Eurasia
See also Eurasian Plate, Asia, Africa-Eurasia, and Australasia. |
African-Eurasian aspect of Earth |
Eurasia is the
landmass composed of
Europe and
Asia. Mostly in the
eastern and
northern hemispheres, Eurasia can be considered a
supercontinent, part of a supercontinent of
Africa-Eurasia, or simply a
continent. In
plate tectonics, the
Eurasian Plate includes Europe and most of Asia, but not the
Indian subcontinent, the
Arabian subcontinent, and the area east of the
Cherskiy Range in
Sakha.
Eurasia is also used in international politics 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.
Europeans, unaware of the extent of Eurasia, traditionally considered Europe and Asia to be separate continents, with the dividing line placed along the
Aegean Sea,
Dardanelles,
Bosphorus,
Black Sea,
Caucasus Mountains,
Caspian Sea,
Ural River, and
Ural Mountains, and this terminology 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. From a modern perspective, the continent with the least reason for separate recognition is Europe, and in scientific circles people generally prefer to subsume Europe and Asia into Eurasia.
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.
The
Silk Road symbolizes trade and cultural exchange linking Eurasian cultures through history and has been an increasingly popular topic. Recent decades have brought forth a view toward a greater
Eurasian history, establishing genetic, cultural, and
linguistic relationships between European and Asian cultures of antiquity, which had long been thought of as distinct.
Eurasia is also a
fictional country in a number of established and comtemporary works. A Eurasia comprising approximately the same land area as the landmass itself in
George Orwell's
Nineteen Eighty-Four (excluding the British Isles (controlled by
Oceania) and
Eastasia, the latter of which was formed, as the novel says, by an alliance of the states of the region, being the most important couple China and Japan after a 'decade of confused fighting'. India was a contested border zone between
Eurasia and
Oceania and was the most famous state involved.
In
Robert A. Heinlein's story
Solution Unsatisfactory, written in 1940, he described a future 1945 (now to be considered an
Alternative History) in which the
Soviet Union is transformed into "The Eurasian Union".
In
S.M. Stirling's dystopian
Draka Alternative History series, the analogue to the Second World war becomes known as "The Eurasian War". Somewhat similar in its geography Orwell's scenario, the war ends with most of Eurasia - excluding the British Isles, India and South-East Asia - being conquered by the extremely oppressive Draka who literally enslaved everybody else.
Eurasia is also a state or supra-national entity in numerous works of science fiction today, including books, movies, television series, and videogames.
In the game universe of the Earth series (Earth 2140,2150,2160), one of the major factions was the Eurasian Dynasty.
Eurasia is a large and powerful terrestrial state and member of the
Earth Alliance in the
Cosmic Era series of the epic
anime franchise,
Mobile Suit Gundam Seed.
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Palearctic*
Laurasia, a theoretical supercontinent joining Eurasia and North America.
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Eurasian Economic Community*
Neo-Eurasianism*
Eurasian*
EurasiaNet
