Biography of north america

The History of North America encompasses the past developments of people populating the continent of North America. While it was commonly accepted that the continent first became inhabited by humans when individuals migrated across the Bering Sea 40,000 to 17,000 years ago, more recent discoveries may have pushed those estimates back at least another 90,000 years. People settled throughout the continent and, over time, developed into diverse communities, from the Inuit in the far north to the Mayans and Aztecs in the south. These complex communities each developed their own unique cultures and ways of life.

Records of European travel to North America begin with the Norse colonization in the 10th century AD. In 985, they founded a settlement on Greenland that persisted until the early 1400s. They also explored the east coast of Canada, but their settlements there were much smaller and shorter-lived. With the Age of Exploration and the voyages of Christopher Columbus (starting in 1492), Europeans began to arrive in the Americas in large numbers and develop colonial ambitions for both North and South America. An influx of Europeans soon followed Columbus and overwhelmed native populations as North America became a staging ground for ongoing European rivalries. The continent was divided by three prominent European powers: England, France, and Spain. The influence of colonization by these states on North American cultures is still apparent today.

Conflict over resources in North America ensued in various wars between these powers, but the new European colonies gradually developed desires for independence. Revolutions, such as the American Revolution and the Mexican War of Independence, created new, independent states that came to dominate North America. The Canadian Confederation formed in 1867, marking the beginning of the modern political landscape of North America.

North

We explore North America, and describe its physical and cultural characteristics. In addition, we discuss the economy, religion and history of this region.

What is North America?

North America is a region of the Americas stretching through the Northern and Western Hemispheres. It has an area of 9.54 square miles (24.7 million km²), and comprises Canada, the United States, Mexico, and Greenland, the world's largest island.

North America is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Gulf of Mexico and Central America to the south, the Pacific Ocean to the west, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. It has a population of about 500 million, which accounts for 6.2% of the world's total.

The division between North America, Central America, and South America was established based on the structural differences of the continent. The Americas are divided into two large continental landmasses triangular in shape which are joined by a narrow and elongated strip of land. The northern part receives the name of North America, the southern part is South America, and the isthmus that joins them is called Central America.

How did it get its name? The name "America" derives from Amerigo Vespucci, a Florentine navigator who was arguably the first to suggest that the whole landmass was an entirely new continent rather than an undiscovered part of Asia, as previously thought by Spanish, Portuguese, and English explorers.

Vespucci wrote several reports on his voyages, which were widely disseminated and read by explorers and cartographers of the time. In 1507, German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller included a new continent on his world map and named it "America" after Amerigo Vespucci.

Continent

"North American" redirects here. For other uses, see North American (disambiguation).Not to be confused with Northern America or Northern United States.

North America is a continent in the Northern and Western Hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Caribbean Sea, and to the west and south by the Pacific Ocean. The region includes the Bahamas, Bermuda, Canada, the Caribbean, Central America, Clipperton Island, Greenland, Mexico, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, the Turks and Caicos Islands, and the United States.

North America covers an area of about 24,709,000 square kilometers (9,540,000 square miles), representing approximately 16.5% of the Earth's land area and 4.8% of its total surface area. It is the third-largest continent by size after Asia and Africa, and the fourth-largest continent by population after Asia, Africa, and Europe. As of 2021, North America's population was estimated as over 592 million people in 23 independent states, or about 7.5% of the world's population. In human geography, the terms "North America" and "North American" can refe

The Vikings Discover the New World

The first attempt by Europeans to colonize the New World occurred around1000 A.D. when the Vikings sailed from the British Isles to Greenland, established a colony and then moved on to Labrador, the Baffin Islands and finally Newfoundland. There they established a colony named Vineland (meaning fertile region) and from that base sailed along the coast of North America, observing the flora, fauna and native peoples. Inexplicably, Vineland was abandoned after only a few years. 

Although the Vikings never returned to America, other Europeans came to know of their accomplishments. Europe, however, was made up of many small principalities whose concerns were mainly local. Europeans may have been intrigued by the stories of the feared Vikings’ discovery of a “new world,” but they lacked the resources or the will to follow their path of exploration. Trade continued to revolve around the Mediterranean Sea, as it had for hundreds of years.

The Reformation, the Renaissance and New Trade Routes

Between 1000 and 1650, a series of interconnected developments occurred in Europe that provided the impetus for the exploration and subsequent colonization of America. These developments included the Protestant Reformation and the subsequent Catholic Counter-Reformation, the Renaissance, the unification of small states into larger ones with centralized political power, the emergence of new technology in navigation and shipbuilding and the establishment of overland trade with the East and the accompanying transformation of the medieval economy.

The Protestant Reformation and the Catholic Church’s response in the Counter-Reformation marked the end of several centuries of gradual erosion of the power of the Catholic Church as well as the climax of internal attempts to reform the C