CENTRAL AMERICA

southernmost region of North America, lying between Mexico and South America and comprising Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Belize. Area 202,000 square miles (523,000 square km). Pop. (1993 est.) 30,610,000. southernmost region of North America, lying between Mexico and Soth America. (Geologists and physical geographers sometimes extend the northern boundary to the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in Mexico.) Within the region are the countries of Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. Although Panama, which was formerly a part of Colombia, is sometimes treated as part of South America, it has come to be included in Central America, a convention followed here. Central America makes up most of the tapering isthmus that separates the Pacific Ocean from the Caribbean Sea. At its narrowest point, in Darin (Panama), the isthmus is only about 30 miles (50 kilometres) wide, and there is no location in Central America that is more distant than 125 miles (200 kilometres) from the sea. An arc joining Central America's most distant points would be about 1,140 miles long. The seven countries of the region have a land area of 202,265 square miles (523,865 square kilometres), and together they are only about half the size of neighbouring Colombia and about one-fourth that of adjoining Mexico. Anthropologists often use the word Mesoamerica to define those areas that were the seats of high civilizations in pre-Columbian time; a line drawn from the Gulf of Honduras in the Caribbean Sea south to the Gulf of Fonseca in the Pacific Ocean and as far as the Gulf of Nicoya (Costa Rica) would separate Mesoamerica to the north and west from the rest of Central America. Cultural geographers include Central America as part of a larger region, Middle America, which includes Mexico and the Caribbean islands. Middle America is commonly divided into the Mainland, which accommodates most of Central America, and a circum-Caribbean region, called the Rimland, which includes the coastal lowlands of eastern Central America. In the Rimland the indigenous peoples have been largely swamped by immigrant populations, notably from northwestern Europe, Africa, and more recently the United States. Mainland Central America, on the other hand, has a stronger American Indian and part American Indian presence, as well as ways of life that still owe much to pre-Columbian and Spanish colonial times. Central America is a fragmented region, a fine-grained mosaic of different landscapes; many parts are still physically isolated from each other. Highlands predominate over lowlands, steep slopes over flatlands. Altitude mitigates the climatic effects of a tropical latitude. Although the sea is close, few have chosen to live by it; the bulk of the population lives between the 3,000-foot (900-metre) and 8,000-foot (2,400-metre) lines of altitude and enjoys the lower temperatures and the freedom this provides from the diseases of the coastal lowlands. History and geography have dictated that most Central Americans occupy the highlands close to the Pacific and have eschewed the Caribbean lowlands. The majority of the eastern half of the isthmus remains under forest and empty of people. In contrast, in western Central America there are areas of intense population pressure on the land, and little of the natural vegetation has survived. The brief political unity of Central America after independence from Spain lasted no longer than two decades before the provincialism of today's states asserted itself. Subsequently, the countries of Central America developed stronger links with the foreign nations providing markets for their export commodities, particularly the United States, than with their neighbours. Attempts to build a new political and economic community in the 1960s and '70s stalled in the financial crisis that followed. The aftermath of the crisis, the widespread civil unrest, and the political divisions of the 1980s increased the disunity and the internal contrasts within the isthmus. Central America remains a region of dichotomies, but perhaps the most glaring is the disparity between the poverty of the many and the wealth of a few. Additional reading South America, Central America, and the Caribbean (annual), from the Europa Publication series, contains updated, comprehensive chapters on each of the Central American countries. Kenneth J. Grieb, Central America in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries: An Annotated Bibliography (1988), provides commentary on more than 5,000 books published between 1810 and 1980 on Central America, excluding Panama. The Handbook of Latin American Studies (1935 ) includes annotated bibliographies of current books and periodical articles in all Latin American fields. Robert C. West and John P. Augelli et al., Middle America: Its Lands and Peoples, 3rd ed. (1989), provides a cultural geography that describes Central America in the wider context of Mexico and the Caribbean. William L. Graf (ed.), Geomorphic Systems of North America (1987), provides a general overview, including maps, followed by selected aspects of Central American geomorphology, particularly that of Costa Rica. Richard Weyl, Geology of Central America, 2nd rev. ed. (1980), focuses on this region alone. Stanley A. Arbingast et al., Atlas of Central America (1979), graphically presents information on all aspects of the region. Werner Schwerdtfeger (ed.), Climates of Central and South America (1976), surveys the climatology of the larger area. D.W. Goodall (ed.), Ecosystems of the World (1977 ), is an exhaustive study treating both natural and managed terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems; it includes essays on various aspects of Central American ecology. John C. Kricher, A Neotropical Companion: An Introduction to the Animals, Plants, and Ecosystems of the New World Tropics (1989), systematically discusses the biology and ecology of the region. Marc J. Dourojeanni, Renewable Natural Resources of Latin America and the Caribbean, rev. ed. (1982); Inter-American Development Bank, Natural Resources in Latin America (1983 or 1984); and H. Jeffrey Leonard, Natural Resources and Economic Development in Central America (1987), succinctly review agricultural, hydrologic, forestry, fishery, and mineral resources.Robert Wauchope (ed.), Handbook of Middle American Indians, 16 vol. (196476), forms one of the most valuable sources on the anthropology and related sciences of Central America. Two volumes may be particularly singled out: vol. 1, Natural Environment and Early Cultures, ed. by Robert C. West (1964); and vol. 7, Ethnology, ed. by Evon Z. Vogt (1969), with numerous essays on the Maya. Eric Wolf, Sons of the Shaking Earth (1959, reissued 1974), remains an excellent introduction to the cultural history of Central America. R.N. Adams, Cultural Surveys of Panama-Nicaragua-Guatemala-El Salvador-Honduras (1957), is also useful. Mary W. Helms, Middle America: A Culture History of Heartland and Frontiers (1975, reprinted 1982), gives an anthropological view of Central America, with about a third of the book dealing with post-independence changes. Nicols Snchez-Albornoz, The Population of Latin America: A History (1974; originally published in Spanish, 1968), outlines trends from pre-Columbian times to the present. Victor Bulmer-Thomas, The Political Economy of Central America Since 1920 (1987), examines economic development in Central America, stressing the difficulties created by emphasis on export-led development; and his Studies in the Economics of Central America (1988) reviews Central America's economies from the vantage point of the crises of the 1980s. Charles David Kepner, Jr. and Jay Henry Soothill, The Banana Empire: A Case Study of Economic Imperialism (1935, reissued 1967); and Thomas L. Karnes, Tropical Enterprise (1978), discuss the development of the two giants of the fruit trade, the United Fruit Company and the Standard Fruit and Steamship Company, respectively. Robert G. Williams, Export Agriculture and the Crisis in Central America (1986), focuses on the rise of the cotton and beef agribusinesses of Central America since 1950 and explains their impact on the social and political crises of the 1980s. John Weeks, The Economies of Central America (1985), studies recent economic history. Mara Eugenia Gallardo and Jos Roberto Lpez, Centroamrica: La crisis en cifras (1986), discusses economic and social indicators.Thomas P. Anderson, Politics in Central America: Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua, rev. ed. (1988), combines analyses of political, social, and economic trends. John A. Booth and Mitchell A. Seligson (eds.), Elections and Democracy in Central America (1989), includes a wide variety of interpretations. Dana G. Munro, The Five Republics of Central America: Their Political and Economic Development and Their Relation with the United States (1918, reprinted 1967), is a classic work, reflecting the author's many years of service in the U.S. State Department.