Eurafrasia

Euraphrasia, Eurasia, Africa-Eurasia, Afro-Eurasia, Afroeurasia, Euroafricasia, Asieuroafrica, Eurasian-African continent or simply and specifically Euphrasia, is the largest supercontinent on Earth. It is located in the eastern and part of the western hemisphere and includes Africa and Eurasia (the latter formed by Europe and Asia). It is considered a "tricontinental ensemble". Also called the "Old World" or "Old Continent", it covers more than 85 million km², out of a total of emerged land of almost 150 million on the entire planet; this makes it the world's largest region. In 2008, it was home to about 86% of the world's population. It has been the most populous area in all of human history. Isaac Asimov calculated its total population and its extension, adding the data corresponding to each of the continents involved, and commented in this regard: «Dispensing with the Suez Canal, one can go from the Cape of Good Hope to the Bering Strait or to Portugal or Lapland without crossing salt water; so that set of lands forms a single continent".

"Euraphrasia" is a strictly geographical neologism.This concept is related to other similar terms, such as ecumene or "World Island", the latter designated by the English geopolitician and geographer Halford John Mackinder and which first appeared in his work «The Geographical Pivot of History». Mackinder defined it as the great continuous landmass. This terminology, along with others, is frequently used in a large number of geopolitical texts and articles.

Related terms

The following concepts are related to the name «Eurafrasia», although they differ in certain points:

• Ecumene (from the Greek ο changeκουμ Vasνη, «habited land»): a concept of classical antiquity over the world known at that time, which was limited to Europe and part of Asia and Africa. Several historians, such as Marshall Hodgson, Alfred Kroeber, Arnold Toynbee, William McNeill and Leften Stavrianos, rescued this ancient term to refer to the agrarian civilizations of the fourth millennium, which were in contact with each other. Hodgson, however, was the one who began using “Afro-Eurasia” in relation to “equire”.
• Old World: a term related to the era of discoveries, in contrast to the New World, represented by America. However, the term has been outdated and the term "Eurafrasia" is preferred to include the three continents, since it reflects the constant relationship between them. William McNeill uses this term as a synonym for "Afro-Eurasia", although others reject it as a Eurocentrist.
• World-Island or world island: this is a concept coined by English geographer Halford John Mackinder in a theory presented in his article "The Geographical Pivot of History". Mackinder defines the "world island" as a continuous continental mass, which technically excludes the islands as Britain. It was also considered the centre of the world and a privileged region in terms of wealth and population. While Marco Valigi, Gabriele Natalizzia and Carlo Frappi consider «Eurafrasia» a synonym for World-Islandother authors point out that the difference between the two concepts is that the first includes all the islands considered part of Africa, Europe and Asia. For his part, Isaac Asimov, in his essay “The Island of the World”, defends this denomination and although he finds ridiculous the acronym “Eurafrasia”, confesses that he was tempted to propose it.

Arnold Toynbee used this term to refer to the "complex of interconnected continents". The little recognition of the term "Euraphrasia" and its variants is due, according to the American historian Ross E. Dunn, to the "myth of the continents", according to which there are seven land masses separated by intercontinental waters; this led to a dogmatism that prevented South and North America from being considered a single continent in the 1950s. However, both Dunn and David Christian of San Diego State University consider the concept essential for study historical or social phenomena that took place outside the borders of Asia, Europe and Africa, as in the case of the Roman Empire or the Silk Road.

Geology

The supercontinent Eurafrasia (left) and the separation of Pangea (right).

Although Euraphrasia is considered to have two or three separate continents, it is not a proper supercontinent. Instead, it is the major part of the supercontinental cycle. According to Christian, studying the geological development of Afroeurasia allows us to see it as a great structure with its own history beyond the history of humanity.

The oldest site in Euraphrasia is the Kaapvaal craton, which together with Madagascar and part of India and western Australia formed part of the first supercontinent, Vaalbará or Ur around three billion years ago. Since then, has separated into supercontinents. After the breakup of Pangea two hundred million years ago, the North American and Eurasian plates formed Laurasia, while the African plate remained in Gondwana, from which the Indian plate later broke off. formation of the Himalayas; in the same period, it also merged with the Australian plate. The Arabian plate broke away from Africa thirty million years ago and struck the Iranian plate nineteen to twelve million years ago; this allowed the formation of the Alborz and Zagros mountain ranges. After this initial connection of the three continents, the Betic corridor closed, together with the Gibraltar arch, a little less than six million years ago; this linked North Africa with Iberia. For this reason, Solé Sabarís affirms that the study of the geology of Spain constitutes a fundamental field to study the process of development of Eurafrasia. This led to the drying up of the Mediterranean basin, which produced the Messinian salt crisis. Eurasia and Africa separated again: the Zanclian flood of 5.33 million years ago returned the waters to the Mediterranean Sea through the Strait of Gibraltar, and the Gulf of Suez rift accentuated the division of Africa and the Arabian plate.

Africa is currently connected to Asia only by a land bridge—divided by the Suez Canal at the Isthmus of Suez—and is separated from Europe by the Strait of Gibraltar and the Sicilian Canal. Palaeogeologist Ronald Blakey has considered the next 15 to 100 million years of tectonic development to be fairly established and predictable. In that time, Africa is assumed to continue to head north. The Strait of Gibraltar will close in six hundred thousand years and the Mediterranean Sea will evaporate. No supercontinent will form in this time, although the geological record is littered with sudden shifts in tectonic activity that make future projections uncertain. "very, very speculative". There are three possibilities, called Novopangea, Amasia, and Ultimate Pangea. In the first two, the Pacific Ocean closes and Africa remains merged with Eurasia, but this supercontinent splits as Africa and Europe move towards each other. to West; in the latter, Europe, Asia and Africa rotate to the east and the Atlantic Ocean closes.

Subdivisions

Euraphrasia is divided at the Suez Canal into Africa and Eurasia; the latter can be subdivided into Europe and Asia. For historical and cultural reasons, it has also been divided into Eurasia-North Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa.

• Asia
  • Western Asia
  • Central Asia
  • East Asia
  • South Asia
  • North Asia
  • Southeast Asian
• Europe
  • Northern Europe
  • Western Europe
  • Central Europe
  • Eastern Europe
  • Southern Europe
• Africa
  • North Africa
  • West Africa
  • Central Africa
  • East Africa
  • Southern Africa

Extreme points

The following is a list of the extreme points of Eurafrasia, that is, the geographical locations that are at the end of a cardinal point within the supercontinent. It has been proposed that, to calculate them, the extreme points of the continents that make it up should be taken into account.

Euraphrasia (with the islands)

• North - Cabo Fligely (Rodolf Island, Land of Francisco José, Russia)
• South - Cabo de las Agujas, South Africa
• West - Santo Antão, Cape Verde
• This - Diomedes Major, Russia

Euraphrasia (continent)

• North - Cape Cheliuskin, Russia
• South - Cabo de las Agujas, South Africa
• West - Cape Verde Peninsula, Senegal
• East - Cabo Dezhneva, Russia

Maps

• 

  African countries

• 

  Asian countries

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  Countries of Europe