LATIN AMERICA, NORTH AMERICA & THE CARIBBEAN

Latin America Latin America or Romance-speaking America is the sub-region of the Americas comprising those countries where Romance languages are spoken, primarily Spanish and Portuguese. It consists of twenty sovereign states which cover an area that stretches from the southern border of the United States to the southern tip of South America, including the Caribbean. Latin America has an area of approximately 19,197,000 km2 (7,412,000 sq mi), almost 13% of the earth’s land surface area. As of 2013, its population was estimated at more than 604 million and in 2014, LA has a combined nominal GDP of 5,573,397 million USD[4](almost equal to those of the UK and France combined), and a GDP PPP of 7,531,585 million USD (larger than those of India, and Japan and the UK combined). The term “Latin America” was first used in 1861 in La revue des races Latines, a magazine “dedicated to the cause of Pan-Latinism”. North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It can also be considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas.[1] It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the west and south by the Pacific Ocean, and to the southeast by South America and the Caribbean Sea. North America North America covers an area of about 24,709,000 square kilometers (9,540,000 square miles), about 4.8% of the planet’s surface or about 16.5% of its land area. As of 2013, its population was estimated at nearly 565 million people across 23 independent states, representing about 7.5% of the human population. Most of the continent’s land area is dominated by Canada, the United States, Greenland, and Mexico, while smaller states exist in the Central American and Caribbean regions. North America is the third largest continent by area, following Asia and Africa,[2] and the fourth by population after Asia, Africa, and Europe.[3] The first people to live in North America were Paleoindians who began to arrive during the last glacial period by crossing the Bering land bridge. They differentiated into a number of diverse cultures and communities across the continent. The largest and most advanced Pre-Columbian civilizations in North America were the Aztecs in what is now Mexico and the Maya in Central America. European colonists began to arrive starting in the 16th and 17th centuries, wiping out large numbers of the native populations and beginning an era of European dominance. Caribbean The Caribbean is a region that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean), and the surrounding coasts. The region is southeast of the Gulf of Mexicoand the North American mainland, east of Central America, and north of South America. Situated largely on the Caribbean Plate, the region comprises more than 700 islands, islets, reefs, and cays. (See the list.) These islands generally form island arcs that delineate the eastern and northern edges of the Caribbean Sea. The Caribbean islands, consisting of the Greater Antilles on the north and the Lesser Antilles on the south and east (including the Leeward Antilles), are part of the somewhat larger West Indies grouping, which also includes the Lucayan Archipelago (comprising the Bahamas andTurks and Caicos Islands) north of the Greater Antilles and Caribbean Sea. In a wider sense, the mainland countries of Belize, Guyana, and Suriname may be included. Geopolitically, the Caribbean islands are usually regarded as a subregion of North America and are organized into 30 territories including sovereign states, overseas departments, and dependencies. From January 3, 1958, to May 31, 1962, there was a short-lived country called the Federation of the West Indies composed of ten English-speaking Caribbean territories, all of which were then British dependencies. The West Indies cricket team continues to represent many of those nations. From Wikipedia