Eurasia
The concept of Europe and Asia as distinct continents is largely cultural and dates back to antiquity.[1] Europe and Asia together form the largest continental landmass, known as Eurasia.[1] In certain physical-geography models, Eurasia is regarded as a single supercontinent.[1]
Quick Facts
- Area
- 55,000,000 km2
- Population
- 5.6 billion (As of 2025)
- Density
- 102 /km2
- Demonym
- Eurasian
- Dependencies
- 9 dependencies
- Time
- UTC−1 to UTC+12
- Part of
- Afro-Eurasia
Facts from the source article.
Geography and history
The division between Europe and Asia is a historical social construct, as neither fits the usual definition of a continent.[2] New connections emerged between Eurasia's subregions from the Age of Discovery onwards, with Iberians discovering new maritime routes in the 1490s.[3] The 1869 completion of the Suez Canal paved the way for direct passage through the Indo-Mediterranean and Western European "New Imperialism".[3] The territory of Eurasia extends westward from Iceland and the Iberian Peninsula to the Russian Far East in the east, and southward from the Russian Far North to Maritime Southeast Asia.[2]
Until the Cold War ended in 1991, the Soviet Union's communist influence was the dominant political force across much of Eurasia.[3] In ancient Greek geography, Africa was considered part of Asia, while Europe was treated as a distinct land.[4]
What the cited sources add
The Andreen blog notes that "Eurasia" is one of the most important geopolitical concepts, and as Zbigniew Brzezinski said, "ever since the continents started interacting politically, some five hundred years ago, Eurasia has been the center of world power".[5] Andreen explains that in the widest geopolitical sense, the definition of "Eurasia" is consistent with its geographical area, which is what political circles in the USA, Japan, and India generally mean.[5] Andreen states that the Russian view today is that "Eurasia" consists of Western and Central Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, part of Caucasus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan.[5] The Andreen blog reports that "Eurasia" accounts for about three-fourths of the world's known energy resources.[5]
The Times article from 2007 notes that Kazakhstan's president proposed building a "Eurasia Canal" to connect the Caspian Sea and Black Sea via Russia's Kuma-Manych Depression.[6][7] Andreen writes that the Russian geopolitical concept of "Eurasia" first roughly matched the territory of Imperial Russia as it existed in 1914, which included portions of Eastern Europe.[5]
References
- Wikipedia, "Eurasia" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Nield, "Continental Divide", Geological Society; McDaniel, "How many continents are there?", Continent, 20 September 2011; McDaniel, "How many continents are there?", Continent, 20 September 2011 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Eurasia" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: McDaniel, "How many continents are there?", Continent, 20 September 2011 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Eurasia" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Vasco da Gama, Portugal's Columbus, Is Just as Controversial", HowStuffWorks, 2020-08-27; "Behind the Enduring Relevance of the Suez Canal Is the Long Shadow of European Colonialism", The Wire; Beissinger, "Nationalism and the Collapse of Soviet Communism", Contemporary European History, 2009, p. 331–347 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Eurasia" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Wiesner-Hanks, "Early Modern Europe, 1450–1789", Cambridge University Press, 2006, p. 2 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Andreen, "The Concept of Eurasia", Blogger.com /, 2014-04-15. facts only, no text reused. commentandoutlook.blogspot.fr
- Canal will link Caspian Sea to world (The Times, 29 June 2007). facts only, no text reused. timesonline.co.uk
- Wikipedia, "Eurasia" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "L. N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University", Emu.kz, 29 July 2010; "The Eurasian Media Forum", Eamedia.org; "Eurasian Development Bank", Eabr.org; "Eurasian Bank", Eurasian-bank.kz; Canal will link Caspian Sea to world (The Times, 29 June 2007) (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Eurasia (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
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