Geographically, the continent of America is made up of South America, Central America and North America, where Canada and the USA are two of the world’s largest countries. Also worth mentioning is the Pan-American Highway (Panamericana), which stretches 29,750 km from Prudhoe Bay in Alaska to Ushuaia in Tierra del Fuego, Argentina.
| Country | Area in km² | population | Capital |
| Argentina | 2,780,400 | 44.7 million | Buenos Aires |
| Belize | 22,966 | 408,500 | Belmopan |
| Bolivia | 1,098,581 | 11.08 million | La Paz |
| Brazil | 8,514,215 | 212 million | Brasilia |
| Chile | 756.626 | 17.5 million | Santiago de Chile |
| Costa Rica | 51,100 | 4.8 million | San Jose |
| Dominica | 751 | 73,000 | Rosseau |
| Ecuador | 256,370 | 17.27 million | Quito |
| El Salvador | 21,040 | 6.5 million | San Salvador |
| Falkland Islands | 12,173 | 3,000 | Port Stanley |
| French Guyana | 83,534 | 268,500 | Cayenne |
| Guatemala | 108,890 | 17.2 million | Guatemala City |
| Guyana | 214,970 | 780,000 | Georgetown |
| Hawaii | 28,311 | 1.42 million | Honolulu |
| Honduras | 112,090 | 9.5 million | Tegucigalpa |
| Colombia | 1,138,748 | 50 million | Santa Fe de Bogotá |
| Nicaragua | 130,700 | 6.5 million | Managua |
| Panama | 75,517 | 4.3 million | Panama City |
| Paraguay | 406,752 | 7.2 million | Asunción |
| Peru | 1,285,220 | 33 million | Lima |
| South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands | 4,066 | almost uninhabited | there is not any |
| St. Lucia | 616 | 165,500 | Castries |
| Suriname | 163,820 | 585,000 | Paramaribo |
| Uruguay | 176,220 | 3.5 million | Montevideo |
| Venezuela | 916,445 | 29 million | Caracas |
Source: List of Countries in South America – Countryaah.com
Notes on some selected countries
Argentina
Argentina covers an area of 2,789,400 km² – with around 44.7 million residents. From 1976 to 1983, the country was ruled by an inhuman, brutal and corrupt military dictatorship under General General Jorge Rafael Videla (1925-2013). The nightmare did not end until the end of the Falklands War in June 1962 under British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (192-2013). Argentina gained independence from Spain on July 9, 1816.
Brazil
Brazil covers an area of 8,514,215 km² – with around 212 million residents. A large part of the approximately 7 million km² Amazon basin is located in Brazil. Unfortunately, under President Jair Bolsanaro (born 1955), more and more parts of the jungle are cleared and partially planted with useful plants. The capital is Brasilia, although Rio de Janeiro with its 6.4 million residents, the Copa Cabana and the Christ statue is much better known. Brazil gained independence from Portugal in 1825, so Portuguese is spoken in the country and not Spanish, as in almost all Central and South American countries.
Chile
Chile covers an area of 756,626 km² – with around 17.5 million residents. On February 12, 1818 Chile gained independence from Spain. In the far south of the continent, Chile borders Argentina. An important event was the so-called saltpeter war over the saltpeter deposits in the Atacama desert between Chile on the one hand and Bolivia and Peru on the other, which began in 1879 and ended in 1884. After the coup of General Augusto Pinochet (1915-2006) against the democratically elected socialist president Salvador Allende (1908-1973), the people suffered a bad time 1988, when Pinochet was replaced as president on March 11, 1990 by the Christian Democrat Patricio Aylwin (1918-2016).
