North America

North America, also known as Turtle Island, is the northern part of the American continent. North America is located primarily within the Northern Hemisphere and Western Hemisphere. Depending on context, the term "North America" may include or exclude certain regions and countries, depending on geographical and sociocultural considerations. Geographically, North America is typically considered to extend from Canada in the north to Panama in the south. Due to cultural, historical, and linguistic factors, Mexico, together with Central and South American countries, also may be grouped under the name Latin America, with the United States of America and Canada being referred to as Anglo-America. Some limited definitions of North America refer only to the USA and Canada, and may or may not also include Mexico.

Prior to European colonization, Native Americans, also known as First Nations people and American Indians, lived in autonomous nations throughout America. The economic and political structure of the various peoples of North America were complex, interconnected, and diverse, with some of the nations being nomadic or semi-nomadic hunter-gatherers while others built large urban complexes and engaged in agricultural pursuits. Nations and cultures across North America developed highly sophisticated social orders, built monumental urban centers, engaged in long-distance trade and agriculture on a large scale, inventing irrigation systems which still exist in parts of the United States in the present day (such as the U.S. Southwest, notably the area around Phoenix, Arizona). As Europeans began to colonize America, a long period of struggle, cultural disruption, and genocide ensued as the settler-colonial system was violently installed throughout the continent. To this day, settler-colonial regimes continue occupy the continent, while the native nations face marginalization on their own land, and continue to struggle against the settler-states through a variety of methods. Decolonization is a pressing political consideration of the region, as in many other regions of the world.

The imperialist settler-state known as the United States of America currently occupies a large swath of North American territory and continues to be a leader in oppressing indigenous peoples worldwide, regarding the Western Hemisphere and the American region in particular as its "backyard", an attitude exemplified by the Monroe Doctrine.