As it has been more than a quarter century since the publication of my book The Myth of Continents (co-written with my wife, Kären Wigen), I have long thought that the topic deserved reconsideration. An opportunity came in May 2025, when I was invited to give a talk in Stanford’s Distinguished Faculty Lecture Series, associated with the University’s Continuing Studies Program. I have recently redelivered this lecture in an expanded version, divided into two parts. The first part is now available for viewing at the GeoCurrents YouTube channel, which can be found here. The second part of this lecture will be posted soon.
My interpretation of the division of world into continents has not changed much over the past few decades. But I have delved a bit deeper into the origin of this system of global division. I now trace it back not just to ancient Greece, but more specifically to the Ionian School (or Ionian Enlightenment) of the sixth century BCE and its so-called pre-Socratic philosophers. Ionian Greeks from the city of Miletus extensively traded in, and settled the shores of, the Black Sea, which led them to divide their known world into “Europe” and “Asia.” “Libya” (Africa) was soon added, thus splitting the terrestrial world into three parts. (A few of the slides from this part of the lecture are posted below.)
In Part One of this two-lecture series, I first look into the different definitions of the term “continent” and explore the conceptual problems that emerge from their varied applications. I then outline the evolution of the continental model, from the ancient Ionians to the twentieth century. In the second lecture, I first examine the geological understanding of continents, then move on to the intellectual problems that emerge when the world is divided in such a manner, and conclude by analyzing the world-regional system that emerged as the main alternative to the continental scheme after World War II.
