That is a good point! I think that it would.
Although then we get into the fact that the location of the meridian is Eurocentric in itself - albeit somewhere has to be the centre for a meridian I suppose (not too sure about the history in choosing where 0 longitude was placed!)
A graphic of a scroll with the text "Why do we use the name 'The Middle East?' The history behind it goes earlier than its naming in the nineteenth century. But the answer is still: Eurocentrism
There has been a lot of great conversation lately about the colonial roots of the terminology ‘The Middle East’ in the 19/20th c. and how it’s a form of Eurocentrism.
All very true! But the conventions of how Europe and the Anglosphere frame this region of the world are much older.
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What is really interesting but completely logical to me is the repetition of 'East' or other cardinal directions through-out both European and Arabic naming. But where for Europe it is 'East' of them, the Arabic is reflexive, situating the emphasis of the region on themselves.
18/18
It’s other half is the Maghreb (‘the place where the sun sets' / the west), covering the northern states of Africa (western and central North Africa, including Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, and Tunisia.)
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Post WWI was also the time where ‘Near East’ fell out of use in English and the name for the broader region of ‘Middle East’ became more popularised.
Another term I came across was the Arabic Mashriq, which covered the countries between the Mediterranean Sea and Iran.
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In the 19th century Bilād ash-Shām was replaced by Suriyah/Suriyya, again using Syria to name the whole region.
Following WWI the political boundaries of the area shifted a lot with the fall of the Ottoman Empire and subsequent European interference and modern Syria came into being.
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So I put my historian hat on
After the 7th century, the region previously known as Syria was known in the region by the Arabic Bilād ash-Shām (Northern Land’).
(Syria = modern Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and parts of southern Turkey - beyond the geography of modern Syria)
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These naming conventions go beyond Europe. Those in West Asia use the Arabic ash-Sharq al-Awsat ('the Middle East') to refer to their own countries, and therefore their identity is implicitly relational to Europe.
I asked a friend from Jordan if they had other terms, and he didn't know.
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Ironically Australia comes from the Latin ‘Australis’ meaning southern. We are southern, western, and northern in name all at the same time.
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The ‘Global North’ is roughly (but not entirely) synonymous with ‘The West’, here correlating to a certain socio-economic structure.
These directions become value judgements - north, good - west, good, that prioritises the position of Europe and then brings in the Anglosphere.
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Go practically any direction from Australia and you will hit a country in the ‘Eastern World’.
So the West here becomes synonymous with countries that are majority white, regardless of geographical location and First Nations populations.
10/
Alongside centring Europe, these directions become value judgements.
As an Australian, I would say the ‘Middle East’ is actually North-West of me, but when directions become names, their actual geographical location stops mattering.
Take the ‘Western World’, which Australia is a part of.
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In the 13th century, Venetians used the term levante (meaning ‘rising’) to describe areas in the Mediterranean to the east of them.
In the later fifteenth century, we see ‘Levant’ in English to mean ‘the East’.
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Anatolia comes from the Greek ‘Anatolḗ’ , meaning ‘the East’, ‘the land of the rising sun’. - i.e. Asia begins in the East coast of the East.
'The Levant' hosts similar origins.
(The Levant region presently includes Cyprus, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria and Turkey.)
7/
So back to the focus topic: European naming of West Asia relative to themselves is seen far earlier than the 19th century.
Ptolemy in the 2nd century CE wrote that Asia begins on the East Coast of Anatolia.
Anatolia = the region now Türkiye east of the Bosporus Straight (i.e. ‘Asian Türkiye’)
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(Important: this doesn’t mean this is a ‘neutral’ act - the choices of the focus placed on certain areas and what to and not to map were often tied to some sort of goal.)
Cardinal directions are logical ways to describe the location of a foreign place. The issue comes in naming.
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These conventions began as a type of geographical knowledge and mapmaking. It is historically common that when people mapped their geographies or known world, they situated their home as the centre point.
We can see this in a 9th-7th c. BCE Babylonian Map, for example.
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In the case of the ‘Middle East’ both words are the adjective - the implied noun is of Europe. This land is East of Europe and in the middle of three different degrees of East (Near, Middle, Far).
It situates the region in relation to its direction to Europe, putting Europe as the map's centre.
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But to start with, how is 'The Middle East' Eurocentric?
When cardinal directions are in names, they are in effect adjectives that relate the location of that region to a focal point. For example, Western Australia tells us that you are in the West of Australia - the emphasis is on Australia
2/
A graphic of a scroll with the text "Why do we use the name 'The Middle East?' The history behind it goes earlier than its naming in the nineteenth century. But the answer is still: Eurocentrism
There has been a lot of great conversation lately about the colonial roots of the terminology ‘The Middle East’ in the 19/20th c. and how it’s a form of Eurocentrism.
All very true! But the conventions of how Europe and the Anglosphere frame this region of the world are much older.
1/
What we are supportive of is the US making a decision about stopping Iran getting inclear weapons, and also about stopping the role that Iran has played in undermining peace and security in the region. - Albanese, 2 March 2026
And it is notable that who the Australian government is putting their ‘peace keeping’ efforts behind, are other world powers with a lot of influence at the moment.
6/6
The fawn response, also known as please and appease, appears to bring peace on the surface because it tries to hide the conflict.
You agree with those with more power than you to protect yourself from the threat, but it doesn’t actually make the threat or disagreement go away.
5/6
Albanese appears to be trying to position Australia as a ‘peace keeper’, but what it really looks like is a fawn response. When people are under threat, we can respond in many ways, fight, flight, freeze, or fawn being main examples of them.
4/6
"What we need in the world is more peace and security" - Albanese, 2nd March 2026 "the path of peace and reconciliation and a settlement which gives Palestinian justice, Sut also recoguises the right of israel to exist within secure borders "that/being completely against Israel) does not advance peace -Albanese, 10th and 14th February 2026
Yet it’s the same ideology dressed up differently.
Albanese justifies the bombing of Iran because the Iranian government “incited violence and instability”, He criticises the response to Herzog visiting Australia because it is causing disruption in Australia.
The point of both? Peacekeeping.
3/6
"we, of course, stand with the people of Iran in fighting for their democratic rights, their freedom and their basic human rights that they've been denied" - Albanese, 2 March 2026 Now, people will have different views about the Middle East and we have been critical and have received some criticism of the Israel government. But we do need to be able to have people express any views peacefully in an appropriate way. - Albanese, 11 Fernary 2026
So where is the hypocrisy? Albanese justifies the bombing of Iran due to supporting the Iranian’s human rights, but when it comes to criticism of Israel, it’s a difference of opinion, and we should all get along peacefully
2/6
The Australian Albanese Government and its condemnation of attacks against human rights "what we need in the world is more peace and security" - Albanese 2ad March 2026 when peace keeping is a fawn response
The Australian Governments responses to international regimes seems somewhat contradictory on the surface, but it’s sits on a broader ideology: peace keeping and not rocking the boat
#politics #australia #albanese #iran #freepalestine
1/6
Notice how police violence at the #Sydney protest over the Israeli president uses these same tactics to justify their actions…
#freepalestine #fromtherivertothesea #herzogout #history #politics
The top text reads: Ninth Century Historia Brittonum (History of the Britons) the Britons Ithe Welshi were once very populous and exercised extensive dominion from sea to sea. In the centre is a blue painted wavy line. The bottom text reads from the river to the sea. Palestine will be free Palestinian slogan to recognise Palestinian sovereignty
I was recently reading the 9th Century Historia Brittonum (History of the Britons) and noticed this line talking about the loss of Welsh sovereignty over Britain which has a nice echo to that of Palestine
#freepalestine #fromtherivertotheses
A sign at a protest held up in a crowd with an old train station in the background. The sign reads: history has its eyes on you
Excellent showing out from the people of #Naarm / #Melbourne for Palestine 🇵🇸
#freepalestine #herzognotwelcome