From Bering to Americas popolations

Dec 26, 2024

THE THREE AMERICAS

With a total surface area of approximately 42.550.000 km², equal to 28% of the world's landmass, nature has shaped the Americas into two large, roughly triangular lands that, from the Arctic to the Antarctic, extend vast yet slender, occupying the western hemisphere alone, in the middle of two oceans and also joining them with a strip of land sufficient to form a third, smaller America. In addition to the triangular shape with equal disposition of the sides, there are both strong analogies between the two major continents, so that both have high mountain chains on the entire western side followed by large plains or even the symmetrical behavior of the most important watercourses, but also sharp contrasts, essentially due to the fact of possessing lands distributed in different proportions in the temperate climate zone, a circumstance that has had a great influence on the different destiny of each of the two territories.

NORTH AMERICA

Of the three American continents, North is certainly the one that has received the greatest benefits from nature, first of all for its greater continental extension, about 24 million square kilometers compared to about 18 million in South America, as well as being coastal and already located in the temperate zone of the northern hemisphere with the consequent advantages in terms of hospitality of the land and climate. But also in reference to the work of men, there where the great continental masses stretch out and join, with only 700 km of Atlantic Ocean separating it from Iceland and therefore from Europe and only 92 km dividing it from Asia passing through the Bering Strait, North America is historically in contact with the evolution of the civilized lands, from which it was colonized, and of the most advanced areas of the globe.

CENTRAL AMERICA

Between the two Americas, North and South, Central America insinuates itself, a thin land, reduced to a width of only 200 km., which separates the waters of the Atlantic Ocean from those of the Pacific Ocean and which, in the circle delimited by it with the islands of the West Indies, welcomes the Gulf of Mexico and the Antilles Sea. It is a territory, in the areas covered by the sea still hides many secrets, certainly among the most changeable of the globe, with a complex and uncertain geological history that, over the centuries, has made it often and significantly change shape and distribution, also because of natural hostilities caused by earthquakes and cyclones that shake it and volcanic eruptions that devastate it.

SOUTH AMERICA

South America is, with its approximately 18 million square kilometers, a smaller continent with less pronounced coastal development than North America, and is also essentially tropical and sparsely populated. Climate and forests have in fact hindered the colonization of its plains. Reached and traversed, before from real colonists, from adventurers who had the aim of getting rich quickly rather than settling down and working, the ancient lineages have persisted in it and abundant ethnic mixes have been produced, also because the proximity to Africa has helped facilitate the trafficking and immigration of colored people, thus forming more numerous States, but also more restless, more troubled and less powerful than those of North America.