Is Hawaii considered part of North America?
How is it determined which islands are part of which continents?
Thanks,
Pash
Politically, yes.
Geographically, no.
Geographically speaking: no.
Politically is another matter.
An island would be considered part of a continent if it’s on the same continental shelf. This means it is the on the same tectonic plate and part of the same geological land mass, it’s just seperated by the water level.
Hawaii is quite seperate from the North American land mass, being the result of volcanic action on the Pacific bed.
Geographically speaking, Hawaii is not considered part of North America. Politically, as part of the U.S., it is included in North America.
How islands are grouped geographically depends on the purpose. Geologically and biologically, islands are only grouped with a continent if they are on the continental shelf. If you are talking about political regions, things are not simple.
Iceland part of Europe polically, but doesn’t belong to any continent geographically. Greenland may be considered part of Europe politically, although geologically it is associated with North America. Trinidad is geologically and biologically part of South America, but politically it is usually grouped with the Caribbean.
Not only is Trinidad considered part of the Caribbean (even though we brought a lot of plants and animals from mainland South America with us when we pulled away those many thousands of years ago), but the Caribbean Epidemiology Centre, that I work for, has Guyana, Suriname and Belize - mainland/non-islands - as member countries.
Now there’s a long sentence.
Hi, Colibri! When you coming to visit? I’ll take you to Asa Wright to see the oil birds.
What?? Hawaii is obviously politically part of the USA and NOT geographically part of North America, but it cant be politically part of the continent of North America.
North America isn’t a political region.
Similarly, you cannot say the Canary Islands are politically part of Europe (continent). They are politically part of Spain and geographically part of Africa.
So you’re saying Iceland belongs to the European Union (EU). Is that so?
Let me just take a moment for a bit of fact checking here…
Dude, I’ve got some bad news for you. Iceland is not politically part of Europe.
http://europa.eu.int/abc/eu_members/index_en.htm
(If you’d said “culturally,” I’d have let it slide.)
The EU does not have exclusive rights to the word “Europe”. Iceland is part of the European Free Trade Agreement (EFTA) and the European Economic Area (EEA). It is also a signatory to a metric buttload of European treaties. That puts it with Europe, politically.
It’s all about the magma.
Hawaii to Iceland in one thread.
But Iceland is not geographically part of Europe orNorth America.
Some Dartmouth guy wrote stuff:
Sure it is. Canada and the US and Mexico have important continent-wide political agreements. Togetehr these make up 95+% of the continent.
What, NAFTA and U.S. hegemony don’t count?
Peace.
…and let’s not forget the Monroe Doctrine…
…and Manifest Destiny…
So, if I was to send some mail to Hawaii from Japan, would the cost be the same as the US, or Oceania??
Yeah and the US has important political agreements with Australia. Maybe Hawaii is politically part of Australia as well.
Heck, the US has agreements with european nations, maybe Hawaii is politically part of Europe too 
Hey, is the US still a member of SEATO? Thereby making us politically part of South-East Asia?
To a certain degree, yes.
I’d say there is a slight difference of scale here. North America has seen an incredible length of peace, prosperity, and political alignment. Although we disagree about how best to run our affairs, we are all strongly tied together. Hawaii is certainly a part of that.
Nit-pickers!
Hawaii is part of the US, and the US is definitely part of North America. Ergo, Hawaii is politically part of North America. In any kind of summary statistics related to population, economy, etc., of world regions it will be lumped with “North America.” Which is what I was trying to get at.
For Iceland, I refer you to flodnak’s post. Likewise, Iceland is included with “Europe” with regard to summary statistics for regions. Same with the Canaries.
Been there, done that. When are you coming here? 
Nobody belongs to SEATO. It dissolved in 1977.
“Nobody belongs to SEATO. It dissolved in 1977.”
Gah. Next thing you’ll be saying is that the Beatles broke up.
Will culturally Hawaii is at the crossroads of Polynesia and North America. Geographically, Hawaii is in North America but not on the North American mainland. Just like Japan is in Asia, but not the Asian mainland. Politically Hawaii is definitely in North America since it is part of the United States. But ultimately Hawaii is a the crossroads of Polynesia and North America.
One would be hard-pressed to justify that statement geographically. Japan is much closer to Asia than Hawaii is to North America. Not to mention that Japan is tectonically connected to the main Asian land mass - if the Asian mainland wasn’t there, the volcanoes that form Japan wouldn’t be there either. Hawaii has no such direct connection to North America.
(also braaaaaains).