North America

The totality of North America seen by the Apollo 16 crew, with Canada being covered by clouds

Landforms and land cover of North America

Principal hydrological divides of Canada, the United States and Mexico

Geologic map of North America published by USGS

North America map of Köppen climate classification

Map of North America in 1702 showing forts, towns and (in solid colors) areas occupied by European settlements

Non-native nations' control and claims over North America c. 1750–2008

Native languages of the US, Canada, Greenland, and Northern Mexico

Percentage of people who identify with a religion in North America, according to 2010–2012 data

Mexican President Peña Nieto, U.S. President Trump, and Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau sign the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement during the G20 summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on 30 November 2018

Worlds regions by total wealth (in trillions USD), 2018

2006 map of the North American Class I railroad network

Baseball is traditionally known as America's national pastime, but is also played in Canada, and many Latin American countries as well.

Continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere.

- North America

500 related topics

Settlement of the Americas

Map of early human migrations based on the Out of Africa theory; figures are in thousands of years ago (kya)

Figure1. Submergence of the Beringian land bridge with post-Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) rise in eustatic sea level

Potential extent of human survivability during the last glacial maximum.

Vegetation cover at the Last Glacial Maximum period ~18,000 years ago, describing the type of vegetation cover present

A diagram of the formation of the Great Lakes

Map of Beringia showing the exposed seafloor and glaciation at 40,000 years ago and 16,000 years ago. The green arrow indicates the "interior migration" model along an ice-free corridor separating the major continental ice sheets, the red arrow indicates the "coastal migration" model, both leading to a "rapid colonization" of the Americas after c. 16,000 years ago.

Figure 2. Schematic illustration of maternal (mtDNA) gene-flow in and out of Beringia (long chronology, single source model).

Map of Y-Chromosome Haplogroups - Dominant haplogroups in pre-colonial populations with propose migrations routes

Map showing the approximate location of the ice-free corridor along the Continental Divide, separating the Cordilleran and Laurentide ice sheets. Also indicated are the locations of the Clovis and Folsom Paleo-Indian sites.

The settlement of the Americas began when Paleolithic hunter-gatherers entered North America from the North Asian Mammoth steppe via the Beringia land bridge, which had formed between northeastern Siberia and western Alaska due to the lowering of sea level during the Last Glacial Maximum (26,000 to 19,000 years ago).

Archaic period (North America)

Copper knife, spearpoints, awls, and spud, from the Late Archaic period, Wisconsin, 3000–1000 BC

In the classification of the, the Archaic period in North America, taken to last from around 8000 to 1000 BC in the sequence of North American pre-Columbian cultural stages, is a period defined by the archaic stage of cultural development.

Greenland

Island country part of the Kingdom of Denmark.

Areas of Independence I and Independence II cultures around Independence Fjord

The Kingittorsuaq Runestone from Kingittorsuaq Island (Middle Ages)

One of the last contemporary written mentions of the Norse Greenlanders records a marriage which took place in 1408 in the church of Hvalsey – today the best-preserved Nordic ruins in Greenland. The married couple then travelled to Iceland, which is why the account has been preserved.

An English map of 1747, based on Hans Egede's descriptions and misconceptions, by Emanuel Bowen

The orthography and vocabulary of the Greenlandic language is governed by Oqaasileriffik, the Greenlandic language secretariat, located in the Ilimmarfik University of Greenland, Nuuk.

The United States has operated Thule Air Base since the 1950s.

Sermiligaaq. Greenland has more than 60 settlements.

Greenland bedrock, at current elevation above sea level

Aurora Borealis, the northern lights at the sky in Greenland

The Greenland Dog was brought from Siberia 1,000 years ago.

Humpback whale, Megaptera novaeangliae, in Disko Bay near Ilulissat

The special territories of the European Union (pre 31 January 2020)

Nuuk is Greenland's capital and the seat of the government.

A proportional representation of Greenland exports, 2019

Greenland electricity production by source

Air Greenland operates passenger and cargo freight services by air from, to and across Greenland.

Arctic Umiaq Line operates passenger and freight services by sea across Greenland.

A bilingual sign in Nuuk, displaying the Danish and Kalaallisut for "Parking forbidden for all vehicles"

Most Greenlandic villages, including Nanortalik, have their own church.

Nive Nielsen, Greenlandic singer and songwriter

Panel discussion with Greenlandic movie maker Inuk Silis Høegh at the launch of his movie about groundbreaking Greenlandic band Sumé

Teletaarnet Headquarters in Nuuk Greenland

Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe (specifically Norway and Denmark, the colonial powers) for more than a millennium, beginning in 986.

Americas

America is named after Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci.

Map of early human migrations based on the Out of Africa theory.

Statue representing the Americas at Palazzo Ferreria, in Valletta, Malta

Christopher Columbus leads expedition to the New World, 1492.

Map showing the dates of independence from European powers. Black signifies areas that are dependent territories or parts of countries with a capital outside the Americas.

Satellite photo of the Americas on Earth

Aconcagua, in Argentina, is the highest peak in the Americas

Climate zones of the Americas in the Köppen climate classification system.

Mexico City – Largest metropolitan area in the Americas, with a population of 22,300,000 in 2017

São Paulo – Largest city in the Americas, with a population of 12,038,175 (city) in 2016

New York City – Largest urban area in the Americas, with a population of 18,351,295 in 2010

The Americas, which are sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North and South America.

Paleo-Indians

Paleo-Indians, Paleoindians or Paleo-Americans were the first peoples who entered, and subsequently inhabited, the Americas during the final glacial episodes of the late Pleistocene period.

The Mammut americanum (American mastodon) became extinct around 12,000–9,000 years ago due to human-related activities, climate change, or a combination of both. See Quaternary extinction event and Holocene extinction.

Different types of Projectile points, from the Paleo-Indian periods in southeastern North America

Frequency distribution of haplogroup Q-M242.

Atlatl weights and carved stone gorgets from Poverty Point

From BCE ( BP), ice-free corridors developed along the Pacific coast and valleys of North America.

Norse colonization of North America

The Norse exploration of North America began in the late 10th century, when Norsemen explored areas of the North Atlantic colonizing Greenland and creating a short term settlement near the northern tip of Newfoundland.

A map of the Eastern Settlement on Greenland, covering approximately the modern municipality of Kujalleq. Eiriksfjord (Erik's fjord) and his farm Brattahlid are shown, as is the location of the bishopric at Gardar.

Map showing the extent of the Norse world

Map showing the expansion of the Thule people (900 to 1500)

Leif Erikson traveling to North America by Norwegian naturalist painter Christian Krohg (1893).

Graphical description of the different sailing routes to Greenland, Vinland (Newfoundland), Helluland, (Baffin Island) and Markland (Labrador) travelled by different characters in the Icelandic Sagas, mainly Saga of Eric the Red and Saga of the Greenlanders. Modern English versions of the Norse names.

Summer in the Greenland coast circa year 1000 by Jens Erik Carl Rasmussen (1841–1893)

The 1590 Skálholt Map showing Latinized Norse placenames in North America:

A reconstruction of Norse buildings at the UNESCO listed L'Anse aux Meadows site in Newfoundland, Canada. Archaeological evidence demonstrates that iron working, carpentry, and boat repair were conducted at the site.

The location of L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland

The Norse exploration of North America has been subject to numerous controversies concerning the European exploration and Settlement of North America.

Europe

Continent, also recognised as a part of Eurasia, located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere.

Statue representing Europa at Palazzo Ferreria, in Valletta, Malta

First map of the world according to Anaximander (6th century BC)

A medieval T and O map printed by Günther Zainer in 1472, showing the three continents as domains of the sons of Noah — Asia to Sem (Shem), Europe to Iafeth (Japheth) and Africa to Cham (Ham)

A New Map of Europe According to the Newest Observations (1721) by Hermann Moll draws the eastern boundary of Europe along the Don River flowing south-west and the Tobol, Irtysh and Ob rivers flowing north

1916 political map of Europe showing most of Moll's waterways replaced by von Strahlenberg's Ural Mountains and Freshfield's Caucasus Crest, land features of a type that normally defines a subcontinent

Paleolithic cave paintings from Lascaux in France ( 15,000 BCE)

Stonehenge in the United Kingdom (Late Neolithic from 3000 to 2000 BCE).

Animation showing the growth and division of the Roman Empire (years CE)

Viking raids and division of the Frankish Empire at the Treaty of Verdun in 843

The maritime republics of medieval Italy reestablished contacts between Europe, Asia and Africa with extensive trade networks and colonies across the Mediterranean, and had an essential role in the Crusades.

Tancred of Sicily and Philip II of France, during the Third Crusade (1189–1192)

The sacking of Suzdal by Batu Khan in 1238, during the Mongol invasion of Europe.

The School of Athens by Raphael (1511): Contemporaries, such as Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci (centre), are portrayed as classical scholars of the Renaissance.

Habsburg dominions in the centuries following their partition by Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor. The principal military base of Philip II in Europe was the Spanish road stretching from the Netherlands to the Duchy of Milan.

The national boundaries within Europe set by the Congress of Vienna

Marshall's Temple Works (1840), the Industrial Revolution started in Great Britain

Map of European colonial empires throughout the world in 1914.

Map depicting the military alliances of World War I in 1914–1918

Serbian war efforts (1914–1918) cost the country one quarter of its population.

Nazi Germany began a devastating World War II in Europe by its leader, Adolf Hitler. Here Hitler, on the right, with his closest ally, the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, in 1940

Bombed and burned-out buildings in Hamburg, 1944/45

The "Big Three" at the Yalta Conference in 1945; seated (from the left): Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin

The Schuman Declaration led to the creation of the European Coal and Steel Community. It began the integration process of the European Union (9 May 1950, at the French Foreign Ministry).

Flag of Europe, adopted by the Council of Europe in 1955 as the flag for the whole of Europe

Map of populous Europe and surrounding regions showing physical, political and population characteristics, as per 2018

Köppen-Geiger climate classification map for Europe.

The Volga, as seen in Yaroslavl. It flows from Central Russia and into the Caspian Sea and is the longest river in Europe.

Mount Elbrus in Southern Russia, is the highest mountain in Europe.

Europa Point as seen from the Strait of Gibraltar, which separates the continents of Europe and Africa, also being between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea.

The Danube, as seen in Đerdap National Park. It flows from the Black Forest and into the Black Sea and is the second-longest river in Europe, which also passes through the largest number of countries in the world at 10.

Sutjeska National Park contains Perućica, which is one of the last remaining primeval forests in Europe.

Land use map of Europe with arable farmland (yellow), forest (dark green), pasture (light green) and tundra, or bogs, in the north (dark yellow)

Floristic regions of Europe and neighbouring areas, according to Wolfgang Frey and Rainer Lösch

Biogeographic regions of Europe and bordering regions

A brown bear near the Russian border in the forests of Kainuu, Finland

Once roaming the great temperate forests of Eurasia, European bison now live in nature preserves in Białowieża Forest, on the border between Poland and Belarus.

One of Kosovo's main economical sources is mining, because it has large reserves of lead, zinc, silver, nickel, cobalt, copper, iron and bauxite. Miners at the Trepča Mines in Mitrovica, Kosovo in 2011.

Population growth in and around Europe in 2021

Map purportedly displaying the European continent split along cultural and state borders as proposed by the German organization Ständiger Ausschuss für geographische Namen (StAGN).

Tallinn, the medieval capital of Estonia in the Baltic States, is a mixture of Western and Eastern architectural cultures.

The European climate is largely affected by warm Atlantic currents that temper winters and summers on much of the continent, even at latitudes along which the climate in Asia and North America is severe.