AHC: "China" becomes name of a continent

With a POD in whenever make the term "China" a continent as much as America or Asia is. The geographical boundaries of the continent itself may be decided by yourself.
 
It`s going to be pretty hard. "Asia" was the name for the continent longer than China has existed. In any case the Middle East would never be counted in this "China" continent, and most likely neither would India.

Perhaps if "Cathay" remained the way Westerners called China, then "China" would have a far broader geographical term?
 
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It`s going to be pretty hard. "Asia" was the name for the continent longer than China has existed. In any case the Middle East would never be counted in this "China" continent, and most likely neither would India.

Perhaps if "Cathay" remained the way Westerners called China, then "China" would have a far broader geographical term?

Originally Asia mean only Anatolia.

Only way how Asia could be called as China would be that China dominate almost whole Asia very long and then balkanise. But even this might be pretty difficult.
 
Could an extremely massive scale of migration from 'China' to Asia and return do the trick? Or is this too ridiculous?
 
It`s going to be pretty hard. "Asia" was the name for the continent longer than China has existed. In any case the Middle East would never be counted in this "China" continent, and most likely neither would India.

Perhaps if "Cathay" remained the way Westerners called China, then "China" would have a far broader geographical term?

Asia has only existed as a concept since the time of the ancient Greeks, and Chinese civilization is much older than that. It's just that majority of the Greeks and the other peoples of the Mediterranean and Near East were not aware of the Chinese and the few, if any, who did know about them had no knowledge beyond second-hand reports that were shrouded in fantasy. To them, Asia was mostly just Anatolia, Mesopotamia, the Arabian Peninsula, Persia, maybe India, Sogdiana, and Bactria, and beyond that was unknown.

The name "China" as used in English and its counterparts in other European and Middle Eastern languages is much younger than the name "Asia," however, that much is true. There could be a switch, however, just as there was a switch for Africa - "Africa," the entire continent as we know it, was originally called Libya by the ancient Greeks, but after a while the names switched. As far as I'm aware, Africa was originally just a single region around modern Tunisia, where the Carthaginians lived (and this later became the kingdom of Ifriqiyya in medieval times as known in Arabic), but the name came to encompass the whole continent.

It's possible that, as European knowledge of the lands in the Far East expanded, they'd come to realize how populous and significant those regions are and adapt a new name to reflect their importance accordingly. "China," might be a contender, as would "Serica," (an old Roman name for China) and "Sina" (a variation of China from Arabic). The name Asia would then be demoted to its original designation as Anatolia, Asia Minor.

In such a scenario, however, it's also likely that the "Near East," from Turkey to Persia to Arabia, might be upgraded to full-fledged continent status in European perceptions, just as Europe itself is regarded as a continent despite being full connected to the rest of the Eurasian landmass. If not, Middle Eastern cultural perceptions probably wouldn't go along with it - There's no problem being associated with such distant and unfamiliar lands if a namesake from their side is attached to the whole thing, but why should the Persians, Arabs, Turks, and Byzantines be expected to play second fiddle to faraway lands and cultures they're no more related to that the Europeans are?

The name "China" is used in Western, and now international, terminology in describing regions beyond the borders of the country of that namesake - Indochina, Cochinchina, the East China Sea, and the South China Sea, for example.
 
^I thought Ethiopia was the Greek name for the African continent...

Ethiopia was sub-Saharan Africa, mainly Nubia and the area of modern Eritrea and the northern Ethiopian highlands. Ethiopians were the dark-skinned inhabitants of sub-Saharan Africa.
 
Perhaps if "Cathay" remained the way Westerners called China, then "China" would have a far broader geographical term?

This could happen, I guess, if the Qing end up conquering a huge empire, which could then be known as "China" around a Cathayan core.

But continent-sized...? And by the time the Qing roll around, the idea of what things are continents had already been sest for quite a while.
 
How about a more influential *Columbus, whose application of "China" to "somewhere just beyond his explorations" sticks well enough to pull the name off of the Middle Kingdom entirely?
 
How about a more influential *Columbus, whose application of "China" to "somewhere just beyond his explorations" sticks well enough to pull the name off of the Middle Kingdom entirely?
Columbus named his discoveries "The Indies," after the name for the southeastern Asian islands (Indonesia.) And, yes, he did manage to pull it off enough for the island group to still be called "The West Indies." So... maybe?
 
With a POD in whenever make the term "China" a continent as much as America or Asia is. The geographical boundaries of the continent itself may be decided by yourself.

Difficult since there are no 'obvious' dividing points between China and the rest of Asia (well neither does Europe, but European exceptionalism can be blamed for that).

Maybe if China colonizes Australia, that continent can be reclassified as 'Little China'/'Little Tartary' or 'Little Cathay'.
 
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