Asia, the largest part of the world (around 44.6 million km 2), with 4,463 million people, more than half of the world’s population.
Together with Europe, Asia forms the contiguous land mass of Eurasia. Asia is bounded in the west by the Ural Mountains and the Ural River, by the Manych lowlands, the Black Sea and the Aegean Sea, in the southwest and south by the Suez Canal, the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean, in the southeast and east by the Arafura Sea, from Pacific Ocean and the Bering Sea, to the north by the Arctic Ocean.
The surface shape of the continent is extraordinarily diverse. In Asia one finds the highest peaks and the most extensive plateaus on earth as well as large lowlands. The continent is criss-crossed by chain mountains that stretch from the highlands of Asia Minor over the Ararat highlands and the Iranian chains to the Hindu Kush and Pamirs. There the mountain range is divided into three parts. In the south extends the Himalayas, which continue in a north-south direction in the mountain ranges of rear India. In the middle runs the Kunlun, in the north the Tienschan and the Siberian border chain mountains. Extensive plateaus or high basins (including Iran, Tibet) lie between the mountain ranges. Large lowlands are in front of the mountains, including the river basins of the Euphrates and Tigris and the Ganges as well as the West Siberian lowlands. The eastern edge of the continent is accompanied by volcanic island chains.
Asia has a share in almost all climates from tropical to tundra climates. Due to the enormous extent of the continent, there is a decidedly continental climate in the interior, in the south and south-east there is a predominantly monsoon climate. The northern one is in Siberia Cold pole, in Southwest Asia, on the other hand, there are extremely hot areas with mean annual temperatures of around 30 ° C. While the steppes and deserts of Arabia and Central Asia are among the areas with the lowest rainfall, the Indian state of Assam has the largest amount of rain on earth.
The vegetation is also very diverse: the north is characterized by tundra, taiga and steppe. A dry zone stretches from the Middle East via Inner Asia to Manchuria, which is criss-crossed by steppes and deserts. Large savannahs and thorn-bush steppes predominate in the Indian suburbs ; where there is sufficient rainfall (especially in Southeast Asia), subtropical or tropical rainforests can be found.
The animal world of Asia ranges from reindeer, polar bears, various fur species (e.g. sable) in the north to antelopes, wolves, monkeys, elephants, tigers, snakes and colorful birds in the south.
The population of Asia is partly Mongolian, partly European; the Turkic peoples form a mixed group. The continuing population growth is a major problem for many countries. China, India and Indonesia are among the most populous countries.
The Asian economy is determined by the contrast between different economic structures: In addition to highly industrialized countries (e.g. Japan) and rich raw material countries (oil countries), there are still many economically underdeveloped countries (Developing countries). Asia holds a leading position in the world market for rice, rubber, tea, jute, silk, palm oil, peanuts, cotton and millet. Industrial centers are in Siberia, China, India, Korea and especially in Japan. Asia is rich in natural resources (especially oil).
History: Several advanced cultures developed very early in Asia (since the 4th / 3rd millennium BC that of the Sumerians, Babylonians and Assyrians in Mesopotamia, around 2600 BC the Indian culture on the Indus, around 1500 BC The Chinese high culture), from which the great religions also emerged: in China Confucianism, in India Buddhism and Hinduism, in Western Asia Judaism, later Christianity and Islam.
In the Middle Ages, the Mongol Empire united the Middle East, Central and Eastern Asia for the first time. The Ottomans spread in the 14./15. Century to southern Europe. Since the discovery of the sea route to India (1498), the Europeans opened up Asia as a colonial area. They first set up individual trading bases (especially trade in luxury goods, e.g. spices, silk) and began in the 18th century with the conquest and colonization of larger areas BC. a. in Southeast Asia.
In the 19th century, the Chinese, who had ruled East Asia for thousands of years, lost large parts of their territory to Russia. Japan also brought parts of China under its rule. This led to tensions with the European colonial powers and the US, which eventually erupted in World War II. The colonial powers then began to withdraw from Asia. After 1945, China in particular rose to global political importance under communist rule, and Japan became the continent’s strongest economic power.
East Asia
East | Asia, in the west by the desert and steppe-like highlands of Central Asia, the cultural area in the part of the Asian continent near the Pacific; According to COUNTRYAAH, the mainland includes southern China, the Great Plain and Manchuria as well as the Korean peninsula, as well as the Kuril Islands, Sakhalin, the Japanese islands, Taiwan and other small islands.
