Let's start with some |Bfigures|N: The planet that we live on is the third one in our solar system, counted from the center. The average distance to sun is about 150 million kilometres; the outermost planet - Pluto - is 40 times that far away! Only the "low" distance to sun has enabled the rise of life on our planet: The average temperature on Earth is 22°C, on Pluto -230°C, and values of more than 400°C were found on Mercury and Venus.
The periphery of Earth is about 40000 km, that makes a |Bsurface|N of more than 510 million square kilometres of which are 70% covered with water. The largest ocean is the Pacific with a surface of 166m km²; it is larger than all land on Earth! The Atlantic has about half the size, the Indian Ocean is even smaller. The biggest mainland is Eurasia with an area of 55m km², followed by Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica and Australia.
With only one |Bmoon|N Earth ranks not too good: The ring-planet Saturn has got 17 satellites.
Earth is divided into several very different |Bclimatic zones|N: The tropical, the subtropical, the temperate and the polar zones.
The humid |Itropical zone|N is located on both sides of the equator, between the Tropic of the Cancer and the Tropic of the Capricorn (shown in the map as dotted lines). The difference between the length of a day in summer and the length in winter is below three hours there, hence the temperature is quite the same throughout the year. It is about 30°C near the equator on sea-level. The only difference between the seasons is intensified rainfall in summer. Tropical regions are Brazil, Central Africa and Indonesia.
The |Isubtropical zones|N with their desert belts are farther away from the equator, therefore the difference in days' length is up to seven hours; consequently we find stronger changes of temperature during the year. The average temperature on sealevel is about 20°C. Subtropical regions are California, Florida, the Mediterranean countries, China, South Africa and the Southern part of Australia.
The |Itemperate zones|N include Southern Canada, Central Europe, vast parts of Russia, the Southern part of South America and New Zealand. They are divided into warm and cold regions. The differences of temperature between these areas are high: The values range between 0° and 25°C in Central Europe, but between -20° and 30°C in Central Asia. The quantity of precipitation shows similar differences. The temperate zones are bordered by the polar circles (dotted lines).
Inside these circles are the |Ipolar zones|N where the difference of daylength is 24 hours, i.e. the sun does not shine at all in winter, but the whole day long in summer. Temperature is usually below zero, snowfall is rare.
As different as the climate are |Bflora and fauna|N in the different regions of our planet. Please see the continent descriptions for details.
Earth is inhabited by about 5.5 billion human beings. This |Bpopulation|N is distributed in a very irregular way: We find extremely dense population in Eastern China, Japan, Java (Indonesia), around the rivers Ganga (India, Bangla Desh) and Nile (Egypt) and in some parts of Europe. On the other hand large areas like Australia or Central Asia are nearly uninhabited. Mankind is divided into several races, it has produced hundreds of languages and believes in many different religions. See the continent descriptions for details.
Today's science consideres the Australopithecus of South and East Africa as our first man-like ancestors, and the first man-made tools and gadgets were found in these regions. But mandkind's |Bhistory|N does not start before the consolidation of civilizations in the Middle East (-> Asia, Egypt), China, India, Central and South America.
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Europa
B
Europe
The Assyrians called the land of sunrise "Aszu", the land of sunset "Erep". The Phoenicians took these words in their language as "Asia" and "Europe".
If you look at a world map Europe does not seem to be a continent but a big peninsula, an appendage to Asia. But because of the numerous cultural and historical differences the division into two continents does make sense. The |Bborder|N to Asia looks like this: Ural Mountains - Ural river - Caspian Sea - Northern Caucasus - Black Sea - Bosporus - Marmara Sea - Dardanelles. From there on the border to the neighbouring continents Asia and Africa suggests itself: It is formed by the Mediterranean Sea.
Striking is the in comparision ramified |Bstructure|N, with by-seas of the Atlantic Ocean, and with islands and peninsulas that make up one third of Europe's area. We can find all imaginable types of coastline: Alluvial land at some mouths of rivers, fjords and rocky coasts in Scandinavia and the unique "Wattenmeer" of the North Sea, covered by water at high tide, and a large area of wet sand at low tide. Then it is possible to walk to places that are islands when the tide is coming back!
The |Bextent|N of Europe is more than 4000 km from North to South, and more than 4300 km from West to East. In spite of its small |Barea|N of 10.4 m. km² - it is the second smallest continent - we find many different |Btypes of countryside|N in Europe. The South consists of a belt of high mountain ranges, like the Pyrenees, the Alps (with Europe's highest mountain, Mont Blanc, 4807m), the Carpatian Mountains and the peninsulas in the Mediterranean Sea. To the North follows a belt of intermediate mountains, then a large belt of lowlands that reach from Northern France to the Ural Mountains; hence East Europe is a lowland with big rivers. Scandinavia is formed by a mountain range that continues on the British Isles. Iceland has got a very special landscape, with many volcanos and ice-covered mountains. There are many navigable rivers in Europe that are of great importance for traffic: The Rhine is the world's most traveled river.
|BClimate|N: Europe is located between 35° and 71° Northern latitude, hence nearly completely in the temperate zone; only some Mediterranean countries belong to the subtropical zone, with hot, dry summers and wet winters. The climate of West and Central Europe is positively influenced by the warm Gulf stream and maritime, i.e. mild and humid. In East Europe we find continental climate: The farther away from the coast, the bigger the contrast between hot, dry summers and hard winters with heavy snowfall. The extreme North of the continent is located in the polar zone.
|BFlora and Fauna|N are closely related to the climatic zones: The extreme North is covered by tundra with some polar animals (e.g. reindeer). This is followed by a wide belt of wood and agricultural land. Many animals have become seldom in these regions (e.g. bear, wolf, fox, badger and deer). The Mediterranean countries have got evergreen woods and much pasture-land, some subtropical animals live there (e.g. jackal). The Southern part of East Europe was a steppe, nowadays it is farming land.
Europe is densely populated, with 700 million |Binhabitants|N. The population is distributed in a very irregular way: North and East Europe are sparsely populated, while more than 500 people live on a square kilometre in the German Ruhr area, in Middle England and in the Italian Lombardia. The biggest cities are Moscow (9 million inhabitants), Paris (9m, with suburbs), London (7m) and the Turkish Istanbul (6.5m) that is located on both sides of the Bosporus, i.e. one half in Europe, one half in Asia.
The |Bpopulation|N of Europe consists nearly completely of Caucasians, about 70 indo-european languages are spoken, the most common ones are Russian and German. Nearly all Europeans that believe in a religion are Christians: We find Protestants in the North, Orthodoxes in the East and Roman Catholics in the South.
The development of Europe's |Beconomy|N was in former times favoured by mineral resources like iron and coal. Nowadays West Europe has to import many mineral and agricultural goods, in spite of its intensive farming. The most important products of European agriculture are corn, potatoes, sunflowers, sugar and meat. The Mediterranean coutries produce 50% of the world's wine and more than 70% of all olives. The economy of East Europe is dominated by producing industry, the econmy of West Europe more and more by trade and service industry; the only agricultural country is Albania. The main export goods of the European Union are machines, automobiles, chemical and electronic products.
Europe's |Bhistory|N begins around the Mediterranean Sea: The adjacent European countries formed a cultural unit with South West Asia and North Africa, of which the rest of Europe was excluded. The first European civilization had its beginnings on the island of Crete, it was continued by the |IGreeks|N on the mainland. They created the first European architecture, many different philosophical schools, and invented democratic structures. It were also the Greeks who stopped the advance of the Persians into Europe, and hence kept the opportunity of an independent European development. Today their Hellenistic culture is still the base for Western culture and Western thought.
The |IRoman Empire|N (-> Italy) became the greatest power after its victory over the North African Carthage, and speedily conquered all Mediterranean countries, Gaul (France), and parts of Germany and Great Britain. The Empire was governed by a senate and two consules, since 31 BC it was ruled by an "imperator", the first one was Julius Cæsar. Germanic tribes began to attack the Empire in the third century AD, in the forth century Christianity became official religion and Constantinople was declared new capital. The Germanic Goths plunderd Rome in 410 and only the Eastern Roman Empire survived while the Western part was divided into several Germanic kingdoms. The most important one was the Empire of the Franks that defeated the nomadic Huns that came from Central Asia in 451.
Now the |IMiddle Ages|N began in Europe while the Islam spread in South West Asia and North Africa. The division of Occident and Orient ceased the cultural unity of the Mediterranean countries.
Europe began to develop an own identity that was coined by the contrast between Pope and Frank Emperor. During the Middle Ages national differences began to show: England and France became great nations while Germany and Italy decomposed into many small, independent states. The Middle Ages ceased around 1500 when its feudal structure was replaced by principalities that were dominated by one person, the monarch.
Also at that time America was discovered and Martin Luther and other men tried a |Ireformation|N of the church that eventually lead to religious wars. The naval supremacy of the European powers lead to a Europaization and also Christianization of nearly the whole world. West Europe investigated oversease more and more while Russia started the conquest of North Asia.
Stronger and stronger became the power of kings and princes, so we finally speak about absolutism and "Grand Monarchies". 13 North American colonies declared their independency from England and constructed a republic that became a model for all European democrats. The |IFrench Revolution|N (1789-99) was the first attempt to establish a real democracy on the European continent, but the try failed because of the ruling revolutionaries' brutalty and the opposition of the rest of Europe. The French first republic was followed by the empire, and Napolean brought war over Europe. After his final defeat in 1815 Europe's monarchs tried to restore the old structures on the Congress of Vienna, but they did not really succeed: Many countries were restored within their old borders, but the heads carried the idea of democracy, constitution and equality of all men.
The |I19th century|N saw the swift industrialization of Europe. Proceeding from the coal district of Middle England mechanical production spread throughout whole West and Central Europe, the rural population started to move towards the big cities that grew enormously. The demands of industrialization also lead to the unification of Germany and Italy.
Two World Wars overshadow the |I20th century|N. After World War I the agressor Austria-Hungary split up, Germany and Russia lost territories and many republics arose, e.g. the new states Poland, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia. Lenin proclaimed the Union of the Socialist Soviet Republics in Russia in 1917, the first attempt to realize the ideas of communism and the reign of workers and farmers.
During the Depression fascist dictatorships etablished in many European countries, in Germany in 1933. Hitler's terror regime started World War II in 1939, the one with the most casualties in mankind's history. Nearly 25 million soldiers died, 6 million Jews were murdered by the Nazis, and 24 million civilists died of bombardements, hunger or other consequences of war.
Germany lost the war and was divided into two states. The former world powers France and Britain lost much of their importance, while the U.S.A. and the Soviet Union dominated world policy with their contrast. In West Europe, that was dominated by the U.S.A., ideas of cooperation and even unification came up (-> European Union), and the mother countries gave independency to most of their overseas colonies.
East Europe consisted of the Soviet Union and its satellite states, that began to refuse communism at the end of the eighties, making the re-unification of Germany in 1990 possible. In 1991 the Soviet Union ceased to exist and split up in 15 independent republics that formed a loose union. A new war began between the different ethnic groups of former Yugoslavia.
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Afrika
C
Africa
Africa received its name from the Romans that called it after the Afri Berber tribe; only the Northern part of Africa where they lived was known to the Romans.
Africa is located between the Atlantic and the Indian Ocean. The |Bdelimitation|N suggests itself: The continent is divided from Europe by the Strait of Gibraltar and the Mediterranean Sea, from Asia by the Suez Canal and the Red Sea. Therefore the Egyptian Sinai peninsula is part of Asia.
The |Bextension|N from North (Cape Blanc) to South (Cape Agulhas) is 7900 km, from West (Cape Verte) to East (Ras Hafun) 7400 km. Africa covers an area of 30.3 m km², making it the second largest continent after Asia. Africa is nearly not subdivided at all: The coastline is only 30500 km long, in comparison: The coast of Norway with all its fiords is 20000 km long!
|BLand forms:|N Africa consists mostly of highlands that fall away in terraces to the sea. The Atlas in the North is the only long mountain-range. The East is characterized by the deep rift that begins in Mozambique and ends in the Red Sea. The development of this rift caused strong volcanic activity that produced some very high mountains like the Kilimanjaro (5895m) which is snow-covered throughout the year. Africa houses the world's longest river, the Nile, and the world's largest desert, the Sahara.
Due to Africa's location on both sides of the equator, the |Bclimate|N is mostly tropical, i.e. hot and wet all year round. Starting at the equator we can follow several belts of vegetation to North and South: tropical rain forest, humid savanna, arid savanna, desert and finally the region of sclerophyllous evergreens at the Mediterranean coasts and around Cape Town. There are several animals that only live in Africa, e.g. gorilla, chimpanzee, giraffe, zebra and hippopotamus.
The |Bpopulation|N of Africa (670 m. inhabitants) consists at 80% of Negroes, in the North live Caucasians. Negro languages are spoken in "Black Africa", Arabic in the North, Hamito-Semitic languages in the North East, English and Afrikaans in South Africa. In many countries the language of the former mother country is officially used. Islam dominates the Northern half of Africa, ethnic religions and Christianity the Southern half. The biggest city is the Egyptian metropolis of Cairo with 6 m. inhabitants. Africa is the continent with the biggest food problems and the least average lifetime.
Producing and service industry are only developed in the Republic of South Africa and some Arabian countries of the North that export oil. The |Beconomy|N of the remaining Africa is based on agriculture and the exploitation of mineral resources: West Africa houses half the cocoa production of the world, other useful plants are oil and date palms and sisal hemp. The most important mineral resources are diamonds (world's leading producer: Zaire, 28% of the total production), gold (South Africa [RSA]: 50%), platinum (RSA: 40%), chrome (RSA: 29%), manganese (RSA: 20%), cobalt (Zaire: 53%), copper, tin, bauxite (Guinea: 16%) and uranium (RSA: 27%).
|IThe following outline of |Bhistory|N|I is obviously written with the views of a European; it contains little about the cultures of "Black Africa" before the colonial times, because there is hardly any knowledge about that.|N
Africa is considered "birthplace of mankind"; it was there that the evolution of the Australopithecus, ancestor of the homo sapiens, took place, and in Africa the oldest manmade tools were found. The history that is known to us begins in the North East with the old Empire of the Egyptian Pharaos, that never lost its politic and economic importance, not even when it lost its independency. In the Western part of North Africa the Phoenician metropolis of Carthage became an important trading and sea-faring power until it was defeated by the Romans in 202 BC, and later all Mediterranean countries of Africa belonged to the Roman Empire. Beginning in Egypt in 642 AD the Islamic Arabs began to conquer North and East Africa; their caliphate at times reached from the Atlantic to Mesopotamia (Iraq).
In the 15th century the Portugueses began to establish small settlements along the coasts, the Dutch, English, French and Danish followed them. These nations controlled the lucrative trade with black slaves to the American plantations. The exploration of inner Africa did not begin before 1788 when the African Society was founded in London: Until 1830 the course of the Niger was explored, since 1840 the upper course of the Nile and the great lakes. Southern Africa was explored e.g. by the Englishman Livingstone. The continent was quite well known to the Europeans about 1885.
At that time Africa was completely divided between the European powers, only Abyssinia (Ethiopia) and Liberia remained independent. Nearly the whole of North West Africa and vast parts of West Africa were French, the North of Algeria was even declared part of the mother country and many Frenchmen settled there. Egypt, Sudan, Nigeria, Kenya, Zambia, South Africa and many other lands were British; Togo, Cameroon, Tanzania and Namibia German; Angola and Mozambique Portuguese; Zaire Belgian; Libya Italian; West Sahara (Rio de Oro) Spanish. The borders of the colonies were drawn without considering cultural and political facts: Some tribes and nations were divided by the new borders, while other clans and peoples saw themselves unified with their enemies.
Germany lost all its colonies after World War I, which extended the British possessions from Cairo to Cape Town, until Egypt won its independency in 1922. Italia annexed Abyssinia in 1936; East and North Africa were theatres of war in World War II. Great Britain and France started political reforms after 1945 and national consciousness raised among the people. Both facts led to the decolonialization of Africa; especially in the years 1956-60 many colonies received independency. Not everywhere this process was peaceful: Algeria won its sovereignity in a bloody war and most French settlers left the country.
The arbitrary drawing up of the borders has shown extremely negative results since that. In many countries the positions of power were taken over by one single ethnic group, usually that one which lives around the capital and has therefore received best support during colonial times. Other ethnic groups fight against them, maybe want to establish their own state; often that leads to civil war. At the moment there is war in about 15 African countries.
To counteract these tendencies, the Organization of African Unity (OAU) was founded in 1963. Nearly all African countries have become members by now.
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Asien
D
Asia
The Assyrians called the land of sunrise "Aszu", the land of sunset "Erep". The Phoenicians took these words in their language as "Asia" and "Europe".
The |Bborder|N between Asia and Europe was established like that: Ural mountains - Ural river - Caspian Sea - North Caucasus - Black Sea - Bosporos - Marmara Sea - Dardanelles - Mediterranean Sea. Asia is divided from Africa by the Suez Canal, from America by the Bering Strait. Indonesia belongs to Asia except for the island of New Guinea.
You see that the map provides a wrong impression of Asia's |Bsize|N, because North Asia and Indonesia are missing nearly completely. In fact this gigantic continent covers 44m km², nearly a third of the Earth's land. The |Bextension|N from North to South is 8500km, from West to East more than 11000km, that is eleven time zones!
Asia's structure is very ramified; islands and peninsula make about a quarter of its total area. The European |Btypes of countryside|N continue in Asia: West Siberia is a wide lowland which is followed by the mountains of Central and East Siberia. The mountain chains of Europe continue in Asia Minor (Turkey), Iran, Afghanistan and reach maximum height in Himalaya, with 14 peaks higher than 8000 metres (Mt. Everest, 8848m). Where the mountain chains branch, they enclose tablelands like Tibet. Asia's average sealevel is 925m, making it the highest continent. To the South of the mountains there are three large peninsulas: Arabia, India and Further India.
In the Pacific, to the East of Asia, there are several island chains and the deepest sea rifts of Earth: The deepest place on Earth's surface was found in the Mariana rift: 11022m under sealevel. Volcanic eruptions often take place at that part of the World. Asia is not only home of the only mountains higher than 8000m, but also of many of longest rivers, like Ob, Jenisej and Lena that flow into the Arctic Ocean. Central Asia has no outlet, i.e. the rivers there do not flow into the Oceans, but into salt lakes like the Aral Sea or the Caspian Sea which is larger than Germany. Moreover the deepest lake that is also the one with the water is there: Lake Bajkal.
As big as the continent are the differences in |Bclimate|N: In the far North it is polar, in the center extremely continental, i.e. the summers are very hot, the winters very hard. In some parts of Siberia temperature reaches -60°C in winter! China, India and Further India are influenced by the monsoon, a wind that produces world's heaviest rainfall in summer. The climate of Indonesia is tropical, Arabia has subtropical desert climate.
|BFlora and fauna|N of Asia are uniquely diverse: Along the North coast there is a tundra (polar steppe) which is up to 1000km wide and home of some polar animals. More to the South there is the belt of Siberian forests (taiga) where many animals live that are hunted because of their furs. West and Central Asia are covered by steppes and deserts, animals are antilopes and camels. In Tibet and the Himalaya there are Yaks and Yetis (?). Japan and Korea are woodland, South and East Asia are covered by forests, steppes and cultivated land. Tropical rainforests grow in South East Asia. In the regions listed at the end there are apes, hippos, elefants, tigers and many kinds of snakes, insects and birds.
Asia is not only the largest continent, with the highest mountains, the largest and the deepest lake, as well as the coldest place on Earth, but also the most inhabitants, more than three billion! This is more than half the world's |Bpopulation|N. The lowlands of India, Bangla Desh, East China, Japan and Java are some of the most densely population regions of all, on the other hand North and Central Asia are nearly uninhabited. The biggest metropoles are Tokyo-Yokohama (more than 20m inhabitants), Shanghai (13m), Beijing and Calcutta (11m both).
The population consists mostly of Mongoloid and Caucasian people, numerous languages are spoken, e.g. Russian, Arabian, Indo-European, Sino-Tibetan and Uralo-Altaic languages. Just in India there are 40 languages and more than 700 dialects.
Asia is home of todays most important religions. The most common one is Buddhism, to be found in Mongolia, Further India, Japan and China where it is suppressed by the government. India is Hindu, Indonesia and the Middle East except for Israel are Islamic. Christian nations are Armenians, Georgians, Russians and Filipinos.
Asia's |Beconomy|N is concentrated in the Middle East and the Pacific region: Japan is the second biggest national economy after the U.S.A.; South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore are other important industrial nations, Malaysia is coming close to them. The wealth of the Middle East is due to the oil resources, only Saudi-Arabia, the U.A.E. and Israel have some producing industry. The Asian part of the former Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China are not developed that far because of the long time under socialist government. India and other countries not mentioned belong to the third world.
Agriculture is most intense in the monsoon regions of South and East Asia where the most traditional plant is rice. Other crops include wheat, millet, sugar, tea, peanuts, coconut- and oil-palms, as well as tobacco. Mineral resources and industrial branches are too different to be described here, sorry. See the country descriptions for details.
Asia's |Bhistory|N was for a long time dominated by the contrast between advanced civilizations around the great rivers of Mesopotamia (Iraq), India and China, and the hostile nomads on the other hand. |IBut to write one single text about the history of Asia is still impossible, therefore we take a look on the history of the Middle East first:|N
Rural civilizations with cultivation of grain and cattleraising had been established in West Asia since the 7th millenium BC, and mankind founded its first cities, like Jericho (Israel). Painted pottery and bronze were were used since the 5th millenium. At about 3600 BC the potter's wheel was invented and some decades later the first waggons were built. The geographical and climatic conditions around the rivers of Mesopotamia and Egypt were a challenge that man could only overcome together, like the irrigation of great areas. This lead to the establishment of political communities with a strong centralization:Since 3000 BC god-kings ruled Egypt and Sumer (Mesopotamia) where Sargon I. of Akkad founded the first world empire in history that reached from the Persian Gulf to the Meditteranean Sea around 2300 BC, but it ceased to exist when the Gutaians invaded 2150 BC.
Around 1200 BC important changes took place in West Asia: The old nations of the Bronze Age were conquered by new states whose military power was based on iron, horses and waggons. Assyrians, Babylonians, Hethitians and Egypts came to power one after another, until the Persian Empire established since about 500 BC. Coming from Greece, Alexander the Great conquered Asia Minor, Egypt, Syria, Mesopotamia and Persia to the river Indus around 330 BC. But the empire disintegrated soon after his death. The Seleucides ruled most parts of the Middle East. At Christ's birth the Mediterranean countries belonged to the Roman Empires, Mesopotamia and Persia formed the Parthian Empire.
What happened in Arabia until the 7th century AD is unknown, but then it becomes the center of the spreading Islam: Muhammad settled in Mecca in 622 and when he died in 632 he had already conquered vast parts of Arabia. His successors called themselves "Caliphes". Until Ali's death Medina was capital of the Caliphate, later on Damascus and Bagdad. The Caliphate of the Omayyads (661-749) reached from Morocco and Spain until Persia. But the Caliphate disintegrated and was defeated by the Mongolian nomads in 1258. The Ottoman Empire was founded in Asia Minor in 1301 and captured Constantinople (Istanbul) in 1453. This was the doom of the Byzantine Empire that was the successor of the East Roman Empire. The Ottomans ruled over the Arabian coasts, Egypt, Mesopotamia and South East Europe until the 18th century and twice besieged Vienna. But decline began amongst the Ottomanes and England could occupy Egypt in 1882, and some parts of Arabia later on. In World War I. the Ottoman Empire was one of the losers and it ceased to exist. The heartland Turkey remained independent, while the winners claimed the other lands: Syria and Lebanon became French, Saudi-Arabia independent, the rest (Iraq, Palestine, etc.) English. After World War II these poor regions suddenly became rich because of their oil resources, so England kept some of them until the seventies. The recent decades in that region are dominated by the contrast between the souvereign nation Israel (independent in 1948) and its Arabic neighbours, that lead to several wars which Israel won.
Iran (Persia) has its special history: After the Caliphate the Empire of the Seljuks established that reached to Kazakhstan. 1502 a sheik declared himself "Shah" and Shiite Islam became official religion. In the 18th century Iran was occupied by Afghanistan for a while, 1906 it received constitution and parliament, Islamic Republic was declared in 1979.
|INow a quick glance on the history of the other parts of Asia:|N The old Chinese civilization that developed in the 2nd millenium BC was dominant in whole East Asia. At that time, during the Shang dynasty, bronze works and a writing were created. About 1000 BC the rulership of the Zhou took place; this time is also called the "Golden Era". Hundreds of philosophical schools established, e.g. the one of Confucius. Fights between the rulers lead to a unified Empire Ts-in with the first Emperor whose government was based on a mighty army. In 206 BC the Han dynasty was founded and China began to expanded to Vietnam, Korea and Turkestan. So the Huns were driven out westward and invaded Europe in the 5th century AD.
Later on the empire disintegrated and was reunified in 960 AD. Since that it has remained a political unit. Under Jengis Khan the Mongols invaded China, occupied Beijing in 1215 and the other parts of the country until 1280. Their Empire for the first time unified West, Central and East Asia. When they declined Russia began to expand eastwards and became direct neighbour and rival of China.
First finds of an early civilization in India date from the third millenium BC; at that time writing was already known. About 1500 BC Arian people invaded India and invented the caste system because they did not want to mix up with the natives. Ashuka (273-232 BC) was the first to unify India and Buddhism began to spread, until it was succeeded by Hinduism in the 4th century. Later on India disintegrated again, many small states established.
The ancient geographer Ptolmaius had heard of Sri Lanka and Malaya, but more details reached Europe not before the Middle Ages when Marco Polo traveled to China. The Arabs had been trading with East Asia for a long time when the first Europeans came there in the 18th / 19th century by sea. Because of their absolutely surpreme weapons the English could colonialize India and Burma, the Dutch Indonesia and the French some parts of Further India. China and Japan were forced to open up for foreign trade. Japan managed to adapt to Western technology in a few decades and became a rival of the established Asian powers. In World War II Japan occupied East China, Further India and Indonesia, but the aggressor was defeated by the U.S.A. finally, that used two atomic bombs for the first time in history.
Socialism established on the Chinese mainland in 1945-9 while Taiwan declared independent. At that time England and Holland gave souvereignity to their colonies. The French colonies began to fight for their independency in 1954, Vietnam was divided in a Socialist Northern part and a Southern part that was supported by the U.S.A. After they had already intervened in the Korean War they also did so when war began between both parts of Vietnam. The North won and the U.S. lost the first war in their history.
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Australien und Ozeanien
E
Australia and Oceania
Australia received its name because it is the only continent that is located completely on the Southern hemisphere: "australis" is the Latin word for "Southern".
The map provides a wrong impression of the Oceania's |Bborders|N because only a part of Indonesia belongs to it but a much larger area of the Pacific. Apart from Australia the continent consists of the islands to the North and East of it, like New Guinea, New Zealand, Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia.
|BAustralia|N covers 7.7 m km² and is the smallest continent, also the most isolated one: It is only adjacent to Asia, but divided by 13000 km of water from South America and 9000 km from Africa. It is 3800 km from West to East and 3300 km from North to South. About three quarters are a large tableland that consists mostly of deserts and steppes, in the North is some tropical rainforest. The Eastern part of the continent and the island of Tasmania is occupied by a mountain range with Mount Kosciusko (2228 m) as its highest peak. Agriculture is only possible in East and South East Australia. Most Australian rivers do not reach the sea, they evaporate in the dry center. The climate is hot with little rainfall, flora and fauna are unique: Australia is home of the eucalypt, and only there we find marsupials like the kangaroo.
The most important mineral resources are coal, gold, iron, lead, zinc and nickel; there are no important producing industries. You find more detailes on population, economy and history in Australia's country description text.
|BNew Guinea|N is geologically a part of Australia, because it is located on the same continental shelf. It is the world's second largest island after Greenland, with quite a strange shape. There are several parallel mountain ranges that reach up to 5000 m. Rivers have created a wide alluvial land in the South with many swamps.
|BNew Zealand|N consists of fold mountains that reach 3764 m in Mount Cook. Many fiords and U-shaped valleys are witnesses of former glaciers.
The mountains of New Zealand continue in the islands of |BMelanesia|N with New Caledonia (huge nickel resources) and the Solomon Islands.
The Marianas, Carolinas (more than 900 islands) and the Marshall Islands belong to |BMicronesia|N, |BPolynesia|N is to the East of them: Fiji, Tonga and Samoa are part of it. Hawaii and Galapagos are not part of any of these three groups.
The giant geographical distance between the island makes it impossible to write one single description about all of them, therefore just a few words about |Bhistory|N: While Australia has been inhabited by the Aborigine people for 40000 years, scientists assume that Polynesia was not settled before 1000 BC, New Zealand not before 950 AD where the Maroi culture developed. Magalhaes was the first European to sail through the Pacific Ocean, but Europeans knew nearly nothing about it before the voyages of Cook (18th century). The colonialization began in 1828 with Dutch claims of Western New Guinea and on the Conference of Washington France, the United Kingdom, Japan and the United States divided the Pacific Ocean between them. In World War II Japan conquered many of the islands but was finally defeated by the United States. The French colonies became part of the French Republic in 1946, most other territories have become independent by now.
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Nordamerika
F
North and Central America
The first one to tell the general public about the newly discovered continent was Amerigo Vespucci. To his honour the "New World" was named after his Christian name.
America is obviously divided into two parts: The North American continent that Central America and the Carribean islands belong to has clear |Bborders|N: The one to South America is the only 48 km wide Isthmus of Panama, from Asia it is divided by the 75 km wide Bering Strait. North America is 8700 km from North to South and nearly 6000 km from East to West. The |Bsize|N is 24.2 m km², making it the third largest continent after Asia and Africa. North America has a subdivided structure: Nearly a quarter of its area is made by peninsulas ans islands, among them Greenland, the largest in the world.
|BTypes of countryside|N: The West side of North America is covered by the Rocky Mountains which are up to 1700 km wide and often more than 4000 m high. Highest peak is Mount McKinley (6193 m) in Alaska. To the East there is the lowland of the Canadian Shield with all its lakes, and the flat tableland of the prairies that lower towards the world's third longest river, Mississippi-Missouri. On the East there are the intermediate Appalachians that are followed by another low land towards the coast. The Rocky Mountains continue through Central America, the only lowlands there are the Yucatan peninsula and some stripes along the Pacific coast. The islands of the Carribean are divided into three groups: Great Antilles (Cuba, Haiti, Jamaica, Puerto Rico), Lesser Antilles and the Bahama islands. The coast of the North East are usually flat and rocky, the ones in the South East alluvial land coasts. In the West they are mostly mountainous, with many islands and fiords in the North.
It is amazing that all mountain ranges of North America run from North to South, not a single one from West to East. This has a strong influence on the |Bclimate|N: Heat waves reach Northern Canada in the summer while polar streams of air go down to Mexico in winter. That's why Chicagos average temperature in January in -8°C although it is more southward then Rome. In general the climate is mostly intermediate. Greenland, the Canadian islands and Alaska have polar climate; the Canadian West coast has wet, cool and maritime climate that becomes dry and warm in California. In the Center and the South there is a dry continental climate with hot summers, the East side is quite humid. The climate of Central America is tropical and divided into three grades of sealevel: the hot land (tierra caliente, up to 600m), the intermediate land (tierra templada, 600m - 1800m) and the cold land (tierra fria, more than 1800m high).
Nicaragua divides the tropical rainforests of South America from the semi-tropical |Bplants|N of Central America with oaks, pines and cactuses. Some typical |Banimals|N are sloth, tapir, armadillo and anteater. The U.S. are covered by vast grass steppes (prairies) that are cultivated land nowadays. In former times there lived buffaloes, antilopes, pumas and snakes. The mountains and most parts of Canada and Alaska are covered by forests. The Northernmost part is a tundra and Greenland lies buried under a thick ice sheet.
North and Central America have about 420 million |Binhabitants|N, more than half of them living in the U.S. Anglo America's population consists nearly completely of descendants of the European immigrants, only the sparsely populated regions of Northern Canada and Alaska are settled by Indians and Esquimaux. Most inhabitants of Central America are mestizoes, i.e. descendants of both Europeans and Indians. Blacks are to be found especially in the Carribean and the U.S. where they make about 12% of the population. Most people in Canada and the U.S. speak English and are Protestants while most Central Americans use Spanish and are Catholics. French is spoken in Quebec (East Canada) and Haiti. The biggest cities of the continent are Ciudad de Mexico (agglomeration: 19.5m) and New York (agg: 18m).
The |Beconomy|N is concentrated in Canada and the world's greatest national economy, the United States. Vast parts of the continent are cultivated (maize, wheat, millet, soya, cotton and tobacco), mineral resources include uranium (world's leading producer: Canada), hard coal (20% of the world's production in the Appalachians), oil, gas, silver (16% of w.p. in Mexico), copper, iron and nickel. Most important export goods are machines, vehicles and chemical products.
|BHistory|N: The settling of America by the Indians began about 40000 BC when they immigrated via a land bridge from Siberia to Alaska. While the nations of the North remained in Stone Age, the Central American Indians developed advanced civilization that did astonishingly well without knowing neither wheel nor plough.
The probably most strange one among these cultures were the Mayas that created a complicated calender which was important for all manners of life. They also invented writing and a numeric system based on 20 that even knew zero. They settled on Yucatan since 600 BC where they built giant temples like Tikal or Palenque. About 900 AD they were abandoned and the Maya civilization collapsed, but their language is still alive today.
The greatest power of Central America were the Aztecs that immigrated to Mexico about 1100 AD where they were surrounded by older and more advanced states to whose culture they swiftly assimilated. The rulers were a chief for peace-time who was also high priest, and a chief for war. With diplomacy and military victories they quickly increased their power. In 1370 they founded their capital Tenochtitlán (todays Mexico city) and in the 15th century they built up splendid temple pyramids, palaces and aqueducts. They did not create a real "empire" but since Montezuma I (1440-69) until the Spanish conquista they dominated nearly all tribes in an area as large as Germany.
About 1000 AD the Vikings traveled to Greenland and Newfoundland, but most people consider Colombus as the "discoverer" who made landfall on a Bahama island in 1492. Columbus was sponsered by the Spanish government and so it happened that Spain was the first European nation to occupy parts of America. About 1510 they made landfall on the isthmus of Panama and in 1513 Balboa was the first European to see the Pacific Ocean. Cortez conquered the lands of the Aztecs in 1519-21 which could only be done because the Aztecs invited the Spaniards into their capital where Cortez captured Montezuma II. Whole Central America became the vice-kingdom of New Spain now reaching up to California and Florida. The natives of the Carribean islands were killed during a few decades. Many of these islands changed their mother country very often between Spain, France, England, the Netherlands and Denmark.
The English established their first permanent settlement in Virginia in 1606, the Dutch founded New Amsterdam (New York) in 1614, the Swedish Delaware. But these two colonies became English quite soon, only the French around River St. Lawrence could maintain their power until the Seven-Years' War when they lost Canada to the British crown. Because of high taxes but no representation in the English parliament 13 colonies declared independent in 1776 and fought against their mother country. In 1783 England recognized the independency of the United States that quickly expanded westwards. |ISee the country description for further details of the U.S. history!|N
Indian rebellions took place in Mexico since 1810, a Spanish general declared himself emperor in 1822, and 1824 repulic was proclaimed. 1821 Guatamala declared independency that reached til Panama at that time. Only Cuba and Puerto Rico remained Spanish now until the U.S. forced their release in 1898. They also intervented in Haiti and Nicaragua, giving them a bad reputation in Latin America. After World War I. the U.S. became the World's leading political and economic power. Canada became completely independent in 1931.
Nearly all American countries were on side of the U.S. in World War II. Their contrast to the Soviet Union determined the further politics. This "Cold War" reached its climax when the Soviet Union placed nuclear weapons on the Socialist Cuba. The fear of a nuclear war fortunately lead to the removing of the missiles. In recent years the U.S. still tend to investigate in Central America, e.g. in Grenada (1983), Panama (1989) and Haiti (1994).
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Südamerika
G
South America
The first one to tell the general public about the newly discovered continent was Amerigo Vespucci. To his honour the "New World" was named after his Christian name.
The |Bborders|N of South America are obvious: There is only a land bridge to Central America, the 45 km wide (narrow) Isthmus of Panama. Besides Antartica it is the continent closest to the South Pole. Its |Barea|N is 17.8 m km², the |Bextension|N from North to South (Cape Hoorn) is about 7500 km, from East to West about 5100 km.
|BTypes of countryside|N: The Andes or Cordilleras run through the West side of South America, reaching 7010 m in Mount Aconcagua. To the East are intermediate mountains and large table lands: The mountains of Guiana, the Brasilian mountains and the Patagonian table land. Between them are the giant lowlands of the Amazon (no other river contains more water), Paraguay-Paraná and Orinoco, all flowing into the Atlantic.
The |Bclimate|N is mostly tropically hot, especially in the Amazon area. In Patagonia and the high areas of the Andes it is temperate. The biggest part of the continent has much rainfall, only the West coast is very dry: The Atacama desert is the place in the world with the least rainfall.
The Amazon area is covered by the largest rainforest on Earth that is threatened by chopping down and burning. The |Bflora|N of the Brasilian mountains and the Northern llanos are humid savannas, in the South there are grass steppes (pampas), dry forests and a wide belt of cultivated land. The |Bfauna|N is rich with special animals: tapirs, llamas, unique kinds of giant snakes and monkeys.
The |Bpopulation|N consists mostly of Red Indians with many very different languages. Politics and economy are mostly dominated by the descendants of European immigrants (creoles) and mestizes (descendants of both Europeans and Indians). All South American countries have Spanish as the official language, except for Brazil where Portuguese is spoken. The Roman Catholic Church is the only important religious community. The population reaches nearly 300 millions, about half the people live in Brazil. The density of population is quite low, only the high lands of Colombia and the land around some coast cities like São Paulo (c. 10m) is densely populated.
The |Beconomy|N of the continent is dominated by agriculture, with a strong attempts of industrialization. Brazil is the world's leading producer of coffee and sisal hemp, other products include cacoa, sugar, soya and citrus fruits. Cattleraising becomes more and more important, but the most important export good of many Andes countries still are illegal drugs. Mineral resources include silver, copper and pewter; Brazil is a leading steel producer. Other industrial goods are machines, metal products and clothes.
|BHistory:|N The settlement of South America began before 12000 BC. Agriculture starts in Peru about 4000 BC and pottery has been used in Colombia since 3000 BC. The first buildings of stone were created in the first millenium BC and at that time the first temple pyramids of adobe were built that reached the size of 800m * 400m and 35m height in later periods (Huaca Juliana near Lima). It is astonishing that neither wheel nor plough were known before the arrival of Columbus, not even to the Incas.
The Inca were originally a clan of the Quechua indians on the plateaus of Southern Peru, later on the reigning class of the Inca Empire, formed in the 12th century AD. The rulers were adored as sun gods and their empire reached from Ecuador through Peru and Bolivia to North Chile. Based on the cultivation of maize with artificial irrigation it was the greatest political creation of the American Indian. Power was maintained with a network of large military roads, some of them still conserved today. Writing was unknown, but communication through knotted strings.
Very soon after Columbus' landfall on the Bahama islands the Spanish started the Conquista of South America. Pizarro conquered Peru with quite a small army and founded Lima in 1535. Until 1539 the highlands of Colombia were conquered, some years later some Southern parts of the continent. The vice-kingdom of Peru was founded in 1543. The motivation of this conquista was the hope to find the fabulous land of gold, El Dorado.
Portugal acted as a colonial power besides Spain, after the Pope's Line had divided the New World into two parts for these Catholic countries. Cabral captured Brazil in 1500, a large-scale plantation agriculture established. The English, Dutch and French occupied some small areas in the North East, in Guyana.
The upper class of the colonial society was the land-owning noblemen; the masses were the natives that were de jure free after Indian slavery was forbidden. The import of African slaves as plantation workers began in the 16th century.
In the 18th century New Granada (Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela), Rio de la Plata (Bolivia, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay) and Chile were divided from the Peruvian vice-kingdom. The deposing of Spain's king by Napoleon let the colonies without government and was reason to establish own authorities: A struggle for independence began that finally lead to the creation of many independent republics. Brazil declared itself an Empire in 1822, and since 1830 the states of South America have nearly todays borders.
Although the continent saw many revolutions and civil wars, a rapid economic raise took place that lead to a large-scale immigration from Europe, especially from Spain and Italy. This development was stopped by the depression that began in 1929: The sinking prices for raw goods hit South America hard and caused unemployment and migration towards the cities, many dictators established. Nearly all Latin American states stood on side of the U.S.A. in World War II. The Organization of American States (OAS) was founded in Bogotá in 1948. In the last decades militaries came to power in many countries, but some of them have already become democratic again in the last years.
The last European dependency in South America is French Guyana where the rockets of the European Space Association (ESA) have take-off.
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Antarktika
H
Antarctica
Antarctica is located in the Southern polar zone, opposite to the Arctic Pole. Due to this fact it has received its name: The Greek prefix "anti" means "opposite to". The |Bborders|N of Antarctica are obvious, because it is divided from all other continents by the sea.
The |Barea|N of Antarctica is 14.1 m. km² (including the ice shelf), it is nearly completely located inside the Southern polar circle.
|BTypes of countryside|N: Only some coasts and a few rocky summits are visible. The rest of the continent is buried unter a connected ice sheet that is up to four kilometres thick! This ice contains the greatest resources of fresh water on Earth.
The |Bclimate|N of Antarctica is definitely inhospitable: The average summer temperatures amount to -28°C, the winter values even to -50°C in the dry centre. Though it is very calm there on contrary to the stormy coasts.
Only very few |Bplants and animals|N are to be found in this continent, the most popular ones are of course the penguins.
The only "|Binhabitants|N" of Antarctica are several thousand scientists, whose 36 stations are spread over the whole continent. The greatest one is the American McMurdo with up to 1800 employees in summer.
Although Antarctica has no real population, it has a |Bhistory|N: James Cook was the first man to cross the Southern polar circle in 1773, Palmer made landfall on Graham peninsula in 1820. The run for the South Pole started a few decades later: The Norwegian Amundsen reached it in December 1911, three weeks before the British Scott arrived. Several nations claimed sectors of Antarctica, some of them overlapping. In 1959 the Antarctica treaty was signed in Washington D.C. whose major aim is the conservation of flora and fauna. The land claims were "frozen" (a word that matches) by the treaty. In April 1991 the signatories decided not to prospect the mineral resources until 2041. Whaling around Antarctica was forbidden in 1994.
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Mittelamerika
I
Central America is geographically a part of North America. Please read the description of this continent!
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Vorderasien
J
The Middle East is a part of Asia. Please read the description of this continent!
