• pelespirit@sh.itjust.works
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    14 hours ago

    That’s an odd way to divide it up. Without Mexico, the US would be much, much lower. Every continent map shows Russia as part of Asia.

    • Skua@kbin.earth
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      14 hours ago

      For this specific purpose it probably does make sense to consider Russia part of Europe. If we go by the common Europe-Asia dividing line of the Ural mountains then a large majority of Russia’s population is in the European half, so most Russian births are probably in the European bit

      The weird thing about the Americas to me is that only Mexico, the US, and Canada are counted. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone that draws a dividing line between North and South America do so anywhere except at the Darien Gap, nor have I seen anyone put all of the Caribbean islands in South America. Iberoamerica or similar cultural region terms, sure, but South America the continent?

    • Successful_Try543@feddit.org
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      14 hours ago

      Maybe, as the capital of russia is in Europe, russia is counted as Europe, while Turkey is counted to Asia, as its capital is in its Asian part.

        • grue@lemmy.world
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          14 hours ago

          Well, yeah. The definition of “continent” is arbitrary.

          I could argue that there are only four, for instance (America, Afro-Eurasia, Antarctica, and Australia).

            • Skua@kbin.earth
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              7 hours ago

              Well yes, it is entirely arbitrary. One of the most agreed-upon factors is that “at least as big as Australia” is a requirement, but there’s no hard reason for that requirement

              Personally I think we should consider particarly big mountain ranges and deserts as continental boundaries more often, like we do with the Urals in nodels that separate Asia and Europe. “Asia” is such a huge concept as to be almost useless, and it’s not like China and Arabia had much influence on each other historically

              • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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                7 hours ago

                You do have “regions” already kind of filling that niche. MENA, Europe, Central Asia, East Asia and so on.