
Eurasia is a large
landmass covering about 52,990,000 km
2
(20,846,000 mi
2) or about 10.6% of the
Earth's surface (36.2% of the land area). Often
considered a single
continent, Eurasia
comprises the traditional continents of
Europe and
Asia (and
Eurasia is a
portmanteau of the
two), concepts which date back to
classical antiquity and the borders for
which are somewhat arbitrary.
Eurasia, in turn, is part of the yet larger
landmass of Afro-Eurasia, whereby
Eurasia is joined to Africa at the Isthmus of Suez
.
Eurasia is inhabited by almost 4.8 billion people, more than 71% of
the world's
population.
History and culture
Jared Diamond, in his book
Guns, Germs and Steel, credits
Eurasia's dominance in world history to the east-west extent of
Eurasia and its
climate zones, and the
availability of Eurasian animals and plants suitable for
domestication. He sometimes includes
North Africa in his definition of
Eurasia.
The
Silk Road symbolizes trade and
cultural exchange linking Eurasian cultures through history and has
been an increasingly popular topic. Over recent decades the idea of
a greater
Eurasian history has
developed with the aim of investigating the genetic, cultural and
linguistic relationships between
European and Asian cultures of antiquity. These had long been
considered distinct.
Geology
Eurasia formed 325 to 375 million years ago. It formed when
Siberia (once an independent
continent),
Kazakhstania, and
Baltica (which was joined to
Laurentia, now North America, to form
Euramerica) joined. Chinese cratons collided with
Siberia's southern coast.
Use of term
Anthropology and genetics
In modern usage, the term
Eurasian usually means "of or
relating to Eurasia", or "a native or inhabitant of Eurasia".
However,
it may also refer to a person of both Asian and European parentage,
especially in 'New World' countries such
as the United
States
, Canada
, Singapore
and Australia.
West or Western Eurasia is a loose geographic definition used in
some disciplines, such as
genetics or
anthropology, to refer to the region
inhabited by the relatively homogenous population of
West Asia,
Europe and
related areas, specially
North Africa.
The peoples of this region are often described collectively as
West or
Western Eurasians.
Geography
Located
primarily in the eastern and
northern
hemispheres
, Eurasia is considered a supercontinent, part of the supercontinent of Afro-Eurasia or simply a continent its own
right. In plate
tectonics, the Eurasian Plate
includes Europe and most of Asia but not the Indian subcontinent, the Arabian Peninsula or the area of the
Russian Far East east of the
Chersky
Range
.
Post-Soviet countries
Eurasia is also sometimes used in
geopolitics as a neutral way to refer to
organizations of or affairs concerning the post-Soviet states, in particular
Russia
, the Central Asian
republics, and the Transcaucasian
republics. A prominent example of this usage is in the
name of the Eurasian
Economic Community, the organization including Kazakhstan,
Russia, and some of their neighbors, and headquartered in Moscow
and Astana
.
The word
"Eurasia" is often used in Kazakhstan
as the name of the continent or region in which
that country is located. Numerous institutions in that
country use it in their name, e.g., L.N. Gumilev Eurasian National
University ( ; ) (
Lev Gumilev's
Eurasianism ideas having been popularized in
Kazakhstan by
Olzhas Suleimenov),
the
Eurasian Media Forum, the
Eurasian Culture Foundation ( ), the
Eurasian Development Bank ( ), or
the Eurasian Bank.
In 2007, Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev proposed that a
"Eurasia Canal" be built to connect
the Caspian
Sea
and the Black
Sea
via the Kuma-Manych Depression in Russia,
providing Kazakhstan and other Caspian-basin countries with a more
efficient access path to the ocean than the existing Volga-Don
Canal
. This usage is somewhat analogous to the U.S.
usage of the term Western Hemisphere
when referring to the concepts and
organizations dealing with the
Americas
(e.g.,
Council on
Hemispheric Affairs or
Western
Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation).
History of the Europe and Asia division
In
ancient times, the Greeks classified Europe
(derived from the mythological Phoenician
princess Europa)
and Asia (derived from Asia, a
woman in Greek mythology) as
separate "lands." Where to draw the dividing line between
the two regions is still a matter of discussion.
Especially whether
the Kuma-Manych Depression or
the Caucasus
Mountains
form the south-east boundary is disputed, since
Mount
Elbrus
would be part of Europe in the latter case, making
it (and not Mont
Blanc
) Europe's highest mountain. Most accepted is
probably the boundary as defined by
Philip Johan von Strahlenberg
in the 18th century.
He defined the dividing line along the
Aegean
Sea
, Dardanelles
, Sea of
Marmara
, Bosporus
, Black
Sea
, Kuma-Manych
Depression, Caspian
Sea
, Ural River, and Ural
Mountains
. This
distinction between Europe and Asia has spread to the rest of the
world, even though
Asia contains multiple
regions and cultures as large and populous as
Europe, and as different and geographically separated from each
other as they are from Europe.
Use in fiction
Eurasia is a
fictional country,
state or
supranational entity appearing in several
works of speculative fiction, including books, movies, television
series and video games:
- A Eurasia
comprising approximately the same land area as the real-life
landmass appears in George Orwell's
Nineteen Eighty-Four.
This
superstate excludes Britain
and Ireland
(both controlled by Oceania) and Eastasia, the latter of
which was formed after a 'decade of confused fighting' by an
alliance of the states of the real-life East
Asia region, the most important three being Korea
, China
and Japan
.
India
was a
contested border zone between Eurasia and Oceania
and was the most famous state involved.
- In S. M. Stirling's
dystopian Draka alternative history
series, the analogue to World War II is
known as "The Eurasian War". Somewhat similar in its geography to
Orwell's scenario, the war ends with most of Eurasia—excluding the
British Isles, India and southeast Asia—being conquered by the
extremely oppressive Draka who literally enslave everybody
else.
- Eurasia is also used as the name of the fictional space colony
that X and Zero must stop from colliding with Earth in the video
game Mega Man X5.
- Eurasia is also the name of the super-state in the Japanese
film Casshern. Unlike most
other fictional "Eurasias" this one has more Chinese/Japanese
motives than Russian, although Russian seems to be the official
written language.
- In the 1980 animated film Animalympics, some of the athletes come from
"Eurasia". Although not specifically noted in the film, the names
and accents of these athletes suggest that "Eurasia" signifies the
Soviet Union at the time. The Soviet Union was, by far, the biggest
country in the Eurasian continent at the time.
See also
External links