Throughout this bloc, I will make reference to continents, countries, regions and cities. There are many viewpoints concerning the term “continent” which in itself is a fascinating study, but for me, a continent is a large landmass that is somehow geographically distinct from other continents and bodies of water. I maintain that there are seven continents, six of which are inhabited. From largest to smallest in size (square kilometers), these are Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, and Australia. I will continue with a very brief, very general description of the inhabited continents to provide a basic foundation for further analysis of geographical distinctions amongst the many international issues discussed in this blog.
ASIA
Covering 44,579,000 square kilometers, or 29.9% of Earth’s land area, Asia is the largest continent. Furthermore, it’s the most populous with approximately 3,879,000,000 people. This gigantic figure, comprising of 60% of the world’s population, includes the populations of the world’s two biggest countries, China (1.3+ billion) and India (1.1+ billion). Asia is bordered to the east by the Pacific Ocean, to the south by the Indian Ocean and to the north by the Arctic Ocean. It’s western border with Europe is not so clear! Some experts argue that Europe and Asia are one continent called Eurasia, whereas others claim a separation (i.e. culturally, ethnically, historically) between the two. I believe in the latter viewpoint. Here is my rough border between Asia and Europe. In the southeast, the border with Africa is determined by the Suez Canal; in the south, by the Bosporus cutting through Istanbul, Turkey (the “half-European, half-Asian city”) and up through the Black Sea, across the Caucuses Mountains to the Caspian Sea and up through the Ural River and Ural Mountains to the Arctic Ocean. Although still vague and another interesting area of analysis, this establishes the border in my eyes.
Very simply stated, Asia is an incredibly diverse continent with respect to culture, religion, ethnicity, economics, politics and history. For this reason, it often makes sense to further divide Asia into subregions: Western Asia, Southern Asia, Southeast Asia, East Asia, Central Asia, Northern Asia. Even then, its often more appropriate to look at national and supranational data to get a full picture of a specific topic. When you think Asia, think diversity!
AFRICA
At 30,200,000 square kilometers and accounting for 20.4% of Earth’s land area, Africa is the world’s second largest continent. It’s more than one billion people give it the number two rank for population and, like Asia, the continent is extremely diverse in many ways. Africa is bordered to the east by the Indian Ocean, to the west by the Atlantic Ocean and to the north by the Mediterranean Sea. It’s only unclear border lies to the northeast. An interesting study would be at what point does Africa end and Asia begin, and I will use the Suez Canal as the great separator of these immense continents. Like Asia, we also should use sub-regions when describing international issues. These include Northern Africa, Western Africa, Eastern Asia, Central (or Middle) Africa, and Southern Africa. Often, the term “sub-Saharan Africa” is used in the media or in scholarly journals to describe countries in Africa lying below the Sahara Desert which cuts across the upper fourth of the continent. Of its 54 countries, Nigeria (135 million), Egypt (80 million), and Ethiopia (77 million) are the most populated. African culture is a rich mix of many nationalities, religions, ethnicities spread across another massive land mass and requires sub-regional or country-specific analysis. As for economics, there is a wide variety of factor endowment and economy structure (mostly agricultural/industrial), but most of the continent suffers from poor market access, low development and little wealth.
Fill in the map of Africa (thanks to worldatlas.com!):
NORTH AMERICA
Assuming 15.6% of Earth’s land area, North America covers approximately 24,709,000 square kilometers. This places North America at rank three for size and its roughly 530,000,000 people living in 23 countries ranks at four after a physically smaller Europe. North America is bordered to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by the Caribbean Sea, to the southwest and west by the Pacific Ocean and to the north by the Arctic Ocean. Unlike Asia and Africa, the physical borders of the continent are well defined, with the southern Panamanian / northern Colombian border separating North America from South. On the same token, the culture of North America is far less diverse than that of Asia and Africa. The two largest countries, Canada and the United States, are majority English-speaking peoples of European descent, although significant minority groups from Latin American, African (from the historical slave trade), and Asian descent diversify and enrich these giant nations. From Mexico southward, the term Latin America has derived to refer to peoples speaking Latin-based languages (primarily Spanish, arguably Portuguese in Brazil) to separate Canada and the United States from the other countries in the Western Hemisphere. Furthermore, countries below Mexico and above Colombia are commonly grouped as the sub-region Central America (i.e. Guatemala to Panama) and the nation-states in the Caribbean Sea (i.e. Cuba and the Bahamas to the Netherlands Antilles) are also often grouped as a separate entity from North America. Economically, countries rate at amongst the richest in the world (i.e. the United States, Canada) to amongst the poorest (i.e. Haiti) and configuration of economies is similarly diverse. Therefore, as always, a far more detailed country-specific analysis is required.
Fill in the map of North America and the Caribbean (thanks to worldatlas.com!):
SOUTH AMERICA
South America, with 386,000,000 people (fifth most populous), has an area of 17,840,000 square kilometers which is about 11.3% of the Earth’s land. South America’s eastern border is the Atlantic Ocean, western border is the Pacific Ocean, and northern border is the Caribbean Sea. Like North America, the physical borders of the continent are clear. The culture of South America is moderately diverse. Although the largest country Brazil is a majority Portuguese-speaking country, the vast majority of the 11 other countries are Spanish-speaking (except Guiana, Surinam, and French Guyana). Ethnically, there are sizable populations of people from European descent (due to the colonization), indigenous cultures, combinations of the two and those of African descent again from the slave trade. Economically, the continent distinguishes itself with large wealth inequality (i.e. few extremely rich, a significant middle class and an alarming section of extremely poor people, measured via the Gini coefficient).
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