Regions of the Americas

Regions of the Americas
Name	Regions of the Americas

Contents

Regions of the Americas

Regions of the Americas describe ways scholars, cartographers, and institutions divide the North America, Central America, South America, and the Caribbean into units for analysis, planning, and identity. These divisions appear in works by the United Nations, Organization of American States, World Bank, and publications like the Encyclopaedia Britannica, reflecting varied criteria such as physical Andes Mountains, Amazon Basin, or cultural zones like Hispanic America, Lusophone world, and Indigenous peoples distributions. Regional schemes inform policies from the Inter-American Development Bank to the Pan American Health Organization and are contested in contexts involving actors such as the United States, Brazil, Mexico, Canada, and regional blocs like Mercosur or CARICOM.

Definition and criteria

Scholars use multiple criteria—physical features (e.g., Rocky Mountains, Amazon River, Patagonia), biogeographic units like the Neotropical realm, and climatic zones defined by the Köppen climate classification—to delineate regions for studies by the Smithsonian Institution, National Geographic Society, and universities such as Harvard University or University of São Paulo. Political criteria often follow sovereign boundaries recognized by the United Nations General Assembly, the International Court of Justice, and agreements like the Treaty of Tordesillas that historically shaped linguistic boundaries between Spain and Portugal. Cultural criteria consider language families—Quechua language, Guarani language, Aymara language—and colonial legacies tied to states like France in Martinique, Netherlands in Aruba, and United Kingdom in Bermuda. Economic criteria use memberships in the Organization of American States, North American Free Trade Agreement/United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement, Pacific Alliance, and statistical divisions from the World Bank or United Nations Statistics Division.

Early maps by figures such as Christopher Columbus and cartographers in the Age of Discovery followed legal frameworks like the Treaty of Tordesillas and doctrines from the Spanish Empire and Portuguese Empire that produced terms like New Spain, Viceroyalty of Peru, and Brazil (colonial) used in atlases and works by Alexander von Humboldt. 19th-century nation-building referenced regions in texts by Simón Bolívar, José de San Martín, and Benito Juárez while scholars like John Lloyd Stephens and explorers like Alexander von Humboldt and Charles Darwin influenced regional concepts such as Mesoamerica and the Southern Cone. Cold War geopolitics invoked regions in interventions involving the Cuban Revolution, Bay of Pigs Invasion, and policies by administrations of Franklin D. Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy, reshaping institutions like the Organization of American States and fostering regional blocs such as Mercosur and CARICOM.

Cultural regions distinguish Anglophone Caribbean and Francophone Caribbean, Hispanic America, Brazil as part of the Lusophone world, and Indigenous cultural areas like Mesoamerica, the Andean civilizations, and Amazonia. Linguistic maps note the spread of Spanish language, Portuguese language, English language, French language, and Indigenous tongues including Nahuatl language and Arawak languages, while religious geographies reference institutions such as the Roman Catholic Church and movements like Evangelicalism in Latin America. Diaspora and creole cultures link places through migration histories involving Irish immigration to Argentina, African diaspora, Chinese migration to Peru, and institutions such as UNESCO that document intangible heritage like Candomblé and Carnival of Brazil.

Modern political groupings include the United States, Canada, Mexico, and regional organizations such as the Organization of American States, Pan American Health Organization, and trade blocs like the USMCA, Mercosur, Pacific Alliance, and CARICOM. Economic classification systems use World Bank income groupings and institutions like the International Monetary Fund and Inter-American Development Bank to define regions for development projects in the Caribbean Community and Andean Community. Security and cooperation frameworks reference treaties and forums including the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's informal ties to the Americas, the Summit of the Americas, bilateral agreements like the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, and dispute mechanisms in the International Court of Justice.

Transnational subregions include transboundary basins like the Rio Grande (Rio Bravo del Norte), the Amazon Basin, and the Orinoco Basin, plus archipelagos and overseas territories such as Greenland, French Guiana, Puerto Rico, Bermuda, and the Falkland Islands. Special administrative arrangements and dependencies link to metropolitan states—examples include Guadeloupe and Martinique with France, Cayman Islands with the United Kingdom, and Saint Pierre and Miquelon near Canada. Indigenous transnational regions encompass areas claimed or inhabited by peoples such as the Mapuche and Wayuu, while environmental corridors and conservation initiatives coordinate across borders through mechanisms involving the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization and international conventions like the Convention on Biological Diversity.

Category:Geography of the Americas