Asia Human Geography

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Asia is the largest of the world’s continents, and home to the
Asia: Human world's oldest civilizations.
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Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Asia is the largest of the world’s continents, covering approximately 30 percent of the Earth’s land area. It
is also the world’s most populous continent, with roughly 60 percent of the total
population.
The geographic term “Asia” was originally used by ancient Greeks to describe the civilizations east of
their empire. Ancient Asian peoples, however, saw themselves as a varied and diverse mix of
cultures—not a collective group. Today, the term “Asia” is used as a cultural concept, while subregion
classifications describe the distinct geopolitical identities of the continent. These classifications are
Western Asia, Central Asia, Southern Asia, Eastern Asia, Southeastern Asia, and Northern Asia.

Today, Asia is home to the citizens of Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh,
Bhutan, Brunei, Cambodia, China, Georgia, India,
Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Japan, Jordan,
Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Lebanon, Malaysia, Maldives, Mongolia, Myanmar (Burma),
Nepal, North Korea, Oman, Pakistan, Philippines, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South
Korea, Sri Lanka, Syria, Tajikistan, Thailand, Timor-Leste (East Timor), Turkey, Turkmenistan, United
Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, and Yemen.
Asia’s physical geography, environment and resources, and human geography can be considered
separately.
Asia is home to the world’s earliest civilizations. Its indigenous cultures pioneered many practices
that have been integral to societies for centuries, such as agriculture, city planning, and religion.
The social and political geography of the continent continues to inform and influence the rest of
the world.
Cultural Geography
Historic Cultures
The Fertile Crescent is considered the birthplace of agriculture. Civilizations developed along a series
of watersheds, starting with the Nile River valley and arching up the Mediterranean coast, eastward
toward Iraq and southward along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers until reaching the Persian Gulf.
Nomadic peoples settled along the lush river banks to harvest wild wheat and barley, becoming

the world’s first farmers. This represented a fundamental shift in the lifestyle of early humans, who
until that point had survived by following their food as hunter-gatherers. Through agriculture,
people learned to sustain themselves by manipulating the natural environment.
As more tribes settled and worked together, important agricultural innovations were developed,
such as the wheel, irrigation, and hand tools. Farmers used these tools to tame wild grasses, such
as wheat, barley, and lentils. Farmers also domesticated animals such as cows, sheep, and pigs.
Agriculture made cities and civilizations possible by producing enough food for the community so
not everyone had to provide for themselves. People not engaged in agriculture had time to
develop writing, religion, taxation, and trade. For instance, the cuneiform writing system has
preserved the history of the metropolis of Ur, part of the Sumerian civilization, which developed
around 2100 BCE.
The Indus Valley was another hotspot of early civilization. From 2600 BCE to 1700 BCE,
settlements developed on the flood plain of the Indus River, stretching over a million square
kilometers from northwestern India through Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The cities of the Indus Valley civilization established early forms of urban planning and construction.
Buildings were well-organized and built out of durable materials such as brick and stone. Cities
contained docks along the river, granaries, temples, residences, and warehouses. Cities were often
surrounded by high walls, which offered protection from both natural disasters, such as floods, and
invading armies.
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Placing a high priority on hygiene, cities like Harappa and Mohenjo-daro (both in modern-day
Pakistan) developed drainage systems, wells, and water-storage systems that were the most
advanced of their times. For example, wastewater was directed from a home’s bathhouse to
covered drains that lined major streets. Houses only opened to inner courtyards and smaller lanes.
This privacy radically reduced the spread of disease. These efficient and sanitary systems greatly
influenced future urban development.
The spread of religion is an important example of how cultural practices expand into distant
territories through a variety of direct and indirect actions. Buddhism, for example, has its roots in
Nepal and India in the late 6th century BCE. Well-established maritime and land trade routes
allowed Buddhist thought to spread to other Asian territories. Missionaries joined Buddhist
merchants on their ships and caravans, carrying with them religious manuscripts and images.
Buddhist missionaries remained in market cities for extended periods of time, facilitating the
exchange of ideas and symbols. Today, Buddhism is the majority religion throughout most of
eastern Asia, from Japan in the north to Cambodia, Thailand, Burma, and Laos in the south.
Art played an important role in the spread of Buddhism. Sculpture, paintings, and icons depicting Buddhist
concepts and deities were easily understood and adopted by cultures outside Nepal and India. As
Buddhist art was created in these specific cultural styles, the religion took on local significance in each
region. Buddhism flourishes in part because it allowed its practitioners to express their devotion through
creative means.
Asia’s rich cultural heritage has modernized, along with its developing economies. The continent’s

growing middle class and increased investment from abroad support this modernization. Asian
film, fashion, and music highlight the relationship between historic cultures and contemporary
markets.
India is the world’s largest producer of films, producing more than 2,500 movies every year. Film
production is so widespread in India that it is categorized regionally. Areas such as Mumbai, West
Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu produce distinct films that reflect regional language and
culture. Government and private industry have invested heavily in India’s film industry, and today
more than 30 film production companies exist in the country. The world’s largest film studio,
Ramoji Film City, is in the city of Hyderabad. It offers more than 500 set locations and has the
space to produce 60 films at the same time.
Indian cinema is a major export. The largest film industry is centered around Mumbai, and
nicknamed Bollywood. Bollywood films screen in more than 90 countries around the world, and
earn millions of dollars, especially in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and
Singapore. The growing number of Indians working abroad has opened up new markets for Indian
films. These so-called non-resident Indians (NRIs) account for roughly 12 percent of a film’s
total revenue.
Central Asia’s tradition of textile-making is enjoying a period of revival in such countries as Tajikistan
and Uzbekistan. After the fall of the Soviet Union, these former Soviet republics used their cultural
history to help define a new national identity. Vibrant hand-dyed textiles were an important part of this
cultural tradition, especially in Uzbekistan. Suzani textiles played a central role in Uzbek family
ceremonies and denoted a family’s status.

Today, workers dye, weave, and embroider Uzbek suzani textiles by hand after a long period of
industrial production. Craftswomen are updating traditional designs and using natural dyes, such
as indigo, walnut, and pomegranate, to create eye-catching pieces for the contemporary
marketplace. Uzbek suzanis are sold internationally. Fashion and home décor companies from
around the world have adopted suzani designs into their products. In order to support the
growing demand, craftsmen’s associations and nongovernmental organizations have been created
to promote Uzbek textiles
South Korean pop music, nicknamed K-pop, integrates traditional Korean song with contemporary
pop, hip-hop, electronic, and R&B sounds. K-pop has developed into a pop culture phenomenon
in Asia and abroad. Musical producers invest heavily in girl groups, boy bands, and soloists.
Performers are followed by millions of fans, mostly Asian young adults, who have adopted their
style and fashion trends.
K-pop producers and artists have invested heavily in broadening their appeal abroad. Korean
artists tour with international headliners and work with producers such as American rappers Kanye
West and will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas. They also use Internet platforms, such as Facebook,
Twitter, and YouTube, to reach a larger audience. As a result, K-pop has a strong following in the
United States, Canada, Australia, and Europe.
Political Geography
Political geography is the internal and external relationships between a continent’s various
governments, citizens, and territories. Asian governments and citizens have created and

responded to political and social change in ways that have profoundly affected these relationships
at both the local and international level. As the continent continues to increase its political and
economic prominence, its policy decisions will hold greater weight for the global community.
Historic Issues
One of the oldest and most intensely debated political disputes continues to be negotiated in
the Levant, an area in the eastern Mediterranean. The Levant, part of the Middle East, has been
continuously occupied for thousands of years by the historic cultures of Syria, Lebanon, Jordan,
and Israel.
The Levant is sometimes called “The Holy Land.” This small region is spiritually important to
followers of Jewish, Christian, and Muslim faiths. These are the three most populous and
influential monotheistic religions in the world. All three faiths trace their origins to the Jewish
patriarch Abraham. For this reason, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are known as the “Abrahamic
religions.”
The religious conflict between Abrahamic religions in the Levant has endured for thousands of years.
Christian leaders persecuted Jews in the region during the late Roman Empire. During the Middle
Ages, European Christians sent soldiers on crusades to conquer and convert the Levant’s Muslim
majority.
The most recent conflict in the Levant is between Israel and neighboring nations. Israel, the only
Jewish-majority nation in the world, was established in 1948. Prior to 1948, the area was a British
colony called Palestine. Many non-Jewish natives identify as Palestinians. Neighboring states—

including Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Egypt—accepted Palestinian immigrants and rejected the
new Israeli government.
Major wars plague the region, including the Arab-Israeli War (1948), the Suez Crisis (1956), the Six
Day War (1967), and the Yom Kippur War (1973). Smaller conflicts, including incidents of terrorism,
are associated with Palestinian uprisings, or intifadas. The First Intifada, which included nonviolent
protests as well as armed assaults, took place in the late 1980s. The Second Intifada took place
between 2000 and 2005.
The conflict in the Levant has resulted in Israel creating two “Palestinian Territories” (the West
Bank and Gaza) within its boundaries. Treaties, such as the Camp David Accords (which established
a lasting peace treaty between Egypt and Israel) have attempted to negotiate a lasting peace in
the Levant.
The colonization of Southeast Asia is another example of how historic political geography can
influence an entire region. Colonialism is foreign political rule imposed on a people. Chinese,
Japanese, and European colonization of Southeast Asia lasted for more than 1,000 years. China, for
instance, was the ruling power in Vietnam from about 110 BCE to 900 CE.
Colonial powers from Europe, the United States, and Japan imposed their rule on Southeast Asian
peoples from the 1500s to the mid-1940s. While these powers had distinct motives, they were generally
looking to expand their territory, increase trade, import cheap raw materials, and impose their cultural
practices.
The Dutch and British established extremely powerful companies that oversaw trade and labor in

their respective colonies. The Dutch East India Company, based in Indonesia, had the power to
print its own money and engage in war. They enforced harsh labor practices on local peoples, who
worked to collect lucrative spices and extract precious metals. These resources were then sold in
Europe.
Spanish and Portuguese colonists spread the Roman Catholic faith by converting indigenous
peoples, especially in the Philippines. The French used their military to maintain control of their
colonies, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people.
The countries of Southeast Asia are now independent. However, their economies, politics, and
culture still maintain aspects of the colonial period. For instance, the Vietnamese language is
written with the Roman alphabet, not the glyphs, ideograms, or indigenous alphabets of
neighboring Asian nations. This is because the written Vietnamese language was established by
the French, who use a Roman alphabet.
As with the colonial period, Asia was deeply affected by World War II and its aftermath. Japan was
the most devastated Asian country in terms of loss of life and physical destruction. However, it also
experienced a record period of economic growth after the war. Investment from the United States and
innovative economic restructuring by the Japanese government stimulated this growth.
Japan’s Ministry of International Trade and Industry coordinated partnerships, known as keiretsu, between
manufacturers, suppliers, distributors, and banks in order to streamline industry. The ministry also created a
strong export economy, focusing on technology industries that still define 
Japan’s global image. Capital was invested in Japan’s

infrastructure, especially in efficient
transportation systems, communications, and technology. Japan’s intense public and private
investment increased its gross domestic product (GDP) from $91 billion in 1965 to more than $1
trillion in 1980.
Current Issues
India’s and China’s economic growth has been profound in the last 20 years. Both countries have
removed government controls, increased foreign trade, and built strong export-based economies.
This economic growth has had both positive and negative effects.
China has the world’s fastest-growing economy, increasing nearly 10 percent every year for the
past 30 years. This is largely because China is the world’s largest manufacturer and exporter of
goods. As a result of this growth, wages have increased rapidly, giving Chinese workers a better
standard of living. More Chinese people have access to excellent health care, electricity, and
education. China has a strong presence in international politics and influences important debates,
such as those surrounding terrorism and climate change. China has used its newfound wealth to
invest around the world. China has invested billions of dollars in Nigeria, for instance, to extract oil.
Predicted to be the world’s largest economy in the coming decades, China’s economic decisions will
greatly affect how and where future development occurs around the globe.
But China’s rapid growth has caused a number of social, environmental, and economic problems.
Rapid industrial growth in the cities has impoverished rural workers, who must migrate to congested
urban areas to find jobs. Industrial activity has put stress on the country’s energy and transportation
systems and degraded air, water, and soil quality. Industrial growth also has major

implications for global climate change, as China is the world’s largest producer of carbon dioxide
emissions.
India’s growth has been drastically different from China’s. India is a democracy, while China is
a totalitarian state. This means that social and political reforms are debated more openly in India,
and change is often more difficult because power resides in coalitions instead of one political
party.
Unlike China, India’s growth is largely a result of its rapidly growing service industry—not its
manufacturing sector. In particular, India has become a major exporter of information

technology services. Its telecommunications industry, which focuses on phone and Internet
services, added more than 200 million subscribers in 2010. The country also hosts seven of the
world’s top technology outsourcing companies, which rely heavily on India’s highly educated,
English-speaking population.
India’s growth has caused hourly wages to double during the past decade, bringing more than
430 million Indians out of poverty and creating an immense middle-class population. Much like China,
India’s urban infrastructure and global influence have also improved.
Despite this economic growth, India remains socioeconomically divided. India still has the world’s largest
concentration of people living in extreme poverty—below $1.25 per day. The difference in revenue
between India’s more industrialized states and its poorer agricultural states has widened substantially.
Much like China, India’s urban infrastructure, education, and health systems are
having difficulty adjusting to the large number of poor, rural migrants moving into cities. 
In Asia’s Arab region, conservative governments are under pressure from their citizens and the
international community to enable political, economic, and social reform. While authoritarian
rulers control the majority of these countries, their citizens broadly support democracy. In the so
called “Arab Spring” of 2011, social and political groups across the region staged armed protests
calling for democratic reform. Governments have responded to these protests with both military
force and political compromise. Syria and Jordan exemplify this political change in Arab Asia.
Protesters in Syria called for the legalization of political parties, the removal of corrupt officials,
and the repeal of Emergency Law, which allows arrests without charge. In response to the protests,
the Syrian government launched military campaigns to repress protesters. These campaigns have
killed thousands of people. Hundreds of Syrians have been jailed. The international community
has responded by placing economic and political sanctions on the Syrian government.
Jordanians have staged weekly protests against corruption, rising prices, poverty, and
unemployment. King Abdullah has responded to these protests by replacing his prime minister
and forming the National Dialogue Committee. Made up of both government officials and
opposition leaders, the committee is in charge of drafting reforms, including new laws for
elections and political parties.
The implications of this complicated and often violent process of political reform are still too early to
determine in Syria, Jordan, and other Asian states that have joined a common democratic cause. What is
certain is that these changes will increase public participation in the political process.

Future Issues
Asia’s growing political and economic prominence will continue to place stress on both local and
global processes. Great focus has been placed on how Asia’s increased development has
negatively affected the environment. National governments and international organizations are
working to protect local natural resources and the broader global climate.
The extreme loss of forest cover in Southeast Asia due to overharvesting of timber threatens the
region’s economy and biodiversity, as well as the world’s carbon budget. Between 1990 and 2010,
Southeast Asia’s forests contracted in size by roughly 33 million hectares (81.5 million acres), an
area larger than Vietnam. By 2020, these forests are expected to shrink by an additional 16 million
hectares (39.5 million acres).
This loss would mean an additional 8.72 gigatons of carbon dioxide would enter the world’s
atmosphere. It would destroy forests with important ecological value, such as Indonesia’s lowland
tropical forests. Furthermore, the loss would dramatically decrease the productivity of the region’s
wood industries, a main economic generator for many Southeast Asian countries.
International organizations and regional and national governmental bodies are enforcing sustainable
forestry practices in order to combat forest degradation. The Cambodian government, for example, has
encouraged the planting of fast-growing trees, modernized wood processing equipment, and banned the
export of many types of logs. Myanmar (Burma) has developed a network of more than 600 community
forest management agreements that bring local people and the government together. Organizations
such as the Forest Stewardship Council and the Malaysian Timber Certification Scheme enable forest
industries to pursue sustainable

development. Roughly 3.5 percent of Southeast Asia’s total forest area was sustainably certified in
2010.
Maldives, a country of hundreds of islands and atolls in the Indian Ocean, symbolizes the current
and future effects of global climate change. Rising to only 2.3 meters (7.7 feet) above sea level at
its highest point, Maldives has already felt the effects of rising sea levels. A 2004 tsunami flooded
the entire country, killing 82 people, displacing 12,000, and inflicting $375 million in damage.
The effects of global warming on Maldives will be more widespread during the coming decades.
Along with rising sea levels, the country will be susceptible to coastal erosion, higher storm
surges, and loss of biodiversity. This will drastically affect the country’s tourism-based economy. A
loss of beachfront property coupled with warmer winters in the Northern Hemisphere would keep
residents of Europe and North America from visiting the islands.
The Maldivian government has taken decisive steps to curtail the effects of climate change,
commanding the attention of the international community. Former President Maumoon Abdul
Gayoom supported the construction of the artificial island of Hulhumalé, which now houses a
hospital, school, government buildings, and residences for 50,000 people. Hulhumalé sits on
ground several meters higher than the rest of the country.
In 2009, Maldivian President Mohamed Nasheed held the world’s first underwater cabinet meeting in
order to highlight the effects of climate change. At a table 6 meters (20 feet) below the water’s surface,
Maldivian leaders signed a document calling on all countries to cut their carbon dioxide
emissions. President Nasheed also agreed to make Maldives the world’s first carbon-neutral 
country by switching entirely to wind and solar energy within a decade. These acts have
demonstrated that those who affect and are affected by climate change need to take decisive
steps to create lasting environmental improvements.
Asia is home to the world's oldest civilizations, and its cultural and political geography continue to inform and
influence the rest of the world.
Map by the National Geographic Society
Map by the National Geographic Society
Most Renewable Electricity Produced

Largest Watershed
Bhutan (99.9%, hydropower)
Ob River (3 million square kilometers/1.15 million square
miles)
Population Density
246 people per square kilometer
N ti l G hi N 'St i ' B ddhi t A t F d i N l Cliff
Highest Elevation
Mount Everest, Nepal: 8,848 meters/29,029 feet
Largest Urban Area

Tokyo-Yokohama, Japan (37.8 million people)
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R E S O U RC E L I B R A RY | A RT I C L E

Asia is the largest of the world’s continents, and home to the

Asia: Human world's oldest civilizations.

Arts and Music, Geography,

IMAGE IMAGE IMAGE IMAGE IMAGE IMAGE

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

space to produce 60 films at the same time.

strong export economy, focusing on technology industries that still define 

Japan’s global image. Capital was invested in Japan’s

manufacturing sector. In particular, India has become a major exporter of information

Most Renewable Electricity Produced

Largest Urban Area

Articles & Profiles

What does it mean to be a citizen?

SEARCH THE RESOURCE LIBRARY

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