Area and Population FO.Demographic Heavyweights of Monsoon Asia

GD.U.S.-Pakistan Relations since 9/11

GE.What Does North Korea Want?

GF.Islands, Sea Lanes, and Islamists

More than half of the world’s population lives within the Monsoon Asia region. India and China both have over 1 billion people, and Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Japan all have over 100 million each. The remaining countries are Mongolia, North and South Korea, Taiwan, the Philippines, East Timor, Singapore, Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar, Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives.

Monsoon Asia’s physical geography can be considered as three rough arcs: an inner arc containing some of the world’s highest mountains and plateaus; a middle arc filled with river floodplains interspersed with hills; and an outer arc of offshore islands. Monsoon Asia has a variety of climates and biomes, from tropical rainforest in the southeast to desert and subarctic climes in the far north. As its name implies, monsoons (breezes blowing from sea to land or land to sea) are very important climatic elements in this region for agriculture and settlement. Rice is the main crop of Monsoon Asia, grown in lowland floodplains or on human-constructed terraces. Rice production has led to some of the highest population densities in the world, especially on the island of Java. The region also has many enormous cities, including Tokyo, the world’s largest. Most of the population of Monsoon Asia remains rural, dwelling in millions of small villages.

Many important inventions and ideas originated in this region, from the major faiths of Buddhism and Hinduism to gunpowder and movable type. Monsoon Asia is ethnically and linguistically complex; New Guinea alone is home to 750 languages. Five major language families are found elsewhere in the region, including the Sino-Tibetan family containing Mandarin Chinese and the Indo-European family containing Hindi. Religiously, India is mainly Hindu, while Islam predominates in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia and Malaysia. Most other countries in the region practice various forms of Buddhism; the Philippines and East Timor are mostly Catholic.

European colonialism reshaped many traditional geographic patterns in this region. Great Britain, France, and the Netherlands each held large territories. Except for several small coastal cities, China was never formally colonized but was under heavy European economic influence; Japan was also never colonized. After World War II and the independence of most colonized areas, certain areas of Monsoon Asia developed into modern (or modernizing), powerful economies. Japan has long been a major industrial power. South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Thailand, and Malaysia are called the “Asian Tigers” for their burgeoning economic strength. More recently India and China, while remaining poorer than Japan or the Tigers, have also had enormous economic growth, partly at the expense of other Asian countries still recovering from a severe recession in the late 1990s. Agricultural improvements as well as industrial strength are being pursued, and the Green Revolution is helping more food be produced for a lesser cost for those farmers that can afford it.

Despite economic successes, Monsoon Asia still has numerous geopolitical problems. Traditional enemies India and Pakistan now both possess nuclear weapons, and the problem area of Kashmir continues to be an issue for both countries. North Korea also possesses nuclear weapons, and has used them as bargaining tools to get more aid from Western nations. And the vast archipelago of Indonesia, a potential haven for Islamist terrorist groups, is rife with separatist movements.

163. 
     The countries of Monsoon Asia are Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Brunei, Cambodia, East Timor, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar (Burma), Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, China, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Mongolia, and Taiwan. [p. 279]
     

164. 
     The “inner arc” of Monsoon Asia’s physical geography contains the world’s highest mountain ranges – the Himalayas, the Hindu Kush, and the Karakoram to the south, and the Altai, Tian Shan, and Pamirs to the north. The “middle arc” is occupied by numerous river floodplains (such as those of the Indus, Ganges, Brahmaputra, Irrawaddy, Mekong, Red, Chang Jiang, and Huang He) and deltas along with hills, plateaus, and low mountains. The “outer arc” is an offshore fringe of thousands of islands, mostly grouped into archipelagoes. Japan, the Philippines, and the East Indies (Indonesia) are the three major archipelagoes. Sri Lanka, Hainan, and Taiwan are major islands not associated with those archipelagoes. [pp. 278-280]
     

165. 
     China and India are the region’s (and the world’s) most populated countries, both with populations of over 1 billion. Indonesia is a distant third with 231 million people. The highest population densities are found in Singapore, Maldives, Bangladesh, and South Korea; the lowest population density is found in Mongolia. The region’s highest population growth rates are in Bhutan, Pakistan, Nepal, and Laos, while the lowest rates of growth occur in Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea. [p. 279]
     

166. 
     Monsoons are prevailing sea-to-land and land-to-sea winds that are the dominant climatic pattern for this region. The summer monsoon results from warm, unstable air rising over the landmasses, which causes low pressure and winds from off the ocean blow onto the land. Plentiful rainfall comes with these ocean winds, and much agricultural activity is keyed to these rains. The winter monsoon reverses the pattern, with winds blowing off the land into the oceans, bringing about a dry season that can cause significant droughts. [pp. 281-283]
     

167. 
     Shifting cultivation is found mainly in Southeast Asia, and is only capable of sustaining small populations for brief periods at particular locations. Farmers clear forests and then burn the dried vegetation during the dry season; the resulting ash provides short-lived fertility to the leached soils. After the crops have been produced for a few growing cycles the soils are typically infertile again, and must lay fallow for a decade or more before agriculture can be successfully attempted again. Wet rice cultivation can sustain large populations over long periods of time, and can produce two or three crops per year. Wet rice cultivation often takes place on human-made terraces but also extensively in lowland floodplains. [pp. 284-286]
     

168. 
     Confucianism and feng shui are both principles that encourage architecture and the lived environment to be in harmony with nature. Korean villages, for instance, emphasize the surrounding topography rather than imposing a geometric order upon it. Villages are often situated at the foot of a mountain, with a stream in front of the village and farmland behind it. School buildings were arranged in such a way that scholars could see distant landscapes out the windows. Homes are built with thatched roofs and earthen walls, which insulate during winter and block the sun in summer. Some ancient Asian ways of arranging and building homes and villages have begun appearing in Western architecture and planning. [pp. 287-288]
     

169. 
     Some of the innovations that have originated in Monsoon Asia are movable printing type, gunpowder, silk, china, and paper. Rice, cabbage, chickens, zebu cattle, and pigs were all originally domesticated in this region. The major faiths of Buddhism and Hinduism originated here, and spices, gems, textiles, artwork, and exotic foods have been exported to Europe and beyond for centuries. [pp. 288-289]
     

170. 
     The major language families of Monsoon Asia are the Altaic, Austro-Asiatic, Austronesian, Hmong-Mien, Tai-Kadai, Dravidian, Indic, Iranian, Sinitic, Tibeto-Burman, and the hundreds of Papuan languages. The largest ethnic group in the region is that of the Han Chinese. Islam is practiced in Pakistan, Bangladesh and across Southeast Asia, and majority Christian populations are found in East Timor and the Philippines. Hinduism, found mainly in India, has no definite creed, but many Hindus believe in reincarnation and make pilgrimages to sacred mountains and rivers, and most believe in the caste system. Buddhism is found throughout much of Monsoon Asia, in several different versions. The Japanese national religion of Shinto incorporates many Buddhist practices. Theravada Buddhism is strongest in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia, and claims to follow the true teachings and practices of the Buddha. Mahayana Buddhism is dominant in China, Mongolia, and Korea, and has a more mythological view of the Buddha, and takes in a wider variety of practices. Confucianism and Daoism have blended with Buddhism throughout much of China. Confucianism is not a religion in itself but more of a social contract between the rulers and the ruled. Daoism rejects Confucianism and encourages the individual to conform only to “The Way,” or the underlying pattern of the universe. [pp. 289-294]
     

171. 
     The British were the colonizers of India (which included Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Myanmar), Sri Lanka, Malaysia, and Brunei. Britain also had several smaller coastal colonies, such as Singapore and Hong Kong. France owned Indochina (Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia), and several port cities in India. The Dutch possessed Indonesia, and Portugal held Macao, Goa, and what would become East Timor. The Spanish originally owned the Philippine Islands but they were ceded to the United States in 1898. Russia and Germany also colonized small but strategic ports on the Chinese coast. Several Monsoon Asian nations were not colonized by European powers. [pp. 294-295]
     

172. 
     Monsoon Asia includes some of the world’s wealthiest nations and some of its fastest growing economies. Japan has been industrialized for decades, and the export-oriented economies of South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore are often referred to as the “Asian Tigers.” Rapidly industrializing Southeast Asian countries – Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam – are following their lead, prompting some economists to dub them “New Asian Tigers,” or “Tiger Cubs.” Many of those countries produce goods mainly for a vigorous and growing Chinese market; China’s economy has been growing by an average annual rate of 10 percent. China has attracted investment from all areas of the globe, and it is now a major manufacturer and exporter of consumer goods. China’s economic rise threatens its neighbors – if China’s economy grows too much their economies may shrink from the competition, and if China’s economy sinks, China may pull down its Asian neighbors with it, since they are so reliant upon Chinese laborers and consumers. [pp. 295-297]
     

173. 
     Indonesia is a pivotal nation for several reasons. It is the largest Muslim nation in the world, and has the potential to emerge as a major Islamist terrorist hearth. It is a large, fragmented, ethnically heterogeneous country that suffers from several secessionist movements. The fear is if one province breaks away, others could too and the entire nation would fall apart. This would lead to the possibility of hostile new national governments or threaten vital international shipping lanes. India and Pakistan are pivotal nations because of their large, antagonistic populations; the two countries have fought several wars with each other since independence from Britain. They also both now possess nuclear weapons, which is especially worrisome to the U.S. If Pakistan’s government should collapse its nuclear weapons could wind up in the hands of terrorists. The disputed Kashmir region remains volatile, and a nuclear war between the two nations would devastate them both and cripple national economies around the world. [pp. 299-301, 303-304]
     

This chapter should enable your students to…

• 
  Recognize the parallels between the settlement of Australia and the settlement of the United States
  
• 
  Understand the obstacles faced by indigenous people in winning legal recognition of ancestral claims
  
• 
  Evaluate the impacts of exotic species on island ecosystems
  
• 
  Appreciate the process by which Australia and New Zealand are loosening ties with their ancestral European homeland and strengthening their regional orientation
  
• 
  Consider the consequence of restrictions on immigration in these affluent countries with aging populations
  
• 
  Learn about issues on the continent of Antarctica
  

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