Venezuela remains highly dependent on oil revenues, which account for roughly 90% of export earnings, more than 50% of the federal budget revenues, and around 30% of GDP.

Uruguay's economy is characterized by an export-oriented agricultural sector, a well-educated work force, and high levels of social spending.

(overseas territory of the UK)

What is now Ecuador formed part of the northern Inca Empire until the Spanish conquest in 1533.

Explored and claimed by Christopher Columbus on his first voyage in 1492, the island of Hispaniola became a springboard for Spanish conquest of the Caribbean and the American mainland.

Dominica was the last of the Caribbean islands to be colonized by Europeans due chiefly to the fierce resistance of the native Caribs.

The native Amerindian population of Cuba began to decline after the European discovery of the island by Christopher COLUMBUS in 1492 and following its development as a Spanish colony during the next several centuries.

Although explored by the Spanish early in the 16th century, initial attempts at colonizing Costa Rica proved unsuccessful due to a combination of factors, including: disease from mosquito-infested swamps, brutal heat, resistance by natives, and pirate raids.

Colombia was one of the three countries that emerged from the collapse of Gran Colombia in 1830 (the others are Ecuador and Venezuela).

Prior to the coming of the Spanish in the 16th century, northern Chile was under Inca rule while Araucanian Indians (also known as Mapuches) inhabited central and southern Chile.

The Cayman Islands were colonized from Jamaica by the British during the 18th and 19th centuries, and were administered by Jamaica after 1863.

First inhabited by Arawak and later by Carib Indians, the Virgin Islands were settled by the Dutch in 1648 and then annexed by the English in 1672.

Following three centuries under the rule of Portugal, Brazil became an independent nation in 1822 and a republic in 1889. By far the largest and most populous country in South America, Brazil overcame more than half a century of military intervention in the governance of the country when in 1985 the military regime peacefully ceded power to civilian rulers.

Bolivia, named after independence fighter Simon BOLIVAR, broke away from Spanish rule in 1825; much of its subsequent history has consisted of a series of nearly 200 coups and countercoups.

Bermuda was first settled in 1609 by shipwrecked English colonists headed for Virginia.

Belize was the site of several Mayan city states until their decline at the end of the first millennium A.D.

The island was uninhabited when first settled by the British in 1627. Slaves worked the sugar plantations established on the island until 1834 when slavery was abolished.

Lucayan Indians inhabited the islands when Christopher COLUMBUS first set foot in the New World on San Salvador in 1492.

Discovered and claimed for Spain in 1499, Aruba was acquired by the Dutch in 1636. Aruba seceded from the Netherlands Antilles in 1986 and became a separate, autonomous member of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

In 1816, the United Provinces of the Rio Plata declared their independence from Spain. After Bolivia, Paraguay, and Uruguay went their separate ways, the area that remained became Argentina.

The islands became an independent state within the British Commonwealth of Nations in 1981.

Colonized by English settlers from Saint Kitts in 1650, Anguilla was administered by Great Britain until the early 19th century, when the island - against the wishes of the inhabitants - was incorporated into a single British dependency, along with Saint Kitts and Nevis.

Settled as early as 1000 B.C., Samoa was discovered by European explorers in the 18th century.

This isolated island was named for John Clipperton, a pirate who made it his hideout early in the 18th century.

All of the following US Pacific island territories except Midway Atoll constitute the Pacific Remote Islands National Wildlife Refuge Complex...

(territory of the US)

The US has the largest and most technologically powerful economy in the world, with a per capita GDP of $46,000.

The country is one of the most prosperous in the Caribbean thanks largely to petroleum and natural gas production and processing. The government is coping with a rise in violent crime.

The economy is dominated by the mining industry, with exports of alumina, gold, and oil accounting for about 85% of exports and 25% of government revenues, making the economy highly vulnerable to mineral price volatility.

(overseas territory of the UK, also claimed by Argentina)

This lower-middle-income country is vulnerable to natural disasters - tropical storms wiped out substantial portions of crops in 1994, 1995, and 2002.

(territorial overseas collectivity of France)

The economy of Saint Martin centers around tourism with 85% of the labor force engaged in this sector.

Tourism is the main source of foreign exchange, with almost 900,000 arrivals in 2007.

First settled by the British in 1623, the islands achieved independence in 1983.

Puerto Rico has one of the most dynamic economies in the Caribbean region.

Ancient Peru was the seat of several prominent Andean civilizations, most notably that of the Incas whose empire was captured by the Spanish conquistadors in 1533.

Landlocked Paraguay has a market economy marked by a large informal sector. This sector features both reexport of imported consumer goods to neighboring countries, as well as the activities of thousands of microenterprises and urban street vendors.

Panama's dollarized economy rests primarily on a well-developed services sector that accounts for two-thirds of GDP.

Nicaragua has widespread underemployment, one of the highest degrees of income inequality in the world, and the third lowest per capita income in the Western Hemisphere.

(part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands)

(overseas territory of the UK)

The site of advanced Amerindian civilizations, Mexico came under Spanish rule for three centuries before achieving independence early in the 19th century.

The native Taino Indians, who had inhabited Jamaica for centuries, were gradually exterminated and replaced by African slaves.

Once part of Spain's vast empire in the New World, Honduras became an independent nation in 1821.

After a prolonged struggle, Haiti became the first black republic to declare its independence in 1804.

Guyana achieved independence from the UK in 1966, and since then it has been ruled mostly by socialist-oriented governments.

After almost three centuries as a Spanish colony, Guatemala won its independence in 1821.

(territory of the US)

Carib Indians inhabited Grenada when COLUMBUS discovered the island in 1498, but it remained uncolonized for more than a century.

Although first sighted by an English navigator in 1592, the first landing (English) did not occur until almost a century later in 1690, and the first settlement (French) was not established until 1764.

El Salvador achieved independence from Spain in 1821 and from the Central American Federation in 1839.

A land of vast distances and rich natural resources, Canada became a self-governing dominion in 1867 while retaining ties to the British crown.

(territory of the US)