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.
