History of Asia

Introduction to History of Asia

Asia is the birthplace of all the earliest known civilizations except that of Egypt; of most of the great language families; and of all the great religions. The early inhabitants of Egypt and coastal North Africa were probably Asians, as were the ancestors of the American Indians and Eskimos. The nations of Europe were formed in large part by peoples retreating westward before ferocious Asian warriors such as the Huns, Turks, and Mongols, and by Asiatic settlers such as the Bulgars, Magyars, and Finns.

Ancient Asia

Human remains have been found in Java, Thailand, and China that are at least 600,000 years old. The earliest known civilization developed about 3500 B.C. in the Tigris-Euphrates Valley of Mesopotamia. It expanded northward and down the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea in the area known as the Fertile Crescent. By about 2300 B.C., a civilization had arisen in the Indus Valley on the Indian subcontinent. In China, a civilization had emerged by about 2000 B.C.

Asia's early civilizations grew up separately. The peoples of the Fertile Crescent developed commercial and cultural ties with peoples to the west. Eventually the entire eastern Mediterranean region came under Macedonian and then Roman rule. As a result, the Middle East shared its historical development more with Europe than with the rest of Asia.

After the fall of the Indus Valley civilization about 1750 B.C., that region was isolated until shortly before the Christian Era. North China, however, had continuing contacts with western Asia from very early times, the steppes (plains) of Central Asia providing a route across the continent. The early Asian traffic was predominantly from west to east, in contrast to the later surge of eastern Asians westward. Far Eastern civilization itself may have developed as a result of contact with the Middle East.

The language family known as Indo-European probably developed in central Europe, but possibly in Asia. The migrations into the Middle East of peoples speaking Indo-European languages began before 2000 B.C. Among historic groups were the Hittites and Phrygians in Asia Minor; the Philistines in Canaan; the Aryans in India; and the Iranians in Persia.

By the sixth century B.C. the Indo-European Scythians, mounted herdsmen with a high level of culture, roamed the steppes of central Asia from the Black Sea to the Altai Mountains in western Mongolia. Eventually most of them were absorbed by Mongolian peoples of Ural-Altaic linguistic stock who gradually migrated westward.

From the beginning of history the Fertile Crescent was the scene of conquest and power struggles among its various peoples. Groups from the adjacent hills included the Sumerians, who created the earliest known civilization, and the Elamites, Kassites, and Hurrians, all of whom ruled kingdoms in the region. As early as 3000 B.C. Semitic peoples from the Arabian and Syrian deserts began moving into Mesopotamia. The Akkadians, Amorites (Babylonians), Assyrians, and Chaldeans founded empires.

In the sixth century B.C. Persia expanded into an empire extending from the Mediterranean and Aegean on the west to the Indus on the east. The Persians were conquered by Alexander the Great in 334–324 B.C. and remained for a while under Macedonian rule. A new Persian empire emerged and became the main contender with Rome for control of the Middle East.

See also Alexander the Great; Armenia; Asia Minor; Middle East, subtitle Ancient History; Persia through subtitle Persia under Hellenistic Rule; Rome and the Roman Empire, map titled The Roman Empire at Its Greatest Extent c. 117 A.D.

In the Far East the feudal states of China were united under the short-lived Chin, or Qin, dynasty, 221–207 B.C. By this time the Chinese had already developed a brilliant culture and highly productive civilization. Under the Han dynasty, which succeeded the Chin dynasty and ruled for more than 400 years, the empire greatly extended its boundaries, reaching westward to present Afghanistan. The Silk Road, over which for many centuries Chinese goods reached the Western world, was established during this period.

The people of the Chinese lowlands, where the nation developed, were Mongoloids of the Sinitic (Sino-Tibetan) language family. In the mountains to the north (present Mongolia) were the barbarian Altaic peoples. There was constant territorial conflict between the Chinese and the Altaic tribes.

From the Huns to the European Era

In Mongolia one after another of the Altaic groups became dominant and embarked on campaigns of conquest. First were the Huns, who began occupying northern China early in the fourth century and were among the ruling factions there for more than 250 years. Another group of Huns swept westward in the first mass movement from the Far East, reaching the Volga River in the 370's. The Alans, a Scythian people in Turkestan, and the Goths and Slavs in eastern Europe were forced westward by the Hunnish onslaught.

A new horde of Eastern barbarians known as the White Huns, or Ephthalites, seized the Oxus Valley and invaded northern India in the fifth century. Many of the earlier Huns joined the Avars, another Altaic people, who pushed into Europe in the sixth century, followed by the Bulgars. To escape the barbarians, some of the peoples of the Ural Mountains, including the Magyars and the Finns, migrated into Europe.

In the early part of the seventh century a new religion, Islam, developed in the Arabian Peninsula. Its followers, the Muslims, surged out of Arabia and subjugated all the Middle East except Asia Minor, which was part of the Byzantine (Eastern Roman) domain. In a little more than a century, the Muslim Empire extended into Turkestan, where it collided with the expanding Chinese empire of the Tang dynasty, which had come into power after the Hunnish upheavals. Defeat of a great Chinese army by the Muslims at Talas, near Tashkent, in 751 began 500 years of military decline and territorial shrinkage for China.

Meanwhile the Turks, an Altaic people, had in the sixth century built a Central Asian empire, in the process absorbing most of the Indo-Europeans still in that region. The empire soon divided. The eastern Turks were overrun by the Tangs, but a Turkic empire was reestablished in the eighth century by the Uighur tribes. The western Turks retreated from the Tangs into Turkestan, where they were converted to Islam.

In the 11th century the Turkic Ghaznavid dynasty of Afghanistan annexed northwestern India, and the Seljuk Turks established their rule over Persia, Armenia, Syria, and western Asia Minor. Arab possession of Jerusalem had not interfered with Christian pilgrimages to the Holy Land, but pilgrims were not safe in Turkic territory. The First Crusade—the object of which was to recover the Middle East for Christendom—was launched, its armies reaching Asia in 1097. Other crusades followed. The last of the Crusaders were expelled in 1291 by the Turkic armies of Egypt.

The decline of Tang power in the Far East had permitted various Altaic peoples in turn to rule northern China. One of these, the Mongols, established authority over the eastern Turks in 1206, conquered northern China, and then, incorporating Turkic tribes, swept across Asia into Russia, 1218–22. The savage horde of Mongols and Turks was known in western Asia and Europe as the Tatars. The Mongol conquest of southern China was completed in 1279, bringing within the Mongol Empire all of the continent except Southeast Asia, India, and a portion of the Middle East.

During the latter half of the 13th century, three Venetians, the Polos, made several overland trips from Italy to China. This was the first direct contact between Europe and the Far East.

The Mongol, or Yuan, dynasty in China was replaced in 1368 by the native Ming dynasty. A brief period of military expansion extended the empire into Annam (northern Vietnam) to the south and Manchuria to the north. Under the Mings regular commercial contacts were established with Europe, where Chinese luxury wares were in great demand.

Mongol power in western Asia weakened after a century, and in the mid-1300's several areas regained independence. In 1370 Tamerlane, a Tatar also known as Timur, made himself ruler of Turkestan. In the next 35 years he conquered Persia, southern Russia, Afghanistan, and northwestern India. After Tamerlane's death the empire shrank to a kingdom centering on Afghanistan. In the early 15th century the Timurid dynasty moved into India and there established the Mogul Empire. In Central Asia tribal warfare made the Silk Road unsafe, and contact between Europe and China was largely lost.

In Asia Minor a Turkic people known as the Ottomans gained supreme power and gradually conquered the Balkan Peninsula of Europe. About 1500 the Ottomans turned eastward and soon absorbed Syria, Palestine, Armenia, Mesopotamia (western Persia), and the coastlands of Arabia.

Spices were for many centuries the major Asian export to Europe; they were valued even more than silk and porcelain. By the end of the Middle Ages, however, Europe also wanted sugar, cotton, and rice from the East. Carrying goods between East and West had become a Muslim monopoly. It was the European desire to trade directly with the so-called Indies (all southeast Asia) that launched the great Age of Discovery at the end of the 15th century. Spreading Christianity was often a second goal. Eventually control of foreign lands became a matter of prestige among European nations.

The Portuguese made the first voyages of discovery to Asia, reaching India in 1498, Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula in 1509, China in 1513, and Japan in 1542. They established trading posts all along the route. The Philippine Islands were discovered by the Spanish in 1521 and colonized in the latter part of the century. The Dutch had started taking over trade in the Malay archipelago (what is now Indonesia) by 1600. In 1638 they established a protectorate over Ceylon (Sri Lanka). The English began trading in India in 1640; the French, a few decades later. Meanwhile Russia had started its territorial advance into Siberia, reaching the area near Lake Baykal in 1652.

Colonialism, Nationalism, and Communism

As Europe moved into the industrial era, Asia became increasingly important to it as a source of raw materials and as a market. China and Japan, both of which had been admitting Christian missionaries, attempted to isolate themselves from further Western encroachment. China permitted foreign trade only at Canton (now Guangzhou); Japan, only at Nagasaki—and only with China and the Netherlands. In the 18th and early 19th centuries Great Britain expanded its control over India, occupied the tip of the Malay Peninsula, and started to conquer Burma. Meanwhile Russia absorbed western Turkestan and extended its rule to the Pacific, annexing all the region north of China.

In the mid-19th century the isolation of the Far East was shattered. Britain seized Hong Kong in 1841–42, and in 1854 Commodore Perry of the United States forced Japan to open trade to the West. During the latter part of the century France established itself in southeast Asia, and Britain and the Netherlands enlarged their interests there. Japan began its own colonial expansion, acquiring several island groups and in 1895 seizing Formosa (Taiwan) from China.

Encouraged by the Japanese victory, the European powers forced China to grant them leases for commercial operations. Germany and Britain established themselves on the coast of Shandong Province, and Russia occupied Manchuria. The Boxer Rebellion, an attempt by the Chinese in 1900 to expel foreigners, was put down by an international force including United States troops. A U.S. State Department proposal for an "open door" policy permitting all foreign nations to trade freely with China was adopted by the nations concerned.

In 1904 Russian and Japanese territorial rivalry led to war, by which victorious Japan gained control of Korea and other areas. There was a growing realization in China that the monarchy was ineffectual and the nation stagnant. In 1911 a revolution began, and in 1912 China became a republic. Outer Mongolia and Tibet declared themselves independent. Rival factions in China soon plunged the country into civil war. Japan joined the Allies in World War I. Germany lost its foothold in China, and its island possessions in the Pacific became Japanese mandates.

The war made some profound changes in western Asia. The Ottoman Empire, an ally of Germany, lost all its domain except what is now Turkey. Mesopotamia became the kingdom of Iraq, under British mandate until 1932. Syria (including Lebanon) was placed under French mandate. Several independent kingdoms arose in Arabia.

Nepal gained independence from Great Britain in 1923. Meanwhile a movement for independence from Britain had started in India. The newly organized Soviet Union gained influence over Outer Mongolia, which in 1924 became a people's (socialist) republic.

Factional differences in China led to a split of the Revolutionary party into Nationalists and Communists and to continuous fighting. In 1931 Japan seized Manchuria from China, and war between the two nations began in 1937. The rival Chinese factions were nominally united against Japan, but the fighting was done largely by the Nationalists under Chiang Kai-shek.

Bent on creation of a "New Order in East Asia," Japan sent troops into southern Indochina in July, 1941. December brought the Japanese air attack on the U.S. Navy base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and entrance of the United States into World War II. Within six months Japan held a large part of eastern Asia, including strategic areas of China. Japan was defeated in 1945 and stripped of its overseas possessions.

In the postwar period most colonial powers bowed to the prevailing anticolonial sentiment. Syria and Lebanon gained independence in 1944; Transjordan (Jordan) in 1946; India (part of which became Pakistan) in 1947; Palestine (Israel), Ceylon (Sri Lanka), and Burma in 1948; Indonesia in 1949; French Indochina (Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam) in 1953 and 1954; and Malaya in 1957.

In China, civil war between the Communist forces under Mao Tse-tung and the Nationalists resumed. In 1949 the Nationalists were forced from the mainland and retreated to Taiwan. The Communists conquered Tibet in 1950–51.

New conflicts developed in other areas. The Arab League, founded in 1945, opposed the creation of Israel and went to war against that nation, 1948–49. With the encouragement of the Soviet Union and Communist China, strong Communist movements developed in some of the newly independent nations. There was war between Communist and anti-Communist forces in several of the countries of Southeast Asia and in Korea, where full-scale war, 1950–53, left the country divided. In 1954 the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) was formed to prevent Communist aggression.

The partition of Vietnam in 1954 caused new tensions there, and the United States began aiding South Vietnam. War began in 1957, and American troops joined the struggle in 1964.

Many of the Asian nations remained neutral in the cold war between the Western and Communist powers and joined with unaligned African nations to form an Afro-Asian bloc in international politics. A rift that developed between Communist China and the Soviet Union in 1963 created new tensions in Asia and throughout the world. Both the Soviets and the Chinese, however, gave military assistance to North Vietnam.

The Vietnamese War ended in 1975 with the conquest of South Vietnam by the Communists. The same year, the Khmer Rouge, a Cambodian Communist group, seized control of Cambodia, and the Pathet Lao, a Laotian Communist group, seized control of Laos. Hundreds of thousands of persons fled Indochina and sought refuge in foreign countries. The Khmer Rouge imposed an extremely harsh rule, killing hundreds of thousands of persons. In 1977, SEATO, having failed in its objective to contain Communism, disbanded.

In 1979, following a series of border conflicts between Cambodia and Vietnam, the Vietnamese invaded Cambodia, overthrew the Khmer Rouge, and installed a moderate government. The Khmer Rouge continued to control a small area of the country during the 1980's, but they were unable to dislodge the Vietnamese-supported government.

Despite the events in Indochina, several Far Eastern countries experienced peace and prospered economically during the 1970's and 1980's. The most thriving economies were those of Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, and Thailand.

The Indian subcontinent experienced much conflict. In 1971 East Pakistan rebelled against West Pakistan, and with the aid of India emerged victorious and became the independent nation of Bangladesh. During the 1980's India and Sri Lanka were troubled by rebellious minority groups. India had to contend with terrorism by the Sikhs, who wanted independence for their state of Punjab; in Sri Lanka there was a guerrilla insurgency by Tamil separatists.

The Middle East was especially torn with strife. In the Six Day War (1967) Israel defeated neighboring Arab countries, and seized the West Bank (all Jordanian territory west of the Jordan River) from Jordan, the Golan Heights from Syria, and the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt. In 1973 another Arab-Israeli war erupted, which was halted on the 22nd day by a cease-fire brought about by the United Nations. Egypt and Israel signed a peace treaty in 1979, and the Sinai Peninsula was returned to Egypt over a three-year period.

In 1975 civil war broke out in Lebanon among Christian, Muslim, and Druse groups, who divided the country into separate enclaves. Syria intervened in 1976 and occupied part of the country in an attempt to restore peace. Israel invaded in 1982, attempting to expel Palestinian terrorists. The Israelis occupied much of the southern part of the country until 1985.

In Afghanistan the Soviet Union engineered a coup against the government and installed a puppet government in 1979. From the 1980's to the early 1990's, the country was torn by civil war between the Communist government and rebellious Afghans. The government was aided by Soviet troops until they were withdrawn during 1988–89.

Meanwhile, the shah (king) of Iran, Mohammed Riza Pahlavi, was overthrown in 1979; his government was replaced by a militant Islamic regime. In 1980, Iraq invaded Iran in an attempt to regain border territory it had ceded in 1975. In 1982 Iran drove the Iraqis out of most of the invaded territory and carried the war into Iraqi territory. The fighting was ended with a cease-fire in 1988.

In 1990 Iraq invaded and seized Kuwait. In the Persian Gulf War the following year Iraq was expelled from Kuwait by a coalition of Western and Middle Eastern nations led by the United States.

An Islamic group, the Taliban, imposed a strict interpretation of Islamic law on Afghanistan when they gained control of it in the mid-1990s. The same group supported al-Qa'ida, the organization accused of being behind the terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11th of 2001; later in 2001, the U.S. and its allies helped Afghan forces to drive the Taliban out of power.

The U.S. attacked Iraq in 2003 and overthrew the Iraqi government. Afterwards, the U.S. and allied forces based in Iraq tried to restore stability and rebuild the country; however, militants from Iraq and elsewhere attacked the coalition forces as well as non-related targets.

In 1991 the Soviet Union collapsed and the 15 republics that had made up the union became independent states, most of which abandoned Communism. Five are in Central Asia. Four of them—Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan—are inhabited mainly by Turkic peoples; the fifth, Tajikistan, by persons of Iranian heritage. The newly independent Central Asian nations, most of whose inhabitants are Muslims, established close political and commercial ties with Turkey and Iran.

The end of the Soviet Union meant the end of the Cold War; political events in Asia reflected these developments. In 1991, for example, the Vietnamese-backed Cambodian government and three rebel groups, Communist and non-Communist, signed a peace treaty. The same year, North Korea and South Korea signed a nonaggression pact. Israel also improved its relations between Jordan and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in the early 1990s. However, tension returned and escalated into fighting between Israel and PLO in the early 2000s.

After Portugal ended its colonial rule of East Timor, Indonesia took over in 1975; however, many East Timorese opposed Indonesian control, and the United Nations did not recognize Indonesia's claim. In 1999 the majority of East Timorese voted for independence, and the country became independent three years later.

In 1997 Britain transferred the colony of Hong Kong to Chinese sovereignty, and Portugal did likewise in 1999 with its colony Macao. These territories became Special Administrative Regions of China.

In 2004, a tsunami hit the coastal areas of South and Southwest Asia, especially damaging Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, and Thailand. The total number of deaths is estimated between 216,000 and 283,000 people, and millions more were left homeless; the tsunami also caused billions of dollars of property damage.