The division of the Americas – Hello friends, Sinaumed’s , if we talk about the area, the Americas are the 2nd largest continent in the world after the continent of Asia. If calculated, the total area of this continent is about 42.5 million square kilometers.
The Americas is one of the continents in the world which refers to the land area between the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean. The Americas is the second largest continent in the world after Asia, with an area of ± 42,292,000 km². This continent is usually divided into 3 namely North America, Central America and South America.
The term also refers to the Caribbean region, the islands that surround the Caribbean Sea and Greenland (but not Iceland). Central America is a narrow strip of land that connects North and South America. Astronomically, the Americas are located between 83° North – 55° South and 170° East – 35° West.
Geographically, the Americas are bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and the Bering Sea, on the east by the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, on the north by the Ice Sea and Davis Strait, and on the south by the Antarctic Sea. The name America is taken from the name of the European who discovered this continent, namely “Amerigo Vespucci”. Johannes Adrian is the discoverer of the Americas.
History of the Americas
According to the book “History of the Americas” by Umi Habibah and Bagus Muslih Aa’arif, Christopher Columbus set sail from Spain in 1492.
This sailor who was born in Genoa, Northern Italy, in 1451 finally landed on a continent that is now known as the Americas. Columbus discovered the Americas in South America on August 14, 1498.
But then the continent got its name America because it comes from one of the crew members of Columbus’s ship, Amerigo Vespucci. Amerigo Vespucci secretly wrote a more detailed account of America’s discovery. Then Amerigo moved two years ahead of the actual date given in Christopher Columbus’s voyage report to the King of Spain. Thus, Amerigo Vespucci is the recipient of the award for discovering the Americas. The name “Amerigo” itself was later enshrined in the name of the “America” continent.
Before Christopher Columbus, it turned out that the Europeans were the first to set foot on the mainland of the Americas. This can be shown by the existence of the Norse (Norway).
History records that the Norse sailed west from Greenland, where Red Eric founded a colony around 985. In 1001, Eric’s son, Leif Ericson, is said to have ventured to the northeastern coast of present-day Canada and spent a season there.
Leif Erikson was a Viking sailor who, centuries before Columbus, set foot in America. Evidence of this led to the belief that there were also several other Europeans who crossed the Atlantic Ocean in the period between Leif Ericson and Columbus.
In terms of history, Leif Ericson is not an important figure. Questions about his invention were never popular and were left unattended in America or Europe. On the other hand, the news of the discovery of the Americas by Christopher Columbus spread like lightning throughout Europe.
Just a few years after Columbus returned, many other expeditions arrived in the new world and the conquest and colonization began. This is a direct result of his discovery.
Columbus in his quest to find a way from Europe to the East, stumbled on America which had a further impact on world history.
This discovery was the culmination of the discovery and colonization of a new world and a significant milestone in history. Columbus opened the door for Europeans on two continents to new colonies. The distribution of population and the provision of mineral resources and soil content, thereby changing the face of Europe.
At the same time, his discoveries also led to the destruction of Indian culture. In the long run, these discoveries created a new nation on the continent of the Western Hemisphere, which quickly distinguished itself from its native Indian peoples. In opening the door to a wider world on the American continent, Christopher Columbus was then known to have brought big changes to the nations of the old world.
Division of the Americas
The Continental Divide of the Americas (also known as the Continental Gulf of Division, Great Divide, or Continental Divide) is a mostly hilly, hydrographic divide of the Americas.
The continental divide extends from the Bering Strait to the Strait of Magellan and separates the watersheds that flow into the Pacific Ocean.
(1) Of the river systems flowing into the Atlantic Ocean (including those flowing into the Gulf of Mexico) namely the Caribbean Sea
(2) The river system that flows into the Atlantic Ocean terminates in the Arctic Ocean along the northern part of the Continental Divide.
Although there are many continental divisions in the Americas, the Greater Division is the most important because it follows the path of high peaks along the main mountains of the Rocky and Andes and is higher than any other literary hydrographic division.
Geographical Division of the Americas
The division of the Americas begins at Cape Prince of Wales, Alaska, the westernmost point of the Americas. The Divide then passes north of Alaska into the Yukon, then zigzags south into British Columbia through the Cassiar and Omineca Mountains and the Nechako Plateau in the north to Peak Lake north of Prince George and south of the settlement of Lake McLeod.
From there, the divider crosses the McGregor Plateau to the crest of the Rocky Mountains, follows the crest of the Canadian Rockies southeast to the 120th meridian west, then forms the boundary between southern British Columbia and south of Alberta.
This continental divide passes through the United States in northwestern Montana, on the border between Lake Waterton National Park and Glacier National Park. In Canada, the Separation Line forms the western boundary of Waterton Lakes National Park, and in the United States it divides Glacier National Park further south.
The Divide forms a backbone of the Rocky Mountain Front (Range Front) in the Bob Marshall Wilderness and continues south to Helena and Butte, then west through the settlements of Montana to cross the Anaconda-Pintler Wilderness to Bitterroot. The later reaches make up one-third of the eastern boundary of the states of Idaho and Montana.
The dividing line runs into Wyoming through Yellowstone National Park and continues southeast into Colorado to Grays Peak, the highest point in North America at 4,352 m (14,278 ft). The median then crosses US 160 south of Colorado at Wolf Creek Pass and is marked with a line. This divide continues south and west of New Mexico. Although the dividing line represents the ground elevation between watersheds, it does not necessarily follow the order or highest peak for each state or province.
Within Mexico the divide passes through Chihuahua, Durango, Zacatecas, Aguascalientes, Jalisco, Guanajuato, Queretaro, Mexico, Distrito Federal, Morelos, Puebla, Oaxaca, and Chiapas. In Central America, the divide runs through southern Guatemala, southwestern Honduras, western Nicaragua, west/southwest Costa Rica, and southern Panama.
The split then goes into South America, following the peaks of the Andes, passing through western Colombia, central Ecuador, western and southwestern Peru, and east from Chile (following the Chile-Bolivia and Chile-Argentina borders) to the south and south to Cape Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego.
In North America the Laurentian divide (or Northern Divide) is a less hilly dividing line, separating the Hudson Bay and the Arctic Ocean basin from the Atlantic basin.
The divide then separates the watersheds that flow into the Great Lakes and St. The Lawrence River (flows into the Atlantic) with its watershed flows into the Atlantic through the Missouri-Mississippi complex. Another secondary divide that runs along the Appalachian Mountains separates rivers that flow directly into the Atlantic Ocean from rivers that flow into the Mississippi River. The following is an explanation of each region based on the division of the Americas.
1. North America Region
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the North Atlantic Ocean to the east, the Caribbean Sea to the south, and the North Pacific Ocean to the west. This continent covers an area of 24,500,000 km² or about 4.8% of the earth’s surface.
As of 2016, its population is estimated at over 579 million people. It is the third largest continent in terms of area, after Asia and Africa, and fourth in terms of population, after Asia, Africa and Europe. Both North America and South America are named after Amerigo Vespucci, the European who first proposed the idea that America was not the same as the East Indies. He was the first European to discover the “New World”.
The only land link between North America and South America is the Isthmus of Panama. (For geopolitical reasons, all of Panama, including the eastern part of the Panama Canal, is also often considered part of North America.) According to some researchers, however, North America did not start from the Isthmus of Panama but from the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, a containment area considered Central America and is located on the Caribbean Plate.
Most people tend to call Central America North America because they consider it too small to be a continent in its own right. Greenland, although geographically part of North America and located on the same tectonic plate (the North American plate), is not considered politically part of the continent.
Below is a North American regional unit and consists of countries and their capitals, along with an explanation:
- Canada: Ottawa
- United States of America: New York
- Mexico: Mexico City
2. Central America Region
The second division of the Americas is the area of Central America. This area is a link between the northern and southern regions. Some claim that part of Mexico is part of this region but actually most of it belongs to North America.
Central American countries are usually located between Mexico and Colombia to the south. Some of the countries in this region include:
- Panama : Panama City (capital)
- Costa Rica : San Jose
- Honduran : Tegucigalpa
- Guatemala : Guatemala City
- El Salvador: San Salvador
- Suriname : Paramaribo
3. South America region
South America is a continent located between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans that is connected to North America by the Isthmus of Panama. The continent has an area of 17,840,000 km², is cut by the equator, and most of the continent’s landmass is located in the southern hemisphere.
The western part of the South American continent consists of the Andes mountains from north to south, while the eastern part of the continent is plains, mainly the Amazon basin, with dense tropical forests.
It is thought that South America was first settled by people who migrated from Asia across the Isthmus of Bering (now the Bering Strait) to North America and south to South America. Another allegation regarding migration to South America came from the southern part of the Pacific Ocean via the Oceania archipelago. South America has the fourth largest land area after Asia, Africa and North America, and the fifth largest population after Asia, Africa, Europe and North America.
In 2002 the unemployment rate in South America was 10.8%. Due to high inflation in most of South America, interest rates have also increased and investment has decreased. Interest rates are usually twice as high as in the United States. For example, interest rates in Venezuela are around 22-23% in Suriname. Except for Chile, which started in 1973 under Augusto Pinochet.
The South American Community of Nations is a planned free trade area on the continent to bring together the two existing free trade organizations; Mercosur and Andean Community.
In South America the gap between rich and poor is huge. In Venezuela, Paraguay, Brazil and many other South American countries, the richest 20% of people may own more than 60% of the nation’s wealth, while the poorest 20% of people own less than 5%. This difference is evident in many large cities in South America, where there are slums and shacks near skyscrapers and high-rise apartments.
- Brazil : Brasilia
- Argentina: Buenos Aires
- Chile : Santiago, Valparaiso
- Colombia: Bogata
- Paraguay: Asuncion
- Peruvian: Five
- Bolivia: La Paz
- Ecuador : Quito
America’s climate
In the Americas, in early summer, hot and dry winds blow north from the Gulf of Mexico. Then in winter, moist winds blow from the north with blizzards. Westerly winds blow across the west coast of the United States and southern Chile.
The westerly wind blows over the Andes and down into Patagonia. This wind is a dry wind that blows spears and meadows or savannas – steppes. In addition, the west coast region has a subtropical climate. The Southeastern and Northeastern Atlantic trade winds reduce rainfall throughout the year.
Meanwhile, the Amazon has a humid tropical climate. North America and Canada have an arctic climate. After that, Argentina has a temperate but dry climate. This is due to Argentina’s location in the rain shadow.
Furthermore, the climate of the American continent can be described by several climate zones. These climates are:
- The arctic or cold climate affects most of the northernmost part of the American continent.
- The temperate or subtropical climate mainly affects the southern regions of the arctic climate. In addition, it is also found at the mouth of the Mississippi River and around Cape Kennedy which is located in Florida. Tropical climates are found in Central America and parts of South America.
- Semi-desert and desert climates can be found in areas with rain or areas behind mountains.
- Continental or terrestrial climate around major lakes. Precisely east of the United States to the Canadian border.
- Marine climate along the north coast of the Pacific Ocean, west coast of Canada, United States and Chile. The steppe climate is a climate found as far east as the Rocky Mountains of Kanasa and on the Brazilian plateau located in South America.
- Dry climates are found in the western United States, especially in the Mojave Desert and the coast of Chile which is located in South America. In addition, these two areas are also found in the Western Rocky Mountains.
Closing
So here are the regions based on the division of the American continent with history and some examples of countries and their capitals. After reading and understanding the discussion above, we hope that your understanding and knowledge of the world’s continents will increase. If you still want to understand more about the Division of the Americas, you can read and buy the book at sinaumedia.com .
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