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Serious question. Why is it not just a straightish line down from around the latitude on the west side of the Caspian?
It seems so weird that it goes around all of Turkey and the east Med. basin with that whole area just sticking out towards the west so much. Is it a political thing? Maybe because Israel, Lebanon, Syria and the lot don't fit in culturally with Europe? You could argue that Latin american North America is just as separate with USA and Canada.
It would otherwise certainly be more of a proportionate sized continent, too.
And you answered your question yourself: "Is it a political thing? Maybe because Israel, Lebanon, Syria and the lot don't fit in culturally with Europe?"
Why should they? I don't know. I'm curious as to why it is the way it is. Sometimes I think it's equally strange they are considered separate continents at all. I don't know if the difference in lifestyle is enough of a factor either, in my opinion.
It's because the Greeks invented the terms Europe and Asia, and they were referring to the separation of where they lived from the land in Anatolia by the Aegean, Marmara, and Black Sea. Asia, originally, was referring to Anatolia primarily and of course other stuff on that side of the divide.
Serious question. Why is it not just a straightish line down from around the latitude on the west side of the Caspian?
It seems so weird that it goes around all of Turkey and the east Med. basin with that whole area just sticking out towards the west so much. Is it a political thing? Maybe because Israel, Lebanon, Syria and the lot don't fit in culturally with Europe? You could argue that Latin american North America is just as separate with USA and Canada.
It would otherwise certainly be more of a proportionate sized continent, too.
Straight lines on a map ignore natural cultural boundaries which, like all natural boundaries are never straight. Those areas are culturally politically, unlike Europe.
Anybody can "consider" continents to be whatever they want. There is no absolute definition.
The oldest known writings that mention Asia are from Herodotus (about 440 BC), who "defines [Asia] carefully, mentioning the previous geographers whom he had read, but whose works are now missing. By it he means Anatolia and the Persian Empire, in contrast to Greece and Egypt." (from Wikipedia)
The Latin and Greek words at that time for Asia were the same.
Turkey, at least, has few things in common with other european countries. They are mostly muslims and speak an altaic language.
How about Albania, Kosovo and Bosina as a majority of their inhabitants are Muslim. In addition the Greek language and Basque language is not related to any other European languages.
How about Albania, Kosovo and Bosina as a majority of their inhabitants are Muslim. In addition the Greek language and Basque language is not related to any other European languages.
Greek is an indo-european language, though not belonging to other major division of Indo-European (Romance, Germanic, Slavic, etc.). Same situation of Albanian. The languages spoken in Europe which are not Indo-European are Finnish, Estonian and Hungarian - indeed, all of them belong to the Finno-Ugric group, which spoken almost exclusively in Europe. The Turkish language is more related to languages in Central Asia. And according to some linguists, also remotely to Korean and Japanese - in a larger distance than English and Hindi.
And about religion, the Christianity is part of the cultural identity of Europe, it's difficult to conceive a muslim country as culturally part of Europe - and a christian country as culturally part of Asia (the Philipines are perhaps the most noticeable exception).
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