Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume II.djvu/26

 ASIA are therefore the only European powers who hold any portion of Asia. The principal polit- ical divisions of Asia may be classified as fol- lows, placing the independent powers first in the order of their importance, and grouping some of the minor ones together : 1. China proper, with the islands of Formosa and Hai- nan. Chinese dependencies : Thibet, Chinese Tartary, Mongolia, Mantchooria, and Corea. 2. Turkey in Asia : Asia Minor, Turkish Arme- nia, Syria, Mesopotamia, Kurdistan, and part of Arabia. 3. Japan. 4. Persia. 5. Arabia. 6. Afghanistan, Herat, Beloochistan. 7. Fur- ther India : kingdoms of Anam, Burmah, and Siam. 8. Turkistan : khanates of Bokhara, Khiva, Kokan, and Koondooz. 9. Russian Asia : Siberia, Amoor Country, Russian Tur- kistan, Caucasia. 10. British India and na- tive states under British influence. 11. French possessions: Cochin China, Pondicherry. 12. Portuguese possessions : Goa, Macao. Only roughly approximate statements of the area and population of most of these divisions can be given, for which reference is made to the separate articles upon them. Asia is re- garded as the birthplace of mankind. It is the cradle of all the great religious move- ments of Hindoo pantheism and Buddhism, Hebrew monotheism and Persian dualism, Christianity and Mohammedanism and the earliest seat of science and literature. Here flourished in hoary antiquity the secluded em- pire of China, and the Aryan communities which produced Zoroaster and the Vedas, and reared the stupendous monuments of Hindo- stan. Asia was the seat of the Assyrian, Chal- dean, Median, Persian, Syrian, and Parthian empires. The names of Babylon and Nineveh, of Jerusalem, Sidon, Tyre, Palmyra, and Anti- och, of Susa, Ecbatana, Persepolis, Ctesiphon, and Seleucia, of Sardis, Ephesus, and Miletus, keep before our minds the ancient glories of Asiatic power and culture ; while in after ages Bagdad, Bassorah, Damascus, Aleppo, and even the distant Samarcand and Balkh in the wilds of central Asia, bespeak the progress of Asi- atic civilization and intelligence. Phoenicia was the great teacher of Greece and the oth- er countries bordering on the Mediterranean. When western civilization had been developed, Asia Minor was the theatre where Asia and Europe met. Persia and Hellas for a century and a half wrestled for supremacy, until semi- Hellenic Macedonia established her sway over both. The Seleucidse of Syria became the suc- cessors of Alexander in the East, but finally yielded to the Parthians on one side and the Romans on the other. Rome extended her power to the Euphrates, and Asian Nicomedia was for a time a favorite seat of her emperors. In neighboring Niccea Constantino had the dog- mas of her new religion, received from Jeru- salem, established. But Arabia produced a new faith and a new race of conquerors, and the caliphs triumphed over the Ctesars of the East, and restored power to its ancient seats on the Euphrates, Tigris, and Orontes. Rees- tablished Persia was merged in their dominions. Sultan Mahmoud of Ghuzni conquered Afghan- istan, and carried Mohammedanism beyond the Indus. In the west of Asia the cross, about a century later, began a deadly struggle with the crescent, which lasted for ages, and terminated with the total discomfiture of the crusaders. Turkish tribes, Seljuks and others, had in the meanwhile become the chief rulers of Moslem Asia. But now a vast human flood, under Genghis Khan, surged in from the plains of eastern Asia, overwhelmed China, India, and western Asia, and rolled on as far as the centre of Europe, thus renewing the devastations of the Huns and other northern Asiatic tribes who desolated the West-Roman empire before its fall. The Mongols retired from Germany, but their yoke remained firmly fixed on Russia, where the Golden Horde held sway for more than 200 years. In Bagdad they terminated the dynasty of the Abbasside caliphs. At the same epoch they established the successors of Genghis Khan on the throne of Afghanistan and northern India, and thus gave rise to the great empire of which Delhi afterward be- came the capital. The great body of the Mon- gols themselves embraced Buddhism. The Mongols of India adopted Mohammedanism. By the same irruptive movement, the native dynasty of the Chinese was displaced, and a Mongol line of sovereigns set up in their stead, of whom Kublai Khan was the first and ablest. The conquests of these fierce tribes, which had penetrated from the Chinese wall to Silesia and the shores of the Mediterranean, induced a feeling of terror in Christendom. Attempts were made by missionaries, sent into the heart of Asia, to establish friendly relations with the Mongols. Marco Polo also travelled in central Asia and Mongolia, and, after residing for a period at the court of Kublai Khan, the con- queror of China, brought home admirable ac- counts of central Asia, China, and India. The vast Mongolian empire of Genghis had, after a few generations, crumbled into pieces. The tribes from whom the guards of the throne and persons of the caliphs had been chosen had as- sumed the position of independent conquerors, and had founded the Ottoman empire. In 1299 Othman led his followers into the ancient province of Bithynia, nearly opposite Constanti- nople, and made Brusa his capital. Amurath and his son Bajazet soon overran the provinces of Asia Minor, and crossing into Europe pos- sessed themselves of the Byzantine provinces. A new invasion of the Mongols under Tamer- lane now swept over Asia and overthrew Bajazet (1402), but Amurath II. restored the Ottoman power, and his successor Mohammed II. established himself in Constantinople (1453). Under Solyman the Magnificent (1520-'66), the Ottoman empire reached its present limits, comprising Asia Minor, Syria, the country as far as the Tigris, and a part of Arabia. A quar- ter of a century after the permanent establish-