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Asia is the largest continent on Earth, with 8.6% of the planetary surface (or 29.5% of land area). Eastern part of Eurasia, Asia is also the most populous continent with over 60% of the world.

Located mainly in eastern and northern hemispheres, Asia is traditionally defined as the portion of all Europe-Africa-Asia which is east of the Red Sea, Suez Canal and the Ural Mountains, and south of the Caucasus and Caspian and Black Seas. It is bounded to the east by the Pacific Ocean (South China Sea, the East China Sea, Yellow Sea, Sea of Japan Sea of Okhotsk and the Bering Sea), south by the Indian Ocean (Gulf of Aden, Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal ) and the north by the Arctic Ocean.

Asia is the largest continent on Earth, with 8.6% of the planetary surface (or 29.5% of land area). Eastern part of Eurasia, Asia is also the most populous continent with over 60% of the world.

Located mainly in eastern and northern hemispheres, Asia is traditionally defined as the portion of Eurafrásia (all Europe-Africa-Asia) which is east of the Red Sea, Suez Canal and the Ural Mountains, and south of the Caucasus and Caspian and Black Seas. It is bounded to the east by the Pacific Ocean (South China Sea, the East China Sea, Yellow Sea, Sea of  Japan Sea of Okhotsk and the Bering Sea), south by the Indian Ocean (Gulf of Aden, Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal ) and the north by the Arctic Ocean.

The history of Asia can be understood as the collective history of several distinct coastal regions – East Asia, South Asia and the Middle East – linked by the Eurasian steppe in the interior of the continent. Cities, then states and empires arose in those areas.

The coastal periphery was home to some of the oldest civilizations in the world. Each of these regions has developed a civilization along the fertile river valleys. The civilizations of Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley and China had much in common and likely exchanged technologies and ideas such as mathematics and the wheel. Other advances, such as writing developed independently in each region.

The steppe was inhabited by nomads on horseback, from the central plains, to reach any part of Asia. The first known expansion of the steppes to the coast was that of the Indo-European language family that led her to the Middle East, India and the borders of China. The northern part of the continent, corresponding to Siberia, remained inaccessible to the nomads, because of its dense forests and tundra, and remained sparsely populated.

The spare tire center and periphery are separated by mountain ranges and deserts. The Caucasus, the Himalayas, the Karakum Desert and the Gobi Desert represented barriers that the steppe horsemen exceeded with difficulty. While city dwellers were more advanced technologically and culturally, there was little they could do to defend itself militarily from the hordes from the steppes on horseback. However, the nomads who conquered states in China, India and the Middle East ended up adapt and integrate into local societies, culturally stronger.

Many great civilizations and cultures existed in Asia. Judaism and Christianity were founded in Palestine. The culture of ancient Israel was established in the second millennium BC. Alexander the Great conquered the territory that goes from modern Turkey to the Indian subcontinent in the fourth century BC The Roman Empire subsequently controlled parts of western Asia. Succeeded by the Achaemenid dynasty in Persia, Seleucid, Sassanid and leave. Many ancient civilizations were influenced by the Silk Road that linked China, India, Middle East and Europe. Hinduism, and Buddhism began in India, were also an important influence in South and East Asia.

The Islamic Caliphate and other Muslim states have taken the Middle East from the seventh century and later spread to the Indian subcontinent and the Insulinde. The Crusades, Christian Europe’s attempt to retake the Holy Land from Muslims, was followed from the twelfth century. The Mongol Empire conquered most of Asia in the thirteenth century, stretching from China to Europe. The Russian Empire began to expand into Asia in the seventeenth century, to control most of Siberia and Central Asia in the late nineteenth century. The Ottoman Empire controlled the Middle East to Turkey and from the sixteenth century. In the seventeenth century, the Manchus conquered China and established the Qing dynasty, which declined in the nineteenth and was overthrown in 1912.

Several European powers took possession of parts of Asia, British India, French Indochina and Macau and Goa, which has been under Portuguese control. In the nineteenth century, took the so-called “Great Game” between the Russian Empire and the British Empire, a battle for control of Central Asia. In the twentieth century, Japan expanded into China, Korea and Southeast Asia during the Second World War. After the war, many countries of the continent became independent of European powers. During the Cold War, the northern portion of Asia was Communist controlled by the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China, while the Western allies formed pacts like SEATO and CENTO. Representatives of the capitalist and communist blocs faced off in confrontations such as the Korean War, the Vietnam War and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. The Arab-Israeli conflict dominated much of the recent history of the Middle East. The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 gave rise to several independent countries in Central Asia.