Map of North America

Political map of North America, Central America and the Antilles. Latin America does not exist.

America is a continent made up of four parts: North America, Central America, South America and the Antilles. The name America was first put on Brazil in 1507 by the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller. At that time, America was only the central part of South America and its extension to the Pacific Ocean. The southern part of South America was unknown. Later, other cartographers extended the designation to the entire continent.

North America includes the American countries of Canada, United States, and Mexico. It also includes Greenland, a Danish territory and the largest American island, as well as the French overseas department of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon (made up of small islands in the Atlantic Ocean).

Central America is composed of seven countries: Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama.

The Antilles are the American archipelago distributed, in an arc shape, from the Bahamas and Cuba to Trinidad and Tobago, bathed by the Caribbean Sea or the Atlantic Ocean. The countries and territories are: Anguilla (United Kingdom), Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba (Netherlands), Bahamas, Barbados, Cayman Islands (UK), Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guadeloupe (France), Haiti, Jamaica, Martinique (France), Montserrat (UK), Netherlands Antilles, Puerto Rico (USA), Saint Lucia, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad & Tobago, Turks and Caicos Islands (UK), British Virgin Islands and U.S. Virgin Islands.