3d largest of the 7 continents, including Canada (the world's 2nd largest in total area and the 3d largest country in land area), the U.S. (4th), and Mexico (13th). The continent also includes Greenland (Kalaallit Nunaat), the largest island, as well as the small French overseas territorial collectivity of Saint Pierre and Miquelon and the British dependency of Bermuda (both made up of small islands in the Atlantic Ocean). With more than 420 million inhabitants (2003 est.), it is the 4th most populous continent; the U.S. ranks 3d and Mexico 11th in population among the world's countries. Canada and the U.S. have highly developed modern economies, and Mexico, although less developed than its neighbors, contains some of the world's greatest deposits of petroleum and natural gas.

North America, Central America, the West Indies or Caribbean region, and South America make up the earth's western hemisphere. North America is sometimes defined to include Central America and the West Indies, which are treated separately in this encyclopedia. An alternative classification system, now favored by the UN, includes Mexico along with Central and South America and the West Indies in a single region, Latin America and the Caribbean. The name America is derived from that of the Italian navigator Amerigo Vespucci, who may have visited the North American mainland in 1497–98.

THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT

North America is roughly wedge shaped, with its broadest expanse in the N. Most of its bulk is in the middle latitudes, with a considerable N section in the Arctic and a narrow part around the tropic of Cancer. The continent sprawls E-W across some 176° of longitude, from about long 12° W at Nordost Rundingen (Northeast Foreland) in NE Greenland to about long 172° E at the W extremity of Attu Island, Alaska. Its N-S extent is some 69°, from about lat 83° N at Cape Morris Jesup in E Greenland to about lat 14° N in S Mexico. North America is bordered on the N by the Arctic Ocean; on the E by the Atlantic Ocean; on the S by the Gulf of Mexico, Central America, and the Pacific Ocean; and on the W by the Pacific Ocean. The area of the continent is approximately 24.3 million sq km (about 9.4 million sq mi).

The outline of North America is exceedingly irregular; some extensive coastal reaches are relatively smooth, but by and large the coastline is broken and embayed, with many prominent offshore islands. The continent has three enormous coastal indentations—Hudson Bay in the NE, the Gulf of Mexico in the SE, and the Gulf of Alaska in the NW. There are many small islands near the E and W coasts, but the most prominent islands are in the far N.

Geological History.

According to a widely accepted theory, almost all of North America is situated on the North American plate, an enormous platform considered one of about a dozen major units constituting the structural mosaic of the earth's crust. It is thought that North America was once joined to modern-day Europe and Africa and that it began to break away about 170 million years ago, in the Jurassic period, with the process of continental drift accelerating about 95 million years ago, in the Cretaceous period. As North America drifted W at a rate of about 1.25 cm (0.5 in) per year, the plate underlying the Pacific Ocean is believed to have thrust under the North American plate, thereby causing widespread folding, evident today in a series of high mountains along the W coast. As the Atlantic Ocean widened, it caused extensive faulting along the E coast, resulting in the creation of mountains and offshore islands.

Physiographic Regions.

North America can be divided into five major physiographic regions. The E half of Canada, as well as most of Greenland and sections of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, and New York in the U.S., are part of the Canadian Shield (or Laurentian Plateau), which is a plateau region underlain by ancient crystalline rocks. The region has poor soil, and dense forests cover much of its S part. A second region consists of a coastal plain in most of the eastern U.S. and Mexico. In the U.S. the coastal plain is bordered on the W by a third region, comprising a relatively narrow cordillera of mountains and hills, notably the rounded Appalachian Mts. A fourth region consists of the central portion of the continent, from S Canada to SW Texas, which encompasses an extensive lowland that has experienced alternating periods of submergence beneath the sea and uplift, with the result that it is deeply covered with layers of sedimentary rock. It is not an uninterrupted flatland, but includes much undulating and even hilly terrain, such as the Ozark Plateau. The W portion is made up of the Great Plains, which slope upward to the foot of the Rocky Mts.

The fifth, and westernmost, region of North America, taking in most of Mexico, is an active zone of mountain building; its recent geological history is dominated by crustal movements and volcanic activity. Adjacent to the Great Plains in the U.S. and Canada are the Rocky Mts., which are geologically related to the Sierra Madre Oriental range of Mexico. To the W is an area of scattered basins and high plateaus, including the Interior Plateau of British Columbia in Canada, the Colorado Plateau and the Great Basin of the U.S., and the vast central plateau of Mexico. Along the Pacific coast are a number of lofty mountain systems, extending from the Alaska Range to the Sierra Madre Occidental and Sierra Madre del Sur of Mexico. In between are such ranges as the Coast Mts. of British Columbia and the Cascade Range, the Coast Ranges, and the Sierra Nevada of the U.S. Interspersed are some low-lying areas, notably the fertile Central Valley of California. The highest point in North America, Mt. McKinley, or Denali (6194 m/20,320 ft), is situated in the Alaska Range, and the lowest point, 86 m (282 ft) below sea level, is in Death Valley, Calif., a part of the Great Basin.

Drainage and Water Resources.

The Continental, or Great, Divide, which mainly runs along the crest of the Rocky Mts., splits North America into two great drainage basins. To the E of the divide, water flows toward the Arctic Ocean, Hudson Bay, the Atlantic Ocean, and the Gulf of Mexico, and to the W, rivers flow toward the Pacific Ocean.

Two prominent drainage systems—the Great Lakes-Saint Lawrence R. system and the Mississippi-Missouri river system—dominate the hydrography of E and central North America. The five Great Lakes (Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, Ontario) drain NE to the Atlantic Ocean via the relatively short St. Lawrence R. Most of the central part of the U.S. and a small part of S Canada are drained S to the Gulf of Mexico by the Mississippi R. and its tributaries, notably the Missouri R., the longest river in North America. A great many short, but often voluminous, rivers flow to the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico along the well-watered E coasts of Canada, the U.S., and Mexico. The N interior of the continent is drained by the great Mackenzie R. system of W Canada and by the numerous rivers that flow into Hudson Bay. To the W of the Continental Divide are relatively few major rivers (notably the Colorado, Columbia, Fraser, and Yukon) and many short, large-volume streams.

The S half of North America contains only a few large natural lakes, but Canada and the northern U.S. have a vast number of sizable lakes. Lake Superior, the world's biggest freshwater lake, and 10 of the next 25 largest natural lakes are found in this region. Lake Mead, located on the Colorado R. in the U.S., is a large artificial lake, and Great Salt Lake, in Utah, is noted for its highly saline water.

Climate.

Although North America has considerable climatic variety, five principal climatic regions can be identified. The N two-thirds of Canada and Alaska, as well as all Greenland, have subarctic and arctic climates, in which long, dark, bitterly cold winters alternate with brief, mild summers. Most of the region, which receives relatively little precipitation, is covered with snow and ice during much of the year. A second climatic region is made up of the E two-thirds of the U.S. and S Canada. It is characterized by a humid climate in which all four seasons are evident, and weather changes are frequent. The S part of this region has a warmer average temperature. A third region includes the W interior of the U.S. and much of N Mexico. It is mostly mountain and desert country, generally receiving small amounts of precipitation, but with significant local variations due to altitude and exposure. A fourth climatic region is made up of a narrow zone along the Pacific Ocean from S Alaska to S California. It has relatively mild but wet winters and almost rainless summers. Most of S Mexico has a tropical climate, with year-round warmth and considerable precipitation, especially in summer.

Vegetation.

The natural vegetation of North America has been significantly modified by human activity, but its general nature is still apparent over much of the continent. The most notable forest of the continent is the taiga, or boreal forest, an enormous expanse of mostly coniferous trees (especially spruce, fir, hemlock, and larch) that covers most of S and central Canada and extends into Alaska. In the eastern U.S. a mixed forest, dominated by deciduous trees in the N and by various species of yellow pine in the SE, has mostly been cleared or cut over, but a considerable area has regrown since the 1940s. In the W portion of the continent, forests are primarily associated with mountain ranges, and coniferous trees are dominant. In California, the redwood and giant sequoia grow to enormous size. A great mixture of species characterizes the tropical forests of Mexico.

The vegetation cover in the drier parts of the continent is made up mainly of grassland and shrubland. The central plains and prairies of the U.S. and S Canada were originally grass covered, but much of the natural flora has been replaced by commercial crops. The dry lands of the western U.S. and N Mexico are sparsely covered with a variety of shrubs and many kinds of cactus. Beyond the tree line in the far N is a region of tundra, containing a mixture of low-growing sedges, grasses, mosses, and lichens.

Animal Life.

The native wildlife of North America was once numerous and diverse, but the spread of human settlement has resulted in contracting habitats and diminishing numbers. In general, the fauna of North America is similar to that of the N areas of Europe and Asia. Notable large mammals found on the continent include several kinds of bear, the largest being the grizzly; bighorn sheep; bison, now only in protected herds; caribou; moose, called elk in Europe; musk-ox; and wapiti. Large carnivores include the puma and, in southernmost regions, the jaguar; the wolf and its smaller relative, the coyote; and, in the far N, the polar bear. One species of marsupial, the common opossum, is indigenous to the continent. A few of the many reptiles are poisonous, including the coral snake, pit vipers such as the rattlesnake and copperhead, and the Gila monster and beaded lizard of the southwestern U.S. and Mexico, the only poisonous lizards in the world. A great variety of finfish and shellfish live in the marine waters off North America, and many kinds of fish are found in its freshwater rivers and lakes.

Mineral Resources.

North America has large deposits of many important minerals. Petroleum and natural gas are found in great quantity in N Alaska, W Canada, the S and W conterminous U.S., and E Mexico; huge beds of coal are in E and W Canada and the U.S.; and great iron-ore deposits are in E Canada, the northern U.S., and central Mexico. Canada also has major deposits of copper, nickel, uranium, zinc, asbestos, and potash; the U.S. contains great amounts of copper, molybdenum, nickel, phosphate rock, and uranium; and Mexico has large reserves of barite, copper, fluorite, lead, zinc, manganese, and sulfur. All three countries have significant deposits of gold and silver.

THE PEOPLE

North America was sparsely populated until relatively recent times. With the conspicuous exception of the inhabitants of the Mexican heartland (the plateaus and valleys around present-day Mexico City), the aboriginal peoples of the continent were few in number, geographically scattered, and culturally diverse. The settlement of the continent by Europeans began an almost total change in its human geography; the aborigines were decimated and displaced, and the living patterns of most were greatly altered. The contemporary population of North America is mostly European in background, but the continent's population also contains various other important elements.

Ethnology.

At least one-fourth of Canada's inhabitants trace their ancestry solely to England, Scotland, or Ireland, and another 23% claim an umixed French background; the latter live mostly in Québec Province. The country also has significant numbers of persons of German, Italian, Chinese, Ukrainian, Dutch, Polish, East Indian, Portuguese, and Filipino descent.

The overall population of the U.S. is much more diverse than that of Canada. In 2000 persons of at least part Irish, British, and Scottish background formed the largest group, with approximately 26% of the country's inhabitants. Blacks, who trace their ancestry to Africa, make up about 12% of the population, persons of German ancestry about 17%, and Latinos (who may be of any race) at least 12%. The country also has large numbers of people of Italian, Polish, French (and French Canadian), Russian, Dutch, and Scandinavian ancestry. Persons of Asian, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Island origin—primarily Chinese, Filipinos, Asian Indians, Vietnamese, Koreans, and Japanese—make up approximately 4% of the population of the U.S.; since the 1970s the number of Asians has increased significantly through immigration.

Native Americans—Indians and Inuit (Eskimo)—number about 2.5 million in the U.S. and 1 million in Canada. It is believed that the ancestors of the Indians migrated from Asia to North America via a prehistoric land bridge across the modern Bering Strait, off Alaska, beginning perhaps some 30,000 years ago, and that the forebears of the Inuit migrated from Asia by boat some 6000 years ago. More than 40,000 Inuit live in Greenland.

About 60% of the people of Mexico are mestizos, persons of mixed Indian and European (mainly Spanish) background. Approximately 30% of the population is of relatively pure Indian ancestry, and nearly all the rest are of unmixed European descent.

Demography.

According to official census reports, the U.S. (2000) had 281,421,906 inhabitants, Mexico (2000) had 97,483,412, and Canada (2001) had 30,007,094; the population of Greenland (2003) was 56.676. Most of the population was concentrated in the E half of the U.S. and adjacent parts of Ontario and Québec, the W coast of the U.S., and the central plateau of Mexico. In the early 2000s about 80% of the inhabitants of Canada, the U.S., and Greenland were defined as urban, as were about 75% of all Mexicans. The principal urban areas were on the U.S. Atlantic coast from Boston to Washington, D.C., around the shores of Lakes Erie and Ontario, at the S end of Lake Michigan, in N and S California, and greater Mexico City. The largest cities included Mexico City, Guadalajara, Puebla, Ciudad Juárez, Tijuana, and Monterrey, in Mexico; New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Diego, Dallas, and San Antonio, in the U.S.; and Toronto, Montréal, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Québec, and Winnipeg, in Canada. Away from the metropolitan areas, most of North America had only a sparse to moderate population density. In Mexico in 2003 the estimated population density was approximately 54 persons per sq km (approximately 139 per sq mi) of land area; in the U.S., about 30 per sq km (about 78 per sq mi); and in Canada, some 3 per sq km (some 8 per sq mi). The great majority of Canadians lived in a relatively narrow band along the S boundary.

In both Canada and the U.S. the rate of natural population increase has declined since the 1950s. The Canadian population was increasing at an annual rate of 0.3% in 2003, when the annual natural growth rate for the U.S. was 0.6%. (Immigration, both legal and illegal, made the actual rate of U.S. population growth significantly higher.) The population of Mexico showed an estimated 2.4% rate of natural increase in 2003, and Mexico's birth rate (about 29 per 1000 persons in 2003) was more than double that of Canada. The death rate was about 5 per 1000 people in Mexico, 7 in Canada, and 9 in the U.S.

Intercontinental migration to North America has been substantial in recent decades, with large numbers of Asians and Europeans going to the U.S. and Canada. In addition, many persons have moved from South American and Caribbean countries, especially to the U.S. The largest population movements occurred within North America itself, from Mexico to the U.S. and from the northeastern U.S. to S and W parts of the country.

Languages.

English is the only language spoken at home by more than 80% of the people of the U.S. and by about three-fifths of all Canadians. Spanish is spoken by the majority of Latinos in the U.S., and French is the sole mother tongue of at least 22% of the Canadian population. Many of the Indians and Inuit of the U.S., Canada, and Greenland use their traditional languages. Spanish is the dominant language of Mexico, but millions of Mexicans speak an Indian language.

Religion.

Christianity is the major religion of North America. The great majority of Mexicans are Roman Catholics, and some 43% of Canadians and 22% of U.S. inhabitants profess Roman Catholicism. About 29% of Canada's people are Protestants or Anglicans. In the U.S., Protestants comprise at least 50% of the population. Canada and the U.S. also have substantial communities of Jews, Muslims, and Eastern Orthodox Christians.

Cultural Activity.

Cultural life is highly developed and diversified, with the mass media (radio, television, motion pictures, newspapers) playing an important role. Almost all North American cities support theatrical organizations and art museums, and musical groups are widespread. Traditional cultural patterns are more evident in the rural areas of Mexico, but its cities have a variety of modern cultural institutions.

PATTERNS OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

The economic activities of North America are extraordinarily diverse. The U.S. and Canada have sophisticated modern economies. Modernization has been uneven in Mexico, with major developments in power, transportation, and manufacturing undercut by chronic inflation and a staggering burden of debt.

Agriculture.

Farming is relatively more important in Mexico than in the other North American countries and provides employment for about 18% of the labor force (compared with some 2% in the U.S. and 3% in Canada). Subsistence farming is still important throughout Mexico, especially in the S; commercial agriculture is well developed in many areas, however, particularly in the central plateau and in the northern regions of the country. The leading commodities produced in Mexico include corn, wheat, and beans, which are raised mostly for domestic consumption, and cotton, cattle, coffee, and sugar, which are produced mainly for export. Large quantities of fruits and vegetables are also grown.

Agriculture in the U.S. and Canada is dominated by highly mechanized farms, which produce immense quantities of crops, livestock, and livestock products. The Great Plains of the central U.S. and the Canadian Prairie provinces (Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan) are major world producers of grain (particularly wheat but also barley, oats, rye, and grain sorghum), oilseeds, and livestock (dairy and beef cattle and sheep). Perhaps the world's finest large farming area is the Corn Belt, that part of the U.S. Middle West from W Ohio to E Nebraska, which is the world's largest producer of corn, as well as a major supplier of other grains, soybeans, cattle, and hogs. Farming in California yields a huge amount of high-value irrigated crops, notably fruits and vegetables. Florida and Texas also are great producers of fruits and vegetables, and potatoes are grown in vast quantities in Idaho, Washington State, Wisconsin, California, Oregon, Minnesota, Maine, North Dakota, and SE Canada. Other outstanding agricultural products include cotton, broiler chickens, dairy products, and sugarcane.

Forestry and Fishing.

Forestry is an important sector of the Canadian economy, especially in British Columbia, Ontario, and Québec Province. Notable forest-products industries also flourish in the western U.S. (particularly in Washington, Oregon, and California) and in the southeastern U.S.

Fishing is the leading economic activity in Greenland but is a relatively unimportant sector in Canada, the U.S., and Mexico, even though the catch is large and some coastal areas are dependent on revenues from sales of finfish and shellfish. Besides the waters near Greenland, major fishing grounds are off the N Pacific coast, off the N Atlantic coast, and off the S Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coasts. In addition, large tuna fleets are based in S California and W Mexico.

Mining.

The extraction of minerals is an important economic activity in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. The U.S. has been one of the world's leading petroleum producers for many years, Canada has been a major producer since the late 1940s, and Mexico became a world leader in oil production in the late 1970s. The U.S. ranks second among world natural-gas producers and is also a leader in mining coal, produced particularly in Wyoming and other Rocky Mountain states and in the Appalachian region. Iron ore has long been a major product of both the U.S. and Canada, primarily from deposits around the W end of Lake Superior. More recently, much iron ore has been produced in the Québec Province-Labrador border area of E Canada. Among the other minerals that have been recovered in quantity in North America are copper, silver, lead, zinc, nickel, sulfur, asbestos, uranium, phosphate rock, and potash.

Manufacturing.

Manufacturing has long been a leading economic sector of the U.S. The principal concentrations of factories have been located in the urban areas of a manufacturing belt extending roughly from Boston to Chicago. Since the 1950s, however, manufacturing has expanded considerably in other parts of the country, particularly in the big cities of California and Texas and in the SE states. Output is extremely diversified, with emphasis on transportation equipment, computers and electronic products, primary and fabricated metals, processed food, and chemicals and pharmaceuticals. Manufacturing also is a principal economic activity in Canada. Factories are situated primarily in the cities of Ontario, Québec Province, British Columbia, and Alberta; Toronto and Montréal are the leading manufacturing centers. Canadian firms produce a wide variety of goods, especially processed food and beverages, transportation equipment, paper and other forest products, primary and fabricated metals, chemicals, and electrical and electronic equipment.

Manufacturing has become an increasingly important part of the Mexican economy since the 1940s. Although not as highly developed as in the U.S. and Canada, factories in Mexico produce a broad spectrum of goods, notably chemicals, clothing, processed food, motor vehicles and motor-vehicle parts, construction materials, and electrical and electronic equipment. Mexico City is by far the country's leading manufacturing center, but several other cities, including Monterrey and Guadalajara, have important concentrations of factories.

Energy.

North America consumes great quantities of energy. Canada depends much more on hydroelectricity than do the U.S. and Mexico, but it also makes heavy use of petroleum and natural gas. The enormous consumption of energy in the U.S. requires great imports of petroleum to bolster the considerable domestic output of coal, petroleum, natural gas, and hydroelectric and nuclear power. Mexico's energy production has expanded considerably in recent decades, primed by the increased domestic recovery of petroleum and natural gas.

Transportation.

The transportation network of North America is extremely well developed in most parts of the conterminous U.S. and in southernmost Canada. A remarkable system of limited-access interstate highways was built in the U.S. beginning in the 1950s, and it has a wide-ranging network of other all-weather roads. The rail network also is well established; it is critical for many types of freight transport but is a relatively unimportant passenger carrier. Air traffic grew considerably after 1945, and an expansive network of routes was created. Inland waterways, particularly the St. Lawrence Seaway-Great Lakes system and the Mississippi-Missouri river system, are important freight-transportation routes. Central and N Canada and Alaska have limited surface transportation facilities and depend heavily on air service. The interior transportation systems of Mexico are unevenly developed. All three countries have extensive modern facilities for handling oceangoing vessels.

Trade.

The U.S. is by far the leading trade partner for both Canada and Mexico, which in turn are significant, but not dominant, trade partners of the U.S. The main exports of the U.S. are machinery, motor vehicles, foodstuffs, chemicals, and aircraft. Canada mainly ships motor vehicles, machinery, metal and metal ore, forest products, chemicals, and foodstuffs; the major exports of Mexico are crude petroleum, machinery and transport equipment, and foodstuffs. In the early 1990s the value of Canada's annual exports exceeded that of its imports, whereas the U.S. and Mexico regularly paid more for imports than their exports earned. The U.S. ranks among the world's leading trading countries in terms of the total value of imports and exports.        T.L.M., TOM L. McKNIGHT, M.A., Ph.D.

HISTORY

According to archaeological evidence, human occupation of North America began during the Pleistocene epoch of the Quaternary period, perhaps as long ago as 50,000 bc. A type of Mongoloid people is thought to have migrated to the continent from Asia over a land bridge across what is now the Bering Strait. From these beginnings human habitation is thought to have slowly spread south and eastward.

These earliest inhabitants were Stone Age people, who lived by hunting and gathering, using implements not unlike those known from Southeast Asia. They were later supplanted by other migrants with more advanced tools. These people are believed to be the earliest ancestors of the North American Indians who inhabited the continent at the time when Europeans first arrived. See American Indians; Archaeology.

Greenland, geologically a part of North America, was the first part of the western hemisphere reached by Europeans. According to Icelandic sagas, it was first explored and settled by Eric the Red. The first European to see any part of the continental mainland was probably Bjarni Herjólfsson, an Icelandic trader, who sighted it about 986. Then Leif Ericson, the son of Eric the Red, made a voyage to a land he called Vinland or Wineland, believed to have been somewhere between Labrador and New England. This account was partly substantiated by the discovery in 1963 of a Viking-type settlement site at L'Anse-aux-Meadows, near the northern tip of Newfoundland. The ruins were determined to be from about 1000.

Age of Exploration.

Consecutive European explorations in North America began with the voyage made in 1492 by Christopher Columbus in the service of Spain. His three ships sailed from Palos, Andalusia, on August 3, and on October 12 reached San Salvador or Watling Island, in the Bahamas (see also Samana Cay). Before returning to Europe, Columbus also landed on Cuba and Hispaniola. It was on Hispaniola that he established the first Spanish settlement in the Americas. He made three additional voyages between 1493 and 1502. See also Central America.

In 1497 an Italian navigator in English service, John Cabot, landed on Cape Breton Island; in 1498 he also sailed along the Labrador, Newfoundland, and New England coasts, and possibly as far south as Delaware Bay. The Portuguese navigator Gaspar Corte-Real made a voyage in 1500 to the North American coast between Labrador and southeastern Newfoundland. In 1513 Juan Ponce de León, the Spanish governor of Puerto Rico, landed in Florida. Four years later the Spanish soldier Francisco Fernández de Córdoba (1475–1526) explored the Yucatán, and in 1518 Juan de Grijalva (1489?–1527), a nephew of the Spanish soldier Diego Velázquez, explored the eastern coast of Mexico, which he called New Spain. The following year the Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés invaded Mexico; he conquered it during the next two years.

Spanish Conquests.

Spanish conquest of the southern portion of the continent was substantially facilitated by the strife prevailing among the native peoples of the region. Internal turbulence had been especially acute in the Aztec Empire, the rich domain that fell to Cortés in 1521. In many respects the culture of this people, numerically and politically the most powerful in North America, transcended that of the invaders. The Aztecs, however, were hated by many of the tribes under their sovereignty, and some of these tribes became willing allies of Cortés. Through this circumstance and superiority in weapons, Spanish victory was ensured. The Maya, another great Mexican people, living mainly on the Yucatán Peninsula, were disunited also and incapable of offering effective resistance to the Spanish. Although tens of thousands of natives of Mexico and Central America were exterminated during the period of Spanish conquest and rule, the Aztec, Maya, and other peoples survived and multiplied. Their descendants constitute a majority of the present-day population of these areas.

Cortés reached the region now known as Baja California in 1536. Among other important Spanish leaders of exploring expeditions during the first half of the 16th century were Pánfilo de Narváez and Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, who explored parts of Florida, the northern and eastern coasts of the Gulf of Mexico, and parts of northern Mexico between 1528 and 1536; Hernando de Soto, who reached and crossed the Mississippi River in 1541; and Francisco Vásquez de Coronado, who from 1540 to 1542 explored large areas in the southwestern part of the present-day U.S.

By 1600 the Spanish had subjugated the natives of the larger West Indian islands, of the Florida Peninsula, and of southern Mexico (New Spain). For administrative purposes the colonies founded by the Spanish in these areas were grouped in the viceroyalty of New Spain. After consolidating their control of New Spain, the Spanish authorities gradually pushed northward, completing the conquest of Mexico and taking over large areas in the south of what is now the U.S. The colonial policy of Spain in North America was identical in all important respects with its South American colonial policy, that is, ruthless economic exploitation. Regarding the colonies merely as a source of wealth, the Spanish rulers imposed confiscatory taxation and maintained a monopoly of colonial trade. The Spanish government even forbade commercial intercourse among its American colonies. This oppressive economic policy and a concomitant political tyranny created discontent that finally flared into open rebellion.

French and English Colonization.

While Spain was consolidating its position in southern North America, France and England explored and settled the continent from Canada southward. England and Spain had been generally allied in international politics during the early part of the 16th century, and as a result the English did not then attempt to compete with Spain in North America. France, the chief rival of Spain for hegemony on the European continent, entered the race for colonial empire somewhat belatedly, but its territorial acquisitions in the New World were nonetheless important. In 1524 the Florentine navigator Giovanni da Verrazano, sailing in French service, followed the North American coast from Cape Fear northward to a point usually identified as Cape Breton. In the course of this voyage he explored what are now called Narragansett and New York bays. The French explorer Jacques Cartier made three voyages between 1534 and 1542 to an area including the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, the Saint Lawrence River, and the Indian village that later became the site of Montréal. France claimed most of the northern part of the continent on the basis of these explorations. Because of domestic turmoil resulting from the Protestant Reformation, the French were forced to suspend colonial activity for more than half a century. Beginning in 1599, they established fur trading posts along the St. Lawrence River. Numerous French Jesuit priests came thereafter to the St. Lawrence region, seeking to convert the Indians to the Roman Catholic faith, and various French explorers found and claimed for France new and widely separate sections of the continent. Among the most notable of these explorers were Samuel de Champlain, who founded Québec in 1608 and explored what is now northern New York; the Jesuit missionary Claude Jean Allouez (1622–89), who opened up new territory about Lake Superior; and the Jesuit missionary Jacques Marquette and the explorer Louis Jolliet, who in 1673 together explored the upper Mississippi River as far south as present-day Arkansas. In 1682 one of the most noted French pioneers in North America, Robert Cavelier, sieur de La Salle, and his associate, the Italian explorer Henri de Tonty, navigated the Mississippi from its junction with the Ohio River to the Gulf of Mexico, claiming all the land drained by the river for Louis XIV, king of France, and naming it Louisiana.

The English crown laid claim to the North American continent on the strength of the Cabot voyage of 1497–98, but for nearly a century made no attempts at colonization. The earliest colony in North America was established in 1583 near the present city of Saint John's, Nfld., by the English navigator and soldier Sir Humphrey Gilbert, but the settlers returned to England the same year. Twice, in 1585 and in 1587, Sir Walter Raleigh attempted to establish a colony on Roanoke Island, in present-day North Carolina, but when English explorers called at Roanoke in 1590 or 1591, they found no trace of the colonists. The first permanent British colony on the continent was Jamestown, established in Virginia in 1607. Plymouth Colony was founded in 1620 on the shores of Cape Cod Bay, and Massachusetts Bay Colony was established between 1628 and 1630 on the shores of Massachusetts Bay. After 1630 the English systematically colonized the entire Atlantic seaboard between French Acadia and Spanish Florida. In 1664 they annexed the Dutch colony of New Netherland, founded in 1624, which they renamed New York, and the settlements on the Delaware River that the Dutch had seized from Swedish colonists in 1655. The English colonies grew rapidly in population and wealth. For details, see United States of America: History.

At the beginning of the last decade of the 17th century, most of the North American continent from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico was occupied by the French and English colonial empires. The French colonies were widely scattered. The principal settlements were grouped in Canada and near the mouth of the Mississippi River, and a line of trading and military posts along the Ohio and Mississippi rivers connected the two regions. The English colonial holdings consisted of 12 colonies extending along the Atlantic seaboard. A 13th, Georgia, was chartered in 1732 and settled beginning in 1733.

War and Revolution.

As a consequence of efforts to expand westward beyond the Alleghenies, the English eventually came into conflict with the French in the Ohio Valley. In 1689 the two powers began a worldwide struggle for military and colonial supremacy. In North America the conflict was fought in four successive phases: King William's War, which lasted from 1689 to 1697; Queen Anne's War, from 1702 to 1713; King George's War, from 1744 to 1748; and the French and Indian War, from 1754 to 1763. Reverses suffered in the French and Indian War and in its European extension, the Seven Years' War, forced the French to capitulate. By the Treaty of Paris of 1763 France was forced to yield to Great Britain all its holdings in Canada and also all of Louisiana east of the Mississippi. France had previously ceded to Spain, its ally, New Orleans and all French territory west of the Mississippi.

The outstanding event of the two decades from 1763 to 1783 on the continent was the economic, political, and military conflict between Great Britain and its 13 colonies along the Atlantic seaboard south of Canada. Generally called the American Revolution, this conflict terminated in the establishment of the United States of America. The success of the 13 colonies in freeing themselves from the oppressive rule of their parent country soon had repercussions among the Spanish colonies in the Americas. Inspired by their victory and also by the outcome of the French Revolution, and taking advantage of the involvement of Spain in the Napoleonic Wars, in 1810 the Spanish colonies in the Americas began a struggle for independence. Mexico revolted against Spain in that year but did not actually become free until 1821. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries Canada also succeeded in obtaining from Great Britain a full degree of self-government. See also Canada: History.

U.S. Expansion.

Other developments marked the history of North America in the 19th and 20th centuries. The first involved the increasing importance of the U.S., marked by the nation's unparalleled growth in population and wealth, and its concomitant territorial growth; its resolution of many internal economic and political problems, particularly those of slavery and national unity; and its emergence toward the end of the 19th century as a world power.

The U.S. territorial expansion, sometimes called the “winning of the West,” was marked by merciless warfare against the Indians who resisted encroachment on their domains. Except in scattered areas, particularly in the southern Appalachians, the Indians living east of the Mississippi River had been eliminated as an effective force by the final decade of the 18th century. Some of the tribes had withdrawn westward, but the great majority had been decimated or completely destroyed. To a large degree the tragic fate of the aborigines of eastern North America was a result of the involvement of their various tribes and nations in the wars and political rivalries among the colonizing powers, particularly the French and English. Many thousands of Indians, however, perished in the futile localized attempts to wrest their ancestral lands from the usurpers. In 1637 the Pequot, one of the great tribes of the New England region, was virtually eliminated in the course of such an action. Later in the century the Wampanoag sachem Philip organized a confederation of New England tribes for struggle against the English colonists. During the ensuing conflict, King Philip's War, fought in 1675 and 1676, the Indians inflicted numerous severe defeats on their adversaries but were finally overcome, and they were nearly exterminated.

Between 1832, when the Sac chief Black Hawk initiated a war in defense of tribal lands east of the Mississippi River, and 1877, when the Nez Percé tribe of Oregon was vanquished, the Indians of the Great Plains, the Southwest, and the Rocky Mountains contested almost every major U.S. move westward. Much of this armed opposition to U.S. authority originated among the Sioux, and it reached its climax at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, fought in what is now Montana on June 25, 1876. In this battle a large force of Sioux and Northern Cheyenne under Chiefs Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull, and Gall (1840?–94) annihilated a detachment of the Seventh U.S. Cavalry led by Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer. See also Indian Wars.

Meanwhile, the U.S. government had, by treaty arrangements, land purchases, and the establishment of reservations, obtained the cooperation of some Indian tribes and reduced the hostility of others. After the creation in 1849 of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, an agency of the U.S. Department of the Interior, the lot of the Indians in the U.S. slowly and gradually began to improve. Both in the U.S. and Canada, however, a substantial number of Indians continue to live on reservations. Although some reservations have profited in recent decades from the multibillion-dollar gambling industry, many Native Americans continue to experience economic hardship.

In addition to acquisitions of contiguous territory in the 19th and 20th centuries, the U.S. obtained other regions in North America: Alaska, purchased from Russia in 1867 for $7 million; Puerto Rico, ceded by Spain in 1898 after the Spanish-American War; the Panama Canal Zone, acquired in 1903 but ceded to Panama in 1979; and the Virgin Islands of the United States, purchased from Denmark in 1917 for $25 million.

Hemispheric Developments.

A second important development in the history of the continent in the 19th and especially in the 20th century was the participation of the North American nations in the movement manifest throughout the western hemisphere for economic cooperation, for the attainment of peace and mutual understanding, and for solidarity against potential aggressors. In this movement the U.S. played a leading part, starting in 1823 with the Monroe Doctrine—the proclamation of President James Monroe that the U.S. would not permit European control of territories in the Americas beyond that existing at the time. The only serious intracontinental conflict was the so-called Mexican War of 1846–48 between the U.S. and Mexico. During the 20th century a tendency toward mutual friendship has been apparent among the nations of the western hemisphere, given form in 1910 with the establishment of the Pan-American Union. Almost all the nations of the western hemisphere either declared war on or broke diplomatic relations with the Central Powers in World War I and displayed similar solidarity against the Axis Powers in World War II.

One of the most important demonstrations of hemispheric solidarity was the Inter-American Defense Conference of 1947, which promulgated the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance—the Rio Treaty—which was signed by the U.S., Mexico, and 17 Central and South American nations. The treaty provides for settlement of disagreements between nations of the western hemisphere, as well as for joint defense against aggression on the region extending from the Bering Sea to the South Pole. In 1948 the Organization of American States (OAS) was formed to implement the Rio Treaty and to serve as a collective security system.

Hemispheric cooperation was temporarily furthered by the Alliance for Progress, which was established in 1961. The alliance, which was accepted by the U.S. and 19 Latin American nations at Punta del Este, Uruguay, consisted of a 10-year development plan to raise the economic and social levels of the area and to strengthen its democratic institutions. After the original 10-year period, however, the alliance showed mixed results, and it gradually ceased to function.

The existence after 1959 of a Communist regime in Cuba has had an impact on hemispheric activities. In 1962, at Punta del Este, the OAS voted to exclude Cuba “from participation in the Inter-American system” because of that nation's alignment with the countries of the Communist bloc. Subsequently the U.S., announcing that it had discovered Soviet missile bases in Cuba, blockaded the island and demanded the removal of the bases. The Soviet Union complied and removed the weapons by the end of the year.

Particularly friendly and cooperative since the War of 1812 have been the relations between the U.S. and Canada. No military installations aimed at defense against each other have existed since that time on the entire border between the two nations. The U.S. and Canada collaborated closely in the fight against the Axis Powers during World War II. In the postwar period, usually referred to as the era of the cold war, the Canadian and American governments initiated plans for joint defense against possible aggression from the Soviet Union across the Arctic regions.

Mexico's serious internal strife from 1910 to 1920 and its nationalization of U.S. oil companies in 1938 plagued relations between the two nations during the first half of the 20th century. More recently, however, their relationship has been more friendly. In December 1992 the heads of state of Canada, Mexico, and the U.S. signed the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) (see Tariffs, United States), which took effect on January 1, 1994. NAFTA spurred industrial growth in Mexico and gave an enormous boost to Mexican-U.S. trade, but it also increased the vulnerability of Mexico's hard-pressed subsistence farmers to global competition. Illegal immigration from Mexico to the U.S. remained an irritant between the two countries in the 1990s and early 2000s. After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the U.S. took steps to impose greater control over cross-border traffic, without slowing the flow of commerce with its two principal trade partners. Although both countries cooperated with the U.S. in combating terrorism, neither Mexico nor Canada supported the U.S.-led war in Iraq in 2003.

For further information on this topic, see the Bibliography, sections 1103. Geography of North America–1230. Hawaii.