Eurasia (/jʊəˈreɪʒə/yoor-AY-zhə,alsoUK:/-ʃə/-shə) is the largest continental area onEarth, comprising all ofEurope andAsia.[3][4] According to some geographers,physiographically, Eurasia is a singlesupercontinent.[4] The concept of Europe and Asia as distinct continents dates back toantiquity, but their borders have historically been subject to change. For example, the ancientGreeks originally includedAfrica in Asia but classified Europe[5] as separate land. Eurasia is connected to Africa at theSuez Canal, and the two are sometimes combined to describe the largest contiguous landmass on Earth,Afro-Eurasia.[6]
Eurasia has been the host of many ancient civilizations, including those based inMesopotamia, theIndus Valley and China. In theAxial Age (mid-first millennium BCE), a continuous belt of civilizations stretched through the Eurasiansubtropical zone from the Atlantic to the Pacific. This belt became the mainstream of world history for two millennia.
New connections emerged between the subregions of Eurasia from theAge of Discovery onwards, with the Iberians discovering new maritime routes in the 1490s,[7] and the 1869 completion of theSuez Canal having paved the way for direct passage through theIndo-Mediterranean and the wave of Western European "New Imperialism" that dominated Africa and Asia until the mid-20th century.[8] The communist presence in Eurasia (primarily driven by theSoviet Union) then dominated much of the continent until theend of the Cold War in 1991.[9]
Eurasia covers around 55 million square kilometres (21 million square miles), or around 36.2% of the Earth's total land area. The landmass contains well over 5 billion people, equating to approximately 70% of thehuman population. Humans first settled in Eurasia from Africa 125,000 years ago.
Due to its vast size and differences inlatitude, Eurasia exhibits all types of climates under theKöppen classification, including the harshest types of hot and cold temperatures, high and low precipitation, and various types ofecosystems.
Eurasia is considered asupercontinent, part of the supercontinent ofAfro-Eurasia or simply a continent in its own right.[10] Inplate tectonics, theEurasian Plate includes Europe and most of Asia but not the Indian subcontinent, the Arabian Peninsula or the area of the Russian Far East east of theChersky Range.
From the point of view of history and culture, Eurasia can be loosely subdivided intoWestern Eurasia andEastern Eurasia.[11]
In geology, Eurasia is often considered as a single rigid megablock, but this is debated.[12][13] Eurasia formed between 375 and 325 million years ago with the merging ofSiberia,Kazakhstania, andBaltica, which was joined toLaurentia (now North America), to formEuramerica.
Originally, "Eurasia" is a geographical notion: in this sense, it is simply the biggest continent; the combined landmass of Europe and Asia. However, geopolitically, the word has several meanings, reflecting specific geopolitical interests.[19] "Eurasia" is one of the most important geopolitical concepts and it figures prominently in the commentaries on the ideas ofHalford Mackinder. AsZbigniew Brzezinski observed on Eurasia:
"... how America 'manages' Eurasia is critical. A power that dominates 'Eurasia' would control two of the world's three most advanced and economically productive regions. A mere glance at the map also suggests that control over 'Eurasia' would almost automatically entail Africa's subordination, rendering the Western Hemisphere and Oceania geopolitically peripheral to the world's central continent. About 75 per cent of the world's people live in 'Eurasia', and most of the world's physical wealth is there as well, both in its enterprises and underneath its soil. 'Eurasia' accounts for about three-fourths of the world's known energy resources."[20]
— Zbigniew Brzezinski, The grand chessboard : American primacy and its geostrategic imperatives
The Russian "Eurasianism" corresponded initially more or less to the land area ofImperial Russia in 1914, including parts ofEastern Europe.[21] One of Russia's main geopolitical interests lies in ever closer integration with those countries that it considers part of "Eurasia."[22]
The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) is a political and economic association of 10 post-Soviet republics in Eurasia formed following the dissolution of the Soviet Union. It has an estimated population of 239,796,010. The CIS encourages cooperation in economic, political, and military affairs and has certain powers to coordinate trade, finance, lawmaking and security. In addition, six members of the CIS have joined theCollective Security Treaty Organization, an intergovernmental military alliance that was founded in 1992.
Similar in concept to the European Union, theEurasian Economic Union is aneconomic union established in 2015 including Russia,Armenia,Belarus,Kazakhstan,Kyrgyzstan and observer membersMoldova,Uzbekistan, andCuba. It is headquartered in Moscow, Russia andMinsk, Belarus. The union promotes economic integration among members and is theoretically open to enlargement to include any country in Europe or Asia.
TheFederation of Euro-Asian Stock Exchanges (FEAS) is an international organization headquartered inYerevan, comprising the main stock exchanges in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Central Asia. The purpose of the Federation is to contribute to the cooperation, development, support and promotion of capital markets in the Eurasian region.
TheRussia – EU Four Common Spaces Initiative, is a jointEuropean Union and Russian agreement to closer integrate Russia and the EU, remove barriers to trade and investment and promote reforms and competitiveness. In 2010, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin called for common economic space, free-trade area or more advanced economic integration, stretching from Lisbon to Vladivostok. However, no significant progress was made and the project was put on hold after Russia-EU relations deteriorated following theRusso-Ukrainian War in 2014.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation is a Eurasian political, economic and security alliance, the creation of which was announced on 15 June 2001 in Shanghai, China. It is the largest regional organisation in the world in terms of geographical coverage and population, covering three-fifths of the Eurasian continent and nearly half of the human population.
Changes in national boundaries after the collapse of theEastern Bloc
Nineteenth-century Russian philosopherNikolai Danilevsky defined Eurasia as an entity separate from Europe and Asia, bounded by the Himalayas, the Caucasus, theAlps, the Arctic, the Pacific, the Atlantic, the Mediterranean, the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, a definition that has been influential in Russia and other parts of the former Soviet Union.[28] Nowadays, partly inspired by this usage, the term Eurasia is sometimes used to refer to thepost-Soviet space – in particular Russia, theCentral Asian republics, and theTranscaucasus republics – and sometimes also adjacent regions such as Turkey andMongolia.
^Nield, Ted."Continental Divide".Geological Society.Archived from the original on 3 December 2013. Retrieved8 August 2012.
^abcMcDaniel, Melissa; Sprout, Erin; et al. (20 September 2011)."How many continents are there?".Continent.National Geographic Society. Archived fromthe original on 16 July 2019. Retrieved27 July 2017.By convention there are seven continents: Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Europe, Australia, and Antarctica. Some geographers list only six continents, combining Europe and Asia into Eurasia. In parts of the world, students learn that there are just five continents: Eurasia, Australia (Oceania), Africa, Antarctica, and the Americas.
^McColl, R. W., ed. (2005).'continents' –Encyclopedia of World Geography, Volume 1. Golson Books Ltd. p. 215.ISBN9780816072293.Archived from the original on 9 June 2016. Retrieved26 June 2012.And since Africa and Asia are connected at the Suez Peninsula, Europe, Africa, and Asia are sometimes combined as Afro-Eurasia or Eurafrasia.
^Sengupta, Anita (2009).Heartlands of Eurasia: The Geopolitics of Political Space.Lexington Books. p. 25.Anthropologically, historically and linguistically Eurasia is more appropriately, though vaguely subdivided into West Eurasia (often including North Africa) and East Eurasia
^Andreen, Finn (15 April 2014)."The Concept of Eurasia".Blogger.com /. Comment and Outlook.Archived from the original on 6 June 2014. Retrieved6 June 2014.
D. Lane, V. Samokhvalov, The Eurasian Project and Europe Regional Discontinuities and Geopolitics, Palgrave: Basingstoke (2015)
V. Samokhvalov, The new Eurasia: post-Soviet space between Russia, Europe and China, European Politics and Society, Volume 17, 2016 – Issue sup1: The Eurasian Project in Global Perspective (Journal homepage)
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