Asia is the largest of all continents, covering an area of 44,579,000 square kilometres,
that's 30% of the Earth's total land area.
It has given rise to many of the world's first civilizations, and has long been home to the
majority of the human population.
But have you ever wondered what actually counts as Asia?
Where exactly are the borders?
Do they sit nicely in between countries, or can a country be divided?
I'll be getting into all of that, but first, let's start over in East Asia where it isn't as confusing.
We will begin at this point, where the Tumen River flows into the Sea of Japan, which also
serves as the border between North Korea and Russia.
Now, continents are large continuous, discrete masses of land, ideally separated by
large expanses of water.
So all of this is within Asia - North Korea, South Korea and China.
Keep your eye on this red border line as everything contained within will be considered part of Asia
and everything outside, belongs to a different continent.
Now, what about Japan & Taiwan?
They're islands, and not actually part of this large continuous, discrete landmass.
I'm sure I don't need to tell you that they are still considered part of Asia.
By convention and in practice (for reasons historical, geological and geopolitical in nature)
most major islands are associated with a continent.
And usually it's the continent closest to it.
Zooming in on Japan, there are smaller islands on top and below, that may cause some confusion
with their Asian association.
Up here, we have this group that trail off into the North Pacific, but for now
let's not worry about that since the division between Japan and Russia is said to be here...or here,
depending on which side of the disagreement you're on.
But since these islands are nonetheless administered by the Russian Federation, I'll leave it for now
and head down south to here.
The Ryukyu Islands, which includes Okinawa, is part of Asia.
As well these islands known as The Izu Islands.
However, way down here lies Japan's remote Bonin Islands, also know as the Ogasawara Islands.
Iwo Jima island lies over here - famous for the 1945 Battle of Iwo Jima.
These Pacific Islands administered by Tokyo, are the only Japanese exceptions and are not
considered geographically Asian.
They are so remote and removed from the rest of 'Asia', that many of their animals and plants
have undergone unique evolutionary processes leading to the islands' nickname
of "The Galapagos of the Orient".
This was also where footage of the giant squid was first caught on film.
That's it for Japan, so let's go back to the mainland and continue the borders to Southeast Asia
Here are where things seem to break down.
Looking at the Malay Archipelago, a group of over 25,000 islands, including
The Philippines, East Malaysia, Brunei, Singapore, Timor-Leste, Indonesia
and sometimes the island of New Guinea
you may be wondering: where exactly does Asia end?
And for that matter, where does the continent of Australia begin?
The simple answer is....depends.
It would depend on your own interpretation, since there is no universally defined standard for continents.
But, there is a way to make sense of it.
Almost everyone would agree that The Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore are in Asia.
I'll get back to Indonesia and Timor-Leste shortly.
I say almost everyone because a rare few actually draw the border here, which would leave the
entire Malay Archipelago as part of Australia, the continent, not the country.
Actually, for the sake of clarity, I'll use the term Australasia from now on.
Now conversely, some draw the border here, which would make the island of New Guinea, Asian
These are extreme interpretations so let's disregard that and focus on the
more widely accepted options.
There is a boundary that runs straight through the centre of New Guinea that separates the
country of Papua New Guinea from Indonesia.
Indonesia, a country comprising of over 17,000 islands, is largely considered to be Asian,
where as Papua New Guinea - partly due to its stronger geopolitical ties with its southern neighbors
is considered Australasian.
As a result, many draw the division between Asia and Australasia, to be here.
It simple enough... despite the questionable act of splitting a single island between two continents
However, from a geological and biological standpoint, it's pretty inaccurate.
In 1859, British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace, noticed that animals and plants
up to this boundary, were of Asian origin
where as past this point, they were of Australian origin.
This line is now called the Wallace Line, and denotes the stark contrast in evolutionary offshoots
on each side of the line.
It is this Wallace Line that is often used as the southeastern border of Asia.
But notice this places the country of Timor-Leste in Australasia,
despite many considering it to be part of Asia.
So perhaps it's better to have this line, as the southeastern border..... or even this line.
The Weber line, named after German-Dutch zoologist Max Weber, is the most preferred alternative
to the Wallace Line.
It was proposed after Weber revealed a flaw in Wallace's research
where he felt vertebrate mammals in the region, weren't properly accounted for.
I won't go into any more detail but there's also the Lydekker Line named after
English naturalist and geologist Richard Lydekker, which places the boundary further east.
This enclosed transitional region is known as Wallacea
and if you further break down the analysis to include the continental shelves of Asia and Australasia
a continental shelf being the underwater extension of a continent, that includes the nearby, shallow
submerged area as well as the islands on the shelf
you can see that the Wallace Line happens to closely line up
with the edge of the Asian continental shelf,
and same for the Lydekker line but for the Australasian continental shelf.
This makes sense, as during the Pleistocene ice ages, when the sea levels were lower
and greater areas of continental shelf were exposed as dry land, almost all the islands in the
Malay Archipelago were joined to either the Asian or Australasian landmass,
with a gap roughly the size of Wallacea remaining in the middle.
Therefore you can see how many forms of life could easily cross over from Asia
to the various islands of western Indonesia, and likewise
from Australia to New Guinea & eastern Indonesia when the sea levels were lower.
There was no crossing the deep ocean trenches however, and this, appropriately
is why the division between Asia and Australasia should at least be somewhere in this region.
For the purpose of this video, I'll split the difference and choose the Weber Line
as the Asian border.
You can see this leaves Indonesia split across two continents, making it a transcontinental country
Technically, Japan is also a transcontinental country if you factor in the Bonin Islands,
but unlike Indonesia, the separation includes only a very small area.
Before we move on from the Malay Archipelago, I just want to point out these two island territories
Australia's Cocos (Keeling) Islands and Christmas Island
Even though they are Australian, they are often considered to be part of Asia.
Ok, back to the mainland.
Let's finish up the coastal borders of Southeast Asia with Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand,
West Malaysia, and Myanmar.
And let's not forget the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
Alright, now we're onto South Asia.
Pretty straightforward here.
We have Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan; and I've noticed that many people tend to
forget this country here, The Maldives.
Asia's smallest country by both area and population.
There's also the British Indian Ocean Territory. All part of Asia.
Continuing on to Southwest Asia, or you can say the Middle East,
we start to enter regions where it may get confusing for some people.
Entering the Persian Gulf, we have Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar
and The United Arab Emirates.
Heading towards the Gulf of Aden, we have Oman (that part's Oman too),
Yemen, Saudi Arabia on the west...
Actually, let's backtrack to Yemen.
The Arabian Peninsular is geographically Asian, which would clearly put Yemen in Asia.
But what about some of its nearby islands, like the Hanish Islands and Perim Island in the Red Sea
as the continent of Africa is right here.
Turns out most of the Yemen islands are still associated with Asia
except for the Socotra Archipelago in the Arabian Sea.
A group of four islands often described as "the most alien-looking place on Earth".
Socotra is part of Yemen, but located closer to the Horn of Africa.
It also lies on Africa's continental shelf that extends from Somalia
so even though it's not that far from Asia, it is often considered to be part of Africa.
And speaking of Africa, we have this region here to deal with.
Even though Egypt is considered part of the Middle East, and the Middle East is said to be a division of Asia,
Egypt isn't considered Asian.
So it would seem to make sense for Asia's African border to be here.
But then continents are supposed to be large continuous discrete masses of land, that are
separated by large expanses of water.
Just like how splitting New Guinea between two continents would have seemed odd,
putting the border here disregards Asia's geographic connection to... actually the whole of Africa.
It's all connected.
And for that matter, Asia, Africa and Europe are all one connected landmass and should
therefore, really, be considered a single continent called Afro-Eurasia.
But since no one can agree on a fixed definition for a continent, we instead divide it into three continents.
Now, here this leads to confusion.
Since there is no large expanse of water that clearly separates the landmass,
how do we choose the border?
Well, many look to this marker as the solution, The Suez Canal.
Still a separation of water, albeit a very narrow and shallow separation.
This seems logical.
However, just like the Panama Canal that separates North & South America, it is artificial.
So it's not a natural division.
In addition, this would leave Egypt mainly in Africa, but with an awkward, northeastern...
dog's ear, jutting out into Asia.
Yet, we know from Indonesia that hangin' out in two different continents is no big deal,
especially with the separation being on an isthmus, so that's what we have here.
Egypt is another transcontinental country, and actually it's even more unique since the
division is on the actual mainland, and not a separation of islands.
This video is already getting quite long, and so far, we're only about halfway through.
There's still the Asia-Europe border to get into, a situation that may be even more puzzling
than the Malay Archipelago.
Then there's the issue with Russia, as well as the division between Asia and North America
which isn't as simple as you might think.
I will be finishing this second half of the border in a future video,
so make sure you're subscribed to get that.
But if you want to explore the many different accents across Asia, you can click the video on top
to take the Asian Accent Test
otherwise click the one below if you prefer something else.
I hope you enjoyed this topic, and if you have any questions or thoughts,
let us know down below.
Thanks for watching, hit that like button,
and stay tuned for more interesting Asiany videos.