Library: World History by Credo Reference: Asia

China

Yangtze River (China): Topic Page
Longest river of China and Asia, and third longest in the world, flowing about 6,300 km/3,900 mi from Qinghai on the Tibetan Plateau to the Yellow Sea. It is a major commercial waterway and, with its tributaries, is navigable for 30,000 km/18,640 mi; Yichang is considered the head of navigation, but ocean-going vessels can reach inland as far as Wuhan.
China: Topic Page
Since the 2d millennium B.C. a unique and fairly uniform culture has spread over almost all of China.
Chinese Dynasties: Topic Page
A table of the Chinese Dynasties from c. 2205 B.C.E. to the Qing Dynasty (1644–1912).
Warring States Period
From Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
(475–221 BC) In Chinese history, a period in which small feuding kingdoms or fiefdoms struggled for supremacy.
Great Wall of China: Topic Page
Fortifications, c.1,500 mi (2,400 km) long, winding across N China from Gansu prov. to Hebei prov. on the Yellow Sea.
Opium Wars: Topic Page
Two wars, the First Opium War (1839–42) and the Second Opium War (1856–60), waged by Britain against China to enforce the opening of Chinese ports to trade in opium. Opium from British India paid for Britain's imports from China, such as porcelain, silk, and, above all, tea.
Chinese Revolution: Topic Page
Series of great political upheavals in China between 1911 and 1949 which eventually led to Communist Party rule and the establishment of the People's Republic of China.
Mao Zedong: Topic Page
Mao Zedong (1873–1976) was a founding member of the Chinese Communist Party and the architect of China’s Communist revolution. Some of his socialist polices failed and caused much suffering and devastation for the people, but his legacy as a firm nationalist leader and the “founding father” of an independent China still inspires post-Mao generations.
Taiwan: Topic Page
An island nation which is part of China.
Tiananmen Square: Topic Page
Paved open space in central Beijing (Peking), China, the largest public square in the world. On 3–4 June 1989 more than 1,000 unarmed protesters were killed by government troops in a massacre that crushed China's emerging pro-democracy movement.

Japan

Japan: Topic Page
The divine design of the empire—supposedly founded in 660 B.C. by the emperor Jimmu, a lineal descendant of the sun goddess and ancestor of the present emperor—was held as official dogma until 1945.
Japanese: Topic Page
The citizens of Japan (capital Tokyo), who numbered over 127.5 million in 2002.
Samurai: Topic Page
The samurai was the professional warrior class that ruled Japan for almost 700 years, from the end of the 12th until the middle of the 19th century.
Ainu
From The Columbia Encyclopedia
Aborigines of Japan who may be descended from a Caucasoid people who once lived in N Asia. More powerful invaders from the Asian mainland gradually forced the Ainu to retreat to the northern islands of Japan and Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands in what is now the Russian Far East.
Hokkaido: Topic Page
It is the second largest, northernmost, and most sparsely populated of the major islands of Japan.
Honshu: Topic Page
The largest of the four main islands of Japan, between the Pacific and the Sea of Japan; regarded as the Japanese mainland.
Kyushu: Topic Page
An island of SW Japan: the southernmost of Japan's four main islands, with over 300 surrounding small islands; coalfield and chemical industries.
Shikoku
From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia
Smallest of the four main islands of Japan, south of Honshu, east of Kyushu; area 18,800 sq km/7,250 sq mi; population (2000 est) 4,154,000.

Geography

Asia: Topic Page
the world's largest continent with about 3.3 billion people, nearly three fifths of the world's total population.
Cambodia: Topic Page
A Constitutional Monarchy, Cambodia is bordered by Thailand on the west and north, by Laos on the north, by Vietnam on the east, and by the Gulf of Thailand on the south.
Indonesia: Topic Page
Country in southeast Asia, made up of 13,677 islands situated on or near the Equator, between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It is the world's fourth most populous country, surpassed only by China, India, and the USA.
Korea: Topic Page
A peninsula, 600 mi (966 km) long, Korea separates the Sea of Japan on the east from the Yellow Sea. On the south it is bounded by the Korea Strait (connecting the Sea of Japan and the Yellow Sea) and on the north its land boundaries with China and Russia.
Malaysia: Topic Page
independent federation in Southeast Asia. T
Mongolia: Topic Page
Country in east-Central Asia, bounded north by Russia and south by China.
Singapore: Topic Page
Country in southeast Asia, off the tip of the Malay Peninsula.
Thailand: Topic Page
Occupying a central position on the Southeast Asia peninsula, Thailand is bordered by Myanmar on the west and northwest, by Laos on the north and east, by Cambodia on the southeast, and by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia on the south.
Laos: Topic Page
A landlocked nation, Laos is bordered by China on the north, by Vietnam on the east, by Cambodia on the south, and by Thailand and Myanmar on the west.
Vietnam: Topic Page
Occupying the eastern coastline of the Southeast Asian peninsula, Vietnam is bounded by China on the north, by Laos and Cambodia on the west, and by the Gulf of Tonkin and the South China Sea on the east and south.
Central Asian Republics: Topic Page
Geographical region covering the territory of five nation-states: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. These republics were part of the Soviet Union before gaining their independence in 1991.
Southeast Asia: Topic Page
This region has 10 independent countries: Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Conflicts & Movements of Asia

Korean War: Topic Page
The Korean War—considered the forgotten war by some because it fell between the “good” war, World War II, and the “bad” war, Vietnam—was the first time in the nuclear age when the United States committed its forces to combat.
Vietnam War: Topic Page
Beginning in the aftermath of World War II and lasting into the 1970s, U.S. involvement in Vietnam, indeed throughout Southeast Asia, grew progressively from an advisory effort into a major war.

India

Ganges River: Topic Page
THE GANGES RIVER, 1,557 miles in length, flows eastward along the border separating the Himalayan complex and the flat expanse of the Indian subcontinent.
Indus Valley civilization: Topic Page
Ancient civilization that flourished from about 2500 B.C. to about 1500 B.C. in the valley of the Indus River and its tributaries.
Sanskrit literature: Topic Page
Literary works written in Sanskrit constituting the main body of the classical literature of India.
Mohandas “Mahatma” Gandhi: Topic Page
Gandhi’s significance as a twentieth-century philosopher, pilgrim, world leader, and writer lies in his uncompromising reliance on ahimsa—the Hindi and Buddhist doctrine of nonviolence and restraint from harming all forms of life—as a moral force for reforming and transforming unjust established authority.

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