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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 four continents, plus Australia, added later.. Europeans in the 16th century divided the world into four continents: Africa, America, Asia, and Europe. [1] Each of the four continents was seen to represent its quadrant of the world—Africa in the south, America in the west, Asia in the east, and Europe in the north.
Near the equator Pangaea began to consolidate from the plates containing North America and Europe, further raising the northern Appalachian Mountains and forming the Caledonian Mountains in Great Britain and Scandinavia. The southern continents remained tied together in the supercontinent of Gondwana. The remainder of modern Eurasia lay in the ...
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.
That continent began to exert political and cultural dominance over human societies around the world, a time known as the Colonial era (also see Age of Discovery). [ 195 ] : 295–299 In the 18th century a cultural movement known as the Age of Enlightenment further shaped the mentality of Europe and contributed to its secularization .
The single American continent model remains a common view in European countries like France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Malta, Portugal, Spain, Latin American countries and some Asian countries. The criterion of a discrete landmass is completely disregarded if the continuous landmass of Eurasia is classified as two separate continents (Asia and ...
The African and European mainlands are non-contiguous, and the delineation between these continents is thus merely a question of which islands are to be associated with which continent. The Portuguese Atlantic island possession of the Azores is 1,368 km (850 mi) from Europe and 1,507 km (936 mi) from Africa, and is sometimes grouped with Europe.
European overseas expansion led to the rise of colonial empires, with the contact between the "Old" and "New World"s producing the Columbian Exchange: a wide transfer of plants, animals, foods, human populations (including slaves), communicable diseases and culture between the continents. These colonialist endeavours in 16th and 17th centuries ...