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Forums - Sales Discussion - Why call it 'America?'

Dianko said:
So those European countries that regard the Americas as one continent, do they view Europe and Asia as one continent? Hell, do they regard Europe/Asia/Africa as one super-continent?

 

No, their are 4 different aproaches.


The classic 7 continent model.

The 6 continent model where Eurasia is considered one continent... which is the most consistant and makes the most sense logically geography wise. (Which is why it's the model usually perfered by actual geographers.)


A 6 continent model with N/S America combined

and a 5 continent model where Antartica isn't considered a continent and N/S America are combined.

The last two are just kinda intellectually dishonest ways to look at it if you ask me.

 

Of course I also perfer calling Australia "Oceania". Much to the chagrin and confusion of my gradeschool geography teachers.



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Dianko said:
So those European countries that regard the Americas as one continent, do they view Europe and Asia as one continent? Hell, do they regard Europe/Asia/Africa as one super-continent?

 

Afro-Eurasia you mean?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afro-Eurasia

Occasionally yes.

 



North and South America are two separate continents. This is pretty much non-debatable.

You can argue about Europe though...I agree it shouldn't be counted as a continent even if I was taught that way as a kid...there's nothing that separates it from Russia and the rest of Asia geographically.



LEFT4DEAD411.COM
Bet with disolitude: Left4Dead will have a higher Metacritic rating than Project Origin, 3 months after the second game's release.  (hasn't been 3 months but it looks like I won :-p )

Wow this became educative =p.






BenKenobi88 said:
North and South America are two separate continents. This is pretty much non-debatable.

You can argue about Europe though...I agree it shouldn't be counted as a continent even if I was taught that way as a kid...there's nothing that separates it from Russia and the rest of Asia geographically.

 

Actually it is debatable. If you consider a continent to be defined as a large and continuous landmass then N.America and S.America are in one continent. Even more interesting is that it would mean that Eurasia and Africa and N.America and S.America could technicaly be construed as having been turned into seperate continents by man constructing the Panama and Suez canals.



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Rath said:
BenKenobi88 said:
North and South America are two separate continents. This is pretty much non-debatable.

You can argue about Europe though...I agree it shouldn't be counted as a continent even if I was taught that way as a kid...there's nothing that separates it from Russia and the rest of Asia geographically.

 

Actually it is debatable. If you consider a continent to be defined as a large and continuous landmass then N.America and S.America are in one continent. Even more interesting is that it would mean that Eurasia and Africa and N.America and S.America could technicaly be construed as having been turned into seperate continents by man constructing the Panama and Suez canals.

Yeah... however it isn't ever taught that way.  Their is no somewhat widely accepted view where both NA/SA and Euro/Asia/Africa are considered each their own continent.

Of the 4 schools only the two that count NA and SA as seperate continents make sense without having somewhat hypocritical definitions of continenets.

Which is why i'd guess the 7 continent model is taught in most of the "1st world" countries... while the 6 continent Eurasia model is used by the proffesionals.

I'd guess the 6th continent model would be the standard if it wasn't for the pride of Europe.

I mean... hell, the boarder between eastern Europe and Asia isn't even settled because their is no real border and it's more geopolitical then anything.



TWRoO said:
WTF!

"America" means America, not U.S.A.

U.S.A is a country.
America is 2 continents.

ioi is correct when he puts "America" because he means America (compromising all of North and South America).

lol.  Maybe this is right geographically, but most all americans, refer to our country as America, and anything pertaining to it as 'american', probably because any adjective or demonym derived from the 'United States (of America)' is going to be incredibly unweildly.  It's also become locked into in our culture by various culturally important phrases/songs such as "God bless America" which sadly isn't mean to bless anyone but ourselves ; ).



Well we are an Island and most of the United Kingdom would rather be independent of Europe anyway in fact I think there are more people here who would rather be part of the United States.....(maybe thats why the Xbox does so well here).....

God save the Queen
and
God bless America



reggie2 said:
Well we are an Island and most of the United Kingdom would rather be independent of Europe anyway in fact I think there are more people here who would rather be part of the United States.....(maybe thats why the Xbox does so well here).....

God save the Queen
and
God bless America

1. eugh no. I like being part of Europe.

2. The UK is an island, but so is New Zealand yet it is still part of Oceania (the rest of Oceania is made of islands though) The Greek islands, Cyprus, Sardinia etc are also part of Europe, Canada has a few huge islands too.



TWRoO said:
reggie2 said:
Well we are an Island and most of the United Kingdom would rather be independent of Europe anyway in fact I think there are more people here who would rather be part of the United States.....(maybe thats why the Xbox does so well here).....

God save the Queen
and
God bless America

1. eugh no. I like being part of Europe.

2. The UK is an island, but so is New Zealand yet it is still part of Oceania (the rest of Oceania is made of islands though) The Greek islands, Cyprus, Sardinia etc are also part of Europe, Canada has a few huge islands too.

Oceania isn't really a continent to be honest. Australia is a continent in its own right and New Zealand is certainly not attached to it in any way other than proximity. As I said NZ is actually literally on a continent 'Zealandia' if you want to get pedantic and Britain isn't part of Europe. Basically Islands seem to get attached the nearest continent to them in describing the continents even though they don't always share a physical relation with them.