Strait of Anián
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The Strait of Anián was the 16th century European name, first arising in Italy in the 1560s, for the Northwest Passage that supposedly connected the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Ocean in the temperate or tropic regions of North America. It was based on the idea that North America was not a continent but a large archipelago. Such a strait does not in fact, exist, although the Northwest Passage itself was discovered in the 19th century through the Arctic Archipelago of Canada.