Table of Contents

East Asia               South Asia                Southeast Asia                Australia & New Zealand                OCEANA

central Asia

MAJOR GEOGRAPHIC QUALITIES

1.    intensive agriculture along rivers has led to water shortages

2.    pastoral nomadism is gradually disappearing

3.     in eastern region, the growing Han Chinese population is seen as a threat to the long-term survival of the indigenous culture

4.    frontline states in the struggle between radical Islamic fundamentalism and more secularly oriented governments

5.    abundant resources but economically poor … although many enjoy relatively high levels of social development

POLITICAL CHARACTERISTICS

Afghanistan

azerbaijani

Kazakhstan

Kyrgyzstan

Mongolia

Tajikistan

Turkmenistan

Uzbekistan

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EAST Asia

MAJOR GEOGRAPHIC QUALITIES

1. world’s most populous realm

2. one of world’s earliest culture hearths

3. traditional cultures continually transformed by political and economic forces

4. population concentrations

5. political instability

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

1. vast and varied topography

2. mainland area surrounded by ocean, high mountains, steppes, desert

3. more detail when we look at individual countries

CULTURAL CHARACTERISTICS

1. one of the world’s great culture hearths

2. continuous civilization for over 4,000 years

3. view of own society as center of civilized world

4. eastern vs. western bias

5. inward looking, closed societies

DEMOGRAPHIC CHARACTERISTICS

1. doubling time

2. only small areas of land are arable and most population lives there

3. increasingly urbanized

4. largest cities insignificant on global scale

5. urban environmental problems — air pollution, congestion, water pollution

ECONOMIC CHARACTERISTICS

1. serious energy shortages

2. transportation infrastructure poorly developed in many areas

3. environmental degradation

4. rapid economic development

5. dramatic social changes — education, religion, population growth

POLITICAL CHARACTERISTICS

1. China

2. Taiwan

3. Hong Kong

4. North Korea

5. South Korea

6. Japan

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South Asia

MAJOR GEOGRAPHIC QUALITIES

1. Well defined physiographically

2. The world’s second largest population cluster

3. Significant demographic problems

4. Low-income economies

5. Population concentrated in villages — subsistence agriculture

6. Strong cultural regionalism

7. Boundary problems

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

1. Physiographic diversity

2. Monsoons

    a. Widespread flooding

    b. Property damage

    c. Destruction to agricultural lands

    d. Damage to transportation infrastructure

    e. Homelessness

    f. Disease & malnutrition

    g. Serious injury & death

3. Three clearly defined physiographic zones

    a. Northern mountains

    b. Southern peninsular plateaus

    c. Belt of river lowlands divides northern and southern zones

CULTURAL CHARACTERISTICS

1. The Indus River is a cultural hearth where early culture emerged and developed

2. Arts and trade routes emerged from isolated tribes and villages to towns and beyond

3. Culturally fragmented

4. Religious and linguistic diversity

5. Religious patterns

a. Islam — predominant in Pakistan and Bangladesh, swept through central India from the 8^th through the 10^th centuries AD

b. Hinduism — predominant in India, emerged from the beliefs and practices brought to India by the Indo-Europeans (Aryans) in the 6^th century BC, world’s oldest religion, not just a religion but an intricate web of religious, philosophical, social, economic and artistic elements with no common creed, single doctrine, direct divine revelation or rigid narrow moral code

c. Buddhism — predominant in Sri Lanka, born of discontent, made the state religion of India in the 3^rd century BC, adherents objected to harsher features of Hinduism, focuses on knowledge (especially self-knowledge), the elimination of worldly desires and a determination not to hurt or kill people or animals, practically wiped out as a religion with the arrival of Islam in the 8^th century

d. Sikhism — thrives in northern India, religion created to unite warring Hindus and Muslims into a single faith

DEMOGRAPHIC CHARACTERISTICS

1. Population unevenly distributed with very densely populated areas and very sparsely populated areas

2. All countries in region have a positive rate of natural population change

3. Demographic Transition Model

    a. Stage 1 — high birth rate + high death rate = low growth rate

    b. Stage 2 — high birth rate + decreasing death rate = higher growth rate & population explosion

    c. Stage 3 — decreasing birth rate + level death rate = decreasing growth rate

    d. Stage 4 — low birth rate + low death rate = low growth rate

ECONOMIC CHARACTERISTICS

1. Few natural resources

2. Growing industrialization including high tech industries

3. Persistence of traditional agriculture with low yields and poor transport systems

4. Bureaucratic controls & state planning

5. Cultural resistance to change hinders any economic advancement for majority of people

6. Poverty

7. Malnutrition & poor health

POLITICAL CHARACTERISTICS

1. Pakistan

2. India

3. Bangladesh

4. Nepal

5. Bhutan

6. Maldives

7. Sri Lanka

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Southeast Asia

MAJOR GEOGRAPHIC QUALITIES

1. fragmented realm of numerous island countries & peninsulas

2. physiography dominated by high relief, crustal instability & tropical climates

3. characteristics of a shatter belt

4. political instability & conflict

5. clustered population patterns

6. poor intraregional communications

7. cultural fragmentation with complex ethnic, linguistic & religious patterns

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

1. high relief — mountains, glaciers, plateaus

2. rivers rise in the interiors and create alluvial plains and deltas as they move to ocean

3. ocean access (Laos landlocked)

4. irregular and indented coastlines

5. territorial morphology

a. compact — Cambodia — circular, oval or rectangular territory in which the distance from the center to any point on the boundary exhibits little variation

b. protruded — Thailand — narrow, elongated land extension leading away from the main body

c. elongated — Vietnam — decidedly long & narrow, with length at least six times greater than average width

d. fragmented — Philippines — several separate parts, not contiguous whole, individual parts may be isolated by area of other states or by international waters

e. perforated — South Africa

CULTURAL CHARACTERISTICS

1. multicultural & multiethnic despite shared ancestry

2. Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam dominate cultures

3. history of colonialism

DEMOGRAPHIC CHARACTERISTICS

1. one of least urbanized realms

2. rural based population

3. population clusters in basins & deltas

4. some countries have more than one core area

5. fast population growth

6. relatively low population density

ECONOMIC CHARACTERISTICS

1. slow economic development

2. little infrastructure & industry

3. economic growth stifled by mismanagement

POLITICAL CHARACTERISTICS

1. Vietnam

2. Cambodia

3. Laos

4. Thailand

5. Myanmar

6. Malaysia

7. Singapore

8. Indonesia

9. Brunei

10. Philippines

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Australia & NEW ZEALAND

MAJOR GEOGRAPHIC QUALITIES

1. isolation

2. peripheral development

3. highly clustered urban populations

4. changing human geography via immigration (by whom?) and activism (by whom?)

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

1. Australia — uplands to east, lowlands in center, plateau to west

2. Outback — extensive grassland pastures support one of world’s largest sheep and cattle industries, fragile environment

3. New Zealand’s North & South Islands — mainly mountainous

4. Southern Ocean — bounded by Subtropical Convergence (see box in text)

CULTURAL CHARACTERISTICS

1. indigenous peoples — 50-60,000 years, land rights

2. British heritage

3. core vs. periphery

DEMOGRAPHIC CHARACTERISTICS

1. high level of urbanization

2. peripheral settlement and development

3. population clusters

4. distance and remoteness

ECONOMIC CHARACTERISTICS

1. dependence on primary sector activities — export raw materials, depend on world markets

2. agricultural & mineral wealth

3. import-substitution industries

4. diversified but limited industry due to difficulties of foreign trade

5. small domestic/internal markets

6. tenuous trade links with Asian economies

7. pastoral economies

8. good quality of life

POLITICAL CHARACTERISTICS

1. Australia

2. New Zealand

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OCEANA

MAJOR GEOGRAPHIC QUALITIES

1. largest total land area of all geographic realms

2. smallest land area of realms

3. highly fragmented

4. high-island vs. low-island cultures

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

1. high islands — volcanic, high elevations, rugged relief, well-watered, good soil, agricultural diversity, larger populations

2. low islands — majority of islands, coral composition, low relief & elevation, frequent drought, fishing & coconut dominate economy

CULTURAL CHARACTERISTICS

1. colonized by French, British and US

2. greatly affected by island geography and dependence on seas

3. Melanesia (black) — link between Papuan and Melanesian cultures

4. Micronesia (small) — strong US influence

5. Polynesia (many) — consistent & uniform indigenous cultures face external influences

6. cultures often divided into volcanic high-island cultures and coral-based low-island cultures

DEMOGRAPHIC CHARACTERISTICS

1. population scattered due to geography

2. population larger on high islands due to relatively better conditions

ECONOMIC CHARACTERISTICS

1. tourism main economic activity

2. agriculture more successful on high islands

3. fishing on both low islands and high islands but necessary on low islands

4. few resources and isolated location hinder development (exceptions such as Papua New Guinea)

POLITICAL CHARACTERISTICS

1. Melanesia — West Irina, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, Fiji

2. Micronesia — Palau, Federated States of Micronesia, Northern Mariana Islands, Republic of the Marshall Islands, Nauru, Guam

3. Polynesia — Kiribati, Cook Islands, French Hawaii, Samoa, American Samoa, Tuvalu, Tonga, Eastern Polynesia

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Copyright © 1996 Amy S. Glenn
Last updated: 03 February 2012