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® Br ca ti anni LEARNING L I B R A R Y Views of the Americas From North to South America, explore the great variety of the Western Hemisphere CHICAGO LONDON NEW DELHI PARIS SEOUL SYDNEY TAIPEI TOKYO PROJECT TEAM Judith West, Editorial Project Manager Christopher Eaton, Editor and Educational Consultant Kathryn Harper, U.K. Editorial Consultant Marilyn L. Barton, Senior Production Coordinator Editors Theodore Pappas Anthony L. Green Mary Rose McCudden Andrea R. Field Michael J. Anderson Colin Murphy Locke Petersheim Indu Ramchandani (Encyclopædia Britannica India) Bhavana Nair (India) Rashi Jain (India) Design and Media Specialists Nancy Donohue Canfield, Design Megan Newton-Abrams, Design Karen Koblik, Photos Joseph Taylor, Illustrations Amy Ning, Illustrations Jerry A. Kraus, Illustrations Michael Nutter, Maps Copy Editors Barbara Whitney Laura R. Gabler Dennis Skord Lisa Braucher, Data Editor Paul Cranmer, Indexer ENCYCLOPÆDIA BRITANNICA PROJECT SUPPORT TEAM EDITORIAL Linda Berris Robert Curley Brian Duignan Kathleen Kuiper Kenneth Pletcher Jeffrey Wallenfeldt Anita Wolff Charles Cegielski Mark Domke Michael Frassetto James Hennelly Sherman Hollar Michael R. Hynes Sandra Langeneckert Gene O. Larson Michael I. Levy Robert Lewis Tom Michael Janet Moredock DESIGN Steven N. Kapusta Carol A. Gaines Cate Nichols ART Kathy Nakamura Kristine A. Strom Nadia C. Venegas ILLUSTRATION David Alexovich Christine McCabe Thomas Spanos MEDIA ASSET MANAGEMENT Jeannine Deubel Kimberly L. Cleary Kurt Heintz Quanah Humphreys COPY Sylvia Wallace Jennifer F. Gierat Glenn Jenne Mary Kasprzak Thad King Larry Kowalski Joan Lackowski Dawn McHugh Julian Ronning Chrystal Schmit Sarah Waterman INFORMATION MANAGEMENT/ INDEXING Carmen-Maria Hetrea Edward Paul Moragne Marco Sampaolo Sheila Vasich Mansur G. Abdullah Keith DeWeese Catherine Keich Stephen Seddon EDITORIAL TECHNOLOGIES Steven Bosco Gavin Chiu Bruce Walters Mark Wiechec COMPOSITION TECHNOLOGY Mel Stagner MANUFACTURING Dennis Flaherty Kim Gerber INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS Leah Mansoor Isabella Saccà ENCYCLOPÆDIA BRITANNICA, INC. Jacob E. Safra, Chairman of the Board Jorge Aguilar-Cauz, President Michael Ross, Senior Vice President, Corporate Development Dale H. Hoiberg, Senior Vice President and Editor Marsha Mackenzie, Managing Editor and Director of Production © 2008 BY ENCYCLOPÆDIA BRITANNICA, INC. Cover photos (front): Richard Berenholtz/Corbis; (back): Craig Lovell/Corbis. Cover insert photos (left): Michele Westmorland/Corbis; (center): Paul A. Souders/Corbis; (right): Gianni Dagli Orti/Corbis International Standard Book Number: 978-1-59339-514-8 No part of this work may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. BRITANNICA LEARNING LIBRARY: VIEWS OF THE AMERICAS 2008 Britannica.com may be accessed on the Internet at http://www.britannica.com. (Trademark Reg. U.S. Pat. Off.) Printed in U.S.A. Views of the Americas I N T R O D U C T I O N Who built Machu Picchu? Why is the United States called a melting pot? What’s an isthmus? How does the Panama Canal work? Views of the Americas, you’ll In To help you on your journey, we’ve provided the following guideposts in Views of the Americas: ■ Subject Tabs—The colored box in the upper corner of each right-hand discover answers to these page will quickly tell you the article subject. questions and many more. ■ Search Lights—Try these mini-quizzes before and after you read the Through pictures, articles, article and see how much—and how quickly—you can learn. You can even and fun facts, you’ll learn about many of the countries and cities of make this a game with a reading partner. (Answers are upside down at the bottom of one of the pages.) ■ Did You Know?—Check out these fun facts about the article subject. With these surprising “factoids,” you can entertain your friends, impress North, Central, and South your teachers, and amaze your parents. America. ■ Picture Captions—Read the captions that go with the photos. They provide useful information about the article subject. ■ Vocabulary—New or difficult words are in bold type. You’ll find them explained in the Glossary at the end of the book. ■ Learn More!—Follow these pointers to related articles in the book. These articles are listed in the Table of Contents and appear on the Subject Tabs. ■ Maps—You’ll find lots of information in this book’s many maps. ■ The Country Maps point out national capitals. Globes beside Subject Tabs show where countries are located in the world. ■ The Continent Maps have a number key showing the location of all countries. ■ The Icons on the maps highlight major geographic features and climate. Here’s a key to what the map icons mean: Deserts and Other Dry Areas Rainforests Polar Regions and Other Frozen Areas General Forests Mountains © 2008 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. The Amazon is home to many different types of wildlife, including the green-cheeked Amazon parrot. © Eric and David Hosking/Corbis © 2008 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Views of the Americas TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 NORTH AMERICA Panama City, Panama: Land of Many Fish . . . . . . . . 32 North America: Land of Plenty. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Puerto Rico: Jewel of the Caribbean . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Greenland: Frozen Island . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Cuba: Sugarcane and Politics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Panama Canal: A Major World Waterway . . . . . . . 34 Canada: The Land of Long Winters . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Ottawa, Canada: A Welcoming Northern Capital . . 12 SOUTH AMERICA Quebec, Canada: La Belle Province . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 South America: The Unknown Continent . . . . . . . . . 40 United States of America: Melting Pot Amazon: A Close Look at River Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 of Many Cultures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Andes: World-Class Mountains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 Honolulu, U.S.: Crossroads of the Pacific . . . . . . . 18 Colombia: Columbus’ South American Namesake . . . 46 New York City, U.S.: The Great Culture Mart. . . . . . 20 Peru: Land of the Inca. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 Machu Picchu: Secret of the Andes . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA Brazil: Half of South America . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 Mexico: Ring of Fire. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Paraguay: The Once-Forgotten Land . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 Mexico City, Mexico: Sinking City of Palaces . . . . . 24 Chile: A Long and Narrow Land. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 Central America: The Isthmus Nations . . . . . . . . . . 26 Easter Island: Land of Giants. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 Guatemala: Land of the Quetzal. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Argentina: Home of the Gaucho . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 Nicaragua: Volcanoes and Earthquakes GLOSSARY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 in Central America . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Br ® ca itanni LEARNING L I B R A R Y Have a great trip! © 2008 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. 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 Morning light on Mount Rushmore, South Dakota, U.S. © Paul A. Souders/Corbis 3 5 6 Dzoonokwa Totem Pole in Thunderbird Park, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. © Gunter Marx Photography/Corbis © 2008 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. NORTH AMERICA Land of Plent y N orth America is the third largest continent. Three countries— RCH LI 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. According Because it’s so large, the continent has many different types of to scientists, climate. Most of Greenland is covered with ice all the time—even who were the in summer. But the southern islands and countries are usually hot first people to settle in North and humid. In between there are both deserts and rainy areas, America? but most places have warm summers and cold winters. a) Africans North America is rich in natural resources. Forests cover b) Europeans a large part of the land. The fertile soils of Canada, the United c) Asians 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. SE A
T GH LEARN MORE! READ THESE ARTICLES… CANADA • MEXICO • UNITED STATES OF AMERICA NOW? been K U O Y have DID ur fossils Answer: c) Asians © 2008 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. ★ any sa More dino h America than on rt o found in N nt. tine other con 7 Frozen Island 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 © 2008 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. GREENLAND DID YO U KNO W? The fi rst Europ ean settle ment in Greenlan d was fo unded in by the Vik 986 ing explo rer Erik th Red. Abo e ut 15 ye ars later, son Leif his Eriksson sailed we from Gre st enland a nd becam one of th e e first Eu ropeans reach No to rth Amer ica. SE A
T GH Most of Greenland’s surface is covered by a) rice. b) ice. c) trees. Fishing boats are moored in a harbor in Sisimiut, Greenland. ★ © Deanna Swaney/Lonely Planet Images Answer: b) ice. © 2008 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. RCH LI 9