NORTH AMERICA 



1256 



NORTH AMERICA 



The Native Peoples. Most of the people of 

 continental North America are now of Euro- 

 pean races, and those of the West Indies are 

 of African descent. Only in the southern coun- 

 tries and in the far North are there many sur- 

 vivors of the people who possessed the land 

 before the coming of the white man. Descrip- 

 tions of them will be found in the articles 

 INDIANS, AMERICAN; ESKIMO. 



How Men Have Divided the Continent. When 

 Columbus startled Europe with the announce- 

 ment of his discovery of lands beyond the At- 

 lantic, Pope Alexander VI proclaimed all 

 heathen countries west of Europe to be Span- 

 ish. But the English under John Cabot were 

 the first to find the mainland (for Columbus 

 on his first voyage had visited only the Baha- 

 mas, Cuba and Haiti), and, when its Church 

 threw off the authority of Rome, England be- 

 came nearly as extravagant in its claims as 

 Spain. France, too, entered the contest for 

 territory, and so it came about that America 

 was divided according to the actual achieve- 

 ments of explorers and colonizers and not by 

 the decrees of their sovereigns. 



The Spanish, starting from Cuba and Haiti, 

 conquered the southern half of the continent. 

 On the Pacific coast they penetrated nearly to 

 the Columbia River, but on the Atlantic they 

 advanced only a short distance north of the 

 Gulf of Mexico. The French, working from 

 Champlain's settlements at Quebec, established 

 their trading posts in the valleys of the Saint 

 Lawrence and the Mississippi. The English 

 colonized the Atlantic coast from Maine to 

 Georgia and their Hudson's Bay Company was 

 in the far north. The Dutch gained a 

 temporary foothold at New York, and in the 

 late eighteenth century the Russians pushed 

 forward from Asia into Alaska. To-day the 

 English alone hold any considerable portion of 

 their early empire in America, though the 

 French language is still spoken in the province 

 of Quebec and men of Spanish descent rule 

 almost everywhere south of the United States. 

 By wars, revolutions and sales of territory (the 

 stories of which are told in articles on the in- 

 dividual countries) boundary lines in North 

 America have been shifted back and forth until 

 now the 8,300,000 square miles of this northern 

 half of the New World is divided as the follow- 

 ing list shows: 



Canada: area, 3,729,665 square miles; popula- 

 tion, 7,206,643. 



British Colonies, including Newfoundland :uui 

 Labrador, Bahamas, Bermudas, British Hondu- 

 ras. Jamaica and minor West Indian islands: 

 area, 183,551 square miles; population, 2,000,000. 



S|>iinlMli-S|MMiktnB Countries 



Mexico: area, 785,881 square miles; population. 

 15,063,207. 



Guatemala: area, 48,290 square miles; popula- 

 tion, 2,119,165. 



Salvador: area, 7,325 square miles; popula- 

 tion, 1,700,000. 



Honduras: area, 44,275 square miles; popula- 

 tion, 600,000. 



Costa Rica : area, 23,000 square miles ; popula- 

 tion, 400,000. 



United States possessions Porto Rico : area, 

 3,435 square miles; population, 1,118,012. Dan- 

 ish West Indies (now -the Virgin Islands of the 

 United States): area, 138 square miles; popula- 

 tion, 32,786. 



Under United States protection Cuba : area, 

 44,164 square miles; population, 2,383,000. Santo 

 Domingo: area, 18,045 square miles; population. 

 700,000. Nicaragua: area, 49,200 square miles; 

 population, 500,000. Panama: area, 32,380 square 

 miles ; population, 427,000. 



French-Speaking Countries 



French Colonies Saint Pierre and Miquelon, 

 Guadeloupe: area, 1,166 square miles; popula- 

 tion, 411,000. 



Under United States protection Haiti : area, 

 10,204 square miles; population, 2,000,000. 



l)}iii!vli-S|M-:ikiniA Countries 

 Greenland: area, 826,000 square miles; popu- 

 lation, 13,500. 



History. For the history of North America 

 see the appropriate subtitles under CANADA; 

 UNITED STATES; MEXICO, etc. C.H.H. 



Consult Dawson's North America; Sanford's 

 Compendium of Modern Geography and Travel; 

 Carpenter's Geographical Reader: North America; 

 Herbertson's North America. 



Related Subject*. It will be impossible to list 

 here all the articles which deal with the geog- 

 raphy and life of North America, but these are 

 listed elsewhere. The cities and towns, the his- 

 tory, tne products, for instance, are indexed under 

 the articles on the various countries. The more 

 general topics are here listed and classified : 



COAST WATERS 



Conntriea 



United States, including Alaska and Panama 

 Canal Zone: area, 3,618,121 square miles; popu- 

 lation, about 100,000,000. 



Arctic Lands and Seas 



Atlantic Ocean 



Baffin Land and Baffin 



Bay 



Belle Isle, Strait of 

 Bering Sea 

 California, Gulf of 

 Caribbean Sea 

 Chesapeake Bay 

 Delaware Bay 

 Florida, Gulf of 

 Fundy, Bay of 



Hudson Bay 

 James Bay 



Juan de Fuca, Strait of 

 Long Island, subhead 

 Long Island Sound 

 Mexico, Gulf of 

 Minas Bay 

 Narragansett Bay 

 Pacific Ocean 

 Puget Sound 

 Saint Lawrence, Gulf of 



