North America
America reached print at Saint-Dié on 25 April 1507, in a small book proposing the name for the land Amerigo Vespucci had described. The map issued with it lettered the word across the southern landmass alone. The northern half took the name later, and the line between the two is a filing decision: Canada, Mexico and the United States sit here.
Common questions
Questions about North America
Which countries does this catalogue file under North America?
Canada, Mexico and the United States, which is 3 of them. Wider readings exist and are not used here. The M49 scheme published by the UN Statistics Division adds Bermuda, Greenland and Saint Pierre and Miquelon to Northern America and moves Mexico to Central America, and the continental definition carries North America south to the Colombian border. Those places are filed under Northern Europe, the North Atlantic, Central America and the Caribbean instead.
Why is Mexico filed under North America?
Because the continental landmass runs south from Canada through Mexico, and the record for Mexico carries North America as its subregion. The statistical reading differs: M49 assigns Mexico to Central America, alongside Belize and Guatemala, which are its southern land neighbours. Both readings are recorded here and neither is settled.
Where does the name America come from?
From Amerigo Vespucci, by way of a book printed at Saint-Dié on 25 April 1507 proposing that the land he had described be called after him. The wall map published with it letters the word on the southern continent only. The northern landmass acquired the name later, and the point at which one half ends and the other begins has been fixed by convention alone.
What do Canada, Mexico and the United States belong to together?
The United Nations, the Organization of American States, the OECD, APEC, the G20 and the World Trade Organization. Among themselves they hold the trade agreement that entered into force on 1 July 2020, called the United States Mexico Canada Agreement in Washington, CUSMA in Ottawa and T-MEC in Mexico City. The Commission for Environmental Cooperation in Montreal has the same membership. NATO and the G7 cover Canada and the United States and not Mexico.