POLITICAL. DIVISIONS OF ASIA. More than one third of Asia is included in the Russian Empire, the dominions of the Czar (Siberia, Turkestan, Transcaucasia. etc.), embracing an area of about 6,500,000 square miles, with a population of about 25,000,000. About one-fourth of Asia is included in the Chinese Empire (China Proper, Manchuria, :Mongolia, Tibet, East Turkestan, Sungaria), which has an area of over 4,000,000 square miles, with a population estimated at about 400,000,000. About one-tenth (India, Cey lon, Straits Settlements, Cyprus, Aden, etc.), is under the sway of England, whose subjects, in cluding the inhabitants of the native States of India, number over 300,000.000. Independent Arabia embraces about five per cent. of the area of Asia. An area not greatly inferior to this is included in Asiatic Turkey, which comprises Asia Minor, Armenia, Mesopotamia, Syr ia, and the Arabian territories of Hedjaz and Yemen. The subjects of the Sultan number be tween 15,000,000 and 20,000,000. Persia has an area about equal to that of Asiatic Turkey, and its population is supposed to be not far from 10, 000,000, French Indo-China (Annam, Tongking, Cambodia, Coehin China, etc.) embraces about 250,000 square miles, the population being in the neighborhood of 15,000.000. The area of Siam is nearly equal to that of Indo-China, hut it is only half as densely peopled. Afghanistan has an area of about 200,000 square miles, with a population estimated at about 5,000,000. The dominions of Japan (including Formosa) em brace about 160,000 square miles and a popula tion not far from 50,000,000. Belnchistan em braces a very thinly peopled area equal to about half that of Afghanistan. Korea is about half as extensive as the .Japanese Empire, cov (-ring about 80.000 square miles, and its popu lation is about one-filth that of the latter. The thinly peopled State of Oman, in Arabia, is about as large as Korea. in the Himalayan region are the independent States of Nepal and Bhutan, and in the Malay Peninsula there are several States under British protection. Portugal and France have small possessions in India, and Portugal, England, Germany, and Russia have establish ments on the coast of China. The great archi pelago which lies to the southeast of the Asiatic continent belongs mainly to the Netherlands, the other possessors in the order of the extent of ter ritory possessed being the United States, Great Britain, and Portugal.
See articles on the separate geographic regions of Asia, and on its rivers and mountains. See also DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS; GEOGRAPHY; MOUNTAIN.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. General Works.—Ritter, ErdBibliography. General Works.—Ritter, Erd- kande 1:011. A Sielb (Berlin, 1832-59) ; Brauer and
Platte, Handbuch der Geographic and Statistik von Asicn (Leipzig, 1804) ; Reclus, Noureno geograph ic ieersci/e, Vols. 1881-84) ; Lanier, L'Asie (Paris, 1888) ; Levas seur, La terrc nioins l'Europc (Paris, 1385) ; Sievers, Fine allgcmeine Landeskunde (Leipzig, 1892) ; Keane, "Asia," ,ttanfo•d's Com pendium of Geography and Travel (London, 1896), Physic-al Feat ures.—Berghaus, Physikalischor Atlas (Gotha, 1892) ; Hann, Handbuch der Klimatologie (Stuttgart, 1897) ; Bartholomew, Physical and Political Atlas (New York, 1901).
Flora and Fauna.—Boissier, Flora Orientalis •(Bascl, 1867-88) ; Reisseck, Die Vegetation von Niid-Asicn (Vienna, 1864) ; Annals of the Royal Botanic Gardens (Calcutta, 1887-1901) ; Wal lace, The Geographical Distribution of Animals (London, 1876) ; Gould, The Birds of Asia (id. 1850-53) ; also the authorities referred to under the separate countries.
Geology.—Suess, Das Antlitz der Erde (Leip zig. 1885 - 88) Neumayr, Erdgeschichte (id. 1895) ; Ffitterer, Die allgemei»en geologischen Ergebnisse der neuen Forschungen in Zent•al Asiev and China (Gotha, 1896) ; Suess, Beitriige zur ratigraphie Central-Asiens(Vienna, 1894) ; also the authorities referred to under the sepa rate countries.
Anthropology and Ethnology.—Of reeent lit erature on Asian peoples may be mentioned: Winkler, Ural-Altiiische Volker and Sprachen (Berlin, 1884), and the sections on Asia. in Britton, Races and Peoples (New York, 1890) ; Keane, Ethnology (Cambridge, 1896) Ratzel, History of Mankind (Translation, London, 1896 98) ; Deniker, Races of Man (ib. 1900). Very suggestive are McGee's article, "Asia, the Cradle of Humanity," and Williams's "Link Re lations of Southwestern Asia," and other essays in the Acational Geographic Magazine (Wash ington. 1901).
Travel and Exploration.—Windt, From Pekin to Calais by Lond (London, 1839) ; C. de Dccken, _I tracers l'Asie (Brussels, 1894) ; Landsdell, Russian Central Asia (London, 1885) ; Hedin, Through Asia (New York, 1899) ; Bookwalter, Siberia and Central Asia (Springfield. Ohio, 13991 ; Dedin, "Die geographisch-wissenschaft lichen Ergebnisse meiner Beisen in Zentralasien, 1893-97," in Petermann's ittheilungen, Ertpin zungshcft No. 131 (Gotha, 1900) : Dutreuil de L'Asie mantle (Paris, 1889).
Consult, also, on the political situation: Pa puwski. The Rival Powers in Central Asia (West minster, 1893) ; Curzon. Problems of the Far East (London, 1894) ; Norman, The Peoples and Politics, of the Far East (lb. 1805) ; liransse, Russia in Asia, 1558-1899 (ib. 1899) ; boon. Russia Agains4 India (New York. 1900) ; Mahan. The Problem of Asia ( Boston, 1900 ) .