The plants and animals of Northern and Western Asia generally resemble those of similar latitudes in Europe (which is really a prolongation of the Asiatic continent), differing more in species than in genera. The principal mountain trees are the pine, larch, and birch; the willow, alder, and poplar are found in lower grounds. In the central region European species reach as far as the Western and Central Himálaya, but are rare in the Eastern. They are here met by Chinese and Japanese forms. The lower slopes of the Himálaya are clothed almost exclusively with tropical forms. Higher up, between 4000 and 10,000 feet, are found all the types of trees and plants that belong to the temperate zone, there being extensive forests of conifers. Here is the native home of the deodar cedar. The south-eastern region, including India, the Eastern Peninsula, and China, with the islands, contains a vast variety of plants useful to man and having here their original habitat, such as the sugar-cane, rice, cotton, and indigo, pepper, cinnamon, cassia, clove, nutmeg, and cardamoms, banana, coco-nut, areca, and sago palms; the mango and many other fruits, with plants producing a vast number of drugs, caoutchouc, and gutta-percha. The forests of India and the Malay Peninsula contain oak, teak, sâl, and other timber woods, besides bamboos, palms, sandal-wood, &c. The palmyra palm is characteristic of Southern India; while the talipot palm flourishes on the western coast of Hindustan, Ceylon, and the Malay
Peninsula. The cultivated plants of India and China include wheat, barley, rice, maize, millet, sugar-cane, tea, coffee, indigo, cotton, jute, opium, tobacco, &c. In North China and the Japanese Islands large numbers of deciduous trees occur, such as oaks, maples, limes, walnuts, poplars, and willows, the genera being European but the individual species Asiatic. Among cultivated plants are wheat, and in favourable situations rice, cotton, the vine, &c. Coffee, rice, sugar, &c., are extensively grown in some of the islands of the Asiatic Archipelago. In Arabia and the warmer valleys of Persia, Afghanistan, and Baluchistan aromatic shrubs are abundant. Over large parts of these regions the date palm flourishes and affords a valuable article of food. Gum-producing acacias are, with the date palm, the commonest trees in Arabia. African forms are found extending from the Sahara along the desert region of Asia.
Nearly all the mammals of Europe are found in Northern Asia, with numerous additions to the species. Central Asia is the native land of the horse, the ass, the ox, the sheep, and the goat. Both varieties of the camel, the single and the double humped, are Asiatic. To the inhabitants of Tibet and the higher plateaux of the Himálaya the yak is what the reindeer is to the tribes of the Siberian plain, almost their sole wealth and support. The elephant, of a different species from that of Africa, is a native of tropical Asia. The Asiatic lion, which inhabits Arabia and Persia, and still exists in the north-west of India, is smaller than the African species. Bears are found in all parts, the white bear in the far north, and other species in the more temperate and tropical parts. The tiger is the most characteristic of the larger Asiatic Carnivora. It is found in Armenia and throughout the entire continent, being absent, however, from the greater portion of Siberia and from the high table-land of Tibet; it is found also in Sumatra, Java, and Bali. In South-Eastern Asia and the islands we find the rhinoceros, buffalo, ox, deer, squirrels, porcupines, &c. In birds nearly every order is represented. Among the most interesting forms are the hornbills, the peacock, the Impey pheasant, the tragopan or horned pheasant, and other gallinaceous birds, the pheasant family being very characteristic of South-Eastern Asia. It was from Asia that the common domestic fowl was introduced into Europe. The tropical parts of Asia abound in monkeys, of which the species are numerous. Some are tailed, others, such as the orang, are tailless, but none have prehensile tails like the American monkeys. In the Malay Archipelago marsupial animals, so characteristic of Australia, first occur in the Moluccas and Celebes, while various mammals common in the western part of the Archipelago are absent. A similar transition towards the Australian type takes place in the species of birds. (See Wallace's Line.) Of marine mammals the dugong is peculiar to the Indian Ocean; in the Ganges is found a peculiar species of dolphin. At the head of the reptiles stands the Gangetic crocodile, frequenting the Ganges and other large rivers. Among the serpents are the cobra de capello, one of the most deadly snakes in existence; there are also large boas and pythons, besides sea and fresh-water snakes. The seas and rivers produce a great variety of fish. The Salmonidæ are found in the rivers flowing into the Arctic Ocean. Two rather remarkable fishes are the climbing perch and the archer-fish. The well-known goldfish is a native of China.
Asia is mainly peopled by races belonging to two great ethnographic types, the Caucasic or fair type, and the Mongolic or yellow. To the former belong the Aryan, or Indo-European, and the Semitic races, both of which mainly inhabit the south-west of the continent; to the latter belong the Malays and Indo-Chinese in the S.E., as well as the Mongolians proper (Chinese, &c.), occupying nearly all the rest of the continent. To these may be added certain races of doubtful affinities, as the Dravidians of Southern India, the Cingalese of Ceylon, the Ainos of Yesso, and some negro-like tribes called Negritos, which inhabit Malacca and the interior of several of the islands of the Eastern Archipelago. The total population is estimated at 823,000,000, or more than half that of the whole world, of which 330,000,000 inhabit Chinese territory, 302,000,000 British, and 25,000,000 Russian. Portions of Asia are under the control of European Powers (Russia, Great Britain, Holland, France), of the United States of America, China, and Japan. The chief States are China, Japan, Corea, Siam, Afghanistan, Persia, and Arabia. The chief religions are the Brahmanism of India, the Buddhism of Burmah, China, &c., the creeds of Confucius and Lao-tse in China, and the various forms of Mahommedanism in Arabia, Persia, India, &c. More than a half of the whole population profess some form of Buddhism. Several native Christian sects are found in India, Armenia, Kurdistan, and Syria.
Asia is generally regarded as the cradle of the human race. It possesses the oldest historical documents, and, next to the immediately contiguous kingdom of Egypt, the oldest historical monuments in the world. The Old Testament contains the oldest historical records which we have of any nation in the form of distinct narrative. The period at which Moses wrote was probably 1500 or 1600 years before the Christian era. His and the later Jewish writings confine themselves almost exclusively to the history of the Hebrews; but in Babylonia, as in Egypt,
civilization had made great advances long before this time. The earliest seat of the Aryan race some assign to the banks of the Oxus. Hence, perhaps from the pressure of the Mongolian tribes to the north, they spread themselves to the south-east and south-west, finally occupying Northern India, Persia, and other parts of Western Asia, and spreading into Europe, perhaps about 2000-1500 B.C. In China authentic history extends back probably to about 1000 B.C., with a long preceding period of which the names of dynasties are preserved without chronological arrangement. The kingdoms of Assyria, Babylonia, Media, and Persia predominated by turns in South-Western Asia. In regard to the history of these monarchies, much light has been obtained from the decipherment of the cuneiform inscriptions. The arms of the Pharaohs extended into Asia, but their conquests there were short-lived. From Cyrus (559 B.C.), who extended the empire of Persia from the Indus to the Mediterranean, while his son, Cambyses, added Egypt and Libya to it, to the conquest of Alexander (330 B.C.) Persia was the dominant Power in Western Asia. Alexander's great empire became broken up into separate kingdoms, which were finally absorbed in the Roman Empire, and this ultimately extended to the Tigris. Soon after the most civilized portions of the three continents had been reduced under one empire, the great event took place which forms the dividing-line of history, the birth of Christ and the spread of Christianity. In A.D. 226 a protracted struggle began between the newer Persian Empire and the Romans, which lasted till the advent of Mahomet, and the conquests of the Arabians. Persia was the first great conquest of Mahomet's followers. Syria and Egypt soon fell before their arms, and within forty years of the celebrated flight of Mahomet from Mecca (the Hejra), the sixth of the caliphs, or successors of the Prophet, was the most powerful sovereign of Asia. The Mongols next became the dominant race. In 999 Mahmud, whose father, born a Turkish slave, became Governor of Ghazni, conquered India, and established his rule. The dynasty of the Seljuk Tartars was established in Aleppo, Damascus, Iconium, and Kharism, and was distinguished for its struggles with the Crusaders. Othman, an emir of the Seljuk sultan of Iconium, established the Ottoman Empire in 1300. About 1220 Genghis Khan, an independent Mongol chief, made himself master of Central Asia, conquered Northern China, overran Turkestan, Afghanistan, and Persia; his successors took Bagdad and abolished the caliphate. In Asia Minor they overthrew the Seljuk dynasty. One of them, Timur or Tamerlane, carried fire and sword over Northern India and Western Asia, defeated and took prisoner Bajazet, the descendant of Othman (1402), and received tribute from the Greek emperor. The Ottoman Empire soon recovered from the blow inflicted by Timur, and Constantinople was taken and the Eastern Empire finally overthrown by the Sultan Mohammed II in 1453. China recovered its independence about 1368 and was again subjected by the Manchu Tartars (1618-45), soon after which it began to extend its empire over Central Asia. Siberia was conquered by the Cossacks on behalf of Russia (1580-4). The same country effected a settlement in the Caucasus about 1786, and has since continued to make steady advances into Central Asia. The discovery by the Portuguese of the passage to India by the Cape of Good Hope led to their establishment on the coast of the peninsula (1498). They were speedily followed by the Spanish, Dutch, French, and British. The struggle between the two last Powers for the supremacy of India was completed by the destruction of the French settlements (1760-5). At present the forms of government in Asia range from the primitive rule of the nomad sheik to the constitutional monarchy of Japan.—Bibliography: Sven Hedin, Through Asia; H. F. Blanford, Elementary Geography of India, Burma, and Ceylon; Max. Müller, The Sacred Books of the East; A. Little, The Far East; R. Cobbold, Innermost Asia; Colonel A. Durand, The Making of a Frontier; J. G. C. Chamberlain, Continents and their Peoples; E. Huntington, The Pulse of Asia; E. C. Hannah, Eastern Asia.
Asia, Central, a designation loosely given to the regions in the centre of Asia east of the Caspian, also called Turkestan, and formerly Tartary. The eastern portion belongs to China, the western to Russia. Russian Central Asia comprises the Kirghiz Steppe (Uralsk, Turgai, Akmolinsk, Semipalatinsk, &c.), and what was the government-general of Turkestan till 1918, besides the territory of the Turkomans, or Transcaspia and Merv. See Turkestan, Republic of.
Asia Minor, the most westerly portion of Asia, being the peninsula lying west of the Upper Euphrates, and forming part of Asiatic Turkey. It forms an extensive plateau, with lofty mountains rising above it, the most extensive ranges being the Taurus and Anti-Taurus, which border it on the south and south-east, and rise to over 10,000 feet. There are numerous salt- and freshwater lakes. The chief rivers are the Kizil-Irmak (Halys), Sakaria (Sangarius), entering the Black Sea; and the Sarabat (Hermus) and Menderes (Mæander), entering the Ægean. The coast regions are generally fertile, and have a genial climate; the interior is largely arid and dreary. Valuable forests and fruit-trees abound. Smyrna is the chief town. Anatolia is an equivalent name. See European War; Turkey.
Asiago, a town in Italy in the province of Vicenza, capital of the Seven Communes (Sette Communi). In the great European War several battles were fought on the Asiago Plateau. The town was evacuated by the Italians on 28th May, 1916, but retaken on 25th June, 1916. See European War.