Ep.53: The 12 Countries of South America

August 8, 2023 Peter Jans

Intro

Hello and Welcome to this episode of the podcast, "The Mnemonic Tree", where we add a single mnemonic leaf to our Tree of Knowledge.

Today's episode is on a place that I am yet to visit and that is South America. I have become a little more familiar with the continent thanks to the series “Narcos” and more recently “Queen of the South”. However, diving into this continent I come up bleating superlatives like, the longest mountain range, the highest waterfall, the biggest snake, the driest place on earth, the most diverse ecosystem in the world, disputedly the longest river, and strange coloured dolphins, just to name a few.

So, today’s mnemonic is on the 12 countries of South America.

With that being said, we will begin with a summary from Wikipedia.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mapa_pol%C3%ADtico_Am%C3%A9rica_do_Sul_(english).svg

Wikipedia Summary

South America is a continent [g] entirely in the Western Hemisphere [h] and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southern subregion of a single continent called America.

South America is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east by the Atlantic Ocean; North America and the Caribbean Sea lie to the northwest. The continent generally includes twelve sovereign states: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay, and Venezuela; two dependent territories: the Falkland Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands;[i] and one internal territory: French Guiana.[j] In addition, the ABC islands of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Ascension Island (dependency of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, a British Overseas Territory), Bouvet Island (dependency of Norway), Panama, and Trinidad and Tobago may also be considered parts of South America.

South America has an area of 17,840,000 square kilometers (6,890,000 sq mi). Its population as of 2021 has been estimated at more than 434 million.[1][2] South America ranks fourth in area (after Asia, Africa, and North America) and fifth in population (after Asia, Africa, Europe, and North America). Brazil is by far the most populous South American country, with more than half of the continent's population, followed by Colombia, Argentina, Venezuela and Peru. In recent decades, Brazil has also generated half of the continent's GDP and has become the continent's first regional power.[8]

Most of the population lives near the continent's western or eastern coasts while the interior and the far south are sparsely populated. The geography of western South America is dominated by the Andes mountains; in contrast, the eastern part contains both highland regions and vast lowlands where rivers such as the Amazon, Orinoco and Paraná flow. Most of the continent lies in the tropics, except for a large part of the Southern Cone located in the middle latitudes.

The continent's cultural and ethnic outlook has its origin with the interaction of indigenous peoples with European conquerors and immigrants and, more locally, with African slaves. Given a long history of colonialism, the overwhelming majority of South Americans speak Spanish or Portuguese, and societies and states are rich in Western traditions. Relative to Europe, Asia and Africa, post-1900 South America has been a peaceful continent with few wars.[9][10][k]

Extracted from: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_America]

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:South_America_satellite_orthographic.jpg

Mnemonic

The 12 Countries of South America Mnemonic – CaPE Columbia Virtually Grows Squillions of Brazil nuts Under Army Protection by Bolivia

(Picture a giant cape (a piece of land extending into the sea) off Columbia that grows all the Brazil nuts for the world which is protected by the Bolivian army)

1. Chile

2. Peru

3. Ecuador

4. Columbia

5. Venezuela

6. Guyana

7. Suriname

8. Brazil

9. Uruguay

10. Argentina

11. Paraguay

12. Bolivia

Five Fun Facts

1. In the Amazon Forest there are still indigenous tribes that have little or no contact with modern civilisation. Some researchers believe up to 77 tribes are still unknown.

2. The Amazon has a big brother. The Hamza River is located 4 kilometres under the Amazon River. It flows in the same direction from west to east and is much wider, ranging from 200 – 400km. That fact just blows my mind!

3. South America is home to the world’s biggest snake which is the Green Anaconda. The biggest caught was 5 meters long and weighed 99kg but unverified claims have been made of Anacondas over 8 meters in length and weighing more than 200kg.

4. South America is one of the most linguistically diverse areas in the world, with about 450 recorded languages. Spanish and Portuguese are the main languages and their indigenous language Quechua has 46 dialects.

5. And this fact has come up before but South America has the driest place on earth The Atacama Desert in Chile, where rainfall has never been recorded. Interestingly, they also have the wettest inhabited place on earth the Colombian port city of Buenaventura which receives an average of over 20 feet of rain per year.

So that’s the driest and wettest place on earth. I know the hottest place is Death Valley in California. Now I don’t know where the coldest place on earth is; but it’s probably Chile!

6. Bonus Fact: Venezuela is home to the most amazing lightning show. They call it “Catatumbo lightning” and it occurs on the point where the Catatumbo River meets Lake Maracaibo and can strike continuously for up to 10 hours and apparently 140 to 160 nights a year! The second fact that blows my mind!

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SouthAmericaFlags.jpg

Three Question Quiz

Q.1. Chili had the largest earthquake on record at 9.5 on the Richter scale. True or false?

Q.2. Ecuador has granted constitutional rights to Nature. True or False?

Q.3. The Amazon River dolphin or boto is what unique colour? Options are yellow, green or pink

Bonus Q. Name the world’s longest mountain range in South America?

Bonus Q. Name the world’s highest waterfall and what country in South America is it in?

Mnemonic Recap