Countries of foreign Asia: general characteristics and regionalization
Foreign Asia is the region that is leading the worldnot only in terms of area, but also in terms of population. And this championship he holds for more than one millennium. The countries of foreign Asia, despite their numerous differences, have a number of common features. About them and will be discussed in this article.
General characteristics of the countries of foreign Asia
Overseas Asia is the cradle of many civilizations and the homeland of agriculture. Here, the first cities in the world were built and a number of great scientific discoveries were made.
All countries of foreign Asia (and there are 48 in all)occupy an area of 32 million square kilometers. Among them, large states predominate. There are giant countries, each of which exceeds 3 million km2 (India, China).
Most experts in the region refer to developing countries as experts. Only four of the 48 countries can be called economically developed. They are Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Israel.
On the political map of foreign Asia 13 monarchies (half of them are located in the Middle East). The rest of the region is a republic.
According to the peculiarities of the geographical situation, all countries of foreign Asia are divided into:
- island (Japan, Sri Lanka, Maldives, etc.);
- coastal (India, South Korea, Israel, etc.);
- inland (Nepal, Mongolia, Kirghizia, etc.).
It is obvious that the countries from the latter group have great difficulties in terms of bringing their goods to the world markets.
Regions and countries of foreign Asia
Geographers divide foreign Asia into five subregions:
- South-West Asia - includes all countries on the territory of the Arabian Peninsula, the Republic of Transcaucasia, Turkey, Cyprus, Iran and Afghanistan (a total of 20 states);
- South Asia - includes 7 states, the largest of which are India and Pakistan;
- South-East Asia is 11 states, ten of which are developing (all except Singapore);
- East Asia - includes only five powers (China, Mongolia, Japan, Korea, South and North Korea);
- Central Asia is the five post-Soviet republics (Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan).
How do countries of foreign Asia border? The map below will help you navigate this issue.
Population and natural resources
This region, thanks to its tectonicstructure, is characterized by a huge variety of mineral resources. So, India and China can boast significant reserves of coal, iron and manganese ores. However, the most important wealth here is black gold. The largest oil fields are concentrated in Saudi Arabia, Iran and Kuwait.
As for the conditions for the development of ruraleconomy, in this regard, some states were more fortunate, others less. Excellent agroclimatic resources are available to many of the countries of South and South-East Asia. But such states as Syria or Mongolia represent a practically continuous lifeless desert, where only certain branches of animal husbandry can be developed.
Within the region lives, according to various estimates,from 3.5 to 3.8 billion people. This is more than half the total population of the Earth. Almost all countries of the Far East have a high birth rate (the so-called second type of reproduction). Many countries in the region are experiencing a population explosion today, which entails food and other problems.
Ethnic structure of the population in this regionalso very difficult. Here live at least a thousand different nationalities, the most numerous of which are the Chinese, Japanese and Bengali. By language diversity, this region also has no equal on the whole planet.
Most of the population of foreign Asia (about 66%) lives in rural areas. Nevertheless, the pace and nature of urbanization processes in this region are so great that the situation has already become known as the "urban explosion".
Foreign Asia: features of the economy
What is the role of the modern countries of the region in the worldeconomy? All the states of foreign Asia can be gathered in several groups. There are so-called new industrialized countries (Singapore, Korea, Taiwan and others), which for a short period of time were able to rebuild their national economy and achieve certain successes in development. A separate group in the region is the oil-producing countries (Saudi Arabia, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, etc.), whose economy is completely based on this natural wealth.
None of these categories can be attributedJapan (the most developed country in Asia), China and India. All other states remain underdeveloped, in some of them there is no industry at all.
Conclusion
Foreign Asia is the largestthe historical and geographical region of the planet, within which not one civilization originated. To date, there are 48 independent states. They differ in size, population, state structure, but they also have several common features.
Most of the countries of the Far East are developing countries with a fairly backward economy. Only four of them can be attributed to economically developed powers.
