World Geography 1310 - Brian Cooper - Exam 3 Material (Southwest Asia, East Asia, and South Asia)

Zagros Mountains

Young, rugged mountain range bordering Iraq & Iran; Impact of high elevation = snow caps on top of mountains.

Elburz Mountains

Arabian plate been drifting (tectonic movement) away from Northeast Africa, process is still going on; drifting into Northwest Asia. This has caused significant risk for earthquake hazards - up to 7.5 or 8 on the Richter Scale.

Asir Mountains

Dry climate - wettest area in Saudi Arabia; stretches through southern Saudi Arabia; low elevation of 8,000ft; due to the orographic effect, mountains can still have impact on weather and climate, this causes a nice climate for summer months.

Mesopotamia

"meso" = in between

called, "the land between the rivers"

Located between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, this was essential to the region because it was the 1st great ancient culture hearth.

culture hearth

Place where innovations emerged, such as wheels, written records, and agriculture; cradle-to-birthplace of Western Civilization (Sumerian); Characteristics of this area of innovation include: broad river flood-plain: provide us with geographic tools for agriculture - to provide and succeed, have good soil that is built up from floods - water drops sediment and natural fertilizer; fresh water needed.

Plateau of Saudi Arabia

Located in Western Saudi Arabia.

Edge of Plateau = important boundary for oil; most oil and gas reserves are to the east of the plateau.

Process of oil formation = Ancient plant fossils and microorganisms living in oceans and seas, subject them to heat and pressure to last, ancient sediment and more sediment layers up on top, transforms into resources.

Things under water became land during tilt shift during Arabian plate movement, originally the ancient Tethys Sea.

Plateau of Iran

Located in Southeastern Iran.

Plateau has weather extremes, harsher climate. Hot hot winters, cold cold summers; Most people in Iran live to the North and West of the Plateau due to harsh climates; Environmental effect on population distribution - people of Saudi Arabia deal with this due to plateau.

Humans have created climate that makes them comfortable, technology to help humans adjust when nature doesn't provide (to make things more comfortable).

Turkey

Ottoman Empire originated in this country in the early 1300s, spread outward through region, peak in the late 1600s, when there's a peak there's a decline, took long time; World War I - Death note; they chose "wrong side" - Germany, Austria, and Hungary; lost significant chunk of last of empire.

Problems with this country wanting to join the EU - Endured criticism from EU about criticism of specific group (nation) - the Kurds were promised their own nation, but this country was concerned with thought of Kurds gaining independence.

Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk) - Leader of successful revolution of taking back this country from the Ottoman Empire; founder of modern name of country; modeled country after Europe, reorganized this country to be a secular country: countries that have not identified any religion as an official one, stark contrast with other countries in region; Kemal's ideas are still relevant today.

Iran

This country was at the center of the Persian Empire, powerful entity, "Persia" became this country in 1996; Last Shah of Iran: Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi - 20 or 21 when he came into power; got kicked out and put back into office; big fan of Western culture - fast modernization and cultural change, too fast for conservative leadership in this country; country has 10% Sunni Islam and 90% Shi'ites Islam - one of the few countries with a Shi'ite majority - Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini - conservative religious leader, criticized Shah, Shah didn't like that so he used SAVAK, his secret police to be his eyes and ears in Iranian society, if you were caught criticizing political leader, you are arrested, tortured, or killed. All the SAVAK did was make the Shah less popular, when he flew out for cancer treatment the This Countries' Revolution of 1979 broke out: religious conservatives led the revolution - this was a dramatic change. Revolution made this country look weak next to Iraq - Iraq figured now would be the time to strike, the war lasted from 1980- 1988, war accomplished no changes U.S. Dual-containment policy: We wanted to contain both threats by perpetuating the conflict between them so they would keep weakening each other; didn't want either country to win. We sold weapons to both sides, Iraq = over the table, this country = under the table.

Cultural difference between this country and other East-Asian countries = this country speaks Farsi, an Indo-European family language.

Iraq

Saddam Hussein had already been previously arrested by the U.S., the UN weapons inspections showed he used weapons of mass destruction - we have seen changes and impacts of them.

Iran-This Country War (1980-1988): Saddam Hussein comes into power in 1970, wanted to invade the Southwestern region of Iran - resource and land grab & wanted to expand the Shatt al-Arab: the entry to the Persian Gulf; U.S. set a deadline for this country's military to get out of Kuwait, this country didn't do it, launched Operation Desert Storm - only took 100hrs and weakened military further.

Kuwait - this country invaded Kuwait because it was historically a province of this country - related to resources: border dispute, and wanted to expand Shatt al-Arab.

Allocational boundary dispute over oil, resource (Rumalia Oil Field) in dispute in the case of this country; extends into Kuwait's territory; this country accused Kuwait of violating the boundary by pumping oil out of this country's portion.

Kuwait

War debt repayment: war was huge monetary cost - $15 billion dollars in war debt, what was significant about this is that this country payed off the debt in full (this is pretty rare) with sovereign oil funds producing $17 billion dollars, they already have refilled it.

Environmental damage of war: war is extremely harsh on the environment - Operation Desert Storm = most deadly; Dumped this country's oil directly into the Persian Gulf, this set bombs on oil wells (1991), 500 of 700 caught on fire, this also caused winter effect which cooled air several degrees, took less time than thought, only 6 months.

Saudi Arabia

Proven oil reserves: #2 in world's largest oil reserves, oil is much greater in demand compared to Venezuela's crude oil, because they don't have to do as much work: Easier to extract and refine. Big PRODUCER.

impacts of oil - able to provide social welfare, paying by subsidizing oil revenue - this allowed this country to placate citizens; this country has an absolute monarchy - the power originates with the king; what king says goes; how a little kid would define what a king does; Proclaimed Sunni Islam - Wahhabism as the official religion, there is no freedom of citizens, but been able to maintain domestic order with welfare system - acts as bribes to citizens - "this country treats me well, so I'm fine".

Qatar (pronounced "cutter")

Associated natural gas: finding natural gas with oil

Non-associated natural gas: finding just natural gas

This country has the 3rd largest proven reserves of natural gas on entire planet; most of natural gas located in area called the North Field, made this country wealthy - Japan: major buyer; to transport must turn gas into liquid (liquid called LNG) - have to maintain cold temperature and pressure.

United Arab Emirates

Comprised of 7 emirates (regions) - 2 most prominent: 1) Abu Dhabi - home to most of country's oil 2) Dubai - major center for commerce and trade; home to world's tallest building: The Burj Khalifa/Dubai - projects like this taken by countries to show citizens and world that they are rapidly modernizing.

Oman

Maritime tradition: have experience with the sea; religion brought by sailors of this country to other countries owned by Britain until granted full independence.

Strait of Hormuz: 20% of the world's oil supply passes through the Strait of Hormuz (navigable channel - deepest part) because this country owns chunk of territory on it called the Musandam Peninsula; world's most naturally traded fuel source, artery to the rest of the world - this country is a peaceful country, ownership has guaranteed peaceful presence.

Yemen

USS Cole bombing of 2000: USS Cole docked at Port city of Aden, safety concerns became true when Al-Queda came up next to the ship and bombs US ship, before 911, this was the rise to war on terror; Why? - Most important question: big motivation for creation and existence of Israel.

Israel

Zionism: a movement for (originally) the re-establishment and (now) the development and protection of a Jewish nation; Ultimate goal - to establish a Jewish homeland.

- This country made the best progress with the British to help find land

- WWI interrupts finding of land, British promise land in Balfour declaration if they win.

League of Nations mandate: Idea of encouragement of nations having their own homeland, established mandate system where mandatory countries were supposed to guide lesser countries to become independent.

- British gain land for win of WWI and write mandate over Palestine, Jewish wanted this because it was the "holy land" - where Jesus walked.

- large #'s of Jews began migrating in the 1920s and 30s.

- 1940: WWII interrupts again.

-- Hitler caused Holocaust, 6 million Jews died.

- At the end of WWII

--Jews not only find homeland, but now empathy for Jews due to massive loss.

- League of Nations disbanded, UN created.

-- population of Palestine was 45% Jewish, rest were Arab-Palestinians.

- UN Partition Plan of Palestine -

-- 56% goes to Jewish state, 43% set aside for Arab-Palestinians

-- 7% left for the city of Jerusalem.

-- Jerusalem: UN made a plan to make Jerusalem a free city (a city having independent government and forming a sovereign state by itself) under UN control in 1947; The Jewish were happy with the plan.

- 1948 Arab-Israeli War: In 1948 This country declares independence, they are immediately attacked by Arab-Palestinians because they felt like they had gotten screwed with division of Palestine.

- This country won, now in control of 72%, owns western 2/3 of the city of Jerusalem

because This country vs. Palestine won't discuss ownership of East Jerusalem.

Have no territory = been main conflict, Palestinians, at the time, still had hope for getting land in future wars.

- 1967 Six-Day War: This country vs. Egypt, Jordan, and Syria; This country won and acquired West Bank and Gaza Strip, Sinai Peninsula and Golan Heights from Syria.

1978 Camp David Accords: Promised land; International law - illegal to settle citizens on opposers land - violating international law (condemnations from other countries, US opinion trumps over others); Palestinian Authority: This country's natives agreed to return land to Palestine; not treated as sovereign entities; Gaza - Hamas won elections there, fracturing of Palestinian leadership. Hamas hinders future negotiation because this country thinks Hamas is a terrorist group.

Jordan

Right of return to Palestinian refugees: Biggest amount of refugees; just want the right to return home, Israel says they don't get to come back, because it would tip the demographics in Palestinian favor, this would be a concern for this country because Palestinians outnumber this country's natives; Also, when refugees arrive, often, they are in need of essential human needs, food, water, and shelter - large cost and throwing off demographics, not worth it.

Syria

Under dictatorship of al-Assad family until 2011, when there was a political upheaval, demanded Bashar al-Assad step down, but they didn't, they fought back and still continued today.

Alawis - Islamic sect.

al-Assad used chemical weapons on their own citizens

Lebanon

Beirut: Paris of the Middle East

This country is famous for banking and finance industry: minority rule, demographics shifted, Christians now in political power.

In 1975, this country exploded during the Civil War, lasted until 1990, situation echoed today in Syria in terms of country entanglement.

Pamir Knot

Area where 4 different mountain ranges collide; high mountain ranges.

Tectonic activity: collided with Asia and created mountains (orogenesis); Indian subcontinent shifted from Africa to Southeastern Asia.

Hindu Kush

Dominated country of Afghanistan.

Tall mountains, hard to travel around them, landscape difficult to travel around for military; Soviet Invasion (1979-1988) - Brezhnev Doctrine: Soviet Union won't allow any communist governments on it's borders to be overthrown, happens, Soviet Union invades, brings back power of communist government.

Mountains are bad for normal warfare, good for guerrilla warfare, because 1) It's easy to blend in because soldiers don't wear their uniforms - can look like citizens 2) it's easy to shoot, kill, then go back into hiding; mountains dragged war out into 1980s.

Tien Shan

high elevation of 22,000 ft. caused name, this mountain's name is called, "mountains of heaven"

Kunlun Shan

Plateau of Tibet - largest in size and in elevation; referred to as "the roof of the world"; used for nomadic cattle grazing, cattle have been bred to be adjusted to high altitude.

Himalayas

Mount Everest (29,035 ft.): Highest mountain on the planet; 17 of the highest mountains in the world are in this mountain chain.

Northeast China Plain

Heavy manufacturing industry - large economic resources: coal; economic development has stagnated.

Labeled as the Manchurian _______ in other places - the old empire and last dynasty was the Manchu Dynasty, the government wants to erase connection with area.

North China Plain

Great ancient culture hearth region with the Huang He River, beginning and cradle of eastern civilization.

Still is the core area of China - Huang He helped build rich flood plain and rich soils - loess soils: wind-born sediments that are picked up in Western China and deposited in the this area, also rich in nutrients.

Huang He River

Sometimes referred to as the Yellow ________.

Main crop is wheat because it's too dry for rice cultivation and better for wheat.

Chiang Jiang River

Asia's longest river. Enough precipitation for rice.

Important for production of raw materials such as, cotton and silk - Leaves of mulberry tree is favorite food for silk worm; Silk Road - major product of demand for Europeans.

Three Gorges Dam: World's largest hydroelectric facility, supposed to provide 11% of China's electricity needs, didn't, only provided 3% China's economy grew more rapidly than thought; there was criticism from environmental groups about fragile ecosystems (hydrophytes - plants) on river and archeological concerns about artifacts being submerged, also a human concern because 1.5 million people lived in that area, and for a long time, their families grew up there, and still moved people - to them it was worth it for their economic growth.

People's Republic of China

continuous agricultural civilization: lasted for 8,000 years, for the most recent 4,000, the historical records are reliable.

In 221 B.C. - First imperial dynasty of this country was the Chin Dynasty; to enforce boundaries they build first versions of The Great Wall of ________.

In the 1800s, this country was under control of Manchu/Ching Dynasty: Originated under the North China Plain, controlled Imperial in 1600, then they were beset by outside forces from Europe.

spheres of influence: countries economic area of control, not colonies of powers but were areas where outside forces' economic power happened, this + unhappiness of citizens out threw Manchu Dynasty.

1911 - Chinese Nationalists overthrew last emperor, led by Sun Yat-sen (Dr. Sun), dealt with spheres and outside forces wanting control, when Dr. Sun died in 1924, Chiang Kai-shek takes control.

For Chiang Kai-shek, the biggest threat is the Chinese Communists; he tries to wipe them out in late 1920s, but tries one last time (this is like the last straw for him) in the Long March in the 1930s by taking the army to wipe out the communists; Nationalists largely depleted Communist government; 2 things came out: 1) communists making connections with large, poor, population, built massive amounts of support with the population. 2) A Communist leadership emerges, Mao Zedong comes to power during the Long March.

Mao Zedong: In 1958, Mao had two big programs/plans for this country within the Great Leap Forward, which was a plan to help this country's economy to fit communist government. His plan (collective farming) was to take small family farms and make them government owned, and reorganize them into huge farming corporations. This meant that farmers working in that rural area were now out of a job which means unemployment for them. Mao Zedong said he had a new job, which will be to industrialize the countryside. 2) His next step was Rural Industrialization; wanted a steel industry, but this was not feasible. Great Leap Forward was a massive and colossal failure - the farming was poor which resulted in poor food production, also caused a famine: 30 million starved.

Now, there was a plan for a Great Proletariat Cultural Revolution, which intended to modernize Chinese culture. They got rid of the base of their education system, Confucius teachings. Also, there was an unofficial police force called "The Red Guards": Made sure you were on board with the Revolution, distributed books to the people, which was called, "Mao's Little Red Book"; people were expected to know book, even knew Mao's philosophy, which turned this country into a place of anxiety, but was effective in silencing criticism, which was what Mao wanted; Mao didn't target calligraphy because he liked his calligraphy skills; He was in power for a long time, he also did good too.

1937 - Japan launches full scale invasion of this country, spills over into WWII; Nationalists and Communists, even though they are still arguing with each other are the biggest threat to the Japanese.

WWII ends, Nationalists and Communists begin fighting again, Soviet Union supported this. On October 1, 1949, the Communists take back control.

Missing terms from this section are: United Nations Security Council, "communism with a Chinese face", "one-child policy", female infanticide, superpower, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Richard Nixon, Deng Xiopeng

Pakistan

Ruled by the British Empire when South Asia was apart of the British Empire; British had indirect rule over parts of Asia, but it was too difficult to manage all of them, they were looking for economic concessions but left day to day issues with local leadership, only saw direct rule with economic problems, the British placed value on empires.

When it came time for South-Asian independence from Britain, there were two groups of people from "main religions", the major religion, Hinduism: a polytheistic faith, meaning someone worships more than one god, and the second major religion, Islam, a monotheistic faith, which means someone worships one god. Tension between these two groups over a disputed territory were raised by the British Empire; the resolution was a partition plan in which India would be the Hindu state and this country would be the Islamic state, the partition was chaotic. In Jammu and Kashmir, 60% of the population were Muslims, and were led by a Hindu prince. He had 3 choices: A) Go with India - which will piss off a majority of the population, or B) Go with this country, he will be out of a job, or C) Independence - this one seemed like the best choice for him.

In 1947, this country and India fought 1st of 5 wars, war lasted for 70 years; still to this day is a disputed territory, both countries believe it belongs to them, this internally affects this country.

The original capital of this country was Karachi, had a population of 7 million people; in the 1960s, they wanted to pick a new capital, a forward capital (a capital that has been positioned in a particular location (the forward position) within a country's territory to project a direction for development or some sort of territorial claim.), a new city called Islamabad, placed at forward position in an effort to reinforce this country's claim that Jammu and Kashmir belonged to them, played it off as a concept of center of city (capital in middle of city, so they need Jammu and Kashmir to make it more center).

This country is our way into Afghanistan to fight Afghan-War, fallout from the war is causing attacks which makes the US ask, are the nuclear weapons secure?

Missing Terms: radical Islamic fundamentalism, Punjab, Northwest Frontier

India

British Empire ruled over this country, and it was the most expensive in terms of infrastructure, the British valued the area and infrastructure.

More colleges and universities than anyone on the entire planet

Economy developing rapidly, although uneven, half of population still engaged in subsistence agriculture.

Dependent on wet monsoon season (June - September) for rice cultivation, they develop more land for rice production on entire planet but not main producer due to weak soil; this country needs land reform, which needs to be done carefully, good land is only in the hands of the rich.

Green Revolution: Movement/project to end world hunger; increased crop yields in this country and México, needed investments in tools, big achievements were only held by wealthy farmers who had the resources to purchase items needed for farming.

Cotton was the main service in the textile industry, also manufacturing in steel (exporter) and high-technology; colleges mean more educated people, which means more people to work technology-related jobs.

"Brain drain": loss of highly educated and skilled individuals moving from the undeveloped world to the developed world; this a concern for the developed world because they need a smarter population to help improve country.

Expatriate workers: Workers send remittances (money) back to family; work under horrible conditions; workers primarily from Southeast Asia and go to East Asia.

Birthplace of two major religions: Hinduism, which the British used Hindu faith to crystalize caste system, and Buddhism, which spread outward, and was founded by this prince of this country's main ethnic heritage, Siddhartha Gautama.

This country is moving forward in development; overpopulation: this country's population is still briskly rising; by 2050, this country is projected to surpass China, population is 1.2 billion; government mandated birth control: has to do with democracy, people aren't willing to easily give up birth rights.

Missing Terms: Mohandas Ghandi

Bangladesh

From 1947-1971, this country was known as East Pakistan: was a fragmented state, West Pakistan was separated by a country; they fought a bloody war for independence, India helped them.

population density: country size of Wisconsin with a population of 160 million.

Area with fertile soils.

Rivers coincide with tropical cyclones, which come from the east, plus the wet monsoon season, which cause flooding.

Bhutan and Nepal

These two countries both had a monarchy, but country 1 wanted their monarchy to remain in power instead of transitioning into a democracy.

country 2: dominantly Buddhist.

Sri Lanka

The majority of the population speaks Sinhalese, and Indo-European family language; also Buddhist.

Rest of population speaks,Tamil: comes from Dravidian family language; Primarily Hindu.

British brought Tamil people as workers; This country is responsible for 1/4 of the world's tea production today.

Civil war broke out between Sinhalese and Tamil; Tamil's wanted to be independent, wanted country to be called Eelam.

This country was in an insurgent state, when a rebel territory acts as a government, from 1970s to 1980s, eventually gained peace and Sinhalese were put back in control.