North America

German mapmakers Martin Waldseemuller and Matthias Ringmann named it this when it was determined that Vespucci was the first European to suggest that the Americas were a landmass not previously known to Europeans.

North America is a continent contained entirely within the northern and western hemispheres. It is bordered on the north by the Arctic Ocean, the east by the Atlantic Ocean, the south and southeast by South America and the Caribbean Sea and the west by the Pacific Ocean. Covering an area of approximately 9.5 million square miles, it contains about 5% of the planet’s surface and about 16% of the planets land area.

Countries and states comprising North America include: Bermuda, Canada, Greenland, Mexico, St Pierre and Miquelon, United States, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, The Bahamas, Barbados, Bonaire, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Cuba, Curacao, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Haiti, Jamaica, Martinique, Montserrat, Navassa Island, Puerto Rico, Saba, St. Barthelemy, St. Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Martin, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Sint Eustatius, Sint Maarten, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos Islands, United States Virgin Islands, Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama.