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.

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[–] 3 points 1 week ago (1 child)

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.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 week ago

    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

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