I’ve seen a few debates recently on other forums where Europeans assert that 1) America is one continent, and 2) Europe and Asia are separate continents.
Also some of my European friends (in this case Dutch) have informed me that they are taught in geography that there are five continents: Asia, Europe, America, Africa, and Oceania.
This pretty much goes against the very foundations of any geography I ever learned while in high school or college.
Is there some international geographic society with eminent standing that has a definition for continent? Or is it basically just an abstraction that anyone can use anyway they want.
I’ve always understood a continent to basically be: “A large landmass mostly or completely surrounded by water.” That is why Africa is a continent (despite its ever so minute and now canalized connection with Asia), and why North and South America are separate continents. Also Austrailia is explained as being a continent because it is such a large landmass it simply is prudent to call it one. Same for Antarctica.
Oceania would never be called a continent because it is a speckled collection of micro to large islands.
Europe was just basically explained as being one continent because of “cultural reasons” but the general impression was it really wasn’t a separate continent of its own.
There is also of course the tectonic plate argument, basically “any large landmass comprised mostly of the same tectonic plate = continent” but even by that definition there is no justification for America being one continet.
One might justify these “continents” on grounds of political geography, but if one is going to rework the definition that much, one ought to use a different term. I would call them “regions.” Even on political or cultural grounds, though, I don’t see much justification for calling the Americas a single region. Maybe it looks different from Europe.
I’ve never heard of America being descried as anything other than two continents. A glance at a map makes it clear they’re as separate as Africa from Asia.
Talking about continents is a convenient way to teach grade school children about geography.
After that you can use it in any way that makes sense in context.
The number of continents is a number of meaning only to trivia games. Real geographers are more interested in the underlying details of the way the earth works. It’s much like the number of planets to an astronomer. The details of Pluto and Sedna and Ceres are much more interesting than whether to call them planets or planetoids or planetesimals.
Any functional definition will always include the caveat that Europe and Asia are two separate continents. Not serperated by an ocean, but by the Bosphorus and a half-dozen mountain ranges.
America is always considered two separate continents- your Dutch friends are weird- but by the same token, they’re right about Europe and Asia.
A continent on each of the 7 tectonic plates: Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Europe, Australia, and Antarctica. They are constantly moving due to plate tectonics, and they do not end at the coastline, but to the edge of the shallow continental shelf, which may extend several hundred miles out to the sea.
A mnemonic: Eat AN ASpirin AFter A Nighttime Snack (Europe, Antarctica, Asia, Africa, Australia, North America, South America)
Geographicall, there’s no real reason to seperate Europe from Asia as two seperate continents, they both have the bulk of their landmass on the same continental plate and any demarcation is going to be arbitary.
Not ReallyThe Bosphorous is a tiny strecth of water hardly enough to mark a boundary and the Urals don’t start anyway near the Black Sea, it’s hardly a great border, you might as well as choose the Alps and the Carpathians to mark the border.
North and South America are geographically much more defined, as they have the bulk of thier land masses on two distinct tectonic planets and are only joined by a thin land bridge.
In my opinion the “five continents” theory is underscored by the choice of the International Olympic comittee for having five coloured Olympic rings.
They are looked at as representing the union of the five continents :
Australia, Africa, America, Asia, Europe.
the Olympic Charter (page 19) only says the five continents without naming them. They could also be N. America, S. America, Eurasia, Africa, and Australia.
What continents used to be on the Budweiser label. The one on my desk only has America but I remember there were others. At least I think I do.
In grade school I was taught that Eurasia is one continent. Or one landmass, to be precise. North America and South America are two continents. Then come Africa and Australia to make a total of five (if you are aiming for the number five, that is, to match the Olympic rings). Poor Europeans, so desperate to have their little subcontinent counted separately from Asia, they attempt to compact two full-sized continents (North America and South America) into one. Poor Europeans, still trying to make ancient Greek geography (which saw Europe and Asia separately because of their local coastline) the foundation of their present knowledge of the world. The ancients didn’t know the big picture.
The Bosphorus? Don’t forget the Dardanelles! And the Sea of Marmara! The rest of the Europe-Asia boundary is demarcated by the Caucasus and the Ural Mountains. South of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River is taken as the demarcation. It conveniently flows from the southern end of the Ural Mountains to the Caspian.
Today’s Geo-Quiz (this ought to be on “The World” radio program): There are three countries that have most of their territory in Asia and a smaller portion of it in Europe. Russia and Turkey, most people can name right away. Can you name the third?
It’s Kazakhstan. The part of Kazakhstan west of the Ural River is in Europe.
Could the distinction between Europe and Asia date back to the days when they had to sail around Africa to get to Asia or take long caravan routes? Back then the world had not been mapped and they did not necessarily know there was a connection. So since our history basically came from the experience of Europeans, the distinction remained.
Essentially, a “continent” is just a convenient way to divide up the world into a few large chunks. You can use any standards that prove useful. Traditionally, the standards have been a combination of geographical and cultural reasons. Europe and Asia are traditionally considered seperate continents because they are extremely different culturally. North and South America are different continents because there is an obvious geographical division. Africa is both geographically and culturally distinct.
(I was taught that there were seven continents: North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia, and Antarctica. Sometimes Australia gets lumped in with the Pacific islands as the continent of Oceana. Again, it’s all arbitrary.)
During the Pangean era (ca. 300 - 245 millions of years ago), there was just one tectonic plate. Just before the Triassic Period (in the Mesdozoic era), Pangea began to break apart into Laurasia and Gondwana. The North Atlantic Ocean began to open during the Jurassic period, 200 my. The South Atlantic Ocean began to open during the Cretaceous period, about 100 my. In the Cenozoic Era, Australia began to separate from Antarctica during the Paleocene Epoch of the Tertiary Period (60 my). Europe separated from Greenland in the Eocene Epoch. The continents became in their present position in the Holocene Epoch of the Quaternary Period of the Cenozic Era. There are 7 tectonic plates, upon which the continents sit.
Erroneously combining Europe and Asia reduces the number of six. Erroneously combining NA and SA, reduces the number to 5. Since Antarctica does not have an Olympic team, and since it erroneously combines the America, its number is five, but these are not technically accurate.
One plate? Did you mean one continent? The were numerous plates in the past as there are today. The land masses just happened to coalesce into one continent in the late Permian. The continent didn’t last because the plate movements pulled it apart.
By the way, the U.S. Geological Survey says there are a dozen or more plates in the world today - not seven.
Eurasia is one continent today as surely as Pangea was one content in the past. The separation of Europe is purely a cultural contrivance.
There is a staff report on this very subject. Those guys seem to say that Europe and Asia are the same continent, but the concept of “continent” is as much a construct of the human mind as it is a construct of really big chunks of rock.
