Portal:North America

From Infogalactic: the planetary knowledge core
Jump to: navigation, search

Template:/Header

Template:/box-header

Location North America.svg

North America is a continent in the Earth's northern hemisphere and western hemisphere. It is bordered on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east by the North Atlantic Ocean, on the southeast by the Caribbean Sea, and on the south and west by the North Pacific Ocean; South America lies to the southeast. It 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 July 2008, its population was estimated at nearly 529 million people. It is the third-largest continent in area, following Asia and Africa, and the fourth in population after Asia, Africa, and Europe. North America and South America are collectively known as the Americas or simply America.

Satellite imagery of North America

North and South America are generally accepted as having been named after the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci, who explored South America between 1497 and 1502, and was the first European to suggest that the Americas were not the East Indies. Scientists have several theories as to the origins of the early human population of North America. The indigenous peoples of North America themselves have many creation myths, 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.

Template:/box-footer

Template:/box-header

Territories, dependencies, and subnational entities of a country not located primarily in North America are italicized.

Template:/box-footer

Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Box-header/colours' not found.

Poster from the Gold Rush
The California Gold Rush (1848–1855) began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The first to hear confirmed information about gold in California were residents of Oregon, the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii), western Mexico, and Central America. They were the first to go there in late 1848. All told, the news of gold brought some 300,000 people to California from the rest of the United States and abroad. Of the 300,000, approximately half arrived by sea and half came overland from the east, on the California Trail and the Gila River trail.

The effects of the Gold Rush were substantial. San Francisco grew from a small settlement of about 200 residents in 1846 to a boomtown of about 36,000 by 1852. Roads and other towns were built throughout California. In 1849 a state constitution was written, and a governor and legislature were chosen. California became a state as part of the Compromise of 1850.

Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Box-header/colours' not found.

Geology of North America
Credit: USGS, GSC & MCRM
Relief map showing the varying age of bedrock underlying North America. This cartographic tapestry is woven from a geologic map and a shaded relief image. This combination reveals the geologic history of North America through the interrelation of rock type, topography and time. Regional surface processes as well as continent-scale tectonic events are exposed in the three dimensions of space and the fourth dimension, geologic time.

Template:/box-header

Vermont coppers

  • ... that Raul Macias, a Cuban-Mexican boxer parlayed his popularity into a successful career in telenovelas?

Template:/box-footer

Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Box-header/colours' not found.

Ina Garten at a book signing
Ina Rosenberg Garten, EYE-nə) (born February 2, 1948) is an American author and host of the Food Network program Barefoot Contessa. Known for creating fine cuisine foods with an emphasis on quality ingredients and timesaving tips, she has been championed by Martha Stewart, Oprah Winfrey, and Patricia Wells as an authority on cooking and home entertaining.

Garten had no formal training; she taught herself culinary techniques with the aid of French and New England cookbooks. Later, she relied on intuition and feedback from customers and friends to refine her recipes. She was mentored chiefly by Eli Zabar, of Eli's Manhattan and Eli's Breads fame, and domestic maven Stewart. Among her hallmark dishes are cœur à la crème, celery root remoulade, pear clafouti, and a simplified version of bœuf bourguignon. Her culinary career began with her gourmet food store, Barefoot Contessa; Garten parlayed this success into a string of best-selling cookbooks, magazine columns, self-branded convenience foods, and a popular Food Network television show.

Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Box-header/colours' not found.

— Unknown Aztec poet, 1500

Template:/box-header

Template:/box-footer

Template:/box-header

North America categories
<templatestyles src="Div col/styles.css"/>

Template:/box-footer

Template:/box-header

Template:/box-footer

Template:/box-header

Template:/box-footer

Template:/box-header

Terrestrial globe.svg
LocationAfrica.png
LocationAntarctica.png
LocationAsia.png
Caribbean map blank.png
LocationEurope.png
LocationOceania.png
LocationLatinAmerica.png
Geography Africa Antarctica Asia Caribbean Europe Oceania Latin America

Template:/box-footer

Template:/box-header

North America on Wikinews North America on Wikiquote North America on Wiktionary North America on Wikisource North America on Wikiversity North America on Wikicommons
Wikinews-logo.png
Wikiquote-logo.svg
25px
Wikisource-logo.png
Wikiversity-logo.svg
Commons-logo.svg
News Quotations Definitions Texts Learning resources Images

Template:/box-footer

Wikipedia's Portals
Purge server cache

es:Portal:América del Norte