Question on the Continents

[darkgrendel]

Originally posted by Japher
So North America is all the land that the whiteman successfully stole, and South America is all the land that the heathens still control...I get it

Didn't "the white man" successfully steal a good deal of South America as well...?

[Japher]

I don't consider Spainards white, but ok, since I wouldn't put them in Africa or Asia...

[Ecthy]

I always thought Spaniards were some mix of Africans and Asians. That's why all of them look so funny.

[Japher]

[C0ckney]

spanish people are white, mexicans though are mostly mixed white and amerindian.

[GePap]

North and South America might be joined by an Ithsmus, but that is a very new landbridge, only about 4 million years old. The cosystems of the two continents were separate fo most of thier development and are still strikingly different. Africa, due to its thin connection to Eurasia also has very different ecosystems.

I think the separation of Europe from Asia is geographically speaking the artificial one, since the Eurals arn't that much of a barrier, no worse that the Mountains in Iran, or far less of a division that the Himalayas.

[Ecthy]

Spanish people are whiter than Mexicans? bollocks, the Indian influence in American population is almost zero.

[C0ckney]

yes they are, i think it's 95% of the mexican population are of mixed spanish and amerindian blood.

[Ecthy]

but how? I'd never have thought it's so much, amerindians being wiped out and all... oh well.

[C0ckney]

you're thinking about the area where the united states is today. the colonial system in mexico led to the mixing of the populations, it was a bit like the feudal system. i can't really be arsed to explain it (going to bed soon, read a book on it etc.) but suffice to say that it wasn't a case of all the natives being wiped out and 100 million spanish moving in.

[Hueij]

Also, if Iceland, Finland, Norway, and Sweden on the same "continental plate" as the rest of Europe?

Iceland lies on the Mid-Atlantic rift, the eastern part is on the Euro plate and the Western part on the American one. The two parts separate at 2 cm's per year, making for a fascinating landscape.

[Velociryx]

The two parts separate at 2 cm's per year, making for a fascinating landscape.

You are more patient, by far, than me....

-=Vel=-

[Berzerker]

I suppose separating Asia and Europe was based on the 2 population centers - Europe and China - with the vast steppes in between. I'd call Europe and Asia one continent and promote Greenland to continent status so we still have 7. Btw, 7 is a sacred number and the Earth is the 7th planet from the abyss of space.

[DRoseDARs]

Hueij: Iceland, one of my Top 10 places I want to visit

Another interesting place would be Seychelles in the Indian Ocean. The granite that makes up the islands dates from the Gondwana supercontinent. The islands broke off from the Indian plate as it drifted northeast after seperating from Africa/Madagascar/Australia. Absolutely beautiful landscape.

[Odin]

People are so ignorant of Geopgraphy in the US, a person asked me what Eurasia was.