Religions.—Asia has been the birth place of religions; the Jewish, Buddhist, Christian, and Mohammedan having their origin in Asia, where they grow up un der the influence of still older religions, the Babylonian and that of Zoroaster, both also of Asiatic origin. At present the inhabitants of Asia belong chiefly to the Buddhist religion, which has 530,000, 000 to 560,000,000 of followers, i. e., nearly one-third of mankind. The old faith of Hinduism has 187,000,000 of fol lowers in India. Most of the inhabitants of western Asia, as also of part of cen tral Asia, follow the religion of Islam; they may number about 90,000,000. The Christians number about 20,000,000 in Armenia, Caucasus, Siberia, and Tur kestan. Jews are scattered mostly in western central Asia.
Political Conditions.—While the coun tries beyond the great plateau entered but quite recently within the domain of West ern history, those on its Mediterranean slope have never ceased to exercise a powerful influence on Europe. At the very dawn of written history, that is, 50 centuries before our era, the great Akkadian Empire already influenced the inhabitants of the coasts of the Mediter ranean. Later on the Phoenicians extended their authority over northern Africa, and the ]Egean Sea; the Persians modified the development of Egypt; and at a very remote epoch an oasis of high civilization, grown up at the base of the Altai Moun tains, spread itself to the W. over north ern Europe. Alexander of Macedon pushed his conquests as far as Turkes tan: and, later on, Rome conquered west ern Asia. But the Greek and Arabian civilization in central Asia decayed under the raids of Mongolian tribes; the Roman empire was absorbed by the East, and fell into decay at the very confines of Asia, on the shores of the Bosphorus; the Ar sacides and Sassanides of Persia re pulsed the Roman aggression and con quered Roman provinces, while the great migrations of the first centuries of our era were due to mass movements from Asia into Europe. Ural-Altaians mi grated to the Urals and thence to Hun gary. Other Turanians, the Mervs, the Alans, the Avars, penetrated into Eu rope from the S. E. Mongols abandoned plateaus, and invaded the Russian plains; the Arabs, following the S. coast of the Mediterranean, invaded Spain; and the empire of the Osmanlis arose on the ruins of the eastern Roman empire. By these invasions, Asia arrested the free development of Europe, and compelled the Germanic, Gallic, and Slavonic fed erations to gather into powerful states of the Roman monarchical type.
Portuguese ships, rounding the Cape, founded the first European colonies in India. They were soon followed by the Spaniards, the Dutch, the French, the Danes, and the British, all endeavoring to seize the richest colonies in Asia. Rus
sia, in the course of a few centuries, con quered and colonized the northwestern slopes of the high plateau and reached the Pacific. Great Britain established herself in India, and took possession of the whole of the peninsula, and extended her power over the western parts of the Indo-Chinese Peninsula. The Portuguese retain in India only Diu, Daman, and Goa; and the French keep Chanderna gore, Yanaon, Pondicherry, Charical and Mahe. The next colonial power in Asia is the Dutch, who have under their do minion most of Borneo, Sumatra, Java, Celebes, the Moluccas and the small Sunda Islands. British and French in terests are rivals in the Indo-Chinese Peninsula, and, while Burma has be come English, the annexation by France of Tonkin and of Siamese territory E. of the Mekhong has consolidated French power in Indo-China. The joint inter vention by Russia and France in Chi nese affairs after the Japanese War of 1894-1895 further extended both French and Russian influence in Asia.
The Russo-Japanese War, which was in reality a war between the two great powers for the control of Manchuria, re sulted in the defeat of Russia and made Japan the preponderant nation in west ern Asia. She further increased her in fluence by the absorption of Korea which had become complete by 1920. China, in spite of protests for protection from the domination of Japan, had been obliged to yield in important particulars. Japan was given a stronger hold by the posses sion of Kiao-Chau peninsula, which be came her virtual property on the defeat of the Germans and the capture of Tsing tau early in the World War. For de tails in regard to the countries of Asia, see under the titles of those countries, as KOREA, CHINA, JAPAN, INDIA, etc.
Trade. — Notwithstanding the difficul ties of communication a brisk trade is carried on between the different parts of Asia, but there is no possibility of arriv ing at even an approximate estimate of its aggregate value. Asia deals chiefly in raw materials, gold, silver, petroleum, tear{, and a variety of timberwood, furs, raw cotton, silk, wool, tallow, and so on the products of her tea, coffee and spice plantations; and a yearly increasing amount of wheat and other grain. In dian cottons of European patterns and jute-stuffs already compete with those of Lancashire and Dundee. Several of the petty trades carried on in India, China, Japan, Asia Minor and some parts of Persia, have been brought to so high a perfection that the silks, printed cottons, carpets, jewelry and cutlery of partic ular districts far surpass in their artis tic taste many like productions of Eu rope.