Americas

The Americas are the connected landmasses of North and South America, including Central America and the Caribbean, in the Western Hemisphere.

North America: A continent extending from the Arctic region to the Isthmus of Panama. The northern landmass forms one of the two main continental divisions of the Americas.
Plate tectonics: The theory that Earth's outer shell is divided into moving plates. Plate motion accounts for the Americas’ continental assembly and ongoing geological change.
Peopling of the Americas: The prehistoric migration and settlement of human populations across the American continents. It concerns how people first reached and spread throughout the Americas.
Continental model: A system for grouping Earth's landmasses into continents. Continental models differ on whether the Americas count as one continent or two.
South America: A continent mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, extending from the Caribbean coast to Cape Horn. The southern landmass forms the Americas’ other main continental division.
Laurentia: An ancient continental landmass that forms much of present-day North America. Its old crust underlies a large part of the northern continent.
Indigenous peoples of the Americas: The diverse peoples descended from populations living in the Americas before European colonization. Their societies and histories span the full breadth of the region.
New World: A historical European name for the Americas after transatlantic contact beginning in 1492. This Eurocentric historical label overlaps with, but does not equal, the geographic term.
Central America: The isthmus connecting North America and South America, commonly defined as seven countries. This narrow region joins the two continental landmasses.
Gondwana: An ancient southern supercontinent that included South America, Africa, Antarctica, Australia, and India. South America was once joined to the other continents of Gondwana.

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