When you look at a world map, it's immediately obvious how many continents there are
and which countries belong to which ones.
No it isn't.
That's right. That's why we're doing an episode about it. Welcome to Map Men.
We're the men
and here's the map.
♫ Map Men, Map Men ♫ Map Map Map Men, Men
All British primary schools rated at least satisfactory by OFSTED
will teach their children that there are seven continents.
Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, Antarctica, North America and South America.
But other countries' curriculums beg to differ.
In parts of Europe they teach just six continents.
In Russia and Japan, they teach a different six continents.
And in South America, they teach just five continents.
So who should we believe?
- Whom should we believe? - Exactly.
The most common definition of a continent is
'a large, continuous landmass separated by oceans'.
I like that definition. It's exactly how I imagine a continent.
Good for you Mark. Now take a look at a world map and tell me how many large continuous landmasses
are separated by ocean?
Great!
Australia.
One.
North America.
It's attached to South America.
But the Panama Canal?
is man-made, and definitely not an ocean.
Point taken.
So, all of America.
Two.
Antarctica.
Three.
Africa.
Africa is only separated from Eurasia by another man-made canal, the Suez.
So it doesn't fit the definition.
I see... so... Afro Eurasia?
Congratulations!
So, according to the most common definition, there should only be four continents.
Also, the largest of these, Afro Eurasia, contains 86% of the world's population
making it a useless distinction.
I don't like this definition anymore.
Neither do I. So can we instead use another, more sciencey definition?
We can.
The reason the earth's landmasses are as spread out as they are
is because the tectonic plates that make up the earth's crust have moved them apart over time.
And, using the major tectonic plates as our guide to the continents
we get a more even distribution of where they are.
Tectonically speaking, North America is separate from South America,
Africa is separate from Eurasia
and Antarctica and Australia are separate from everything. Nice and simple!
But on closer inspection, this tectonic definition also has some major issues.
For example, Australia.
The country of Australia is this bit.
But the tectonic plate also called Australia includes Australia and a bit of New Zealand
and half of the island of Papua which includes both Papua New Guinea and the province of Papua
which is in Indonesia which is in Asia.
Which is confusing.
So to avoid this country/continent muddle, other names for this continent do exist.
including Sahul, Meganesia and Australinea.
Not to be confused with Australasia,
An increasingly unfashionable term describing Australia and New Zealand and some, but not all of the Pacific islands
so we're not going to mention it again.
So then, what continent does New Zealand belong to?
By both our definitions so far, none.
Good for New Zealand. What's wrong with not belonging to any continent?
Not being able to take part in the Olympics.
Because this famous four-yearly competition to see who can host the best fireworks display
is open to every country in the world, its five continental rings must somehow include them all.
Each ring represents a different continent.
There's Europe, America, Africa, Asia,
And this one represents a broad region including Australia, New Zealand,
as well as the Micro, Mela and Polynesian countries known as 'Oceania'.
Oceania, its very name meaning the opposite of continent, is not considered one by any strict definition.
But it's a popular term, especially for the purpose of making sure no country misses out on being in-continent.
Only Antarctica doesn't get an Olympic ring because it's too cold to host a firework display.
(Nope... nope... nope...)
The tectonic and Olympic approaches could be easily combined including both Antarctica and Oceania
giving us a nice problem-free six continents.
Except, it's not problem-free at all.
We need to talk about Europe.
Whether part of a landmass, or a tectonic plate
Europe appears to be nothing more than a glorified Asian peninsula.
So, what actually is Europe?
Can it really be possible that the home of the Continental Breakfast isn't even a continent at all?
And if so, what do we call that breakfast other than disappointing?
Which brings us to a third element to consider in the definition of a continent
Culture.
Knowing which continent a country's in immediately tells you something about what it's like.
And because Norway has more in common with Sweden when it comes to language, religion, ethnicity
and favourite cutlery than it does with, say, Vietnam
a line is helpfully drawn here, breaking Eurasia up into two bits.
But complicated culture can't be conveniently cut into clear categories.
Some countries cause tremendous headaches for this dividing line.
First, Armenia. A country which, with a 95% Christian population, arguably falls in the Europe category
but geographically belongs to Asia.
And, speaking as someone who's a 32nd Armenian, where do you think these eyebrows come from?
I can confirm I have no idea what continent it should be in.
The second problem country is Turkey, which incessantly prides itself on being an Asian-European hybrid.
- Food? - Asia.
- Trading partners? - Europe.
- Religion? - Asia.
- Writing system? - Europe.
This leaves the dividing line with no option but to split Turkey's largest city Istanbul straight down the middle
misleadingly suggesting that the populations either side of the Straits of Bosphorus
are somehow totally different from one-another.
One way of solving the problem of where the line goes is to insist that it doesn't exist.
which is the approach taken by Russia
which should come as no surprise, because it's in Russia's interest to view Eurasia as a single continent.
If it's divided, that might make people think they're different from each other.
And when people think they're different, they like to talk about things like independence.
To make matters messier, some European countries have significant territories in other continents.
The largest part of Denmark is officially in North America.
And France, with dozens of overseas territories, has put bits of Europe in Africa, Oceania
both Americas and Antarctica.
Perhaps the best example of the difficulty of pinning down what is and isn't Europe
can be found in the insufferable Eurovision Song Contest.
Insufferably fabulous!
In its first year, just seven very European countries took to the stage:
Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Switzerland and West Germany.
But with more countries wanting to get in on the pop. astic action, this quickly expanded
adding trans-continental Russia, dubiously European Georgia, Asia's Israel, Africa's Morocco,
eventually giving up the geographical facade altogether with Australia's Australia.
(booing)
What Eurovision demonstrates quite well is that continents are all about politics.
Every continent now has some form of political and economic union.
There's Mercosur, the African Union, Asean, and of course the EU.
But these organisations are rarely drawn on the same lines as the continents themselves.
Despite the number of people who confused Britain leaving the EU with Britain leaving Europe
it remains something which, tectonically speaking, we can't actually have a referendum on.
The underlying question in all of this is, why does it matter how many continents there are?
Should we even care which one we belong to?
Well... no. Not really.
What the continents really represent is a human desire to use broad generalisations
to categorise the world into arbitrary subdivisions.
So whether it's seven, five, or even six continents
these subdivisions will remain as useful as they are argued about.
Are you really a 32nd Armenian?
Yes.
Cos I'm a 23rd Hawaiian.
Are you really?
No.
Hello!
Bonjour!
With travel restrictions coming to an end, we'll soon be allowed to go on holiday again.
Les restrictions pour voyager sont bientôt terminées, nous allons pouvoir enfin partir en vacances.
So there's never been a better time to brush up on a foreign language.
Mark ne parle pas francais, alors je peux dire ce que je veux.
Which is why we've partnered up with Rosetta Stone, to help you learn a new language anywhere any time
on desktop, mobile, or tablet.
Mark ne met pas assez d'assaisonnement dans sa bolognese.
Instead of dull translation exercises, the Rosetta Stone approach is to fully immerse you in the language
connecting images to words and sounds like you did as a child .
Mark porte les mêmes chaussettes depuis trois jours.
This makes learning a language easy and fun, and ultimately gets you thinking in your new language.
J'ai volé tellement de sharpies a Mark au cours des cinq dernières années.
And only Rosetta Stone has TruAccent.
Speech recognition software giving instant feedback on your pronunciation
to help perfect your accent and sound like a local.
(strong French accent) Ze best way to enjoy Rosetta Stone is with Rosetta Stone Lifetime Unlimited...
Full, neverending access to the current app in as many languages as you like
with phrasebooks, stories, and texts at every learning level for the rest of your life!
Click the link in the description below where Map Men viewers get a very special offer
on all of Rosetta Stone's subscriptions.
Best of all, the lifetime unlimited offer for just £179 for an entire lifetime
of immersing yourself in the languages you want to be great at.
Et vous pouvez utiliser vos nouvelles compétences linguistiques pour en mettre plein la vue a vos amis.
Entonces, haga clic en la enlace en la descripción para comenzar su viaje de aprendizaje un nuevo idioma.
No hay ninguno momento como la presente.
Du hast nicht zu verlieren.
Genau!
(dog barking)