North America

== Name ==
{{anchor|Etymology}}
{{Further|Naming of the Americas|New Spain|Turtle Island (Native American folklore)|Vinland}}
[[File:Historisch Nordamerika (cropped).jpg|thumb|A 1621 map of North America]]
[[File:The Harmsworth atlas and Gazetter 1908 (135850870).jpg|thumb|General map of North America in 1908 from ''The Harmsworth atlas and Gazetter'']]
The [[Americas]] were named after the Italian explorer [[Amerigo Vespucci]] by [[German people|German]] cartographers [[Martin Waldseemüller]] and [[Matthias Ringmann]].<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/626894/Amerigo-Vespucci |title=Amerigo Vespucci |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |access-date=7 July 2011 |archive-date=10 July 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120710004308/http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/626894/Amerigo-Vespucci |url-status=live }}</ref> Vespucci explored [[South America]] between 1497 and 1502, and was the first European to suggest that the Americas represented a landmass not then known to Europeans. In 1507, Waldseemüller published a world map, and placed the word "America" on the continent of present-day South America.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/cosmographiintr00waldgoog |title=The Cosmographiæ Introductio of Martin Waldseemüller in Facsimile |others=Translated by Edward Burke and Mario E. Cosenza, introduction by Joseph Fischer and Franz von Wieser |editor-last=Herbermann |editor-first=Charles George |place=New York |publisher=The United States Catholic Historical Society |year=1907 |page=[https://archive.org/details/cosmographiintr00waldgoog/page/n27 9] |quote={{lang-la|"Quarta pars per Americum Vesputium (ut in sequentibus audietur) inventa est, quam non video, cur quis jure vetet, ab Americo inventore sagacis ingenii viro Amerigen quasi Americi terram sive Americam dicendam, cum et Europa et Asia a mulieribus sua sortita sint nomina."}}}}</ref> The continent north of present-day Mexico was then referred to as Parias.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Arbuckle |first=Alex |date=24 December 2016 |title=This 509-year-old map contains the first known use of the word 'America' — but not where you may think |url=https://mashable.com/feature/universalis-cosmographia |access-date=26 May 2022 |website=Mashable |language=en |archive-date=26 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220526014743/https://mashable.com/feature/universalis-cosmographia |url-status=live }}</ref> On a 1553 world map published by [[Petrus Apianus]],<ref>{{cite web |last=Apianus |first=Petrus |title=English: 1553 world map – Charta Cosmographica, Cum Ventorum Propria Natura et Operatione |date=1553 |url=https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1553_world_map_-_Charta_Cosmographica,_Cum_Ventorum_Propria_Natura_et_Operatione.jpg |access-date=10 August 2022 |archive-date=9 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220709045708/https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1553_world_map_-_Charta_Cosmographica,_Cum_Ventorum_Propria_Natura_et_Operatione.jpg |url-status=live }}</ref> North America was called "Baccalearum", meaning "realm of the Cod fish", in reference to the abundance of [[cod|cod fish]] on the [[East Coast of the United States|East Coast]].<ref>{{Cite web |publisher=Stanford University | location = Stanford, California |title=Charta Cosmographica, Cum Ventorum Propria Natura et Operatione |url=https://exhibits.stanford.edu/ruderman/catalog/dp027ft1928 |access-date=10 August 2022 |website=Barry Lawrence Ruderman Map Collection – Spotlight at Stanford |language=en |archive-date=26 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230326033917/https://exhibits.stanford.edu/ruderman/catalog/dp027ft1928 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Waldseemüller used the [[Latin]] version of Vespucci's name, Americus Vespucius, in its feminine form of "America", following the examples of "Europa", "Asia", and "Africa". Map makers later extended the name America to North America.

In 1538, [[Gerardus Mercator]] used the term America on his world map of the entire [[Western Hemisphere]].<ref name="Cohen">{{cite web |url=http://www.uhmc.sunysb.edu/surgery/america.html |title=The Naming of America: Fragments We've Shored Against Ourselves |first=Jonathan |last=Cohen |access-date=3 February 2014 |archive-date=15 August 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180815164226/https://www.uhmc.sunysb.edu/surgery/america.html |url-status=live }}</ref> On [[Mercator 1569 world map|his subsequent 1569 map]], Mercator called North America "America or New India" (''America sive India Nova'').<ref>{{Cite web|title=Mercator 1587 {{!}} Envisioning the World {{!}} The First Printed Maps|url=https://lib-dbserver.princeton.edu/visual_materials/maps/websites/wendt-world-maps/Mercator_1587.html|access-date=12 September 2020|website=lib-dbserver.princeton.edu|archive-date=12 September 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200912213223/https://lib-dbserver.princeton.edu/visual_materials/maps/websites/wendt-world-maps/Mercator_1587.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

The [[Spanish Empire]] called its territories in North and South America "Las Indias", and the name given to the state body that oversaw the region was called the [[Council of the Indies]].