• SkippingRelax@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    Europe as a continent is meaningless, though, and then you might as well include Asia, as Europe isn’t an actual continent

    Is that what they teach you in school over there?

    • oktoberpaard@feddit.nl
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      5 months ago

      I’ve always grown up with the idea that Europe is a continent, but if I’m not mistaken there is no geographical basis for that. See for example Wikipedia: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurasia. But yeah, we all call Europe a continent because of historical reasons and I guess that’s still taught in schools and it makes sense in that context. It’s a matter of definition. In the context of driving long distances this made up border has no meaning of course, which is why brought it up.

      • redfellow@sopuli.xyz
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        5 months ago

        Most English-speaking countries recognize seven regions as continents. In order from largest to smallest in area, these seven regions are Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, and Australia.

        Now as to how anyone detailed the discussion this far, successfully, is beyond me. Actually everything in your comment after the link is nonsense too.

        • oktoberpaard@feddit.nl
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          5 months ago

          If you don’t mind, can you then tell me why Europe should be considered its own continent separate from Asia, apart from the fact that we’ve all agreed on that a long time ago? If you check here, they actually agree with it being for historical reasons (check the “Asia and Europe” section): https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boundaries_between_the_continents. We’ve all agreed that it’s a continent, so it’s a continent, that’s not something I’m refuting. I’m also aware that calling Eurasia a continent is in that sense false. But you seem to be confident that my statement that it’s for historical reasons rather than geographical ones is nonsense. I’m open to learning something new today.

          In the context of the original post, it’s completely irrelevant. Comparing Europe or Eurasia as a continent to the US as a country is not a valid comparison and I’ve said so in my first comment. I could’ve left out that part completely without changing my point.