Continents are a human convention, not an objective fact of reality.
The 7 continent model most English speakers learn is one convention.
Personally I prefer a 6 continent model that combines Europe and Asia into Eurasia.
Latin Americans use a 6 continent model that merges North and South America into “America”. Personally I think this is silly because there’s no rational basis to merge those and not merge Afro-Eurasia into one mega-continent.
Which you could do. A 4 continent model with Afro-Eurasia, America, Antarctica, and Oceania.
There are also completely distinct ways of deciding continents. The conventional ones above are mostly “large contiguous landmasses”, with a bit of a cultural overlay.
You could do a much more heavily culturally-inspired take, which would make Arabia a distinct continent, and the Indian subcontinent, and probably separate Northern, Eastern, and Southern Africa into at least 3 continents.
Another completely different way of defining it is, of course, tectonic plates.
And the final one I’ll mention is biogeographic realms which, among other things, moves the split between Oceania and Asia from the border between PNG and Indonesia to (probably—there are a few alternatives) the Wallace Line between Borneo and Sulawesi in Indonesia.
None of these is really more correct than the others in any objective sense. It’s just human convention.
(In fairness, there is an argument to be made—though personally I disagree with it—that Antarctica is an archipelago underneath the ice, and shouldn’t be a continent for that reason.)
That’s the thing, French schools teach them as political regions, so Antarctica isn’t really mentioned since there aren’t large populations or nation states solely based thete.
Most of Russia is in Asia. A lot of the more visible people are in Europe. But there’s plenty of groups living in the east. Man, sometimes I just think to myself, “someone’s ancestors chose to live there”. Idk which route they took to get to Siberia, but either way, they went through some pretty good spots and went, “nah, I’ll go to the icy desert” lol
Why is Europe a continent but not Russia and its culturally similar bordering countries?
Racism, mostly.
Continents are a human convention, not an objective fact of reality.
The 7 continent model most English speakers learn is one convention.
Personally I prefer a 6 continent model that combines Europe and Asia into Eurasia.
Latin Americans use a 6 continent model that merges North and South America into “America”. Personally I think this is silly because there’s no rational basis to merge those and not merge Afro-Eurasia into one mega-continent.
Which you could do. A 4 continent model with Afro-Eurasia, America, Antarctica, and Oceania.
There are also completely distinct ways of deciding continents. The conventional ones above are mostly “large contiguous landmasses”, with a bit of a cultural overlay.
You could do a much more heavily culturally-inspired take, which would make Arabia a distinct continent, and the Indian subcontinent, and probably separate Northern, Eastern, and Southern Africa into at least 3 continents.
Another completely different way of defining it is, of course, tectonic plates.
And the final one I’ll mention is biogeographic realms which, among other things, moves the split between Oceania and Asia from the border between PNG and Indonesia to (probably—there are a few alternatives) the Wallace Line between Borneo and Sulawesi in Indonesia.
None of these is really more correct than the others in any objective sense. It’s just human convention.
In France 5 are taught.
America, Oceania, Europe, Asia, Africa
Yeah. Continent conventions are political, not geographical.
Antarctica: am I nothing to you?
(In fairness, there is an argument to be made—though personally I disagree with it—that Antarctica is an archipelago underneath the ice, and shouldn’t be a continent for that reason.)
That’s the thing, French schools teach them as political regions, so Antarctica isn’t really mentioned since there aren’t large populations or nation states solely based thete.
This person maps.
Most of Russia is in Asia. A lot of the more visible people are in Europe. But there’s plenty of groups living in the east. Man, sometimes I just think to myself, “someone’s ancestors chose to live there”. Idk which route they took to get to Siberia, but either way, they went through some pretty good spots and went, “nah, I’ll go to the icy desert” lol
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurasia?wprov=sfla1 mostly for historical reasons, but many consider Europe and Asia a single continent
Russia is part of Asia. Reasons include geography and the lasting impact of Mongol rule over the Russians. We witness the effects still today.
History, the Urals, and the Caucasus Mountains
Thank you for the replies.