The South America is a Sous-continent or the southernmost part of the America, according to the point of view. The continent is located entirely in the Western Hémisphère and mainly in the Southern hemisphere. It is bordered in the West by the Pacific Ocean and in North and the East by the Atlantic Ocean; The Central America and the the Caribbean are located at the North-East.

South America was named in 1507 by the cartographers Martin Waldseemüller and Mathias Ringmann according to Amerigo Vespucci, which was the first European to suggest that Americas were not the the Eastern Indies but a Nouveau unknown World to Europeans.

South America has a surface of 17840000 km {{2}}, which accounts for 3,5% of the surface of the Ground. In 2005, its population was estimated at more: 371000000 inhabitants. The Gentilé of its inhabitants is South-American (E) S . South America is classified 4th in surface (after the Asia, the Africa, and North America) and 5th of number of inhabitants (after Asia, Africa, the Europe, and North America).

Geography

See also: Geography of South America

South America constitutes the major southern part of the emerged grounds of what is generally indicated like the Nouveau World, the Western Hémisphère, the America S, or simply the America (which are sometimes regarded as only one continent and South America a Sous-continent). It is in the South and the East of the channel of Panama, which crosses the Isthme of Panamá. Geographically, almost all the South American territory is located on the South American Plaque. Géopolitiquement, all Panama - including the segment in the East of the Panama Canal of the isthmus - is often regarded as belonging to North America and a country of Central America.

Geologically, the continent is attached to North America only very recently with the formation of the Panamanian isthmus it there approximately 3 million years, which caused the Great American exchange. In the same way, the the Andes are relatively young assembly lines and sismiquement unstable, go down from North to the South while following the Western edge of the continent; the territory in the East of the Andes is mainly occupied by the wet tropical forest, the vast basin of the Amazonia. The continent presents also drier areas the such Eastern Patagonie or the desert of the Atacama.

The South American continent includes/understands also many islands, from which much of them belongs to the countries on the continent. Many islands of the Caribbean (the Antilles) - for example, Greater Antilles and Lesser Antilles - are located above the plate Caraïbe, a tectonic plate with a diffuse topography. Aruba, Barbades, Trinidad and Tobago are located on continental shelf South American. The Dutch West Indies and dependancies of Venezuela are localized in the north of the continent. Géopolitiquement, the island-States and the territories overseas of the Caribbean are generally gathered and regarded as a part or an under-area of North America. [4] The nations of South America which border the Caribbean Sea - comprise Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname and Guyana - form South America caribéenne. The other islands are Galapagos, the island of Passover (in Oceania but belongs to Chile), the island Robinson Crusoe, island of Chiloé, the Ground of Fire, and the Falkland Islands.

South America is the ground of the most water falls, Salto Angel, of the river to the most important flow, the Amazon, of the longest assembly line, the Andes, of the most arid desert, the desert of Atacama, the most raised railway, Ticlio, of the most capital, La Paz (Bolivia), of the most commercially navigable lake, the lake Titicaca, and of the most southern city, Puerto Toro.

The natural resources of South America are gold, copper, the iron ore, tin and oil.

South America shelters many species of animals interesting and single like the LAMA, the anaconda, the parinha, the jaguar, vicuna and to tapir it. The wet tropical forest of Amazonia has a raised biodiversity, containing a large fraction of the species of planet.

The largest country of South America east by far, at the same time from the point of view of its surface and its population, Brazil, followed by Argentina. One distinguishes from several under-areas: Andean States, Guyanes, the Southern Cone, and Brazil.

History

See also: History of the Latin America

Economy

See also: Economy of South America

The Agriculture remains the most important branch of industry of South America, even if rural unemployment and poverty drive out the population towards the enormous coastal towns. The resources miniaires and oil, although substantial, are unequally distributed according to the countries. To limit the raw material importation, to start again the production and to reinforce the infrastructures, the governments were heavily involved in debt near the the World Bank in the Années 1960 and 1970, and will undoubtedly manage never to refund their loans. Today, Brazil is the first economic power, followed by Argentina. The west of South America, less developed, recently knew to benefit from its geographical position. Thus, Chile exports more and more raw materials towards the Japan.

GDP per head (PPP) 2006

Source: List of the countries by GDP (PPA)

GDP (PPP) 2005

Source: List of the countries by GDP (PPA)

Index of Human development 2006 (the arrows indicate the changes of the IDH since the values of 2005)

Source: List of the countries by classification IDH

Language and culture

See also: linguistic Situation of South America

South America presents a very large linguistic Diversité : one counts nearly 600 languages which belong to 118 linguistic families. For example, the 32 languages of Bolivia are of 15 different families, including 6 isolates. The 68 languages of Colombia belong to 13 different families, of which 10 are isolates. However, contrast is marked between “the great” languages (andénnes and guarani) and the small Amazonian languages. Lastly, the three colonial languages of South America are the Spanish , the Portuguese, the French (in Guyana), the English and the Dutch.

The Indian population, quantified per million, was gradually driven back towards the interior of the continent. Paradoxically, the importance of this population speaker does not guarantee of anything perenniality the Amerindian languages, which for the majority are threatened of extinction.

One distinguishes usually the languages from South America according to the listed importance of the population speaker. One counts thus usually four “great” languages:

The Amazonian languages are spoken in the nine countries about the Amazonian basin:

Many of these languages are spoken with horse on the borders, in marginal zones of the countries, for much because the indigenous populations of the coasts and the center, exploited by Europeans, were exterminated. They are as a whole very threatened languages.

The Amazonian area constitutes a linguistic “black hole”, as well as New Guinea. Linguistic work on these languages, which proved to be very interesting in their diversity for the development of linguistics, still is very limited.

Religion

The principal religion of South America is the Catholic religion. It is under the terms of South American Christendom that the Catholic church has the greatest number of faithful. It exists there also a minority Pentecôtiste in some countries.

People

The ethnicities and Indigène S of South America include:

Territories

The countries in this table are categorized according to the diagram for the areas and subrégions geographical used by the United Nations.

See also: the South American Community of nations

These twelve countries launched the December 8th 2004 (Declaration of Cuzco) a project of South American Communauté of nations (CSN) on the model of the European Union.

This continent in addition includes the Overseas department French of the Guyana, which belongs to the European Union.

References

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