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==Etymology==
==Etymology==
{{wiktionary|Asia}}
The word ''Asia'' originated from the Ancient Greek word "Ἀσία", first attributed to [[Herodotus]] (about 440 BCE) in reference to [[Anatolia]] or, for the purposes of 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 (mythology)|Europa]], [[Asia (mythology)|Asia]], and [[Libya (mythology)|Libya]], referring to Africa), stating that most Greeks assumed that Asia was named after the wife of [[Prometheus]] 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 a Trojan ally named [[Asios Hyrtakides|Asios]] and elsewhere he describes a marsh as ασιος (Iliad 2, 461). The [[Greek language]] term may be derived from [[Assuwa]], a 14th century BCE confederation of states in Western [[Anatolia]]. Hittite ''assu-''—"good" is probably an element in that name.

Alternatively, the [[etymology]] of the term may be from the [[Akkadian language|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). 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 [[Phoenicia]]n sailor sailing through the straits between the [[Mediterranean Sea]] and the Black Sea.

It is interesting to note, in Icelandic Saga, ancient [[Teutons]] separated Asia from Europe by the river Tanakvisl (or Vanakvisl), which flows into the Black Sea. Eastward across the River (in Asia), so legend tells, was a land known as Asaheim or Asaland, where dwelt [[Odin]], chief god, in his citadel named Asgard.<ref>Rydberg, Viktor. ''Teutonic Mythology: Gods and Goddesses of the Northland'', London: Norroena Society, 1907. pp.33-34</ref> However, ''[[Aesir]]'' and all its forms are related to Sanskrit ''[[asura]]'' and Avestan ''[[ahura]]'', the [[Aesir-Asura correspondence|local reflexes of the name of a class of divine beings]].


==Definition and boundaries==
==Definition and boundaries==

Revision as of 20:50, 1 November 2008

For other uses, see Asia (disambiguation).

Asia

World map showing the location of Asia.

Area Template:Km2 to sq mi
Population 4,050,404,000 (1st)[1]
Density 89/km² (226/sq mi)
Demonym Asian
No. of countries 37
Countries
Dependencies
Unrecognized Republics & Regions
Languages
Time Zones
+2 to +12
Internet TLD .asia, many others
Largest Cities

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent. It covers 8.6% of the Earth's total surface area (or 29.9% of its land area) and, with over 4 billion people, it contains more than 60% of the world's current human population. Chiefly in the eastern and northern hemispheres, Asia is traditionally defined as part of the landmass of Eurasia—with the western portion of the latter occupied by Europe—lying east of the Suez Canal, east of the Ural Mountains, and south of the Caucasus Mountains and the Caspian and Black Seas. 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[2][3] (see Subregions of Asia, Asian people).

Etymology

Definition and boundaries

Physical geography

See also: Geography of Asia, Countries in both Asia and Europe, Geographic criteria for the definition of Europe
Physical map of Asia (excluding Southwest Asia).
Two-point equidistant projection of Asia.

Medieval 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 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 would have 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,[4] as there is no logical physical separation between them.[3] 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 Plates, 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,[5][6] especially in the United States after World War II.[7] The term is sometimes used more strictly in reference to the Asia-Pacific region, which does not include the Middle East or Russia,[8] 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 commonly not considered Asian.[9]

Political geography

"Asian" as a demonym

See also: Orientalism.

The demonym "Asian" is often used colloquially to refer to people from a subregion of Asia instead of for anyone from Asia. Thus, in British English, "Asian" can mean South Asian, but may also refer to other Asian groups.[10] In the United States, "Asian American" can mean East Asian Americans, due to the historical and cultural influences of China and Japan on the U.S. up to the 1960s and in preference to the terms "Oriental" and "Asiatic". However, the term is increasingly taken to include Southeast Asian Americans and South Asian Americans, due to the increasing numbers of them.[11]

Territories and regions

File:Asia - UN.png
UN geoscheme subregions of Asia:
  Eastern Asia
  Central Asia
  Southern Asia
  Southeastern Asia
  Western Asia
  Russia (Asia)
Name of region[12] and
territory, with flag 		Area
(km²) 		Population
(1 July 2008 est.) 		Population density
(per km²) 		Capital
Central Asia:
 Kazakhstan[13] 2,724,927 15,666,533 5.7 Astana
 Kyrgyzstan 198,500 5,356,869 24.3 Bishkek
 Tajikistan 143,100 7,211,884 47.0 Dushanbe
 Turkmenistan 488,100 5,179,573 9.6 Ashgabat
 Uzbekistan 447,400 28,268,441 57.1 Tashkent
Eastern Asia:
 People's Republic of China[14] 9,584,492 1,322,044,605 134.0 Beijing
 Hong Kong[15] 1,092 7,903,334 6,688.0 —
 Japan 377,835 127,288,628 336.1 Tokyo
 Macau[16] 25 460,823 18,473.3 —
 Mongolia 1,565,000 2,996,082 1.7 Ulaanbaatar
 North Korea 120,540 23,479,095 184.4 Pyongyang
 South Korea 98,480 49,232,844 490.7 Seoul
 Republic of China (Taiwan)[17] 35,980 22,920,946 626.7 Taipei
Northern Africa:
 Egypt[18] 980,869 81,713,517 21.7 Cairo
Northern Asia:
 Russia[19] 13,115,200 140,702,092 3.0 Moscow
Southeastern Asia:[20]
 Brunei 5,770 381,371 60.8 Bandar Seri Begawan
 Cambodia 181,040 14,241,640 70.6 Phnom Penh
 East Timor (Timor-Leste)[21] 15,007 1,108,777 63.5 Dili
 Indonesia[22] 1,419,588 237,512,355 159.9 Jakarta
 Laos 236,800 6,677,534 24.4 Vientiane
 Malaysia 329,750 25,274,135 68.7 Kuala Lumpur
 Myanmar (Burma) 678,500 47,758,224 62.3 Naypyidaw[23]
 Philippines 300,000 92,681,453 281.8 Manila
 Singapore 704 4,608,167 6,369.0 Singapore
 Thailand 514,000 65,493,298 121.3 Bangkok
 Vietnam 331,690 86,116,559 246.1 Hanoi
Southern Asia:
 Afghanistan 647,500 32,738,775 42.9 Kabul
 Bangladesh 144,000 153,546,901 926.2 Dhaka
 Bhutan 47,000 682,321 14.3 Thimphu
 India[24] 3,167,590 1,147,995,226 318.2 New Delhi
 Iran 1,648,195 65,875,223 42 Tehran
 Maldives 300 379,174 1,067.2 Malé
   Nepal 140,800 29,519,114 183.8 Kathmandu
 Pakistan 803,940 167,762,049 183.7 Islamabad
 Sri Lanka 65,610 21,128,773 298.4 Sri Jayawardenapura-Kotte
Western Asia:
 Armenia[25] 29,800 2,968,586 111.7 Yerevan
 Azerbaijan[26] 46,870 3,845,127 82.0 Baku
 Bahrain 665 718,306 987.1 Manama
 Cyprus[27] 9,250 792,604 83.9 Nicosia
State of Palestine Gaza[28] 363 1,537,269 3,315.7 Gaza
 Georgia[29] 20,460 4,630,841 99.3 Tbilisi
 Iraq 437,072 28,221,181 54.9 Baghdad
 Israel 20,770 7,112,359 290.3 Jerusalem[30]
 Jordan 92,300 6,198,677 57.5 Amman
 Kuwait 17,820 2,596,561 118.5 Kuwait City
 Lebanon 10,452 3,971,941 353.6 Beirut
 Oman 212,460 3,311,640 12.8 Muscat
 Qatar 11,437 928,635 69.4 Doha
 Saudi Arabia 1,960,582 23,513,330 12.0 Riyadh
 Syria 185,180 19,747,586 92.6 Damascus
 Turkey[31] 756,768 71,892,807 76.5 Ankara
 United Arab Emirates 82,880 4,621,399 29.5 Abu Dhabi
State of Palestine West Bank[28] 5,860 2,611,904 393.1 —
 Yemen 527,970 23,013,376 35.4 Sanaá
Total 43,810,582 4,050,404,193 89.07

See Also: List of Asian countries by population

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.

Previous Name Year Current Name
East Pakistan 1971 Bangladesh, People's Republic of
Kampuchea, Democratic 1975 Cambodia, Kingdom of
Empire of Great Qing of China 1911
1949 		China (Taiwan), Republic of
China (Mainland), People's Republic of
Portuguese Timor 1975 East Timor, Democratic Republic of
Dutch East Indies 1949 Indonesia, Republic of
Persian Empire 1935 Iran, Republic of
Transjordan 1946 Jordan, Kingdom of
Kirghizia (USSR) 1991 Kyrgyzstan, Republic
Malaya, Sabah, Sarawak and Singapore 1963 Malaysia and Singapore
Burma 1989 Myanmar, Union of
Muscat 1971 Oman, Sultanate of
West Pakistan 1971 Pakistan, Republic of
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 of
Tajik S.S.R 1991 Tajikistan, Republic of
Siam 1939 Thailand, Kingdom of
Ottoman Empire 1923 Turkey, Republic of
Turkmen SSR (USSR) 1991 Turkmenistan
Trucial Oman & Trucial States 1971 United Arab Emirates
French Indo-China 1949 Vietnam, Socialist Republic of
Yemen, People's Democratic & Southern Yemen 1970 Yemen, Republic of

Economy

Economy of Asia
During 2003 unless otherwise stated
Population: 3,958,768,100 (2006 Estimate)
GDP (PPP): US$18.077 trillion
GDP (Currency): $8.782 trillion
GDP/capita (PPP): $4,518
GDP/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.
Template:World economy infobox footer
Main article: Economy of Asia

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 India, Japan, 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[32] 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 the Philippines, Pakistan, Vietnam, Mongolia, Uzbekistan and mineral-rich nations such as Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Iran, Brunei, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Oman.

Historically, Japan has had 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 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.

It is forecast 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.[33] 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, it is expected[by whom?] that China will have the largest economy in the world and Asia, followed by India, Indonesia, Japan and South Korea.[citation needed]

Trade blocs

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, and metal.

Manufacturing

Manufacturing in Asia has traditionally been strongest in East and Southeast Asia, particularly in mainland China, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea and Singapore. Japan and South Korea continue to dominate in the area of multinational corporations, but increasingly mainland China, Taiwan, 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: Mumbai, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Tokyo. Dubai is growing fast as a financial hub for West Asia. 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 People's Republic of China as financial centres. Due to its large and extremely competitive information technology industry, India has become a major hub for outsourcing.

Early history

Main article: History of Asia
Map of Asia, 1892

The history of Asia can be seen as the distinct histories of several peripheral coastal regions: East Asia, South 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

Main article: Languages of Asia

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 415 languages spoken in India, and more than 100 are spoken in the Philippines. The People's Republic of China has many languages and dialects in different provinces.

Nobel prizes

Rabindranath Tagore, the first Asian Nobel laureate

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), Kenzaburo Oe (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 Myanmar for her peaceful and non-violent struggle under a military dictatorship in Myanmar. She is a nonviolent pro-democracy activist and leader of the National League for Democracy in Myanmar (Burma), and a noted prisoner of conscience. She is a Buddhist and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991.

Other Asian Nobel Prize winners include Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, Venkata Raman, Abdus Salam, Shmuel Yosef Agnon, Robert Aumann, Menachem Begin, Aaron Ciechanover, Avram Hershko, Daniel Kahneman, Shimon Peres, Yitzhak Rabin, Yaser Arafat, and Kim Dae-jung. Most of the said awardees are from Israel except for Chandrasekhar and Raman (India), Salam (Pakistan), Arafat (Palestinian Territories), and Kim (South Korea).

In 2006, Dr. Mohammad 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 specified period of time and the incidence of default is very low.

Beliefs

Mythology

See also: List of Asian mythology

Asian mythology is diverse. The story is first found in Mesopotamian mythology, in the Epic of Gilgamesh. Hindu mythology tells about an avatar of 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

Asian philosophical traditions originated in India and 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

The 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 either the largest or second largest Jewish population in the world), 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, 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, the Philippines, Russia and most of West Asia and Central Asia.

Dharmic & 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. During the 20th century, in the two most populous countries of Asia, two dramatically different political philosophies took shape. Gandhi gave a new meaning to Ahimsa, and redefined the concepts of nonviolence and nonresistance.

Other

Other religions of Asia include the Zoroastrianism, Shamanism practiced in Iran and Siberia respectively, Shintoism practiced in Japan (usually with Buddhism) and Animism practiced in the eastern parts of the Indian subcontinent and in Southeast Asia.

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Asia.
2

References

  1. ^ List of continents by population [1]
  2. ^ "Asia". Encyclopædia Britannica. 2006. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
  3. ^ a b "Asia". McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology. 2006. New York: McGraw-Hill Inc.
  4. ^ "Asia." MSN Encarta Encyclopedia. 2007.
  5. ^ Welty, Paul Thomas. The Asians Their Evolving Heritage, 6th ed., p. 21. New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1984. ISBN 0-06-047001-1.
  6. ^ World University Service of Canada. Asia-WUSC WorldWide. 2006. October 7, 2006. <http://www.wusc.ca/expertise/worldwide/asia/>.
  7. ^ 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 [2]
  8. ^ BBC News 2006. September 9, 2006. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/>.
  9. ^ American Heritage Book of English Usage. Asian. 1996. September 29, 2006. <http://www.bartleby.com/64/C006/007.html>.
  10. ^ Color Q World. Clarifying the Definition of Asian. 2005. October 1, 2006. <http://www.colorq.org/PetSins/article.asp?y=2005&m=5&x=5_7>.
  11. ^ Lee, Sharon M. Population Reference Bureau. Asian Americans Diverse and Growing. Accessed 2006-11-10.
  12. ^   Continental regions as per 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.
  13. ^   Kazakhstan is sometimes considered a transcontinental country in Central Asia and Eastern Europe; population and area figures are for Asian portion only.
  14. ^   The state is commonly known as simply "China", which is subsumed by the eponymous entity and civilization (China). Figures given are for mainland China only, and do not include Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan.
  15. ^   Hong Kong is a Special Administrative Region (SAR) of the PRC.
  16. ^   Macau is a Special Administrative Region (SAR) of the PRC.
  17. ^   Figures are for the area under the de facto control of the Republic of China (ROC) government, commonly referred to as Taiwan. Claimed in whole by the PRC; see political status of Taiwan.
  18. ^   Egypt is generally considered a transcontinental country in Northern Africa and Western Asia; population and area figures are for Asian portion only, east of the Suez Canal (Sinai Peninsula).
  19. ^   Russia is a transcontinental country; population and area figures are for Asian portion only.
  20. ^ Excludes Christmas Island and Cocos (Keeling) Islands (Australian external territories in the Indian Ocean southwest of Indonesia).
  21. ^   East Timor is often considered a transcontinental country in Southeastern Asia and Oceania.
  22. ^   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).
  23. ^   The administrative capital of Myanmar was officially moved from Yangon (Rangoon) to a militarised greenfield just west of Pyinmana on 6 November 2005.
  24. ^   Includes Jammu and Kashmir, a contested territory among India, Pakistan, and the PRC.
  25. ^   Armenia is sometimes considered a transcontinental country: physiographically in Western Asia, it has historical and sociopolitical connections with Europe.
  26. ^   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.
  27. ^   The island of Cyprus is sometimes considered a transcontinental territory: in the Eastern Basin of the Mediterranean Sea south of Turkey, it has historical and socio-political connections with Europe.
  28. ^ a b   Gaza and West Bank, collectively referred to as the "Occupied Palestinian Territory" by the UN, are territories partially occupied by Israel but under de facto administration of the Palestinian National Authority.
  29. ^   Georgia is often considered a transcontinental country in Western Asia and Eastern Europe; population and area figures are for Asian portion only.
  30. ^ In 1980, Jerusalem was proclaimed Israel's united capital, following its annexation of Arab-dominant East Jerusalem during the 1967 Six-Day War. The United Nations and many countries do not recognize this claim, with most countries maintaining embassies in Tel Aviv instead.
  31. ^   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.
  32. ^ 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
  33. ^ "Commonwealth Business Council-Asia". {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)

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.

ak:Ehyia

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