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North America North America is a ), about 4.8 percent of the planet's surface or about 16.4% of its land area. As of October 2006, its Population was estimated at over 514,600,000. It is the Third-largest continent in area, following Asia and Africa , and is fourth in population after Asia, Africa, and Europe . North and South America are collectivelly known as the Americas . ETYMOLOGY North and South America are popularly accepted as having been named after Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci by the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller . Vespucci was the first European to suggest that the Americas were not the East Indies, but a new world previously undiscovered by Europeans. Vespucci was the first to discover South America and the ''Amerique'' mountains of Central America, which connected his discoveries to those of Christopher Columbus . The etymology is further complicated by the need of cartographers to come up with a name that paralleled the feminine names of the other continents (e.g. Europa, Asia, Africa etc.). The convention is to use the surname for naming discoveries except in the case of royalty and so a derivation from "Amerigo Vespucci" may be problematic. The second and less generally accepted theory is that the continents are named after an English merchant named Richard Amerike from Bristol, who is believed to have financed John Cabot 's voyage of discovery from England to Newfoundland in 1497. A minutely explored belief that has been advanced is that America was named for a Spanish sailor bearing the ancient Visigothic name of 'Amairick'. Another is that the name is rooted in an American Indian language. The Naming of America: Fragments We've Shored Against Ourselves . By Jonathan Cohen HISTORY See Also: History of North America Scientists have Several Theories As To The Origins of the Early Human Population Of The North America . The Indigenous Peoples Of North America themselves have many Creation Stories , by which they assert that they have been present on the land since its creation. Before Contact With Europeans the natives of North America were divided into many different Polities , from small Bands of a few families to large Empires . They lived in several " Culture Areas ", which roughly correspond to Geographic And Biological Zones and give a good indication of the main Lifeway or occupation of the people who lived there (e.g. the Bison Hunters of the Great Plains , or the Farmers of Mesoamerica ). Native groups can also be classified by their Language Family (e.g. Athapascan or Uto-Aztecan ). It is important to note that peoples with similar languages did not always share the same Material Culture , nor were they always Allies . Scientists believe that the Inuit people of the high Arctic came to North America much later than other native groups, as evidenced by the disappearance of Dorset Culture artifacts from the Archaeological Record , and their replacement by the Thule People . During the thousands of years of native inhabitation on the continent, cultures changed and shifted. Archaeologists often name different cultural groups they discover after the site where they are first found. One of the oldest cultures yet found is the Clovis Culture of modern New Mexico . A more recent example is the group of related cultures called the Mound Builders (e.g. the Fort Walton Culture ), found in the Mississippi River valley. They flourished from 3000 BCE to the 1500s CE. .]]The more southern cultural groups of North America were responsible for the Domestication of many common Crop s now used around the world, such as Tomato es and Squash . Perhaps most importantly they domesticated one of the world's major staples, Maize (corn). As a result of the development of agriculture in the south, many important cultural advances were made there. For example, the Maya Civilization developed a Writing System , built Huge Pyramids , had a Complex Calendar , and developed the concept of Zero 500 years before anyone in the Old World . The Mayan culture was still present when the Spanish arrived in Central America , but political dominance in the area had shifted to the Aztec Empire further north. Upon the arrival of the Europeans in the "New World", native peoples found their culture changed drastically. As such, their affiliation with political and cultural groups changed as well, several linguistic groups went Extinct , and others changed quite quickly. The name and cultures that Europeans recorded for the natives were not necessarily the same as the ones they had used a few generations before, or the ones in use today. GEOGRAPHY AND EXTENT ] North America occupies the northern portion of the landmass generally referred to as the at the narrow Isthmus Of Panama . (Geopolitically, all of Panama —including the segment east of the Panama Canal in the isthmus—is often considered a part of North America alone. However, prior to independence in 1903 , Panama was part of Colombia and was therefore considered part of South America. Panama is thus the only country to have been "moved" from one continent to another.) According to some authorities, North America begins not at the Isthmus of Panama but at the Isthmus Of Tehuantepec , Mexico with the region to the south called Central America (or Middle America if the Caribbean is included) and mostly resting on the Caribbean Plate . Before the Central American isthmus was raised, the region had been underwater. The islands of the West Indies delineate a submerged former Land Bridge , which had connected North America and South America via Florida and Venezuela . The continental coastline is long and irregular. The Gulf Of Mexico is the largest body of water indenting the continent, followed by Hudson Bay . Others include the Gulf Of Saint Lawrence and the Gulf Of California . There are numerous , the Greater and Lesser Antilles , the Alexander Archipelago , and the Aleutian Islands . Greenland , a Danish self-governing island and the World's Largest , is on the same Tectonic Plate (the North American Plate ) and is part of North America geographically. Bermuda is not part of the Americas, but is an oceanic island which was formed on the fissure of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge over 100 million years ago. The nearest landmass to it is Cape Hatteras , North Carolina , and it is often thought of as part of North America, especially given its historical, political and cultural ties to Virginia and other parts of the continent. Physical geography , rock types of North America. ]] The vast majority of North America is on the North American Plate . Parts of California and western Mexico form the partial edge of the Pacific Plate , with the two plates meeting along the San Andreas Fault . The southern-most portion of the continent and much of the West Indies lie on the Caribbean Plate , while the Juan De Fuca and Cocos Plate s border the North American Plate on its western frontier. The continent can be divided into four great regions (each of which contains many sub-regions): the Great Plains stretching from the Gulf Of Mexico to the Canadian Arctic ; the geologically young, mountainous west, including the Rocky Mountains , the Great Basin , California and Alaska ; the raised but relatively flat plateau of the Canadian Shield in the northeast; and the varied eastern region, which includes the Appalachian Mountains , the coastal plain along the Atlantic seaboard, and the Florida peninsula. Mexico, with its long Plateau s and Cordilleras , falls largely in the western region, although the eastern coastal plain does extend south along the Gulf. The western mountains are split in the middle, into the main range of the Rockies and the Coast Ranges in California, Oregon , Washington , and British Columbia with the Great Basin—a lower area containing smaller ranges and low-lying deserts—in between. The highest peak is Denali in Alaska. The United States Geographical Survey states that the geographic center of North America is “6 miles west of Balta, Pierce County, North Dakota” at approximately , approximately 15 miles (25 km) from Rugby, North Dakota . The USGS further states that “No marked or monumented point has been established by any government agency as the geographic center of either the 50 States, the conterminous United States, or the North American continent.” Nonetheless, there is a 15 foot (4.5 M ) field stone Obelisk in Rugby claiming to mark the center. See Also: List Of North American Countries By Population USAGE The term ''North America'' may mean different things to different people in the world according to the context. Usage other than that of the entire continent includes:
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