PC: The continent is "Tartary" instead of "Asia"?

hey, all. been a while since i made a thread here, but i've been meaning to post alot of questions that have occurred to me in recent months. to explain, in this particular case, i was reading through a book of travel legend and folklore over the summer and learned quite alot about the historical concept of Tartary. simply put, it's a fictional country used by medieval cartographers to fill the blank spaces on the map when knowledge of far-flung regions were unknown, but all the various definitions of Tartary actually, interestingly, conform to the basic borders of the Mongol Empire. it was also addressed in same book that, as probably all of you already know, that Anatolia was historically known as "Asia Minor". that last part actually brought on a question for myself: "If Anatolia is Asia Minor, then where is Asia Major?" and i eventually looked it up on my own, the basic answer being the "Asia Major" would be Asia as it was known by the Ancient Greeks, probably amounting to the eastern reaches of the Macedonian Empire, so by modern definitions it would be Asia below the former Soviet Union and east to the Indus River.

eventually, that led to another question which i haven't yet answered for myself: What if the continent of Asia was called "Tartary" instead and "Asia" was exclusively a regional term?

basically, i wanted to get some peer review on this to see what everyone thinks. i could easily see this being so in a given ATL as an example of the butterfly effect. this would essentially mean that the Middle East is referred to as "Asia" ITTL and alot of OTL regional terms for Asia would, obviously, substitute "Tartary" for "Asia", so China, Japan, and Korea would be part of "eastern Tartary", for example. thoughts?
 
I think Tartary is more linked to the steppes, but anything south of Afghanistan would be Asia major
 

Skallagrim

Banned
I think it would be very hard to get China, Japan and Korea included in "Tartary", which was seen as a steppe entity, as @Tanc49 points out. Realistically, you could limit 'Asia' and have 'Tartary' be the region to its north and north-east. Different parts of what we call "Eurasia" would just have different names, and the complete continent may never actually get a single name beyond "the Old World" or something. "India" could be its own thing, east of "Asia", and what we call "East Asia" would probably get its own name. (Running with the "Tartary"-theme, an option would be "Cathay".)
 
I think it would be very hard to get China, Japan and Korea included in "Tartary", which was seen as a steppe entity, as @Tanc49 points out. Realistically, you could limit 'Asia' and have 'Tartary' be the region to its north and north-east. Different parts of what we call "Eurasia" would just have different names, and the complete continent may never actually get a single name beyond "the Old World" or something. "India" could be its own thing, east of "Asia", and what we call "East Asia" would probably get its own name. (Running with the "Tartary"-theme, an option would be "Cathay".)
Yes, there's something very interesting around India. Something that struck me is that in the UK, when you say Asia, it does take India/Pakistan et al into account, but in France, "Asie" is pretty much from Malaysia to Vladivostok. The continent is named Asia, sure, but it would be Sibérie, Asie Centrale... If you just say Asie, you're referring to East Asia.
Just thought it'd be interesting to mention!
 
Indeed, Asia as a name for the middle east only makes sense historically, but calling the continent Tartary does not. It could be feasible to see a world where Eurasia has some different world which indicates it being the 'old world' or the largest continent, while it is considered to be made up of several large regions - Europe, Tartary, Asia, India, Siam, China and Siberia.
 
Indeed, Asia as a name for the middle east only makes sense historically, but calling the continent Tartary does not. It could be feasible to see a world where Eurasia has some different world which indicates it being the 'old world' or the largest continent, while it is considered to be made up of several large regions - Europe, Tartary, Asia, India, Siam, China and Siberia.

Agreed. I will also add that the Greek invented geography as we know it. Thus, if the OP is not trying to destroy Hellenic influence in the world, Asia is the most probable name of, at least, the Middle East (excluding the African part, of course).
 
Agreed. I will also add that the Greek invented geography as we know it. Thus, if the OP is not trying to destroy Hellenic influence in the world, Asia is the most probable name of, at least, the Middle East (excluding the African part, of course).
it was just a thought that had occurred to me, is all, since "Tartary" did refer to a large part of the Asian continent historically ;) it wouldn't be the first or last time that an originally narrow definition was applied to a much larger area--"Asia" itself is an example
 
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