Pre-Columbian history
America was probably originally a “deserted” continent. The first immigration (hunter-gatherer) from Asian Siberia via the then still mainland or icy Bering Strait was around 15,000 BC. (maybe earlier) detectable. There was also immigration across the Pacific Ocean, from South Asia, across the Pacific Islands. Cultural level of the Middle Stone Age probably from 10,000 to 2500 BC; earliest known finds: herringbone cave near Reno (Nevada) around 9500 BC. and Santa Rosa Island (California coast) around 8000 BC; gradual transition to sedentary way of life (stone age talc cultures, beginnings of ceramics), settlement of the entire double continent to southern Patagonia. More waves of immigration from Southeast Asia across the Pacific Ocean, probably beginning towards the end of the 3rd century BC. Continued infiltration of nomadic hunters from Siberia, who mostly stayed in the north of the continent. Hunters, collectors and planters developed advanced cultures, particularly in Central America and the highlands of Peru. Start of agriculture, later mainly corn crops. Cultural center was Mexico with the Teotihuacan culture, strongly influenced by the empire of the Toltecs (5th/6th century AD) who broke into Mexico from North America and the Mayan states in Guatemala, San Salvador and on the Yucatán peninsula. In the 13th/15th Century AD The empire of the warlike Aztecs, the successor of the Toltecs, formed on the Mexican highlands. The Inca Empire in Peru since 1200, peak in the 15th century AD.
Discovery story before Columbus
Around 1000, Europeans landed on the Atlantic coast of America for the first time: 981 discovery of Greenland by the Viking Erik the Red; AD 985 The Icelander Bjarni, driven by storms from the course to Greenland populated by Erik the Red, sighted the coast of North America; Leif, the son of Erik, and his brother landed in “Helluland” (probably Labrador), “Markland” (probably Nova Scotia or Newfoundland) and “Vinland hit goda” = the good wine country, ie probably south of the St. Lawrence Gulf. Permanent settlement but impossible due to Indian raids, at least still a ship connection up to the 14th century; later knowledge of America in Europe to Columbus was almost completely lost.
Geography of Central America
According to Countryaah, the Central America is the smallest of the Americas, or sub – continents or regions of America (North America, Central America and South America). In addition to being the smallest, it is also the poorest and least developed of the three Americas, however, despite its economic and social vulnerability, it is much sought after and remembered for its natural beauty and its rich history and culture. It is in Central America that the Caribbean is located, famous for the pirates who sailed through this region, as well as it housed part of the Toltec Empire, one of the main civilizations of pre-Columbian Amerindians that existed in the Americas.
Along with South America, it houses all the countries of the so-called Latin America, except Mexico that is in North America, in opposition to what we call Anglo-Saxon America. Recalling that in regionalization in Latin America and Anglo-Saxon America, the origin of the colonizer from each part of America is not taken into account, whether the colonizer is Latin (like Portuguese and Spanish) or Anglo-Saxon (like the English), various social factors are considered to define which countries belong to which regions.
It is also a region of many popular struggles, having been the birthplace of the first slave revolt that gave rise to a free nation and with full equality among its citizens regardless of their color or race, in Haiti, where influenced by the French revolution the famous “ black Jacobin ”Touissant Louverture led the victorious and historic revolution in Haiti. It was also in Central America that some democratic revolutions took place, such as that of Costa Rica and with the Sandinistas in Nicaragua, and it is in Central America that we have the only communist country in the Americas: Cuba.
It has many areas that are still possessions of foreign countries from other continents (such as the United States of America, the United Kingdom, France and the Netherlands), either as colonies, as freely associated territories or as part fully integrated with the foreign country. They are: Puerto Rico (USA), Aruba (Netherlands), Bonaire (Netherlands), Curaçao (Netherlands), Saba (Netherlands), Santo Eustáquio (Netherlands), São Martinho Island (France in the north and Holland in the South), Guadeloupe (France, Martinique (France), Anguilla (United Kingdom), British Virgin Islands (United Kingdom), American Virgin Islands (USA), Turks and Caicos Islands (United Kingdom) and Montserrat (United Kingdom).
Physical aspects
Central America is divided into two regions: Central America and Central America. Isthmic Central America occupies most of the continent, constituting the Isthmus of Panama or the Central American Isthmus, which connects North America with South America. However, today, this isthmus is no longer “entirely ”, Having been artificially divided with the construction of the Panama Canal, in the country of the same name as the canal, connecting the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. In turn, Central America Island is the diverse islands that are part of Central America.
Throughout the Central American Isthmus, it is possible to find mountainous regions within it that are, in part, a continuation of the Andes. Towards the coast, we find the coastal plains famous for their natural beauty and paradisiacal beaches. As Cuba is the country with the longest coastline, the Dominican Republic and Haiti are the countries with the longest coastline in the Greater Antilles.
Insular Central America, also known as the Antilles, is divided according to the size of its islands, thus making the Antilles divided between the Greater Antilles (Cuba, Jamaica, Haiti, Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico) and the Lesser Antilles (Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao, Saba, Saint Eustatius, Saint Martin Island, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Anguilla, Virgin Islands and Montserrat). These two parts are the islands that are located in the Caribbean Sea, but there are still the Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands that are directly in the Atlantic Ocean and no longer in the Caribbean Sea, but are also part of Central America.
The entire Central American subcontinent is located in the tropical zone, as well as the entire territory is very close to the sea or ocean, not being significantly influenced by continentality. The sum of these factors is decisive in its vegetation, making the fauna and flora present in Central America to be that of humid tropical forests.
Economic aspects
Despite being a famous tourist spot worldwide, which is a major source of income for the countries of this sub-continent, especially in the Caribbean region, much of Central America is still dependent on the primary sector of the economy, or that is, agriculture and extraction. Among the main products of the region are tropical inputs, in plantation regime, such as sugar cane (an activity that has been practiced by the colonizers since centuries past), coffee, tobacco and bananas, as well as the extraction of bauxite in the Jamaica.
A very traditional crop from Mesoamerica, a region that encompasses southern Mexico and northern Central America, is the Creole Maize plantation. Creole corn, different from the corn we know and normally consume in the market, is not only yellow, but has an immense variety of colors and many corns are not even uniform in their color, having in the same ear a wide variety of colored grains many different.
Another type of lucrative activity in the region is banking, considering that the Bahamas is one of the most famous tax havens in the world. Tax havens are places where it is easy to store foreign money, with rates usually very low or even non-existent and in complete secrecy, being highly sought after by criminal organizations, corrupt politicians and even companies or men of great purchasing power who exercise legal economic activities, however wish to circumvent the tax authorities of their countries (tax evasion).
The industry is focused on the production of tobacco derivatives, such as the world famous Cuban cigars, as well as drinks such as the famous Rum that was consumed by the famous pirates and that is a typical Cuban drink famous throughout the world (so famous that cachaça Brazilian was known abroad as “Brazilian Rum”, that is, Brazilian Rum, even though it is a different drink), medicines and other goods.
Some problems affect and/or have affected the economy of Central American countries, contributing to their underdevelopment. Although it cannot be limited to them, but for example, after the 2010 earthquake, which reached catastrophic proportions, Haiti was completely devastated, including economically, with no major economic activities and the misery having spread through the population, which was already economically disadvantaged.
Another problem is the economic embargo, placed by the United States of America, against Cuba, something that began to be revised during the administration of former President Barack Obama, without, however, having had enough time to bring about greater results (especially after President Donald Trump has reaffirmed the need for the embargo and has opposed the rapprochement between the United States of America and Cuba).
