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.
The Middle East is in the middle of the Eastern hemisphere.
No, it is roughly in the middle of the Old World. The middle of the Eastern Hemisphere is further east, in the Bay of Bengal southwest of Myanmar.
The counteies like Iraq, Iran, and the Stans are just west of 90E. They could be considered West Middle East, but they’re closer to the middle than either edge of the hemisphere.
The terms near east, middle east, and far east are labeled as such because of their position relative to the prime meridian, which runs through Europe.
Eurocentric map. Well done proving everyone who is pushing back against middle east right.
Also it’s not “middle” of the eastern hemisphere either. That’d be India and China.
Europe is only in the middle because that’s where the prime meridian is at. Everyone uses the same longitude and latitude and the hemispheres are the same for everyone. It’s definitely in the middle third of the Eastern hemisphere.
That’s not where the name comes from. It comes from the distinction of the “far east” (China, Japan, etc) vs. the “middle east” or the “near east.” Which is why many people think it’s Eurocentric, it literally treates Europe as the center.
The prime meridian runs through western Europe. Most of Europe would be in the near East, relative to that point. China is on the far east of the hemisphere. They are fair labels based on their position to the prime meridian.