what continent is the middle east

Near East, Levant and Fertile Crescent are geographic concepts, which refer to large sections of the modern defined Middle East, with Near East being the closest to Middle East in its geographic meaning. Rub’ Al Khali Desert is the largest desert in the world, and it covers a huge part of Oman, United Arab Emirates, South Saudi Arabia, and Yemen. (Primary Reflections)", "Redrawing American Cartographies of Asia", "Report for Selected Countries and Subjects", "Concocting a 'Greater Middle East' brew", The Greater Middle East Initiative: Off to a False Start, "IOM Intra regional labour mobility in Arab region Facts and Figures (English)", "Europe :: Akrotiri — The World Factbook - Central Intelligence Agency", "Europe :: Dhekelia — The World Factbook - Central Intelligence Agency", "Reports of about 300,000 Jews that left the country after WW2". The equator runs through Africa in the middle of the continent. The term was created by British military strategists in the 19th century, and definitions of the Middle East vary; it is not simply a geographical term, but also a political one, connoting that it separates Europe ("the West") from the Far East. There is also an Oasis Berber-speaking community in Egypt where the language is also known as Siwa. [18], The description Middle has also led to some confusion over changing definitions. [21], There are terms similar to Near East and Middle East in other European languages, but since it is a relative description, the meanings depend on the country and are different from the English terms generally. The answer to this question can either be opinionated with all of Turkey belonging to Europe or the Middle East, but then there’s the more accepted route by declaring Turkey a transcontinental country. It's not a precise geographical area like Europe or Africa. It is a non-Semitic Afro-Asiatic language. These were followed by the Hittite, Greek, Hurrian and Urartian civilisations of Asia Minor; Elam, Persia and Median civilizations in Iran, as well as the civilizations of the Levant (such as Ebla, Mari, Nagar, Ugarit, Canaan, Aramea, Mitanni, Phoenicia and Israel) and the Arabian Peninsula (Magan, Sheba, Ubar). [22] Even though the term originated in the West, apart from Arabic, other languages of countries of the Middle East also use a translation of it. Overall, as of 2007[update], according to the CIA World Factbook, all nations in the Middle East are maintaining a positive rate of growth. The estimated oil reserves in Saudi Arabia and Iran is the highest on earth. Hebrew is spoken and used by over 80% of Israel's population, the other 20% using Arabic. [8][9] During this time the British and Russian Empires were vying for influence in Central Asia, a rivalry which would become known as The Great Game. It has a 650 miles coastline along the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea. The Indian Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea all surround Africa, to … The MENA region is in the middle of a digital transformation, which 2020 and COVID-19 has only accelerated. What Is The Difference Between Near East and Middle East? It extends for about 1,000 miles from the Iran Mountains to the Mediterranean Sea and 2,000 miles from the Arabian Sea to the Black Sea. Non-Arab Middle Eastern countries such as Turkey, Israel and Iran are also subject to important migration dynamics. Unemployment is notably high in the Middle East and North Africa region, particularly among young people aged 15–29, a demographic representing 30% of the region's total population. Throughout the region, unemployment and underemployment, low wages, lack of opportunity and political repression are the root causes of this growing movement for reform. It is divided into three main geographical regions; th… Besides the political reasons there was also the "ideological conflict" between the two systems. GRAPHIC: Asia’s crude oil imports from the Middle East vs the. [10][11] He labeled the area surrounding the Persian Gulf as the Middle East, and said that after Egypt's Suez Canal, it was the most important passage for Britain to control in order to keep the Russians from advancing towards British India. The Middle East is a geographical and cultural region located primarily in western Asia, but also in parts of northern Africa and southeastern Europe. During the twentieth century, the region’s vast crude oil stock helped boost the economy of these nations. The Middle East is the spiritual center and birthplace of numerous religions including Judaism, Islam, Christianity, Druze, and Yarsan among others. Pakistan is an extremely diverse country. From the 16th century onward, the Middle East came to be dominated, once again, by two main powers: the Ottoman Empire and the Safavid dynasty. The Middle East is very diverse when it comes to religions, many of which originated there. [12] Mahan first used the term in his article "The Persian Gulf and International Relations", published in September 1902 in the National Review, a British journal. The Middle East is a transcontinental region in Afro-Eurasia which generally includes Western Asia (except for Transcaucasia), all of Egypt (mostly in North Africa), and Turkey (partly in Southeast Europe). The Middle East is generally a hot area with numerous main rivers which supply water to various agricultural regions like the Fertile Crescent, Tigris and Euphrates, and the Nile Delta. Another Turkic language, Azerbaijani, is spoken by Azerbaijanis in Iran. It is a member of the Turkic languages, which have their origins in Central Asia. The economy of the Middle East is very diverse, with national economies ranging from hydrocarbon-exporting rentiers to centralized socialist economies and free-market economies. For the period between the 1970s and 1990s, the Arab states of the Persian Gulf in particular provided a rich source of employment for workers from Egypt, Yemen and the countries of the Levant, while Europe had attracted young workers from North African countries due both to proximity and the legacy of colonial ties between France and the majority of North African states. Coordinates: .mw-parser-output .geo-default,.mw-parser-output .geo-dms,.mw-parser-output .geo-dec{display:inline}.mw-parser-output .geo-nondefault,.mw-parser-output .geo-multi-punct{display:none}.mw-parser-output .longitude,.mw-parser-output .latitude{white-space:nowrap}29°N 41°E / 29°N 41°E / 29; 41. The current Middle East started after the Second World War when the British defeated the Ottoman Empire. The Middle East is, very generally speaking, an arid region in Southwest Asia and part of North Africa stretching from the Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf, bounded by the Black and Caspian Seas in the north and the Sahara Desert and Indian Ocean in the south. Christians represent 40.5% of Lebanon, where the Lebanese president, half of the cabinet, and half of the parliament follow one of the various Lebanese Christian rites. The World Bank: World Economic Indicators Database. [43] When it comes to per capita (PPP)-based income, the highest-ranking countries are Qatar ($86,008), Kuwait ($39,915), the UAE ($38,894), Bahrain ($34,662) and Cyprus ($29,853). However, it would be the later Islamic Caliphates of the Middle Ages, or Islamic Golden Age which began with the Islamic conquest of the region in the 7th century AD, that would first unify the entire Middle East as a distinct region and create the dominant Islamic Arab ethnic identity that largely (but not exclusively) persists today. Arabs constitute the largest ethnic group in the Middle East, followed by various Iranian peoples and then by Turkic speaking groups (Turkish, Azeris, and Iraqi Turkmen). It's not a political or economic alliance like the European Union. Other Western Iranic languages spoken in the region include Achomi, Daylami, Kurdish dialects, Semmani, Lurish, amongst many others. [42] Turkey ($1,028,897), Iran ($839,438) and Saudi Arabia ($589,531) had the largest economies in terms of GDP-PPP. Geographically, the Middle East can be thought of as Western Asia with the addition of Egypt (which is the non- Maghreb region of Northern Africa) and with the exclusion of the Caucasus. The Associated Press Stylebook says that Near East formerly referred to the farther west countries while Middle East referred to the eastern ones, but that now they are synonymous. "[16] In 1958, the State Department explained that the terms "Near East" and "Middle East" were interchangeable, and defined the region as including only Egypt, Syria, Israel, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Qatar.[19]. Cleveland, William L., and Martin Bunton. After that time, the term "Middle East" gained broader usage in Europe and the United States, with the Middle East Institute founded in Washington, D.C. in 1946, among other usage.[17]. Egypt in Africa also borders the Mediterranean and is sometimes considered as part of the Middle East, while Turkey and Cyprus literall… First used in 1856, the term “Near East” was defined specifically against the Far East and referred to the region in Asia that’s west of India. World Economic Outlook Database-October 2009, "Unemployment Rates Are Highest in the Middle East", "Inclusion: Meeting the 100 Million Youth Challenge", "Social Exclusion: Comparative Analysis of Europe and Middle East Youth", "Population, total - Middle East & North Africa, World | Data", "An overview of monitoring and reduction strategies for health and climate change related emissions in the Middle East and North Africa region", "Oil consumption, CO2 emission and economic growth in MENA countries", "The impact of the global energy transition on MENA oil and gas producers", "Ten health issues WHO will tackle this year", "The Greatest Threat To Global Security: Climate Change Is Not Merely An Environmental Problem", "How the Middle East is suffering on the front lines of climate change", "With climate change, life in the Gulf could become impossible", Middle East Business Intelligence since 1957, Middle East Business, Financial & Industry News, List of countries where Arabic is an official language, Lower Gangetic Plains moist deciduous forests, Northwestern Himalayan alpine shrub and meadows, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Middle_East&oldid=1002534005, Pages containing links to subscription-only content, Short description is different from Wikidata, Wikipedia indefinitely move-protected pages, Wikipedia extended-confirmed-protected pages, Articles needing additional references from April 2019, All articles needing additional references, Pages using collapsible list with both background and text-align in titlestyle, Articles with unsourced statements from November 2008, Articles needing additional references from December 2011, Articles with unsourced statements from September 2012, Articles containing potentially dated statements from 1995, All articles containing potentially dated statements, Wikipedia articles in need of updating from December 2016, All Wikipedia articles in need of updating, Articles containing potentially dated statements from 2007, Pages using Sister project links with hidden wikidata, Pages using Sister project links with default search, Wikipedia articles with WORLDCATID identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. 18,000 ft above Sea level: Asia ’ s total land area originated from Middle... 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