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-cylindrical map projection
-Flemish geographer and cartographer Gerardus Mercator
-1569
-standard map projection for nautical purposes
ability to represent lines of constant true bearing |
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-not glaciated The grassland steppe including the land bridge and stretching for several hundred miles either side of it. It is believed that a small human population of at most a few thousand survived the last ice age here, isolated from its ancestor populations in Asia for at least 5,000 years, before expanding to populate the Americas sometime after 16,500 years ago, as the American glaciers blocking the way southward melted --land bridge roughly 1,000 miles north to south at its greatest extent, which joined present-day Alaska and eastern Siberia. |
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-Mohawk word, meaning "village" or "settlement."
- Canada's name stems from the Saint-Lawrence Iroquoian word "canada", which holds the same meaning. This Iroquoian language was spoken by the inhabitants of Stadacona and the neighboring region near present-day Quebec City in the 16th century, with words having similarities to those in related Iroquoian languages, most notably in Mohawk and Oneida. |
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-group of underwater plateaus southeast of Newfoundland on the North American continental shelf.
-one of the richest fishing grounds in the world. |
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-large river flowing approximately from southwest to northeast in the middle latitudes of North America
-connects the Great Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean. It is the primary drainage of the Great Lakes Basin. It traverses the Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario and forms part of the international boundary between Ontario, Canada, and the U.S. state of New York.
-The Saint Lawrence River originates at the outflow of Lake Ontario
-drains into the Gulf of Saint Law rence, the largest estuary in the world. It runs 3,058 kilometres (1,900 mi) from the furthest headwater to the mouth (1,197 kilometres or 744 mi from the outflow of Lake Ontario). Its drainage area, which includes the Great Lakes and hence the world's largest system of fresh water lakes, has a size of 1.03 million km² (390,000 sq mi). The average discharge at the mouth is 10,400 m³/s (367,000 cu ft/s). |
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-St. Lawrence Iroquoian fortified village near present-day Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
-first European contact was by a French expedition led by Jacques Cartier in 1535.
-disappeared prior to the arrival of Samuel de Champlain in the early 17th century.
-Champlain and his companions eventually began settling there, founding Ville-Marie in 1642.
-became the present-day city of Montreal. |
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-largest of the five Great Lakes of North America.
-bounded to the north by Ontario, Canada and Minnesota, United States, and to the south by the U.S. states of Wisconsin and Michigan.
-largest freshwater lake in the world by surface area and is the world's third-largest freshwater lake by volume.
-Ojibwe language, the lake is called Gichigami, meaning "big water". |
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-capital of Canada and the country's fourth largest municipality.
-lies on the banks of the Ottawa River, a major waterway that forms the boundary between Ontario and Quebec.
-The Ottawa region was long home to the Odwa or Odaawaa, meaning "traders" First Nations people. The first European settlement in the region was that of Philemon Wright who started a community on the Quebec side of the river in 1800. Wright discovered that transporting timber by river from the Ottawa Valley to Montreal was possible, and the area was soon booming based almost exclusively upon the timber trade. Favoured by many European nations for its extremely straight and strong trunk, the White Pine was found throughout the valley. |
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-territory in British North America, consisting of the Hudson Bay drainage basin
-was de facto owned by the Hudson's Bay Company for 200 years.
-named after Prince Rupert of the Rhine, nephew of Charles I and the first Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company.
-In 1670, the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) was granted a charter by King Charles II, giving it a trading monopoly over the watershed of all rivers and streams flowing into Hudson Bay, thereby making the HBC de facto owners of the whole of Rupert's Land. This covered an area of 3.9 million square kilometres (1.5 million sq mi), over one-third the area of Canada today.
On 19 November, 1869 the Hudson's Bay Company sold Rupert's Land to the newly formed Canadian Government for £300 000. |
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-the Interior Plains region within Canada,
-a continuation of the Great Plains region of the United States. |
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| -coastal city and major seaport located in the Lower Mainland of southwestern British Columbia, Canada. It is the largest city in British Columbia and in the Pacific Northwest region. -named after a British explorer. Archaeological records indicate that the presence of Aboriginal peoples in the Vancouver area dates back 4,500–9,000 years. -The first European to explore the coastline of present-day Point Grey and part of Burrard Inlet was José María Narváez of Spain, in 1791. |
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| major United States port city and the largest city in Louisiana. - straddles the Mississippi River. -named after Philippe II, Duc d'Orléans, Regent of France - one of the oldest cities in the United States. |
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-highest mountain peak in North America, at a height of approximately 20,320 feet (6,194 m - has a larger bulk and rise than Mount Everest. -actual rise of 18,000 feet (5,500 m). or Denali "The Great One" in Alaska |
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| Florida - oldest continuously occupied European-established city, and the oldest port, in the continental United States. - lies in a region of Florida known as The First Coast -founded by the Spanish under Admiral Pedro Menéndez de Avilés in 1565. -first Christian worship service held in a permanent settlement in the continental United States was a Catholic Mass celebrated here |
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-a large, flat valley that dominates the central portion of California, United States.
-home to many of California's most productive agricultural efforts.
-stretches nearly 400 miles (600 km) from north to south. Its northern half is referred to as the Sacramento Valley, and its southern half as the San Joaquin Valley.
-The two halves meet at the shared delta of the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers |
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-known to the English as the Northwest Passage
-supposed to extend from the Atlantic to the Pacific through, or above North America, providing a convenient route for voyagers to Cathay, the Spice Islands, and the Spanish colonies on the Pacific Coast.
-If France, England, or another enemy discovered the Straits first, Spain's future would be gravely affected |
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-capital and largest city of the nation of El Salvador.
-second most populous city in Central America, after Guatemala City
-Home to one-half of El Salvador's wealth
-near the present location of San Salvador that the Pipil groups, established their capital, Cuscatlán.
-was founded on April 1, 1525. However, in the sixteenth century, it was rebuilt and changed locations twice afterwards 1528 and 1545. |
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| widely believed that during his first expedition to the New World, this was the first land sighted and visited by Christopher Columbus on October 12, 1492. |
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| -the second-largest and most populous island of the Antilles, lying between the islands of Cuba to the west, and Puerto Rico to the east. -Christopher Columbus first arrived on the island on the westwern side ( present day Haiti), on December 5, 1492, and on his second voyage in 1493 to eastern Hispaniola, founded the first Spanish colony (present day Dominican Republic) in the New World on it. -The island was inhabited by the Tainos, one of the indigenous Arawak peoples. The Taino were at first tolerant of Columbus and his crew, and helped him to construct La Navidad -The Taino population of the island was rapidly decimated, owing to a combination of disease and harsh treatment by Spanish overlords |
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| - was a Nahua altepetl (city-state) located on an island in Lake Texcoco, in the Valley of Mexico. -Founded in 1325, it became the seat of a growing empire in the 15th century, until being defeated in 1521. -subsequently became a cabecera of the Viceroyalty of New Spain, -this was one of two Mexica altepetl, the other being Tlatelolco. -Tenochtitlan was the capital city of the Aztec civilization, -find the destined site for a great city whose location would be signaled by an eagle eating a snake while perched atop a cactus. -Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés arrived in here on November 8, 1519. -Cortés conquered the city on August 13, 1521 |
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| -a locale in extreme western Honduras near to the Guatemalan border. -site of a major Maya kingdom of the Classic era (5th through 9th Centuries). |
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| The Viceroyalty of New Spain |
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-name given to the viceroy-ruled territories of the Spanish Empire in North America
- one of the four viceroyalties that Spain created to govern its conquered lands in the New World. |
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-in South America
-the largest river in the world by volume, with a total river flow greater than the next top ten largest rivers flowing into the ocean combined.
-has the largest drainage basin in the world, accounts for approximately one fifth of the world's total river flow.
-sometimes called The River Sea. At no point is the Amazon crossed by bridges.
-While the Amazon is clearly the largest river in the world by most measures, the majority of the geographic community today regards the Amazon as the second longest river, just slightly shorter than the Nile. However the discovery of a new tributary of the Amazon now leads some scientists to consider the Amazon as the longest river in the world.
-up to 300,000 m³ per second in the rainy season released per day.
-responsible for a fifth of the total volume of fresh water entering the oceans worldwide. |
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| - It is located in the valleys of the Chillón, Rímac and Lurín rivers, on a coast overlooking the Pacific Ocean. -founded by Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro on January 18, 1535, as La Ciudad de los Reyes, or "The City of Kings." -became the most important city in the Spanish Viceroyalty of Peru -was made the capital of the Republic of Peru. -During the early 16th century, the location was inhabited by several amerindian groups under the domination of the Inca Empire. |
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| The Viceroyalty of Brazil |
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| -officially became a Viceroyalty around 1763, when the capital of the Estado do Brazil was transferred from Salvador to Rio de Janeiro. -In 1775 all Brazilian Estados (Brasil, Maranhão and Grão-Pará) were unified into the Viceroyalty of Brazil, with Rio de Janeiro as capital. -the Portuguese viceroyalty in Brazil. |
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| The Treaty of Tordesillas |
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| -signed into effect June 7, 1494, -divided the newly discovered lands outside Europe into an exclusive duopoly between the Spanish and the Portuguese along a north-south -Very little of the newly divided area had actually been seen by Europeans, as it was only divided according to the treaty. Spain gained lands including most of the Americas. The easternmost part of current Brazil was granted to Portugal. |
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| -highest mountain in the Americas - the highest mountain outside Asia. -located in the Andes mountain range, in the Argentine province of Mendoza. -The summit is located about 5 kilometres from San Juan Province and 15 kilometres from the international border with Chile. |
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| -a city in southeastern Peru, near the Urubamba Valley (Sacred Valley) of the Andes mountain range. -historic capital of the Inca Empire. The city had two sectors: the urin and hanan, which were further divided to each encompass two of the four provinces |
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-the Arabic name given to those parts of the Iberian Peninsula governed by Muslims, or Moors, at various times in the period between 711 and 1492.
-a beacon of learning and the city of Córdoba became one of the leading cultural and economic centers in both the Mediterranean basin and the Islamic world.
-On January 2, 1492, Muhammad XII of Granada surrendered complete control of Granada to Ferdinand and Isabella, Los Reyes Católicos ("The Catholic Monarchs |
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Or Potosi. Highest city in the world. "made of silver ore" |
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