Endangered Animals: Amazon Rainforest
Free Map of South & Central America
Argentina Belize Bolivia Brazil Chile Colombia Costa Rica Ecuador El Salvador French Guiana Guatemala Guyana Honduras Nicaragua Panama Paraguay Peru Suriname Uruguay Venezuela
Culture
The largest nation on this continent is Brazil, where the national language is Portuguese, not Spanish.
Rio de Janeiro is the Carnival capital of Brazil, which hosts "Carnaval," the largest festival in South America.
The Mayans had a great civilization in Central America, and their descendents still live there.
The economy of South America has been changing from a colonial one to a modern one throughout the 20th century.
Ecology
The Galapagos Islands of this continent are famous for Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, which he developed observing the island chain's unique wildlife.
The largest tropical rainforest in the world is located on this continent, spread over the countries of Columbia, Ecuador, Guyana, Surinam and more.
The Jaguar is the largest cat in South America.
Geography
South America is the fourth largest continent by area in the world, just slightly smaller than North America.
Other than Australia, South America is the only continent to reside almost entirely within the Southern hemisphere.
Only two nations of South America are landlocked: Bolivia and Paraguay.
The Amazon is the greatest river in the world by many measures including the volume of water it carries to the sea.
Much of the tropical rainforest in South America is located east of the Andes Mountains.
History
It was Amerigo Vespucci—not Christopher Columbus—who gave his name to the Americas probably because he was the first to believe it was not East Asia.
During the 16th century, much of South America was colonized by Spain and Portugal. but in the 19 th century, they returned to independence.
England and Argentina went to war briefly in 1982 over the Falkland Islands, located off the east coast of South America.
The Panama Canal was constructed here in the early 20th century.
The Inca once controlled an empire in the Andes of South America.
Simon Bolivar is considered a hero by many of the nations of South America, having led most of them to independence in the 19th Century.
Fantastic Flash games! Matt Rosenberg, About.com Guide to Geography
Great geography games! Brad Bowerman, Geography World
