Location, Boundaries and Political Divisions of North America

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Location and Area:

Latitudinal extent:

Most of the continent lies between the Arctic circle and the Tropic of Cancer. Longitudinally it roughly looks like an inverted triangle with its base at the North.

From	\(7°N\)
To	\(80°N\)

Important latitudes passing through:

Latitude	Passing through
Tropic of Cancer(\(23½°N\))	Mexico
Arctic Circle (\(66½°N\))	Northern part of Canada

Longitudinal extent:

From	\(53°W\)
To	\(180°W\)

Boundaries of North America:

The continent extends from the Aleutian Islands in the northwest to the Isthmus of Panama in the south. It includes the island of Greenland in the northeast and the small island countries and territories in the Caribbean Sea and western North Atlantic Ocean.

Map of North America

Pacific Ocean	West
Atlantic Ocean	East
Arctic Ocean	North
South America	South

Important!

Isthmus of Panama joins North America with South America.

The Bering Strait separates North America from Asia.

Difference between Isthmus and Strait:

Isthmus	Strait
It is a narrow land.	It is a narrow water body.
It connects two large landmasses.	It connects two large water bodies.

Isthmus of panama

Political Divisions

North America is politically divided into three large and several small countries. Canada is the largest country; it is followed by the United States of America and Mexico. The south of Mexico, which is referred to as central America, has seven small countries. They are Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, Panama, Costa Rica, El Salvador and Belize.

Map of Central America

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2. Location, Boundaries and Political Divisions of North America

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