What Countries Make up the Middle East?
What countries make up the Middle East? The science of geography breaks areas up in a number of different ways. We are taught the names and locations of the continents throughout the years that we go to school. These continents are then made up of countries. These continents and countries are then divided into regions to make them easier to find and locate on maps. One of these regions is known as the Middle East. So, what countries make up the Middle East?
The area between Arabia and India is usually referred to as the Middle East. Although there has been much disagreement about what countries are considered a part of the region known as the Middle East, many geographers have agreed over the past few years that the Middle East is made up of 17 individual countries.
The 17 countries that are typically considered a part of the Middle East are:
- Bahrain
- Cyprus
- Egypt
- Iran
- Iraq
- Israel
- Jordan
- Kuwait
- Lebanon
- Oman
- Qatar
- Saudi Arabia
- Sudan
- Syria
- Turkey
- The United Arab Emirates
- Yemen
Defining the Countries of the Middle East
Defining exactly what countries make up the Middle East has always been somewhat up for controversy. One thing we do know is that the term Middle East is sometimes used synonymously with the term Near East. This is the opposite of the Far East, which includes the countries of China and Japan.
Throughout the years, geographers have had many disagreements about the countries that should be, or are, considered a part of the Middle East. The term for this geographical location was first heard in the 1850s and was probably given to this region by the British. However, it was not until 1902 when an American naval strategist by the name of Alfred Thayer Mahan popularized the name of the region and defined it as the area between Arabia and India.
Oil Makes the Middle East Important
The 17 countries that make up the Middle East are some of the most volatile places in the world. They are also extremely important to the rest of the world. This is because these countries contain a majority of the world’s oil reserves. This geographic region is also the world’s top oil producer.
The Middle Eastern countries of Kuwait and Saudi Arabia are the two countries out of the 17 that produce the most oil for the world. Although the United States gets oil from this region, a majority of the oil produced there is shipped and purchased in the countries of Asia and Europe.
A majority of oil reserves are in the Eastern Hemisphere, with nearly 80% accounted for in the Middle Eastern region. Although the United States has its own oil reserves, its reserves only account for 17% of the oil reserves left on the planet.
This margin can be seen in the number of barrels of oil that are produced daily by both the United States and the countries of the Middle East. Six hundred and eighty-four barrels are produced on a daily basis throughout the countries rich in oil in the Middle East. The United States only produces about sixty-four billion barrels on a daily basis.