Listening to an Iranian official describe his region as “West Asia” got me wondering if the word “Middle East” is on the outs and why. I suspect Middle East is eurocentric for some reason, but West Asia also preserves Europe as a continent, which is Eurocentric in its own way because Europe is not a continent and never was. If we’re calling anything West Asia, it should be Spain and Portugal.
Middle East and West Asia are both terms that can be used kind of interchangeably, it just depends on the context. And yes, Europe is a glorified peninsula of the continent of “Eurasia”. Interestingly, Russia and a few other countries that straddle the boundary of Europe and Asia teach it as one continent.
In my opinion, the idea of “continents” is ambiguous if we define it as no sea in between, Afro-Eurasia is a monster that isn’t helpful to categorise the world. There’s good videos on the topic by CGP Grey and Map Men (previously Jay Foreman), you should go look at that I think!
I would rather divide the world based on the geological definition of continents, about the major tectonic plates! But even that can be difficult since what constitutes as a “major” tectonic plate? It’s still better in my opinion, since it’s something that can be discussed by geologists rather than politicians.
According to Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tectonic_plates
Under this definition, the continents are (if we only consider major plates as defined by Wikipedia):
if we include the some of the larger minor plates (I feel like we should):
There are lots of smaller ones but those are mostly ocean too
I think it would be neat if the world was divided to have India, Arabia, the Carribean, and Eastern Africa to have the Europe sort of treatment! India alone has more people than the whole of Europe combined (I think you could throw North America too and the Indian region, including Pakistan, Bangladesh, etc., will still be more populous!)
I agree with you about India and the Caribbean etc. being considered their own “continents”
I think the tectonic plates have helped to make natural boundaries that create such difference in culture, in particular the Indian region (incl. Pakistan, Bangladesh) is vastly different from the other side of the Himalayas, of course still linked, but culture is very different!
Same goes with the Carribean, Arabia, etc.
Russia “straddling” the continents is an understatement when it’s confusingly part of both. How can one country and continuous land mass be in two continents? Make that make sense.
Well yeah, the Russians teach just one continent, Eurasia. A few other places do that too I think, mostly those who were influenced by the Russians in the past (i.e. were part of the Russian Empire and/or the USSR’s sphere of influence)
And I know many Latin American countries teach a unified continent of America rather than splitting it North and South.
Egpyt does not combine Asia and Africa despite having the Sinai peninsula in Asia (which is only split by a manmade canal)
Personally, I’m a fan of defining continents geologically, since it gets rid of all the politics
Ah, that was avery insightful video. Thanks:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uBcq1x7P34&t=229
Make sure the check the Map Men one too! They are timeless and funny too