Facts about South America

1. South America is the southern continent of the Americas, situated entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere.

2. South America was named in 1507 by cartographers Martin Waldseemüller and Matthias Ringmann after Amerigo Vespucci, who was the first European to suggest that the Americas were not the East Indies, but a New World unknown to Europeans.

3. The rubber tree is native to South AMerica(Amazon Basin).

4. South America ranks fourth in area and fifth in population.

5. The continent became a battlefield of the Cold War in the late 20th century.

6. South America is also home to one of the biggest population of Africans.