South America belongs to Latin America, which is a political and geographical concept. Historically, this area was mainly colonized by Latin-speaking countries such as Spain and Portugal. As far as the language of American residents is concerned, Spanish is dominant. Because this region belongs to the Latin family, many countries south of the United States are called Latin American countries, and this region is called Latin America.

Latin America refers to the American region south of the United States, that is, the continent between 32 42' north latitude and 56 54' south latitude, including Mexico, Central America, West Indies and South America.

Latin America faces the Atlantic Ocean in the east and the Pacific Ocean in the west, with a total length of 1 1000 km from north to south, a width of 51000 km from east to west, and a narrowest point of only 48 km from the isthmus of Panama. There are Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea in the north.

Extended data

Climate and landforms in Latin America

In three-quarters of tropical areas in Latin America, the average annual temperature in most areas is above 20 degrees Celsius. Compared with other continents, it is warm and hot. It is neither as cold as Asia and North America, nor as hot as Africa. The climate types are mainly tropical rain forest and savanna climate. The tropical rain forest climate is mainly distributed in the Amazon plain, and the tropical grassland is mainly distributed in the Brazilian plateau.

Latin America has a complex terrain, and Mexico is basically a grassland, called the Mexican Plateau. Central America is a mountainous area. Most of the West Indies are also dominated by mountains. On the Pacific coast of western South America, the Andes stand tall. East of the Andes, plains and plateaus appear alternately, from north to south, Orinoco River Plain, Guyana Plateau, Amazon Plain, Brazil Plateau, La Plata Plain, Patagonia Plateau, etc.

Baidu Encyclopedia-Latin America