Misplaced Pages

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Corticopia (talk | contribs) at 17:11, 1 March 2007 (restoing NPOV edits, adding refs re Americas (V)). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

The Americas, also known as America, are the lands of the western hemisphere, composed of numerous entities and regions variably defined by geography, politics, and culture.

Geographical and geophysical regions

• North America – the continent and associated islands of the northern hemisphere and (chiefly) western hemisphere, lying northwest of South America and bounded by the Atlantic, Arctic, and Pacific Oceans
  • Middle America - the mid-latitudes of the Americas
    • Central America – the narrow southern portion of mainland North America connecting with South America, extending from the Isthmus of Tehuantepec to the Isthmus of Panama; alternatively, the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt delimits the region on the north.
    • Caribbean – the region between southeastern North America and northern South America consisting of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (most of which enclose the sea), and the surrounding coasts. The islands – comprised of the Greater Antilles, Lesser Antilles, and the Bahamas – are also known as the West Indies (or collectively known as the Antilles in some languages)
• South America – the continent and associated islands of the western hemisphere and chiefly in the southern hemisphere, lying between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and southeast of North America

Geopolitical regions

• North America - Canada, the United States, Mexico (sometimes Greenland, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, and Bermuda are included). Also, often just the United States and Canada together.
• Central America – the southern region of North America, comprised of Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama. Occasionally includes Mexico.
• West Indies – the island territories of the Caribbean
• South America – as above, excluding Panama

Overlapping units:

• Middle America – Mexico, the nations of Central America, and the Caribbean; sometimes includes Colombia and Venezuela.
• Middle America (US) – the midwestern United States or the middle-class segment of the U.S. population

United Nations geoscheme

• Northern America – the northern region of North America comprising Canada, the United States, Greenland, Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, and Bermuda.
• Latin America and the Caribbean:
  • Central America - defined as all the North American countries south of the United States.
  • Caribbean
  • South America - all the countries south of Panama.

Political divisions

• United States of America – a federal republic in North America founded in 1776 and comprising 50 states and one federal district (the District of Columbia), with several outlying territories of varying affiliation; commonly referred to as America
  • Confederate States of America – a confederation in North America from 1861 to 1865, comprising eleven southern states that seceded from the United States of America: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia. Their secession precipitated the American Civil War; upon its conclusion, the Confederate States were reunited with the United States.
• Federal Republic of Central America – formerly the United Provinces of Central America, a federal republic in Central America from 1823 to 1840 comprising the newly independent Spanish territories: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and (later) Los Altos. In 1838, the federation succumbed to civil war and dissolved.
• West Indies Federation – a federation of several Caribbean island colonies and territories of the United Kingdom (see also: British West Indies) from 1958 to 1962. This was followed by the West Indies Associated States, a smaller, looser polity, from 1967 to 1981.

Linguistic/cultural regions

• Anglo-America – the region of the Americas having significant historical, linguistic, and cultural links to England or the British Isles, e.g., where English (a Germanic language) is officially or primarily spoken; often just Canada and the United States
• Latin America – the region of the Americas where Romance languages derived from Latin, namely Spanish and Portuguese, are officially or primarily spoken
• Ibero-America – the region of the Americas and Europe having significant historical, linguistic, and cultural links to Spain or Portugal (both on the Iberian peninsula)
  • Hispanic America - those parts of the Americas inhabited by Spanish-speaking populations

• Middle America – a cultural region including all cultures south of the United States to the border of Colombia.
• Mesoamerica – a region of the Americas extending from central Mexico southeast to Nicaragua and Costa Rica; a term used especially in archaeology and ethnohistory for the region where an array of civilizations had flourished during the pre-Columbian era, and which shared a number of historical and cultural traditions.
  • Mesoamerican Linguistic Area – a sprachbund, or linguistic region, defined as the area inhabited by speakers of a set of indigenous languages which have developed certain similarities as a result of their historic and geographical connections; roughly co-terminate with the archaeological/ethnohistorical Mesoamerica.
• Aridoamerica – an archaeological/ethnohistorical regional division, essentially comprising the arid/semi-arid northern portion of present-day Mexico, whose historical peoples are generally characterised by a nomadic existence and minimal reliance on agriculture.
• Oasisamerica – an occasionally used archaeological/ethnohistorical term for a (pre-Columbian) cultural region of North America.

Sources

1. Nord-Amèrica, in Gran Enciclopèdia Catalana
2. North America The American Heritage Reference Collection
3. Crystal Reference Encyclopedia, "North America"
4. Burchfield, R. W., ed. 2004. "America." Fowler's Modern English Usage (ISBN 0-19-861021-1) New York: Oxford University Press, p. 48
5. McArthur, Tom. 1992."North American." The Oxford Companion to the English Language (ISBN 0-19-214183-X) New York: Oxford University Press, p. 707.
6. Fowler's, p. 48.
7. Dow, James W. 1999. The Cultural Anthropology of Middle America.

• The Columbia Gazetteer of the World Online. 2005. New York: Columbia University Press (proprietary; limited access).
• Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 11th ed. 2003. (ISBN 0-87779-809-5) New York: Merriam-Webster, Inc.
• Oxford English Reference Dictionary, 2nd ed. (rev.) 2002. (ISBN 0-19-860652-4) Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
• Composition of macro geographical (continental) regions, geographical sub-regions, and selected economic and other groupings. United Nations Statistics Division, Country and Region Codes.
• What's the difference between North, Latin, Central, Middle, South, Spanish and Anglo America? Geography at about.com.

See also

• Americas
• use of the word American
• Columbia
• continent, supercontinent, subcontinent, microcontinent, and continental shelf
• region, subregion, and trade block
• geography
  • physical geography
  • political geography and geopolitics
  • human geography and regional science

• Americas
• Geography (terminology)