Americas
The Americas are a pair of continents in the Western Hemisphere, including the entire North American continent and the entire South American continent. They cover over 8.3% of the Earth's total surface and constitute 28.4% of its total landmass. 14% of the human population lives in the Americas.
The word "America" is often used in US to refer particularly to the United States of America.
The Americas is a general term usually meaning North, Central and South America collectively.
The name America is derived from that of the Italian merchant and navigator Americo Vespucci, one of the earliest European explorers of the New World.
The climatic zones of the two continents are quite different. In North America, subarctic climate prevails in the north, gradually warming southward and finally becoming tropical near the southern isthmus. In South America, the climate in the north is tropical, becoming cooler southward, and finally becoming a cold, marine climate America Encyclopædia Britannica.
America is also understood as one of the five continents of the globe, with an area of 16,000,000 square miles, and been larger than Europe and Africa together. Its length from the northern limit of Alaska to the southern limit of Chile is 8,700 miles.
Through out history eight Europeans countries have controlled different parts of the Americas, they are Sweden (parts of Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania), Russia (Alaska), Spain (Most of Central and South America), France (Canada, and other places such as, Haiti), Netherlands (Parts of Delaware, New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut), UK (USA, Canada, Jamaica and other places), Portugal (Brazil), and Denmark (still controls Greenland).
