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Asia

Asia is the central and eastern part of the continent of Eurasia, defined by subtracting the European peninsula from Eurasia for perceived cultural differences by Europeans. Geologically and geographically, Asia is not a continent or a subcontinent. The exact boundaries are vaguely defined, especially between Asia and Europe: the demarcation between Asia and Africa is the isthmus of Suez. The boundary between Asia and Europe runs via the Dardanelles, the Sea of Marmara, the Bosphorus, the Black Sea, the ridges of the Caucasus (according to others, through the Kuma-Manych Depression), the Caspian Sea, the Ural River (according to others, the Emba River) and the Ural Mountains to Novaya Zemlya. About 60 percent of the world's population live in Asia. Asia as a political division consists of the part of Eurasia and nearby islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans.

Subregions

See also Geography of Asia. As already mentioned, Asia is a subregion of Eurasia. For further subdivisions based on that term, see North Eurasia and Central Eurasia. Some Asian countries stretch beyond Asia. See Bicontinental country for details about the borderline cases between Asia and Europe, Asia and Africa and Asia and Oceania. Asia itself is often divided in the following subregions:

Middle East

Generally refers to countries existing in whole or in part on the Arabian peninsula. It may also refer to Afghanistan and Iran. Countries on the Arabian peninsula:

North Asia

This term is rarely used by geographers, but usually it refers to the bigger Asian part of Russia, also known as Siberia. Sometimes the northern parts of other Asian nations, such as Kazakhstan are also included in Northern Asia.

Central Asia

There is no absolute consensus in the usage of this term. Usually, Central Asia includes: Central Asia is currently geopolitically important because international disputes and conflicts over oil pipelines, Nagorno-Karabakh, and Chechnya, as well as the presence of U.S. military forces in Afghanistan.

East Asia

This area includes: Sometimes the nations of Mongolia and Vietnam are also included in East Asia. More informally, Southeast Asia, is included in East Asia on some occasions.

Southeast Asia

This region contains the Malay Peninsula, Indochina and islands in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Ocean. The countries it contains are: The country of Malaysia is divided in two by the South China Sea, and thus has both a mainland and island part.

South Asia

South Asia is also referred to as the Indian Subcontinent. It includes:

Southwest Asia (or West Asia)

This can also be called by the Western term Middle East, which is commonly used by Europeans and Americans. 'Middle East' (to some interpretations) is often used to also refer to some countries in North Africa. Southwest Asia can be further divided into: Also see Gulf States, for a different grouping involving several of the above countries.

Economy

Main article: Economy of Asia
big>Economy of Asia
During 2003 unless otherwise stated
opulation: 4.001 billion (2002)
a href="/encyclopedia/GDP" title="GDP">GDP (PPP): US$18.077 trillion
a href="/encyclopedia/GDP" title="GDP">GDP (Currency): $8.782 trillion
DP/capita (PPP): $4,518
DP/capita (Currency): $2,195
nnual growth of
per capita GDP:
ncome of top 10%:
Millionaires: 2.0 million (0.05%)
a href="/encyclopedia/Unemployment" title="Unemployment">Unemployment
stimated female
income
align="center" colspan="2" | Most numbers are from the UNDP from 2002, some numbers exclude certain countries for lack of information.
align="center" colspan="2" |
In terms of gross domestic product, Asia's largest economy is Japan, and the smallest is East Timor, (although as of 2005 there is no reliable data for Iraq or North Korea). Japan is the world's second largest economy, and North Korea is one of the poorest. As of 2005, China's economy has been growing rapidly. Trade blocs:

Natural resources

Asia is by a considerable margin the largest in the world, and is rich in natural resources. The vast expanse of former Soviet Union, particularly that of Russia contains a huge varity of metals, such as gold, iron, lead, titanium, uranium, and zinc. Oil is perhaps Asia's most important natural resource. The middle eastern nations of Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Kuwait are rich in oil reserves and have benefited from oil price escalation in 2004 and 2005. Agriculture constitutes a high portion of land usage. The main agricultural products include rice, grain, and chicken. One of Asia's major cash crops is opium, which is sold in Europe and North America. Forestry is extensive throughout Asia, with many of the items of furniture sold in the Western World made out of Asian timber. Fishing is a major source of food in Asia, particularly in the coastal and riverine regions.

Manufacturing

Manufacturing in Asia has traditionally been strongest in the Southeast region, particularly in mainland China, Taiwan, Japan and Singapore. The industry varies from manufacturing cheap low-value goods such as toys to high-tech added-value goods such as computers, CD players, games consoles and cars. Major Asian manufacturing companies include Sony, Samsung, LG, Toyota, Honda, and Nissan. Many Western companies from Europe and North America have significant operations in Asia to take avantage of its abundant supply of cheap labour. One of the major employers in manufacturing in Asia is the textile industry. Much of the world's supply of clothing and footwear now originates in Southeast Asia, particularly Vietnam, China, Thailand, and Indonesia.

Financial and other services

Asia has three main financial centers. They are in Hong Kong, Singapore and Tokyo. Call centers are becoming major employers in India, due to the availablity of many well-educated English speakers. The rise of the business process outsourcing industry has seen the rise of India and China as the other financial centers. Experts believe the current center of financial activity is moving toward "Chindia" -- a name used for jointly referring to China and India -- with Shanghai and Mumbai (Bombay) becoming major financial hubs in their own right.

Early history

Main article: History of Asia The history of Asia can be seen as the distinct histories of several peripheral coastal regions, East Asia, South Asia, and the Middle East, linked by the interior mass of the Eurasian steppe. The coastal periphery was the first to be home to civilization, with each of the three regions developing early civilizations around fertile river valleys. The civilizations in Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley, and the Yangtze shared many similarities and likely exchanged technologies and ideas such as mathematics and the wheel. Other notions such as that of writing likely developed individually in each area. Cities, states and empires developed in these lowlands. The steppe region had long been inhabited by mounted nomads, and from the central steppes they could reach all areas of Asia. The earliest known such central expansion out of the steppe is that of the Indo-Europeans, who spread their languages into the Middle East, India, and in the Tocharians to the borders of China. The northern part of Asia, covering much of Siberia, was inaccessible to the steppe nomads, due to the dense forests and the tundra. These areas were very sparsely populated. The centre and periphery were kept separate by mountains and desserts. The Caucuses, Himalaya, Karakum Desert and Gobi Desert formed barriers that the steppe horsemen could only cross with difficulty. While technologically and culturally, the urban city dwellers were more advanced, they could do little militarily to defend against the mounted hordes of the steppe. However, the lowlands did not have enough open grasslands to support a large horsebound force. Thus the nomads who conquered states in China, India, and the Middle East were soon forced to adapt to the local societies.

Population density

The following table lists countries and dependencies by population density in inhabitants and km2. Unlike the figures in the country articles, the figures in this table are based on areas including inland water bodies (lakes, reservoirs, rivers) and may therefore be lower here. The whole of Egypt, Russia, Kazakhstan, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Turkey are referred to in the table, although they are only partly in Asia. The West Bank and Gaza Strip are not listed separately, but combined as Palestinian territories.
country pop. dens. area population
! (/km2) ! (km2) ! (2002-07-01 est.)
align="left" | Macau (PRC) 18,000 25 461,833
align="left" | Hong Kong (PRC) 6,688 1,092 7,303,334
align="left" | Singapore 6,430 693 4,452,732
align="left" | Maldives 1,070 300 320,165
align="left" | Bahrain 987 665 656,397
align="left" | Bangladesh 926 144,000 133,376,684
align="left" | Republic of China (Taiwan, Quemoy, Matsu) 627 35,980 22,548,009
align="left" | Palestinian territories 545 6,220 3,389,578
align="left" | South Korea 491 98,480 48,324,000
align="left" | Lebanon 354 10,400 3,677,780
align="left" | Japan 336 377,835 126,974,628
align="left" | India 318 3,287,590 1,045,845,226
align="left" | Sri Lanka 298 65,610 19,576,783
align="left" | Israel 290 20,770 6,029,529
align="left" | Philippines 282 300,000 84,525,639
align="left" | Vietnam 246 329,560 81,098,416
align="left" | North Korea 184 120,540 22,224,195
align="left" | Nepal 184 140,800 25,873,917
align="left" | Pakistan 184 803,940 147,663,429
align="left" | People's Republic of China (Mainland) 134 9,596,960 1,284,303,705
align="left" | Thailand 121 514,000 62,354,402
align="left" | Indonesia 121 1,919,440 231,328,092
align="left" | Kuwait 118 17,820 2,111,561
align="left" | Armenia 112 29,800 3,330,099
align="left" | Syria 93 185,180 17,155,814
align="left" | Azerbaijan 90 86,600 7,798,497
align="left" | Turkey 86 780,580 67,308,928
align="left" | Cyprus 83 9,250 775,927
align="left" | Georgia 71 69,700 4,960,951
align="left" | Cambodia 71 181,040 12,775,324
align="left" | Egypt 71 1,001,450 70,712,345
align="left" | Qatar 69 11,437 793,341
align="left" | Malaysia 69 329,750 22,662,365
align="left" | East Timor 63 15,007 952,618
align="left" | Myanmar 62 678,500 42,238,224
align="left" | Brunei 61 5,770 350,898
align="left" | Jordan 58 92,300 5,307,470
align="left" | Uzbekistan 57 447,400 25,563,441
align="left" | Iraq 55 437,072 24,001,816
align="left" | Tajikistan 47 143,100 6,719,567
align="left" | Bhutan 45 47,000 2,094,176
align="left" | Afghanistan 43 647,500 27,755,775
align="left" | Iran 40 1,648,000 66,622,704
align="left" | Yemen 35 527,970 18,701,257
align="left" | United Arab Emirates 30 82,880 2,445,989
align="left" | Laos 24 236,800 5,777,180
align="left" | Kyrgyzstan 24 198,500 4,822,166
align="left" | Oman 13 212,460 2,713,462
align="left" | Saudi Arabia 12 1,960,582 23,513,330
align="left" | Turkmenistan 9.6 488,100 4,688,963
align="left" | Russia 8.5 17,075,200 144,978,573
align="left" | Kazakhstan 6.2 2,717,300 16,741,519
align="left" | Mongolia 1.7 1,565,000 2,694,432
align="left" | Total 80.5 49,694,698 4,000,601,258

Religion

A large majority of the people in the world who practice a religious faith practice one which was founded in Asia. Religions founded in Asia and with a majority of their contemporary adherents in Asia include: Religions founded in Asia that have the majority of their contemporary adherents in other regions include:

See also

External links

  • http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/asia.html
  • http://www.freeworldmaps.net/asia/index.html

 

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