Top 10 of the biggest countries of the world
A country is a politically independent territory or nation that has its own government along with a set of laws, administration, population and security forces; that is, a geographic area made up of a certain number of people and certain natural resources, and often characterized by political, social and cultural elements that differentiate it from others. Therefore, it can be said that the meaning of country includes synonyms such as nation, state, region, province or territory, place, etc.
The meaning of country is linked, as already said, with the idea of nation or state, since the nation relates to the country because it is the feeling of belonging and identity that a certain group of people possesses; and the state is the political representation of a country, that is, the superior entity to which each of the inhabitants of that country must respond in a peaceful and voluntary way.
Each country is usually divided by a series of imaginary lines, which indicate its territory, these lines are also called borders, whose function is to demarcate or delimit the territory that each nation or state owns. It is important to mention that over time there have been many problems of confrontation between various countries around the world because of these territorial limits, as they want to expand their territories at all costs, taking territory away from their neighboring nations.
Search and find out the world's countries unique identifications such as flags, coat of arms, maps, motto, language, territory, national flower, national animal
Select a Continent
The continents form the visible solid part of the lithosphere or earth's crust. It's made up of the lightest rocks in the geosphere. It has a total of 135 239 000 km2 which represents 29% of the earth's surface.
There is no single way to determine the number of continents and it is up to each cultural area to determine whether two large land masses together form one or two continents, and in particular to decide on the boundaries between Europe and Asia (Eurasia) on the one hand, and North and South America (America) on the other. The main models define how:
• 4 continents, where they suggest that Europe, Africa and Asia should be a single continent called Eurafrasia.
• 5 continents, this model does not take into account Antarctica as a continent.
• 6 continents, in this model Antarctica is added.
• 7 continents, Oceania is usually replaced by the Australian continent and Central America is included within the North American continent.
The continents are:
America is located in the continental or northern hemisphere, between the Atlantic Ocean in the east and the Pacific Ocean in the west; and from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Drake Passage at the southern tip of Cape Horn (southern Chile), where the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans meet.
It has an area of 42,044,000 km2 and represents 31% of the emerged land.
Its territory is divided into three large areas: South America, Central America and the Caribbean, and North America.
America was the scene of numerous cultures.
In South America the Andean culture was developed, represented by the Inca culture, which had as a geographical scenario territories of Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, Ecuador and part of Colombia; and the Chibcha culture, in Colombia.
In Central America, especially in the Yucatan Peninsula, territory of Mexico and Guatemala, the Mayan culture.
In North America, on the Anahuac plateau, the Aztec culture developed.
Most of the European continent extends over the eastern hemisphere and also the northern hemisphere.
Popularly known as the old continent, Europe is subdivided into Northern Europe, Southern or Mediterranean Europe, Eastern, Western and Central Europe. It has a population of approximately 739 million people, and this is where the European Union operates.
In the southern part of Europe, washed by the Mediterranean Sea, two great cultures developed in antiquity:
• The Greek or Hellenic culture, made up of two states: Sparta and Athens, both in modern-day Greece.
• The Roman culture in the Italian peninsula..
Both cultures, called classical, strongly influenced the formation of Western culture, which spread throughout Europe and America.
Asia, or the Asian continent, is the largest and most populated continent on Earth, with nearly 44 million km², accounting for 8.70% of the total land area and 29.45% of the emerged land and, with 4.14 million inhabitants, 61% of the world's population.
It extends over the eastern half of the Northern Hemisphere, from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Indian Ocean in the south. It is bordered on the west by the Ural mountains and on the east by the Pacific Ocean.
• Several cultures developed in Asia in ancient times: the Hindu culture in India, the Chinese culture in that vast continent, the Chaldean-Assyrian culture in Mesopotamia (Iraq), the Medo-Persian culture on the Iranian plateau and the Phoenician and Hebrew cultures in Asia Minor on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea.
Africa is located in the central part of the four hemispheres: north, south, east and west. It is bordered to the north by the Mediterranean Sea, which separates it from Asia Minor; to the east by the Indian Ocean; and to the west by the Atlantic Ocean. In the southern part of the Cape of Good Hope, the waters of the Indian and Atlantic Oceans meet.
Africa has an area of 30,271,000 km2 , representing 22.38% of the surface area of the continents.
In the extreme north-east of Africa is located Egypt, a country where one of the greatest cultures of the world developed: the Egyptian culture, which had the Nile River as its geographical setting.
Oceania is an insular continent, formed by some ten thousand islands scattered in the Pacific Ocean, among which two are the largest: Australia and New Zealand.
Its natural boundaries are: the Pacific Ocean to the east and north and the Indian Ocean to the south and west.
Its territory has an area of 8 500 000 km2 which represents 6.28% of the surface of the continents.
Antarctica is a continent without a permanent population, but it is visited by groups of scientists from all countries. Its territory is covered, in its entirety, by glaciers or ice masses, which are 2 155 m thick. Its seas are the most stormy in the world. In its central part is the South Pole. It is the coldest continent in the world, with an annual average of -18°C. It is the most stable continent in the world, that is, without earthquakes.
Its territorial area represents 9.76% of the surface of the continents.
Gallery
*photo sources: Wikimedia Commons , google images
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