North America (also North America, Nordamerica or, although it is an
ambiguous name, North America) is the part of the American continent
located north of the Isthmus of Panama: in Italian geographical
literature, of Western Europe (excluding the Islands British) and Latin
America, is considered a subcontinent, forming part of the America
continent, while according to the geographical literature of English,
Chinese and Russian culture it would instead be a continent in its own
right.
Completely contained in the northern hemisphere, it is
bounded to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic
Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Caribbean Sea, to the
south and west by the Pacific Ocean. It covers an area of about 24709000
km² which corresponds to about 4.8% of the earth's surface and about
16.5% of the land surface. Considered as a continent, it is the third
largest in the world by surface area (after Asia and Africa) and the
fourth by population, after the two mentioned and Europe.
The
name North America is also used to refer only to the subcontinent
excluding Central America. If we make this distinction, of a
substantially political and not a geographical nature, North America has
a slightly smaller extension than the one described above and is bounded
to the south by the southern border of Mexico.
Canada - Located in the far north of the continent, Canada is famous for its great wilderness that stretches from the continent's central grasslands to rugged mountains and the frigid sparse islands of the Arctic. Although the British heritage is still breathed in the East, it is multiculturalism that characterizes this country; while the French legacy lives on in Quebec and thousands of immigrants have transformed Toronto and Vancouver into cosmopolitan cities.
Mexico - Born from the mixture of native American traditions and Spanish culture, Mexico today is home to a rich and varied culture, as well as a natural diversity. Mexico City, the largest city in the Western Hemisphere, presents a mix of Aztec ruins, colonial buildings and cosmopolitan life. While on the Atlantic coast there are world-famous resorts such as Cancun or Playa del Carmen, in the south of the country there are monumental pre-Columbian ruins such as Chichen Itza.
USA - With a culturally diverse population and a territory that stretches as far as Polynesia, the Caribbean, and the Arctic, the United States is one of the world's top tourist destinations. While the lights of the skyscrapers dazzle millions of tourists who visit New York or Chicago every day, others take advantage of unique natural landscapes such as the Colorado Canyon or Yellowstone Park. Meanwhile, the coasts of California, Florida and Hawaii receive millions of tourists to enjoy their beaches and entertainment centers.
Greenland - The largest island in the world, Greenland is surrounded by the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans. This semi-independent territory, under Danish guardianship, is covered almost entirely by ice, which gives you the opportunity to appreciate some beautiful polar landscapes and native animals such as bears, reindeer and whales, as well as learn about a culture that has persisted for centuries in harsh conditions. climatic and geographical.
Atlantic Territories - Two small dependent territories lie on the Atlantic. Bermuda is a small archipelago under British administration, popular for its beautiful beaches that receive millions of visitors each year. The French territory of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, by contrast, is an out-of-the-way destination, with few inhabitants dedicated primarily to fishing.
Toronto - the largest city in the country , a cosmopolitan melting
pot with ethnic enclaves and cultural attractions galore.
Banff-important tourist center, surrounded by mountains, being very
sought after also by those who practice adventure sports.
Montreal-centre of Commerce, aerospace technology, finance,
pharmaceuticals, technology, design, education, culture, tourism,
games, film and world affairs.
Ottawa - political and
technological capital of Canada.
Quebec-has vast natural
resources, among which numerous rivers, lakes and many forests.
Vancouver-steel and glass condos; exceptional natural beauty where
you can ski and sit on the beach all in the same day.
Washington, D.C. - capital city with many cultural and historical
attractions.
Boston-the largest educational hub in the United
States.
Chicago-a major hub for the telecommunications,
transportation and infrastructure industries.
Las Vegas-famous
and Populous for its casinos.
Los Angeles-an American city known
for Hollywood and movie stars; mountains and beaches; and lots of
traffic.
Miami-tourist center, visited all year round by
tourists, for its warm climate and beaches.
New York-"The Big
Apple," the center of American commerce and culture, immortalized in
movies and music.
Orlando-the second largest city in the USA in
terms of tourist movement.
San Francisco-known for its cool
summer haze, steep hills, eclectic mix of Victorian and moderna
architecture and its famous historical landmarks including the
Golden Gate Bridge, the streetcars and Chinatown.
Mexico City-capital of Mexico, the third largest city in the world
full of museums, centuries-old architecture and Moderna amenities.
Havana-Cuba's capital in the Caribbean, famous for its cigars, its
strong Hispanic and Caribbean culture, and its legendary nightlife.
Nuuk-capital and largest city of Greenland.
Niagara Falls-three large waterfalls on the border between the
United States and Canada.
Chichen Itza - the largest
archaeological city of the pre-Columbian Mayan civilization on the
Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico.
Grand Canyon-a huge canyon in
Arizona, carved over several million years.
Banff National
Park-the first and one of the largest national park in Canada.
Yellowstone National Park - the first national park created in the
world, in the western United States.
Teotihuacan-the" city of the
gods " in Mexico, with some of the largest ancient pyramids in the
world.
Walt Disney World-the flagship of Disney's worldwide
network of theme parks near Orlando, Florida.
By plane
You can get to major cities in the USA and Canada by
direct flights from all other inhabited continents. Latin American
Airlines fly directly between Central and South America and Europe. You
can also fly directly to many of the Caribbean islands. The cheapest
flights and most destinations will be to the United States. Of the 15
largest airports in North America, only one is not in the United States,
Toronto-Malton. If you don't want to travel across the US to reach your
destination, there are services offered from major European and South
American hubs to major North American airports such as Mexico City,
Panama City and Punta Cana. Flying is the fastest and cheapest way to
get to North America.
By boat
It is possible to travel across
the Atlantic and Pacific oceans by ship, but these cruises tend to be
quite expensive compared to the plane, and infrequent. There are
crossings from South America to Central America and to the Caribbean.
There is still an old-style passenger ship that connects New York to
Southampton in the UK. So if you have the time and money and want to
come up with the style, as in the old days, it can certainly be done.
Terrestrial
Even though the Americas are physically connected,
there are no roads or railways between Panama and Colombia.
Theoretically, it is possible (but hopelessly dangerous) to walk through
the 100 km of jungle. If you want to take your vehicle with you, you
need to take a ship.
By plane
Because population centers are widely spaced, most
long-range travel is by air, with an extensive network of major and
regional (smaller) airports, usually supplemented with car rental
services to cover local travel when you arrive at your destination (see
"by car ").
By boat
North America contains a number of large
bodies of fresh water, whether the Great Lakes between Canada and the
U.S. or the various rivers that run through the continent, most of which
are widely used to transport goods and people. Cruising on small vessels
is certainly an option in the USA as it is the country with the longest
inland waterways in the world. Canada also offers a wealth of options
for owners or renters of small vessels.
By car
Most travel in
Canada, the United States and Mexico is by personal vehicle. Almost all
highways in Canada and the United States are well maintained, with gas,
food and lodging services ranging from adequate to very convenient.
Car rental agencies are available at almost every airport. A valid
driver's license and an international credit card or cash deposit are
usually required. Rentals are sometimes restricted to drivers under the
age of 25. Many agencies offer short-term insurance and additional
coverage.
By bus
There is abundant long-distance bus service
in most of the U.S. and Canada, but travel time is unreasonably long
(often substantially longer than a direct trip in a personal vehicle)
and stations tend to be poorly maintained and even more poorly
protected. Intercity buses generally travel only between major cities,
never to remote locations, and are limited or unavailable outside of
business hours. In Mexico, by contrast, bus service is extensive and a
common way to get around.
It is possible to travel by bus between
the three largest countries in North America. See "by bus" in the
article for a particular country, State / province, region, and / or
locality to learn more. The quality of service varies, and often,
corresponds to the size of the city.
The three main languages of North America are English, Spanish and
French.
The United States and Canada are majority
English-speaking countries. English is also spoken in many Caribbean
nations and in the Central American country of Belize. A Creole variety
of English is spoken by a minority along much of the Caribbean coast of
Central America, as well as some Caribbean islands, most notably
Jamaica, but it will take some getting used to and may be unintelligible
to speakers of the language in secondary language.
Mexico, most
of Central America (mostly the Pacific side), and portions of the
Caribbean are mostly Spanish-speaking. Spanish is also spoken as a first
language by a minority of people and second language by others in many
parts of the United States.
French plays a substantial role in
Canada-especially in Quebec, but also in parts of Ontario, Manitoba, and
New Brunswick - and an important role elsewhere, especially the
Caribbean (although in some countries a French Creole is more common,
such as Haitian Creole in Haiti).
Dutch is spoken in the southern
Caribbean islands that used to be part of the Netherlands Antilles.
Numerous indigenous languages are spoken by Native Americans and the
inuit peoples of North America, including Greenland. There are some
isolated communities in which only a few people speak more than the
indigenous language, and in Mexico the Nahuatl and Mayan languages are
having a kind of revival. Danish is spoken in most of Greenland.
There are many things to see in North America. There
are spectacular natural landscapes ranging from mountains and tundra to
deserts and rainforests. The Rocky Mountains (Rockies) are the largest
mountain range on the continent, which runs from northern Canada to the
southwestern United States. These mountains contain some of the most
visited national parks in the world, including the famous Yellowstone.
North American cities like New York, Chicago and Washington D.C. are
home to some of the best museums in the world. Stunning architectures
can be found from Panama City to Montreal.
North American
wildlife, with iconic species such as the grizzly bear, bison, Mustang
and bald eagle, is an attraction in itself.
Especially in the USA, team sports are the most appreciated and the ones that give the most audience in stadiums and on TV. In that order they are: American Football, Baseball, Basketball, Ice Hockey and soccer.
North America is known for manufacturing many
electronics, such as Apple, Hewlett Packard (HP) and Dell.
Many
North American cities have famous shopping districts, such as 5th Avenue
in New York, Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, and The Magnificent Mile in
Chicago. Downtown's shopping districts have spawned some of the world's
most famous retailers, including Macy's, Bloomingdale's, and Neiman
Marcus.
Many tourists enjoy shopping in the largest shopping
center in the United States, The Mall of America. It is located in
Bloomington, Minnesota, a suburb of Minneapolis. As well as having an
impressive number of shops, you'll also find a multi - screen cinema, an
amusement park and plenty of restaurants-including fast food. In
addition, the West Edmonton Mall in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada is a
popular destination, once considered the largest mall in the world.
Since the United States was populated by European
pioneers and later by immigrants from all over the world, the diversity
of its cuisine is immense. Many cosmopolitan cities (Chicago, Neor These
cities attract both celebrity chefs from around the world serving
world-class dishes in Michelin-starred restaurants, as well as various
ethnic groups offering inexpensive regional cuisines from their
homelands. Foreign cuisines have been adapted in many ways to suit
American palates and use local ingredients; for example, the United
States and Canada have several distinctive variations of pizza.
You'll want to try the foods of the region you're visiting: seafood in
San Francisco, lobster in Maine and Boston, steak in Te.
The
availability of fresh food is particularly evident in California, which
is also enjoying paramount importance in the organic food and "slo food
In Florida, you need to visit orange groves to enjoy freshly squeezed
fruits. Georgia is renowned for fresh peaches. States on the southern
border, such as Ne Me Meico
Canadian food, like that of the
United States, varies from region to region and is strongly influenced
by its immigrant culture. In general, you should think about seafood on
the coasts, meat and potatoes in the center of the country and
practically everything you can think of in large cosmopolitan cities.
Poutine, French fries covered in cheese curds and sauce, could be the
nation's favorite fast food snack.
The Caribbean is known for its
seafood and specialties such as chicken pollo
While Mexican
influence extends to North-Central American cuisine, countries like
Nicaragua or Costa Rica have their own distinct flavor, based primarily
on rice and beans that together make up gallo pinto (also known as
casamiento in other parts of Central America), a staple food you'll eat
at least once during your every visit, no matter how short.
Tourist
infrastructure
Hostels are often available in cities, although often
in undesirable places. If hostels are your usual choice of
accommodation, consider options such as theM Independent hotels and
international and regional hotel chains are widespread in both Canada
and the United States. Most hotel chains have free smartphone apps to
make planning easier and keep up with the itinerary while on the go. In
these countries, as well as in the main tourist regions of Mexico and
the Caribbean, high-speed Internet service is generally available,
although sometimes for an additional fee. Hotel chains also offer reward
and bonus programs for frequent travelers. Bed and breakfasts are
available in many cities and other popular tourist destinations. Camping
places are widely available, generally along highways or near lakes and
rivers, many require a small fee, so read the signs and get informed. In
the most populated U.S. national parks (em You may also encounter
difficulties with accommodations in small hotels just outside the parks
during peak season.
To really experience life in the United
States, a small bed and breakfast is the best way to go! Bed and
breakfasts, which are usually run by the owners who live in the same
building, will give you a better idea of what it means to "be an
American". Many of these owners have traveled a lot, read a lot, and
have a knowledge of their area to guide you to those unique experiences
in the United States.
Again, the influx of immigrants to North America
brought with it culturally diverse methods of alcohol production.
Regional drinks and types of liqueurs abound. Drinks in the southern
regions will often be mixed with tropical fruits; and of course, Mexico
is famous for fermentation techniques with the agave (Tequila) plant.
Cocktails made with gin and vodkas have undergone a renaissance in the
US and Canada, evoking memories of old movie stars from times past. And,
of course, who has not heard of the Kentucky Mint Julep, or the New
Orleans Hurricane.
As with all cultures, there will be sports
bars with large television screens and avid fans. If this is something
you enjoy, be sure to check the season and game times to see when the
next hockey, American football, soccer (association football) or
baseball game is on and join in the noise.
Independent hotels and international and regional hotel chains are spread across Canada and the US. Hostels are available in the cities, though often in less desirable locations. If hostels are your usual choice of lodging, consider options like the YMCA or a cheap hotel. Camping spots are widely available, usually along roads or near lakes and rivers, many require a small fee.
Police and other emergency services are widely available throughout the United States and Canada, as well as most areas of Mexico and generally have fast response times. In the United States and Canada, police and other first responders can be called in an emergency by dialing 9-1-1 on a compatible phone. Security varies greatly from place to place, so see the appropriate article on the region of interest.
Tap water is generally safe to drink in Canada and the United States.
Mobile phone frequencies in the Americas (ITU Region
2) differ from most of the rest of the world, with 850 MHz / 1900 MHz
being the most common frequencies in North America for GSM (AT & T,
T-Mobile, Rogers) and 3G UMTS / WCDMA / HSPA (AT & T, Bell / Telus,
Rogers). Some new entrants, regional carriers, and high-speed data
services use 1700 MHz or 2100 MHz.
You should check if your phone
works on the North American frequencies-if it is a quad - band mobile
phone probably at least for GSM (some also support North American 3G
bands). If not, you will not be able to call, receive calls, or send or
receive messages while in North America.
As a new roar, North
America was one of the few to widely use CDMA (a 2G system still
supported by Sprint and Verizon stateside, but now abandoned in Canada).
CDMA is not compatible with GSM; CDMA handsets are not required to
provide a removable SIM card. Therefore, it is common for Americans to
have to replace the entire device (and not just one SIM) when switching
to a new provider, even in the same country.
It is believed that America was named after the
Florentine traveler Amerigo Vespucci by German cartographers Martin
Waldemuller and Mathias Ringmann. Vespucci, who explored South America
between 1497 and 1502, was the first European to suggest that America
was not the East Indies, but a new unknown continent. In 1507,
Waldemuller drew up a map of the world, where he put the name "America"
on the South American continent in the area of present-day Brazil. He
explained the name in the book Cosmographiae Introductio, which was
attached to the map
Later, when North America appeared on maps,
this name spread to it: in 1538, Gerard Mercator used the toponym
"America" to designate the entire western hemisphere on the world map.
Some researchers argue that at that time it was not customary to
call the discovered lands by name (with the exception of royals), but
only by surname, thus the theory of the origin of the name from the name
of Amerigo Vespucci is controversial. Alfred Hudd proposed in 1908 the
theory that the continent was named after the Welsh merchant Richard
America from Bristol, who is believed to have financed the expedition of
John Cabot, who discovered Newfoundland in 1497. Another hypothesis says
that America was named after a Spanish sailor with the ancient
Visigothic name Amairik. There are also versions that the name "America"
is rooted in the languages of the natives.
Since the 1970s,
Native American activist movements have been promoting the term "Turtle
Island" for North America.
According to the current state of scientific debate,
the settlement of the Americas took place at the end of the last Ice Age
(referred to in North America as the Wisconsin glaciation) via the then
still existing Beringia land bridge between Siberia and Alaska. Recent
finds, in particular at the Buttermilk Creek Complex in Texas and in the
Paisley Caves in Oregon, prove that the first people moved south along
the Pacific coast, and from there settled the interior of the continent.
The oldest widespread culture in North America was the Clovis
culture from about 11,600 to about 10,700 BC. It was named after the
first place of discovery Clovis, New Mexico. The carefully worked,
usually fluted, projectile points were typical.
The successor of
the Clovis culture is the Folsom culture, around 10,500-9000 BC, or the
Folsom complex, to which several traditions are assigned (Hells Gap,
Midland, Agate Basin).
As the last Paleo-Indian culture, the
planoculture (or planocomplex) succeeded the Folsom culture. With its
various forms (Alberte, Cody, Frederick, Eden, Scottsbluff), it lasted
from 9200 to 8500 BC.
The largest pre-Columbian settlement north
of Mexico is Cahokia Mounds. Mainly settled in the period from 700 to
1400 AD, it covered almost 1,600 hectares. The peasant society at peak
times had an extent of 10,000 to 20,000 inhabitants in the years 1050 to
1200.
The voyage of Christopher Columbus to America in 1492
is officially considered the discovery of (Central) America, even if
this fact has now been proven to be wrong. Viking seafarers had already
visited the American continent several hundred years earlier and it is
considered likely that other seafarers also made the journey across the
Atlantic Ocean before Columbus set sail.
Visits by Chinese
seafarers (such as Zheng He in the 15th century or Buddhist missionaries
even earlier) to the North American west coast before 1500 AD are in
principle conceivable, but highly speculative, because so far there is
no scientific evidence on this.
Before the arrival of Columbus in 1492, North America
may have had more inhabitants than Europe at that time. The population
is estimated by anthropologists and archaeologists at up to 112 million
people. Also, one suspects a similarly ancient and rich culture as in
Europe. The Spanish conqueror Hernando de Soto, on his search for gold
(through the territory of today's US southern states), reports from 1539
on a land densely populated with Indians, who paddled along the rivers
in thousands of canoes and tilled the fields with corn. The whole
country was dotted with cities that also had the proportions of the
cities of that time, such as Madrid or London. The bulk of the
population lived on farms, they had animal enclosures, orchards and
ponds.
The first European to set foot on North American soil
since the Vikings was the Genoese John Cabot (actually: Giovanni
Caboto), who was in English service, in 1497. It is possible that as
early as the 1480s (i.e. before Columbus), sailors and fishermen from
the British Isles reached Newfoundland over the shorter route of the
North Atlantic. After Cabot's voyage, the rich fishing grounds off the
North American coast were regularly used by European fishermen. However,
it did not come to the establishment of permanent branches for the time
being. The first city on the North American mainland is St. Augustine in
Florida, founded by the Spaniards in 1565, which is also the oldest city
in the USA today.
During the European conquest of North America, four
states stood out, each of which had a special advantage that made it
easier for them to take possession:
England had a pressure to
emigrate, also based on religion, and was thus able to represent the
largest group in terms of numbers. See: British colonization of the
Americas
France had a special skill in dealing with the Native
American population, which later also led to the only mixed ethnicity,
the Métis.
The Netherlands had the necessary financial means to
establish colonies in North America.
Due to the reconquista, Spain
had enormous military potential and combat experience.
In 1604,
the King of England James I divided his North American colonies as
follows: the area from the 1st to the 41st north latitude is to be
settled by the Virginia Company of London, the area from the 41st to the
45th degree is to be settled by the Plymouth Company.
1607 is
considered the year of the foundation of the first permanent colony of
English settlers on the east coast of America. There was a clash of
three cultures: Native American Indians, white settlers and slaves from
Africa. In this year, the first settlers from England landed in
Jamestown, followed in 1620 by the (now better known) pilgrim fathers
with the Mayflower in what is now the US state of Massachusetts. They
were able to find shelter directly in the abandoned Indian settlements.
Also, the coastal Indians were now ready to cooperate and let them
establish the gateway of the English to North America with Plymouth.
In 1616, pathogens such as smallpox, hepatitis and measles viruses
were introduced by shipwrecked people when the aborigines picked them
up. About 90 percent of the indigenous population succumbed to the
diseases during the following three years. Millions of Indians died from
deadly germs from Europe. This led to the depopulation of large parts of
North and South America before the first white settlers arrived.
The well-known verdict of the US historian George Bancroft that North
America was "an unproductive wasteland" and that the Indians were
nothing more than "a few scattered tribes of weak barbarians" is
considered outdated. At first, people judged according to the picture
that appeared to the first settlers after the waves of illness. Only a
few indigenous people survived, but the first Americans considered them
to be stupid hunters and gatherers. However, the first European
travelers (the Briton William Wood, 1634) also described the natives as
pretty and amiable people, who also lived much more hygienically than
the Europeans of his time.
With the decimation of the Indians by
90% in the first 100 years after the settlement and abandonment of moral
and Christian values, the "victory" of European culture and the
establishment of 13 British colonies on the American East coast (New
Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New
Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina,
South Carolina, Georgia) came about. These colonies were independent
among themselves, but subordinate to the Motherland, England. They
received their constitutional status through a so-called charter. The
latter attributed them either to a settlement company (corporate
charter), a private owner (proprietary charter) or to the crown itself
(crown colony). This status changed in many cases during the colonial
period.
During the 18th century, important urban centers
developed on the Atlantic coast, such as Philadelphia (founded in 1661
by Quaker William Penn), Boston (1630), New York (founded in 1621 by
Peter Minuit as New Amsterdam), Montreal (founded around 1640). in 1636,
the first university in North America was founded with Harvard – at
first still strictly denominational –, followed by College of William &
Mary in 1693 and Yale in New Haven (Connecticut) in 1701.
One of
the few urban centers south of Virginia, in addition to the French
foundation, was New Orleans on the Gulf of Mexico Charleston (founded in
1670, named after Charles II of England). Charleston was one of the few
major cities in the South and, until the beginning of the 19th century,
the largest transshipment point for the Atlantic slave trade in North
America. New Orleans remained the largest and most important city in
North America until the rise of New York in the first third of the 19th
century.
Between the Peace of Paris in 1783, with the
ratification of which the Kingdom of Great Britain recognized the
independence of its former thirteen colonies in North America, the
founding of the first Empire of Mexico in 1821 and the adoption of the
British North America Act in 1867, the three largest and most important
states of the continent emerged. With the purchase of Alaska by the USA,
the Russian Empire ceased to be a colonial power in North America. The
UK and Spain remained. Another revolutionary founding of the state was
the Empire of Haiti, which emerged from a slave uprising in 1804. Other
states remained in colonial or semi-colonial status until well into the
20th century or even today. For example, Cuba was a Spanish colony until
the Spanish-American War in 1898, through which it again became heavily
politically and economically dependent on the United States until the
Cuban Revolution in 1959.
An important completion date of the
first wave of state foundations in North America is the year 1823, when
the 5th President of the USA, James Monroe, announced the well-known
Monroe doctrine in his annual address to Congress, the most formative
and most important guiding idea of the foreign policy of the United
States to this day. After the Spanish-Portuguese partition treaties of
the 15th and 16th centuries, for the first time a non-European state
claimed to be a power of order in the Western Hemisphere.
The
territory of the later US state of Texas, which belonged to the Spanish
colonial Empire and then to Mexico, was first colonized by American
settlers. In the Texas War of Independence in 1835/36, the country split
off from Mexico. The war was triggered by the policy of the Mexican de
facto dictator Santa Anna, but also by the dispute over the status of
slavery, which the US settlers imported into Mexican territory.
At its founding in 1821, the territory to which Mexico claimed extended
from the borders of Panama (then part of Greater Colombia) to the
territory of the present-day US state of Oregon. However, in the south,
as early as 1826, the Central American Confederation split off,
consisting of Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Costa
Rica. The state of Yucátan split off from Mexico for some time in 1841,
but could be reintegrated. The United States first expanded its
territory in 1803 by purchasing the French colony of Louisiana. With
this they came into the possession of New Orleans (founded in 1718), at
that time one of the most important ports on the Atlantic. The city
remained one of the largest in the USA until the 1860s. In 1819, Spain
finally renounced its rights to (East)Florida for good, after which this
territory was annexed to the United States as an organized Territory.
The war of 1812 against Great Britain, which was ultimately lost to the
USA, did not lead to any territorial losses, but it promoted the
Canadian national consciousness.
As a result of the expansion of
the states, frontier societies developed in all three North American
countries. In the USA, this was the already contemporary mystified "Wild
West", in Mexico, on the other hand, the sparsely populated border
country was known as "El Norte" (the North). Jesuit missions were
founded in southern California and in parts of the present-day southwest
of the USA from the end of the 17th century. These were mostly taken
over by Franciscans after the abolition of the Jesuit Order in 1773. Los
Angeles was founded in 1781.
The enforcement of the principle of
the territorial state in the USA and Canada already led to the gradual
(Trail of Tears) in the first half and, especially in the second half of
the 19th century, to the complete displacement of the First Nations
through several Indian wars until the Battle of the Little Bighorn in
1876. In Mexico, on the other hand, the uniform, nationwide state power
was widespread until the last third of the 19th century. In the second
half of the XIX century, as a result of which the country not only had
to deal with the plague of marauding robber gangs, parts of northern
Mexico were affected by regular raids by Comanche tribes. in 1869 and
1870, the Hudson's Bay Company, which had existed since 1670 (and still
exists today), gave up a large part of its traditional rights in Canada.
The HBC, a remnant of the European colonial history of the early modern
period, dominated the fur trade north of the later USA in a monopoly
position for over two centuries and acted as a quasi-state actor in
large areas of Canada.
The opening of the Erie Canal in 1825 was
significant for the development of the New England area. The soils of
New England and large parts of the state of New York are not very
suitable for agriculture, only thanks to the canal the way to the valley
of the Ohio River was open and agriculture in the Midwest could sell its
products on the coast. Trade, financial services and industry developed
there.
In the second half of the 19th century, the settlement
of the prairie zone of North America west of the Mississippi Valley and
the eastern chains of the Rocky Mountains began in the USA and Canada.
These areas were hardly explored by Europeans and Euro-Americans around
1800 and were considered uninhabitable because of their spaciousness and
the harsh weather. The first major state-organized expedition was
carried out by Lewis and Clark in 1804-1806. The Scotsman Alexander
MacKenzie explored large parts of northern and western Canada in the
late 18th century. Both were looking for a navigable way to the Pacific
coast. George Vancouver and James Cook mapped the Pacific coast of North
America on behalf of the Royal Navy. Despite this expansion of
geographical knowledge, large parts of the continent were difficult to
access until the second half of the 19th century.
This changed
with the expansion of the railway. In 1867, the first transcontinental
railroad, the Central Pacific, was opened between Omaha and San
Francisco. Trips between New York and the North American Pacific coast
could be completed in less than a week. The creation of new state
entities was associated with the construction of railways. In 1848,
California was constituted, which was admitted to the United States as a
full-fledged state only two years later, in 1850. Only a little later,
Oregon was admitted to the United States as another state. In Canada,
British Columbia was constituted as a new, initially self-governing
province.
Similar to the case of California, a gold rush, the
Fraser Canyon Gold Rush, acted as a catalyst for further development. In
1871, British Columbia joined the Canadian Federation as the fifth
province. Part of the accession agreement was the assumption of the debt
by the Canadian government and the construction of a railway from
Montreal in the east to Vancouver and Victoria on the Pacific coast
within ten years. However, the railway connection, with the "Far West"
on the Pacific, the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) could not be
completed until 1885. The construction of the CPR was associated with a
first tourist development of the landscape of the Canadian Rockies,
which was little touched by civilization. So, near the warm sulfur
springs of Banff, the Banff Springs Hotel railway hotel was opened in
1888. At the same time, the Banff National Park, the first in Canada,
was opened in 1885. More than a decade earlier, in 1872, the first
national park in the USA and the first national park in the world was
opened with the Yellowstone National Park.
One consequence of the
settlement of the prairie zone, the Middle and Far West was the final
crushing of the last original settlement areas of the North American
Indians. In the 1880s, the enthusiastic ghost dance movement spread
among many Native American peoples, but especially among the Lakota. At
the same time, the later 19th century produced charismatic personalities
such as Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull or Wovoka among the Indians. After the
devastating defeat of the Battle of the Little Bighorn River in Montana
in 1876, in which an Indian force superior in terms of weapons and
numbers had wiped out a smaller unit of the US Army under the command of
George Custer, the US federal government feared a major Indian uprising
because of the emergence of the ghost dance movement. The following
(militarily superfluous) massacre of Wounded Knee in 1890 is generally
regarded in historiography as the end of the Indian Wars.
If the
migration to North America took place mainly across the Atlantic between
about 1500 and about 1850, then around the middle of the 19th century,
with the gold rush in California and in Western Canada (Fraser River),
there was a significant trans-Pacific migration of Chinese and Japanese
workers for the first time in the history of North America. Chinese
first came to the west coast of North America with the gold rush, they
were later actively recruited as cheap labor for the construction of the
railways. Japanese and Chinese workers were also used in agriculture.
Politically and militarily, the second half of the 19th century was
unsettled in North America despite the unprecedented economic progress.
In Canada, there were uprisings in 1869 (Red River Rebellion) and 1885
(Northwest Rebellion) against the newly installed central government in
Ottawa, the population of Cuba led three bloody and protracted uprisings
against the colonial power Spain since 1868. The civil wars in Mexico
between liberals and conservatives did not come to rest. A moratorium on
the Mexican foreign debt was a welcome pretext for the French Empire in
the 1860s to intervene militarily across the ocean and proclaim the
second Mexican Empire.
However, the war with the highest blood
toll took place north of Mexico at the same time. Since the 1850s, the
United States has been heading towards a secessionist war, which arose
from the debate about slavery in the southern states. At first there was
a local civil war (Bleeding Kansas), before in the course of the first
half of 1861, in response to the election of the Republican Abraham
Lincoln as president, who was considered a moderate anti-slavery, a
number of member states broke away from the Federation of the USA and
formed a special confederation, the CSA (Confederate States of America).
In order to end the rebellion, the Northern states waged a war against
special federal states, in the course of which the end of slavery was
proclaimed and its prohibition was finally written into the Constitution
(13th Amendment).
The course of the American Civil War had shown
what enormous resources the USA was able to unleash in a very short
time. In addition to the numerical and ultimately, despite the capable
military leaders (Robert E. Lee), enormous material inferiority of the
CSA, it was the lack of foreign policy success that led to the eventual
total defeat. Neither did Great Britain, which sourced the raw cotton
for its textile factories mostly from the American southern states, want
to recognize the CSA, nor did France, under Emperor Napoleon III, dare
to interfere in the internal affairs of the USA. The unequivocal outcome
of the War of Secession finally secured the supremacy of the USA on the
North American continent and indirectly contributed to the formation of
the Canadian Federation in 1867 and directly to the withdrawal of the
French from Mexico.
With the census of 1890, the official authorities of
the USA concluded that "the settlement boundary" could no longer be
determined. Although the long depression, which lasted in spurts from
the 1870s to the 1890s and was characterized by deflation, slowed
economic growth in the USA, nevertheless, the greatest riches
accumulated by individual individuals in history up to that time were
created during this time. For example, the banker J. P. Morgan, the
founder of the Standard Oil Company, John D. Rockefeller or the steel
tycoon and later philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. In the USA, these
decades are called the "Gilded Age". These are characterized by a system
of authorities prone to corruption and a weak executive, headed by a
president who, at the height of this development (Presidency of Benjamin
Harrison, 1889-1893), understood himself to be little more than a
"senior official". The weak federal government, which responded with the
use of the army in industrial disputes and strikes (such as the Pullman
strike), was confronted by so-called "party machines" such as the
Tammany Hall Society in many large cities. At the same time, the gap
between rich and poor reached previously unknown proportions. While
there were only about 100 millionaire households in the USA around 1870,
their number rose to 16,000 by 1915.
Canada was just as affected
by the long depression after the British North America Act as its
southern neighbor. Its economy remained agricultural. Fishing on the
coasts and forestry in the interior dominated. The Canadian timber
industry benefited from the many rivers and bodies of water on which the
logs could be rafted with ease. Thus, at the mouth of the Fraser River,
Vancouver initially developed as a center of the timber industry. With
regard to the harsher climate and the much more attractive opportunities
offered by agriculture and developed industry in the USA, Canada did not
seem very attractive to immigrants until the turn of the century.
Mexico, which at the end of the 19th century had fallen far behind
the USA and Canada economically after long decades of political
instability, opened up to foreign capital in 1877 under Porfirio Díaz.
In his political decisions, Díaz was supported by a team of consultants
(called Científicos), most of whom had studied in Europe and carried the
ideas of positivism to Mexico. First and foremost, US, British and,
increasingly, German capital flowed into the country. This was invested
in the mining industry of the northern states. With the economic
opening, the previously only marginally existing Mexican railway network
was expanded. Due to its special topography with no distinctive river
courses, no major plains and the mountains running in a north-south
direction, the construction of railway lines was technically and thus
financially much more difficult than in the USA. However, the economic
upswing only benefited a thin layer of landowners, mestizos and foreign
companies.
Mass immigration from Europe continued continuously
until the third decade of the 20th century, when the USA introduced
quotas for the first time. Inside, the First Great Migration of African
Americans from the southern states led to a change in the appearance of
the cities of the North, where, in addition to the white ethnic
quarters, their own black quarters appeared. This particularly affected
cities around the Great Lakes such as Detroit, Chicago and Cleveland.
The migration wave reached its peak between 1910 and 1930.
Towards the end of the 19th century, a new economic
upswing prevailed in North America, which ended the long depression and
lasted for about ten years, until the panic of 1907. In addition to the
USA, late-Porfirist Mexico also benefited from this, where a lot of
foreign capital, primarily American, but also British and German
capital, went to the construction of the railway network and the mining
industry. The economic upswing also brought record growth rates to the
Canadian economy until the outbreak of the First World War. The gold
finds on the Klondike River on the Canada-Alaska border facilitated the
transition of the US currency to the gold standard, after the way the US
dollar was covered was a hotly debated domestic political dispute in the
decades after the Civil War.
At the turn of the century, the
United States began to assert its dominant economic role, which it had
achieved in the Western Hemisphere, also politically and militarily. For
example, under President William McKinley, they intervened in the
(second) Cuban War of Independence in 1898, which led to Cuba becoming
dependent on the United States for more than half a century. In order to
protect economic and strategic (Panama Canal) interests, the USA
intervened in the politics of smaller Caribbean and Central American
states by means of naval infantry in a series of "interventions" until
1933.
Domestically, the USA experienced a turn to progressivism
around 1900, which meant a departure from the previous laisser-faire
policy of the Gilded Age. As early as 1889, the billionaire Andrew
Carnegie had called for the socio-political responsibility of the upper
class in his book The Gospel of Wealth. Writers such as Upton Sinclair
(The Jungle, 1906) and Jack London drew attention to the living
conditions of the American social lower classes in a mixture of
investigative reports and literature.
Strong initiatives for the
incipient nature and environmental protection, on the other hand, came
from California, where John Muir founded the Sierra Club. Muir was
instrumental in the establishment of Yosemite National Park, but failed
to preserve the Hetch Hetchy Valley. All US presidents from Theodore
Roosevelt to Woodrow Wilson saw themselves as social and socio-political
reformers. This was associated with the strengthening of the federal
government in relation to the states, with the Federal Bureau of
Investigation, in short: the FBI was the first to establish a state-wide
police agency and, based on the experiences of the panic of 1907 (the
last massive price drop on the New York Stock Exchange before 1929), a
modern central bank was founded with the Federal Reserve (FED).
Nevertheless, the USA remained a racist society. The half-hearted and
unfinished reconstruction of the South was reinforced by
institutionalized racism (so-called Jim Crow laws) from the 1890s
onwards. In 1916, the film The Birth of a Nation by D. W. Griffith had
its premiere. The openly racist film (and by then the most commercially
successful in film history) had a great influence on large parts of the
US population, so that as a result, the Ku Klux Klan was revived in the
same year.
Canada, not yet a sovereign state with an independent
foreign policy at that time, entered the First World War as part of the
British Empire already in the summer of 1914. The country was just hit
by a recession, so that at the first calls a large number of unemployed
and unemployed people came to the flags. The prairie provinces were
affected by the second year of drought in a row in the summer of 1914.
French Canadians, for various reasons, enlisted in the armed forces in
less large numbers. A separate Canadian Expeditionary Force was created
for combat use in August 1914, which arrived at the theater of war in
1915.
The US waited, behaved officially "neutral", even if large
parts of the US population sympathized with the Entente. The majority of
the Irish Catholic population, the German and Scandinavian population
were in favor of maintaining neutrality. The US-Irish, who voted
democratic in the majority and enjoyed strong influence in this party,
strengthened their position even further after the suppression of the
Irish Easter uprising of 1916. Nevertheless, expressions of sympathy for
France and Great Britain were not lacking, especially after the German
invasion of Belgium and the destruction of the university city of
Leuven. The outbreak of war in Europe made the question of the American
nation louder on the other side of the Atlantic. Some authors doubted
the metaphor popularized by the USA at the end of the 19th century as
melting pot. Some politicians, such as former President Theodore
Roosevelt, demanded tougher action against Germany and saw the United
States at risk from German submarines and as a potential target of
attack by Germany.
The sinking of the British passenger steamer
Lusitania, which was hit by a German torpedo off the Irish coast in May
1915, was not yet regarded by President Wilson as a reason for war, even
though 128 Americans were killed in the disaster.
The maintenance
of neutrality or a possible entry into the war was, in addition to
domestic political reforms, the main topic of the election of 1916,
which the Democrats were again able to win with Woodrow Wilson. Wilson,
who was strictly opposed to taking part in the war, declared war on the
German Reich only a few months after his election victory. The decisive
factor was an intercepted telegram from the German embassy in Washington
to the Mexican government, which was deciphered by the British secret
service. In it, Secretary of State Arthur Zimmermann offered Mexico an
alliance against the United States and, in the event of a victory, the
prospect of territory lost in 1848. The publication of the telegram and
the fierce debate it triggered in the USA was a deliberate calculation
by the British to put pressure on the American government.
The
new situation that had arisen in 1917 forced both the USA and Canada to
take an unusual step for these countries: the introduction of
conscription at the national level. After three years of war, Canada was
no longer able to compensate for the high losses on the northern French
battlefields by volunteers. This situation led to the conscription
crisis of 1917 in Canada. The war efforts led to an expansion of state
activity in both countries: in the USA, the railways came under state
control. In Canada, the Canadian National Railways was established as a
state-owned company to ensure transport connections.
North
America (apart from naval operations off its coasts), like South
America, was spared from the hostilities, but nevertheless the outbreak
of the World War had a variety of social and social repercussions. Thus,
the First World War revolutionized and accelerated the enforcement of
women's rights in North America as well as in Europe, for example the
right to vote, which was guaranteed to American women by the
Constitutional Amendment in 1920. The transatlantic migration came to an
abrupt halt in 1914, which led to the fact that the internal migration
of the descendants of former slaves from the rural southern states to
the industrial centers of the North, which had begun since the 1880s,
intensified once again. The existence of compact African-American urban
areas in the big cities of the North as well as in the New York district
of Harlem had a polarizing effect on whites as well as on African
Americans themselves. For example, Marcus Garvey, who comes from Jamaica
and lives temporarily in the USA, propagated a "reverse segregation". He
himself did not shy away from working with the Ku Klux Klan.
The
re-entry of the Republicans into the White House in 1920 was due to the
immediate situation after the First World War. The president was absent
for months due to his participation in the peace conference in Europe,
at which he could only partially assert himself with his "14 points",
his formulation of a just world order that should no longer know war. In
particular, he failed not only because of the intransigent attitude of
the French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau, but also because of the
veto of the Congress, which never ratified the Treaty of Versailles.
Meanwhile, in the USA itself, triggered by a wave of strikes and work
stoppages (among others at the police in Boston), the fear of a
communist overthrow broke out in a panic. The hysteria directed against
immigrants, foreigners and those on the political left has gone down in
history under the name "Red Scare". During the so-called Red Summer of
1919, there were mostly bloody racial riots in 25 American cities. In
the worst riots in Chicago in July 1919, there were 38 dead, 537 injured
and over 1500 people became homeless.
As a result of the war,
Canada's position within the British empire began to slowly change. On
maps of the turn of the century, Canada was still referred to as
"British North America". The country, which not only sent a large number
of troops to the European fronts, became a net exporter for the first
time in its history. This contributed to the fact that Canada became a
sovereign state in the Statute of Westminster (1931).
From the
point of view of a large part of the population, the election of Warren
G. Harding to the presidential office ended the exceptional situation
that had arisen as a result of the election of a Democrat and
participation in the war. Since the end of the Civil War, the
Republicans had always put the president. However, Harding and his
cabinet were very quickly hit by political scandals and he died before
the end of the first term, returning from a trip from Alaska in San
Francisco.
The use of electricity, oil and chemicals changed the
consumption habits of the population. The cities expanded first by
interurban trams, and then by the car, which began to be mass-produced
since 1908. In the USA and partly also in Canada, the first mass
consumer society in history began to assert itself.
North America includes Greenland, which is an
autonomous part of the Kingdom of Denmark, Canada, the USA, Mexico,
Central America and several Caribbean island states.
Almost the
entire area of North America is located on the North American Plate,
part of it is located on the Pacific Plate. These are mainly the Lower
California Peninsula in Mexico and the coastal strip of California from
San Diego to the north of San Francisco. The rupture between the Pacific
and North American plates is called the San Andreas Trench. Both plates
are constantly drifting to the north, the Pacific plate at a higher
speed. As a result, both plates slide past each other. Since this does
not happen smoothly, both plates get caught in different places and
earthquakes occur in this area. The southern part of the Central
American land bridge is formed by the Caribbean Plate. At the subduction
zone between this and the South American Plate are the Lesser Antilles,
which are part of North America.
In the western part are the
Alaska Range, the Rocky Mountains, the western Cordilleras and the
Sierra Madre Occidental, which were formed mainly by the pressure of the
Pacific Plate on the North American plate about 80 million years ago.
The highest peak of North America is Denali, located in the Alaska Range
(Mount McKinley, 6190 m). In the north, Greenland with its inland ice is
worth mentioning, and further south, between Canada and the USA, the
Great Lakes, which are legacies of the last Ice Age, are worth
mentioning. The second largest lake in the world after the Caspian Sea
is located here, the Upper Lake with an area of about 82,000 square
kilometers. On the eastern side there are the Appalachian Mountains,
which with an age of about 400 million years belong to the older
mountains of the world. Between the Appalachian Mountains and the Rocky
Mountains are the Great Plains, a central lowland through which the
Missouri River and the Mississippi River flow. The Mississippi Valley is
also called Tornado Alley, as tornadoes originate here.
Since
1931, Rugby, North Dakota has been considered the geographical center of
North America. The position was marked with a 4.5 m high stone obelisk.
The Laurentian upland corresponds to the mainland of
the Canadian Shield. The features of its relief are associated with
prolonged denudation and glacial treatment. The hollow-undulating
surface of the hill has heights of 1537-6100 meters.
The central
plains correspond to a part of the plate of the North American Platform.
The height is 200-500 m. The relief is erosive and slightly undulating,
and in the northern part the relief is glacial with moraine ridges and
sand fields. In the southern part of this relief there are forest
covers. Such elevations include the Ozark Upland (height about 760 m)
and the Washita Lowlands (up to 884 m), which is a folded base of the
Epigercine platform.
The Great Plains are the foothills of the
Cordillera Plateau. The height is 500-1500 m. They appeared in the era
of Laramian folding, due to the accumulation of products of Cordillera
destruction and subsequent surface elevation. The geomorphological
structure is quite complex, there are indigenous, moraine, fluvioglacial
and loess quaternary rocks.
The coastal lowlands correspond to
the Epigercine platform in the south of the mainland. The height is not
higher than 200 meters. There are many erosive forms in the rear parts,
in the coastal zone there are bars, lagoons, sandy beaches, spit, flat
low terraces.
The highest point in North America is Mount Denali
(until 2015 it was called McKinley) — 6190 m, the lowest is Death Valley
— 86 m below sea level.
North and South America are geologically different
continents and were joined relatively late at the Central American land
bridge. In the early history of the Earth, North America belonged to the
ancient continent Laurasia, while South America (with Africa and India)
was part of Gondwana.
In the course of the continental drift, the
Atlantic Ocean opened, so North America was separated from Europe. The
same thing happened with South America and Africa. The long, north-south
mountain ranges of the Rocky Mountains (rocky mountains) and the Andes
are a consequence of this drift and can not be found in such a
pronounced form on any other continent.
The following
illustrations provide an overview of the distribution of the most
important rock types.
The climate ranges from Arctic in the far north to
subequatorial in Central America and the West Indies, oceanic in coastal
areas, and continental in the interior. Average January temperatures
rise from -36 °C (in the north of the Canadian Arctic arch.) up to 20 °C
(in southern Florida and the Mexican Highlands), July — from 4 °C in the
north of the Canadian Arctic to 32 °C in the southwestern United States.
The largest amount of precipitation falls on the Pacific coast of Alaska
and Canada and in the northwestern United States (2000-3000 mm per
year); The southeastern regions of the mainland receive 1000-1500 mm,
the Central plains — 400-1200 mm, intermountain valleys of subtropical
and tropical Cordillera regions — 100-200 mm. To the north of 40-44 ° C.
In winter, a stable snow cover is formed. Summers are warm, with
occasional showers, droughts and dry winds.
The climatic
conditions of North America are extremely diverse. This is the
"northernmost" continent of the Earth, closest to the pole, at the same
time, stretching for more than 7 thousand kilometers from north to
south. The continent is located in all climatic zones of the planet,
excluding the equatorial belt. Due to such a variety of climate types in
North America, almost all natural zones of the Earth have been formed,
and the wildlife of the continent is distinguished by an exceptional
variety of plant and animal species.
The Arctic climate is
typical for the islands of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, Greenland
and the northern part of Alaska. The bare rocky Arctic deserts in the
south are covered with mosses and lichens, in the north they are hidden
under thick cover glaciers. Winters are exceptionally harsh, with
temperatures ranging on average from -32 °C to -40 °C and below in the
interior of Greenland. Precipitation is very low, less than 250-100 mm
per year. Summer practically does not come, only in the hottest months
of the year the air temperature rises above 0 °C.
The Subarctic
climate zone is located in the northern and central parts of Canada and
in the central and southern parts of Alaska. The natural areas of tundra
and forest tundra are represented here. The summer is very short, the
snows melt in June, and the warm weather lasts about a month. Beyond the
Arctic circle comes the polar night and the polar day. As we move north,
there is less and less precipitation — from 500 to 100 mm per year. In
winter, temperatures drop from -24 to -40 °C. Winters are harsh and
long. The maximum precipitation occurs in summer, when a moderate air
mass dominates the region. In summer, the temperature rises from 0 to
+16 °C in the south.
The Temperate zone is the most extensive
climatic zone in North America, occupying the northern and central part
of the United States and the southern part of Canada. The temperate zone
is also divided into three sectors. The mildest of them is the western
one. Due to the warm North Pacific current, a large amount of
precipitation falls here, mainly in winter. The largest amount of snow
recorded on the mainland fell during the year here — in the area of the
Rainier volcano (USA) — during the winter of 1971-72. it amounted to
31,102 mm. On average, precipitation here ranges from 2000 to 3000 mm.
The summer is quite cool with temperatures +8 — +16 °C. Winters in a
relatively temperate climate are warm from 0 to -16 °C in the north. The
central sector is much more severe. There are continental and sharply
continental types of climate here, unlike the marine one in the west.
The average rainfall is from 250 to 500 mm per year. Due to the large
number of clear days per year (due to the distance from the ocean), very
large annual temperature amplitudes are observed here — from +16 — +24
°C in summer to -8 -32 °C in winter. In the north there is a natural
zone of the taiga, which rather abruptly turns into the steppes. Due to
the very harsh climate, deciduous forests here occupy small territories.
The eastern sector is under the influence of the monsoon. Precipitation
here ranges from 2000 mm on the Atlantic Ocean to 500-1000 mm inland.
It's a warm summer here +16 — +24 °C and a cool, but also relatively
warm snowy winter with temperatures from 0 to -16 °C. The north of the
sector is occupied by boreal (northern) forests or taiga, the south by
mixed and deciduous forests.
The subtropical climate zone is
located in the northern part of Mexico and the southern part of the
United States. On this continent, it occupies a very large area,
however, for the same reasons — due to the large extent from west to
east, not all of its areas are favorable for living. The belt can also
be divided into three sectors. The western one stretches in a thin strip
along the Pacific coast — in the foothills of the Cordillera. There are
natural areas of mixed forests (in the north) and hard-leaved evergreen
forests and shrubs (in the south). There is a hot summer with average
temperatures from +16 to +24 °C and a cool winter of +8 — 0°C.
Precipitation ranges from 500 to 2000 mm, and its amount increases from
south to north. The central or continental sector is characterized by
unfavorable climatic conditions. Large areas of the sector are occupied
by Cordillera, deserts are forming on the plains. Dry continental air
masses prevail here, precipitation is low — from 100 to 500 mm per year.
The air temperature ranges from +32 — +16 °C in summer to +8 -8°Happy
winter. For the central subtropics of the USA and Mexico, an urgent
problem today is the expansion of deserts and the desiccation of the
climate. When moving east, deserts turn into steppes and forest-steppes.
The eastern sector is under the influence of the monsoon. There is a lot
of precipitation here, more than 1000-2000 mm per year, in some places
this causes waterlogging of the area. The humid climate contributes to
the growth of variably humid forests. There are hot summers (+32 °C and
above) and warm winters with temperatures from 0 to +24°C (in Florida).
The tropical climate is typical for most of Central America. It
identifies three sectors for the distribution of precipitation on its
territory. The western sector (the Pacific coast of southern Mexico) is
occupied by variably humid forests. Precipitation falls on the windward
slopes of the Cordillera, their amount reaches 2000 mm per year. The
central sector is occupied by savannas and deserts. Being under the
influence of continental tropical air masses, it lacks the amount of
precipitation, which is also delayed by the slopes of the Cordillera.
Temperatures are slightly lower here due to the high altitude of the
area above sea level. In summer, from +16 to +32 °C (depending on
altitude), in winter — from +8 to +24 ° C, respectively. Precipitation
ranges from 500 to 250 mm or less.
The subequatorial belt of
North America occupies a very small area in the very south of the
continent, located on the Isthmus of Panama. The belt is occupied by a
natural zone of variably moist forests, as well as savannas and
woodlands in the west. The weather is constantly hot here both in summer
and winter, with temperatures above +20 °C, with maximum precipitation
in summer. There is 2000-3000 mm of precipitation per year or more.
With a rough overview of the course of the isotherms
in North America, the following results: in the center of the continent,
the average temperature rises relatively evenly – as expected – from
north to south. Deviations from this pattern are caused by topographical
features, for example by the Hudson Bay or the Great Lakes. The large
temperature amplitudes caused by the continental climate are typically
pronounced and reach up to 45 K in the north of Canada. On the Pacific
coast, the maritime influence prevents such extreme differences in the
course of the year and the annual amplitudes drop to low double-digit
values as in Vancouver with 14.2 K to single-digit values in San
Francisco with 7.6 K.
However, on the eastern coast of the
continent, with the exception of Florida, a completely different picture
emerges. Here, despite the proximity to the Atlantic Ocean, the annual
cycle of temperatures is characterized on a continental scale. On the
one hand, this is due to the cold Labrador Current, which ensures very
low winter temperatures up to 35 ° N, on the other hand, this is due to
the location of the North American continent in the west wind zone,
which also leads to quasi-continental conditions on the east coast.
The strong oceanic influence ensures very high precipitation in the west on the Pacific coast with a summer maximum. The rainiest areas are found on the windward side of the cordilleras of British Columbia, the precipitation decreases significantly to the south and reaches its relative minimum in the semi-arid climate of southern California. Within the cordillera, the distribution of precipitation is strongly influenced by the regional topography, but there is also a clear gradient from windward to leeward. The west of the continent outside the Cordillera region is relatively low in precipitation, the spectrum ranges from arid regions in the southwestern states of the USA to the semi-arid steppes and the continental boreal zone in Canada with a maximum of 500 mm of annual precipitation. In the east, the maritime influence is clearly noticeable. Relatively high annual totals are recorded on the entire eastern coast of the North American continent, the intensity is increasing from north to south. Especially on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, annual totals well over 1000 mm are common. The tropical-maritime air masses that trigger this precipitation affect the precipitation intensity of the entire southeast of the USA. Due to their size, there is also a maritime influence in the area of the Great Lakes, the lake effect.
The weather events of the North American continent are influenced by several factors. On the one hand, its location is significant in the area of the west wind zone, the main axis of which runs approximately along the 48th degree of latitude and reaches to great heights. Due to the barrier effect of the cordillera, these air masses are fed to the Aleutian Low in the north and the Pacific high in the south. On the eastern side of the continent, the weather is influenced by the Iceland low and the Azores high. In addition, the geomorphology of the continent is of great importance. The absence of a mountain barrier in the west-east direction allows for unhindered meridional air mass exchange. When the tropical-warm and the polar-cold air masses with different humidity come together, cyclones form, which move across the continent from west to east following the influence of the westerly wind. The unhindered collision of these opposing air masses is also the most important prerequisite for most climatic extreme events and causes the great threat to the North American continent by so-called climatic hazards (engl. for climate hazards).
The already mentioned topographic division with the
Rocky Mountains along the west coast and the Appalachian Mountains on
the east coast, which borders the continent in a funnel-shaped manner to
the south, as well as the adjacent Pacific Ocean to the west, the
Atlantic Ocean to the east and the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean
to the east, respectively, is located in the north of the country. the
Gulf of Mexico in the south causes the large-scale and frequent
occurrence of extreme weather events, which also makes the North
American continent appear as a "land of unlimited possibilities" in this
respect. The occurrence of these climatic hazards is primarily
concentrated on the continental territory of the United States of
America and only in exceptional cases affects the south of Canada and,
in the case of hurricanes, the entire Caribbean region and Central
America. All extreme events are seasonally limited, but vary greatly
with regard to their distribution area or the size of the affected
region. For example, tornadoes occur in the Central United States in the
spring and teleconnections of El Niño events, sweltering and heat waves,
drought and heavy rains in the summer, hurricanes in late summer and
autumn, and blizzards, snowfalls and frost breaks in winter.
The
damage caused by these climate-induced events in the USA is subject to
large fluctuations from year to year and amounted to an average of 10.47
billion US dollars per year in the period from 1975 to 1998. In
addition, climatic hazards claimed about 8200 lives over the entire
period. However, there are also spectacular individual events that are
not included in the above-mentioned period and can exceed the long-term
average many times over. These include, for example, the tri-State
tornado of 18. March 1925, which cost the lives of 695 people, the
Johnstown Flash Flood, which claimed about 2200 victims in the state of
Pennsylvania in May 1889, or, as a recent example, Hurricane Katrina,
which set completely new standards in this regard, causing 1833 deaths
and causing financial damage amounting to over 100 billion US dollars.
However, the damage assessment is subject to many uncertainties and
estimates, especially with regard to the financial damage, often deviate
significantly from each other. This is especially true if, in addition
to the direct damage caused by actual destruction, the indirect and
economic damage is also taken into account. It is true that large-scale
events such as droughts, floods and hurricanes are more difficult to
analyze in terms of damage than rather small-scale events such as
tornadoes or flash floods. There are also significant deviations in the
determination of the number of victims in large-scale events. Here,
first of all, cold snaps and heat waves should be mentioned, in which
the distinction between direct victims and natural deaths requires
complicated statistical calculations. In principle, however, it can be
stated that flooding is the most damaging consequence of climate
extremes, followed by hurricanes and tornadoes. However, it is
surprising, for example, that in the period from 1975 to 1998, the
second most dangerous weather event for life and limb consisted of
lightning strikes.
There are quite a lot of rivers and lakes in North
America: the Mississippi with a tributary of the Missouri, and the
largest accumulation of fresh water is located in the Great American
Lakes region. The territory of the continent is irrigated unevenly, due
to both climatic and orographic features. A huge water system is formed
by the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River, which connects them to
the Atlantic Ocean.
The rivers of North America belong to the
basins of the Pacific, Arctic and Atlantic Oceans; some of them have an
internal flow. Most of them flow into the Atlantic Ocean.
Most of
the rivers of North America are of great transport and hydropower
importance.
There are different types of water systems with
different river regimes in different parts of the continent. They depend
on the climate and orographic conditions.
The animal world. The fauna of the larger,
extratropical part of the continent has significant similarities with
the fauna of similar parts of Eurasia, which was a consequence of the
existence of land links between the continents and allows these
territories to be combined into one large zoogeographic region, the
Holarctic. Along with this, some specific features of the fauna give
reason to consider the North American part as an independent Nearctic
region and to contrast it with the Palearctic region of Eurasia.
Characteristic animals of the tundra zone: reindeer (caribou), polar
bear, arctic fox, lemming, polar hare, polar owl, polar partridge. The
musk ox is found only in the north of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago
and Greenland. The most typical representatives of the taiga are:
beaver, American sable, wapiti, brown bear, Canadian lynx, arboreal
porcupine, wolverine, muskrat, marten ilka, red squirrel, big flying
squirrel. The number of animals, especially fur-bearing ones, has
sharply decreased.
The fauna of mixed and broad—leaved forests
was even more affected, including a number of original species (for
example, Virginia deer, skunk, gray fox, starbuck, red lynx, gray
squirrel, fork-tailed harrier, wild turkey). Hamsters, shrews, and
woodchucks are more common. In the subtropics, in the southeast of the
continent, along with animals common with the broadleaf forests subzone,
there are representatives of tropical fauna — alligator, alligator
turtles, ibises, flamingos, pelicans, hummingbirds, and the Carolina
parrot. Animals of the steppes and forest-steppes have been severely
exterminated: bison (preserved only in reserves), pronghorn antelope,
mazama long-eared deer (preserved in the mountains), coyote wolf,
prairie fox; rodents are much more numerous: ground squirrels, prairie
dogs, steppe ferrets, badger, baggy rat, and birds: ground owl, meadow
grouse and others. The mountain and forest landscapes of the Cordillera
are characterized by a thick-horned ram, a grizzly bear, and a snow
goat. Reptiles are numerous on the desert-steppe plateaus, including the
venomous rattlesnake and the lizard yadozub, the lizard frinozoma, the
wall boa constrictor and some others. In Central America, the West
Indies, and partly in the south of the Mexican Highlands, tropical
animals predominate, including South American lizards, armadillos,
monkeys, bats, hummingbirds, parrots, turtles, crocodiles, and others.
Before the discovery and conquest by European nations,
North America was already populated by a large number of native
ethnicities, who came from Asia in several waves of immigration after
the end of the last Ice Age. While the descendants of the last wave (who
settled only in the Far North) are commonly referred to as Eskimos and
Aleuts, the generic term Indian is still popular for everyone else.
Canadians also use the term First Nations for all indigenous peoples of
the country.
From the beginning of the 16th to the end of the
19th century, countless wars and assimilation efforts (partly with geno-
and ethnocides) led to a drastic reduction in the indigenous population
numbers. Only since the beginning of the 20th century has there been a
population increase almost everywhere again. The proportions compared to
the European-born population are now very low in the densely populated
regions (apart from some areas of Mexico and Central America).
Significant proportions, up to majority situations, are found mainly in
the Indian reserves and in extremely sparsely populated wilderness
regions.
The adjacent map shows the proportion of indigenous
ethnic groups in the total population (based on the respective national
census areas) as well as their territories at the beginning of the 21st
century.
The economy of North America comprises more than half
a billion people in 23 countries and is characterized by the strong
differences between the rich countries Canada and USA, which are among
the most prosperous countries in the world, and the poor countries of
Central America and the Caribbean; Mexico, the Bahamas and Costa Rica
are in between. Although Mexico is part of NAFTA and the OECD, it is
still a lot poorer than its northern neighbors. The Central American
states are bound to North America by the DR-CAFTA free Trade Agreement.
Trade associations in North America:
Asia-Pacific Economic
Cooperation (APEC) is an economic association of 21 countries worldwide.
From North America, Canada, Mexico and the USA are members.
Caribbean
Community (CARICOM) an association of 15 Caribbean states.
The
Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) is a free trade agreement
between Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala,
Honduras, Nicaragua and the United States.
The North American Free
Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is an extensive economic association between
Canada, the USA and Mexico and forms a free trade zone.