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this post was submitted on 08 Sep 2026
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We're repeatedly told in school and all throughout our media that Canada is the "second largest land mass in the world". Is that not true?
Land mass or country? Because the Americas make us the second largest land mass with Eurasia and Africa because the largest.
Isn't Africa connected to Eurasia? So we have the Americas and AfroEurasia plus some islands. Which is why "continents" has no meaning and is another social construct unless you divide them in a way that makes zero sense to anyone who isn't a geologist.
We should divide the continents in:
Continents: the actual land, so we have the Americas (i'd count them as one as they are almost one), AfroEuroAsia
Sub continents: their definition is cultural so we have north and south america, Africa, Europe, Asia and Oceania
Don't take anything too seriously, i thought about this on two feets around 2 years ago and forgot about that until now
I know at the end of the day it doesn't really matter, but it always rubbed me the wrong way when Europeans claim that The Americas are one continent because it's one connected landmass, but somehow Europe is it's own continent. North/South America at least came from different super continents and only recently collided. Europe (minus the Balkans) and Asia (minus Arabian and Indian peninsulas) have been together since at least Pangaea.
Which is exactly why I said Eurasia AND Africa. I also never said continent. I said LND MASS which is what was previously said.
Work on your reading comprehension.
Canada is the second largest country in the world by area.
Yes it is, but you have to include all of those islands, in particular Baffin island. If you just look at the contiguous land masses, the US is bigger, which is why it looks bigger on this projection. If you dragged all those islands together into Canada, then Canada would look slightly bigger, because it is slightly bigger.