COUNTRIES OF NORTH AMERICA 01 Canada 02 Greenland 03 Mexico 04 United States 05 West Indies 06 Central America Countries of Central America are Belize Costa Rica El Salvador Guatemala Honduras Nicaragua and Panama see page 44 U S state of Hawaii off map 2 1 4 3 Totem pole in Thunderbird Park Victoria British Columbia Canada All Canada Photos Superstock 6 Morning light on Mount Rushmore South Dakota U S Paul A Souders Corbis 5
NORTH AMERICA L andofPlenty North America is the third largest continent Three countries Canada the United States and Mexico make up most of it The countries of Central America are also usually considered part of North America They occupy a narrow strip of land that connects North America to South America Several islands including Greenland in the north and the West Indies in the south are part of North America too Because it’s so large the continent has many different types of climate Most of Greenland is covered with ice all the time even in summer But the southern islands and countries are usually hot and humid In between there are both deserts and rainy areas but most places have warm summers and cold winters North America is rich in natural resources Forests cover a large part of the land The fertile soils of Canada the United States and Mexico produce large amounts of corn cotton soybeans tobacco wheat and other crops The continent is also rich in minerals such as coal iron ore copper natural gas petroleum and silver The history of the continent goes back thousands of years Scientists believe that people from Asia crossed over to Alaska more than 20,000 years ago and then moved southward Their descendants eventually established great civilizations such as that of the Maya in Central America and the Aztec in Mexico The first Europeans in the region were the Vikings who settled in Greenland in about the 900s It wasn’t until 1492 that explorers from other parts of Europe began to arrive S EA R C H LIG H T According to scientists who were the first people to settle in North America a Africans b Europeans c Asians LEARN MORE READ THESE ARTICLES CANADA MEXICO UNITED STATES OF AMERICA D I D YO U K N O W More dinosaur fossi found other continent in North America than on any ls have been Answer c Asians 7
F rozenIsland Greenland is the world’s largest island It sits in the North Atlantic Ocean between Iceland to the east and the islands of the Canadian north to the west Most of Greenland lies within the Arctic Circle Its northern tip is only 500 miles from the North Pole The capital city is Nuuk Greenland is almost entirely covered in ice In some places the ice is 10,000 feet thick Some of the ice is so deep that it is actually below the level of the sea around the island The people live on the seacoast highlands that are free of ice Greenland’s open land is called tundra There are very few trees Grasses grasslike plants called sedges and mosslike lichens are the main plants The weather in Greenland is cold and may change quickly from sunshine to blizzards Normal winter temperatures are 21 F in the south and 31 F in the north Even in the warmest parts of the island summer temperatures hover around 45 F Aside from people only seven kinds of mammals brave Greenland’s cold weather on land They are polar bears musk-oxen reindeer arctic foxes snow hares ermines and lemmings Seals and whales gather in the ocean waters and Greenlanders once depended on them for food Nowadays they are more likely to fish for cod salmon flounder and halibut Most Greenlanders are of Inuit Eskimo heritage They moved there from North America between 4000 BC and AD 1000 In the early 1700s Denmark colonized Greenland and the Danes still control it today LEARN MORE READ THESE ARTICLES CANADA NORTH AMERICA OTTAWA CANADA Nuuk 8
GREENLAND DID YOU KNOW The first European settlement in Greenland was founded in 986 by the Viking explorer Erik the Red About 15 years later his son Leif Eriksson sailed west from Greenland and became one of the first Europeans to reach North America S EA R C H LIG H T Most of the people in Greenland live in small towns near the coast Nadja Fotolia Most of Greenland’s surface is covered by a rice b ice c trees Answer b ice 9
