North America
Warning! Spoilers Ahead!
This article contains spoilers about the future of the Ethereal Superheroes Universe installment Purple Bolt! Read at your own risk.
| North America | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Type | Continent |
| Universe | Universe-A |
| Planet | Earth |
| Population | aprox. 592.2 million |
| Status | Active |
| Appearances | |
| All | Purple Bolt |
North America is a continent located in the Western and Northern Hemispheres[a] of planet Earth. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Caribbean Sea, and to the west and south by the Pacific Ocean.
North America covers an area of about 24,709,000 square kilometers (9,540,000 square miles), representing approximately 16.5% of the Earth's land area and 4.8% of its total surface area. It is the third-largest continent by size after Asia and Africa, and the fourth-largest continent by population after Asia, Africa, and Europe.
The region includes the Bahamas, Bermuda, Canada, the Caribbean, Central America, Clipperton Island, Greenland, Mexico, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Turks and Caicos Islands, and the United States.
History
Pre-Columbian era
The indigenous peoples of the Americas have many creation myths, based on which they assert that they have been present on the land since its creation, but there is no evidence that humans evolved there. The specifics of the initial settlement of the Americas by ancient Asians are subject to ongoing research and discussion. The traditional theory has been that hunters entered the Bering Land Bridge between eastern Siberia and present-day Alaska from 27,000 to 14,000 years ago. A growing viewpoint is that the first American inhabitants sailed from Beringia some 13,000 years ago, with widespread habitation of the Americas during the end of the Last Glacial Period, in what is known as the Late Glacial Maximum, around 12,500 years ago. The oldest petroglyphs in North America date from 15,000 to 10,000 years before present. Genetic research and anthropology indicate additional waves of migration from Asia via the Bering Strait during the Early-Middle Holocene.
Prior to the arrival of European explorers and colonists in North America, the natives of North America were divided into many different polities, ranging from small bands of a few families to large empires. They lived in several culture areas, which roughly correspond to geographic and biological zones that defined the representative cultures and lifestyles of the indigenous people who lived there, including the bison hunters of the Great Plains and the farmers of Mesoamerica. Native groups also are classified by their language families, which included Athapascan and Uto-Aztecan languages. Indigenous peoples with similar languages did not always share the same material culture, however, and were not necessarily always allies. Anthropologists speculate that the Inuit of the high Arctic arrived in North America much later than other native groups, evidenced by the disappearance of Dorset culture artifacts from the archaeological record and their replacement by the Thule people.
During the thousands of years of native habitation on the continent, cultures changed and shifted. One of the oldest yet discovered is the Clovis culture (c. 9550–9050 BCE) in modern New Mexico. Later groups include the Mississippian culture and related Mound building cultures, found in the Mississippi River valley and the Pueblo culture of what is now the Four Corners. The more southern cultural groups of North America were responsible for the domestication of many common crops now used around the world, such as tomatoes, squash, and maize. As a result of the development of agriculture in the south, many other cultural advances were made there. The Mayans developed a writing system, built huge pyramids and temples, had a complex calendar, and developed the concept of zero around 400 CE.
The first recorded European references to North America are in Norse sagas where it is referred to as Vinland. The earliest verifiable instance of pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact by any European culture with the North America mainland has been dated to around 1000 CE. The site, situated at the northernmost extent of the island named Newfoundland, has provided unmistakable evidence of Norse settlement. Norse explorer Leif Erikson (c. 970–1020 CE) is thought to have visited the area. Erikson was the first European to make landfall on the continent (excluding Greenland).
The Mayan culture was still present in southern Mexico and Guatemala when the Spanish conquistadors arrived, but political dominance in the area had shifted to the Aztec Empire, whose capital city Tenochtitlan was located further north in the Valley of Mexico. The Aztecs were conquered in 1521 by Hernán Cortés.
Post-contact, 1492–1910
During the Age of Discovery, Europeans explored overseas, claiming parts of North America already inhabited by indigenous peoples. Indigenous reactions varied, including curiosity, trade, cooperation, and resistance. Their populations declined due to Eurasian diseases like smallpox and violent conflicts with Europeans, leading to significant cultural shifts and the extinction of some linguistic groups.
In 1513, Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León visited and named La Florida. As colonization expanded, Spain, England, and France claimed territories along North America's eastern and southern coasts. Spain established settlements in the Caribbean in the 1490s, where indigenous people labored in agriculture and gold mining. Many indigenous populations died from disease and overwork, prompting further Spanish expansion. In 1519, Hernán Cortés led an expedition that conquered the Aztec Empire, solidifying Spain’s hold in Mexico and Central and South America, while the Caribbean became a Spanish backwater.
Other European powers also moved into the Caribbean. France took western Hispaniola, Britain claimed Barbados and Jamaica, and the Dutch and Danes occupied other islands initially claimed by Spain. Britain, initially focused on Ireland, did not settle the North American mainland until later.
English Settlements
he first permanent English settlement was in Jamestown, Virginia in 1607, followed by additional colonial establishments on the east coast from present-day Georgia in the south to Massachusetts in the north, forming the Thirteen Colonies of British America. The English did not establish settlements north or east of the St. Lawrence Valley in present-day Canada until after the conclusion of the American Revolutionary War. Britain's early settlements in present-day Canada included St. John's, Newfoundland in 1630 and Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1749. The first permanent French settlement was in Quebec City, Quebec in 1608.
Sever Years' War
With the British victory in the Seven Years' War, France in 1763 ceded to Britain its claims of North American territories east of the Mississippi River. Spain, in turn, gained rights to the territories west of Mississippi, which then served as a border between Spain and Britain's territorial claims. French colonists settled Illinois Country after several generations of experience on North America, migrating over the Mississippi River to regions where Spain was not present and where they were able to leverage their earlier Louisiana French settlements around the Gulf of Mexico. These early French settlers partnered with midwest indigenous tribes, and their mixed ancestry descendants later followed a westward expansion all the way to the Pacific Ocean on the present-day U.S. West Coast.
American Revolution
In 1776, after various attempts to reconcile differences with the British, the Thirteen Colonies in British America sent delegates to the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia, who unanimously adopted the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, written primarily by Thomas Jefferson, a member of the Committee of Five charged by the Second Continental Congress with authoring it. In the Declaration, the thirteen colonies declared their independence from the British monarchy, then governed by King George III, and detailed the factors that contributed to their decision. With the signing and issuance of the Declaration of Independence, the thirteen colonies formalized and escalated the American Revolutionary War, which had begun the year before at the Battles of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775. Gathered in Philadelphia following the war's outbreak, delegates from the thirteen colonies established the Continental Army from various patriot militias then engaged in resisting the British, and appointed George Washington as the Continental Army's military commander.
As the American Revolutionary War progressed, France and Spain, both then enemies of Britain, began to ultimately see the promise of a potential American victory in the war and began supporting Washington and the American Revolutionary cause. The British Army, in turn, was supported by Hessian military units from present-day Germany.
In 1783, after an eight-year attempt to defeat the American rebellion, King George III acknowledged Britain's defeat in the war, leading to the signing of the Treaty of Paris on September 3, 1783, which solidified the sovereign establishment of the United States.
Westward Expansion
By the late 18th century, Russia was established on the Pacific Northwest northern coastline, where it was engaged in maritime fur trade and was supported by various indigenous settlements in the region. As a result, the Spanish were showing more interest in controlling the trade on the Pacific coast and mapped most of its coastline. The first Spanish settlements were attempted in Alta California during that period. Numerous overland explorations associated with voyageurs, fur trade, and U.S. led expeditions, including the Lewis and Clark, Frémont and Wilkes expeditions, reached the Pacific.
In 1803, during the presidency of Thomas Jefferson, the third U.S. president, Napoleon Bonaparte sold France's remaining North American territorial claims, which included regions west of the Mississippi River, to the U.S., in the Louisiana Purchase. Spain and the U.S. settled their western boundary dispute in 1819 in the Adams–Onís Treaty. Mexico fought a lengthy war for independence from Spain, winning it for Mexico (which included Central America at the time) in 1821. The U.S. sought further westward expansion and fought the Mexican–American War, gaining a vast territory that first Spain and then Mexico claimed but which they did not effectively control. Much of the area was in fact dominated by indigenous peoples, which did not recognize the claims of Spain, France, or the U.S. Russia sold its North American claims, which included the present-day U.S. state of Alaska, to the U.S. in 1867.
Canada and Panama Canal
In 1867, colonial settlers north of the United States, unified as the dominion of Canada. The U.S. sought to dig a canal across the Isthmus of Panama in present-day Panama in Central America, then a part of present-day Colombia. The U.S. aided Panamanians in a war that resulted in its separation from Colombia. The U.S. subsequently carved out the Panama Canal Zone, and claimed sovereignty over it. After decades of work, the Panama Canal was completed, which connected the Atlantic and Pacific oceans in 1913 and greatly facilitated global shipping navigation.
Purple Bolt
Jonathan Kayne was born on September 19, 2002, to Emily and Peter Kayne. At age five, an experiment by his father resulted in Jonathan being struck by lightning, and after recovery, he began showing superhuman speed abilities in 2020. Following discovery and self-training, Jonathan adopted the superhero identity "The Bolt."
Notable Locations
Notable People
Notes
See also
| Locations | |
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| Earth | Asgard (alternate dimension) | |