South America is the continent located on the southern portion of the Americas. Most of South America is located in the Southern Hemisphere although a small portion of it is in the Northern Hemisphere. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east by the Atlantic Ocean; North America and the Caribbean Sea lie to the northwest.
South America, along with the rest of the Americas, was named in 1580 by cartographers Martin Waldseemüller and Matthias Ringmann after Amerigo Vespucci, the first European who suggested that the Americas were not the East Indies, but is actually a New World unknown previously to Europeans. South America has an area of 17,840,000 square kilometers (6,890,000 sq mi), or almost 3.5% of the Earth's surface. As of 2005, its population was estimated at more than 371,090,000. South America ranks fourth in area after Asia, Africa, and North America, and fifth in population after Asia, Africa, Europe, and North America.
Countries in South America
- Argentina
- Bolivia
- Brazil
- Chile
- Colombia
- Ecuador
- Falkland Islands
- Paraguay
- Peru
- Suriname
- Uruguay
- Venezuela
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