We got even before the era of the great geographical discoveries. In the VI century appeared about the journey of St. Brendan, an Irish saint, across the Atlantic Ocean. According to this legend, he was able to reach the shores of America. Historians note that the journey could have taken place, but there are no reliable facts about it.

The hypothesis of the early discovery of America by the Vikings has been confirmed by many scientists, but these navigators visited only the northern continent.

Also, that even before Columbus, Chinese visited South America. This assumption was made by the English historian Gavin Menzie. In his opinion, in 1421 the expedition under Tseng He reached the shores of the Antilles. This hypothesis is widely debated, but most experts deny Menzi's theory. In particular, many researchers consider maps of the New World allegedly created by the Chinese in the 15th century to be the latest forgery.

Expeditions of Columbus and the further discovery of America by Europeans

The discovery of both South and North America began not from the mainland, but from the islands. The Columbus expedition first landed in the Antilles, and then on the islands of Trinidad and Puerto Rico. The discovery of the South American continent took place during the third expedition of the great navigator - he visited the Paria Peninsula in South America. Thus, the discovery of South America began with modern Venezuela.

In 1498, new sailors rushed to the shores of America. Representatives of Spain and Portugal began to discover new lands of South America. A team led by Alonso de Oyeda landed in what is now French Guiana. Amerigo Vespucci separated from the team of Oyeda, who with his sailors reached the mouth of the Amazon. Four years later, this great one reached Novaya Zemlya. From that moment it became clear that this path did not lead to India, as was originally supposed, and that America was a separate large piece of land.

America itself got its name from one of its discoverers, Amerigo Vespucci.

In 1500, Pedro Alvarez Cobral began exploring eastern South America by landing in what is now Brazil. In turn, the western coast of South America was explored only in 1520 by an expedition led by Ferdinand Magellan.

The discovery of South America is directly related to the name of Christopher Columbus, the famous navigator who was looking for India. His search lasted about a month, three ships Pinta, Santa Maria and Nina left Spain in 1492 to cross the Atlantic Ocean. Then Columbus saw the land that is now the Bahamas. Then the famous navigator was sure that he was in Asia, and called the islands of Western India - the West Indies. After that discovery, the navigator made three more sea voyages.

And only in 1498, Columbus visited the territory of South America - he landed on the coast, located opposite the island of Trinidad. Columbus was sure that he had discovered India.

The real discovery of South America happened with the help of another navigator - Amerigo Vespucci. This happened at the beginning of the 16th century, when an Italian took part in a journey to the shores of the West Indies.

Then Vespucci realized that his predecessor had discovered not India, but an unknown continent, which was then called the New World. The name came from the name of Vespucci himself - the territory was called the land of Amerigo, which later turned into America.

The proposal to name the mainland in this way came from the German scientist Waldseemüller. Subsequently, one of the countries in South America was named after Columbus. The significance of the discovery of the mainland of South America is still being discussed. Indeed, in those days, the inhabitants of Europe did not know anything about the other part of the world, and the bold journey of Columbus forever changed the ideas of mankind about our planet. This is the largest geographical discovery.

But after the discovery, a long process of colonization began. After it became known about the discovery of new lands by Columbus, conquerors headed there from Europe, who wanted to find incredible treasures, riches and appropriate the lands. These conquerors were called conquistadors.

But in order to implement their ideas, they needed to exterminate and enslave the indigenous population of South America. This process was accompanied by constant looting and devastation of the newly discovered territories.

Simultaneously with the conquest, many geographical studies of new lands took place: maps of the coast were created, long passages overland.

One of the important moments in the history of the development of South America is the expedition of the scientist Alexander Humboldt. The German researcher set himself the goal of studying the nature of the mainland and studying its indigenous population.

His works are priceless - he described the nature around him, studied about 12 thousand plants and even created a map of South America, which can be called geological.

He conducted such in-depth research for 20 years that the book he subsequently wrote was called almost the second discovery of America.

This work is of particular scientific importance, since the studies of the German scientist are extensive and relate to many geographical factors.

Russian scientists were also studying South America. For example, the botanist Vavilov investigated the origin of many cultivated plants in 1932-1933. These plants are native to South America.

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History of discovery and exploration of North and South America

original work

Excerpt from work

LNU them. Tarasa Shevchenko FACULTY OF NATURAL SCIENCES DEPARTMENT OF GEOGRAPHY Abstract

on the course "Physical geography of continents and oceans"

on the topic: "HISTORY OF DISCOVERY AND RESEARCH OF NORTH AND SOUTH AMERICA"

Performed:

3rd year student of the specialty "geography"

Aleksandrova Valeria Checked:

Candidate of Sciences, Doctor of Pediatric Sciences, Associate Professor of the Department of Geography Tregubenko E.N.

Lugansk 2014

• Introduction
• findings
• Bibliography

Introduction

America is a part of the world in the western hemisphere of the Earth, which includes 2 continents - North America and South America, as well as the adjacent islands and Greenland. America is considered to be all the lands west of the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific coast. The total area is 44,485 million km2.

America was originally called the "New World". This name is currently used by biologists. The name "New World" is given by the title of Amerigo Vespucci's book "Mundus Novus". Cartographer Martin Waldseemüller mapped a new part of the world with the Latin name "Americus", which he then changed to the feminine gender - "America", since the rest of the world is feminine. (Africa, Asia and Europe). At first, only South America was understood as America, in 1541 this name spread to both continents.

America was settled in ancient times by migrants from Eurasia. Having settled in the spaces of both continents, they gave rise to the indigenous population - American Indians, Aleuts and Eskimos. In relative isolation from the rest of the world, the Indians went the same socio-historical path as other peoples - from primitive communities to early civilizations (in Mesoamerica and the Andes), created a rich and unique culture.

The part of the world inhabited more than 20 thousand years ago by Indians, Eskimos and Aleuts was unknown to Europeans until the 8th century, when the Irish Saint Brendan made a legendary voyage to the shores of modern Canada. The first historically reliable visit to the shores of America was made by the Vikings, who wintered around 1000 on the island of Newfoundland. The first European colony in America was the Norman settlement in Greenland, which existed from 986 to 1408.

The official date of the discovery of America is October 12, 1492, when the expedition of Christopher Columbus, heading towards India, came across one of the Bahamas.

The Spaniards founded the oldest existing colony in America in 1496 on the island of Haiti (now Santo Domingo). The colonies in America were also acquired by Portugal (since 1500), France (since 1608), Great Britain (since 1620), the Netherlands (since 1609), Denmark (reconstruction of a colony on Greenland since 1721), Russia (development of Alaska since 1784).

Discovery of America as part of the world

America was discovered by Europeans long before Columbus. According to some historical data, America was discovered by ancient navigators (Phoenicians), as well as in the middle of the first millennium AD. — by the Chinese. However, the most reliable information is about the discovery of America by the Vikings (Normans). At the end of the 10th century, the Vikings Bjarni Herjulfson and Leif Eriksson discovered Helluland ("stone land"), Markland ("forest land") and Vinland ("vineyard land"), which are now identified with the Labrador Peninsula. There is evidence that in the 15th century. The American continent was reached by Bristol sailors and Biscay fishermen, who named it Fr. Brazil. However, all these voyages did not lead to the real discovery of America, i.e., the identification of America as a continent and the establishment of relations between it and Europe.

America was finally discovered by Europeans in the 15th century. It was then that ideas spread in Europe, and that the earth is round and that it is possible to reach China and India by the western route (that is, by swimming across the Atlantic Ocean). At the same time, it was believed that such a path is much shorter than the eastern one. Since control over the South Atlantic was in the hands of the Portuguese (according to the Alcasovas agreements reached in 1479), Spain, who wanted to establish direct contacts with the countries of the East, accepted the proposal of the Genoese navigator Columbus to organize an expedition to the west. The honor of discovering America rightly belongs to Columbus.

Christopher Columbus was from Genoa. He received his education at Pavip University; his favorite sciences were geography, geometry and astronomy. From an early age, he began to take part in sea expeditions and visited almost all the then known seas. He married the daughter of a Portuguese sailor, from whom many geographical maps and notes from the time of Henry the Navigator remained. Columbus carefully studied them. He also decided to look for a sea route to India, but not past Africa, but directly across the Atlantic (“Western”) Ocean. Columbus was one of those who read the writings of ancient philosophers and geographers and found in them thoughts about the sphericity of the Earth (especially Eratosthenes and Ptolemy). Together with some scientists, he believed that. leaving Europe for the west. it will be possible to reach the eastern shores of Asia, where India and China lay. Columbus did not even suspect that on this path he would meet a whole huge mainland, unknown to Europeans.

On August 3, 1492, with a large gathering of mourners, Columbus left the harbor of Palos (in Andalusia) on three small ships with one hundred and twenty sailors; setting off on a long and dangerous voyage, the crews confessed and took communion the day before. Before the Canary Islands, the sailors sailed quite calmly, because this path was already known, but then they found themselves in a boundless ocean. As the ships with a fair wind rushed farther and farther, the sailors began to fall into despondency and more than once raised a grumble against their admiral. But Columbus, thanks to the unchanging firmness of spirit, knew how to pacify the recalcitrant and keep them hopeful. Meanwhile, various signs appeared, foreshadowing the proximity of the earth: unknown birds flew in, tree branches floated from the west. Finally, after a six-week voyage, one night, lights were noticed from the leading ship in the distance. There was a cry: "Earth, earth!" The sailors hugged each other, wept for joy and sang thanksgiving hymns. When the sun rose, a picturesque green island, covered with dense vegetation, opened up before them. Columbus, in full admiral's dress, with a sword in one hand, with a banner in the other, landed on the shore and declared this land the possession of the Spanish crown and forced his companions to swear allegiance to himself as the royal governor. Meanwhile, the natives fled to the shore. Completely naked, red-skinned, beardless, the islanders looked with surprise at the white bearded people covered with clothes. They called their island Gwashgani, but Columbus gave it the name San Salvador (that is, the Savior); it belongs to the group of the Bahamas, or Lucayan Islands. The natives turned out to be peaceful, good-natured savages. Noticing the greed of the newcomers for the golden rings that they had in their ears and nose, they indicated by signs that to the south lay a land abounding in gold. Columbus went further and discovered the shores of the large island of Cuba, which he mistook for the mainland, precisely for the eastern coast of Asia (hence the erroneous name of the American natives - Indians). From here he turned east and landed on the island of Haiti.

The Spaniards everywhere met the same savages who willingly exchanged their gold plaques for glass beads and other beautiful trinkets and, when asked about gold, constantly pointed to the south. On the island of Haiti, called Hispaniola (Little Spain), Columbus built a fortress. On the way back, he almost died from a storm. The ships landed in the same harbor of Palos. Everywhere in Spain, on the way to the royal court, the people greeted Columbus with delight. Ferdinand and Isabella received him very kindly. The news of the discovery of the New World quickly spread, and many hunters came to go there with Columbus. He undertook three more voyages to America.

During his first voyage (August 3, 1492 - March 15, 1493), Columbus crossed the Atlantic Ocean and reached the island of Guanahani (modern Watling), one of the Bahamas, then Columbus discovered the islands of Cuba and Haiti. According to the Spanish-Portuguese agreement concluded on June 7, 1493 in Tordesillas, a new delimitation of spheres of influence in the Atlantic was carried out: a line 2200 km west of the Azores became the border; all lands to the east of this line were recognized as the possession of Portugal, all lands to the west - to Spain.

As a result of the second trip of Columbus (September 25, 1493 - June 11, 1496), the Windward (Dominica, Montserrat, Antigua, Nevis, St. Christopher) and the Virgin Islands, the island of Puerto Rico and Jamaica were discovered.

In 1497, England entered into rivalry with Spain, trying to find a northwestern route to Asia: the Genoese Giovanni Caboto, having sailed under the English flag (May-August 1497), discovered Fr. Newfoundland and, possibly, approached the North American coast (Labrador and Nova Scotia Peninsulas); the next year he again undertook an expedition to the northwest with his son Sebastian. So the British began to lay the foundations of their dominance in North America.

The third journey of Columbus (May 30, 1498 - November 1500) led to the discovery of about. Trinidad and the mouth of the Orinoco; On August 5, 1498, he landed on the coast of South America (Paria peninsula). In 1499 the Spaniards reached the coast of Guiana and Venezuela (A. de Ojeda) and discovered Brazil and the mouth of the Amazon (V. Ya. Pinson). In 1500, the Portuguese P. A. Cabral was carried by a storm to the shores of Brazil, which he mistook for an island and named Vera Cruz (“True Cross”). During his last (fourth) journey (May 9, 1502 - November 7, 1504), Columbus discovered Central America, passing along the coast of Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama to the Gulf of Darien.

In 1501-1504 A. Vespucci under the Portuguese flag explored the Brazilian coast to Cape Cananea and put forward the hypothesis that the lands discovered by Columbus were not China and India, but a new mainland; this hypothesis was confirmed during the first circumnavigation of F. Magellan; the name America was assigned to the new continent (on behalf of Vespucci - Amerigo).

Development, colonization and exploration of America

After the discovery of America as part of the world, Europeans began to actively colonize and develop new territories. America was not colonized by all the states of Europe, but only by Spain (Central and South America), Portugal (South America), France (North America), Great Britain (North America), Russia (Alaska, California) and Holland.

English colonization of America

In the 17th and 18th centuries Great Britain will colonize and master almost the entire Atlantic coast of North America. In 1607 England founded the colony of Virginia. In 1620 - Massachusetts (Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay Settlement). In 1626, a new colony was founded - New York, in 1633 - Maryland, in 1636 - Rhode Island and Connecticut, in 1638 - Delaware and New Hampshire, in 1653 - North Carolina, 10 years later, in 1663 - South Caroline. A year after the formation of the colony of South Carolina, the eleventh colony of the British in America, New Jersey, was founded. In 1682, Pennsylvania was founded, and, in 1732, the last English colony in North America, Georgia, was founded. And after a little more than 30 years, these colonies will unite into an independent state - the United States.

French colonization of the Americas

The French colonization of America began in the 16th century and continued until the 18th century. France is building a colonial empire in North America called New France, stretching west from the Gulf of Saint Lawrence to the Rocky Mountains and south to the Gulf of Mexico. The French also colonize the Antilles: Santo Domingo, Saint Lucia, Dominica, as well as the still French Guadeloupe and Martinique. In South America, they are trying to found three colonies, of which at present only one remains - Guiana.

During this period of colonization, the French founded numerous cities, including Quebec and Montreal in Canada; Baton Rouge, Detroit, Mobile, New Orleans and St. Louis in the USA, Port-au-Prince and Cap-Haitien in Haiti.

Spanish colonization of the Americas

Spanish colonization (conquista, conquista) began with the discovery by the Spanish navigator Columbus of the first Caribbean islands in 1492, which the Spaniards considered part of Asia. It continued in different regions in different ways. Most of the colonies managed to win independence at the beginning of the 19th century, when Spain itself was going through a period of deep socio-economic decline. However, a number of island regions (Cuba, Puerto Rico, temporarily also the Dominican Republic) were administered by Spain until 1898, when the United States deprived Spain of its colonies as a result of the war. The Spanish colonies in America from the beginning of the development of the mainland until the 20th century included the central and southern parts of North America and all of South America, except for modern Brazil, Guiana, Suriname and Guyana, which were under the control of Portugal, France, Holland and Great Britain, respectively.

Portuguese colonization of the Americas

As mentioned above, only modern Brazil, or the eastern part of South America, was in the possession of Portugal. The period of Portuguese colonization of the mainland spanned over 300 years, from the discovery of Brazil on April 22, 1500 by Pedro Álvares Cabral, until 1815, when Brazil gained its independence.

Dutch colonization of the Americas

The sphere of influence of Holland in America included only the region on the territory of the eastern coast of North America, which stretched from 38 to 45 degrees north latitude (the so-called New Netherland), as well as the territory of the modern state of Suriname. The New Netherland lasted only from 1614 to 1674. And in 1667, England transferred Suriname to the Netherlands in exchange for New Amsterdam (the territory of present-day New York). Since then, with the exception of 1799-1802 and 1804-1816, Suriname has been a possession of the Netherlands for three centuries.

Swedish colonization America

New Sweden is a Swedish colony on the banks of the Delaware River in the present-day North American states of Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. It existed from 1638 to 1655, and later came under the control of the Netherlands.

Russian colonization of America (Russian America)

Russian America - the totality of the possessions of the Russian Empire in North America, which included Alaska, the Aleutian Islands, the Alexander Archipelago and settlements on the Pacific coast of the modern United States (Fort Ross).

The first Russians who discovered Alaska (America) from Siberia were the expedition of Semyon Dezhnev in 1648. In 1732, Mikhail Gvozdev on the boat "Saint Gabriel" sailed to the shores of the "Great Land" (north-western America), the first European to reach the coast of Alaska in the area of ​​Cape Prince of Wales. Gvozdev determined the coordinates and mapped about 300 km of the coast of the Seward Peninsula, described the shores of the strait and the islands lying in it. In 1741, Bering's expedition on two packet boats "Saint Peter" (Bering) and "Saint Paul" (Chirikov) explored the Aleutian Islands and the coast of Alaska. In 1772, the first Russian trading settlement was founded on the Aleutian Unalashka. On August 3, 1784, Shelikhov's expedition consisting of three galliots arrives on Kodiak Island. The "Shelikhovtsy" begin to intensively develop the island, subjugating the local Eskimos, promoting the spread of Orthodoxy among the natives and introducing a number of agricultural crops. On September 1, 1812, Ivan Kuskov founded Fort Ross (80 km north of San Francisco in California), which became the southernmost outpost of the Russian colonization of America. Formally, this land belonged to Spain, but Kuskov bought it from the Indians. Together with him, he brought 95 Russians and 80 Aleuts. In January 1841, Fort Ross was sold to Mexican citizen John Sutter. And in 1867, Alaska was sold to the United States for $7,200,000.

In parallel with the colonization and development of America, activities were also carried out to study and study the nature, climate, relief, and other Americas. Many travelers, scientists and researchers took part in the study of America at different times: H. Columbus, F. Magellan, Amerigo Vespucci, J. Cook, D. Cabot, A. Humboldt, J. Cartier, J. Verrazano, E. Soto, V. Behring, O. Kotzebue, J. Boussingault, J. Kane, R. Piri and others.

north south america colonization

findings

America as part of the world was discovered a little more than 500 years ago, and even less developed and colonized. But, despite this, America has experienced the richest history of its discovery and development, perhaps even richer than the history of Eurasia or Africa. For several centuries, this part of the world was actively settled and studied by Europeans, hoping to receive any dividends from this in the future.

Bibliography

1. America // Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron: In 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - St. Petersburg, 1890−1907.

2. Ashkinazi L. A., Gainer M. L. America without complexes: Sociological studies, 2010

3. Geevsky I. A., Setunsky N. K. American mosaic. M .: Politizdat, 1995. - 445 p.,

4. Magidovich I. P. History of discovery and exploration of North America. — M.: Geografgiz, 1962.

5. Magidovich I. P. History of discovery and exploration of Central and South America. - M .: Thought, 1963.

6. John Lloyd and John Mitchinson The book of general delusions. - Phantom Press, 2009.

The history of South American exploration can be divided into two phases:

First stage
Europeans became reliably aware of the existence of South America after the voyage of H. Columbus in 1498, who discovered the islands of Trinidad and Margarita, explored the coastline from the Orinoco River Delta to the Paria Peninsula. In the XV-XVI centuries. The greatest contribution to the exploration of the continent was made by Spanish expeditions. In 1499-1500, the Spanish conquistador A. Ojeda led an expedition to the northern coast of South America, which reached the coast in the region of modern Guiana and, following in a northwesterly direction, explored the coast from 5-6 ° S. sh. to the Gulf of Venezuela.

Later, Ojeda explored the north coast of Colombia and built a fortress there, marking the beginning of the Spanish conquests on this continent. The survey of the northern coast of South America was completed by the Spanish traveler R. Bastidas, who in 1501 explored the mouth of the Magdalena River and reached the Gulf of Uraba.

The expeditions of V. Pinson and D. Lepe, continuing to move south along the Atlantic coast of South America, in 1500 discovered one of the branches of the Amazon delta, explored the Brazilian coast to 10 ° S. sh. H. Solis went further to the south (up to 35 ° S. latitude) and discovered La Plata Bay, the lower reaches of the largest rivers Uruguay and Parana. In 1520, F. Magellan explored the Patagonian coast, then passed into the Pacific Ocean through the strait, later named after him, completing the study of the Atlantic coast.

In 1522-1558. explored the Pacific coast of South America. F. Pizarro walked along the shores of the Pacific Ocean to 8 ° S. sh., in 1531-1533. he conquered Peru, plundering and destroying the Inca state and founding the City of the Kings (later called Lima). Later - in 1535-1552. - Spanish conquistadors D. Almagro and P. Valdivia descended along the coast to 40 ° S. sh.

The study of inland regions was stimulated by legends about the hypothetical "country of gold" - El Dorado, in search of which the Spanish expeditions of D. Ordaz, P. Heredia and others in 1529-1546 crossed the Northwestern Andes in different directions, traced the currents of many rivers. The agents of the German bankers A. Ehinger, N. Federman and others surveyed, mainly, the northeast of the continent, the upper reaches of the Orinoco River. In 1541 F. Orellana's detachment for the first time crossed the mainland in its widest part, tracing the middle and lower reaches of the Amazon River; S. Cabot, P. Mendoza and others in 1527-1548 traveled along the large rivers of the Paraná-Paraguay basin.

The extreme southern point of the continent - Cape Horn - was discovered by the Dutch navigators J. Lehmer and V. Schouten in 1616. The English navigator D. Davies discovered the "Land of the Virgin" in 1592, suggesting that it was a single land; only in 1690 D. Strong proved that it consists of many islands and gave them the name Falkland Islands.
In the 16-18 centuries. detachments of the Portuguese mestizo-Mamiluks, who made aggressive campaigns in search of gold and jewelry, repeatedly crossed the Brazilian Plateau and traced the course of many tributaries of the Amazon. Jesuit missionaries also took part in the study of these areas.

Second phase
To test the hypothesis about the spheroidal shape of the Earth, the Paris Academy of Sciences sent an Equatorial Expedition to Peru in 1736-1743 to measure the meridian arc led by P. Bouguer and C. Condamine, which confirmed the validity of this assumption. In 1781-1801, the Spanish topographer F. Azara carried out comprehensive studies of the La Plata Bay, as well as the basins of the Parana and Paraguay rivers. A. Humboldt explored the Orinoco river basin, the plateau of Quito, visited the city of Lima, presenting the results of his research in the book "Journey to the Equinox Regions of the New World in 1799-1804."

The English hydrographer and meteorologist R. Fitzroy in 1828-1830 (on the expedition of F. King) surveyed the southern coast of South America, and later led the famous round-the-world trip on the Beagle ship, in which Charles Darwin also took part. The Amazon and the Brazilian Plateau adjacent to it from the south were explored by the German scientist V. Eschwege (1811-1814), the French biologist E. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (1816-1822), the Russian expedition led by G. I. Langsdorf (1822-1828), English naturalist A. Wallace (1848-1852), French scientist A. Coudro (1895-98). German and French scientists studied the Orinoco River basin and the Guiana Plateau, American and Argentinean - the lower reaches of the Parana and Uruguay rivers in the La Plata region.

The Russian scientists N. M. Albov, who studied Tierra del Fuego in 1895-1896, G. G. Manizer (1914-1915), N. I. Vavilov (1930, 1932-1933) made a great contribution to the study of this continent.

Started to drift to the west and, subsequently, was transformed into the South American platform. In the course of a long geological history, the connection of the southern continent with the northern one took place. A single land mass has formed, which continues its drift in a westerly direction, crushing the Pacific margin of both continents into folds, “raising up” the longest mountain system on the planet, the Cordillera-Andes. Today, South America, a continent with an area of ​​about $18 million $km²$, together with North America, makes up one part of the world - America.

Features of the geographical position of the mainland

South America has the shape of a triangle, the base of which is located in the equatorial region, and the top is directed towards the south pole. The mainland is crossed equator in its northern part. Also crosses South America and southern tropic . Most of the area of ​​the continent lies between these parallels. Therefore, the mainland receives a large amount of solar radiation throughout the year.

South America is washed by the waters of two oceans: Pacific and Atlantic . narrow Isthmus of Panama the mainland joins North America. In ancient times, animals moved along this isthmus, and people penetrated into South America along it. At the beginning of the $XX$ century, a Panama Canal , connecting the Pacific Ocean with the Atlantic and dividing the two continents.

wide in the south Drake Passage separates South America from Antarctica.

Example 1

The Drake Passage is the widest strait in the world - about $820$ km at its narrowest point.

Extreme points:

• northern - Cape Gallinas ($12°$ N, $72° $W);
• southern mainland - Cape Forward or Forward ($54°$ S, $74°$ W);
• southern island - Cape Horn ($56°$ S, $67°$ W)

Remark 1

(according to other sources, the southernmost island point is located on the Diego Ramirez Islands, southwest of Cape Horn - ($56° 30´$ S, $68° 43´$ W);

• eastern - Cape Kaabu Branco ($7°$ S, $35°$ W);
• western - Cape Parinas ($5°$ N, $81°$ W).

From north to south, the mainland stretches for $7326 $km, and from west to east - to west - $5000$ km at its widest point (around $7°$ S).

History of discovery and research

Remark 2

We can say that South America was discovered three times.

For the first time it was discovered by people who migrated here from North America along the Isthmus of Panama. But information about this was not known to European science.

In the Middle Ages, navigation became more active. Powerful European states, competing with each other, sought to seize new colonies, explore new trade routes.

In the $XV$$ century, two states dominated the seas - Portugal and Spain. To avoid conflict between them, the Pope of Rome proclaimed with a special bull the lands discovered to the east of the Vatican as the property of Portugal, and everything that was open to the west - to Spain.

Genoese sailor Cristobal Colombo , who was in the service of the Spanish king and went down in history under the name Christopher Columbus , suggested that if the Earth is spherical, then, sailing to the west, you can sail to India or China - the land of fabulous treasures and riches. In $1492$ the expedition of Christopher Columbus reached Antilles . Thus was opened the way to the New World a second time.

Being sure that he sailed to India, Columbus called the locals Indians . This name has stuck to this day. Christopher Columbus made two more expeditions to the New World, visited the mouth of the Orinoco, but until the end of his days he was sure that he had discovered only the unknown coast of India ( West Indies ).

At the end of $XV$, the Florentine traveler carefully examined the nature of the lands discovered by Columbus. He came to the conclusion that these lands are not part of Eurasia, but represent a new continent. Later this continent was proposed to be called Amerigia or America . This was the third and last discovery of the continent.

First "researchers" new territories were Spanish and Portuguese treasure seekers. History has preserved the names of Pizarro, Cortes, Orellano. These, and others like them, money seekers have destroyed the richest culture of the indigenous peoples of the continent, looking for a ghostly land of gold - El Dorado . Their only merit is that they described the coast, compiled the first maps of the mainland.

Among scientists who studied the interior of South America, he made a huge contribution. He compiled the first geological map of the mainland, described the currents off the western coast, and substantiated the theory of altitudinal zonality in the Andes. Russian scientists N. G. Rubtsov and G. I. Landsdorf studied the nature of the interior regions of the Brazilian plateau.

Soviet scientist N. I. Vavilov studied the ancient centers of agriculture, found out the centers of origin of many cultivated plants. South America still holds many mysteries. For researchers, this is still undeveloped territory.