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Why India is called "the subcontinent" or "the Indian subcontinent." From an article on a new species of dinosaur discovered there: >Scientists said they hope the discovery will help explain the extinction of the dinosaurs and the shifting of the continents - how India separated from Africa, Madagascar, Australia and Antarctica and collided with Asia.< Here's the dinosaur article link for the curious ( Rajasaurus)  : http://makeashorterlink.com/?G1C324695
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Carpal Tunnel
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I think it has to do with India not originally being part of the Asia continient.
Scientists said they hope the discovery will help explain the extinction of the dinosaurs and the shifting of the continents - how India separated from Africa, Madagascar, Australia and Antarctica and collided with Asia.
that collision created the Himalyas, I believe.
formerly known as etaoin...
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Carpal Tunnel
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collision created the Himalyas
Giant fender bender.
The term subcontinent predates the acceptance of the idea of plate tectonics by at least 100 years. It would be interesting to see when the earliest reference to India as a subcontinent was.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Giant fender bender. 
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journeyman
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journeyman
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Giant fender bender.
aka Tectonisaurus.
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journeyman
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journeyman
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Why India is called "the subcontinent"?"The subcontinent is a peninsula that juts southward from the rest of Asia like an enormous arrowhead. We call India a subcontinent because it is a distinct landmass, but it is not large enough to be considered a continent. The nation of India dominates three-fourths of the subcontinent. Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, and Bangladesh occupy the remainder." For full reference: http://www.mrdowling.com/612india.html
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Carpal Tunnel
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Why is Europe a separate continent? I never did understand that concept since Europe is attached to Asia. It would make more sense--considering a huge land mass--to call Eurasia one continent rather than two.
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Carpal Tunnel
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IMHO, eurasia as continent make more sence... but it an other case of politics being more important that geography.
europe, is seperated from asia by water (at turkey)and by moutains (the ural's in russia) but more importantly, it is seperated by language group (latin got a lot of words from greek, and then became the basis for many of the europian language groups-- and philosophy--most fundimentally, religious philosophy.
So when european scholars divided the world into oceans and continents (and europeans ended up doing this, because christianity edged out muslim thought, and became the domaniant philosophy of learning -- (for a while, the muslem world lead in learning.. -- and for several reasons, they backed away from advanced learning (most of math and science of today is a christian continuation of arab and indian learning,) so these learned men wanted to have europe as a seperate continent from asia..
So Europe became a continient, not because its was such a different land mass, but because it wanted to seperate itself from 'eastern'(asian) thinking.
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Carpal Tunnel
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I agree with Helen, Eurasia makes more sense. I have seen mention of Euafrasia too, since they were contiguous until Suez.
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Carpal Tunnel
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was Europe not a separate part of Pangaea/Gondwanaland, similarly to India?
formerly known as etaoin...
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Carpal Tunnel
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Part of Pangaea I think the "pan" points to everywhere being part of Pangaea. As for Gondwanaland, http://www.nsf.gov/od/opp/support/gondwana.htm
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Carpal Tunnel
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And I agree with Wordwind and Helen and sjmaxq that Eurasia makes more sense, but, dagnabbit, I agree with Wordwind first since Wordwind brought the whole damned Eurasia thing up first as making more sense than Europe separate from Asia here on AWAD. And I am thinking in terms of land mass. Not politics. If you get into rivers and mountains as a basis for separating continents, well, then, here in North America we could argue we have a couple of extra continents. Sheesh. Politics make my blood boil. And as for Africa having been part of Eurasia, well, then, lets go back a bit farther when Africa was part of the east coast of North America.
However, looking at things as they are right now, Europe and Asia form one huge land mass and it's that land mass that should be called a continent and not two separate continents.
Chopped Liver Is the Only Way to Go!
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Carpal Tunnel
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>And as for Africa having been part of Eurasia, well, then, lets go back a bit farther when Africa was part of the east coast of North America.
Yeahbut®, they wasn't America and Africa then, and hominids of any sort were mighty thin on the ground. Eurafrasia existed right into the 19th Century, and was only dismembered by human activity.
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Carpal Tunnel
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yes, early christian maps, followed the thoughts of many of the early peoples of the mediterrain. (just look at that word.. the sea in the middle of the earth!) and had Jerusalam as the center point of the map, and included lands to the east and north and south.. so the northern coast of africa would be included..
I don't think the romans thought them selves living in a different 'continent' than the egyptians, or the galatians (turks) or the palistinians.. Their world, as did the early christan world, centered Mediterrian sea, and while they recognized different 'peoples' (and the burber of north africa are not the same 'people' as the arabs, or as europians,) and different lands, and different languages.. i think they also shared a unity of this world.. (and yes, they knew of other lands, and other peoples.. and while they were distant, they were part of a whole.)
i don't know exactly when (1600's?) center of european 'thought' moved north and into england, spain france and germany...and these people began to look outward (one could say actually in 1492, when the 'moors'-- with there eastern connections and dominence of spice routes moved out of spain, and spain began to look for new routes to the spices that they had become accustome to..)
Or you could say it was with the rise of islamic culture, that threatened christianity.. (and resulted in crusades, and turf wars) But the centers of thought, moved away from a mediterranian focus, and into a 'european' focus. Europe as a continent is just another political way to 'codify' this view of 'other'
i have mentioned, this idea of politics overriding geography, before.. i live in queens. that is part of NYC, not part of Long Island. If you look at a map, you might be tempted to say, 'Queens (and Brooklyn) are counties on Long Island.. You live on Long Island.' You would be wrong!
Long Island starts at the queens/nassua boundry. Queens in not part of Long Island. Don't let the geography confuse you! Politics is more important than mere geography.
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