Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The name Africa was originally used by the ancient Romans to refer to the northern part of the continent that corresponds to modern-day Tunisia. There are many theories regarding its origin. Africa terra means "land of the Afri" (plural, or "Afer" singular), referring to the Afri tribe, who dwelt in Northern Africa around the area of Carthage.
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia.At about 30.3 million km 2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surface area. [9]
The Bantu expansion constituted a major series of migrations of Bantu-speaking peoples from Central Africa to Eastern and Southern Africa and was substantial in the settling of the continent. [111] Commencing in the 2nd millennium BC, the Bantu began to migrate from Cameroon to the Congo Basin , and eastward to the Great Lakes region to form ...
Gerardus Mercator applied the names North and South America on his influential 1538 world map; by this point, the naming was irrevocable. [20] Acceptance may have been aided by the "natural poetic counterpart" that the name America made with Asia, Africa, and Europa. [13]
A continent is a large geographical region defined by the continental shelves and the cultures on the continent. [1] In the modern day, there are seven continents. However, there have been more continents throughout history. Vaalbara was the first supercontinent. [2] Europe is the newest continent. [3]
The name "Pangaea" is derived from Ancient Greek pan (πᾶν, "all, entire, whole") and Gaia or Gaea (Γαῖα, "Mother Earth, land"). [4] [9] The first to suggest that the continents were once joined and later separated may have been Abraham Ortelius in 1596. [10]
Africa is a continent comprising 63 political territories, representing the largest of the great southward projections from the main mass of Earth's surface. [1] Within its regular outline, it comprises an area of 30,368,609 km 2 (11,725,385 sq mi), excluding adjacent islands.
There were many kingdoms and empires in all regions of the continent of Africa throughout history. A kingdom is a state with a king or queen as its head. [1] An empire is a political unit made up of several territories, military outposts, and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a dominant centre and subordinate peripheries".