13 00 'S 59 24' W / -13, -59.4

South America
Location map of South America.
Area	17,840,000 km 2 (12%)
Population	371 000 000 inhab.
Density	21 inhabitants / km 2
Country	12
Dependencies	3
Main languages	Portuguese , Spanish , English , Dutch , French , Creole
Time Zones	UTC-2 ( Brazil ) to UTC-5 ( Ecuador )
More cities	So Paulo , Buenos Aires , Rio de Janeiro , Bogota , Lima , Santiago , Caracas
change

The South America is a continent or subcontinent or the southern part of America , from the point of view. The continent is located entirely within the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the southern hemisphere. It is bordered to the west by the Pacific Ocean and north and east by the Atlantic Ocean. The Central America , connecting the sub-continent to North America and the Caribbean are located to the northwest.

Language counting the largest number of speakers in South America is the Portuguese , followed closely by the Spanish

South America was named in 1507 by cartographers Martin Waldseemller and Mathias Ringmann after Amerigo Vespucci , who was the first European to suggest that America was not the East Indies , but a New World unknown to Europeans.

South America has an area of 17,840,000 km ^2, representing 3.5% of the surface of the Earth. In 2005 , its population was estimated at more than 371 million inhabitants. The gentil its inhabitants are "South Americans". South America ranks fourth in area (after Asia , the Africa and North America ) and fifth in population (after Asia, Africa, Europe, and the North America).

Geography

Location of countries in South America.

Satellite image of South America.

South America is the most southern part of the landmass of what is generally referred to as the New World , the Western Hemisphere , the Americas , or simply America (which is sometimes considered a single continent . It lies south and east of the Panama Canal, which crosses the Isthmus of Panama. Geographically, almost all the South American territory is located on the South American plate. Geopolitically, the entire Panama - including the segment east of the Panama Canal in the isthmus - is often considered part of North America and Central America.

Geologically, the continent is linked to North America only recently with the formation of the Isthmus of Panama there are about 3 million years, which caused the Great American interchange. Similarly, the Andes mountain ranges are relatively young and seismically unstable, down from north to south along the western edge of the continent, the territory east of the Andes is mostly occupied by the rainforest, the vast pool of the Amazon. The continent also has drier regions such as Patagonia or the eastern Atacama.

The South American continent also includes numerous islands, many of them belong to countries on the continent. Many Caribbean islands (West Indies) - eg, the Greater Antilles and Lesser Antilles - are situated above the Caribbean Plate , a tectonic plate with a diffuse topography. Aruba , and Barbados , Trinidad and Tobago are located on the continental shelf of South America. The Netherlands Antilles and the dependencies of Venezuela are located north of the continent. Geopolitically, the island states and overseas territories in the Caribbean are generally grouped together and considered a part or subregion of North America. The nations of South America bordering the Caribbean Sea - have the British , the Venezuela , the Guyana , the Suriname and French Guiana - comprise the South American Caribbean. The other islands are the Galapagos , the Easter Island (in Oceania but belongs to Chile ), the Robinson Crusoe Island , Chiloe Island , the Tierra del Fuego and the Falkland Islands.

The Andes

A river in the Amazon rainforest

The center of South America is a hotspot emission methane , greenhouse gas emissions factor climate disruption

South America is the land of the highest waterfall, Angel Falls , the river flow at the largest, the Amazon , the mountain range is longer, the Andes, the driest desert, the Atacama Desert , the highest railway, Ticlio , the highest capital, La Paz , the highest commercially navigable lake, the Lake Titicaca and the southernmost town, Puerto Toro.

The natural resources of South America are the gold , the copper , the ore of iron , the tin and oil.

South America is home to many species of unique animals like the llama , the anaconda , the piranha , the jaguar , the vicuna , and tapir. The Amazon rainforest has a high biodiversity, containing a large fraction of species on the planet.

The largest country in South America is by far, both in terms of its size and its population, Brazil. We distinguish several sub-regions: the Andean States, the Guianas, the Southern Cone and Brazil.

History

Environment

Northern South America is home to much of the biodiversity of the planet's land surface. The forests there are nevertheless rapidly declining in favor of grassland livestock ( cattle in particular, for export) and industrial crops (from soybean in particular, for some transgenic ). The forest fires , the degradation of soils , and farming and industrial agriculture are the source of significant emissions of greenhouse gases (which are for example Brazil, a leading global emitters). Moreover, the southern continent is located under the hole in the ozone layer of the Antarctic , which led to a sharp increase in the rate of UV ( carcinogens , mutagens ).

Economy

So Paulo , in Brazil , is the country's financial center and ^the 5th largest metropolitan city in the world (see the list of megacities ).

The agriculture sector remains the largest of South America, even if unemployment and rural poverty population to hunt the huge coastal cities. The mineral and oil resources, although substantial, are unevenly distributed across countries. To limit the import of raw materials, boost production and improve infrastructure, governments are heavily indebted to the World Bank in 1960 and 1970 , and probably never will fail to repay their loans. Today, Brazil is the largest economy, followed distantly by Argentina, which, in turn, closely followed by Colombia and Venezuela . The west of South America, less developed, has recently taken advantage of its geographical position. Thus, Chile is exporting more and more raw materials to Japan.

GDP per capita (PPP) 2008

World Rank	Country	GDP per capita (USD)
	Guyana	18 143
54	Venezuela	11 388
58	Chile	10 117
60	Uruguay	9 654
64	Brazil	8 295
65	Argentina	8 171
78	Suriname	5 504
84	Colombia	4 989
89	Peru	4 448
96	Ecuador	3 928
113	Paraguay	2 601
124	Bolivia	1 656
126	Guyana	1 509

Source: List of countries by GDP (PPP)

GDP (PPP) 2005

World Rank	Country	GDP (billion USD )
9 th	Brazil	4 500
22 th	Argentina	533,7
29 th	Colombia	337,2
43 th	Chile	193,2
50 th	Peru	167,2
51 th	Venezuela	163,5
70 th	Ecuador	57,0
90 th	Uruguay	34,3
96 th	Paraguay	28,3
101 th	Bolivia	25,6
	Guyana	4,15
157 th	Guyana	3,4
162 nd	Suriname	2,8

Source: List of countries by GDP (PPP)

Human Development Index 2006 (The arrows indicate the change in HDI from 2006 values)

World Rank	Country	HDI
38	Argentina	0.870 (-4)
43	Uruguay	0.861 (+3)
69	Chile	0.860
70	Colombia	0.790
72	Venezuela	0.784
75	Brazil	0.813 (+6)
78	Peru	0.806
83	Ecuador	0.765
88	Suriname	0.759
91	Paraguay	0.757
103	Guyana	0.725
115	Bolivia	0.692

Source: List of countries by HDI

Languages

South America has a great diversity language : there are around 600 languages belonging to 118 families of languages. For example, the 32 languages of Bolivia are 15 different families, including 6 isolates. The 68 languages of Colombia belong to 13 different families, including 10 isolates. However, the contrast is marked between "major" languages (andenne and Guarani) and small Amazonian languages.

European languages

The five original languages of colonial South America are the Portuguese , the Spanish , the French , the English and Dutch.

European languages and number of speakers

	Language	Number of speakers
Portugal	Portuguese	191 908 598
Spain	Spanish	191 225 429
United Kingdom	English	800 000
Netherlands	Dutch	510 000
France	French	230 000

Indigenous languages

India's population, or Indian , quantified by the millions, was gradually pushed back towards the interior of the continent. Paradoxically, the importance of the speaker population does not guarantee the continuity of Native American languages that are mostly endangered.

We usually distinguish the languages of South America according to the size of the speaker population census. There are usually four and big languages:

The Amazonian languages are spoken in nine countries of the Amazon basin:

• Brazil ;
• Venezuela ;
• Guyana ;
• Guyana ;
• Suriname ;
• Colombia ;
• Ecuador ;
• Peru ;
• Bolivia.

Many of these languages are spoken straddling the borders, marginal areas of the country, because for many indigenous peoples of the coasts and the center, operated by Europeans were exterminated. They are all in their highly endangered languages.

The Amazon region is a "black hole" language, as well as New Guinea. Linguistic work on these languages, which have proved to be very interesting in their diversity for the development of linguistics, is still very limited.

span class = "mw-headline" id = "Langues_significatives.2C_mais_non_officielles"> Languages significant, but not official

• The Mapudungun , language of the native Mapuche and spoken by around 450,000 people in Patagonia , in Chile and Argentina.
• The Wayuu , an indigenous language spoken by over 300 000 people in Colombia and Venezuela.
• Different languages, like German (southern Brazil , Paraguay , southern Chile , provinces of Buenos Aires and Misiones in Argentina ), the Italian ( Argentina , Brazil , Chile , Uruguay and Venezuela ) and Japanese ( Brazil and Peru ) they are still spoken by immigrants who arrived in the late nineteenth century and during the twentieth century.
• Welsh is spoken in the Patagonian province Chubut.
• The Croatian spoken in Chile by the community of descendants of immigrants living in the regions of Antofagasta and Magellan.
• The Guyanese Creole spoken in Guyana and other types of Creole : Haitian Creole (ayisyen), Creole Martinique , Guadeloupe Creole , Reunion Creole or Creole St. Lucia. But there are also neng Tongo (bushinengu) more commonly called Taki-Taki. This language is based on Portuguese for Saramaca and Matawa , and English for Ndjuka , Paramaka and Aluku. Based on African languages, she creolized and received inputs languages Amerindian and European. Finally, the Hmong (see Hmong Language ) although an Asian can be considered a regional language in Guyana because it meets the requirements of territoriality.

Religion

The main religion of South America is Roman Catholicism. The Catholic Church has the largest number of followers, but Protestant churches are growing rapidly in number of practitioners (including Brazil and Suriname). See Religion in Brazil.

Similarly, the number of people declaring "no religion" rose sharply, surpassed only by the number of Catholics and evangelicals.

Peoples

Existing

The ethnic groups and native of South America include:

• Alakaluf
• Atacameo
• Aymara
• Africans
• Awa
• Banawa
• Caiapos
• Chibcha
• Cocama
• Diaguitas
• Chayahuita
• Enxet
• Descendants European , more specifically of Spain , of Portugal , of Italy and of Germany.
• Ge
• Guaran
• Descendants Asian , more specifically from Japan , from China and Korea.
• Jivaroan
• Juris
• Mapuche
• Matss
• Mestizo
• Pehuenche
• Puel
• Quechua
• Shipibo
• Xucuru
• Urarina
• Yagua
• Zaparos

Missing

• Huarpes
• Mnekenks
• Pampas
• Pehuenche
• Selknam or Onas
• Tehuelche
• Yagan

Territories

Countries in this table are categorized according to the scheme for geographic regions and subregions used by the United Nations.

Name of Territory	Area	Population
Brazil	8514877! 8,514,877 sq km	201 103 330	02360! 23.6 / km	Brasilia
Chile	0756050! 756 050 km	16 746 490	02210! 22.1 / km	Santiago
Colombia	1138910! 1,138,910 sq km	44 205 290	03880! 38.8 / km	Bogot
ecuador! Ecuador	0283560! 283 560 km	14 790 610	05220! 52.2 / km	San Francisco de Quito
Falkland Islands ( UK )	0012173! 12 173 km	3 140	00026! 0.26 / km	Port Stanley
Guyana French	0086504! 86 504 km	229 000	00260! 2.6 / km	Cayenne
Guyana	0214970! 214 970 km	748 490	00350! 3.5 / km	Georgetown
Paraguay	0406750! 406 750 km	6 375 830	01570! 15.7 / km	Asuncion
Peru	1285220! 1,285,220 sq km	29 907 000	02330! 23.3 / km	Lima
South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands , UK	0004190! 4 190 km	30	000.7! 0.007 / km	Grytviken
Suriname	0163270! 163 270 km	486 620	00300! 3.0 / km	Paramaribo
Uruguay	0176220! 176 220 km	3 510 390	01990! 19.9 / km	Montevideo
Venezuela	0912050! 912 050 km	27 223 230	02980! 29.8 / km	Caracas

These twelve countries have launched 8 December 2004 (statement of Cuzco) draft South American Community of Nations (CSN) on the model of the European Union.

The continent also includes the department overseas French in Guiana , which is part of the European Union.

References

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