Asia
Area | 44,579,000 km² (17,212,000 sq mi) |
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Population | 4,050,404,000 (1st)[1] |
Density | 89/km² (226/sq mi) |
Demonym | Asian |
No. of countries | 47 |
Countries |
Asian countries
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Dependencies | |
Unrecognized Republics & Regions | |
Languages |
Asian languages
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Time Zones |
+2 to +12
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Internet TLD | .asia, many others |
Largest Cities |
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent. It covers 8.6% of the Earth's total surface area (or 29.9% of its land area) and, with over 4 billion people, it contains more than 60% of the world's current human population. Chiefly in the eastern and northern hemispheres, Asia is traditionally defined as part of the landmass of Eurasia—with the western portion of the latter occupied by Europe—lying east of the Suez Canal, east of the Ural Mountains, and south of the Caucasus Mountains and the Caspian and Black Seas. It is bounded on the east by the Pacific Ocean, on the south by the Indian Ocean, and on the north by the Arctic Ocean. Given its size and diversity, Asia—a toponym dating back to classical antiquity—is more a cultural concept incorporating a number of regions and peoples than a homogeneous physical entity[2][3] (see Subregions of Asia, Asian people).
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The word Asia originated from the Ancient Greek word "Ἀσία", first attributed to Herodotus (about 440 B.C.) in reference to Anatolia or, for the purposes of describing the Persian Wars, to the Persian Empire, in contrast to Greece and Egypt. Herodotus comments that he is puzzled as to why three women's names are used to describe one enormous and substantial land mass (Europa, Asia, and Libya, referring to Africa), stating that most Greeks assumed that Asia was named after the wife of Prometheus but that the Lydians say it was named after Asias, son of Cotys who passed the name on to a tribe in Sardis.
Even before Herodotus, Homer knew of a Trojan ally named Asios and elsewhere he describes a marsh as ασιος (Iliad 2, 461). The Greek language term may be derived from Assuwa, a 14th century BCE confederation of states in Western Anatolia. Hittite assu-—"good" is probably an element in that name.
Alternatively, the etymology of the term may be from the Akkadian word (w)aṣû(m), which means "to go outside" or "to ascend", referring to the direction of the sun at sunrise in the Middle East, and also likely connected with the Phoenician word asa meaning east. This may be contrasted to a similar etymology proposed for Europe, as being from Akkadian erēbu(m) "to enter" or "set" (of the sun). However, this etymology is considered doubtful, because it does not explain how the term "Asia" first came to be associated with Anatolia, which is west of the Semitic-speaking areas, unless they refer to the viewpoint of a Phoenician sailor sailing through the straits between the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea.
It is interesting to note, in Icelandic Saga, ancient Teutons separated Asia from Europe by the river Tanakvisl (or Vanakvisl), which flows into the Black Sea. Eastward across the River (in Asia), so legend tells, was a land known as Asaheim or Asaland, where dwelt Odin, chief god, in his citadel named Asgard.[4] However, Aesir and all its forms are related to Sanskrit asura and Avestan ahura, the local reflexes of the name of a class of divine beings.
Medieval Europeans considered Asia as a continent – a distinct landmass. The European concept of the three continents in the Old World goes back to Classical Antiquity, but during the Middle Ages was notably due to Isidore of Sevilla (see T and O map). The demarcation between Asia and Africa (to the southwest) is the Isthmus of Suez and the Red Sea. The boundary between Asia and Europe is conventionally considered to run through the Dardanelles, the Sea of Marmara, the Bosporus, the Black Sea, the Caucasus Mountains, the Caspian Sea, the Ural River to its source, and the Ural Mountains to the Kara Sea near Kara, Russia. While this interpretation of tripartite continents (i.e., of Asia, Europe, and Africa) remains common in modernity, discovery of the extent of Africa and Asia have made this definition somewhat anachronistic. This is especially true in the case of Asia, which would have several regions that would be considered distinct landmasses if these criteria were used (for example, Southern Asia and Eastern Asia).
In the far northeast of Asia, Siberia is separated from North America by the Bering Strait. Asia is bounded on the south by the Indian Ocean (specifically, from west to east, the Gulf of Aden, Arabian Sea, and Bay of Bengal); on the east by the waters of the Pacific Ocean (including, counterclockwise, the South China Sea, East China Sea, Yellow Sea, Sea of Japan, Sea of Okhotsk, and Bering Sea); and on the north by the Arctic Ocean. Australia (or Oceania) is to the southeast.
Some geographers do not consider Asia and Europe to be separate continents,[5] as there is no logical physical separation between them.[3] Geographically, Asia is the major eastern constituent of the continent of Eurasia – with Europe being a northwestern peninsula of the landmass – or of Afro-Eurasia: geologically, Asia, Europe, and Africa comprise a single continuous landmass (save the Suez Canal) and share a common continental shelf. Almost all of Europe and most of Asia sit atop the Eurasian Plate, adjoined on the south by the Arabian and Indian Plates, and with the easternmost part of Siberia (east of the Cherskiy Range) on the North American Plate.
In geography, there are two schools of thought. One school follows historical convention and treats Europe and Asia as different continents, categorizing subregions within them for more detailed analysis. The other school equates the word "continent" with a geographical region when referring to Europe, and use the term "region" to describe Asia in terms of physiography. Since, in linguistic terms, "continent" implies a distinct landmass, it is becoming increasingly common to substitute the term "region" for "continent" to avoid the problem of disambiguation altogether.
Given the scope and diversity of the landmass, it is sometimes not even clear exactly what "Asia" consists of. Some definitions exclude Turkey, the Middle East, Central Asia, and Russia while only considering the Far East, Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent to compose Asia,[6][7] especially in the United States after World War II.[8] The term is sometimes used more strictly in reference to the Asia-Pacific region, which does not include the Middle East or Russia,[9] but does include islands in the Pacific Ocean—a number of which may also be considered part of Australasia or Oceania, although Pacific Islanders are commonly not considered Asian.[10]
The demonym "Asian" is often used colloquially to refer to people from a subregion of Asia instead of for anyone from Asia. Thus, in British English, "Asian" can mean South Asian, but may also refer to other Asian groups.[11] In the United States, "Asian American" can mean East Asian Americans, due to the historical and cultural influences of China and Japan on the U.S. up to the 1960s and in preference to the terms "Oriental" and "Asiatic". However, the term is increasingly taken to include Southeast Asian Americans and South Asian Americans, due to the increasing numbers of immigrants from these regions.[12]
Name of region[13] and territory, with flag |
Area (km²) |
Population (1 July 2008 est.) |
Population density (per km²) |
Capital |
---|---|---|---|---|
Central Asia: | ||||
Kazakhstan[14] | 2,724,927 | 15,666,533 | 5.7 | Astana |
Kyrgyzstan | 198,500 | 5,356,869 | 24.3 | Bishkek |
Tajikistan | 143,100 | 7,211,884 | 47.0 | Dushanbe |
Turkmenistan | 488,100 | 5,179,573 | 9.6 | Ashgabat |
Uzbekistan | 447,400 | 28,268,441 | 57.1 | Tashkent |
Eastern Asia: | ||||
People's Republic of China[15] | 9,584,492 | 1,322,044,605 | 134.0 | Beijing |
Hong Kong[16] | 1,092 | 7,903,334 | 6,688.0 | — |
Japan | 377,835 | 127,288,628 | 336.1 | Tokyo |
Macau[17] | 25 | 460,823 | 18,473.3 | — |
Mongolia | 1,565,000 | 2,996,082 | 1.7 | Ulan Bator |
North Korea | 120,540 | 23,479,095 | 184.4 | Pyongyang |
South Korea | 98,480 | 49,232,844 | 490.7 | Seoul |
Republic of China (Taiwan)[18] | 35,980 | 22,920,946 | 626.7 | Taipei |
81,713,517 | 21.7 | Cairo | ||
Northern Asia: | ||||
Russia[19] | 13,115,200 | 140,702,092 | 3.0 | Moscow |
Southeastern Asia:[20] | ||||
Brunei | 5,770 | 381,371 | 60.8 | Bandar Seri Begawan |
Cambodia[21] | 181,035 | 13,388,910 | 74 | Phnom Penh |
East Timor (Timor-Leste)[22] | 15,007 | 1,108,777 | 63.5 | Dili |
Indonesia[23] | 1,419,588 | 237,512,355 | 159.9 | Jakarta |
Laos | 236,800 | 6,677,534 | 24.4 | Vientiane |
Malaysia | 329,847 | 27,780,000 | 84.2 | Kuala Lumpur |
Myanmar (Burma) | 678,500 | 47,758,224 | 62.3 | Naypyidaw[24] |
Philippines | 300,000 | 92,681,453 | 281.8 | Manila |
Singapore | 704 | 4,608,167 | 6,369.0 | Singapore |
Thailand | 514,000 | 65,493,298 | 121.3 | Bangkok |
Vietnam | 331,690 | 86,116,559 | 246.1 | Hanoi |
Southern Asia: | ||||
Afghanistan | 647,500 | 32,738,775 | 42.9 | Kabul |
Bangladesh | 144,000 | 153,546,901 | 926.2 | Dhaka |
Bhutan | 47,000 | 682,321 | 14.3 | Thimphu |
India[25] | 3,167,590 | 1,147,995,226 | 318.2 | New Delhi |
Iran | 1,648,195 | 65,875,223 | 42 | Tehran |
Maldives | 300 | 379,174 | 1,067.2 | Malé |
Nepal | 140,800 | 29,519,114 | 183.8 | Kathmandu |
Pakistan | 803,940 | 167,762,049 | 183.7 | Islamabad |
Sri Lanka | 65,610 | 21,128,773 | 298.4 | Sri Jayawardenapura-Kotte |
Western Asia: | ||||
Armenia[26] | 29,800 | 2,968,586 | 111.7 | Yerevan |
Azerbaijan[27] | 46,870 | 3,845,127 | 82.0 | Baku |
Bahrain | 665 | 718,306 | 987.1 | Manama |
Cyprus[28] | 9,250 | 792,604 | 83.9 | Nicosia |
Gaza[29] | 363 | 1,537,269 | 3,315.7 | Gaza |
Georgia[30] | 20,460 | 4,630,841 | 99.3 | Tbilisi |
Iraq | 437,072 | 28,221,181 | 54.9 | Baghdad |
Israel | 20,770 | 7,112,359 | 290.3 | Jerusalem[31] |
Jordan | 92,300 | 6,198,677 | 57.5 | Amman |
Kuwait | 17,820 | 2,596,561 | 118.5 | Kuwait City |
Lebanon | 10,452 | 3,971,941 | 353.6 | Beirut |
Oman | 212,460 | 3,311,640 | 12.8 | Muscat |
Qatar | 11,437 | 928,635 | 69.4 | Doha |
Saudi Arabia | 1,960,582 | 23,513,330 | 12.0 | Riyadh |
Syria | 185,180 | 19,747,586 | 92.6 | Damascus |
Turkey[32] | 756,768 | 71,892,807 | 76.5 | Ankara |
United Arab Emirates | 82,880 | 4,621,399 | 29.5 | Abu Dhabi |
West Bank[29] | 5,860 | 2,611,904 | 393.1 | Jerusalem |
Yemen | 527,970 | 23,013,376 | 35.4 | Sanaá |
Total | 43,810,582 | 4,050,404,193 | 89.07 |
See Also: List of Asian countries by population
Various Asian countries have undergone name changes during the previous century as the result of consolidations, secessions, territories gaining sovereignty, and regime changes.
Previous Name | Year | Current Name |
---|---|---|
East Pakistan | 1971 | Bangladesh, People's Republic of |
Democratic Kampuchea | 1975 | Cambodia, Kingdom of |
Empire of Great Qing of China | 1911 1949 |
China, Republic of China, People's Republic of |
Portuguese Timor | 1975 | East Timor, Democratic Republic of |
Dutch East Indies | 1949 | Indonesia, Republic of |
Persian Empire | 1935 | Iran, Republic of |
Transjordan | 1946 | Jordan, Kingdom of |
Kirghizia (USSR) | 1991 | Kyrgyzstan, Republic |
Malaya, Sabah, Sarawak and Singapore | 1963 | Malaysia and Singapore |
Burma | 1989 | Myanmar, Union of |
Muscat | 1971 | Oman, Sultanate of |
West Pakistan | 1971 | Pakistan, Republic of |
Hejaz-Nejd, The Kingdom of | 1932 | Saudi Arabia, Kingdom of |
Aden | 1970 | South Yemen, People's Republic of |
Ceylon | 1972 | Sri Lanka, Democratic Socialist Republic of |
Tajik S.S.R | 1991 | Tajikistan, Republic of |
Siam | 1939 | Thailand, Kingdom of |
Ottoman Empire | 1923 | Turkey, Republic of |
Turkmen SSR (USSR) | 1991 | Turkmenistan |
Trucial Oman & Trucial States | 1971 | United Arab Emirates |
French Indo-China | 1949 | Vietnam, Socialist Republic of |
Yemen, People's Democratic & Southern Yemen | 1990 | Yemen, Republic of |
Population: | 3,958,768,100 (2006 Estimate) |
GDP (PPP): | US$18.077 trillion |
GDP (Currency): | $8.782 trillion |
GDP/capita (PPP): | $4,518 |
GDP/capita (Currency): | $2,143 |
Millionaires: | 2.0 million (0.05%) |
Most numbers are from the UNDP from 2002, some numbers exclude certain countries for lack of information. | |
See also: Economy of the world - Economy of Africa - Economy of Asia - Economy of Europe - Economy of North America - Economy of Oceania - Economy of South America |
Asia is the largest continent in the world by a considerable margin, and it is rich in natural resources, such as petroleum forests, fish, water, and metal.
Manufacturing in Asia has traditionally been strongest in East and Southeast Asia, particularly in mainland China, Taiwan, Japan, Singapore. Japan and China continue to dominate in the area of multinational corporations, but increasingly mainland Taiwan, and India are making significant inroads. Many companies from Europe, North America, China and Japan have operations in Asia's developing countries to take advantage of its abundant supply of cheap labour and relatively developed infrastructure.
Asia has four main financial centres: Mumbai, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Tokyo. Dubai is growing fast as a financial hub for West Asia. Call centres and business process outsourcing (BPOs) are becoming major employers in India, Pakistan and the Philippines due to the availability of a large pool of highly-skilled, English-speaking workers. The increased use of outsourcing has assisted the rise of India and the People's Republic of China as financial centres. Due to its large and extremely competitive information technology industry, India has become a major hub for outsourcing.
The history of Asia can be seen as the distinct histories of several peripheral coastal regions: East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia and the Middle East, linked by the interior mass of the Central Asian steppes.
The coastal periphery was home to some of the world's earliest known civilizations, each of them developing around fertile river valleys. The civilizations in Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley, and the Huanghe shared many similarities. These civilizations may well have exchanged technologies and ideas such as mathematics and the wheel. Other innovations, such as writing, seem to have been developed individually in each area. Cities, states, and empires developed in these lowlands.
The central steppe region had long been inhabited by horse-mounted nomads who could reach all areas of Asia from the steppes. The earliest postulated expansion out of the steppe is that of the Indo-Europeans, who spread their languages into the Middle East, South Asia, and the borders of China, where the Tocharians resided. The northernmost part of Asia, including much of Siberia, was largely inaccessible to the steppe nomads, owing to the dense forests, climate, and tundra. These areas remained very sparsely populated.
The center and the peripheries were mostly kept separated by mountains and deserts. The Caucasus and Himalaya mountains and the Karakum and Gobi deserts formed barriers that the steppe horsemen could cross only with difficulty. While the urban city dwellers were more advanced technologically and socially, in many cases they could do little in a military aspect to defend against the mounted hordes of the steppe. However, the lowlands did not have enough open grasslands to support a large horsebound force; for this and other reasons, the nomads who conquered states in China, India, and the Middle East often found themselves adapting to the local, more affluent societies.
Asia is home to several language families and many language isolates. Most Asian countries have more than one language that is natively spoken. For instance, according to Ethnologue, more than 600 languages are spoken in Indonesia, more than 415 languages spoken in India, and more than 100 are spoken in the Philippines. The People's Republic of China has many languages and dialects in different provinces.
The polymath Rabindranath Tagore, a Bengali poet, dramatist, and writer from Santiniketan, now in West Bengal, India, became in 1913 the first Asian Nobel laureate. He won his Nobel Prize in Literature for notable impact his prose works and poetic thought had on English, French, and other national literatures of Europe and the Americas. He is also the writer of the national anthems of Bangladesh and India.
Tagore is said to have named another Bengali Indian Nobel prize winner, the 1998 laureate in Economics, Amartya Sen. Sen's work has centered around global issues including famine, welfare, and third-world development. Amartya Sen was Master of Trinity College, Cambridge University, UK, from 1998-2004, becoming the first Asian to head an 'Oxbridge' College.
Other Asian writers who won Nobel Prizes include Yasunari Kawabata (Japan, 1966), Kenzaburo Oe (Japan, 1994), Gao Xingjian (People's Republic of China, 2000) and Orhan Pamuk (Turkey, 2006).
Also, Mother Teresa of India and Shirin Ebadi of Iran were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their significant and pioneering efforts for democracy and human rights, especially for the rights of women and children. Ebadi is the first Iranian and the first Muslim woman to receive the prize. Another Nobel Peace Prize winner is Aung San Suu Kyi from Burma for her peaceful and non-violent struggle under a military dictatorship in Burma. She is a nonviolent pro-democracy activist and leader of the National League for Democracy in Burma(Myanmar), and a noted prisoner of conscience. She is a Buddhist and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991.
Other Asian Nobel Prize winners include Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, Venkata Raman, Abdus Salam, Shmuel Yosef Agnon, Robert Aumann, Menachem Begin, Aaron Ciechanover, Avram Hershko, Daniel Kahneman, Shimon Peres, Yitzhak Rabin, Yaser Arafat, and Kim Dae-jung. Most of the said awardees are from Israel except for Chandrasekhar and Raman (India), Salam (Pakistan), Arafat (Palestinian Territories), and Kim (South Korea).
In 2006, Dr. Mohammad Yunus of Bangladesh was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for the establishment of Grameen Bank, a community development bank that lends money to poor people, especially women in Bangladesh. Dr. Yunus received his Ph.D. in economics from Vanderbilt University, United States. He is internationally known for the concept of micro credit which allows poor and destitutes with little or no collateral to borrow money. The borrowers typically pay back money within specified period of time and the incidence of default is very low.
Asian mythology is diverse. The story is first found in Mesopotamian mythology, in the Epic of Gilgamesh. Hindu mythology tells about an avatar of God Vishnu in the form of a fish who warned Manu of a terrible flood. In ancient Chinese mythology, Shan Hai Jing, the Chinese ruler Da Yu, had to spend 10 years to control a deluge which swept out most of ancient China and was aided by the goddess Nüwa who literally fixed the broken sky through which huge rains were pouring.
Asian philosophical traditions originated in India and cover a large spectrum of philosophical thoughts and writings. Indian philosophy includes Hindu philosophy and Buddhist philosophy. They include elements of nonmaterial pursuits, whereas another school of thought from India, Cārvāka, preached the enjoyment of material world. Christianity is also present in most Asian countries.
The Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam originated in West Asia. Judaism, the oldest of the Abrahamic faiths, is practiced primarily in Israel (which has either the largest or second largest Jewish population in the world), though small communities exist in other countries, such as the Bene Israel in India. In the Philippines and East Timor, Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion; it was introduced by the Spaniards and the Portuguese, respectively. In Armenia, Eastern Orthodoxy is the predominant religion. Various Christian denominations have adherents in portions of the Middle East, as well as China and India. The world's largest Muslim community (within the bounds of one nation) is in Indonesia. South Asia (mainly Pakistan, India and Bangladesh) holds 30% of Muslims. There are also significant Muslim populations in China, Iran, Malaysia, the Philippines, Russia and most of West Asia and Central Asia.How ever there are many other religions also not all people are just those (stated above) religions.
The religions of Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism originated in India, South Asia. In East Asia, particularly in China and Japan, Confucianism, Taoism and Zen Buddhism took shape. During the 20th century, in the two most populous countries of Asia, two dramatically different political philosophies took shape. Gandhi gave a new meaning to Ahimsa, and redefined the concepts of nonviolence and nonresistance.
Other religions of Asia include Zoroastrianism and Shamanism practiced in Iran and Siberia respectively, Shintoism practiced in Japan (usually with Buddhism) and Animism practiced in the eastern parts of the Indian subcontinent and in Southeast Asia.
Reference works
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