Talk:North America

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_America

I wish to contribute to this talk page. I take issue with the definition here of North America. It seems to be based on the UN definition, which - as I read yesterday but can no longer find the article - was in effect handed to the U.S.A. to deal with. It is a definition based essentially on socio-political factors, which completely ignores geological realities.

For simplicity's sake, I suggest readers search, on google, "detailed view of tectonic plate boundaries central america, caribbean." The URL is truly massive so what I suggest seems it would be a much easier way of locating this site. This search should bring up a google site with many maps. It is quite clear from these maps that most of Central America - 5 of the 7 countries, plus bits of the other two - are most definitely not part of the North American tectonic plate, massive as it is. Actually, Central America was raised above sea level by various plate movements about 3 mya (million years ago), and until such time North and South America were widely separated. Most of what is now Central America is geologically definitely not part of North America, but instead is part of the Caribbean tectonic plate, as are many of the islands mentioned in the article said incorrectly to be part of N. America. These islands include Hispaniola (Haiti and Dominican Republic), Puerto Rico, Jamaica, and the Lesser Antilles. (Ironically, from a modern political perspective, Cuba is located on the N. American plate.) It is important to bear in mind that Central America is not part of N. America: it is an isthmus formed 3 million years ago connecting the North and South American plates, and is itself, except for Belize and most of Guatemala, part of the Caribbean tectonic plate.

It therefore seems to me that such information should be included in a Wiki article such as this on the subject of what constitutes North America. Or else, at the very least, the article as it stands should be upfront about its biases and state that it reflects socio-political realities including cultural and linguistic realities, and does not reflect the geological reality that much of the land the article says is part of N. America is most definitely not so. A lot of this "reality", e.g., Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, is only North American based on ignorance of basic geological science and American political realities at the time when the UN passed off the matter of defining North America to the U.S.A. RaffiGetz (talk) 09:44, 12 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Semi-protected edit request on 15 July 2023

Change: "Northern America" is distinct term from "North America", excluding Central America, which itself may or may not include Mexico.

To: "Northern America" is a distinct term from "North America", excluding Central America, which itself may or may not include Mexico. ResonantD (talk) 23:38, 15 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]

 Done ULPS (talk) 01:35, 16 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]

African slaves

Edit African slaves to enslaved Africans. "African slaves" continues to dehumanize Africans who were trafficked and brought to North America. Enslaved Africans humanizes and accounts for the atrocities done to African people who were trafficked all over the world, particularly North America. 2604:CA00:169:49C2:0:0:1266:7243 (talk) 22:38, 17 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Info Box

Heres an idea, how about in the info box, we have a link to the wikivoyage article. Someonehere12345 (talk) 16:49, 18 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

nevermind, I see we already have it. Someonehere12345 (talk) 04:42, 10 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]
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