Asia
I
INTRODUCTION
Asia, the largest of the Earth's seven continents. With outlying islands, it covers an estimated 44,936,000 sq km (17,350,000 sq mi), or about one-third of the world's total land area. Its peoples account for at least three-fifths of the world's population; in the early 1990s Asia had more than 3.4 billion inhabitants.
Lying almost entirely in the northern hemisphere, Asia is bounded on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east by the Bering Strait and the Pacific Ocean, on the south by the Indian Ocean, and on the south-west by the Red and Mediterranean seas. On the west, the conventional boundary between Europe and Asia is drawn at the Ural Mountains, continuing south along the Ural River to the Caspian Sea, then west along the Caucasus Mountains to the Black Sea. Many geographers prefer to regard the land mass formed by Europe and Asia as a single continent—Eurasia.
The continental mainland stretches from the southern end of the Malay Peninsula to Cape Chelyuskin in Siberia. Its westernmost point is Cape Baba in north-western Turkey, and its easternmost point is Cape Dezhnev in north-eastern Siberia. The continent's greatest width from east to west is about 8,500 km (5,300 mi). In Asia are found both the lowest and highest points on the Earth's surface, namely, the shore of the Dead Sea (395 m/1,296 ft below sea level) and Mount Everest (8,850 m/29,035 ft above sea level).
To the south-east of the mainland is an array of archipelagos and islands, extending east to Oceania. They include the islands of Indonesia and the Philippines, including Sumatra, Java, Celebes, Borneo, and New Guinea. To the north lie Taiwan, the islands of Japan, and Sakhalin. Sri Lanka and smaller island groups such as the Maldives, and the Andaman and Nicobar islands lie in the Indian Ocean.
Because of its vast size and diverse character, Asia is divided for convenience into five major regions. These are as follows: Asia of the former Soviet Union (see Central Asian USSR), including Siberia, western Central Asia, and the Caucasus; East Asia, including China, Tibet, Mongolia, North and South Korea, and Japan; South East Asia, including Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, the Republic of Indonesia, Brunei, and the Philippines; South Asia, including India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Bhutan; and south-west Asia, including Afghanistan and the countries of the region commonly called the Middle East—Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia, and the other states of the Arabian Peninsula. The continent may also be divided into two cultural regions: that which is “Asian” in culture (East Asia, South East Asia, and South Asia) and that which is not (Asia of the former Soviet Union, and South-west Asia).
II
THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT
Unlike the other continents, the interior of Asia consists of mountains, plateaux, and intervening structural basins. The highland core, located somewhat south of the geometric centre of the continent, is composed of the Himalaya and associated ranges, and the Tibetan Plateau. Around this central core are four major plateau regions (Siberia, eastern China, southern India, and the Arabian Peninsula) and several great structural basins and river plains (see Arabia).
A
Geological History
According to the theory of plate tectonics, the Earth's surface crust consists of a number of huge continental plates and a number of equally large oceanic plates, most of which are in continuous motion. Of these, the largest is the Eurasian continental plate. Portions of this plate are composed of some of the most ancient rocks found on Earth, dating from the Precambrian (about 4.65 billion to 570 million years ago), which are found today in the Angara Shield of eastern Siberia, in much of the Arabian Peninsula, and in India south of the Indo-Gangetic plain.
During most of the Palaeozoic and Mesozoic eras (570 to 65 million years ago), a huge sea, known as Tethys, covered much of the interior of Eurasia and laid down thick deposits, which in time were converted into sedimentary and metamorphosed formations. Approximately 30 million years ago, the subcontinent of India, which had broken away from south-eastern Africa and drifted north-east, began to thrust under the Eurasian continental plate, creating an enormous “deep” that later filled with sediments to form the Indo-Gangetic plain. At the same time it generated tremendous pressure, causing the southern margin of the Eurasian continental plate to crumple into a series of great mountain ranges, of which the Himalaya is the most conspicuous.
Plate-tectonics theory also helps to explain the formation of the arcuate (arc-shaped) ranges, peninsulas, and archipelagos of Asia—as well as the volcanic activity and tectonic instability of East and south-eastern Asia. In East Asia the primary force results from the underthrusting of the westward-moving Pacific Ocean plate against the Eurasian continental plate. Japan, Taiwan, the Kuril Islands, the Ryukyu Islands, and the Philippines are products of these forces. In south-eastern Asia, the situation is complicated by the relative movements of the Pacific and Indian Ocean plates, and that movement helps explain the northern-southern trending highlands of mainland south-eastern Asia and the volcanic activity that characterizes most of the Indonesian archipelago.
B
Physiographic Regions
Asia's physiographic system focuses on the Pamir Knot, a towering plateau region known as the Roof of the World, located where the borders of India, China, Tajikistan, Pakistan, and Afghanistan converge; several peaks here exceed 6,100 m (20,000 ft). Spiralling out from the Pamirs to the west is the Hindu Kush and its extension across northern Iran, the Elburz Mountains. Beyond the latter are the Caucasus ranges, between the Caspian and the Black seas, and the Kuzey Anadolu Dağları (Northern Anatolian Mountains) along the Black Sea in Turkey. To the south-east are the Great Himalaya, paralleled by lesser but still great ranges to the north and south. Together these ranges form an imposing east-west arc, some 2,500 km (1,550 mi) in length, containing numerous peaks of heights well above 6,100 m (20,000 ft), including Mount Everest. Extending east and north-east of the Pamirs is the high Karakorum Range, which leads into the Kunlun Mountains, and a branch, the Altun Shan. This line of mountains continues east at lower elevations as the Nan Ling (Nan Shan), becoming the Qin Ling (Ch'in Ling) range of north China, which marks a major climatic divide between northern and southern China. Between the Himalayan system and the Karakorum-Kunlun ranges lies the Tibetan Plateau, which has average elevations of about 3,660 to 4,570 m (12,000 to 15,000 ft). Extending north-east from the Pamirs are the great Tian Mountains, also with peaks rising above 6,100 m (20,000 ft) but diminishing in height as it approaches the borders of Outer Mongolia. To the north-east, the Altai Mountains extend into the Republic of Mongolia. Beyond them are the Sayan, Yablonovyy, and Stanovoy ranges of eastern Siberia; the last two, however, are not part of the highland core.
Several major structural basins are found to the north of the central mountain core. Farthest north, located between the Tian Mountains and the Altai Mountains, lies the Junggar Pendi (or Dzungarian Basin) of China. To the south of this, between the Tian Mountains and the Karakorum and Kunlun, lies the vast Tarim Basin in which is found one of the largest middle-latitude deserts, the Takla Makan. Finally, embraced by the Kunlun and Altun Shan is the deep Qaidam (Tsaidam) Basin.
Soil types also vary enormously. Siberia is overlain by acidic forest soils characteristic of the tundra and taiga; permafrost is common, and drainage is usually poor. These soils merge into dark grassland, steppe, and desert soils across a vast band that extends from northern China to the Black Sea, and into south-west Asia. The dark steppe soils, among the most fertile in Asia, are found in north central China and south-western Siberia. In eastern and southern Asia, the most valuable soils for agriculture are the alluvial soils deposited in the lower valleys of the great rivers, especially the Indus and Ganges. These soils make up most of Asia's intensively used agricultural land. In low-latitude regions are found mature tropical soils, which are of generally low fertility. These mature soils grade, to the north, into soils with a higher humus content that are somewhat more fertile.
C
Drainage
The highland core of Asia might be likened to the hub of a colossal wheel, the spokes of which are great rivers that flow out in all directions. Seven of these are among the dozen longest rivers in the world. Flowing north from the northern margin and north-eastern extensions of the highland core to the icebound Arctic Ocean are the Lena, Yenisey, and Ob rivers. These rivers flow across vast alluvial plains underlain by permafrost. To the west, flowing from the slopes of the Tian Mountains and the Pamirs themselves, are rivers such as the Ili, the Syr Darya, and the Amu Darya, which drain into interior seas—Lake Balqash in the case of the Ili; the Aral Sea for the other two. Along with the Zeravshan and lesser rivers in northern Tibet, western China, and southern Mongolia, these rivers constitute the great interior drainage basin of Asia with an area of about 10 million sq km (4 million sq mi).
In the south, the south-east, and the east, the great rivers flow through vast lowlands. Clockwise from south-west to north-east these rivers are the Indus, Ganges, Brahmaputra, Salween, Mekong, Yangzi, Huang He (Yellow River), and Amur, all of which are snow- and glacier-fed and rise either well within, or along the margins of, the highland core.
D
Climate
The climate of the continent is as varied as its surface configuration—ranging from equatorial rainforest to Arctic tundra. For the most part, the northern part of Asia is dominated by the movement of polar continental air masses, travelling from western Siberia to the northern Pacific. Winters are long and harsh, summers are short and cool, and the annual precipitation is light. A similar climate is characteristic of the Tibetan Plateau and other uplands. The interior regions have middle-latitude desert or semi-arid climates, with harsh winters and warm to hot summers; average annual precipitation is less than 230 mm (9 in).
The southern and eastern margins of the continent, however, are characterized by monsoonal air movements (see Monsoon), running from the cold interior east and south in winter, and from the oceans north towards the warmer land in summer. For the most part, the margins of Asia have cool to cold, dry winters and hot, humid summers, with a strong concentration of precipitation in the summer months. Although the term monsoonal is applied to all the climates of eastern and southern Asia, the true monsoon is characteristic only of part of the Indian subcontinent and Myanmar; in these areas average annual rainfall exceeds 2,000 mm (79 in). In other parts of southern and eastern Asia, rainfall is either less heavily concentrated in the summer or evenly distributed throughout the year. Most of eastern Asia experiences flows of maritime air from the western Pacific in the form of a monsoon effect. In places where orographic factors (that is, mountains) intervene, the winter is likely to be wet, as is the case along the eastern coastal areas of the Philippines, Vietnam, and Malaysia, and in parts of southern India. The coastal areas of eastern Asia are also subject to destructive typhoons, which originate in the western Pacific and the northern part of the South China Sea.
South-west Asia falls into a different climatic regime, characteristic of much of the Mediterranean area. It is dominated by a high pressure belt of dry, relatively stable air masses that move slowly from west to east, bringing winter rainfall and then passing into northern India. The average annual rainfall is light, and semi-arid steppe and desert climates prevail. This climate regime extends into the north-western Indian Peninsula.
E
Vegetation
Vegetation in Asia is extraordinarily diverse, bearing an intimate relation to variations in soil and climate. In the far northern reaches of the continent, in Siberia, tundra and taiga vegetation predominate. The former consists primarily of mosses and lichens; the latter is a largely coniferous forest of larch, pine, fir, and spruce. South of the taiga, grasslands occur in great east-west bands. These blend to the south into a desert scrub where aridity increases, as in the intermontane basins of the highland core and its peripheries, and in much of south-west Asia.
In South, South-East, and East Asia, equatorial rainforest predominates in the lowest latitudes, where heavy precipitation is characteristic throughout the year. The luxuriant evergreen rainforest is characterized by numerous species, including teak, jackfruit, eucalyptus, oak, and various species of bamboo and palm. Farther north of the equator lies a more open tropical forest, often called monsoonal. This in turn merges to the north into subtropical evergreen forest, as in southern China and Japan. In the middle latitudes, mixed forests of deciduous and coniferous trees predominate; these merge, to the north, with the coniferous forest region.
F
Animal Life
The fauna of Asia is as diverse as the continent's climates, terrain, and vegetation. The northern regions are rich in furbearing species, such as the brown bear, otter, lynx, sable, ermine, and wolf, in addition to a vast array of birdlife. The steppe and semi-arid regions support antelope and numerous species of burrowing animals, such as hare and field mice. Freshwater fish are found in all parts of the continent; Lake Baikal is notable for its distinctive fauna, although severe industrial pollution has threatened the survival of many species. Wild sheep and goats are found in the highlands, and Tibet is the home of the wild yak. Wildlife is scarcer in the hot desert regions of south-west Asia, and of South Asia, where the most famous indigenous animal, the Asian lion, is virtually extinct. Jackals and hyenas, however, are common in these regions. The indigenous fauna of the more humid regions of eastern and south-eastern Asia has been much diminished by the effects of centuries of human occupancy—notably of loss of habitat and hunting. Monkeys, however, are ubiquitous in the southern areas, and the Indian tiger still exists in perilously small numbers in parts of South and south-eastern Asia. Birdlife, snakes, and lizards abound, and various types of crocodiles are widely distributed. Wild apes such as the gibbon and the scarce orang-utan are found in south-eastern Asia. Many types of deer and antelope also live in less well-populated areas such as Borneo, where flying squirrels and tree rats are numerous. Among the animals of unusual interest are the rare South East Asian rhinoceros, the Asian elephant, the tapir, the anteater, and the wild buffalo of India and south-eastern Asia.
G
Mineral Resources
Asia is enormously rich in known mineral resources, and much of the continent—Tibet, for instance—has yet to be explored geologically. Huge coal deposits exist in great abundance in Siberia, northern China, and north-eastern India; lesser deposits occur elsewhere. Oil and natural gas deposits are also well distributed, but with the greatest concentrations at the head of the Persian Gulf, in parts of Indonesia, in northern and interior China, on the shores of the Caspian Sea, and in the western Siberian lowland. Large offshore reserves exist along the coasts of China, Indonesia, Malaysia, and western India. Metallic minerals are relatively scarce in south-west Asia, except in Turkey, which is a major chromium producer. Elsewhere on the continent, metallic ores of various kinds are well distributed; China and Siberia are particularly well endowed. Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia are extremely rich in tin, and India is rich in iron and manganese ores. Other important mineral resources include gold, silver, uranium, copper, lead, and zinc; gemstones, such as diamonds, are found in Siberia; diamonds, as well as sapphires and rubies, also occur in South and south-eastern Asia.
III
THE PEOPLE
The peoples of Asia are more diverse than those of any other continent, and they are highly concentrated in a small proportion of the total area, chiefly in southern and eastern Asia. Average population densities in the northern and interior areas are low by any standard, as are those in most parts of south-west Asia. Mongolia has the lowest population density of any country in the world— fewer than 2 people per sq km (5 per sq mi). People in these areas mainly live in river oases, such as the Tashkent oasis, where population densities are quite high. In Siberia, settlements are located primarily along the Trans-Siberian railway and its branches. In East Asia, South East Asia, and most of South Asia, people are crowded on to relatively small areas of riverine lowlands, where population densities can exceed 4,000 people per sq km (10,360 per sq mi). Singapore is the world's most densely populated country with an average of more than 4,400 people per sq km (11,410 per sq mi). In China 90 per cent of the country's 1.1 billion population is concentrated in the eastern third of the country. Even in highly industrialized Japan most people live in the limited lowland areas, where the largest cities are located.
A
Ethnology and Languages
Mongoloid peoples are predominant in East Asia and mainland South East Asia, but Malayo-Polynesian stock prevails in the archipelagos of South East Asia. In South Asia, about two-thirds of the population consists of Caucasoid stocks, resembling the peoples of the Middle East: Caucasoid peoples also dominate in south-west Asia and in much of Central Asia. In southern India darker-skinned people speaking Dravidian languages (see Indian languages: Dravidian Languages) are the dominant group. Mongoloid peoples inhabit the Himalayan and Tibetan area, extending through Mongolia into eastern Siberia. The primary ethnic group in Siberia is Caucasoid, of European origin (see Race).
Ethnicity rather than race is a more meaningful approach to the population diversity of Asia. Sinitic culture, and cultures that are influenced by that of China but possess their own languages, are characteristic of East Asia; these peoples include the Chinese, Tibetans, Mongols, Koreans, and Japanese. South East Asia is more diversified, although peninsular and archipelagic South East Asia is mainly Malay. Burmese, Thai, Vietnamese, and Khmer inhabit mainland South East Asia, along with a number of other ethnolinguistic groups. In South Asia, the peoples residing in the north speak a variety of Hindi-related Indo-European languages; but in the south the Dravidian languages of the indigenous people of the Indian Peninsula are most important. In south-west Asia, Persian (Farsi), Arabic, Turkish, and Hebrew are the important languages identifying various ethnic groups. Altaic languages are numerous in Central Asia and in western China, although Russian today is the dominant language in Siberia. See also Indo-Iranian Languages; Austronesian Languages; Semitic Languages; Sino-Tibetan Languages; Slavic Languages.
B
Demography
The total population of the continent exceeds 3.2 billion. East Asia alone contains about 1.3 billion people, South East Asia about 450 million, South Asia about 1.1 billion, South-west Asia about 200 million, and former Soviet Asia at least 100 million. The average population density of 71 people per sq km (182 per sq mi) is the second highest of any continent, but the population is very unevenly distributed.
For the most part, the people of Asia are rural dwellers, but urbanization has proceeded rapidly in recent decades. The urbanized population accounts for a majority in Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, Jordan, Syria, Israel, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates. The Philippines and Malaysia also have relatively large urban populations. Except in the Sinitic world, and in parts of south-west and Central Asia, the large city is an innovation almost exclusively associated with the expansion of European colonization from the beginnings of the 16th century. The margins of South and South East Asia are dotted with large cities, most of which developed their present importance as a result of European economic and political domination; among these are Karachi, Mumbai, Colombo, Chennai, Kolkata, Rangoon (Yangon), George Town (Pinang), Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Jakarta, Surabaya, Manila, Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon), Phnom Penh, and Hanoi. Bangkok is not a former colonial centre, but it resembles the others in most other respects. Even in China, many of the larger coastal cities were strongly influenced by the European impact. In Japan, more than 75 per cent of the population is now urban. In most other countries the urban population ranges between 20 per cent and 40 per cent. In south-west and Central Asia, ancient traditions of city building were reinforced by Muslim culture, giving rise to cities such as Tehran, Baghdad, Damascus, Jerusalem, and İstanbul. Modern urbanization is reflected in such cities as Tel Aviv-Yafo, Tashkent, Beirut, and Ankara. Even so, in some countries of south-west and Central Asia, urban populations are a small proportion of the whole. Nevertheless, Asia accounts for more than half the world's urban population, and that proportion will increase in the future because Asian cities are growing at twice the rate of the overall populations.
The urban growth reflects both immigration and rapid population growth in most countries. The annual rate of population increase for the continent as a whole is about 1.8 per cent. Several countries have significantly lower growth rates, including Japan, China, and Singapore, and Taiwan. Although the demographic forecast is for large and rapid population increases in Asia, declining growth rates in China, the Philippines, and India suggest that a population explosion is unlikely. The populations of all Asian countries are young, however, which means continued population growth in the foreseeable future, as well as large numbers of entrants into the labour market each year in countries ill prepared to provide them with employment.
C
Religion
Asia fostered all the principal religions of the world and many minor ones as well. Judaism, Christianity, and Islam originated in south-west Asia; Buddhism and Hinduism in India; and the so-called Chinese religion, composed of Confucian and Daoist elements, as well as ancestor worship, in China. Although its historical impact, both direct and indirect, was great, Christianity is today practised by only a small number of Asians (most notably in the Philippines and South Korea). Buddhism is now a minority religion in its country of origin, India. However, it extends in two quite different forms, through interior Asia and into South East Asia, where it is the main religion (in the Theravada form) of Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos. Mahayana Buddhism is also important in Japan, Vietnam, and China. Islam dominates in South-west and Central Asia, and is of major importance in South Asia, where both Pakistan and Bangladesh are predominantly Muslim. Indonesia, in South East Asia, is also predominantly Muslim. Several South-west Asian cities are important centres of religious pilgrimage, most prominently Mecca, Medina, and Jerusalem. See also Confucianism; Daoism.
IV
PATTERNS OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
Much of Asia is economically underdeveloped. The majority of the continent's population is employed in agriculture, but most agricultural activity is characterized by relatively low yields and labour productivity. Overall, a minority of people are employed in manufacturing, and urban centres and their industries are often not well integrated economically with the rural sector. Transport systems, both within countries and between them, are still poorly developed in many areas, but have improved markedly in recent years.
However, there are a growing number of exceptions to the generality. Japan has successfully modernized its economy, as have Israel, Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, and, to a lesser extent, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Turkey, and the oil states of the Arabian Peninsula. In general they have shown rates of economic growth averaging more than 5 per cent per year, well beyond their rates of population growth. However, although the oil-rich south-west Asian states have done well, income distribution has remained more concentrated than in the others. Fuelled by large-scale foreign investment, rapid privatization, and industrialization, the People's Republic of China achieved the fastest growth in Asia in the early 1990s. In 1992 the Chinese economy grew by an estimated 12 per cent, although per capita income levels remained relatively low. Vietnam and Laos, two of the poorest Asian countries, are also beginning to achieve significant economic growth and are attracting sizeable foreign investment.
A
Agriculture
The majority of Asian land is unsuitable for agriculture; less than one-third is in productive use. In general, the basic unit of production is the village rather than the farm. In South, South-East, and East Asia agriculture is characterized by small landholdings in alluvial lowlands, too many people on too little land, production largely for subsistence, high rates of tenancy (except in the Communist countries), a heavy dependence on cereals and other food staples, and premodern technologies. Rice is the staple (main food) crop of South, South-East, and East Asia. It is usually grown under wet conditions. In South and South East Asia, yields are relatively low, controlled irrigation facilities are patchily developed, and double-cropping is seldom practised. However, in India and Pakistan, the extension of irrigation schemes and introduction of higher-yielding seed varieties since the 1970s have helped stabilize annual yields and significantly increased overall production; Pakistan is now an exporter of rice. Japan has shown just how great an increase in yields and production of wet rice can be achieved by the introduction of high-yielding varieties, careful water management, the application of fertilizers, and the elimination of landlordism in an agricultural system still based on small farms.
New high-yielding varieties of wet rice have been widely distributed in many parts of South East Asia, as well as India and Pakistan, since the late 1960s (the so-called green revolution), and production has risen, but not as much as hoped. The average rice yields in India, Thailand, and Myanmar are only one-third that of Japan. In India, the introduction of high-yielding varieties of wheat, developed in Mexico, has had an impressive impact on yields in certain areas; wheat is the country's second crop.
The large-scale estates agriculture found in the lower latitudes are in marked contrast to the predominantly subsistence production which surrounds them. The estates produce cash crops for export, such as rubber, palm oil, coconut products, tea, pineapples, and abaca fibre. Estate production originated during the colonial period in South and South East Asia, and many estates remain under foreign ownership and control. Most of the same cash crops are also grown in substantial quantities on smallholdings.
In East Asia agriculture is based on wet-paddy cultivation to a latitude of about 35° North in China and about 40° North elsewhere. Compared with South East Asia, yields are high, double-cropping is common, irrigation is highly controlled, and fertilizer inputs are extremely high, especially in Japan. North of the Huai River in China, rice gives way to wheat and then dryland cereals, especially sorghum and maize, all cultivated in an intensive form characteristic of Chinese agriculture. Although China's rural population was until recently organized into large managerial entities known as communes, cultivation was still basically carried on at village level within the commune. Pigs, poultry, and fish (in ponds) are raised, where possible, in both the north and south of the region, but the dairy and beef cattle farming is common only in Japan and Korea.
In the drier interior regions of Asia, some dry-farming of grains is practised, but pastoralism predominates; cattle, sheep, and horses are the most important animals kept. Oasis-type irrigated agriculture is found in favoured locations in Central Asia. Dry-farming of grains, nomadic herding, and irrigated oasis-type cultivation are also characteristic of South-west Asia. For the most part, however, productivity levels are low.
B
Forestry and Fishing
The timber industry is important in most South East Asian countries, especially in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand—teak being the most important product in the last-named country. Forest gathering and shifting cultivation in forested interfluvial areas are important activities in South East Asia, as they are also in the more remote parts of humid South Asia and southern China. In India and China, however, the original forest cover has long since been removed in the more heavily populated areas. The timber industry is important in Japan, where large areas of planted stands, chiefly conifer, have replaced much of the indigenous vegetation. Siberian timber reserves are enormous and have been as yet relatively little tapped, due in part to difficulties presented by the harsh climate, and in part to the predominance of larch, which is less commercially attractive than other species.
Marine fisheries are extremely important in Asia. Japan is the world's leading fishing country, and China is not far behind. The fishing industry is also important in Russia, Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines. Pisciculture, the raising of pond fish, is also an important activity, especially in China. Although fishing in the poor countries is largely for domestic consumption, emphasis has increasingly been placed on exports of dried, frozen, and canned fish.
C
Mining
Mining also is an important activity in most Asian countries, and it is a major export industry in several: manganese in India; tin in Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia (which together produce most of the world's supply of this metal); and chromium ore in the Philippines. The most important Asian mineral export, however, is petroleum; South-west Asia, and notably the Middle East, contains the world's largest reserves of oil outside Russia. Indonesia, and more recently China and Malaysia, are also exporters. In South Asia modest oil and natural-gas deposits are exploited in Bangladesh, Pakistan, and off the western coast of India. Coal mining is important in China, central and eastern Siberia, north-eastern India, Iran, and Turkey. Other significant mineral products include iron, manganese, and tungsten in China; sulphur, zinc, and molybdenum in Japan; and gold in Uzbekistan and Siberia.
D
Manufacturing
Manufacturing is in general relatively poorly developed. Japan is the great exception. The world's second-largest economy, Japan has a highly diversified industrial sector that employs about 25 per cent of the labour force. Other than Japan, the major manufacturing countries in Asia are China, Russia, India, Singapore, and South Korea. Manufacturing in China was formerly concentrated in the north-east; in the ports of Shanghai, Tiajin (Tientsin), Qingdao, and Wuhan; and in certain interior regions where raw materials are available, but increasingly investment is going into the southern provinces. Taiwan, Hong Kong S. A. R., and Macao S. A. R are also important manufacturing regions. China's steel production is comparable to that of Great Britain, although output on a per capita basis remains low. Manufacturing in India is heavily concentrated in and near Kolkata, in the Mumbai area, in the central peninsula, and in a number of other resource-advantaged areas. Manufacturing in Siberia is clustered near the Ural Mountains, near major urban areas along the Trans-Siberian Railway, such as Novosibirsk, and near isolated centres in the Russian far east. India is now a major industrial power, but its manufacturing sector employs only about 10 per cent of the working population, while China's employs about 15 per cent. Since the 1960s industry has developed rapidly in Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea, and Hong Kong. Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines have also experienced large industrial growth. In other countries, industries tend to be associated with the processing of local agricultural, mineral, and forest products, with light manufacturing for domestic markets, and the assembly of machinery and vehicles imported from other countries. The trend in many Asian countries is to establish manufacturing industries geared to export, taking advantage of relatively inexpensive labour often by the establishment of special export processing zones with tax incentives to encourage investors. Notable examples of export-oriented industrial development include the electronics and clothing industries of South Korea and Taiwan.
E
Energy
Although overall energy production has increased greatly since the 1960s, energy consumption per capita remains extremely low in most Asian countries. The more economically developed countries have moderate to high consumption levels. These include the former Soviet republics, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Kuwait, Turkey, Israel, and Saudi Arabia. Energy sources in many regions are dependent on local resources, in particular, fuel wood. In South-west Asia the dominant energy source is oil. India's hydroelectric potential is immense, and more than half of the electricity generated in that country comes from water-power. Nonetheless, the majority of energy demand in rural India continues to be met by the burning of dung, fuel wood, and charcoal. In South East Asia, oil production is substantial in certain countries, such as Indonesia and Brunei, but water-power and fuel wood are the chief household sources of energy. Both China and Japan have shown that small-scale hydroelectric plants can be effective providers of energy to small towns and rural areas. China is reported to have some 90,000 small run-of-stream (not dammed) hydroelectric plants in operation, chiefly in southern China, in addition to some 20 large plants. Nonetheless, coal remains China's chief energy source. In Japan oil is the largest energy source, and almost all petroleum products are imported. Siberia is immensely rich in hydroelectric potential that has only recently begun to be tapped.
F
Transport
In most of Asia transport systems are poorly developed. No comprehensive continental land transport system exists. Few railways cross international boundaries, and where they do, as between China and the former Soviet republics, they are underused. Much the same is true of roads, and, for the most part, navigable rivers are also not international transport routes; the Amur River, between Russia and China, is a major exception. Most of Asia's international communication is by sea and by air. All major Asian ports are connected by both liner and tramp shipping services. Port facilities are varied, but few ports other than those in China, India, Japan, Hong Kong, and Singapore can handle the largest cargo ships. Singapore and Hong Kong are particularly important as entrepôts, to which small shipments are brought from a vast hinterland by small vessels and then shipped abroad. Air services link all major cities. Tokyo is the most important Asian air centre, and Bangkok is the second, by virtue of its crossroads location in South East Asia.
Domestic transport networks in most countries also tend to be limited. Rural settlements are often poorly connected with each other or with larger towns. Highways are few, and rural roads are usually unpaved. Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Malaysia, Israel, Turkey, and much of the Philippines are the main exceptions. Where navigable, rivers are often the main commercial highways, but not all countries have them. In China the Yangzi River has long been the east-west transport artery; it is connected by canal with the North China Plain. In South East Asia the Mekong, Menam, and Irrawaddy rivers have all acted as integrators of national territories. In India, however, the rivers have been much less important as a transport medium.
The continent's chief mode of transport is the railway. Japan has a dense railway network. China, which has the world's sixth longest railway system, had by the mid-1970s linked all its major manufacturing centres and provincial capitals into one vast network. Even so capacity is well below demand and major extensions of the network are under way or planned. Korea and Taiwan also are well served. The countries of South East Asia, except for Thailand and Malaysia, and those of South-west Asia have railway systems that are small and truncated. In South Asia an integrated railway system, originally built by the British, was divided by the political separation of India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. The Trans-Caspian and Turk-Sib railways are the most important railway lines in Central Asia; the Trans-Siberian railway and its branches, such as the Baikal-Amur line, form the main transport system in Russian Siberia.
G
Trade
As a whole, the continent of Asia plays a more important role in world trade than either Africa or South America. A very high proportion of this trade is with countries outside the continent. The important exceptions are the flow of oil from the Persian Gulf to Japan; the lesser flows from Indonesia and Brunei to Japan; China's trade with Japan and South East Asia; and, above all, the flow of raw materials to Japan, chiefly from South East Asia, and the return flood of Japanese manufactured goods. Japan ranks among world leaders in the value of its international trade, but only about a third is with other Asian countries. China and India both have a large-value international trade, also chiefly with countries outside the continent. Malaysia and Indonesia are major traders in raw materials. In per capita terms, however, all countries other than Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, and Singapore, Hong Kong S. A. R., the island of Taiwan, the major South-west Asian oil exporters, and some former Soviet republics rank low on the world scale of international trade.
V
HISTORY
While Africa is generally accepted as the birthplace of the human species, Asia is believed to contain the cradle of civilization. Yet this civilization was not one and uniform; the sheer size of the Asian mainland made it almost inevitable that several different civilizations would arise, independently. The following historical survey attempts to show the interactions, collisions, and successions of these civilizations in continental terms. For additional information on countries or regions mentioned, see the history sections of articles on the individual Asian countries. See also Asia Minor; Assyria; Babylonia; Indus Valley Civilization; Middle East; Persia; Siberia; Sumer.
A
Ancient Civilizations
Apart from ancient Egypt, the earliest known civilizations arose in the great river valleys of south-west Asia, north-west India, and northern China, and despite their differences all had certain common features. All were agricultural societies that needed advanced social and political structures to maintain irrigation and flood-control systems. Raiding nomadic herders from Central Asia also forced the farmers in all of them to live in walled cities for defence and to entrust their protection to an aristocratic class of leaders. The invention of the plough in about 3000 bc reduced the need for farm labour, freeing workers to become artisans. Increased agricultural yields and the work of the artisans in turn provided trade items, and trade brought exchanges between cultures.
A1
Mesopotamia
The land that fostered the Sumer-Akkad culture of the Tigris-Euphrates Valley—that is, Mesopotamia—is often called the cradle of civilization. By 3000 bc, the Sumerians irrigated their fields from precisely measured canals, used bronze and polished stone tools, made textiles and wheel-turned pottery, built temples and palaces, and travelled in wheeled carts and sailing ships. Their accurate calendars predicted seasons, and their cuneiform writing was an international script until the 4th century bc. They worshipped a sun god and lived by written laws.
Although the Sumer-Akkad kingdom fell to northern invaders, Mesopotamia remained the centre of western Asian civilization until the 6th century bc. Most important of the later rulers were the Babylonians (c. 1900-600 bc), the Assyrians (9th-7th century bc), and the Chaldeans (7th-6th century bc). It was the Chaldean Nebuchadnezzar II who destroyed Jerusalem and deported the Jews. (Already, however, Judaism was a major religious force.) About 1600 bc, invaders from south-western Asia and Anatolia swept into Babylonia, sometimes to destroy but overall to build and advance the civilization founded by the Sumerians.
A2
Indian Civilizations
By 2300 bc, an advanced civilization in the Indus Valley of north-west India traded its cotton and textiles with Mesopotamia. As in Mesopotamia, irrigation produced crop surpluses and required an advanced social and political system. The two major cities, Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa, had straight streets lined with large, two-storey houses equipped with plumbing. The Indus peoples had written languages, used wheeled carts, and exhibited a high level of creativity in their art, jewellery, and toys.
Between 1500 and 1200 bc, waves of Indo-European speaking peoples—users of horse-drawn chariots—from Central Asia destroyed the Indus cities, afterwards settling in the Ganges Valley of north-east India. The oldest preserved forms of their language—an Old Indic speech—are in the Vedic Sanskrit (flourished about 1500 bc-200 bc), in which Vedic religious scriptures were written (see Sanskrit Language; Sanskrit Literature; Vedanta). Between 900 and 500 bc they settled into city-states under absolute monarchs. They depended on irrigated farming, including rice culture which was possibly imported from South East Asia. Their Hindu religion, as embodied in the Veda, provided for an elaborate caste system that stratified society.
A3
Roots of Chinese Civilization
A river basin also nurtured the early Chinese. Between 3000 and 1600 bc, the Huang He (Yellow River) plain sustained large communities of farmers who raised silkworms and spun silk thread and cloth, which they sent across the camel trails of Central Asia. They had an advanced society, but written records did not appear until the 16th century bc under the Shang dynasty. The Shang ruled over a number of kings of walled city-states. They cooperated to repulse the raiding northern nomads, who then dislodged other peoples, setting off a chain of migrations such as that of the Aryans into India.
The Zhou dynasty, who displaced the Shang, continued the feudal organization. Under the Eastern Zhou (770-256 bc), China advanced in political, economic, and social life. Chinese territory more than doubled to include southern Dongbei and the Yangzi River basin, with probably the highest population concentration in the world. The Zhou used iron weapons, expanded irrigation, and built roads and canals to improve communication and commerce. An educated civil service was developed to replace hereditary officials. Three major strands of Chinese thought crystallized: Confucianism, Daoism, and Legalism (see Chinese Philosophy).
B
Major Ancient States
In the 11 centuries from 500 bc to ad 600, the early civilizations expanded and interacted. Expansionist rulers such as Alexander the Great facilitated the cultural exchange. The aggressive Dongbei nomads also caused tribal migrations that brought masses of people into the orbit of civilization. By ad 500 the major world religions and philosophies, with the exception of Islam, had spread far from their places of origin.
B1
Cultural Interaction
An early expansionist, Cyrus the Great, unified peoples of Iranian descent into the kingdom of Persia. He then built the Achaemenid Persian Empire (c. 550-330 bc), which spread Persian culture from the Mediterranean to the Indus River. The third Achaemenid king, Darius I, centralized the empire's government and supported Zoroastrian worship of Ahura-Mazda, god of light (see Zoroastrianism).
By 330 bc the Persian Empire had been conquered by Alexander the Great, who dreamed of merging eastern and western cultures. Although Alexander's early death interrupted this plan, his generals planted Greek culture in the three kingdoms they made of his empire (see Hellenistic Age). The Seleucids ruled the Asian sector, which early broke into several states. One of these, Bactria, straddled the east-west and north-south trade routes across which Chinese silk and Indian cotton travelled to Greece and Rome in return for glass, manufactured items, and gold. Elements of Greek culture were channelled through Bactria across Asia. Even after nomads from Central Asia conquered Bactria, Greek influences prevailed, for the new Kushan rulers absorbed Hellenistic culture. Through the 1st century ad, Greek was the international language of business and diplomacy. By this time, Hellenized Romans were entrenched in western Asia, from which the Eastern Roman Empire developed.
Although Greek influences remained strong long after the Seleucids had declined, much of south-western and Central Asia and north India were actually dominated first by Parthians (see Parthia) under the great dynasty of Arsacids (c. 250 bc-ad 226) and then by the Persian Sasanians (ad 226-651). They spread Persian culture widely. Women's costumes and cosmetics, for example, were copied throughout Asia, and Persian architecture, art, and religion moved both east and west. Both the Arsacids and the Sasanians dominated transcontinental trade, the terminus of which was in the Eastern Roman, later the Byzantine Empire.
B2
Indian Expansionism
North India was also conquered by Persians, invaded by Alexander the Great, and ruled by Greek kings and by former “barbarians” from Central Asia. As international contacts grew, elements of Indian culture spread widely. Both Hinduism and Buddhism may have influenced Greek philosophers. Indians, in turn, felt strong foreign influences, as evidenced by the Greek-style Gandharan Buddha images of the Kushan period. After the Kushans conquered north India in the 1st century ad, they became Indianized, converted to Buddhism, and encouraged its growth in the Central Asian city-states and in China.
Although foreigners dominated north India for long periods, two native dynasties gained imperial status—the Maurya dynasty (322-185 bc), whose greatest ruler, Ashoka, sent Buddhist missionaries throughout India and Asia; and the Gupta dynasty (c. ad 320-c. 535), under whom Indian art, architecture, and civilization reached a pinnacle.
Small indigenous kingdoms ruled central and south India. The Tamil peoples of the south first colonized South East Asia in the early centuries ad. From these colonies grew the indigenous Indianized kingdoms of Champa (modern central Vietnam) and Funan (modern Cambodia), as well as lesser states in Thailand, Myanmar, Malaya, and the Indonesian islands.
B3
Spread of Chinese Civilization
Ambitious emperors of the Han dynasty (206 bc- ad 220) spread Chinese hegemony west across the wide Tarim River basin. They built military outposts along the enlarged Great Wall and the edges of the desert to protect the long trade caravans against raids by nomads. Persian, Arab, and Indian traders frequented the Han capital, and the Eastern (Later) Han probably had direct contact with Rome.
In 105 bc, the Han colonized northern Korea, and Chinese culture shaped the indigenous Korean kingdoms of Koguryo, Silla, Pakche, and Kaya. To the south, the Chinese Sinicized Vietnam, which they directly ruled for 1,000 years.
The Han reached new heights in literature, especially after the discovery of papermaking, and in pottery, sculpture, painting, and music. Their engineers built roads and canals comparable to those of the Romans, and the prosperous urbanized society tried to live by Confucian moral ideals.
As the Han declined, the nomadic peoples along the frontier were emboldened in their attacks. In the early centuries ad, waves of Turkic, Mongol, and Hunnish invaders set off tribal movements that pushed through Central Asia, into Europe (see Huns), and eventually to Rome itself. Many Chinese fled south, where a Chinese state ruled by a series of dynasties formed in the Yangzi Valley. However, despite troubled times, Chinese civilization advanced, with Buddhism and Daoism the dominant religions. Although Chinese rule over Korea ended, Chinese influence remained strong during Korea's period of the Three Kingdoms (4th-7th centuries ad). The Koreans became Buddhists, and they used Chinese characters for writing and the Chinese Confucian system of government.
Sinitic culture spread from Korea to the island kingdom of Japan, ruled by the Yamato clan, which traced its origins to a legendary sun goddess, Amaterasu. Becoming expansionist, the Japanese conquered parts of Korea in the 4th century, but were driven out again two centuries later. By that time the Japanese had embraced Buddhism.
C
Muslim and Mongol Ascendancy
From the 7th to the 15th centuries, two forces dominated Asian events: the spread of the new religion of Islam and the expansion of the Mongols, who conquered much of Asia and threatened Europe. The Mongols warred with and, on occasion, accepted and thus strengthened Islam.
C1
Rise and Spread of Islam
In 7th-century Arabia, the Prophet of Islam, Muhammad, claimed to have received the will of Allah (God) through the angel Gabriel, which was written down and later collected into the Koran, one of the world's great religious books. Together with the Hadith, the sayings and teachings of Muhammad, the Koran provided the framework of Islamic governments and society. To spread the word of Allah, Muhammad set Arabs on the road to conquest. He and his successors, the Umayyad caliphs (see Caliphate), spread Islam from India to North Africa and Spain. The Umayyads and the subsequent Abbasids presided from their respective centres in Damascus and Baghdad over the Islamic states, whose culture combined Byzantine, Persian, Babylonian, and Indian elements. A major link between them was the Arabic language, which all shared through the Koran.
The later Abbasids became puppets of their Seljuk Turk mercenaries from Central Asia, who threatened Christian Byzantium. Combined with the closing off of Christian holy places in Palestine, this threat touched off the 300 years of warfare known in the west as the Crusades, which brought great European armies to western Asia. The Crusaders failed to dislodge the Muslims, but they took back to Europe many elements of Islamic culture.
When the Mongols captured Baghdad in 1258, ending the Abbasid state, Islam had already taken root in India. Muslim traders introduced it in 711 to a country still suffering from the Hunnish invasions, which had been interrupted by the benevolent and cultured rule of the native Harsha (reigned 606-647). Muslim Turks and Afghans repeatedly raided India, destroying Hindu and Buddhist centres, until the foundation of the Delhi sultanate. Although slowed by Mongol invasions, the sultanate continued Muslim expansion into India.
Although Indian Buddhism was nearly destroyed in the process, Indian traders and missionaries carried both Buddhism and Hinduism throughout South East Asia. There the kingdom of Champa fought both the Sinicized Vietnamese, to their north, and the Indianized Khmers of Angkor (modern Cambodia; see Khmer Kingdoms), to their west. Angkor's advanced civilization with its great stone temples was itself doomed to fall to the Thai, who were pushed out of south China by the Mongols. The Buddhist kingdom of Pagan in Myanmar felt the direct force of the Mongols.
In Malaya and the east Indian islands, the Buddhist Sri Vijaya kingdom of Sumatra rivalled the Sailendras of Java, who were also Hindu and Buddhist temple builders. They were followed in turn by the Indianized Singosari kingdom and the kingdom of Majapahit, whose commerce by the 15th century was dominated by Indian Muslim traders. Although Malaya and the islands thus became Muslim, Buddhism persisted in Myanmar, Thailand, and Cambodia.
C2
Chinese Orbit and Mongol Ascendancy
The countries within the Chinese orbit were not converted to Islam, possibly because China experienced a cultural renaissance under the Tang dynasty (618-906). Chinese Tang influence reached from Japan to the Tarim Basin, where China blocked the spread of Islam. The Tang fostered Confucian government, but Buddhism flourished, spawning new sects such as the Ch'an (Zen), which appealed to the Japanese. The subsequent Song dynasty (960-1279) was pushed out of the north by Khitans and Jurchens, and out of the south by Mongols.
In Korea, meanwhile, the united Silla Kingdom (660-935), which was allied with the Tang, continued the borrowing of Chinese culture and religion. The succeeding Koryo dynasty (935-1392), like the Chinese Song, was attacked by Khitans and Jurchens before falling to the Mongols. As Mongol power declined, a Korean general founded the Yi dynasty (1392-1910).
China's renaissance also affected the Japanese, who intensified their adoption of Chinese culture. The 7th-century Taika and 8th-century Taiho edicts adopted Chinese government and socio-economic ideas. The court copied Chinese rituals and customs, and Buddhism spread Chinese ideas countrywide. As the provincial nobility grew stronger, the Fujiwara clan gained control. During their rule, known as the Heian period (794-1185), the Japanese court achieved an extreme of luxury; poetry writing, music, dancing, painting, landscape gardening, and perfume smelling became the primary activities of the courtiers. Ending this dilettantism, the Minamoto clan became military dictators (shogun) and ruled at Kamakura, while powerless emperors reigned at Kyoto (1185-1333). The fighting off of two Mongol invasions so weakened Kamakura, that power was seized by the Ashikaga; subsequently Japan fell into feudal anarchy.
The Mongols who dominated Asia for two centuries originated in the vast Asian steppeland. They came to power under Genghis Khan, who adroitly used espionage, trickery, terror, and talented men of all races to conquer western and northern China, and parts of Central Asia. His sons and grandsons expanded the Mongol Empire into western and southern Turkistan, Iran, and Russia. After north China and Korea fell, Kublai Khan conquered the south, where he ended Song rule and proclaimed the Yuan dynasty (1279-1368).
Mongol expeditions against South East Asia were doomed by the tropical climate, and naval attacks against Java and Japan failed. The use of foreign officials, corruption, heavy taxes, flood, famine, and banditry led to the overthrow of the Mongols by the Ming dynasty (1368-1644). During their ascendancy, however, the Mongols accelerated cultural exchanges by maintaining an open, thriving intercontinental trade, and by encouraging foreigners such as Marco Polo to serve in the Mongol court in China.
D
Rise of Colonialism
With the fall of the Mongols, rival Asian empires contended for power: the Ottoman Turks, the Iranians, the Mughals of India, and the Chinese under the Ming and Qing, or Manchu, dynasties. The political disintegration closed overland trade. Then, as Europe's new national states entered an era of exploration and colonialism, the Ottoman Turks cut off the western end of the sea route to the east. The resulting international competition for trade subjected Asia to European encroachment.
D1
Post-Mongol Empires
The Muslim Ottomans, who thus hastened European expansion, had conquered the remains of the Seljuk and Byzantine empires and moved north into Europe. They then took Constantinople, Syria, and the holy cities of Islam—Mecca and Medina. After 1566, however, there were few strong sultans, and as Ottoman power declined their empire became subject to European rivalries.
Iran revived under the Safavid dynasty (1502-1736) but then became a battlefield for Turks, Russians, and Afghans. The subsequent Kajar dynasty (1794-1925) was a pawn in European power struggles.
Muslim India, like Turkey and Iran, experienced an early renaissance under the Mughal dynasty (1526-1858), which claimed descent from Tamerlane and Genghis Khan. Religious toleration and political unity grew during the long reign of the third emperor, Akbar. Later, however, weak emperors reigned in Delhi and India fell into warring Muslim, Hindu, and Sikh states. Into this power vacuum moved the empire-building Europeans.
D2
Colonial Expansion
By the mid-19th century, the dominant colonial powers in Asia were Great Britain and Russia. The Dutch controlled the East Indies (modern Indonesia) and the lucrative spice trade, which they had wrested from the Portuguese; Spain ruled the Philippines; and the French had a toehold in Indochina. The Portuguese, who had been first to bypass the Turks by sailing around Africa, had lost most of their Asian strongholds. Asia was torn by the rivalry between the great powers. In India, for example, during the Anglo-French wars of the 18th century, both sides used Indian soldiers (sepoys).
After defeating the French in the late 18th century, the British expanded in India, annexing some states, offering protection to others, until—by 1850—they controlled the entire subcontinent. Indian discontent with British rule exploded in the Indian (or Sepoy) Mutiny (1857-1859), a widespread revolt that began with the Indian soldiers in the English East India Company's Bengal army. Although bloodily suppressed, the mutiny brought reforms that perpetuated British control for nearly another century.
From India, the British moved into Burma and Malaya. Two Anglo-Burmese wars (1824-1826 and 1852) cost Burma its seacoast. The British extended protection over the Muslim states of the Malay Peninsula and took direct possession of the important trade centres of Singapore, Pinang, and Malacca. Although Britain also threatened Siam, the Thai kingdom bargained its claims to several Malay states in order to retain its own independence.
The French lost their territory in India, but gained influence in Indochina. After 1400, Vietnam had broken into two states, but it was reunited in the 19th century by the southern Nguyen dynasty, which used French military assistance. The Nguyen moved into Cambodia and Laos, but their persecution of Christians led to French annexations in the south and the extension of French protection over Cambodia.
Russian expansion into Asia far surpassed that of the British in area and was completed much earlier. By 1632 Russian traders and cossacks had reached the Pacific. Soldiers and officials followed, building forts and collecting tribute from the indigenous peoples. Russia advanced into Turkistan in 1750 and had secured claims to the Caucasus by 1828.
D3
Breaking Down the Doors
China's experience with the Europeans in this period was quite different. A thriving trade between Europe and China marked both the early Ming and early Qing dynasties. The early Ming added tributaries and sent great fleets as far as Africa, showing superiority over all European nations. But then they withdrew into themselves; eventually pirates ravaged the Chinese coast while Confucianist officials bickered at court.
In this crisis, a Sinicized Manchu group seized Beijing and proclaimed the Qing dynasty. Their great emperor Kangxi expanded China, met with scholarly missionaries, and welcomed trade—which grew despite China's treatment of foreigners as inferiors and the confinement of them to Canton (Guangzhou) and Macao. Over Chinese protests, opium became a major trade item in Canton (Guangzhou), where the British predominated. In the mid-19th century, disagreement over opium sales brought armed clashes between the Chinese and foreigners, led by the British. The Chinese lost the so-called Opium Wars and were forced to open other ports, cede Hong Kong to Britain and Amur Province to Russia, accept western equality, and grant other trade and diplomatic concessions. Although still independent, China had been humbled by the European “barbarians”.
The impact of western trade and expansionism first hit Japan near the close of the anarchic Ashikaga shogunate—which was ended by a military triumvirate in 1573. Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the brilliant general of the group, completed Japan's reunification in 1587 with the aid of Portuguese guns and military advice. He then unleashed his forces on Korea, but was turned back by a coalition of Chinese Ming and Korean forces. Under the Tokugawa clan, who succeeded to the shogunate, the Japanese faced the full impact of foreign influences, which they viewed with fear and suspicion.
The Portuguese and Spanish came first, accompanied by missionaries who spread Christianity through the islands. Fearing that the missionaries were forerunners of foreign invasion, the shoguns banned Christianity; when the Europeans ignored the ban, they were expelled from Japan. Western trade stopped, except with the Dutch, who avoided missionary activities and helped suppress a Christian rebellion. For two peaceful centuries, the Dutch were Japan's sole link with the West.
Foreigners knocked vainly on Japan's door until 1854, when an American mission under Matthew Calbraith Perry secured a treaty opening consular relations. In 1858, the first consul, Townsend Harris, concluded a trade treaty. The ensuing Meiji Restoration (1868) initiated rapid and revolutionary modernization.
Korea's Yi dynasty also shut off western trade and persecuted Christians. As a tributary state of China, Korea expected protection. However, when 19th-century Europeans forced open China's doors, Korea shut its own more tightly.
E
Imperial Expansion and Modernization
Colonialism and imperialism brought new problems to Asians, which had previously absorbed successive waves of overland invaders. The new invaders came by sea, initially to trade. However, as their technical and military superiority grew, the Europeans sought economic and political control.
E1
Techniques of Western Exploitation
In establishing their supremacy, the European colonizers generally adopted a gradual approach. Requests for trade were followed by demands for forts and land to protect the trade, and for concessions to exploit local resources. Government and military advisers were then pressed on local rulers. Weaker rulers were offered protection, which in time involved control. Sometimes, as in the East Indies, tribute was demanded, payable in trade goods. In nations such as Iran and China, rival powers carved out spheres of interest. The ultimate result, except in Siam and Japan, was annexation and direct rule.
The imperialists built railways, roads, canals, and some schools. They also invested in plantations, oil wells, and other enterprises linked with the world economy. Most of the profits went abroad. Meanwhile, population growth brought fragmentation of farms, urbanization, and demoralizing social problems.
Except in Japan and Siam, traditional Asian institutions were too slow in borrowing western techniques or ideologies to prevent humiliating exploitation, unequal treaties, or foreign rule. By World War II, nationalism and socialism had spread among the western-educated native elite, and movements for self-government and independence emerged everywhere. The colonial governments, however, usually responded too slowly to the rising expectations these movements generated.
E2
Responses to Imperialism
The training of native armies and the education of an elite by the colonial powers produced internal forces that destroyed the existing dynasties and prompted reform and modernization. In the Ottoman Empire and Iran, for example, foreign-trained army officers seized power. They aroused nationalism and ruthlessly promoted modernization.
Native participation in the colonial government of India broadened gradually, but the pace never satisfied Indian aspirations. Indian schools, teaching liberal ideas, produced more graduates than there were jobs. Rising discontent found voice in 1889 in the Hindu-dominated Indian National Congress and in 1905 in the Muslim League. Britain's failure to grant the expected dominion status after World War I stimulated a Hindu independence movement led by Mohandas K. Gandhi; in 1940 the Muslim League under Muhammad Ali Jinnah demanded a separate Muslim state.
Nationalism and dissent also grew in South East Asia. In Burma, fully annexed in 1881, the use of imported Indian labour to exploit resources aroused local agitation led by Buddhist monks and students. Although the Dutch ended Crown rule in the East Indies in 1867 and granted reforms and increased autonomy, dissidence grew, stimulated by Muslim leaders and Dutch repression. In the Philippine Islands, annexed by the United States in 1898, nationalistic activities paralleled growing self-government. France had completed annexing or asserting protectorates over Indochina by 1885. Although Laos and Cambodia accepted French rule, Vietnamese nationalists agitated for independence.
As China suffered foreign exploitation plus revolutions and natural disasters, many Chinese believed the Qing had lost their mandate from Heaven (Tian) to rule. They doubted, however, that any dynasty could cope with Western technology and ideologies without modifying or eliminating China's Confucian system. China's defeat by Japan in 1894 further exposed its helplessness and stimulated dissent. A revolution in 1911 ended the Qing dynasty, but idealistic republicans such as Sun Yat-sen were pushed aside by generals. During World War I, China disintegrated into warlord rule.
Mistreatment of China at the peace conference aroused its educated youth. Some became republican nationalists, while others looked to communism and the new Soviet Union. A long civil war followed between the nationalist Kuomintang under Chiang Kai-shek and the Communists under Mao Zedong. They were unable to unite, even against Japanese invaders, who by 1941 had advanced from their puppet state in Dongbei deep into China proper.
E3
Maintaining Independence
Siam retained independence thanks to two progressive kings, Mongkut and Chulalongkorn. Constitutional monarchy came in 1932, but subsequent coups brought military dictatorships and a new name, Thailand, symbolizing its nationalism.
Japan prevented foreign encroachment by rapid modernization. The government built factories and sold them to private companies. Universal conscription ended the samurai's military monopoly, and in the new army even peasants became officers. The Meiji constitution of 1889 instituted universal male suffrage, forcing leaders to seek popular support.
Japan's victory over Russia in 1904-1905 (see Russo-Japanese War) boosted Japan's international prestige and prepared Japan to become a colonial power, which it achieved with the annexation of Korea in 1910. World War I stopped European exports, enabling Japan to expand its export markets, but the depression of the 1930s led ambitious young officers to press for ultra-nationalist policies. They initiated heavy arms expansion, the conquest of Dongbei, invasions of China and South East Asia, and, in 1940, alliance with Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini, who accepted Japan's plans for a “new order” in East Asia.
F
Independence and Conflict
World War II catapulted Asia into world prominence as Japan's rapid conquests revealed the vulnerability of the Western powers. India became an Allied staging area, and in south-western Asia, the Allies occupied strategic areas to protect supply routes. The eventual Allied victory further stimulated expectation in Asia for independence and modernization.
F1
Intensified Nationalism
By the end of the 1950s, militant independence movements, fuelled by intensified nationalism, had largely ended colonial rule in Asia. But major differences persisted. On the Indian subcontinent, religious separatism created Muslim Pakistan alongside the republic of India. In 1971, Pakistan was itself subdivided when its eastern section broke away under the name of Bangladesh. Border disputes embittered Pakistani-Indian relations as Pakistan produced a series of military rulers, while India maintained a parliamentary democracy.
In south-western Asia, religious and territorial nationalism created the Jewish state of Israel. Hostilities between Israel and its Arab neighbours—Egypt, Syria, Iraq, and Jordan—disrupted world trade by closing the Suez Canal (1956-1957, 1967-1975), while Israel occupied large tracts of Arab land. Palestinian Arab refugees from Israel formed the Palestine Liberation Organization and demanded the return of their homeland. Peace efforts led to an Israeli-Egyptian treaty in 1979, but solution of the Israeli-Arab differences remained elusive. In the aftermath of the Persian Gulf War of 1991, Israel and other Middle East countries met in Madrid, Spain, in November. Although initial conferences there and in Washington, D.C. in 1992 failed to resolve major issues, for many countries these meetings represented their first direct contact with Israel.
The Middle East was divided into numerous states, each subject to internal stresses. Iran, for example, experienced a nationalistic outburst in the 1950s under its charismatic prime minister, Mohammed Mossadegh, who nationalized the oil industry. Twenty-five years later, a religious and political nationalistic surge deposed the US-supported Shah Muhammad Reza Pahlavi. As the conservative Islamic government floundered, militants seized the US Embassy, initiating a long international crisis, while Iraq seized the opportunity to launch a bloody, costly, and ultimately inconclusive border war. Iraq occupied Kuwait in 1990, but the Persian Gulf War of 1991 restored Kuwaiti independence.
F2
Ideological Confrontation
Post-War rivalry between Communist and non-Communist ideologies was part of the global contest between the Soviet Union and the United States. Communism appealed to many Asians eager for independence, participatory government, and social reforms. The victory of the Soviet-supported People's Republic of China in 1949 and the retreat of the US-backed Nationalists to Taiwan was a major Communist triumph. This victory was tempered by continued United Nations (UN) recognition of the Nationalist government in Taiwan. Under Mao Zedong the Chinese Communists (until 1960 backed by the Soviet Union) experimented with radical socialistic programmes, ending in the destructive Cultural Revolution of 1966-1969. As Sino-Soviet differences grew, the United States began diplomatic contacts. The People's Republic was given China's seat at the UN in 1971, and in 1979 the United States recognized it as China's only government.
In 1975 Communist nationalist forces also prevailed in Vietnam, when the Democratic Republic of Vietnam in the north, aided by the Soviet Union and China, defeated the US-militarily supported Republic of Vietnam in the south (see Vietnam War). A by-product of the Communist victory in Laos as well as in Vietnam, and of the Pol Pot regime in Cambodia, was a mass migration of refugees to other countries of Asia, Europe, and North America (see Khmer Rouge).
In other parts of Asia, Communist forces lost. The newly independent government of the Philippines crushed the Communist Hukbalahaps (Huks), and the Malays, with British military help, contained their Communist guerrillas. Indonesia's Communist party, which thrived under independence leader Sukarno, was suppressed in 1965. The resulting massacre mingled ideological with nationalistic motivations, for many Indonesian Communists were ethnic Chinese.
In Korea, which had been divided by Soviet and American occupation forces, the Communist north invaded the south in 1950. As UN forces repulsed the North Korean troops, Communist Chinese intervention brought a stalemate and an uneasy truce (see Korean War).
The strategic position and resources of the Asian Middle East thrust the area into the ideological contest. An early Soviet attempt to occupy northern Iran failed, but later the Soviet Union gained influence in Iraq, Syria, and Yemen. The United States support for Israel also inclined many Arab nationalists to favour the Soviet Union. From 1979 to 1989, Soviet troops occupied Afghanistan, sending some 3 million Afghan refugees into Pakistan.
No Asian country was untouched by the Cold War confrontation between the Soviet Union and the West, led by the United States. The failure of successive Turkish governments to stop widespread political violence instigated by both extreme left and extreme right factions, or to curb inflation, brought a military coup in 1980. During most of the 1970s and early 1980s, India sided with the Soviet Union on a number of foreign policy issues, in part as a response to Chinese and American support for Pakistan. In Japan, the political left gained power in labour unions and student groups. This was partly in response to the domination of the Liberal-Democratic party in government, and to revelations of high-level corruption, and partly to continued US military involvement with the country.
F3
Economic Expansion
Economic and industrial expansion made some Asian countries into world leaders in wealth and industrial output. During the 1970s, Japan outpaced the United States in car, steel, and electronics production, and South Korea and Taiwan prospered as they expanded manufacturing and exports.
In south-western Asia, oil exports produced huge wealth. Although large sums ended in private hands, much poured into social and modernization programmes. Thousands of students who studied abroad returned to demand more rapid change than governments or conservative religious elements could accommodate. Such a climate preceded the Iranian revolution of 1979.
Oil also became a potent political weapon. During the Yom Kippur War of 1973, Arab producers imposed an oil embargo against countries supporting Israel. The oil-exporting nations, acting together, escalated crude-oil prices during the late 1970s, leading to severe inflation and recession in oil-importing countries, and precipitating a debt crisis in many developing countries. The Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s, which at first appeared to threaten oil output, actually led to a reduction in oil prices because it fostered disunity among the oil-producing countries of the Middle East. Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait also affected oil output as many of Kuwait's oil wells were set on fire by Iraqi forces during their retreat in the ensuing 1991 Persian Gulf War. In addition, the war underlined the fragility of the Middle East's political situation.
Just as the Persian Gulf conflicts disrupted the economies of Middle East countries, so Vietnam suffered from the long war between north and south, as did Laos and Cambodia from internal upheavals. China was set back by its break with the Soviet Union and by the Cultural Revolution; since the 1980s there has been an emphasis on economic growth and, increasingly, reduction of state involvement in the economy and encouragement of private enterprise. Political power, however, has remained solely in the hands of the Communist party.
Despite conflicting ambitions and ideologies, and local problems, wide sectors of Asia in the 1980s and early 1990s enjoyed economic growth, increased democracy, and improved living standards. In the late 1990s many countries in the region, including Japan, experienced economic difficulties, however, and their dynamic economic expansion came to a halt. There was continuing—and growing—separatist violence in many areas, including the former Soviet republics, Sri Lanka, and the Kashmir region. The Suharto regime in Indonesia ended in 1998 and the territory of East Timor was officially granted autonomy in 1999. The handover of former colonies—Hong Kong (now Hong Kong S. A. R.) in 1997 and Macau (now Macao S. A.R.) in 1999—to Chinese rule and the 2000 election in Taiwan were expected to influence significantly further political and economic developments in the region. The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) predicted, however, that the demands of the growing population in Asia might result in increased deforestation and pollution, as well as in a further decrease in water supplies on the continent where at least one in three inhabitants has no access to safe drinking water.
Microsoft ® Encarta ® Encyclopedia 2005. © 1993-2004 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
