All of these countries are indisputably in Asia. The boundary cuts through Russia, passes through Istanbul, reaches the northernmost point of the Caspian Sea, then follows its western border down to Turkey, where it follows the western border of Turkey, cuts through international waters to take in Cyprus, and returns to follow the border of Israel down to the Egypt, where it takes a left and heads off down the eastern border of the Red Sea. This includes Cyprus, the Caucuses countries, and Turkey, keeping to national conventions.
Pluto being a dwarf planet isn't an issue. It's an accepted fact. It's literally indisputable unless your definition of planet differs from the widely accepted scientific definition. You don't see any debate on Pluto being an actual planet because it was proven that it wasn't.
Now Cyprus is an entirely different case because continents are just made up for convenience and they're typically just massive land masses, so islands complicate the classification process which is why we then resort to plate boundaries. I have no idea where Cyprus is on its plate, so maybe that would clear it up idk.
The common held borders of asia and europe are very modern. Generally only being used after the second world war.
Prior to that the Europeans saw the borders of europe being:
The western borders of afghanistan and pakistan, the western coast of the caspian sea including all of the caucauses, the ural mountain range making up europes eastern extent.
In the south the northern borders of mali, chad, sudan, niger and western sahara.
In the east the atlantic and north sea coastlines.
The north was scandinavian countries northern borders and the northern coast of russia to the urals.
These borders were based on the extent of the alexandian empire , the roman empire, and the slavic regions.
Moreover the naturalised peoples within: Slavs, nordo-germans, celts, latins, greeks, egyptians, phonecians, persians were all considered part of the indo-european cultral and language family.
Even today many countries in modern Asia see themselves as being European.
mizu, what you're saying may be correct in the *ethnic* or *racial* sense, but in the *geographical* sense, "Asia" has referred to Anatolia since ancient Greece (even when populated by Greeks). It wasn't really considered a "continent" in the way we conceptualize continents now, but it did always have its boundary between Thrace and Anatolia. Likewise, "Africa" was originally a word for the Maghreb before it was promoted to continental status— "Europe" as a continent has never included North Africa.
The Romans defined continents as we think of them now: Their model saw Africa as everything south of the Mediterranean and west of the Red Sea. Asia was everything east of the Red Sea, Aegean Sea, and Don River. Europe was west of the Aegean and Don, and north of the Mediterranean.
Ever since Rome, this view has stuck at least among western Europeans— the only major shift since being the northern European/Asian boundary (originally the Don), which changed multiple times.
russia goes back to kievan rus, which was a viking colony around the modern day city of kiev in ukraine. russia had stayed within the boundaries of europe for several centuries before expanding very very far east and taking the form we see it in today. while kievan rus was formed in the ninth century, russia only spread to asia over the ural mountains around the 1500s. so yeah, its european by a long shot.
The issue is that Asia-Europe is an artificially defined border. Sure, it has general geographic boundaries, but if culture wasn’t considered, it’d be one continent.
As elaborated on in Asterian's comment, Europe and Asia are only defined based on culture. Since Cyprus is culturally European, it should then be considered as a European nation. Otherwise you're forced to eliminate the two continents entirely: just considering geography, you end up with one massive Eurasia/Afro-Eurasia.
Thats like saying Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand and other european colonies should be part of Europe because they are culturally European. Also Argentina is very culturally european.
I don't want to come down on either side, but I don't think that is a good enough reason to count it as European, since there are islands close to the Tunisian coast, say, which are Tunisian. To say any island in the Mediterranean is European because most are European isn't logical.
Then how come every island in the Caribbean is North American on this site, when clearly many are closer to SOUTH America? i.e. ever heard of Trinidad and Tobago? It's not logical, but it's the exact same measure used for that sea. This is clearly not about distance to a continental mainland.
I wouldn't say that's a logical extension of the EU argument- Instrumental is not saying that a country is in Europe if AND ONLY IF it is in the EU, they are just saying that a country is in Europe IF it is in the EU. There is a subtle but key difference.
Obviously, Bosnia, FYROM, Serbia, Kosovo, Ukraine, Belarus, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and all of the minor countries are not part of Europe as they are not in the EU, if only EU countries are in Europe
Then how come every island in the Caribbean is North American on this site, when clearly many are closer to SOUTH America? i.e. ever heard of Trinidad and Tobago? It's not logical, but it's the exact same measure used for that sea. This is clearly not about distance to a continental mainland.
If I remember correctly, Cyprus lies on the Asian tectonic plate, therefore geographically making it Asia. However, culturally, I would say it's in Europe, but that can be true, admittedly to a lesser extent, for Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan and even Turkey.
Actually, Monaco is the most densely populated country in the world and Vatican is just behind it. These countries are so small that even a few thousand people can make them the most densely populated countries in the world.
I've never been more confident that people take these quizzes with the aid of google, World Book or the Encyclopedia Britanica. I simply refuse to believe that 3 out of 4 people taking this quiz knew São Tomé & Príncipe. Sorry, but I just don't.
You don't seem to realize what website you are on, or only was here since a few days when you commented (but your comment itself proves otherwise).
if something seems off to you don't simply shout, impossible, imposter, burn the witch! But think about the reason whý it might be so. In this case the reason is so obvious, I fail to understand how you could have missed it.
not everyone that can do something you cant or know something you don't is an imposter. "I don't believe your friend speaks French fluently, I bet he is just making words up!" "Well em... he is from France, so it is highly likely he knows how to speak French"
Some of us have been taking quizzes like this for ages, so it's a matter of remixing info we can usually guess or get close to. For me I typically get about ~80% confidently and make strong guesses until I get the rest.
Obviously not my first JetPunk quiz (as I would not have been able to leave that comment). I still believe Cyprus is a part of Europe but understand that it is considered part of Asia on this website.
Great quiz, but more just naming the smallest countries. For a bit more thought, try this one based on population density. A tad more challenging! https://www.jetpunk.com/quizzes/least-dense-countries-quiz
It actually is. Sometimes things get a tad heated, but generally speaking, the commenters here are about a thousand times more educated and civil than those in most other parts of the internet. This site's is pretty much the only comment section where I feel educated more often than I feel outright disgusted by people.
So much Cyprus debate, can't we argue about France for a bit instead? If French Guiana were counted, France would be number 1 in South America. But then I guess that would bring the French island departments into debate as well, so maybe it isn't worth the trouble. Thoughts?
In that case, Egypt could count for Asia due to the Sinai Peninsula (600,000 people) and Yemen could count for Africa due to the island of Socotra (60,000 people). Including French Guiana just leaves so much room for debate, and including all those examples I mentioned would quite honestly ruin the quiz!
omg, I got them all but Maldives, Bhutan, and East Timor. Wow, I'm one of the 2 and a half people of the monsoon of comments that aren't debating Cyprus... groovy
I don't understand how Cyprus can be in Europe when Turkey, Georgia and Armenia (all farther North than Cyprus) are in Asia. This is quite different than Trinidad and Tobago and the ABC Islands, which are geographically part of South America.
I mean, your conclusion is right (Cyprus isn't it Europe), but your reasoning is... odd. Georgia is also farther north than Seville, but I'm not sure how that's relevant to which continent they're respectively in. Asia is mostly east of Europe, not south of it and the divide doesn't run in a straight line anyway. In other words the compass direction somewhere is in relation to somewhere else has little to do with which continent it is in. Vardo, Norway is east of Izmir, Turkey and Izmir is in turn north of Athens.
Bolivia is an absolute giant on this list. It has far more people than all the countries outside South America combined. It is around 10 times the geographical size of all the non-South American countries combined, and even including the other South American countries, it is larger than every single other country on this list combined. It represents 37% of the total population of this list and 51% of the total area.
it's kind of hard Determening what's a "micro island state" is because countries like Bahrain/Singapore might be tiny but they are just as (if not more) populous than Mongolia, so excluding island states makes little sense when it comes to population size
Now Cyprus is an entirely different case because continents are just made up for convenience and they're typically just massive land masses, so islands complicate the classification process which is why we then resort to plate boundaries. I have no idea where Cyprus is on its plate, so maybe that would clear it up idk.
The common held borders of asia and europe are very modern. Generally only being used after the second world war.
Prior to that the Europeans saw the borders of europe being:
The western borders of afghanistan and pakistan, the western coast of the caspian sea including all of the caucauses, the ural mountain range making up europes eastern extent.
In the south the northern borders of mali, chad, sudan, niger and western sahara.
In the east the atlantic and north sea coastlines.
The north was scandinavian countries northern borders and the northern coast of russia to the urals.
These borders were based on the extent of the alexandian empire , the roman empire, and the slavic regions.
Moreover the naturalised peoples within: Slavs, nordo-germans, celts, latins, greeks, egyptians, phonecians, persians were all considered part of the indo-european cultral and language family.
Even today many countries in modern Asia see themselves as being European.
The Romans defined continents as we think of them now: Their model saw Africa as everything south of the Mediterranean and west of the Red Sea. Asia was everything east of the Red Sea, Aegean Sea, and Don River. Europe was west of the Aegean and Don, and north of the Mediterranean.
Ever since Rome, this view has stuck at least among western Europeans— the only major shift since being the northern European/Asian boundary (originally the Don), which changed multiple times.
if something seems off to you don't simply shout, impossible, imposter, burn the witch! But think about the reason whý it might be so. In this case the reason is so obvious, I fail to understand how you could have missed it.
not everyone that can do something you cant or know something you don't is an imposter. "I don't believe your friend speaks French fluently, I bet he is just making words up!" "Well em... he is from France, so it is highly likely he knows how to speak French"
• 2016 estimate
1,221,490
Cyprus....
Part of Europe. That's from me a big Greece fan.
the other half of Cyprus that is closer to Turkey is more Turkish which is in Asia and also the island is transcontinental
Still surprised it has less inhabitants than Bahrain.
I'd prefer to see "5 least populated.. not including island countries".
Or, "The 5 least-populated, non-micro, countries of each continent" (something larger than @Bahrain-Taiwan)
I would find a lot more illumination in learning that: Armenia, Mongolia, Georgia, Kuwait, Oman, were some of the least-populated.
Instead, I just spam island names :/
I can see where I am whining. Maybe some other factor could be used, like "minimum population size 1m"
However, EAST TIMOR was accepted.
This makes no sense. BOTH should be accepted because BOTH are correct!