Why call it 'America?'

[Kasz216]

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.