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200px">

2 (17,212,000 sq mi)st)(1)|density = 89/km2 (226/sq mi)



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200px|area 44,579,000 kmList of continents by population>1Asian people>Asian|countries = 47|list_countries = List of Asian countries|dependencies =

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| 1 = Abkhazia | 2 = Gaza Strip (Palestine) | 3 = Nagorno-Karabakh | 4 = South Ossetia | 5 = Taiwan
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| 1 = Tokyo | 2 = Seoul | 3 = Mumbai | 4 = Jakarta | 5 = Osaka
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| 11 = Beijing | 12 = Hanoi | 13 = Dubai
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}}Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.6% of the Earth's total surface area (or 29.9% of its land area) and with approximately 4 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population. Asia is traditionally defined as part of the landmass of Eurasia — with the western portion of the latter occupied by Europe — located to the east of the Suez Canal, east of the Ural Mountains and south of the Caucasus Mountains (or the Kuma-Manych Depression)(2) and the Caspian and Black Seas.(3) 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(4) (see Subregions of Asia, Asian people).The wealth of Asia differs very widely among and within its regions, due to its vast size and huge range of different cultures, environments, historical ties and government systems. In terms of nominal GDP, Japan has the largest economy on the continent and the second largest in the world. In purchasing power parity terms, however, China has the largest economy in Asia and the second largest in the world.

Etymology

The term "Asia" is originally a concept exclusively of Western civilization.(5) The ideas of Occidental (form Latin Occidens 'setting') and Oriental (from Latin Oriens for 'rising') are also European invention, synonymous with Western and Eastern. Reid further emphasizes that it explains the Western point of view of placing all the peoples and cultures of Asia into a single classification, almost as if there were a need for setting the distinction between Western and Eastern civilizations on the Eurasian continent. Ogura Kazuo and Tenshin Okakura are two Japanese outspoken figures over the subject. 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.

Definition and boundaries

Physical geography

File:Asia-map.png|thumb|left|Physical map of Asia, excluding Southwest AsiaSouthwest AsiaFile:two-point-equidistant-asia.jpg|thumb|left|Two-point equidistant projectionTwo-point equidistant projectionMedieval 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 7th century Spanish scholar 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 has 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,(6) as there is no logical physical separation between them.(7) 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 Plate 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,(8)(9) especially in the United States after World War II.(10) The term is sometimes used more strictly in reference to the Asia-Pacific region, which does not include the Middle East or Russia,(11) 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 not considered Asian.(12)

Political geography

{{Asia.png|8000px|float=left}}{{-}}

Territories and regions

{{See also|List of Asian countries by population}}File:Location-Asia-UNsubregions orthographic projection.png|Geographical Subregions of Asia:{{legend|#0000E0|Northern Asia}}{{legend|#E000E0|Central Asia}}{{legend|#00E000|Western Asia}}{{legend|#E00000|Southern Asia}}{{legend|#FFFF20|Eastern Asia}}{{legend|#FFC000|Southeastern Asia}}File:United Nations geoscheme (Asia).svg|UN geoscheme subregions of Asia:{{legend|#df8f87|Eastern Asia}}{{legend|#7382b3|Central Asia}}{{legend|#f5d479|Western Asia}}{{legend|#ad7fa8|Southeastern Asia}}{{legend|#8aa678|Southern Asia}}
{| border="1" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" style="border:1px solid #aaa; border-collapse:collapse;" style="background:#ececec;"! 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| AstanaKyrgyzstan}} 198,500 5,356,869 24.3| BishkekTajikistan}} 143,100 7,211,884 47.0| DushanbeTurkmenistan}} 488,100 5,179,573 9.6| AshgabatUzbekistan}} 447,400 28,268,441 57.1| Tashkent Eastern Asia:People's Republic of China}}(15) 9,640,821 1,322,044,605 134.0| BeijingHong Kong}}(16) 1,092 7,008,300(17) 6,417.9| —Macau}}(18) 25 460,823 18,473.3| —Japan}} 377,835 127,288,628 336.1| TokyoNorth Korea}} 120,540 23,479,095 184.4| PyongyangSouth Korea}} 98,480 49,232,844 490.7| Seoul| {{MNG}} 1,565,000 2,996,082 1.7| Ulaan BaatarRepublic of China}} (19) 35,980 22,920,946 626.7| Taipei Northern Asia:Russia}}(20) 17,075,400 142,200,000 26.8| Moscow '''Southeast Asia:'''(21)Brunei}} 5,770 381,371 66.1| Bandar Seri BegawanBurma|name=Burma (Myanmar)}} 676,578 47,758,224 70.3Naypyidaw(22)Cambodia}}(23) 181,035 13,388,910 74| Phnom PenhEast Timor|name=East Timor (Timor-Leste)}}(24) 15,007 1,108,777 73.8| DiliIndonesia}}(25) 1,919,440 230,512,000 120.1| JakartaLaos}} 236,800 6,677,534 28.2| VientianeMalaysia}} 329,847 27,780,000 84.2| Kuala LumpurPhilippines}} 300,000 92,681,453 308.9| ManilaSingapore}} 704 4,608,167 6,545.7| SingaporeThailand}} 514,000 65,493,298 127.4| BangkokVietnam}} 331,690 86,116,559 259.6| Hanoi Southern Asia:Afghanistan}} 647,500 32,738,775 42.9| KabulBangladesh}} 147,570 153,546,901 1040.5| DhakaBhutan}} 38,394 682,321 17.8| ThimphuIndia}}(26) 3,287,263 1,147,995,226 349.2| New DelhiMaldives}} 300 379,174 1,263.3| MaléNepal}} 147,181 29,519,114 200.5| KathmanduPakistan}} 803,940 167,762,049 208.7| IslamabadSri Lanka}} 65,610 21,128,773 322.0| Sri Jayawardenapura-Kotte Western Asia:Armenia}}(27) | YerevanAzerbaijan}}(28) 86,660 8,845,127 102.736| BakuBahrain}} 665 718,306 987.1| ManamaCyprus}}(29) 9,250 792,604 83.9| NicosiaGeorgia}}(30) 64.06| TbilisiIraq}} 437,072 28,221,181 54.9| BaghdadIran}} 1,648,195 70,472,846 42.8| TehranIsrael}} 20,770 7,112,359 290.3Jerusalem(31)Jordan}} 92,300 6,198,677 57.5| AmmanKuwait}} 17,820 2,596,561 118.5| Kuwait CityLebanon}} 10,452 3,971,941 353.6| BeirutOman}} 212,460 3,311,640 12.8Muscat, Oman>MuscatPalestine}} 6,257 4,277,000 683.5| RamallahQatar}} 11,437 928,635 69.4| DohaSaudi Arabia}} 1,960,582 23,513,330 12.0| RiyadhSyria}} 185,180 19,747,586 92.6| DamascusTurkey}}(32) | AnkaraUnited Arab Emirates}} 82,880 4,621,399 29.5| Abu DhabiYemen}} 527,970 23,013,376 35.4| Sanaá style="font-weight:bold;"| Total 43,810,582 4,162,966,086 89.07
Note: Part of Egypt (Sinai Peninsula) is geographically in Western Asia

Country name changes

Various Asian countries have undergone name changes during the previous century as the result of consolidations, secessions, territories gaining sovereignty and regime changes.{|class="wikitable sortable" border="1" style="font-size: 90%"! Previous Name !! Year !! Current Name| Dominion of India, formerly British India| 1950| Republic of India| East Bengal province| 1905–1911 and 1947-1955
1955-1971
1971| East Pakistan state
Bangladesh, People's Republic of| Democratic Kampuchea| 1975| Cambodia, Kingdom of| Empire of Great Qing of China| 1912
1949Republic of China>China, Republic of
China, People's Republic of| Portuguese Timor| 1975
2002| Timor Timur (province of Indonesia)
East Timor, Democratic Republic of| Dutch East Indies| 1949| Indonesia, Republic of| Persia| 1935
1979| Iran,
Iran, Islamic Republic of| Transjordan| 1946| Jordan, Kingdom of| Kirghiz SSR (USSR)| 1991| Kyrgyzstan, RepublicFederation of Malaya>Malaya, North Borneo, Sarawak and Singapore| 1963
1965| Malaysia (including Singapore)
Malaysia and Singapore| Burma| 1989| Myanmar, Union ofMuscat, Oman>Muscat| 1971| Oman, Sultanate of| Dominion of Pakistan| 1947-1956
1956-1970
1971| West Pakistan, Islamic State of
Pakistan, Islamic Republic of| Islas de San Lorenzo, Spanish East Indies, Philippine Islands and Las Islas Filipinas| 1898, 1935, and 1946| Philippines, Republic of the| 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 ofTajik Soviet Socialist Republic>Tajik SSR (USSR)| 1991| Tajikistan, Republic of| Siam| 1939| Thailand, Kingdom of| Ottoman Empire| 1923| Turkey, Republic of| Turkmen SSR (USSR)| 1991| Turkmenistan| Trucial Oman and Trucial States| 1971| United Arab Emirates| French Indo-China| 1949| Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam| Yemen, People's Democratic and Southern Yemen| 1990| Yemen, Republic of

Economy

{{Update|type=section|date=September 2009}}{| class="wikitable" border="1" style="width:300px;margin-left:1.5em; float:right;"|+ Economy of Asia
During 2003 unless otherwise stated|Population:| 4,162,966,086 (2006 Estimate)Gross domestic product>GDP (PPP):|US$18.077 trillionGross domestic product>GDP (Currency):| $8.782 trillionList of countries by GDP (PPP) per capita>PPP):| $4,518List of countries by GDP (Nominal) per 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. {{World economy infobox footer}}Asia has the third largest nominal GDP of all continents, after North America and Europe, but the largest when measured in PPP. As of 2007, the largest national economy within Asia, in terms of gross domestic product (GDP), is that of China followed by that of Japan, India, South Korea and Indonesia. However, in nominal (exchange value) terms, they rank as follows: Japan, China, India, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Indonesia. Since the 1960s, South Korea had maintained the highest economic growth rate in Asia, nicknamed as an Asian tiger, becoming a newly industrialized country in the 1980s and a developed country by the 21st century. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the economies of the PRC(33) and India have been growing rapidly, both with an average annual growth rate of more than 8%. Other recent very high growth nations in Asia include Malaysia, the Philippines, Pakistan, Vietnam, Mongolia, Uzbekistan, Cyprus, and mineral-rich nations such as Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Iran, Brunei, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Oman.China was the largest and most advanced economy on earth for much of recorded history,(34)(35)(36)(37) until the British Empire (excluding India) overtook it in the mid 19th century. Japan has had for only several dacades after WW2 the largest economy in Asia and second-largest of any single nation in the world, after surpassing the Soviet Union (measured in net material product) in 1986 and Germany in 1968. (NB: A number of supernational economies are larger, such as the European Union (EU), the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) or APEC). In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Japan's GDP was almost as large (current exchange rate method) as that of the rest of Asia combined. In 1995, Japan's economy nearly equalled that of the USA to tie as the largest economy in the world for a day, after the Japanese currency reached a record high of 79 yen/dollar. Economic growth in Asia since World War II to the 1990s had been concentrated in Japan as well as the four regions of South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore located in the Pacific Rim, known as the Asian tigers, which have now all received developed country status, having the highest GDP per capita in Asia.(38)It is forecasted that the People's Republic of China will surpass Japan to have the largest nominal and PPP-adjusted GDP in Asia within a decade. India is also forecast to overtake Japan in terms of Nominal GDP by 2020.(39) In terms of GDP per capita, both nominal and PPP-adjusted, South Korea will become the second wealthiest country in Asia by 2025, overtaking Germany, the United Kingdom and France. By 2050, according to a 2006 report by Price Waterhouse Cooper, China will have the largest economy in the world (43% greater than the United States when PPP adjusted, although perhaps smaller than the United States in nominal terms).(40)

Trade blocs

{{See also|List of regions by past GDP (PPP)}}

Natural resources

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, rice, copper and silver.

Manufacturing

Manufacturing in Asia has traditionally been strongest in East and Southeast Asia, particularly in mainland China, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, India , Philippines and Singapore. Japan and South Korea continue to dominate in the area of multinational corporations, but increasingly mainland China, and India are making significant inroads. Many companies from Europe, North America, South Korea and Japan have operations in Asia's developing countries to take advantage of its abundant supply of cheap labour and relatively developed infrastructure.

Financial and other services

Asia has four main financial centres: Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore and Shanghai. Call centres and business process outsourcing (BPOs) are becoming major employers in India 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 China as financial centres. Due to its large and extremely competitive information technology industry, India has become a major hub for outsourcing.

Early history

(File:Asien Bd1.jpg|thumb|left|Map of Asia in 1890.)(File:Asia 1892 amer ency brit.jpg|thumb|right|Map of Asia, 1892.)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.

Languages and literature

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 800 languages spoken in India and more than 100 are spoken in the Philippines. China has many languages and dialects in different provinces.

Nobel prizes

File:Tagore3.jpg|thumb|Rabindranath Tagore|Rabindranath Tagore, of India, the first Asian Nobel laureate.]]File:CVRaman.jpg|thumb|Sir C.V.Raman|C. V. Raman, the first Asian Nobel laureate in Sciences.]]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), Kenzaburō Ōe (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.Sir C.V.Raman is the first Asian to get a Nobel prize in Sciences. He won the Nobel Prize in Physics "for his work on the scattering of light and for the discovery of the effect named after him".Other Asian Nobel Prize winners include Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, Abdus Salam, Shmuel Yosef Agnon, Robert Aumann, Menachem Begin, Aaron Ciechanover, Avram Hershko, Daniel Kahneman, Shimon Peres, Yitzhak Rabin, Yaser Arafat, Jose Ramos Horta and Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo of Timor Leste, Kim Dae-jung, and thirteen Japanese scientists. Most of the said awardees are from Japan and Israel except for Chandrasekhar and Raman (India), Salam (Pakistan), Arafat (Palestinian Territories) and Kim (South Korea).In 2006, Dr. Muhammad 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 the specified period and the incidence of default is very low.The Dalai Lama has received approximately eighty-four awards over his spiritual and political career.(41) On 22 June 2006, he became one of only four people ever to be recognized with Honorary Citizenship by the Governor General of Canada. On 28 May 2005, he received the Christmas Humphreys Award from the Buddhist Society in the United Kingdom. Most notable was the Nobel Peace Prize, presented in Oslo, Norway on 10 December 1989.

Beliefs

Mythology

{{See also|List of Asian mythology}}Asian mythology is complex and diverse. The story of the Great Flood for example, as presented to Christians in the Old Testament, is first found in Mesopotamian mythology, in the Epic of Gilgamesh. Hindu mythology tells about an avatar of the 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.

Religions

{{See also|Eastern philosophy|Religion in Asia}}Almost all Asian religions have philosophical character and Asian philosophical traditions 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.

Abrahamic

File:Cheng Hoo1.jpg|thumb|right|A Chinese styled Mosque in Indonesia, the nation with the highest population of MuslimsMuslimsThe 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 the world's largest Jewish population),(42) 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, Cyprus, Georgia and Russia, 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, southern Philippines (Mindanao), Russia and most of West Asia and Central Asia.

Dharmic and Taoist

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.

See also

{{Asia portal}}{{commons|Asia}}{{wikinews category|Asia}}{hide}columns-list|2| Lists: {edih}

References





  1. List of continents by population


  2. "Asia". Encyclopædia Britannica. 2006. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.


  3. BOOK, National Geographic Atlas of the World, 7th, 1999, Washington, DC, National Geographic Society, National Geographic, 0-7922-7528-4, "Europe" (pp. 68-9); "Asia" (pp. 90-1): "A commonly accepted division between Asia and Europe ... is formed by the Ural Mountains, Ural River, Caspian Sea, Caucasus Mountains, and the Black Sea with its outlets, the Bosporus and Dardanelles."


  4. "Asia". McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology. 2006. New York: McGraw-Hill Inc.


  5. The peoples of ancient Asia (Chinese, Japanese, Indians, Persians, Arabs etc.) never conceived the idea of Asia, simply because they did not see themselves collectively. In their perspective, they were vastly varied civilizations, contrary to ancient European belief.The word Asia originated from the Greek word Ἀσία, first attributed to Herodotus (about 440 BC) in reference to Anatolia or — in 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 (i.e. Hesione), 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 two figures in the Trojan War named Asios; and elsewhere he describes a marsh as ασιος (Iliad 2, 461).Usage of the term soon became common in ancient Greece, and subsequently by the ancient Romans. Ancient and medieval European maps depict the Asian continent as a "huge amorphous blob" extending eastward. It was presumed in antiquity to end with India — the Macedonian king Alexander the Great believing he would reach the "end of the world" upon his arrival in the East.

    Other alternatives

    Alternatively, the etymology of the term may be from the Akkadian word {{Unicode|(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).T.R. Reid supports this alternative etymology, noting that the ancient Greek name must have derived from asu, meaning 'east' in Assyrian (ereb for Europe meaning 'west').Reid, T.R. Confucius Lives Next Door: What living in the East teaches us about living in the west Vintage Books(1999).


  6. "Asia." MSN Encarta Encyclopedia. 2007. Archived 2009-10-31.


  7. For example, Sir Barry Cunliffe, the emeritus professor of European archeology at Oxford, argues that Europe has been geographically and culturally merely "the western excrescence of the continent of Asia."WEB,weblink Geography Is Destiny - The Atlantic (December 2008), The Atlantic, 2008-12-01, 2009-04-20,


  8. Welty, Paul Thomas. The Asians Their Evolving Heritage, 6th ed., p. 21. New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1984. ISBN 0-06-047001-1.


  9. World University Service of Canada. Asia-WUSC WorldWide. 2006. October 7, 2006. weblink>.


  10. Menon, Sridevi. Duke University. "Where is West Asia in Asian America?Asia and the Politics of Space in Asian America." 2004. April 26, 2007. page 71 weblink


  11. BBC News 2006. September 9, 2006. weblink>.


  12. American Heritage Book of English Usage. Asian. 1996. September 29, 2006. weblink>.


  13.   Continental regions as per (Media:United Nations geographical subregions.png|UN categorisations (map)), except 12. Depending on definitions, various territories cited below (notes 6, 11-13, 15, 17-19, 21-23) may be in one or both of Asia and Europe, Africa, or Oceania.


  14.   Kazakhstan is sometimes considered a transcontinental country in Central Asia and Eastern Europe; population and area figures are for Asian portion only.


  15.   The Sovereign state "People's Republic of China" is commonly known as simply "China", which is subsumed by the China>eponymous entity and civilization (China). Figures given are for mainland China only, and do not include Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan.


  16.   Hong Kong is a Special Administrative Region (SAR) of the People's Republic of China.


  17. HTTP://WWW.CENSTATD.GOV.HK/HONG_KONG_STATISTICS/STATISTICS_BY_SUBJECT/INDEX.JSP?SUBJECTID=1&CHARSETID=1&DISPLAYMODE=T >TITLE=HK CENSUS AND STATISTICS DEPARTMENT DATE=, 2009-08-28,


  18.   Macau is a Special Administrative Region (SAR) of the People's Republic of China.


  19.   Figures are for Taiwan Area under the de facto control of the Sovereign state>state, Republic of China (ROC) , commonly referred to as Taiwan. Claimed in whole by the PRC; see political status of Taiwan.


  20.   Russia is considered a transcontinental country in Eastern Europe and Northern Asia; population and area figures are for the entire state.


  21. Excludes Christmas Island and Cocos (Keeling) Islands (States and territories of Australia>Australian external territories in the Indian Ocean southwest of Indonesia).


  22.   The administrative capital of Burma (Myanmar) was officially moved from Yangon>Yangon (Rangoon) to a militarised greenfield just west of Pyinmana on 6 November 2005.


  23. General Population Census of Cambodia 2008 - Provisional population totals, National Institute of Statistics, Ministry of Planning, released 3rd September, 2008


  24.   East Timor is often considered a transcontinental country in Southeastern Asia and Oceania.


  25.   Indonesia is often considered a transcontinental country in Southeastern Asia and Oceania; figures do not include Irian Jaya and Maluku Islands, frequently reckoned in Oceania (Melanesia/Australasia).


  26.   Includes Jammu and Kashmir, a contested territory among India, Pakistan, and the PRC.


  27.   Armenia is sometimes considered a transcontinental country: physiographically in Western Asia, it has historical and sociopolitical connections with Europe.


  28.   Azerbaijan is often considered a transcontinental country in Western Asia and Eastern Europe; population and area figures are for Asian portion only. Figures include Nakhchivan, an autonomous exclave of Azerbaijan bordered by Armenia, Iran and Turkey.


  29.   The island of Cyprus is sometimes considered a transcontinental territory. In the Eastern Basin of the Mediterranean, south of Turkey, north of Sinai, and west of Lebanon and Syria, it has some socio-political connections with Europe. However, the UN considers Cyprus to be within Western Asia, while the CIA regards it as Middle Eastern.


  30.   Georgia is often considered a transcontinental country in Western Asia and Eastern Europe; population and area figures are for Asian portion only.


  31. In 1980, Jerusalem was proclaimed Israel's united capital, following its annexation of Arab-dominant East Jerusalem during the Six-Day War>1967 Six-Day War. The United Nations and many countries do not recognize this claim, with most countries maintaining embassies in Tel Aviv instead.


  32.   Turkey is generally considered a transcontinental country in Western Asia and Southern Europe; population and area figures are for Asian portion only, excluding all of Istanbul.


  33. Five Years of China's WTO Membership. EU and US Perspectives on China's Compliance with Transparency Commitments and the Transitional Review Mechanism, Legal Issues of Economic Integration, Kluwer Law International, Volume 33, Number 3, pp. 263-304, 2006. by Paolo Farah


  34. Professor M.D. Nalapat. Ensuring China's "Peaceful Rise". Accessed January 30, 2008.


  35. Dahlman, Carl J; Aubert, Jean-Eric. China and the Knowledge Economy: Seizing the 21st Century. WBI Development Studies. World Bank Publications. Accessed January 30, 2008.


  36. The Real Great Leap Forward. The Economist. Sept 30, 2004


  37. Chris Patten. Financial Times. Comment & Analysis: Why Europe is getting China so wrong. Accessed January 30, 2008.


  38. Rise of Japan and 4 Asian Tigers from emergingdragon.com


  39. WEB,weblink Commonwealth Business Council-Asia, mdy, April 12, 2007,


  40. NEWS,weblink China to dwarf G7 states by 2050, mdy, November 19, 2008, BBC News, 2006-03-03,


  41. weblink


  42. weblink




Further reading

Reference works
  • Higham, Charles. Encyclopedia of Ancient Asian Civilizations. Facts on File library of world history. New York: Facts On File, 2004.
  • Kapadia, Feroz, and Mandira Mukherjee. Encyclopaedia of Asian Culture and Society. New Delhi: Anmol Publications, 1999.
  • Levinson, David, and Karen Christensen. Encyclopedia of Modern Asia. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2002.
  • Kamal, Niraj. "Arise Asia: Respond to White Peril". New Delhi:Wordsmith,2002, ISBN 81-87412-08-9

External links

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