As many of us were probably taught at school, the continents in the world are six. However, this idea is not longer sustained by most native English-speaking countries, such as the United States, Canada and Australia. In Wikipedia it is explained that for those countries, America is divided into two separate continents: North America and South America. The following map illustrates the seven continents in the world, mainly for English-speaking countries. Each color stands for a different continent: Africa, Europe, Asia, Australia, Antarctica, North America and South America.
But the most curious thing is that the assumption that there are seven continents in the world does not appeal to Latin America and some countries in Europe like Spain and Italy. This means that the model of America as a single continent still remains for inhabitants in South America.
Probably, the division of America into two may be attributed to ideology, and therefore, to a sense of superiority. If this is not… why is it that English-speaking countries do not consider America as a single continent?
4 comments:
Hi Yanina. Your article is very interesting since it invites one to reflect about the reasons of why continents are divided into south and north. That this division may be accounted for in terms of ideology or superiority could be probably widely accepted. However, our planet's division into 2 parts can also be attributed by two important scientifical demonstrations. One of these refer to the idea that both planetary poles, south and north, are flat. Hence, the earth is not completely round like a ball, but a sort of eliptical shaped planet. The second, conceives the earth like a huge, gigantic magnet that attracts those artificial magnets or rocks so called 'imanes'. These artificial magnets are divided into two parts: N (north) because it is the part of the magnet rock attracted by the north pole of the earth, and S (south) rthe part that it is not attracted. Compasses, which indicates walkers and sailors the North of our earth, are built with these magnets. In sum, the planetary division into southern and northern hemispheres necessarily divides those continents that are closer to the south pole from those which are not. Although many people circumscribe this division in terms of ideology or superiority, there is a scientifical explanation that must also be taken into consideration. Well bye.
Yani, despite the interesting scientific explanation about the the "two Americas" provided by Nestor, I agree with you about the historical sense of superiority of North America, so, we may attribute the division of America to ideology... ,and perhaps this conception does not appeal to Latin America and some countries like Spain and Italy because they see South America from a cultural perspective. And... from my point of view, this is a clear difference between "the two Americas". In addition to the number of the continents, I must tell you that when I went to school, we learnt that there were five continents: Europe, Asia, Africa, America and Oceania. I've learnt something else from your article!
Congrats, Yani!
Yani,it is a very interesting article.I think it is undenyable that IDEOLOGY takes the most significant part in the division of the earth.However,as Nestor says there are also scientific and geographical explanations.It is good to reflect about this topic and arrive to different and similar conclusions...
It could be Ideology, or simply geographical matters, but I particularly see no difference between one another. I mean both of them are America and this addition of saying North or South it is to placed the person who is reading something about that and to just mention which part of the continent they are referring to. For me is not a big deal.
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