Asia in pretty pastel shades.

Asia is the world's largest continent. It is also the continent which contains the most geographically diverse natural resources, with various different landscapes ranging from Mediterranean (inCyprus andTurkey) to arctic tundra (in far easternRussia), deciduous forests (northChina, northRussia and others) to sub-tropical and tropical jungles (South and parts of East and Southeast Asia), and is also set to be one of the world's richest, with predictions of Asia producing 50% of the world's wealth by 2030.

While most continents are defined by obvious natural borders, geographically Europe and Asia lie on the same continent; Asia was an invention of the ancient Greeks, the boundary defined on a cultural rather than geophysical basis.^[1] Today the dividing line is through the Aegean, Bosphorus, Black Sea, watershed of the Caucasus mountains, River Ural, and Ural Mountains.^[1] TheMiddle East (sometimes referred to as Western Asia) is also considered to be part of Asia, and indeed, the word ultimately comes from the Greek name for Hittite Anatolia. However, in his bookOrientalism, Edward Said argues that the very idea of "Asia" is essentially animperialist construct.

Economy and economic history[edit]

Being the largest continent on the planet, it is unsurprising that Asia has as much human capital as it possesses immense natural resources. Since the sixteenth century has been the object of colonisation and commerce by foreign powers, beginning with theRussians who began expansion eastward of the Urals under Ivan the Terrible (1530-84), followed by thePortuguese,Spanish,Dutch,British andFrench maritime powers who traded and conquered in order to make the spice (not melange) flow, thoughChina andJapan strongly resisted foreign influence until the 19th century. The waning power of Spain saw her only significant Asian colony (thePhilippines, which the Spanish, due to their colonial focus on the Americas, saw as the westernmost part of their empire) pass into the US hands at the end of the 19th century.

The 20th century dawned with the collapse ofImperial China and a resurgent, industrialised Japan, which joined in the colonial scramble for influence in China and her former areas of influence. This process was accelerated drastically by theSecond World War, which saw Japan annex more or less the entirety of South East Asia, from Korea and Manchuria to the then Dutch East Indies (modern Indonesia). This was brought to an end with the defeat of Japan in the war.

From 1945 to 1992, theUnited States andSoviet Union would be the greatest influences in Asia, fighting numerous proxy wars inKorea,Vietnam (spreading toLaos andCambodia) andAfghanistan, as well as supplying weapons to their preferred sides in the domestically initiated by heavily supported conflicts betweenIran andIraq, and betweenIsrael and just about everyone nearby. The collapse of the Soviet Union changed things overnight, leaving a vacuum of influence in her former client states filled quickly by the US, and, from the late 1990's onward, by China, the new purveyor of arms and purchaser of raw materials. The state of India conquered Portuguese India (principally Goa) in 1961, Britain's last middle-eastern holdings became independent in the early 1970s, and Hong Kong and Macao were handed over to China in 1997 and 1999 respectively, effectively ending western colonialism in Asia.

Economically, this period also saw the rapid rebuilding of Japan as an economic but essentially demilitarised power, along with rapid industrialisation ofHong Kong SAR,South Korea,Singapore andTaiwan (ROC), known as theFour Asian Tigers, and to a lesser degree,Malaysia,Indonesia,Thailand andVietnam. However, theAsian financial crisis in 1997 also affected some of these nations.

See also[edit]

• Europe — the other part of the Eurasian landmass.
• Africa — another continent connected to Asia.
• Middle East

Sources[edit]

• Richardson, M "Asia's Surplus Surging Wealth" Institute of South East Asian Studies, (accessed at:http://www.iseas.edu.sg/viewpoint/mr29apr08.pdf)

References[edit]

• Asia
• Geography