Transcontinental nation

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

A transcontinental nation is a country belonging to more than one continent, by not only geographical but also other definitions – divisions can arise for several reasons, be they political, social or geographical. The best example probably is Russia, which has large portion of its territory and the capital city in Europe, yet most of the territory in Asia.

Contents 1 Definitions of the continents 1.1 Islands 1.2 Europe and Asia 1.2.1 Culturally European states 1.2.2 Politically European states 1.3 Africa 1.4 The Americas 1.5 Asia and Oceania 1.5.1 Oceania 2 Definitions of transcontinental nation 3 List of geographically transcontinental states 3.1 Methodology of calculation 3.2 Countries in both Asia and Europe 3.2.1 Azerbaijan 3.2.2 Georgia 3.2.3 Kazakhstan 3.2.4 Russia 3.2.5 Turkey 3.2.6 Cyprus 3.2.7 Armenia 3.3 Countries in both Asia and Africa 3.3.1 Egypt 3.4 Countries in both Asia and Oceania 3.4.1 East Timor 3.4.2 Indonesia 3.5 Countries both in North America and South America 3.5.1 Trinidad and Tobago 3.5.2 Aruba 3.5.3 Netherland Antilles 3.5.4 Panama 4 Transcontinental empires in history

Definitions of the continents

Islands

Continents are so called because they are continuous bodies of land. Thus, an island is not strictly part of any continent. For example, Rhodes, Cyprus, Sumatra, Singapore and Hainan are not "in" Asia; nevertheless, they are closer – some of them much closer – to Asia than to any other continent, and also are most closely associated with Asia, so this article will consider them Asiatic islands, and Indonesia and Greece a transcontinental country (likewise for other continents and their adjacent islands). Alternate associations would be defensible in some cases.

If, however, one were to depart from this definition, the following countries could all be considered transcontinental, solely by virtue of the fact that an integral part of their national territory is made up of islands that are situated within the continental shelf of another continent or are otherwise geographically closer to another continent than the mainland:

• Colombia
• France (provided one follows the French stance of considering the 4 overseas departments inseparably integrated with the territory of the State)
• Greece
• Italy
• Japan
• Portugal
• Spain
• United States
• Venezuela
• Yemen

Europe and Asia

The nature and boundaries of Europe are as much sociopolitical questions as geographical. Many geologists and geographers agree that Europe and Asia share many common geographical features and they are sometimes referred to as the single continent Eurasia. Europe is nevertheless a distinct geographical entity, a peninsula off the mainland of Asia.

The eastern boundary of Europe has been variously defined since antiquity. Herodotus regarded Europe as extending all the way to the Eastern Ocean, and therefore being as long as (and much larger than) Africa and Asia together. The modern world is in consensus that Europe ends at the Aegean Sea, the Black Sea and the Ural mountains, but the two boundaries between these three features are uncertain; that leading from the Urals to the Black Sea, for example, has been drawn by different authorities as at the Don, the Caucasus, the Phasis or the Russian frontier.

Most geographic authorities including the National Geographic Society and CIA World Factbook agree that the Europe-Asia boundary follows the watershed of the Ural Mountains from near Kara, Russia on the Kara Sea to the source of the Ural River, then follows that river to the Caspian Sea, the watershed of the Caucasus Mountains, and the Black Sea. However, this article instead discusses the following path: from Baydaratskaya Guba on the Kara Sea, the border follows the eastern side of the Ural mountains, then the Ural river until the Mugodzhar Hills, then the Emba river to the Caspian Sea. The Caspian section of the border goes through the deepest parts of the sea, then on the Kura river (in Azerbaijan and Georgia), through the Surami passage, and on the Qvirila river in the Kolkhida lowland to the coastal city of Poti. The Black Sea section of the border again follows the deepest troughs, then through the Bosporus and the Dardanelles, then the deepest parts of the Mediterranean Sea and on to the Strait of Gibraltar.

By this definition, Europe includes all the Ural mountains and the Greater Caucasus (not least Mount Elbrus, which would be the highest point in Europe), while the Lesser Caucasus are located entirely in Asia. Russia and Kazakhstan have both European (western) and Asian (eastern) parts (and Russia even had a North American part, before Alaska was sold to the United States in 1867). The Turkish city Istanbul lies in both Europe and Asia; effectively making it a transcontinental city. Georgia's capital Tbilisi is located exactly on the border, while its south-eastern city Rustavi and Azerbaijan's capital Baku are both in Europe. The Georgian republics South Ossetia and Abkhazia lie entirely in Europe, but Azerbaijan's exclave of Nakhichevan is located entirely in Asia.

• The line labelled A on the map follows the peaks of the Urals, and then the Ural River (some geographers instead choose the frontier of Kazakhstan, although a natural feature is preferable for a geographical boundary)
• Line B passes through the Kuma-Manych Depression; this would exclude from Europe not only the Caucasus, but also regions traditionally in European Russia such as Krasnodar, with its port on the Black Sea at Novorossiysk)
• Line C follows the Caucasus watershed

Because of Kazakhstan's Central Asian culture and political orientation, it is very rarely regarded as a European country, despite its sizeable territory in Europe (larger than the whole of Portugal or Greece). Three nations of the South Caucasus, however – Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia – have a stronger sociopolitical claim to be European. Of these three, only Georgia and Azerbaijan have territory in Europe, but Armenia may be regarded as European for cultural and historical reasons.

The majority of Georgia's and Azerbaijan's populations live in Europe, and two-thirds of the Georgian territory and a little less than half of Azerbaijan's territory are in Europe. However, they are often excluded today from lists of European states (unlike Russia and Turkey, with proportionally less European territory and population). This may be due to the popular Western understanding that, following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, three kinds of state emerged: Russia itself; the "European" states (i.e. the Baltic States, Belarus and Ukraine); and "other, Asian" states. Recent maps, therefore, often fail to distinguish between the South Caucasus states and those of Central Asia.

Culturally European states

Other nations have strong cultural ties with Europe, such as the north African states Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. However, the clear boundary of the Mediterranean Sea excludes these nations geographically. Israel also has European ties, due in part to its unique history; thus, perhaps confusingly, a Middle Eastern state geographically in Asia is represented in the UEFA European football league (Australia similarly has joined the Asian Football League). Some in Israel, as in Morocco and Tunisia, have shown ambition to become a state of the European Union, but currently full membership is disallowed (Morocco has actually applied to join, but was rejected on geographical grounds).

Politically European states

Europe ends in the west at the Atlantic Ocean, although Iceland (in the Atlantic, between Europe and North America) is usually considered European. Greenland is geographically associated with North America but politically associated with Europe (as it is still part of Denmark, although EU law no longer applies here). Islands geographically associated with one continent sometimes have stronger political and cultural ties to another. For example, Cyprus, an island off the coast of Asia, was admitted to the Council of Europe in 1961 and joined the EU in 2004. Cape Verde, an island group off the Atlantic coast of Africa, has also shown an interest in joining the EU.

Africa

The natural geographical boundaries of Africa are the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea. The boundary between them has been drawn either up the Gulf of Suez or up the Gulf of Aqaba. On purely geological grounds, the boundary could be drawn along the faultline into the Jordan river valley (which would make Israel an African country).

The usual line today is at the Isthmus of Suez along the path of the Suez Canal. This makes the Sinai Peninsula geographically Asian, and Egypt a transcontinental country. Nevertheless Egypt is commonly refered to as an African state, because most of its population and territory is there. It may be more useful to consider Egypt and North Africa as politically part of a "greater Middle East" than to draw an Asian-African boundary.

In historical geography, several of the larger Mediterranean islands have often been more akin to Africa than to Europe or Asia. Egypt often ruled Cyprus, and sometimes Rhodes. The Roman Empire grouped Crete with Cyrenaica. The Balearic Islands and half of Sicily were ruled from Carthage.

The Americas

The border between North and South America has been drawn variously, at the border between Costa Rica and Panama, or at one of several other lines across the Isthmus of Panama. The most common of these today by far follows the Darien Mountains watershed divide along the Colombia-Panama boundary where the Central American isthmus meets the South American continent. However, for purposes of this article, the Panama Canal will be used. For purposes not strictly geophysical, it may more useful to group Panama with the other Central American countries. For some purposes, Central America may be grouped with North American countries, or the Americas may be divided into North, Central, and South, or even into anglophone and Latin American groups of countries.

Also, if only culturally, there is no drift or separation between Central and South America, as latin americans consider other latin americna countries to be their brothers

Geographically, Trinidad and Tobago, Aruba and the Netherland Antilles are regarded as South American islands, but the Caribbean is more often treated as a whole, or all included with North America.

Asia and Oceania

Indonesia is a multi-island, transcontinental state belonging both to Asia and to Oceania. The geological and zoological border follows the Wallace line. Alternatively it may be divided according to the Melanesia definition – accounting for human language, genetics, history and crafts – placing more territory in Asia (shown by the line labelled M on the map). Indonesia is today more commonly referred to as one of the Southeast Asian countries, and thus simply Asian. However, independent Timor-Leste (East Timor), formerly a territory of Indonesia, is always considered part of Oceania.

Oceania

Oceania is not a continent; however, Australia by itself is usually considered one. Therefore the admission of Hawaii to the United States in 1959 did not make the U.S. a transcontinental nation (whether the U.S. was transcontinental from 1898 to 1946, by its possession of the Philippines, is a historical question).

Definitions of transcontinental nation

A nation divided between two (or more) nationalities may also be termed a transcontinental nation, for several reasons: immigration (e.g. Chinese in the U.S.); historical reasons (colonization, especially of extraterritorial possessions and dependencies of European states – for example Spain's Ceuta and Melilla); islands belonging to the more distant state in a sea shared between continents (such as Yemen's islands of Socotra, east of the Horn of Africa). Sometimes these overseas territories are regarded as an integral part of the main state (e.g. French Guiana, part of France), in which case the state (here, France) could be regarded as a transcontinental nation.

Islands isolated in the middle of oceans (such as Iceland, or the British Tristan da Cunha, both in the mid Atlantic, and the French territory of Île Saint-Paul in the mid Indian Ocean) may seem not to belong to any continent. Similarly, many islands dispersed across the vast Pacific Ocean are collectively treated as the "continent" of Oceania, which often includes the geographical continent of Australia.

Similar to the case of Hawaii (mentioned above), one might justifiably claim that Chile and Japan are partially located in the "continent" of Oceania because their territorry includes islands that are not geographically part of their respective continental mainlands.

List of geographically transcontinental states

A transcontinental state is a country whose contiguous continental territory (or in the case of an island state, its different islands) lies in two (or more) different continents. Non-contiguous parts of countries are not considered (i.e. distant integral parts, extraterritorial possessions, dependencies and the like – examples include French Guiana, Hawaii, Socotra, and Ceuta and Melilla). This list includes the countries meeting that definition and presents tables showing the calculated area and population of the country on each continent.

Methodology of calculation

There are two main methods for non-scientific calculation of parts of the state area:

• The smaller part of the territory is divided into rectangles, which area can be easily calculated using simple distance tools. This method gives results with moderate errors and can be used only for area, but not for population.
• If the administrative divisions (sub-regions) of the state are going along the continents geographical border (or near it) then much more correct data (widely available area and population data for the regions) can be added up together.

The total area and population of countries is well known from various sources, so when there is data for the part of the country on one continent - then the other part (on the other continent) and the percentages can be easily calculated.

Countries in both Asia and Europe

See the introduction of this page for more details about the geographical border between Europe and Asia.

• Azerbaijan - according to most definitions which consider the Caucasus as the Europe-Asia boundary, this country has a relatively small portion in Eastern Europe but lies mostly in SouthWestern Asia.
  
• Kazakhstan's European territory consists of a portion west of the Ural River - it lies partly in Eastern Europe but mostly in Central Asia.
  
• Those territories of Russia lying west of the Ural Mountains amd Ural River are considered as part of Europe. Conversely, those territories lying to the east of those features are considered Northern or Central Asian.
  
• European Turkey comprises territory to the west and north of the Bosporus and the Dardanelles straits. Turkey lies partly in Southern Europe and mostly SouthWestern Asia
  
• Armenia and Cyprus are geographically in Asia (SouthWest), but are considered by some as part of Europe for cultural and historical reasons.
• Georgia is geographically almost completely (except for a small section at its northern border that lies north of the Caucasus watershed) in Asia according to virtually all major geographic authorities such as the National Geographic Society and the CIA World Factbook. However, for the purpose of this study, it is considered to be divided between both.

Map colors: Geographical Europe including Georgia is colored green. The Asian territory of states that lie both in Europe and Asia are coloured light pink. Dark-pink are colored states that lie entirely on the Asian continent, but are considered European because of cultural and historical reasons. Azerbaijan's exclave of Nakhchivan is also coloured dark-pink because it is not a continuous extension of Azerbaijan's territory.

Statistics

State	Total Area km²	Area in Asia km²	Area in Asia % of total	Area in Europe km²	Area in Europe % of total
Georgia	69,700	20,460	29.35	49,240	70.65
Azerbaijan	86,600	46,870	54.12	39,730	45.88
Russia	17,075,200	13,115,200	76.81	3,960,000	23.19
Kazakhstan	2,717,300	2,346,927	86.37	370,373	13.63
Turkey	780,580	756,768	96.95	23,812	3.05
Armenia	29800	29800	100	0	0
Cyprus	9250	9250	100	0	0

Countries are sorted according to percentage of European area.
Source: World Gazetteer, Statistics of administrative units, towns and cities [1]
For methodologies of calculation see below.

State	Total Population	Population in Asia	Population in Asia % of total	Population in Europe	Population in Europe % of total
Russia	143,780,000	37,742,857	26.25	106,037,143	73.75
Georgia	4,479,180	2,032,004	45.37	2,447,176	54.63
Azerbaijan	8,327,618	4,129,127	49.58	4,198,491	50.42
Turkey	68,900,000	57,855,068	83.97	11,044,932 1	16.03 1
Kazakhstan	14,757,767	13,472,593	91.29	1,285,174	8.71
Armenia	3,326,448	3,326,448	100	0	0
Cyprus	775,927	775,927	100	0	0

¹ Including the districts of Istanbul city that are lying in Asia.
Countries are sorted according to percentage of European population.
Source: World Gazetteer, Statistics of administrative units, towns and cities [2]
For methodologies of calculation see below.

Azerbaijan

The Azerbaijan territory is more finely granulated into regions than the territory of the other states in this list. The consequense is that the area and population calculations should be more accurate. Of the regions that touch the border five lie entierly in Europe (best accuracy), one lies almost entierly in Asia, eight lie in both Europe and Asia. Another twenty regions lie entierly in Europe, the rest - in Asia.

• Accuracy of area calculation: high-to-medium
• Accuracy of population calculation: high-to-medium

Georgia

Georgia regions' borders in most cases follow the geographical Europe/Asia border. The exclusions are two regions that are divided in half, one region that stretches a little into Asia and one region that has a quarter of it in Europe.

• Accuracy of area calculation: high (but better is possible)
• Accuracy of population calculation: high (but better is possible)

Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan regions' borders don't follow the Emba river. There is one region entirely in Europe and two regions that are lying in both Europe and Asia.

• Accuracy of area calculation: medium
• Accuracy of population calculation: medium

Russia

Russia regions' borders follow closely enough the Europe/Asia border. The deviations of the borders are such that if one mainly European region has a small part of its territory in Asia, then another mainly Asian region has a small part of its territory in Europe. Such cases are rare and nearly compensating one-another, so for such a rough calculation high accuracy can be claimed.

• Accuracy of area calculation: high (but better is possible)
• Accuracy of population calculation: high (but better is possible)

Turkey

Turkey regions' are helpful for the calculation, but some things should be noted. The area that the mainly asian region of Çanakkale occupies in Europe is compensating the asian territory of the Istanbul region. The population calculation is more problematic, because it is not sure if the population density (inhabitants/sq. km.) of these two parts are equal and then there is the case with the city of Istanbul, which is lying on both Europe and Asia. Should the city be looked as one big 'dot', located in Europe, or should the population figures be divided? Currently the whole population of the city is added to the table as european. Also, precise data about the particular districts of Istanbul is missing.

• Accuracy of area calculation: high (but better is possible)
• Accuracy of population calculation: high-to-medium ¹

¹ (wrong if Istanbul statistics are to be divided)

Cyprus

Geographically entirely in Asia, so the accuracy of both area and population percentages is the highest possible.

Armenia

Geographically entirely in Asia, so the accuracy of both area and population percentages is the highest possible.

Countries in both Asia and Africa

See Geography of Africa and Asia pages for more details about the geographical border between Africa and Asia.

• The border between the two continents is considered to go along the Isthmus of Suez and the Suez Canal. This border lies in Egypt, so it is considered both North African and SouthWest Asian.
  

Statistics

State	Total Area km²	Area in Africa km²	Area in Africa % of total	Area in Asia km²	Area in Asia % of total
Egypt	1,001,450	937,894	93.65	63,556	6.35

Source: World Gazetteer, Statistics of administrative units, towns and cities [3]
For methodologies of calculation see below.

State	Total Population	Population in Africa	Population in Africa % of total	Population in Asia	Population in Asia % of total
Egypt	74,718,797	73,340,638	98.16	1,378,159	1.84

Source: World Gazetteer, Statistics of administrative units, towns and cities [4]
For methodologies of calculation see below.

Egypt

Three of Egypt's regions lie entirely in Asia. One of the regions is nearly equally divided by the Suez Canal and another has a small portion east of the Suez Canal.

• Accuracy of area calculation: high (but better is possible)
• Accuracy of population calculation: high-to-medium

Countries in both Asia and Oceania

See Wallace line and the Oceania and Asia pages for more details about the grouping of the islands between Oceania and Asia.

The best option for geographical definition about which island should be included with Oceania and which with Asia is to use the Wallace line.

• According to this definition some of the eastern Indonesian islands should be considered oceanian. So Indonesia is both in SouthEast Asia and in Oceania.
  
• According to this definition the whole of the state East Timor lies only in Oceania. Culturally it is also much closer to the Pacific people than to Asians. East Timor is considered as a part of Asia only for historical reasons - the past occupation by Indonesia, which is regarded mostly a SouthEast Asian state.

Statistics

State	Total Area km²	Area in Asia km²	Area in Asia % of total	Area in Oceania km²	Area in Oceania % of total
East Timor	15,007	0	0	15,007	100
Indonesia	1,904,443	1,158,645	60.84	745,798	39.16

Countries are sorted according to percentage of Oceanian area.
Source: World Gazetteer, Statistics of administrative units, towns and cities [5]
For methodologies of calculation see below.

State	Total Population	Population in Asia	Population in Asia % of total	Population in Oceania	Population in Oceania % of total
East Timor	1,019,252	0	0	1,019,252	100
Indonesia	238,452,952	208,176,381	87.3	28,159,300	12.7

Countries are sorted according to percentage of Oceanian population.
Source: World Gazetteer, Statistics of administrative units, towns and cities [6]
For methodologies of calculation see below.

East Timor

Geographically (and even culturally) entirely in Oceania, so the accuracy of both area and population percentages is the highest possible.

Indonesia

Nine of Indonesia's provinces (island groups) lie entirely in Oceania, while the others lie in Asia, so the accuracy of both area and population percentages is the highest possible.

Countries both in North America and South America

See North America and South America pages for more details about the geographical border between the two Americas.

• Virtually all geographic authorities consider the border between the two continents to follow the Darien watershed along the Colombia-Panama boundary. However, for the purpose of this study, the land border between the two continents is considered to go along the Isthmus of Panama and the Panama canal. This border lies in Panama, so it would then have both North American part and South American part.
  
• The sea islands division is more complicated. Culturally and historically all Caribbean islands (and even some smaller continental countries) are very close together (both similar indigenous people and similar colonial past) and all of them are often labeled as North American.
  The dependency Aruba and some parts of the Netherland Antilles (Bonaire and Curaçao islands) and the islands state of Trinidad and Tobago are geographically clearly part of South America. Grenada state can be considered geographically North American. The North-American parts of the Netherland Antilles are Saba, Sint Eustatius and Sint Maarten. Venezuela's Aves Island and other outlying islands are geographically North American, which is also true of the remote Colombian islands of San Andrés and Providencia.

Statistics

State	Total Area km²	Area in North America km²	Area in North America % of total	Area in South America km²	Area in South America % of total
Trinidad and Tobago	5,128	0	0	5,128	100
Aruba 1	180	0	0	180	100
Netherland Antilles 1	800	68	8.5	732	91.5
Panama	78,200	52,853	67.59	25,347	32.41

¹ Extraterritorial part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
Countries are sorted according to percentage of South American area.
Source: World Gazetteer, Statistics of administrative units, towns and cities [7]
For methodologies of calculation see below.

State	Total Population	Population in North America	Population in North America % of total	Population in South America	Population in South America % of total
Trinidad and Tobago	1,104,209	0	0	1,104,209	100
Aruba 1	103,000	0	0	103,000	100
Netherland Antilles 1	221226	59226	26.77	162000	73.23
Panama	3,000,463	2,498,717	83.28	299,936	16.72

¹ Extraterritorial part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
Countries are sorted according to percentage of South American population.
Source: World Gazetteer, Statistics of administrative units, towns and cities [8]
For methodologies of calculation see below.

Trinidad and Tobago

Geographically entirely in South America, so the accuracy of both area and population percentages is the highest possible.

Aruba

Geographically entirely in South America, so the accuracy of both area and population percentages is the highest possible.

Netherland Antilles

Two of the islands groups lie entirely in South America and the other - in North America, so the accuracy of both area and population percentages is the highest possible.

Panama

Five of the provinces lie entirely in South America. One of the regions is nearly equally divided between both Americas and another - unequally, nearly 1:4 ratio.

• Accuracy of area calculation: high-to-medium
• Accuracy of population calculation: medium

Transcontinental empires in history

Pre-colonial empires straddling at least two continents (number of continents in parentheses):

• Empire of Alexander the Great (3) - Europe, Asia, Africa
• Byzantine Empire (3) - Europe, Asia, Africa
• Ottoman Empire (3) - Europe, Asia, Africa
• Roman Empire (3) - Europe, Asia, Africa
• Umayyad Caliphate (3) - Europe, Asia, Africa
• Mongol Empire (2) - Europe, Asia

Colonial-era empires with non-contiguous overseas possessions (number of continents in parentheses):

• British Empire (6) - Europe, Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Oceania
• Dutch Empire (6) - Europe, Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Oceania
• French Empire (6) - Europe, Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Oceania
• Spanish Empire (6) - Europe, Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Oceania
• Portuguese Empire (5) - Europe, Asia, Africa, South America, Oceania
• Dano-Norwegian Empire (4) - Europe, Asia, Africa, North America
• German Empire (4) - Europe, Asia, Africa, Oceania
• Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (3) - Europe, Africa, South America
• Russian Empire (3) - Europe, Asia, North America
• American Empire (3) - North America, South America, Oceania
• Italian Empire (2) - Europe, Africa
• Japanese Empire (2) - Asia, Oceania
• Swedish Empire (2) - Europe, North America