Why Is It Called The Middle East?

The Arab countries are always referred to as the Middle East to the extent that the term has been accepted widely by communities worldwide. However, have you ever thought to yourself why such terms were used in the first place?

Where did the word Middle East itself come from? Here we would like to unravel the truth behind this dilemma.

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Why Was The Term Middle East Used?

During the British colonial age and their competitors, the Russians, Central Asia was one of the most highly demanded regions among the colonizers.

At the time, Eastern Asia which is located far from its location was labeled as the Far East. Back then, there were no terms or labels representing countries situated in parts of Western Asia and Egypt.

Based on the British colonial understanding at the time, India represents the western parts of the world including China. The Far East comprised areas around Japan and countries in Asian Pacific.

It was believed that the term Middle East was first used by the British India East Company in 1850 referring to regions located between the Arab countries and India. However, it was only in 1902 the term became very popular.

Alfred Thayer Mahan

This is because of the influence of a war strategist named Alfred Thayer Mahan who emphasized the importance of the British government controlling these regions with more focus on areas around the Persian Gulf.

In order to send his message to the British government, Alfred refers to the area of the Persian Gulf as the Middle East in his writings titled 'The Persian Gulf and International Relations', published on September 1902 in British journals.

Alfred's article was published by The Times before a series of articles written by Sir Ignatius Chirol uses the term Middle East which comprised more regions.

But then again, the term Middle East is still being written with the punctuation ' ' to mark the term before being used formally. The Times again used the term without the respective punctuation starting in 1903.

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Critics Towards The Validity Use of Middle East

Since the very beginning of its first use, the term 'Middle East' has received much criticism due to its imprecise use and in fact, it was more of an anonymous calling instead for these countries.

For those who criticize its use, the term Western Asia was said to be more precise considering its geographical location. Aside from that, confusions always arise due to the existence of two different terms that are almost alike, the Near East and the Far East.

But later the term Near East starts to dissipate after the fall of the Ottoman Empire in Turkey, leaving the world with the term, Far East and Middle East. Britain starts to use this term to picture the position of their center of administration in Egypt around the 1930s.

This was the start of the use of such terms in the western parts of the world.

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Western Asia or the Middle East?

In 1946, the Middle East Institute was established in Washington, the capital of the United States of America. The US government became the first world nation to use the term Middle East in the Eisenhower Doctrine that was published in 1957.

They defined the region of the Middle East as an area between Libya in the west, Pakistan in the east, Syria and Iraq in the north as well as the Arabian Peninsula in the south.

The term and definition of Middle East to this day have been criticized due to being made based on the perspective of the Europeans claiming it to be something Eurocentric. It did not take into account the views of the people of Asia themselves.

This has forced the people of Asia to use a more accurate definition compared to the European perspective to visualize their current location.

As of today, many individual researchers and historians want to use the term Middle East replaced with the term Western Asia that are far more precise. It is something that is widely accepted by communities worldwide and it is still being used to this day.

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