ^ "Canadian Inuit History". Canadian Museum of Civilization. http://www.civilization.ca/cmc/education/teacher-resources/oracles/first-peoples/dmorrison/canadian-inuit-history. 
  17. ^ "Vinland". Canadian Museum of Civilization. http://www.civilization.ca/cmc/education/teacher-resources/oracles/archaeology/rmcghee/vinland. 
  18. ^ "The Norse settlers in Greenland - A short history". Greenland Guide - The Official Travel Index. http://www.greenland-guide.gl/leif2000/history.htm. 
  19. ^ Mann, Charles C. (2005). 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus. New York: Knopf. ISBN 978-1-4000-4006-3. OCLC 56632601. 
  20. ^ Fernández-Armesto, Felipe (1987). Before Columbus: Exploration and Colonisation from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic: 1229-1492. New studies in medieval history series. Basingstoke, Hampshire: Macmillan Education. ISBN 0-333-40382-7. OCLC 20055667. 
  21. ^ Russell Thornton (1997). "Aboriginal North American Population and Rates of Decline, c.a. A.D. 1500–1900" (– Scholar search). Current Anthropology 38 (2): 310–315. doi:10.1086/204615. http://www.jstor.org/view/00113204/dm991519/99p0234k/0?currentResult=00113204%2bdm991519%2b99p0234k%2b0%2c7F&searchUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.jstor.org%2Fsearch%2FBasicResults%3Fhp%3D25%26si%3D1%26gw%3Djtx%26jtxsi%3D1%26jcpsi%3D1%26artsi%3D1%26Query%3DNative%2BAmerican%2BDisease%26wc%3Don. [dead link]
  22. ^ Alfred W. Crosby (April 1976). "Virgin Soil Epidemics as a Factor in the Aboriginal Depopulation in America". David and Mary Quarterly 33 (2): 289–299. JSTOR 1922166. 
  23. ^ Henry F. Dobyns (1993). "Disease Transfer at Contact". Annual Review of Anthropology 22 (22): 273–291. doi:10.1146/annurev.an.22.100193.001421. JSTOR 2155849. 
  24. ^ Staff. A review of American Holocaust: The Conquest of the New World (by David Stannard), on the website of the Oxford University Press (the publishers)
  25. ^ a b c d Toby Lester, December (2009). "Putting America on the Map". Smithsonian 40: 9. 
  26. ^ "Amerigo - meaning of Amerigo name". Thinkbabynames.com. http://www.thinkbabynames.com/meaning/1/Amerigo. Retrieved 2010-07-27. 
  27. ^ "UK | Magazine | The map that changed the world". BBC News. 2009-10-28. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8328878.stm. Retrieved 2010-07-27. 
  28. ^ Brian C. Story (28 September 1995). "The role of mantle plumes in continental breakup: case histories from Gondwanaland". Nature 377: 301–309. doi:10.1038/377301a0. 
  29. ^ "Land bridge: How did the formation of a sliver of land result in major changes in biodiversity". Public Broadcasting Corporation. http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/andes/bridge.html. 
  30. ^ Charles Burress (June 17, 2004). "Romancing the north Berkeley explorer may have stepped on ancient Thule". San Francisco Chronicle. http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/06/17/BAG4J779M31.DTL&type=science. 
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Look up americas in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
v · d · eCountries and territories of the Americas
Sovereign states Americas (orthographic projection).svg
Dependencies and
other territories
Denmark
France
Netherlands
United Kingdom
United States
v · d · eRegions of the world
Related Continents of the world · List of seas · Physical Earth
v · d · eContinents
See also Regions of the world

Coordinates: 19°00′N 96°00′W / 19°N 96°W / 19; -96

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Americas"
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