World Regional Geography Exam #4 Review

Major Geographic Qualities:
- Largest population cluster: 4% of Earth’s land, 25% of world population.
- Population is 70% rural.
- Collision of Indian Plate/Eurasian Plate created Himalayas.
- Permanent snow/ice meltwater sustains great Asian rivers.
- Birthplace of major religions: Hinduism and Buddhism.
- A massive Muslim population is also found here.
- India recognizes 14 major languages; Hindi is the largest official language, English is the lingua franca.

Origins: 1500 BC, Indus Valley invaded by Aryans speaking Indo-European languages; a syncretistic merger takes place.
One of the oldest ethnic religions, strongest today on the Ganges Plain; it replaced earlier native religions.
Caste System: Hindu caste system of social stratification established, creating priests (Brahmans), soldiers, merchants, etc.
Hinduism is an intricate web of religious, philosophical, social, economic, and artistic elements.
Ganges River: Importance of the Ganges River in Hinduism.
India and Nepal are the only two predominantly Hindu countries today.
Today, Hindu nationalists want to forge an India in which non-Hindus are considered outsiders.

Founder: Siddhartha Gautama (563-483 BC) renounced his royal birth and sought enlightenment.
Followers object to harsher features of Hinduism, focusing instead on self-knowledge.
Buddhism eventually leaves India.
Buddha preached elimination of worldly desires, promoting a determination not to hurt or kill people or animals.
Buddhists in India compromise with the beliefs and customs of Hinduism. However, many Buddhists eventually leave India.
Today, only 8 million or so Buddhists in India, but religion has diffused to Tibet, Sri Lanka, Korea, and Southeast Asia.

Arrival: 8th Century arrival of Islam (Mughal rulers).
Destroyed Buddhist monasteries, burned libraries, and killed monks.
Islam takes root in the Indus River Valley and northern India eastward through Bengal.
Shah Jahan (1592-1666) was a legendary Islamic ruler who built mosques and the Taj Mahal.
Later, the British took advantage of weakened Mughals, enjoying 200 years (1757-1948) of profitable indirect/direct rule.
Muslims now reproduce faster than Hindus: 15% of India is Muslim, Bangladesh 90%, and Pakistan 97%.
Today, the population of 200 million Muslims living in India are the largest minority group in the world.

Definition: Seasonal wind reversal.
Asian landmass heats up, low pressure develops, and air flows from ocean to land.
Onshore flow in May-June (wet season), offshore in December-January (dry season).
Potential negative effects include widespread flooding, property damage, and destruction of agricultural lands.

Date: Separation of India and Pakistan on August 15, 1947.
Tensions between Hindus and Muslims exploded.
New boundaries were drawn where both sides once coexisted, millions displaced or dead, epic refugee migrations.
Arms race led to both becoming nuclear powers.

Disputed area between nuclear powers.
Pakistan creates forward capital of Islamabad (near Kashmir border) to stake claim to northern frontiers.
Kashmir gains independence in 1947 and is partitioned between Hindus and Muslims in 1948.
Kashmir, with a Hindu ruler but a mostly Muslim population, faced with joining either Hindu India or Muslim Pakistan.
Pakistan invades, the Maharaja flees to Delhi. Indian and Pakistani troops move into Kashmir; 1949 – UN cease-fire.

Sunni (80%) and Shi’ites (20%).
Levels of development (technology) very low.
Significance of the Indus River.
Massive > 200 million population growing at a high rate of natural increase.
A poor country supporting a large military.
Predominantly desert country, and the Indus River is an ‘exotic’ river.
The 1999 detonation of Pakistan’s first nuclear weapon (to match India’s in 1974) catches the world by surprise.
China wants markets/raw materials, contracts to build bases in Pakistan while India is building its own navy.

Fractured, dysfunctional, impossible to control by outside powers (e.g., Russian and British Empires, USA).
No ethnic majority—Pashtuns (42%), Tajiks (27%), along with Hazaras, Uzbeks, Turkmen, and Baluchis.
Buffer State created during Cold War, filled with violent Islamic militants despite the 15-year presence of U.S. troops.

Independence 1971 (formerly East Pakistan).
85% Muslim, one of the world’s poorest countries.
Natural hazards - cyclones common; 8 of 10 worst 20th C. disasters occurred in this country.

Major Geographic Qualities:
- World’s second most populous realm, though growing more slowly than South Asia.
- One of the world’s earliest culture hearths, China is one of the world’s oldest continuous civilizations.
- Political and economic forces continue to transform traditional cultural landscapes.
- Intensifying regional disparities; population concentrations in the east, situated in river basins.

World’s newest superpower, China’s economic and political influence is projected globally.
Shenzhen—Fastest-growing city in history. The Pearl River estuary is the most productive economy of its size in the world.
December 2014—China displaces the United States as the largest economy in the world.
Historical Context: How did European colonials treat China? What were the "Opium Wars" fought over? Who won the Chinese Civil War 1945-49? What was the Great Leap Forward and why was it a disaster?
Today, western China is rapidly developing but sparsely populated with minority pressures and Islamic influences.
China has 20% of the world's population but effectively lives on only 3% of the world's land area.
Multiple Chinas: People's Republic of China (Mainland or Red China), Republic of China (Taiwan), Hong Kong.

Most Chinese live in China Proper, the more humid (well-watered) eastern side of the country.
Western (Arid) China is dominated by deserts and the Tibetan (Xizang) Plateau.

China is still growing (though more slowly) at 1.4 billion, but on pace to be overtaken by India in the 2020s.
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