What is the name of the part of the world? Continents and continents. What animals are found on the African continent
All the land on the Earth's surface is divided not only into continents, but also into parts of the world. In everyday conversations they are often confused. Perhaps because there are six continents, like parts of the world. However, the concepts of “continent” and “part of the world” are completely different not only in meaning, but also in the time of their origin.
When did light begin to be divided into parts?
People began dividing land into parts of the world in ancient times, much earlier than into continents. Parts of the world are areas of land that were identified by scientists based on their knowledge of the history, culture and these areas of the Earth.
How many parts of the world are there now?
The number of parts of the world changed as man, studying his planet, discovered more and more new lands. Now there are six parts of the world: , America, and. The boundaries of parts of the world are drawn in such a way that they include continents or parts thereof, as well as adjacent islands.
The concept of "part of the world" is sometimes considered outdated. But this is far from true. It continues to play a very important role in people's lives. For example, in Europe, many states, while remaining independent, united into the European Union for joint economic activity. This union even has its own government - the European Parliament. Countries located in other parts of the world cannot be accepted into this union. There are other associations of states based on the principle of belonging to a certain part of the world. In America, it is the Organization of American States, which includes 35 countries. In Africa - the African Union, which includes 53 countries.
The division of land into continents is not associated with human history, but with scientific data about modern earth's crust. A continent is a huge block of the earth's crust. Most of it protrudes above the surface of the Ocean, forming land. But the continent also has an underwater part: the shelf and the continental slope. In different geological epochs the number of continents was unequal. On modern stage development of the Earth there are six of them: Eurasia, Africa,
Unique. To make it more convenient for people to understand what place we are talking about, scientists came up with names for the land, dividing it into continents, parts of the world. All this different concepts, and each of them has a specific designation. So how does a part of the world differ from a continent and what continents exist?
First, it’s worth understanding what a continent is. This is a huge land mass that is washed by seas and oceans.
Difference between and part of the world
In geography, the term “continent” is often used, which means the mainland. Although these two concepts are not synonymous. IN different countries world continental models of perception of the world are different. In India and China, as well as in English-speaking European countries, it is generally accepted that there are seven continents. Spanish-speaking countries and South American countries use a six-continent model. In Eastern Europe and Greece, it is generally accepted that there are five continents: these countries consider only those territories where people live to be continents; they do not include Antarctica in the list. In Russia and neighboring countries of Eurasia, it is believed that there are four continents.
To understand how a part of the world differs from a continent, one must understand the entire model of the division of the Earth.
Continents
The continent is a large part of land washed by seas and oceans. There are six continents in total: the largest is Eurasia. Its area is almost 55 million square kilometers. In second place is Africa, with an area of thirty million square kilometers. Slightly smaller than her North America, then - South America. Antarctica ranks fifth in size. The smallest continent is Australia. All these continents are separated by seas and oceans, although there are formations separated by a land border. Such continents are North and South America, which are divided by the Isthmus of Panama. Between Africa and Eurasia is the Isthmus of Suez.
What is the difference between a part of the world and a continent? To understand this, you should know that, unlike continents, continents do not have land borders. Based on this, scientists divided the entire land into four continents: Afro-Eurasia, America, Antarctica and Australia.
Parts of the world
Knowing how a part of the world differs from a continent, you can understand the geographical system of dividing the Earth. So, the terms “mainland” and “continent” have a scientific basis and meaning, but “part of the world” is a division of land along historical and cultural grounds. The following parts of the world are distinguished:
- Europe.
- Asia.
- America, or the New World.
- Africa.
- Australia and Oceania.
- Antarctica.
When people talk about parts of the world, they mean not only large areas of land, but also the islands adjacent to them.
Answering the question of how the concepts of “continent” and “part of the world” differ, we can say that a continent is land surrounded by bodies of water, and a part of the world is land developed by people, located on these continents.
Islands
Now we know how a continent differs from a part of the world, and how it differs from an island? By definition, both a mainland and an island are land washed by oceans or seas. However, these concepts have differences.
- Size. The smallest continent is Australia - Greenland.
- Education. All continents of the Earth are of tiled origin. According to scientists, once there was only one. It was split, which is why Laurasia and Gondwana appeared, which broke into six more parts. Islands are formed most in different ways, including during volcanic eruptions, during the action of polyps, as a result of plate movement.
- Habitability. Many islands are still uninhabited, unlike the mainland. Even in the harsh Antarctica there are people.
Continents are parts of land large size, washed by the waters of oceans and seas, and parts of the world are the same land with which some historical and cultural events are associated. A part of the world may include several continents and islands.
How many parts of the world are there on Earth? Europeans in the 16th century divided the world into four continents: Africa, America, Asia and Europe. It seemed that each of them represented its own quadrant of the world. Europe is in the east, Africa is in the south and America is in the west. This division corresponded to the trends of that era - then the world was divided into four seasons, four classical elements, four cardinal directions, and so on.
Ancient tripartite world
How many parts of the world are there on Earth? At a time when people still did not know anything about America, Australia and Antarctica, there were not so many of them. Before the discovery of the New World, classical and medieval geography distinguished three parts of the Earth - Europe, Asia and Africa. As Laurent de Premierfeit (the eminent French translator of Latin literature at the beginning of the fifteenth century) once told his readers: “Asia is one of the three parts of the world that extends towards the East until the rising sun.”
Seen through the eyes of a modern geographer, the Ural Mountains, which divide Europe from Asia, represent a geological seam between two fragmented continents or cratons. Another dividing factor was the Hellespont ( ancient name Dardanelles Strait). He neatly separated Europe from Asia. From a European point of view, during the Age of Discovery, Asia began beyond the Hellespont, where the Roman province was located, extending to incredibly exotic and remote places...
How many parts of the world are there on Earth?
Sixteenth-century America was filled with exciting promises of a New World. This is how the fourth part of the world appeared. After the official confirmation that Australia was an island continent, the topic of four continents lost most of its relevance long before the sixth continent, Antarctica, was discovered. However, despite this, the iconography of the “Four Corners of the World” has been preserved in its original form.
Parts of the world and continents
There are six continents in total, of which the smallest is Australia, and the largest is Eurasia, which is geologically one whole, but for convenience it has been divided into Europe and Asia. A conditional border was drawn between them along the Ural Mountains.
There are six parts of the world, as well as continents. The most populous and mountainous is Asia. America consists of two continents, which are connected by the Isthmus of Panama. Africa is separated from Asia by the Suez Canal. There are also continents that do not touch the others - these are Australia and icy Antarctica.
A single massif, spread out in different directions
It is likely, as some scientists believe, that all the continents were once one whole, a single massif, which over time broke into pieces under the influence of the internal forces of the Earth. There is an assumption that certain areas on the planet rose, while others, on the contrary, sank. The mystery of the appearance of continents still remains topical issue in geography, people still have only one thing left to do - build various hypotheses. Perhaps the future generation of scientists will be able to shed light on the endless mysteries of the Universe.
How do parts of the world differ from continents?
What parts of the world are there and how do they differ from the continents? Let's figure it out. Continents are large segments of land that jut out from the oceans. Parts of the world are referred to as areas into which the surface of the planet is conventionally divided for historical and cultural reasons. The difference between them is that these concepts are used in completely different friends from each other spheres. The main difference is that the "mainland" is a geological and geographical term, and “part of the world” is a concept associated with history, culture, and politics.
Continents are of interest, first of all, as actually existing physical objects. Geology and geography deal with their detailed study, including the study of powerful processes that occur on Earth. As a rule, continents are separated from each other by oceans, but there are those that are closest neighbors (Eurasia).
How many parts of the world are there on Earth? Despite the fact that their borders and the borders of the continents do not coincide 100%, there are also six of them in number. Eurasia, for example, is one continent, but is divided into two parts of the world - Europe and Asia. Things are a little different in America. There, two continents form one part of the world. Only Africa, Australia, and Antarctica are the same.
Only a third of planet Earth is occupied by land, while the remaining 2/3 is vast expanses of water. That is why it is also called the “blue planet”. Water separates parts of the land, creating several continents from once existing fused land masses.
What parts is the earth divided into?
Geologically, the land is divided into continents, but from the point of view of history, culture and politics - into parts of the world.
There are also concepts of "Old" and "New World". During the heyday of the ancient Greek state, three parts of the world were known: Europe, Asia and Africa - they are called the “Old World”, and the remaining areas of the earth that were discovered after 1500 are called the “New World”, this includes North and South America , Australia and Antarctica.
A large area of land that has common cultural, scientific, economic and political heritage is called a “part of the world.”
It’s interesting to know: which ones exist on planet Earth?
Their names and locations
They often coincide with continents, but it is known that one continent can contain two parts of the world. For example, the continent of Eurasia is divided into Europe and Asia. And, on the contrary, two continents can be one part of the world - South and North America.
So, there are six parts of the world in total:
- Europe
- Africa
- America
- Australia and Oceania
- Antarctic
It is worth noting that the islands close to the mainland also belong to a certain part of the world.
A continent, or continent, is a large, unbroken area of crust not covered by water. Globe . The boundaries of continents and their outlines change over time. Continents that existed in ancient times are called paleocontinents.
They are separated by oceanic and sea waters, and those between which the land border lies are separated by isthmuses: North and South America are connected by the Isthmus of Panama, Africa and Asia by the Isthmus of Suez.
Eurasia
The largest continent on Earth, washed by the waters of four oceans (Indian, Arctic, Atlantic and Pacific), is Eurasia. It is located in the Northern Hemisphere, and some of its islands are in the Southern Hemisphere. It occupies an area of about 53 million square kilometers - this is 36% of the entire land surface of the earth.
On this continent there are two parts of the world that belong to the “Old World” - Europe and Asia. They are separated Ural mountains, Caspian Sea, Dardanelles Strait, Strait of Gibraltar, Aegean, Mediterranean and Black Seas.
Initially, the continent was called Asia, and only since 1880, Austrian geologist Eduard Suess The term Eurasia was introduced. This part of the land was formed when the protocontinent Laurasia was divided into North America and Eurasia.
What is unique about the parts of the world Asia and Europe?
- The presence of the narrowest strait in the world - the Bosphorus;
- The continent is home to great ancient civilizations (Mesopotamia, Egypt, Assyria, Persia, Roman and Byzantine Empire etc.);
- Here is an area that is rightfully considered the coldest point on earth - Oymyakon;
- Eurasia contains Tibet and the Black Sea basin - the highest and lowest points on the planet;
- The mainland has all existing climate zones;
- The continent is home to 75% of the entire world population.
Belongs to the New World, surrounded by the waters of two oceans: the Pacific and the Atlantic. The border between the two Americas is the Isthmus of Panama and the Caribbean Sea. The countries bordering the Caribbean Sea are commonly called Caribbean America.
In terms of size, South America ranks 4th among the continents, the population is about 400 million.
Opened this land H. Columbus in 1492. In his desire to find India, he crossed the Pacific Ocean and landed on the Greater Antilles, but realized that beyond them lay a whole hitherto unexplored continent.
- A third of the total area is occupied by the Amazon, Parana and Orinoco rivers;
- The largest river in the world is located here - the Amazon. According to the results of the 2011 world competition, it is one of the seven natural wonders of the world.
- In South America there is the largest dry-bottom lake in the world - Titicaca;
- On the territory of the continent there are the highest - Angel, and the most powerful - Iguazu waterfalls in the world;
- The most big country mainland - Brazil;
- The highest capital in the world is La Paz (Bolivia);
- There is never any precipitation in the Chilean Atacami Desert;
- It is also home to the most big bugs and butterflies in the world (woodcutter beetles and agrippina butterflies), the smallest monkeys (marmosets) and life-threatening poisonous red-backed frogs.
North America
Another continent belonging to the same part of the world. Located in the Western Hemisphere on the northern side, it is washed by the Bering Sea, the Mexican, California, St. Lawrence and Hudson Bays, the Pacific, Atlantic and Arctic oceans.
The discovery of the mainland took place in 1502. It is believed that America was named after the Italian navigator and traveler Amerigo Vespucci who discovered it. However, there is a version according to which America was discovered by the Vikings long before this. First appeared on the map as America in 1507.
On its area, which occupies about 20 million square kilometers, there are 20 countries. Most of the territory is divided between two of them - Canada and the United States.
North America also includes a number of islands: the Aleutian, Greenland, Vancouver, Alexandra and Canadian archipelago.
- North America has the largest administrative building peace - the Pentagon;
- Most of the population spends almost all of their time indoors;
- Mauna Kea is the highest mountain in the world, the height of which is two thousand meters higher than Chomolungma;
- Greenland is the largest island on the planet and belongs to this continent.
Africa
Second largest continent after Eurasia. Its area occupies 6% of all land on Earth. It is washed by the Mediterranean and Red Seas, as well as the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. The continent crosses the equator.
It is believed that the name of the continent comes from such Latin words as “sunny”, “without cold”, “dust”.
What makes Africa unique?
- The mainland contains huge reserves of diamonds and gold;
- There are places here that no human has ever set foot on;
- You can see tribes with the lowest and highest tall people on the planet;
- The average human life expectancy in Africa is 50 years.
Antarctica
Part of the world, a continent, almost entirely covered with 2 thousand meters of ice. Located in the very south of the globe.
- There are no permanent residents on the mainland, only scientific stations are located here;
- Traces have been found in glaciers indicating the “former tropical life of the continent”;
- Every year a large number of tourists (about 35 thousand) come to Antarctica who want to see seals, penguins and whales, as well as those who are interested in scuba diving.
Australia
The continent is washed by the Pacific and Indian oceans, as well as the Tasman, Timor, Arafura and Coral seas of the Pacific Ocean. The mainland was discovered by the Dutch in the 17th century.
Near the coast of Australia there is a huge coral reef - the Great Barrier Reef, about 2 thousand km long.
Also sometimes a separate part of the world means Oceania, the Arctic, New Zealand.
But most scientists still divide the land into the 6 parts of the world presented above.
The history of the names of each of the continents is very interesting. Why was Asia called Asia and Antarctica - Antarctica? The origin of some names is associated with ancient myths - the merit of the ancient Greeks in the etymology of many words, including proper names, very large. For example, Europe is a mythical heroine that appeared thanks to the boundless imagination of the ancient Greeks, who created an incredible number of myths.
Why was Europe called Europe?
There are several versions. Here is one of the most common.
In ancient times, in the place where the state of Lebanon is located, Phenicia was located. According to ancient Greek myths, god Zeus fell in love with an incredibly beautiful earthly woman named Europe. Historians suggest that the word “Europe” in Phoenician meant “set” (the word itself is most likely Assyrian).
Beauty Europa was the daughter of Agenor, king of Phenicia. The Thunderer Zeus wanted to make Europe his wife, but King Agenor would not allow this. Zeus had no choice but to kidnap the beauty.
Turned into white bull, Zeus stole Europa and transported her to the island of Crete. Later, according to some myths, Europa became the wife of the Cretan king. Therefore, the inhabitants of Crete began to call their land Europe.
“The Rape of Europe”, V. Serov, 1910
In the 5th century BC, the name Europe spread to all of Greece. Gradually, gaining new knowledge about the world around them and traveling more and more, ancient people pushed back the borders of Europe. And only in the middle of the 18th century were the final borders of Europe established, which are also marked on modern geographical maps.
Perhaps this is exactly what happened, and Europe was called Europe in honor of the heroine of ancient Greek myths. In any case, this is a very interesting and curious version.
Why was Asia called Asia?
The name “Asia” as applied to the continent also appeared thanks to the ancient Greeks and their myths. However, the word “Asia” itself is Assyrian, translated as “sunrise.” Now it’s clear why the largest part of the world was called Asia, because that’s where the sun rises.
The word “Asia” among the Assyrians was just a word, but it became the name of a part of the world thanks to the Greeks. In ancient Greek mythology there is a titan god named Ocean. Asia (Asia) is his oceanid daughter, whom the Greeks themselves depicted riding a camel. In her hands she had a shield and a box of aromatic spices. In some versions of myths, Asia is the mother (and in some - the wife) of Prometheus himself - the very hero who brought fire to people.
G. Dore "Oceanids", 1860
Everything that east of Europe and closer to the place where the sun rises, the ancient Greeks began to call Asia. The Scythians, who lived beyond the Caspian Sea, were called Asians by the Greeks. And the ancient Romans, by the way, called the inhabitants of their eastern province Asians.
When the period of great geographical discoveries began, it was decided to use the word “Asia” to designate vast areas of land located closer to sunrise (that is, to the east). Thus, we owe the appearance on the map of a part of the world called Asia to the Assyrians and ancient Greeks.
Did you have any influence? ancient greek mythology to the name of another part of the world? Yes! And this part of the world is Antarctica.
How did Antarctica get its name?
Antarctica is a derivative of the word "Antarctica". The southern polar region was called Antarctica. Translated from Greek, Antarctica means “opposite to the Arctic,” because the name “Arctic” appeared earlier as a designation for the area adjacent to north pole. It is the word “Arctic” that is directly related to ancient Greek mythology.
The Thunderer Zeus fell in love with the nymph Callisto, but the envious gods could not see how happy Zeus and Callisto were and turned the pregnant woman into a bear. After this she gave birth to a son. Arkad, that was the name of his son (in Greek, bear is arktos), grew up without a mother. One day, while hunting, he swung a spear at his mother bear Callisto (of course, he did not know who she was). Seeing this, Zeus turned both dear creatures into constellations - this is how Ursa Major and Ursa Minor appeared.
These constellations helped to find the polar star, which always pointed north. Therefore, the ancient Greeks began to call the entire northern region the Arctic. Then the name Antarctica (the opposite of the Arctic) appeared. Well, later the word Antarctica arose - a sixth of the world, the southern continent at the very pole of the Earth.
This part of the world was discovered by Russian sailors under the command of Thaddeus Bellingshausen on January 28, 1820. True, this is the official date - it was then that the sailors saw the “ice continent”. A year later, the sailors saw the shore and called this area the Land of Alexander the First. However, this name never spread to the entire continent, which eventually received the name Antarctica, associated with ancient Greece.
So, three parts of the world - Europe, Asia and Antarctica - got their names thanks to ancient Greek myths. But how did the names of other parts of the world and continents appear?
Even children know that America was discovered by Christopher Columbus. Then why was this part of the world not called Colombia or Columbia? And what is the origin of the name America?
Christopher Columbus, of course, discovered America, but he himself did not know that he had discovered a new part of the world, believing that the land on the other side of the Atlantic was China (Catay, as it was called in the time of Columbus).
Columbus still became famous for centuries. But much less often they talk about the Florentine navigator, who lived at the same time as Columbus, but was younger than him. Amerigo made four trips to the western shores Atlantic Ocean, but historians consider two of them nothing more than a hoax. However, at least one journey actually took place - Amerigo made it in 1501-1502 to the shores of Brazil.
Upon returning, Amerigo Vespucci began to colorfully describe the progress of the trip and his impressions, sending these notes in letters to his friends and the banker Lorenzo Medici. After some time, Vespucci's letters were published and were a great success among readers.
Vespucci himself proposed to name the land he discovered New World, but in 1507, a Lorraine cartographer named Martin Waldseemuller decided to put a new land on the map and name it in honor of the “discoverer” - Amerigo Vespucci. After all, reading Amerigo’s notes, many came to the conclusion that Vespucci discovered some new continent that had nothing to do with China, discovered by Columbus on the other side of the Atlantic.
However, not much time passed, and geographers and cartographers concluded that both Columbus and Vespucci discovered the same continent. Cartographers left the name for it “ America", dividing it into North and South.
Thus, already in 1538, North America and South America appeared on the maps. However, until the end of the 17th century, that is, another two and a half centuries, these lands in Europe continued to be called the New World. But, as we know, the name America was officially recognized.
Stefan Zweig called this whole story a comedy of errors, and A. Humboldt dubbed the very name of this part of the world “a monument to human injustice.” It’s not for nothing that they say that Columbus had alternate luck: “he went to discover one thing, found another, but what he found was given the name of a third.”
Australia, the fifth continent, was discovered at the beginning of the 17th century by the Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon. Since then, this part of the world has appeared on geographical maps, but under the name New Holland. However, the boundaries of the continent were unknown at that time. How Australia name
changed its own, ceasing to be just New Holland?
Australia. Photo from space
The answer must be sought in the depths of centuries. People started talking about Australia long before it was discovered. Even the great Ptolemy was sure that in the southern hemisphere there is a huge continent that should “balance” the planet. The mysterious land, which either exists or doesn’t exist, has been given a conventional name Terra Australis Incognita, which translated from Latin means “Mysterious (or Unknown) Southern Land.”
In the 18th and 19th centuries, the British were actively searching for the Mysterious South Land or New Holland. And finally, James Cook and Matthew Flinders, having completed several voyages, contributed to the appearance of the shores of the fifth continent on the maps.
Flinders was the first to circumnavigate the mainland. He wrote that he was constrained by the name Terra Australis (Southern Land), but with great pleasure he would have called the continent differently -. So with light hand Flinders, this continent began to be called Australia, because the option proposed by the navigator seemed very, very successful to cartographers and geographers.
Why is Africa called Africa?
There is no exact and only accepted answer to this question. There are many theories, each of which has the right to life. Let's give just a few.
How the name “Africa” appeared: the first version. The name "Africa" was invented by the Greco-Romans. Territory North Africa west of Egypt the ancient Greeks and Romans for a long time called Libya because there lived tribes whom the Romans called “Livs.” Everything south of Libya was called Ethiopia.
In 146 BC, Rome defeated Carthage. A colony was founded on the territory captured as a result of the war, where Tunisia is now located. This colony was given the name “Africa”, since local warlike Afarik tribes lived in these places. According to another theory, the inhabitants of Carthage themselves called people who did not live in cities with the word “afri,” which is supposedly derived from the Phoenician afar (dust). The Romans, after defeating Carthage, used the word "afri" to name the colony. Gradually, all other lands of this continent began to be called Africa.
The ruins of one of the cities of the state of Carthage
How the name “Africa” came about: version two. The name "Africa" was invented by the Arabs. Arab geographers have long known that Asia and Africa are separated from each other by the Red Sea. The Arabic word "faraqa" is translated as "to divide", "to separate one from the other."
From the word farak, the Arabs formed the word “Ifriqiya” - this is what they called the fourth continent (the ancient name can be translated as “Separated”). The famous Arab scholar of the 16th century, Muhammad al-Wazan, wrote about this. Later, Ifriqiya turned into Africa, which was due to the peculiarities of borrowing foreign names in different languages.
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