THE AMERICAS

The Area called the Americas is made up of the following areas:

 North America
 South America
 Central America
 The Caribbean

North America and South America are continents. A continent is a very large landmass.
Central America is not a continent but rather it is considered a sub-region of the Americas.
The Caribbean is an archipelago of islands which are located in the Caribbean Sea. An
archipelago is a chain of islands.

Countries of North America

The countries located in North America are: United States, Canada and Mexico.
Countries of South America
The countries located in South America are: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia,
Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela.
Countries of Central America
The countries located in Central America are: El Salvador, Costa Rica, Belize, Guatemala,
Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama.
Countries/ Islands of the Caribbean
The islands of the Caribbean are made up of:
 The larger islands of the Greater Antilles which are Cuba, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Haiti
and the Dominican Republic.
 The smaller islands of the Lesser Antilles which are Virgin Islands, Anguilla, Saint Kitts
and Nevis, Antigua and Barbuda, Montserrat, Guadeloupe, Dominica, Martinique, Saint
Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Barbados, and Grenada
 The isolated island groups of the North American continental shelf—The Bahamas and
the Turks and Caicos Islands.
 Those of the South American shelf, including Trinidad and Tobago, Aruba, Curaçao,
and Bonaire.

HOW THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLE FIRST ENTERED THE AMERICAS

The first people first entered the Americas by crossing the Bering Strait from Siberia (a part of
Russia located in the continent of Asia) into Alaska (a part of America located in the continent of
North America). The first people made this crossing approximately 10,000 years ago during the
Ice Age. They made this crossing from one continent to the next because they were following
herds of animals (which they used to hunt and eat), as they migrated to the warmth of the
Americas to get away from the cold weather of Asia.
Today the Bering Strait is no longer made of ice, the Ice Age has ended and the ice bridge that
was used by the first people to walk from continent to continent has melted over 10,000 years
ago. It is now a narrow passage of water between two areas of land called a strait…. The Bering
Strait.