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Geographically, the continent of America is made up of
South America, Central America and North America, where
Canada and the USA are two of the world's largest
countries. Also worth mentioning is the Pan-American
Highway (Panamericana), which stretches 29,750 km from
Prudhoe Bay in Alaska to Ushuaia in Tierra del Fuego,
Argentina.
| Country |
Area in km˛ |
population |
Capital |
| Argentina |
2,780,400 |
44.7 million |
Buenos Aires |
| Belize |
22,966 |
408,500 |
Belmopan |
| Bolivia |
1,098,581 |
11.08 million |
La Paz |
| Brazil |
8,514,215 |
212 million |
Brasilia |
| Chile |
756.626 |
17.5 million |
Santiago de Chile |
| Costa Rica |
51,100 |
4.8 million |
San Jose |
| Dominica |
751 |
73,000 |
Rosseau |
| Ecuador |
256,370 |
17.27 million |
Quito |
| El Salvador |
21,040 |
6.5 million |
San Salvador |
| Falkland Islands |
12,173 |
3,000 |
Port Stanley |
| French Guyana |
83,534 |
268,500 |
Cayenne |
| Guatemala |
108,890 |
17.2 million |
Guatemala City |
| Guyana |
214,970 |
780,000 |
Georgetown |
| Hawaii |
28,311 |
1.42 million |
Honolulu |
| Honduras |
112,090 |
9.5 million |
Tegucigalpa |
| Colombia |
1,138,748 |
50 million |
Santa Fe de Bogotá |
| Nicaragua |
130,700 |
6.5 million |
Managua |
| Panama |
75,517 |
4.3 million |
Panama City |
| Paraguay |
406,752 |
7.2 million |
Asunción |
| Peru |
1,285,220 |
33 million |
Lima |
| South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands |
4,066 |
almost uninhabited |
there is not any |
| St. Lucia |
616 |
165,500 |
Castries |
| Suriname |
163,820 |
585,000 |
Paramaribo |
| Uruguay |
176,220 |
3.5 million |
Montevideo |
| Venezuela |
916,445 |
29 million |
Caracas |
Source:
List of Countries in South America – Countryaah.com
Notes on some selected countries
Argentina
Argentina covers an area of 2,789,400 km˛ - with
around 44.7 million residents. From 1976 to 1983, the
country was ruled by an inhuman, brutal and corrupt
military dictatorship under General General Jorge Rafael
Videla (1925-2013). The nightmare did not end until the
end of the Falklands War in June 1962 under British
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (192-2013). Argentina
gained independence from Spain on July 9, 1816.
Brazil
Brazil covers an area of 8,514,215 km˛ - with around
212 million residents. A large part of the approximately
7 million km˛ Amazon basin is located in Brazil.
Unfortunately, under President Jair Bolsanaro (born
1955), more and more parts of the jungle are cleared and
partially planted with useful plants. The capital is
Brasilia, although Rio de Janeiro with its 6.4 million
residents, the Copa Cabana and the Christ statue is much
better known. Brazil gained independence from Portugal
in 1825, so Portuguese is spoken in the country and not
Spanish, as in almost all Central and South American
countries.
Chile
Chile covers an area of 756,626 km˛ - with around 17.5
million residents. On February 12, 1818 Chile gained
independence from Spain. In the far south of the
continent, Chile borders Argentina. An important event
was the so-called saltpeter war over the saltpeter
deposits in the Atacama desert between Chile on the one
hand and Bolivia and Peru on the other, which began in
1879 and ended in 1884. After the coup of General
Augusto Pinochet (1915-2006) against the democratically
elected socialist president Salvador Allende
(1908-1973), the people suffered a bad time 1988, when
Pinochet was replaced as president on March 11, 1990 by
the Christian Democrat Patricio Aylwin (1918-2016). |