The origins of Asian history and civilization developed independently but in similar patterns in three widely separated river-valley systems. The earliest cultural center in western Asia was in the parallel valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, later called \TMesopotamia\t by the Greeks. The second was the \TIndus\t Valley of northwestern India, located to the east of the Hindu Kush and Afghan mountains and south of the westernmost extension of the Himalayan range. The third was the flatland section of the \THwang Ho\t, or Yellow River, of northeastern China, remotely distant from the other two. ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS The basic contributing factor in the development of all three centers of civilization was the seasonal deposit of sedimentation by silt-saturated floodwaters below the delivery point of tributary streams from the highlands. Such perennial flood areas had to be cleared of debris, penetrated by drainage canals to eliminate marshland and swamp, and protected by artificial levees to control excessive water and to facilitate the development of irrigation. Permanently settled agriculturists abandoned their previous hunting, fishing, and food-gathering routines and learned to cooperate in village units. These units were eventually grouped around governmental centers, which could define and enforce land claims and water rights and protect access to such facilities. Regulated trading craft came to ply the navigable portions of the rivers and developed outlets for both inland and seaborne trade. Contemporary with the development of such river-valley communities during the 4th and 3d millennia BC was the transition from the use of stone tools in the \TNeolithic Period\t to the use of metals, especially bronze, in the \TBronze Age\t. The blending of copper and tin under intense heat produced durable tools for cultivation and weapons for defense of the irrigated valley areas. Egypt's contemporary Nile Valley civilization differed from the Asian centers mainly in its greater use of stone for construction purposes. In the absence of adequate timber and stone resources, the Asian communities used baked brick for construction. The three regions of early Asian history also shared the need to differentiate the economic, social, and religious functions of government. As society became more complex, writing systems were developed to record land holdings, labor assignments, trading activities, and official and religious rites. A wedge-shaped cuneiform script emerged in Mesopotamia, Chinese character recordings appeared in the Hwang Ho valley, and a kind of writing was developed in the Indus Valley area, although the last was outgrown and remains undeciphered. Early writing was inscribed on stone or earthenware; the Chinese invented paper. In all three areas the pattern for controlling perennial flooding problems included ceremonial incantations designed to influence the gods of the sky and the waters. Such incantations were the function of the king-priests. Below the upper social layer were the merchants and artisans; farther down came the farmers and laborers, with enslaved elements and wartime captives at the bottom. Southwest Asia in Ancient Times During the early 3d millennium BC, control over Mesopotamia radiated from the mouth of the Euphrates River in the cities of \TSumer\t, at the eastern end of the \TFertile Crescent\t. One of the most important cities was UR, from which Abraham came in biblical legend. From about 2800 to 2400 BC, the Sumerians ruled from the lower valley. Dominance then passed to the more northerly region of \TAkkad\t, whose people, like the Sumerians, were Semites. The Akkadian king \TSargon\t conquered as far west as the Mediterranean coast. The prolonged developmental period of Sumerian and Akkadian rule established a firm basis for cultural as well as economic and political development. Cultural achievements included cuneiform literature, the study of mathematics and astronomy, the construction of walled urban defenses and temples, and the creation of art objects. Babylonia and Assyria Beginning about 2100 BC, Mesopotamia was subjected to a century-long period of enemy intrusions, by \TAmorites\t from the west and the people of \TElam\t from the east. Around 2000, however, the state of \TBabylonia\t emerged in Mesopotamia. More extensive and better integrated than its predecessors, it produced in time the famous Code of \THammurabi\t (c.1800 BC), which defined the legal rights of all sections of the population, including the slave inhabitants. Four centuries (1600-1200) of \TKassite\t rule was followed by the even longer ascendancy of \TAssyria\t, an empire based in northern Mesopotamia that eventually included Syria and Egypt. Assyria finally fell (612 BC) before a coalition of the Indo-European Medes (see \TMedia\t) from the north, the Persians from the east, and a resurgent Babylonia, under the Chaldean dynasty, in the south. The new Babylonian empire then survived for less than a century before being overrun (539) by the Persians. As part of the vast Persian Empire, Mesopotamia lost its status as a center of political, cultural, and literary innovation. The numerals that the Mesopotamians invented are still used, although now called Arabic. Persian Leadership Persian domination over southwestern Asia was initiated by two famous rulers, \TCyrus the Great\t (r. 549-30) as conqueror and \TDarius I\t (r. 522-486) as administrative organizer of the vast empire. The empire extended from Persia proper, south of the Caspian Sea, to the Punjab highlands on the borders of India in the east and across Mesopotamia and Syria to Egypt and Anatolia in the west. An effective administration was established, including 21 administrative satrapies, each under officers who collected tax assessments and maintained police control. Courier horsemen maintained contacts between the several administrative segments. (See \TPersia, ancient\t.) A particularly noteworthy aspect of Persian rule was the emergence of the monotheistic religious faith of \TZoroastrianism\t. The founder, Zoroaster (c.628-521 BC) developed the concept of the god Ahura Mazda, dedicated to developing an earthly kingdom of justice and truth along with the promise of immortal bliss. At the outset, the novel concept aroused understandable opposition from civil and religious authorities who had a stake in the older polytheistic order, but it later earned the support of King Darius. The monotheistic concept of the Persians related directly to the emergence of the other monotheistic faiths of Southwest Asia--Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In 330 BC the unity of the Persian Empire was interrupted temporarily by the invading Hellenistic forces of \TAlexander the Great\t, who actually reached the Indus Valley in 326. But Alexander died in 323, and a period of political confusion developed. The kingdom of \TParthia\t eventually revived Persian leadership, and a second Persian, or Parthian, empire spread across Mesopotamia to the Mediterranean Sea. Roman armies conquered Syria in 63 BC, and for several centuries thereafter the Roman-Persian frontier was the Euphrates River. After the collapse of the Parthian dynasty in the early 3d century AD, the Persian \TSassanians\t continued the struggle with the Roman Empire and with its successor state in the east, the \TByzantine Empire\t. Judaism and Christianity Another culturally significant development during the 1st millennium BC arose from the political travail and religious insight of the minority group of Hebrew tribes, later called the \TJews\t. Rescued from Egyptian slavery by \TMoses\t after 1200 BC, they established a homeland in \TPalestine\t but later suffered captivity by neighboring Babylonians and Assyrians. The more comprehensive and tolerant rule of the Persians permitted their return to Palestine in the later 500s BC, but they were dispersed again by the Romans in the 2d century AD. \TJudaism\t focused on worship of the single god, Jehovah. From the same background emerged \TChristianity\t, destined to spread into the Mediterranean and Western European world via the Greeks and the Romans. Ancient India The earliest focal point of historic civilization in India, also dating from the late 4th millennium BC, was the central portion of the Indus Valley. \TIndus civilization\t had two major urban centers: Harappa, which was located in the Punjab immediately above the point of confluence of the multiple mountain-area tributaries of the Indus system; and Mohenjo-daro, located several hundred miles downstream in the Sind area. Eventually, a seaport city in Gujarat, at the mouth of the Indus River, was added to the upstream system. It developed commercial contacts with Mesopotamia and with Southeast Asian ports. Early Indus civilization was normally prosperous, self-sufficient in food, orderly, and capable of self-defense. At peak points in the long history of Mohenjo-daro, impressive palaces and temples were included among the brick structures that lined its grid of brick-paved streets. Nevertheless, modern excavations of the site have revealed that the extensive city was rebuilt at least seven times. Early written items in Sanskrit, the language of the \LAryan\ls who later conquered the area, include Vedic hymns borrowed from the original inhabitants. The latter have been described as dark-skinned, moderate in height, narrow between the eyes, and flat-nosed; the males were heavily bearded. They were probably more closely akin to their Ganges Valley neighbors to the east than to the small-statured \LDravidian\ls, who inhabited the Deccan Plateau beyond the Thar Desert and the Vindhya mountain divide to the south and east. Aryan Invasions and Hinduism The Indo-European, or Aryan, conquerors of the Indus Valley were warrior predators from central Asia, whose multiple invasions began in the 3d millennium BC. Their final conquest occurred between 1500 and 1200 BC, during which period virtually all urban fortifications were destroyed and a large percentage of the indigenous population either killed or forced to flee. The invaders absorbed a small fraction of the older population, probably female consorts and enslaved male craftsmen, and eventually they appropriated significant aspects of the older culture. The tall, fair-skinned Aryan conquerors were ethnic kinsmen of the Medes and Persians who later took over much of western Asia. Their important contributions to Indian civilization included introduction of their Indo-European language and Sanskrit writing system. Aryan religious practices coalesced with older forms in the emerging \THinduism\t. The \TVedas\t, or early Aryan hymns, describe an imposing array of deities, eventually headed by the creator \TBrahma\t, the preserver \TVishnu\t, and the destroyer \TShiva\t. A central feature of Hinduism was the \Tcaste\t system, which continued to shape Indian social structure into the 20th century. Rise of Buddhism and Jainism Major religious and cultural changes in Hindu India began in the 6th century BC, with the simultaneous appearance of Gautama \TBuddha\t and the prophet Mahavira, founder of \TJainism\t. Both were palace-oriented personalities, brought up in luxurious surroundings that they later repudiated. Mahavira became a thoroughgoing ascetic; Gautama was less extreme but advocated the conquest of desire for physical and material things. In its purest form, \TBuddhism\t aspired to the loss of personal identity and eventual union with the infinite godhead. Dedicated male adherents retreated to monasteries, which well-to-do elements of the population were expected to support financially in return for personal merit. The new faith did not displace Hinduism at upper levels of the political and social order, but it attained status in the lower Ganges area and in other areas adjacent to the Bay of Bengal. It was to spread in East and Southeast Asia, although it eventually disappeared in India. Mauryan and Gupta Periods In the late 4th century BC, \TChandragupta Maurya\t conquered the kingdom of Magadha (modern Bihar province) in the lower Ganges Valley. The conqueror's famous grandson, \TAsoka\t (r. c.274-232), expanded his rule virtually throughout the subcontinent before converting to Buddhism and renouncing violence. Prior to the \TMaurya\t ascendancy the lower Indus Valley had experienced a significant if brief intrusion by the Hellenistic armies of Alexander the Great in 326-325 BC. This was a foretaste of events to come. Beginning in the 2d century, the Bactrian Greeks, Scythians (called Sakas), Parthians, and Yueh-chi (called Kushans) overran northern India in succession. About AD 320 another Indian conqueror called Chandragupta restored imperial dominion over the entire subcontinent under the name of the \TGupta\t dynasty. The Guptas continued their control for more than two centuries before succumbing to a new wave of incursions from the north by a Turko-Mongol group called the White Huns, or Hephthalites. During the period of Maurya and Gupta rule Indian culture, both Hindu and Buddhist, exerted its most impressive influence on Southeast Asia and China, but more culturally than politically. Ancient China Much of the deep layer of loess soil that covers most of north China above the Yangtse watershed was deposited by dust-carrying cyclonic winds from interior Asia during the ice ages. At the end of this period a heavy seasonal rainfall developed in the loess area. This shifted the principal source of continuing soil deposit to the silt brought in by periodic flooding of what came to be called, for obvious reasons, the Yellow River, or Hwang Ho. The vast flood plain included virtually no pastureland and was practically treeless, but the deep soil was perennially fertile if the seasonal water supply could be controlled and used for irrigation purposes. Rice growing and cattle rearing were not possible, but millet and wheat could be grown and swine reared, the latter foraging waste elements for food. Crop cultivation was limited to half of the year, but the interim period was used to keep the main river channels contained within artificial dikes, which were punctuated with controllable canal outlets for irrigation. In early prehistoric times the river reached the ocean below the mountainous Shantung peninsula. It shifted eventually to a more northerly course through Honan province, emptying into the sea not far from Peking. The cultivator population lived in scattered groups of villages bordering the canal facilities, and the central government authorities maintained records covering ownership titles, villager maintenance obligations, access rights to the irrigated areas, and cooperative defense duties. The process of enforcing such regulations was buttressed psychologically by formal ritual exercises, both governmental and religious. The Chinese writing system, invented for maintaining such records, used picture symbols, inscribed at first on bone fragments, then on clay tablets, on silk-covered bamboo screens, and finally on paper. The resident cultivator population also produced tools and weapons of bronze and invented a three-wheeled cart for transporting heavy loads. The principal security danger arose from perennial intrusions of mounted nomad bowmen from Mongolia and Manchuria to the north. Early Chinese Dynasties The name Hsia, used by Chinese literary sources to refer to the earliest Chinese dynasty, was derived from a leading member of the village agricultural units that cooperated in valley defense against the archer nomads. Its date of origin is traditionally placed at c.2200 BC, although little is yet known about the connecting links between China's late Neolithic and early Bronze Age cultures. Family cohesion and ancestor veneration did much to make early Chinese society cohesive, while ruler cults provided priestly leadership. Fragments of carved \Toracle bones\t reveal evidence of the practice of human sacrifice, in which uncooperative individuals were offered up to the ruling cult gods. About 1600 BC, a more authentic dynastic leadership developed in north China under the \TShang\t, who took over a number of petty kingdoms including the Hsia. The enlarged domain maintained cultural continuity in matters of literary functions, as well as social, religious, economic, and governmental controls. The ruling elite under the Shang emperors included feudatory landowners, commanders of the organized soldiery, with the urban artisans, village agriculturists, and slaves underneath. The Shang structure achieved political unification during the 16th century and peaked c.1400 BC, when the capital city of \TAnyang\t was established. It included defensive walls plus palaces, temples, tombs for the elite, facilities for storage of grain, and army barracks. The Shang empire extended from the Wei River tributary area to the west of the central valley, eastward to the seacoast above the northern edge of the Yangtse River basin, and northward to the steppe country occupied by nomads. Cultural achievements included glazed pottery, carving in marble and jade, and exquisite bronze casting. Pictographic script writing continued on oracle bones, pottery, jade and stone, wooden table surfaces, and silk-covered bamboo. In addition to being army commanders and high priests, the Shang rulers specified popular obligations to the state through calendrical rites. During the later centuries of Shang rule, the abuse of such powers made the dynasty widely feared and hated by most of its subjects. It was finally overthrown in c.1027 BC by a prince of \TChou\t, the rebel ruler in the Wei Ho valley since 1050 BC. Rebel armies destroyed Anyang, and control shifted to Chou territory. Transition to Classical China The Chou maintained many of the practices of the former regime, including respect for village elders. Experienced administrators were employed, family identities and ancestral rites were respected, and feudal tributes replaced the arbitrary exactions of the dynastic court. The Chou, however, provoked resistance. A major uprising came in 771-770 BC, when dissidents within the Chou nobility allied themselves with northern nomadic tribes to destroy the Wei Valley capital and to reduce dynastic authority. A new Chou capital was set up at Loyang in 770 BC. During the ensuing 300 years several smaller political units developed within the Hwang Ho valley, each of them more or less independent. Three border states in the north, Ch'i, Chin, and Ch'in, were counterbalanced in time by the large southern state of Ch'u, which united the interior of the Yangtse valley, the state of Wu in the lower reaches of the same valley, and Yueh still farther south. Against the background of such disorder the figure of \TConfucius\t (551-479 BC) emerged in the Shantung state of Lu. An intellectual rather than an administrator, he stressed the validity of reverence for ancestors, the respect of younger for older, as a means of identifying and enforcing essential social and governmental standards. According to Confucius, the ruler's authority and exercise of heaven's mandate were derived from a display of proper conduct toward subjects. Priestly status must be socially vindicated by the benevolent exercise of authority, by wisdom and thoughtfulness. In his own day, Confucius exercised little influence and no authority, but his teachings were destined to be revered after the period of the Warring States (481-221 BC) ended. The political unification of China during the latter half of the 3d century BC was accomplished by the western Wei Ho valley state of \TCh'in\t. Having long been an effective opponent of the invaders from central Asia, the Ch'in armies adopted the nomad tactic of using mounted cavalry troops rather than the traditional Chinese chariots, a change that added greatly to their mobility. They captured the Chou capital of Loyang in 256 BC and reduced most of the central states to dependent status. From 230 to 221, under the able and unscrupulous Prince Cheng, the Ch'in armies overcame all opposition; Cheng then assumed the imperial title of Shih Huang-ti. His troops continued south as far as Kwangtung and Kwangsi and even into the Vietnamese border state of Tonkin. Shih Huang-ti enlisted a vast Chinese labor force to complete the construction of the \TGreat Wall of China\t along the Mongolian border in the far north and also for the construction of extensive canal irrigation facilities in central China. The emperor tolerated no opposition, executing those who opposed his will and burning the books that scholars presumed to cite against him. Shih Huang-ti's premature death in 210 left control in the hands of a weak heir who was quite incapable of handling the problems he faced. Opposition factions, both feudal and scholarly, appeared in virtually every state and particularly in the \THan\t region of the south. The Hsiung-nu, Turkic bandits recently expelled from the north, returned to occupy the region from the Mongolian-Tibetan borders eastward to the Yellow Sea. The authority of Ch'in Shih's successor collapsed in 206, and central power shifted to the Han dynasty. The Han rulers forced the northern invaders to retire behind the Great Wall and reduced Korea to vassal status. They annexed Tonkin in 111 BC, took over the Fukien state of Yueh, and pushed Chinese political influence far westward into Central Asia. Important historical results were derived from the effective unification of China under Ch'in and Han rule. Politically and culturally, the country became a Confucianist state with the capacity for indefinite survival. The Great Wall eliminated the danger of annual invasions in the north, and even when Mongol and Manchurian conquests did come centuries later, the alien rulers had no choice but to govern the country according to the established Confucianist pattern. Overseas contacts, cultural and commercial, were made with Japan, Taiwan, Funan on the Gulf of Siam, and Java, but none were of great importance. Starting in Han times, Chinese scholars also made their way to India to study Buddhism, a religious tradition that eventually became firmly rooted in China. Early Developments in Southeast Asia, Korea, and Japan China's political expansion toward the south no doubt stimulated the movement of a variety of tribal peoples in Southeast Asia. With the exception of the Vietnamese, however, all the peoples of Southeast Asia developed important cultural contacts with India rather than with the more sophisticated Confucianist China. Korea and Japan, however, were much closer to the northern center of Chinese power and culture and were much influenced by Chinese patterns. Southeast Asia Prior to the Christian era, Austroasiatic \TMon\t tribes had migrated southward from unintegrated China into the heart of the Southeast Asian mainland. An early Mon group proceeded down Burma's Salween and Sittang valleys to the shores of the Bay of Bengal. This site was on the western side of the main drainage divide separating modern Burma from Thailand, or Siam. A later Mon group proceeded down the Siamese Menam Chao Phraya Valley, thus putting Mons on both sides of the southward projecting mainland isthmus. The cooperation of Mon on both sides helped establish commercial and cultural ties with Indian ports to the west. In subsequent centuries the Mon were the principal conduit of Hindu and Buddhist culture and literature, both religious and artistic, into mainland Southeast Asia. On the eastern shores of the Gulf of Siam a Malay people known as the Funanese participated in the north-south seaborne trade, while the Malay Chams occupied the lower shoreline of \TAnnam\t, establishing the state of \TChampa\t. Several centuries after the arrival of the Mon, the kindred \TKhmer\t tribal group pushed down the Mekong Valley corridor to the east from their original homes in South China. In time, the Khmer overcame or absorbed the Funanese and established a major Buddhist cultural center on the eventual site of \TAngkor\t. The \TKhmer Empire\t, which lasted from the 6th to the 15th century, corresponded to modern Kampuchea (Cambodia) and part of Laos. The Mon were eventually displaced, although they long continued to provide a cultural base for the newcomers from the north. Starting in the 6th century AD and continuing until about 835, a Tibetan people known as the Pyu moved into the valleys of the upper Irrawaddy River and its Chindwin tributary in northern Burma. Instead of pushing southward into the monsoon-flooded lower Irrawaddy valley and delta, the Pyu established overland cultural and commercial contacts with India's border centers, notably Chittagong. This upper Burma dry-zone route to India also served as part of an overland trade and cultural contact facility for post-Han China. The Pyu center of Srikshetra, completed in 638, was temporarily vassalized by the Nan Chao state of South China in the early 800s, but it was destroyed by Thai raiders in 835. Leadership among the Tibeto-Burmese peoples then passed to the group called the \TBurmese\t, who gradually took over the central Burma dry zone and developed superiority in water-control projects, including hill terracing and rice cultivation. In the 10th century the Burmese king \TAnawratha\t unified Burma, with its capital at \TPagan\t. Later capitals were at Ava and \TMandalay\t, to the north of Pagan. Lower Burma with its heavy summer rainfall remained unattractive to the Burmese, who continued into modern times to tolerate Mon occupancy of the mouth of the Sittang and Salween rivers and of the Tenasserim coast. The politically predominant Burmese also permitted Thai-speaking Shan chiefs to occupy the hill areas to the east of the middle Irrawaddy Valley. The Thai occupation of the upper Mekong Valley above Khmer territory, as well as the entire valley of the Menam and the Isthmus of Kra (the neck of the Malay Peninsula), occurred considerably later than the Tibetan intrusions into the Upper Irrawaddy. Thai tribes were widely distributed along the South China border from Tonkin on the east to the Shan Plateau on the west, but their cultural orientation became Mon Buddhist. Their eventual capital of AYUTTHIA in the central Menam Valley, later destroyed by Burmese in 1569, was as thoroughly Buddhist-oriented as Pagan or Angkor. Korea Tungusic tribes had migrated into the Korean peninsula by the 4th millennium BC. Within several millennia their descendants had come into contact with the Chinese, who exerted considerable cultural and political influence throughout Korea's history. Chinese colonial forces held parts of northwestern Korea from 108 BC until AD 313, when they were driven out by the Koguryo, one of three rival Korean kingdoms (Koguryo in the north; Paekche and Silla in the south). With Chinese help, the Buddhist Silla dynasty unified the peninsula in the 660s. The Koryo dynasty replaced (936) Silla rule, until they were overthrown (1392) by the neo-Confucianist Yi dynasty, which from 1627 until the late 1800s was forced to pay tribute to Manchu-dominated China. Japan In the 3d century BC the indigenous Jomon culture of Japan was disrupted by a new people, called Yayoi, who probably came from northern Korea, propelled by Chinese incursions there. A unified Japanese state emerged in about the 4th century AD ruled by the tribal leaders of Yamamoto. Japanese social organization was based essentially on tribes, or clans, but this pattern was soon overlaid by Chinese concepts of statecraft and religion. Chinese influence was at its height from the 6th to the 9th century: Chinese writing was adopted; Buddhism was introduced by way of Korea; and the Taika reforms of 646 imposed a centralized Chinese-style administration. Gradually, however, the Chinese system broke down, and tribal patterns reemerged. By the 12th century, Japan had been divided into many autonomous and warring aristocratic estates. Late in that century the powerful Minamoto \TYoritomo\t declared himself \Tshogun\t, or military dictator. The shogunate was to coexist with the essentially defunct civil administration headed by the emperor until 1868. For a time, however, the shoguns themselves were mere puppet rulers, and in the 15th century Japan once more became a totally decentralized state. Authority was exercised by local lords (daimyo) and their military retainers, the \Tsamurai\t. This situation persisted until the reunification of the country in the late 16th century by \TNobunaga\t, \THideyoshi\t, and \TIeyasu\t. The last of these military strongmen established the \TTokugawa\t shogunate in 1603. Japan soon after entered a period of total seclusion, not only from the Europeans who had begun to penetrate Asia but from China. Although governmental borrowings from China failed to take root in Japan, Chinese cultural influence had remained strong, especially in the 14th century, when Japan had acknowledged tributary status under China. PERIOD OF NOMADIC INVASIONS From the early centuries AD until the 17th century, Asia experienced the movements of a series of nomadic peoples, who established dominance over large parts of the continent. The Rise of Islam in Western Asia Beginning in the 4th century AD the Sassanian rulers of western Asia were challenged by nomadic invaders entering from the north. As a result of these incursions and continuing conflict with the Byzantines in Anatolia the Sassanians were ill-prepared to meet the aggressive Arab Muslim invasion in the 7th century. Arab Dominance Prior to the appearance of the Prophet Muhammad (572-632) the \TArabs\t had played a relatively insignificant historic role. Under the banner of \TIslam\t, however, the monotheistic religion "revealed" to the prophet, the Arabs embarked on an impressive and long-term expansion of control. Within 10 years of Muhammad's death they had overthrown the Sassanians. Damascus became the capital of the Arab \Tcaliphate\t in the late 7th century, and Baghdad in 762. Seaborne expeditions conquered the Sind valley of northwestern India in 712 and soon dominated the Indian Ocean. Muslim armies also overran North Africa and most of Spain. Turkish Dominance When Arab control weakened during the late 700s, Muslim leadership centered for a time in Persia, which had increasing political and cultural contacts with the Turkic peoples (see \TTurks\t) of central Asia. The latter became Muslims, and in 1055 one group, the \TSeljuks\t, seized Baghdad. The Seljuks added most of Anatolia and Syria to their domains and came to dominate the entire Near East. Their empire soon fragmented, however, and was finally destroyed by the invasions of \TGenghis Khan\t and his \TMongol\t hordes in the early 13th century. Late in the 14th century a new wave of mixed Turko-Mongol hordes ravaged Persia and Mesopotamia under \TTimur\t. During the period of Mongol raids the principality of the Ottoman Turks emerged in Anatolia. This group completed the overthrow of the Byzantine Empire by the capture of Constantinople in 1453. The \TOttoman Empire\t, which survived until 1918, came to dominate not only the Near East (except Persia) but also North Africa and Southeastern Europe. The Crusades The weakening of Seljuk control in the Mediterranean Near East in the 1100s and 1200s had made possible temporary European Christian intrusions in the form of the \TCrusades\t. Their ostensible object was the recovery of the Holy Land from Muslim control. The results, however, were more psychological and commercial than political or religious, for the Europeans were attracted by the pepper, spices, and silks that Arab traders were importing from the Orient. Because the Turks blocked overland access to Asia, Portuguese and Spanish traders began to seek sea routes to the east. Portuguese vessels reached South Africa by 1488, Calicut in India by 1498, and Canton, China, by 1513. Turkic and Mongol Raiding in the South and East For several centuries after 1000, Muslim Turkic groups (often called Turkomen) dominated the steppes of Central Asia. They became strongest on the borders of the Seljuk-dominated lands of Western Asia and in Afghanistan. Muslim Invasions of India The Afghan ruler \TMahmud of Ghazni\t invaded northern India about 1000. Although the early Ghaznavids limited themselves to plundering, their successors turned to subjugation. The conquests of Muhammad of Ghur (d. 1206) led to the establishment (1206) of the \TDelhi Sultanate\t, the first Muslim state in India. Although the sultanate declined in the 14th century and powerful new Hindu states (such as \TVijayanagar\t) emerged in the south, the way was prepared for the more lasting conquests of the Mongol group that established the \TMogul\t Empire in the 16th century. Mongols The roving pattern of Mongol aggression was more extensive than that of the Turkomen. In the early 1200s Genghis Khan united the Turkic and other tribes of Mongolia and led them in raids as far afield as the Persian Gulf in 1222. His grandson \TBatu Khan\t even penetrated Eastern Europe from 1237 to 1242. Following \TKublai Khan\t's eventual overthrow of China's \TSung\t dynasty in 1279, Mongol bands raided much of Eastern Asia outside of China. They tried in vain to invade Japan in 1274 and 1281, captured Burma's Pagan in 1287, and penetrated Champa and Annam in 1285-88. They even attempted to invade Java in 1292-93. Mongol tribesmen continued to control portions of \TTibet\t and the area northward along the borders of \TTurkistan\t long after the Mongol withdrawal from China proper in 1368. One of the significant historical episodes of Mongol control of China under Kublai Khan in the late 1200s was the mission of the Venetian Marco \Tpolo\t to Peking. Polo was received by Kublai in friendly fashion and served at the Mongol court for a number of years. The publication of his famous Travels following his return to Italy gave an astonished European readership its first close-up glimpse of China and generated further interest in trade with the Orient. Impact of Islam The contest that developed in northern India after the 11th century between traditional Hindu leadership and the belligerent Muslim intruders produced several significant results. First, the new situation virtually eliminated northern India as a source of Buddhist indoctrination. The cult steadily retreated southward to the bordering island of Ceylon (\TSri Lanka\t). A second effect was to cancel the centuries-old impact of Hindu cultural and governmental patterns in the Straits of Malacca and southward into Sumatra and Java. A third effect was the increasing arrival in the strait after 1200 of ships from Muslim ports of northwestern India, the Persian Gulf, and the Red Sea. This was in part stimulated by the increasing Mediterranean interest in the pepper and spice trade of Indonesia. The eventual domination of most of India by the Moguls virtually eliminated the impact of Hinduism in Southeast Asia. And in India itself, except in the far south, a sophisticated Indo-Muslim culture developed alongside Hinduism. Post-Han China After the Han period of rule (206 BC-AD 220), China occupied a virtually unassailable position in Eastern Asia, mainly because of the country's large population and its well-integrated social and economic system. The sophisticated Confucianist and Buddhist order managed to withstand the personal frailties of misfit rulers. Even when barbarian factions managed to seize control in border areas, as did the North Wei in 386 and the Liao Khitan Mongols in 907, China's heartland continued little changed. The same was true even under the more extensive alien control established by the Mongol \TYuan\t (1279-1368) and later by the Manchus (or \TCh'ing\t) in 1644. The foreign invader-rulers tended to become sinicized rather than to barbarize the government and economy. China attained its peak of power under the T'ANG dynasty (618-907). Chinese rule was pushed through Mongolia into the Turkistan region of Central Asia. Technical improvements included mill wheels, boat rudders, the use of cattle in plowing, harness and stirrups for horses, expert fertilizer use, and the development of printing. Treatises on science and technology and medical discoveries were added to China's traditional historical and philosophical lore. The fall of the T'angs in 907 was attributable to their overexpansion territorially, burdensome taxation and water-control problems, and court-eunuch rivalries, but it required less than 60 years for a successor Northern Sung dynasty to restore stability in 960. A Southern Sung dynasty took over from 1127 to 1279, and created a second cultural golden age. To the use of gunpowder in warfare were added clocks and windmills, mapmaking and bridge construction, and the artistry of landscape painting of superior quality. Kublai Khan's Yuan dynasty, which, as mentioned, was thoroughly sinicized, was followed by the indigenous \TMing\t from 1368 to 1644. The Ming were overthrown by the invading Manchus, whose sinicized rule lasted until 1911. The latter, moreover, were virtually unchallenged until the mid-19th century arrival of aggressive European forces by sea. ASIA AND THE WEST Western Asia abuts on Europe, and its contacts with that continent from ancient times on have been noted. The rise of Islam, however, and the domination of the eastern Mediterranean by the Turks blocked contact between Christian Europe and the rest of Asia until the Europeans found a sea route around Africa in the 15th century. Steady contacts, which began in the 16th century, eventually resulted in the subjection of much of the Asian continent by European powers. Early Contact The first phases of contact took the form of European demands for desired Asian products and for missionary opportunities. Portuguese navigators and traders, soldiers, and missionaries reached Calicut, India, by 1498. They captured the India base of \TGoa\t in 1510 and Malacca (modern \TMelaka\t) in 1511. The latter center dominated the lower Malay peninsula and part of Sumatra. The Portuguese later extended influence over the coasts of India and Ceylon and eastward to the \TMoluccas\t, or Spice Islands, of Indonesia. By the end of the 16th century, European competitors had appeared on the scene, attracted by the profitable \Tspice trade\t. Spain acquired territories in the \TPhilippines\t by crossing the Pacific Ocean from the New World. By 1571, Miguel Lopez de LEGAZPI had brought the greater part of that archipelago under Spanish control. Only the southern Muslim islanders remained outside Spain's sphere of influence. The Dutch came to the region primarily for reasons of trade and directed their attention mainly to the Moluccas and Java. In 1619, they founded the city of Batavia (modern \TDjakarta\t) on Java. They captured Malacca in 1641 and Colombo in Ceylon in 1656. The Dutch also expanded their sphere of influence in Java, where their East India Company (see \TEast India Company, Dutch\t) intervened in civil wars. By the mid-18th century, Java was almost completely under Dutch control. Elsewhere in \TIndonesia\t, the Dutch East India Company concluded treaties and acquired trading posts, so that the sovereignty of minor kingdoms was not substantially affected. Britain and France also established East India Companies (see \TEast India Company, British\t; \TEast India Company, French\t) to exploit the trading opportunities. The British company founded a number of commercial settlements in India, such as \TMadras\t in 1640, \TBombay\t in 1661, and \TCalcutta\t in 1690. The French similarly established a trading post at \TPondicherry\t in 1674. Under Joseph Francois \TDupleix\t, the French company tried during the middle 1700s to bring southern India into its sphere of influence, but the French government at home did not support the policy, and the British under Robert \TClive\t attained a dominant position. Early European Relations with China and Japan China and Japan escaped major European intervention during this early period. The seizure of power in China by the Manchus in 1644 resulted in the inclusion of Manchuria itself in the Chinese empire. The Ch'ing emperor K'ANG-HSI (r. 1661-1722) extended Chinese rule over both Mongolia and Tibet, and a successor, \TCh'ien-lung\t (r. 1736-95), annexed inner Asia's Lake Balkhash area and the Tarim Basin. Manchu China was, in this period, much too formidable to be approached by trader Europeans in any but a cautious manner. Because the Chinese themselves sensed little need for foreign contacts, European trade remained limited. As a kind of favor, Europeans were allowed entry privileges at \TCanton\t, where they could sell their wares and purchase Chinese goods under strict supervision of imperial officials. The Portuguese maintained a foothold at \TMacao\t, established as a trading post as early as 1557. Although at the outset Europeans appeared to have a good chance of establishing commercial relations with Japan, the opportunity quickly slipped away. The long period of feudal decline ended with the establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate in 1603. In order to consolidate their control, however, the Tokugawa shoguns drove out the Christian missionaries, who had been active since the arrival of St. \TFrancis Xavier\t in 1549, and virtually isolated their country from the rest of the world. Only the Dutch were granted limited access to a trading station on the island of Deshima in Nagasaki harbor. In this early period European commercial interests also regarded the countries of mainland Southeast Asia as lying outside their sphere. Meanwhile, areas of Northern and Central Asia were being colonized by the Russians. They founded fortified outposts at Tobolsk in 1587, at Tomsk in 1604, at Okhotsk in 1649, and at Irkutsk in 1661. Turning southward, they eventually reached the Chinese border, and the Russian and Chinese governments contracted a border treaty in 1689. China's expanding influence in Central Asia and Russia's counter advances resulted in the imposition of increasing containment restrictions on resident nomadic peoples. The last major kingdom in the steppe area was that of the \LKalmyk\ls, which reached its peak at the end of the 1600s. European Expansion in Asia The end of the 18th century witnessed the first substantial expansion of European control in Asia. This was partially a result of economic changes caused by the Industrial Revolution and intra-European warfare, both of which had repercussions in Asia. At the same time Asia experienced the decline of Mogul authority in India and Manchu power within China. In the late 1700s and early 1800s the British East India Company managed to bring virtually all India under its control. The British took over the Dutch settlements in Ceylon and occupied that entire island in 1815. In 1824 they also initiated moves into Lower Burma, which ended in the total annexation of the country by 1886. Meanwhile, after suppression of the \TIndian Mutiny\t of 1857, the last Mogul emperor was deposed, and the British government assumed direct rule over India. Farther east, the British founded the settlement of \TSingapore\t in 1819. An Anglo-Dutch treaty of 1824 granted Britain a free hand in Malacca and assigned the Indonesian archipelago to Dutch control. The latter concluded their conquest of Java in 1830 and gradually extended control over the other islands. After 1874 the British asserted sovereignty over all the states of the Malay peninsula (see \TMalaysia\t), establishing protectorates over northern Borneo as well in 1888. Even China now fell victim to European intrusion. Following the \TOpium War\t of 1839-42, China was forced to cede \THong Kong\t to Britain and to open other important ports to British trade and residence. Another short war in 1856 resulted in the Treaties of Tientsin (see \TTientsin, Treaties of\t), by which China opened further ports to European and U.S. trade, admitted foreign legations and missionaries, and legalized the importation of opium (a major interest of the European traders). At the same time internal revolts such as the \TTaiping Rebellion\t (1851-64) shook the Chinese empire to its foundations. Attempts to modernize Chinese institutions to meet changing demands ran aground because they diverged too abruptly from the Confucianist norms. The \TBoxer Uprising\t (1900), directed against Westerners, was suppressed by an international expedition sponsored by the interested foreign powers. China was never actually colonized, but it suffered extreme humiliation. In Southeast Asia, Siam alone managed to keep its independence, although it lost border territories. France focused its attention on \TVietnam\t, where national unity had been achieved only in 1802 after 30 years of civil strife. The French took over the southern provinces (\TCochin China\t) in 1862 and 1867 and assumed control over Annam and Tonkin between 1883 and 1885. They also took control of Cambodia (1863) and Laos (1893), which were then consolidated with Vietnam to form the colony of \TIndochina\t. Japan's efforts to maintain its isolation from the outside world were finally overcome when a U.S. fleet under Commodore Matthew \TPerry\t forced Japanese acceptance of a commercial treaty in 1853-54. The ensuing political uproar in Japan led to the overthrow of the Tokugawa shogunate and the resumption of imperial authority in the \TMeiji Restoration\t of 1868. In the following decades Japan pursued a program of industrial modernization and social reform. It also inaugurated an expansionist foreign policy, challenging Chinese hegemony over Korea. After defeating China in the first \TSino-Japanese War\t (1894-95), Japan assumed a virtual protectorate over Korea and forced China to cede Taiwan. Extending their interests to Manchuria, the Japanese came into conflict with Russia, whom they defeated in the \TRusso-Japanese War\t (1904-05). In 1910 they formally annexed Korea. Meanwhile, in 1898, the United States took possession of the Philippines, after defeating Spain in the \TSpanish-American War\t. Russian gains in northern Asia included territories in the Amur and Ussuri regions, where they founded \TVladivostok\t in 1860. They also took over Turkistani \TSamarkand\t and Bukhara in 1868 and Khiva in 1873. Changes in Western Asia were slower. The British seized \TAden\t on the lower Red Sea in 1839. They later acquired a controlling interest in the \TSuez Canal\t, opened in 1869, which greatly facilitated access to their imperial holdings in Asia. At the outbreak of \TWorld War I\t in 1914, most of Asia was under European or U.S. domination both politically and economically. Nevertheless, by that time, Asian resistance to foreign domination had already begun. ASIAN NATIONALISM Asian nationalist movements and efforts at modernization were greatly influenced at the outset by Western ideas. They were usually directed against the traditional mores of their own societies as well as against colonialism. In India such changes began in moderate form with the meeting of the first Congress nationalist group in 1885 (see \TIndian National Congress\t); in Burma, Indonesia, and Vietnam, nationalism started to emerge around 1900. The Filipino revolt against the Spanish broke out in 1896, and the U.S. takeover of 1898 was tolerated because it helped climax the anti-Spanish movement. Asian nationalism received additional impetus during the period of the Russo-Japanese War, when for the first time an Asian country defeated a major European power. The Chinese Revolution China's revolutionary \TKuomintang\t (Nationalist party), led by \TSun Yat-sen\t initiated the revolution of 1911 that brought the downfall of the Manchu dynasty. A period of confusion and anarchy, however, followed the proclamation of a republic. Japan attempted in 1915 to take advantage of China's confusion for political ends, but it was forced to abandon some of its demands by British and U.S. pressure. By 1928 the Nationalist general \TChiang Kai-shek\t had restored a semblance of Chinese unity by defeating the regional military commanders, the so-called \Twarlords\t, who had seized control in northern China. He had antagonized the Chinese Communist party, however, which was originally allied with the Kuomintang. Conflict between the Nationalists and Communists gravely weakened China at the time when Japan resumed its policy of expansion. In 1931-32 the Japanese occupied Manchuria and set up the puppet state of \TManchukuo\t. In 1937 they initiated direct attacks on China proper, and the second Sino-Japanese War began. Impact of World War I World War I had meanwhile produced enormous repercussions in Western Asia. It led to the final breakup of the Ottoman Empire in 1918. A Turkish revolution led by Kemal \TAtaturk\t established the Republic of Turkey in Anatolia in 1923. The Arab provinces of the former empire, however, became virtual colonies of Britain (Palestine, Transjordan, Iraq) and France (Syria and Lebanon). \TIraq\t gained formal independence in 1921, but like the others remained under European domination until \TWorld War II\t. In Persia, the desire for modernization found expression in the politics of \TReza Shah Pahlavi\t, who deposed the conservative Qajar dynasty in 1925. After the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia in 1917, adjacent Central Asian territories became separate republics within the \TUSSR\t. A revolutionary process of modernization ensued under Soviet supervision. Mongolia, which had separated from China in 1911, became part of the Soviet sphere of influence, although formally independent. Impact of World War II World War II permanently ended direct Western domination of Asia. Following Japan's lightning conquest of Southeast Asia in 1942, the British, French, and Dutch found it impossible to recover control, despite Japan's eventual defeat in 1945. The Asian peoples sought to take their fate into their own hands, even though their precise objectives were often far from clear. Wars of liberation led to a Dutch withdrawal from Indonesia in 1949 and the French from Indochina in 1954. In 1947 the British acceded to the demands of the Indian national movement, personified since 1920 by Mahatma \TGandhi\t. In response to the aspirations of India's Muslim minority, however, they partitioned the Indian subcontinent into two states: Hindu India and Muslim Pakistan. Terrible massacres of Muslims in India and Hindus in Pakistan occurred at the time of partition, and a series of \TIndia-Pakistan Wars\t followed. The Philippines gained independence in 1946, Ceylon and Burma in 1948, and Malaya in 1957. France and Britain also relinquished their interwar mandates in the Middle East. Most of Palestine was incorporated into the new Jewish state of Israel, a move bitterly opposed by the Arab states and leading to four \TArab-Israeli Wars\t. Hostilities in the Middle East showed no sign of abatement until the late 1970s, when Egypt, the most powerful Arab state, and Israel negotiated (1979) a peace treaty. In the liberated countries of Southeast Asia, colonial-period antagonisms between native peoples and alien Asian settlers complicated the problems of economic recovery and self-government. The Burmans drove out most Indian residents. The Malays challenged the continuing prominence of Chinese residents in their affairs, and the inclusion of largely Chinese Singapore in the Malaysian federation proved short-lived (1963-65). In a number of Southeast Asian countries, Communist insurgents refused to be content with mere political independence. Communism and U.S. Intervention The Communist governments of Mongolia and North Korea were soon joined by another Communist regime in China, Asia's largest and most populous nation, and the U.S.-backed Nationalists were forced to retreat to Taiwan. When North Korea invaded South Korea in 1950, the United States and China were drawn into the \TKorean War\t, which ended three years later with a restoration of the status quo. After a Communist-led nationalist revolution drove the French from Indochina in 1954, civil war broke out in South Vietnam. The prolonged \TVietnam War\t, in which the United States backed the South Vietnamese government, finally ended with a North Vietnamese victory in 1975. That same year, U.S.-supported governments in Laos and Cambodia (Kampuchea) also fell to Communist forces. Communist insurgencies elsewhere, including Burma (now Myanmar), Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines, met with less success than those in Indochina. Antagonisms between the \TUSSR\t and China were a major factor in China's decision to seek greater contact with the West in the 1970s and to aid the \TKhmer Rouge\t in their struggle to overthrow the Kampuchean government backed by Vietnam, a Soviet Ally. As East-West tensions eased, however, hard-line North Korea was increasingly isolated. Mongolia held multiparty elections in 1990, and its people, along with other Central Asians (particularly after the failure of the 1991 coup in the \TUSSR\t) reemphasized their ancient heritage. China introduced economic reforms, although it cracked down on political dissent. In the early 1990s the United States and the \TUSSR\t joined in seeking political settlements of the civil wars in Cambodia and Afghanistan and the Arab-Israeli conflict in the Middle East. Ethnic and Religious Tensions In many parts of Asia, long-standing ethnic and religious rivalries have threatened economic progress and political unity. The Burmans drove out most Indian residents after independence, while the Malays challenged the continuing prominence of Chinese residents in their affairs. The inclusion of largely Chinese Singapore in the Malaysian federation proved short-lived (1963-65). In 1971 the Bengalis of East Pakistan broke away and created the new nation of Bangladesh. Cyprus, torn by ethnic rivalries since independence (1959), was forcibly partitioned (1975) into Greek and Turkish sectors following a Turkish invasion. Elsewhere, there have been a series of \TIndia-Pakistan Wars\t and \TArab-Israeli Wars\t, border skirmishes between China and India and China and Vietnam, and the long \TIran-Iraq war\t (1980-88). \TSikhs\t and Muslim Kashmiris in India, \LTamil\ls in Sri Lanka, Palestinian Arabs, and other minorities have agitated, sometimes violently, for separate political status. Despite a 1979 Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty and the launching of an \Tintifada\t (uprising) by Palestinian Arabs in the Israeli-occupied territories in 1987, the question of a Palestinian Arab homeland remains unresolved and is a key factor in the Arab-Israeli conflict. Much of Asia has been affected by a rising tide of Islamic fundamentalism. A revolution led to the creation of an Islamic republic in Iran in 1979, while Lebanon was a battleground of warring religious factions for many years. After the ten-year Soviet occupation of Afghanistan ended in 1989, rebel groups fought each other as well as government forces. Modern Diversity Although most Asian nations are considered part of the \TThird World\t economy, Asia is no more monolithic economically than it is culturally or politically. It includes not only poverty-stricken agricultural Bangladesh, but also highly industrialized Japan. When Iraq's Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990, he attempted to capitalize on divisions between the oil-rich Gulf nations and the poorer Arab states, as well as exploiting anti-Western feelings. Although Asians today are no longer subject to alien control, they have often found it difficult to isolate themselves from outside influences and interests; the continuation of outside involvement in the region was clearly evidenced in the 1991 \TPersian Gulf War\t. Many Asian nations are members of the \TNonaligned Movement\t and are active in international and regional organizations. They are trying to preserve their traditions as they develop their economies. John F. Cady Cady, J. F., The History of Post War Southeast Asia (1975); Chaudhuri, K.N., Asia before Europe: Economy and Civilization of the Indian Ocean from the Rise of Islam to 1750 (1990); Darling, F. C., The Westernization of Asia (1980); Dutt, A. K., Southeast Asia, 3d ed. (1984); Elegant, R., Pacific Destiny (1990); Embree, A., ed., Encyclopedia of Asian History (1987); Fairbank, J. K., The Great Chinese Revolution: 1800-1985 (1986); Fairbank, J. K., et al., East Asia: Tradition and Transformation, rev. ed. (1989); Fairbank, J. K., and Twitchett, D., eds., Cambridge History of China, 7 vols. (1978-87); Fisher, S.N., and Oshsenwald, W.L., The Middle East: A History, 4th ed. (1989); Gernet, J., A History of Chinese Civilization (1982; repr. 1985); Goldschmidt, A. A., Concise History of the Middle East, 2d rev. ed. (1983); Grousset, R., The Empire of the Steppes (1970); Hall, D. G. E., A History of Southeast Asia, 4th ed. (1981); Hitti, P. K., Arabs: A Short History (1956); Mellart, J., Earliest Civilizations of the Near East (1965); Osborne, M., Southeast Asia, 4th ed. (1989); Pandey, B. N., South and Southeast Asia (1980); Sansom, G. B., A History of Japan, 3 vols. (1958-63); Sinor, D., ed., The Cambridge History of Early Inner Asia (1990); Smith, V. A., The Oxford History of India, 4th ed. (1981); Sonn, T., Between Qur'an and Crown (1990); Spear, P. A., The Oxford History of Modern India, 2d ed. (1978); Spence, J., The Search for Modern China (1990); Welty, T., The Asians: Their Evolving Heritage, 6th ed. (1984); Wolpert, S., A New History of India, 3d ed. (1989). See also: \TAsia\t; \TChina, history of\t; \TIndia, history of\t; \TJapan, history of\t; \TKorea, history of\t; \TMiddle East, history of the\t.