How are North and South America considered one continent, but Europe and Asia are considered seperate?
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All 7 continents were joined together billions of years ago. However through time, they gradually split up, resulting in North and South America, and Australia to be separate from the main body-Europe, Asia and Africa.\n\nI figured because Europe and Asia had different coloured people which each had their unique tradition and customs. As they ruled differently due to customs, tradition and prctices, they probably decided to each govern their own way and thus they spilt up into 'different continents', though Europe and Asia are on the same piece of land.
138154
No....Thare are only 5 continents when u look at at globally geographically through geographical time.\n\n1. North and South America\n2. Africa\n3. Eurasia \n4. Australia\n5. Antartica
37656
It depends on whether you are refering to continents or geographic regions...\n\nThe continent of North America extends to the southern border of Panama. Central America is part of the North American continent.  \n\nThe South American continent starts from the north at the Columbia-Panama border.\n\nCentral America is a geographic region (not a continent) and extends from the souther border of Mexico to the southern border of Panama.
754712
Asia\nAfrica\nNorth America\nSouth America\nAntarctica\nEurope\nAustralia.
910389
A subcontinent is a large part of a continent. There is no agreement on what constitutes a subcontinent. Generally, however, a subcontinent is split from the rest of a continent by something like a mountain range or by tectonic plates. The phrase the Subcontinent, used on its own in English, commonly means the Indian subcontinent i.e. South Asia.\n\nGeological/geographical subcontinents\nIn plate tectonics, a small continental plate connected to a larger continental plate can be called a subcontinent. In this sense, the Indian subcontinent on the India Plate and the Arabian subcontinent on the Arabian Plate are recognized. The latter is not commonly called a subcontinent geographically because of lack of a geographical border and a variety in climate. Europe is just a peninsula since it is on the Eurasian Plate.\n\nGeographically, Europe is often described as a subcontinent of Eurasia, a vast landmass in which Europe and Asia are delimited by mountain ranges and inland seas. Similarly, the smallest continent Australasia and the largest island Greenland are sometimes called subcontinents.\n\nNorth America and South America are sometimes considered two subcontinents of the continent of the Americas (or America) because they are connected by an isthmus. Africa and Eurasia are sometimes considered to form the continent of Africa-Eurasia for the same reason. However, the Americas and Africa-Eurasia are usually called supercontinents, composed of continents.\n\nCultural subcontinents\nThe term the Indian subcontinent is used also culturally and politically. It includes India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, and usually other South Asian countries too. The region has wide geographical variations like desert, plateau, rainforest, mountains and a myriad of languages, races and religions.\n\nSometimes subregion of continents are dubbed subcontinents because their culture is so different from the rest of the continent, such as Central America and the Middle East.
447191
Yes, the Middle East is part of Asia, however differences is geography and culture, as well as natural barriers have brought historians as well as the general public to view the Middle East as a separate entity.
49840
There are 7.\nAntarctica, North America, Asia, Europe, Australia, Africa, South America
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europe, africa, antarctica, south america, north america
132465
there are 7 continents in the world: Africa, Antarctica, Asia(largest), Australia(smallest), Europe, North America, and South America.
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America is a Continent , but the people from the US call America to their Country , why ?\n\nAmerica is composed by South America , Central America and North - America .\n\nViva Mexico !
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How many continents are on the earth?\nA continent is one of several major land masses on the earth. There is no standard definition for the number of continents but you'll commonly find that the numbers six or seven are used. By most standards, there are a maximum of seven continents - Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, and South America. Most students in the U.S. are taught that there are seven continents.\n\nIn Europe, many students are taught about six continents, where North and South America is combined to form a single America. Thus, these six continents are Africa, America, Antarctica, Asia, Australia, and Europe.\n\nMany geographers and scientists now refer to six continents, where Europe and Asia are combined (since they're one solid landmass). Thus, these six continents are Africa, Antarctica, Australia, Eurasia, North America, and South America.
401991
Since most geographers consider Australia as its own continent (though some consider it part of a chain of islands known as Indonesia), the real defining limit on what is considered an island can be found with the earth's largest; Greenland is considered the planet's largest island, therefore if it is larger than Greenland, it is a continent.\n\nAlso, if the theory of continental drift is true (and it more than likely is), several of our modern continents, like South America, Africa, and North America, that are connected to others at the present date were once surrounded at all sides by water. Geologists still consider their past forms as continents, so I suppose their opinions could be accepted as experts'.\n\nAlso, according to continental drift, the modern country of India was once its own island that broke free from Antarctica about 120 million years ago, headed northward over the course of about 70 million years, and slammed into modern day Asia, forming the Himalayan Mountains. Geologists consider the colliding country a 'sub-continent'. Being only 1.5 times the size of Greenland, the world's largest island, and considered a sub-continent implies that this is where the state of being anything other than an island begins and being an island ends.
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Only Europe and North America.\n\nThe Asian mainland does not stretch down to the Equator (almost does, at the bottom of mainland Malaysia), but Indonesia crosses the Equator, so that counts Asia out.
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Antarctica is the continent
152197
The word continent is from the Latin "continens" meaning "continuous land."  The prefix "sub-" means "less than."  So subcontinent is a piece of land smaller than a continent.  The term is usually only applied to the region around India or to Greenland.
1054110
Yes, this same question keeps popping up over and over again...\n\nThink about it.  The word "America" is part of the name of the country called, United States of America.  The word "America" isn't part of the name of the countries of Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras, Canada, etc.  \n\nOn a different note, there are 3 American sections of the continent:  There is North America, Central America, and South America.  There is NOT a country that is called, "The United States of Central America."  There is NOT a country that is called, "The United States of South America."  We are not called "The United States of North America."  \n\nIs this really so very terribly hard to understand?
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Europe and latin America are not two homogenous blocs.\nEurope is also divided in a northern Germanic and protestant land and a southern latin and catholic land in the mediterranean lands.\n\nSo latin America has huges differences with northern Europe (economic, religious, racial, linguistically), but much less with southern Europe (same religion, similar languages and partly same ethnic composition) (but still differences of economic level and amerindian/african influences in Lat Am)