There are seven traditional continents in geography. In no particular order, they are:
* North America * South America * Europe * Africa * Asia * Australia (the "island continent") * Antarctica (no inhabitants but penguins and a handful of researchers)
This leaves two issues: 1. Where do the various islands go? 2. What about geographical vs. cultural/political distinctions?
To answer the second question first: as a matter of GEOGRAPHY, the North American "continent" consists of 10 major countries:
* Canada * United States (excluding Hawaii) * Mexico * The 7 Central American countries: Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica & Panama
The South American "continent" begins with Columbia, Venezuela & Peru and has several more (sorry, can't list 'em off the top of my head).
HOWEVER:
Culturally or politically, Latin America crosses continental boundaries and adds Central America and Mexico to South America where there is a primarily "Latino" population (Spanish & Portuguese speakers) who refer to citizens of Canada & the US as 'norteamericanos' (i.e., 'North Americans').
Obviously, this means that [[North America]] can be either a "continent" or a linguistic/cultural/political region.
BUT: This leaves the first question unanswered, and I now yield the floor to my betters...
Ed Poor
On Thu, 9 Sep 2004 06:14:48 -0700, Poor, Edmund W edmund.w.poor@abc.com wrote:
There are seven traditional continents in geography. In no particular order, they are:
...
- Australia (the "island continent")
...
This leaves two issues:
- Where do the various islands go?
I think, generally, they go with the nearest continent, with special treatment given to Australia and its surroundings: since there isn't really a 'continent' nearby (in pedantic terms), but Australia is the largest land mass, the term "Australasia" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australasia] is sometimes used to group these as a "continent". In other contexts, "Oceania" is used, although according to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oceania these two terms are sometimes more or less the complement of each other, one including only Australia and New Zealand, while the other includes the lesser islands between there and Asia.
In other words, Australia isn't generally treated as a continent, but part of an imaginary continent that mops up the islands that aren't near enough a real continent to belong. I think everything else is just about near enough to 'belong', although how 'American' some of the more distant mid-oceanic islands would consider themselves, I'm not sure!
well that cleared that up then
On Thu, 9 Sep 2004 16:35:17 +0100, Rowan Collins rowan.collins@gmail.com wrote:
On Thu, 9 Sep 2004 06:14:48 -0700, Poor, Edmund W edmund.w.poor@abc.com wrote:
There are seven traditional continents in geography. In no particular order, they are:
...
- Australia (the "island continent")
...
This leaves two issues:
- Where do the various islands go?
I think, generally, they go with the nearest continent, with special treatment given to Australia and its surroundings: since there isn't really a 'continent' nearby (in pedantic terms), but Australia is the largest land mass, the term "Australasia" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australasia] is sometimes used to group these as a "continent". In other contexts, "Oceania" is used, although according to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oceania these two terms are sometimes more or less the complement of each other, one including only Australia and New Zealand, while the other includes the lesser islands between there and Asia.
In other words, Australia isn't generally treated as a continent, but part of an imaginary continent that mops up the islands that aren't near enough a real continent to belong. I think everything else is just about near enough to 'belong', although how 'American' some of the more distant mid-oceanic islands would consider themselves, I'm not sure!
-- Rowan Collins BSc [IMSoP]
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