It’s because that little chunk of South America is French Guiana, which is a full-fledged part of France (not just a territory, but a departement with political status equal to the ones in mainland Europe).
It’s also where the European Space Agency launches their spacecraft from, by the way.
Cool. I’m not sure what that has to do with the continent, though. Politically, I’m uncertain if that would count as something other than colonization, either.
It depends what aspect of colonization is important to your definition, I guess. Is it about imperialist expansion to non-contiguous territories, or is it more specifically about extracting resources from those territories for the exclusive benefit of the motherland?
At any rate, I would say that French Guiana either counts or doesn’t count as a colony of France to the same extent that Hawaii counts or doesn’t count as a colony of the United States.
There are multiple definitions of “Europe”.
French Guyana isn’t geographically, geologically, culturally or historically part of Europe.
But politically and legally, it is.
Imagine my surprise when I learned that Europe was adjacent to Japan.
“Europe” is just an Asian peninsula with delusions of grandeur.
Exactly. Geologically speaking, Europe is not a separate continent.
Right or wrong, looking at that map, it’s hard to say those are delusions.
It is interesting to see that Sweden is only three land borders away from North Korea.
Sweden - Finland
Finland - Russia
Russia - DPRK
Brazil is only
six.Edit: Actually, it’s only five!
How do you count that?
I don’t see any land border connection between south America and Asia…
But I am peobably missing something.
Brazil shares a border with France.
Brazil borders France. (Amapá borders French Guiana.)
France borders Germany.
Germany borders Poland.
Poland borders Belarus and Ukraine.
Belarus and Ukraine each border Russia.
Russia borders North Korea.
Edit: Actually, Poland borders Russia directly. (Warmian-Masurian borders Kaliningrad.) So really it’s only five!
Heh, I disn’t consider French Guiyana, well spotted!
And Brazil!
Don’t forget the section of South America that is also Europe on that picture.
I’m beginning to doubt the accuracy of the labeling…
It’s because that little chunk of South America is French Guiana, which is a full-fledged part of France (not just a territory, but a departement with political status equal to the ones in mainland Europe).
It’s also where the European Space Agency launches their spacecraft from, by the way.
Cool. I’m not sure what that has to do with the continent, though. Politically, I’m uncertain if that would count as something other than colonization, either.
It depends what aspect of colonization is important to your definition, I guess. Is it about imperialist expansion to non-contiguous territories, or is it more specifically about extracting resources from those territories for the exclusive benefit of the motherland?
At any rate, I would say that French Guiana either counts or doesn’t count as a colony of France to the same extent that Hawaii counts or doesn’t count as a colony of the United States.
Edit: no need to repeat myself. I think European would have been a more reasonable label.
There are multiple definitions of “Europe”.
French Guyana isn’t geographically, geologically, culturally or historically part of Europe.
But politically and legally, it is.
What exactly does this have to do with anything in the above comment?
There is probably a reason those countries all speak Spanish or Portugese.
Yes, that is what colonialism tends to do. It is still not part of Europe, which is a well defined geographic(!) region. Wiki: Europe