Middle East

The Middle East (also called Southwestern Asia) is a region comprising the lands that extend from the eastern Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf. The Middle East is a subregion of Africa-Eurasia, or more specifically, Asia, and sometimes North Africa and Afghanistan.

Eurocentrism

Some have criticized the term Middle East for its perceived Eurocentrism. The region is only east from the perspective of western Europe. To an Indian, it lies to the west; to a Russian, it lies to the south. The description Middle has also led to some confusion over changing definitions. Before the First World War, Near East was used in English to refer to the Balkans and the Ottoman Empire, while Middle East referred to Persia, Afghanistan and Central Asia, Turkistan and the Caucasus. In contrast, Far East refers to the countries of East Asia e.g. China, Japan, Koreas, Hong Kong, Taiwan etc.

Related Topics:
Eurocentrism - Indian - Russian - First World War - Balkans - Ottoman Empire - Persia - Afghanistan - Central Asia - Turkistan - Caucasus - Far East

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

With the disappearance of the Ottoman Empire in 1918, Near East largely fell out of common use in English, while Middle East came to be applied to the re-emerging countries of the Islamic world. However, the usage of Near East was retained by a variety of academic disciplines, including archaeology and ancient history, where it describes an area identical to the term Middle East, which is not used by these disciplines (see Ancient Near East). So in shorter words, the term Middle East came about when the UK/French part of the world used the term. In German the Term Naher Osten (Near East) is still in common use.

Related Topics:
1918 - Islamic world - Near East - Archaeology - Ancient history - Ancient Near East

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The criticism of Eurocentrism is of course related to the fact that 'East' and 'West' are defined in relation to the lines of Longitude relative to the Prime Meridian or Greenwich Meridian and therefore inherently Eurocentric. This was a result of the British cartography standard being widely accepted in 1884 at the International Meridian Conference.

Related Topics:
Longitude - Prime Meridian - Greenwich Meridian - International Meridian Conference

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~