GEOG 1700 Lecture 14: What is Europe?
Document Summary
Continent, an extensive contiguous land mass surrounded by water. Europe better defined as peninsula of eurasian continent. Showed earth divided into 3 continents: europe, africa and asia. Ptolemy: map of known world 2,000 years ago. Catholic church took control of science, math and cartography. Religion perpetuated division of europe and asia into 2 continents. Some used names of noah to explain varying pigmentations of. Arab geographer al-idrisi"s map: based on ptolemy"s map and shows great southern human skin continent. 1300s and 1400s: t in o maps rejected: went back to ancient greek and roman maps. Exploration eventually revealed europe and asia not separate continents. Idea of separate and distinct european continent persisted, however. 3 basic types: formal, functional and perceptual. Formal region- area of people and places that are distinct from the rest of the world because of 1 or more shared cultural characteristics. W/ europe: traditionally 3 characteristics for formal regions:
