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Cartography of Latin America, map-making of the realms in the Western Hemisphere, was an important aim of European powers expanding into the New World. Both the Spanish Empire and the Portuguese Empire began mapping the realms they explored and settled. They also speculated on the lands that were marked terra incognita. Indigenous groups ...
Latin America refers to a cultural region of the Americas where Romance languages are predominantly spoken, primarily in the form of Spanish and Portuguese (excluding Azores islands), and to a lesser extent, Italian dialects, French (excluding Quebec) and its creoles. There is no precise or official inclusion list.
The majority of the population lives in Latin America, named for its predominant cultures, rooted in Latin Europe (including the two dominant languages, Spanish and Portuguese, both Romance languages), more specifically in the Iberian nations of Portugal and Spain (hence the use of the term Ibero-America as a synonym).
The continent's topography is often likened to a huge bowl owing to its flat interior almost ringed by tall mountains. With the exception of narrow coastal plains on the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, there are three main topographic features: the Andes , a central lowland, and the extensive Brazilian and Guiana Highlands in the east.
The first table below ranks the 25 highest major summits of Central America by elevation. The topographic prominence of a summit is a measure of how high the summit rises above its surroundings. [ 3 ] [ 2 ] The second table below ranks the 25 most prominent summits of Central America.
The Republic of Colombia is situated largely in the north-west of South America, with some territories falling within the boundaries of Central America.It is bordered to the north-west by Panama; to the east by Brazil and Venezuela; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; [1] and it shares maritime limits with Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, and Haiti.
Map of the Latin American countries by Human Development Index in 2021. The Human Development Index (HDI) is a summary measure of average achievement in key dimensions of human development: a long and healthy life, knowledge, and a decent standard of living. It is a standard means of measuring well-being.
The idea that a part of the Americas has a cultural or racial affinity with all Romance cultures can be traced back to the 1830s, in particular in the writing of the French Saint-Simonian Michel Chevalier, who postulated that this part of the Americas were inhabited by people of a "Latin race," and that it could, therefore, ally itself with "Latin Europe" in a struggle with "Teutonic Europe ...