According to COUNTRYAAH.COM, Asia was already settled in the Paleolithic. Around 8000 BC On the one hand, Neolithic farming cultures emerged in West Asia (traditionally known as the Middle East) and on the other in Southeast Asia. Since the 4th millennium BC The Bronze Age emerged in Southeast Asia, a little later in Western Asia, first in the Mesopotamian river valleys (middle and lower Euphrates and Tigris), then also in those of the great southern peninsula of Asia (Indus, Harappa culture) and China (Hwangho) soon Assumed high cultural character. In Mesopotamia and individual parts of Syria – here also with the help of Egyptian sources – the knowledge of history goes back to the pre-Christian millennia (culture of the Sumerians, around 3000 BC; ancient Orient). West Asia and India become historically tangible through the Indo-European invasion (after 1500 BC, Aryans); The reliable news from China (Shang dynasty, 16th – 11th century BC) begins around the same time. The prehistoric times lasted much longer in the less settlement and traffic-favorable areas, in parts of Siberia until modern times. The contrast between the high cultures of the river valleys and the nomads of Central Asia and Arabia remained decisive for a long time. (China, History, India, History, Indonesia, History, Japanese History)
The alleged geographical center of Asia is marked by an obelisk in Kyzyl, the capital of the Tuvinian Republic (Russia). Asia borders the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Indian Ocean to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the east. The Asian mainland stretches for around 11,000 km in a west-east and almost 8,500 km in a north-south direction. The northernmost point of the mainland is Cape Chelyuskin (77 ° 43 ′ north latitude), the southernmost point is the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula (1 ° 16 ′ north latitude). The offshore islands in the north include Severnaya Zemlya and the New Siberian Islands, in the east the Kuriles, Sakhalin, Japan and Taiwan, in the southeast the Philippines and the Malay Archipelago, in the south Ceylon (Sri Lanka ).
Antiquity
From the 6th to the 4th century BC The great Persian empire encompassed all of Asia Minor and Syria and reached in the east as far as the Indus. His inheritance took over Alexander the Great, after whose death the Asian countries of his empire fell under the rule of the Seleucids, while east of the Indus Candragupta founded the Maurya Empire. On the soil of the Seleucid Empire emerged during the 3rd century BC. In the east the Graecobactrian Empire, in Iran the Parthian Empire and in Asia Minor the Pergamene Empire. Bithynia, Cappadocia, Pontos and Armenia were also independent states. After the death of the Pergamene king Attalus III. (133 BC) the western part of Asia Minor fell to the Romans, who made the former Pergamene Empire the province of Asia. Under Pompey 65/64 BC The rest of Asia Minor and Syria also became Roman provinces, at times Mesopotamia as well. Christianity found its way into Asia Minor early on (Journeys of the Apostle Paul) and spread quickly here and especially in Syria, since the beginning of the 4th century also in Armenia. In the 7th century, the Arabs, united under Islam, conquered most of southern Asia Minor. In Asia Minor and on the Bosporus, however, the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire remained powerful. It also held up against the nomadic peoples (Huns, Avars, Hungarians, Turkic peoples) coming from Central Asia, some of which reached Western Europe.
Middle Ages
The world empire of the Mongols, founded after numerous military campaigns by Genghis Khan and his successors in the 13th century, united large parts of West, Central and East Asia for the first time, eliminating the crumbling caliphate empire (1258) and also the Southeast Asian mainland and Korea (but not Japan) reached. China, which as the “Middle Kingdom” held a dominant position for a long time (with a strong cultural influence on neighboring peoples), fell in the 13th and 14th centuries. Century under Mongolian rule and could only reach imperial dimensions again under the Ming dynasty (1368–1644). Timurs Campaigns (around 1400) temporarily weakened the Turks in West Asia; these put an end to the Byzantine Empire with the conquest of Constantinople (1453). The discovery of the sea route from South Africa to India (1497/98) had far-reaching significance for the connection between Asia and Europe. As a result, the Islamic world lost its importance as a locking bar between Europe and South and East Asia. The deserted silk road leading from the Mediterranean through Islamic territory and Inner Asia.
The Southeast Asian mainland, which was repeatedly hit by waves of Mongolian and South Chinese immigration, was, with the exception of Annams, an Indian cultural province in the first centuries AD and an Islamic province in the south between 1300 and 1600.
