Table of Contents
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Afghanistan Bangladesh Bhutan Brunei Burma Cambodia China Hong Kong India Indonesia Japan Kazakhstan N. Korea S. Korea Laos |
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Malaysia Mongolia Nepal Pakistan Philippines Russia Sri Lanka Taiwan Tajikistan Thailand Turkmenistan Uzbekistan Vietnam World Map Middle East |
If the nineteenth was the British century, the twentieth the American, then it may be suggested that the twenty-first will be the Asian century. It already has the most dynamic economies and the two potential powerhouses, India and China, will remain the two countries with the largest populations although their ranks will reverse. (Most have not included the former Soviet Asiatic land mass in discussions of Asia although the newly independent Central Asian states now qualify. The rest is still run by Russians and thus European, or as some Russians like to say, Eurasian). How did these developments occur? Remember, except for Japan and Thailand, the continent was under formal or de facto control of outsiders through half this century and had been for periods of up to several hundred years. We will be examining two very different countries that exemplify the diversity of Asian experiences, Japan and Sri Lanka, but first some basic background.
PHYSICAL (not including the former Soviet Asia)
From southwest Asia in a long arc to Japan, the continent spans some 7,000 miles and stretches some 4500 miles north to south. It covers the low to middle latitudes, mostly in the northern hemisphere. There are two Asias climatically, wet (green) and dry(brown). The major distinctive weather pattern is the monsoon and its failure or excess still affect the very lives of tens of millions in south and east Asia. There is in fact a hypothesis that the weather pattern over Tibet may tie in with the western Pacific oscillations and affect weather throughout the northern hemisphere and perhaps the world.
Looking at a map, the first thing that should strike you is the "peninsularity" of the continent -- second only to Europe. A closer look at the details reveals the "chopped up" nature of the land with a "knot" in the Pamirs, a generally high east to west trending mountain spine, and "fingers" pointed towards the seas. This has major effects on overland travel, especially in the pre-modern transport era. Asia is the highest elevation continent averaging 3,000 feet (North America - 2000, Africa - 1900, South America - 1800, and Europe - 1000). The human results of the physiography and the climate variation include the very uneven population density ranging from that of Tibet and the desert areas to the thousand or more per square kilometer in riverine India, coastal China and Japan and Java. The physical environment also encouraged development of quite different cultures, isolated from each other until recently. There are always exceptions to such generalizations and sea trade, the spread of such religions as Islam and Buddhism and the near ubiquity of rice culture are examples here.
If we "stretch" things a bit to cover Egypt's Nile Valley, Asia is the site of the world's first civilizations: the Nile, the Tigris-Euphrates, northwest India, northern China. Can you speculate on why? All the world's major religions started in Asia as did mathematics, astronomy, architecture and medicine. The common domestic animals -- dog, cat, cow, horse, sheep and pig -- were also Asian originated. Apart from the eastern Mediterranean littoral which had intimate ties with Asia at many points over time, there was long running but tenuous contact with Europe via central Asia (the Silk Road) and later via the Arabs trading by land and sea. These Euro-Asian contacts were most extensive in the "Middle East" -- Persian empires' expeditions towards the west, the Trojan war, and Alexander's expeditions to the east being perhaps the most famous in antiquity. The luxury trade in such things as silk and spices whetted European appetites for closer contact with these cornucopia without the expensive intervention of middlemen like the Turks, Arabs, Persians and Venetians. The strength of Islam, especially under the Turks made direct trade eastward difficult. So new routes to the orient were needed.
Development of maritime inventions (new sailing technology, navigation) in Portugal which later spread to other European countries made this possible. The lure of Asia played a critical role in these developments and their diffusion. First the Portuguese, then the Spanish, Dutch, English and French raced to find new routes to Asia and open trade. The earliest of these modern pathways to eventuate was the route around the Cape of Good Hope (why does this make geographic sense? look at a map from a historical atlas--pre Suez Canal), later joined by the trans-isthmian land route across Panama and the dangerous journey around Cape Horn as well as the land route through Egypt to the Red Sea. Centuries were spent looking for the almost mythic "Northwest Passage" to Asia, exemplified by the expeditions of Hudson (as in river and bay). The current undersea route developed for nuclear submarine use has also been proposed for trade purposes. There was also long lesser-known interest in a northeast sea route to Asia around northern Russia. Vitus Bering, of Bering Straits fame, was one of the (Danish) navigators hired by the Czars to explore for such a passage. The Suez (1869) and later the Panama (1914) canal were long time dreams, realized as soon as technology could cope.
Early European footholds were established in Ceylon (Sri Lanka), the Spice Islands (Indonesia), and in India (Goa - Portugal, Pondichery - France, Madras - England) and through restricted trading posts in China and Japan. The European drive for control rather than trade crested in the eighteenth and again in the nineteenth centuries. The English defeated the French in India in 1763 and succeeded in opening up China with the help of the opium trade in the 1840s. The Dutch took and held on to what is now Indonesia, the Portuguese kept snippets like Macau and E. Timor, the Spanish established a firm grip on the Philippines, and the French succeeded late in Indo-China. Later, the Germans picked up Pacific islands and part of New Guinea and the Japanese entered the colonial game with their win over China in 1895. By the turn of the twentieth century the vast bulk of China was, while nominally independent, a set of de facto colonies of various powers including the Japanese, Germans and Russians as well as the British and French. Even the "non-colonialist" United States picked up islands like the Hawaiian chain and the Philippines as well as trade privileges in China. Riots and mutinies were not uncommon but the Europeans kept control. Southwest Asia was tied up by treaty and protectorate agreements. Only Thailand and Japan were to remain independent (glance at maps to see if you can figure out why). The Russians reached the Pacific in the 1600s and kept pushing south and north from the early trails. They succeeded in the nineteenth century in taking parts of central Asia (consolidated as late as the 1920s) and "adjusted" their border with China to their liking. It has only recently been "confirmed" in talks freely entered into by both Russia and China. By the end of the nineteenth century, Japan became the first Asian country to establish modern colonies with the successful outcome of the Sino-Japanese war and the acquisition of the Ryukyus and Formosa (Taiwan).
The two world wars of this century were critical in setting the stage for present conditions. The first saw the Japanese emerge as a major recognized power and take over former German island territories and their concession in the Shandong peninsula, a precursor to later developments in Manchuria and China and the "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Scheme." The second world war saw the first defeats of western colonialism and the revolutionary success of the Japanese contributed to the upsurge of independence movements and the successful overthrow of former colonial masters. Although there were peaceful turnovers, mostly by the British, in places such as India like the many in Africa (Portuguese territories and Southern Africa aside), most of Asia "earned" its independence. Perhaps that is one reason why some Asian countries are very sensitive to what their leaders see as attempts by Westerners to impose our standards on them in areas such as free speech and human rights. [Many Asian human rights campaigners say this is self-serving nonsense on the part of autocrats and thugs.]
Please email comments or suggestions to Dr. A.V. Williams
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All material on these pages are copyright property of Dr. A. V. Williams, Department of Geography, The Pennsylvania State University |
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