Why do we divide the world into continents? They don't seem to be politically or geographically distinct.?

Answer 1

Off the top of my head:

The continents are geographically and politically distinct.
North, South and Central America Have fairly obvious geographical dividing lines. Africa is fairly geographically distinct. Australia is very distinct, being an island and all. India is geographically distince, most of its northern border is mountain and its eastern boarder is jungle.


The tricky one is the divide between the Europe/Asia Continents.
There is a bit of a geographical boundary, the Ural (I think) Mountains and the Dead and Black Seas. But also a political boundary. The divide between Europe and Asia is where most classical civilizations stopped. The divide there tends to be political and is rather messy as it has been around for a long time.

(This is not counting the Middle East as part of Asia as it is an exception being at the meeting point of Africa, Europe, and Asia.)

Answer 2

the world is divided into 7 continents simply due to geographical distinction as continuous landmasses separated by waters, i.e. continental shelves. however, the division method known to most of the world is derived by convention in which it's intended to, rather than geographical means; though we still could relate geographical distinction to all the continents (except for Europe which is specifically divided due to historical & cultural reasons when the concept of continent was 1st introduced by Greek), i.e. Antarctica & Australia r separated lands while asia-africa, americas are only joint by the narrow isthmuses where they could be distinctively identifiable by geographical means. Besides, there are many islands located between the continents are categorized into the continents by geographical means rather than by other reason, like the island of oceania.

Answer 3

Continents ARE geographically distinct...

Answer 4

Continents are clearly geographically distint except for Asia and Europe which can be called EUrasia

Answer 5

I believe the world divided itself into continents, via tectonic plate movement. We really just named the continents as they exist now.

Answer 6

well..let me tell you that Europe and Asia are also different!!!!if they wouldn't be different scientists wouldn't have called them as two different continents when the fact is that's only one continent EUROASIA divided by Ural mountins (and not only, this is most known)...europeans and asians are quiet different!!!

Answer 7

It's totally arbitrary. You have to have something useless to teach in grammar school