The Amazon River has enough water to fill a ____ bathtubs!
One million
100
All the nations south of the US are referred to as “Latin America”. Most of these people speak either Spanish or Portuguese, which developed from ____.
Latin
100
What is the name of the river that forms a border between the US and Mexico?
Rio Grande
100
How long ago does history of this region extend and who settled the area?
More than 2,000 years; first the Maya Indians, then the Spanish, then the British (in certain locales).
100
Name the three regions that contain the Caribbean Islands.
Greater Antilles, Lesser Antilles, and the Bahamas
200
How may volcanoes are there in Central America?
Hundreds
200
Most of Latin America is in a hot region of the world called the ____.
Tropics
200
Who were the first peoples in Mexico and what European nation destroyed them, only to found a new society in its place?
Indians, and later Spain ruled Mexico
200
Which is the largest country in Central America?
Nicaragua
200
What is the greatest weather threat to these islands and when do they occur most often?
Hurricanes; July through October
300
How many ships pass through the Panama Canal everyday?
40
300
The halves of the world are divided into the Northern and Southern Hemispheres at the ____.
Equator
300
Mexico is one of the three nations that signed NAFTA. What does NAFTA mean and who were the other two nations that agreed to sign it?
North American Free Trade Agreement, and the US and Canada signed it
300
Costa Rica is different from Nicaragua because it has a ____ government.
Democracy; Nicaragua is a communist nation, with a dictator
300
What European explorer “discovered” the Caribbean for Spain?
(By the way – he never set foot in America!) Christopher Columbus (an Italian)
400
More than ____ Canadians and Americans visit Mexico each year.
6 million
400
A subsistence farmer in Latin America grows food for whom? For whom does the cash crop farmer grow food for?
Himself; others or a market.
400
Mexico mines more silver than any other nation, but it’s most important resource is ____.
Oil
400
Panama and its “isthmus” was the ideal place to build the Panama Canal in the early 1900s. What is an isthmus?
A narrow piece of land between two large bodies of water.
400
Name some of the nations in this region.
Cuba, Haiti, Dominican republic, Puerto Rico, Jamaica
500
The world’s longest mountain chain is the ____.
Andes, and it runs through seven nations: Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile and Argentina.
500
Coffee, sugarcane, and ____ are important cash crops in Latin America.
Bananas
500
Two huge problems for Mexico are its ____ and its ____.
Debt and illegal drugs
500
Name the other countries that make up the seven in the “tropics” of Central America.
Honduras, Belize, Guatemala, and El Salvador.
500
Which of these island nations has US citizenship (since 1917), but cannot vote in US elections ?