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 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.
They are not ‘just west’ of 90E. 90E is the line passing between India and Indonesia. They are also not in the middle third as you claim below. The middle third would be bounded by the 60E and 120E lines, which you can see in the map (one west of India, and the other passing through Australia).
Everyone of the Stan countries are 60E+.