The Americas, also collectively called America,[4][5][6] encompass the totality of

the continents of North America and South America.[7][8][9] Together they make up
most of Earth's western hemisphere[10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17] and comprise the New World.
Along with their associated islands, they cover 8% of Earth's total surface area
and 28.4% of its land area. The topography is dominated by the American
Cordillera, a long chain of mountains that run the length of the west coast. The
flatter eastern side of the Americas is dominated by large river basins, such as
the Amazon, St. Lawrence River / Great Lakes basin, Mississippi, and La Plata.
Since the Americas extend 14,000 km (8,700 mi) from north to south, the
climate and ecology vary widely, from the arctic tundra of Northern Canada,
Greenland, and Alaska, to the tropical rain forests in Central America and South
America.
Humans first settled the Americas from Asia between 42,000 and 17,000 years
ago. A second migration of Na-Dene speakers followed later from Asia. The
subsequent migration of the Inuit into the neoarctic around 3500 BCE
completed what is generally regarded as the settlement by the indigenous
peoples of the Americas.[citation needed]
The first known European settlement in the Americas was by the Norse explorer
Leif Ericson.[18] However the colonization never became permanent and was
later abandoned. The voyages of Christopher Columbus from 1492 to 1502
resulted in permanent contact with European (and subsequently, other Old
World) powers, which led to the Columbian exchange. Diseases introduced
from Europe and Africa devastated the indigenous peoples, and the European
powers colonized the Americas.[citation needed] Mass emigration from Europe, including
large numbers of indentured servants, and importation of African slaves largely
replaced the indigenous peoples.
Decolonization of the Americas began with the American Revolution in 1776
and Haitian Revolution in 1791. Currently, almost all of the population of the
Americas resides in independent countries; however, the legacy of the
colonization and settlement by Europeans is that the Americas share many
common cultural traits, most notably Christianity and the use of Indo-European
languages; primarily Spanish, English, Portuguese, French and to a lesser
extent, Dutch.