Central America, Which continent, North or South America?

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Professor Campos

The idea of "continents" is outdated.

Where to draw the border between continent is more a political decision rather than a "natural" or "geologic" one.

If it were, India and Madagascar would be their own continents.

"North America" should comprise all the nations and islands from Panama on north.

However, we like to think of North America as just the US, Canada, and Mexico, because all the other countries are just so damn poor. It's like the Europeans not liking to include Bulgaria or Moldova in "Europe." (Think of the famed "Orient Express:" it went from Paris to Romania.)

Add to the mix the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) which although says "North American" only includes three countries. Result: more confusion.

Central America and the Caribbean can not be part of South America, however. The confusion lies in that Central America is part of a cultural region we call Latin America.

Yet, Latin America is not synonymous with South America.

South America has three non-Spanish speaking nations, and the Caribbean is divided into Anglophone, Francophone, and Dutch West Indies, in addition to the larger Spanish-speaking islands.

The use of cultural regions is becoming much more widely used, to avoid these kind of confusions that the myth of continents brings up.

Therefore, there's an Anglo-America (Canada and the US); Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean; and South America.

And these can be further subdivided, as in Andean and Southern Cone South America, or Anglophone Caribbean.

So the problem is not so much defining the term "continent;" rather it's the myth that continents are anything that matters.

The trick will to make people realize that "Europe" is just a western peninsula of Asia, and that Jesus Christ was an "Asian" man, not likeness of Cesare Borgia, an Italian who modeled for the Renaissance painters of the fifteenth century.

superfly_hn

As far as i'm concerned, America (the continent) is build up by four regions:
1. north america (canada, united states of america, united states of mexico)
2. central america (belize, guatemala, honduras, el salvador, nicaragua, costa rica, panama)
3. the caribbean islands (bahamas, cuba, cayman island, jamaica, turks and caicos island, haiti, dominican republic, *puerto rico, britosh virgin island, us virgin island, antigua, st kits and nevis, antigua y barbuda, montserrat, guadalupe, dominica, martinique, st lucia, barbados, st vincent and the granadines, trinidad y tobado, bonaire... )
4. south america (colombia, ecuador, peru, chile, argentina, Bolivia, aruba, venezuela, guyana, surinam, french guyana, brasil, paraguay, uruguay and the malvinas islands)

Countries are grouped in regions by their importance or proximity. That is why you can find in some books "central american and the caribbean".

I live in honduras and i like to be considered as "central american" as most people from central america do too.

gnomes31

Central America is a central region of the Americas. Variably defined, the geographic region constitutes the southern portion of the North American continent.

I would have thought it was south america but nope. You were right.

crzyguy11

there are only 2 continents in the area, north & south america, the caribbean and panama are the limits of north america

Dick Mac

Central America is part of North America.

lacevedo1975

Central America its considered an "itsmo" not a continent, thats why it's don't belong to any America continent. That 'itsmo' have some countries: Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Belize, Honduras y Guatemala. I hope my answer can help to you.

yellowstone

North America if you have to divide the hemisphere into 2 parts.

Kutekymmee

you are correct. technically, central america is part of the north american continent.
also, the countries of the carribean islands are part of north america

justlikeyoubutdifferent

Methinks it's part of North American continent.

dirtydoz12ca

south america ends at columbia, with that fact, central america is considered north america

B_Paris

Central America is a geographic region that constitutes the southern portion of the North American continent.

Rick M

I think South America

Anne N

South

Jen

I was always taught that Central America is part of South America. I can see what you mean, that's just what I've always known. But who knows, could just be an extension of Mexico.

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