Notes

Chapter 28: Human Geography of East Asia
Section 1: China

Main Ideas
• China is the world’s most populous country.
• China has been the dominant culture of East Asia since ancient times.


Places & Terms
Dynasty
Spheres of influence
Boxer Rebellion
Mao Zedong
Confucianism
Taoism
Buddhism


China’s Early History

• China is the world’s oldest continuous civilization.
• The beginnings of that civilization extend back into the mists of prehistory.
• Because of China’s geography—the long distances that separated it from Europe and other continents—it followed its own direction.

EARLY CIVILIZATION AND THE DYNASTIES
• China has been a settled society for more than 4,000 years. In its earliest days, China was made up of a number of Stone Age cultures.
• Then it was ruled by dynasties. A dynasty is a series of rulers from the same family.
• The first Chinese dynasty was the Shang. This dynasty arose during the 1700s B.C.
• It ruled a central area in China for about 600 years until it was overthrown by the Zhou Dynasty, which ruled part of northern China.
• The next important dynasty, the Qin (chihn), gave its name to China.
• In 221 B.C., the Qin Dynasty united a number of smaller states under a strong central government and established an empire.
• The first Qin emperor was Shi Huangdi, the builder of the Great Wall.
• The Chinese empire, ruled by different dynasties, lasted for more than 2,000 years.
• Another important Chinese dynasty was that of the Han.
• These rulers pushed the empire into central Asia, home to many nomadic tribes. Many other dynasties followed over the centuries.
• In 1644, the Manchu people of Manchuria invaded China and established the Qing (chihng) Dynasty.
• In 1911, the Manchus were overthrown by revolutionaries, and this ended the dynasties and the Chinese empire.

China Opens Up to the World

• Even though China remained isolated from other regions for centuries, that started to change in the 13th century.
• At that time, European travelers began to visit China.
• Marco Polo, for example, traveled from Venice, Italy, to China in the 13th century and wrote a book about his adventures, The Travels of Marco Polo.
• China and Europe had few contacts until the 19th century, when European powers sought access to Chinese markets.
• At that point, China had a weak military and an ineffective government.
• Europeans took advantage of China and forced it to sign a series of treaties that granted special privileges to the Europeans.
• Consequently, China was carved up into spheres of influence controlled by Britain, France, Germany, Russia, and Japan.
• This outside control angered China, which burst forth in the Boxer Rebellion of 1900.
• Chinese militants attacked and killed Europeans and Chinese Christians in China.
• A multinational force of about 20,000 soldiers finally defeated the Boxers.



REVOLUTION AND CHANGE
• After the Boxer Rebellion, the Qing Dynasty, founded by the Manchus, attempted to reform the Chinese government, but it was too late.
• Many individuals and groups wanted to form a republic, which would give the people a voice in their government.
• In 1912, Sun Yat-sen and others founded the Kuomintang, or Nationalist Party.
• However, the republic, led by Sun Yat-sen, was undermined by civil war throughout China.
• When Sun Yat-sen died in 1925, a general named Chiang Kai-shek took over the Nationalist Party.
• Chiang’s troops fought against the warlords of China and united most of the country in the 1920s.
• However, throughout the 1920s and 1930s, the Chinese Communist Party became an increasingly powerful force in China.
• The Nationalists and the Communists fought for control of China.
• In 1949, the Communists, under the leadership of Mao Zedong, finally defeated the Nationalists.
• Mao and the Communists ruled mainland China (now called The People’s Republic of China) from Beijing.
• Chiang Kai-shek and the Nationalists fled to the island of Taiwan.
• After Mao died in 1976, Deng Xiaoping, a moderate, became China’s most powerful leader through the 1980s.
• In 1993, Jiang Zemin became president and Zhu Rongji became premier in 1998.
• Both focused their attention on developing China’s economy.

Rural and Industrial Economies

• When the Communist Party came to power in China in 1949, its leaders promised to modernize China by encouraging the growth of industry.
• From the 1950s through the 1970s, the central government tried to do this by planning all economic activities.
• That approach led to more failures than successes.
• Since the 1980s, though, China has allowed the marketplace and the consumer to play a role in the economy.
• As a result, China now has one of the fastest growing economies in the world.

THE RURAL ECONOMY
• In spite of this economic growth, China remains a largely rural society, self-sufficient in agriculture.
• Its great river valleys provide rich soil for crops such as rice to feed the vast population.
• Most of China’s workers—about 60 percent—work on farms.
• Farming is possible only on about 13 percent of China’s land because so much of western China is made up of mountains and deserts.
• Even so, China manages to grow enough food to feed its people.
• Much of the population is concentrated in the areas where food can be grown.
• The eastern river basins of China produce crops such as rice, maize, wheat, and sweet potatoes.
• This productivity is aided by the long growing season in southern China.
• Farmers there can grow two or more crops on the same land during each year.

THE INDUSTRIAL ECONOMY
• The industrial heartland of China is in the northeast.
• Here are abundant resources important to manufacturing, such as coal, iron ore, and oil.
• In addition, the northeast has better transportation systems than the rest of the country.
• Shanghai leads China as a center of manufacturing and is one of the great industrial centers in the world.
• Other Chinese cities with many factories and industries include Beijing and Tianjin.
• Southeastern China has industrial centers in Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Suzhou, Wuhan, and Wuxi.
• China has developed heavy industries, such as steel and machinery.
• It also produces consumer goods.
• For example, the country has a huge textile (cloth) industry that produces goods for the home market and export.
• Many textiles are exported to the United States.

A Rich and Complex Culture

• As the world’s oldest civilization, China has one of the world’s richest cultures.
• The country has highly developed art, architecture, literature, painting, sculpture, pottery, printing, music, and theater.
• In all these areas, the Chinese have made influential contributions to the cultures of Korea, Japan, and other countries in the region.

FROM POTTERY TO PAINTING
• Some of the earliest Chinese works of art have been found in burial sites.
• Pottery, bronze vessels, and jade disks have been discovered in the excavation of old tombs.
• In addition, paintings have been found on tiles decorating the walls of tombs.
• Chinese artists created beautiful works using different materials, such as clay, bronze, jade, ivory, and lacquer.

CHINESE INVENTIONS
• The Chinese introduced many inventions to the world, such as paper, printing, and gunpowder. Other Chinese inventions include the compass, porcelain, and silk cloth.

RELIGIOUS AND ETHICAL TRADITIONS
• China has three major religions or ethical traditions.
• The beliefs of most people include elements of all three.
• Those traditions have influenced beliefs throughout the region.
• Confucius was a Chinese philosopher who lived from 551 to 479 B.C.
• He believed in respect for the past and for one’s ancestors.
• He thought that in an orderly society, children should obey their parents and parents should obey the government and emperor.
• He stressed the importance of education in a well-run society.
• His thinking about the importance of order, education, and hierarchy in a well-ordered society is called Confucianism.
• Taoism gets its name from a book called the Tao-te Ching, based on the teaching of Lao-tzu, who lived in the sixth century B.C.
• He believed in the importance of preserving and restoring harmony in the individual and in the universe.
• He also thought the government should leave the people alone and do as little as possible.
• Another of his major beliefs was that the individual should seek harmony with nature.
• Buddhism came to China from India and grew into an important religion in China by the 300s A.D.
• Confucianism and Taoism influenced Buddhism as it developed in China.
• Among ideas important in Buddhism are rebirth and the end of the rebirth cycle.

The Most Populous Country

• One out of every five people in the world lives in China.
• This makes it the most populous country in the world.

POPULATION PATTERNS
• China’s estimated population in the year 2000 was about 1.3 billion.
• Somewhere between 30 and 40 Chinese cities have populations of more than one million people.
• Many of China’s 22 provinces have more people than entire countries.
• In the year 2000, Henan province was estimated to have a population of about 93 million people—more than the population of Great Britain.
• Seventy percent of the people live in 12 provinces located in the east.
• About 6 percent of the people live in the west on 55 percent of the land.

HEALTH CARE
• One of the great achievements of China since 1950 has been to provide health care for its enormous and far-flung population.
• The country has pursued a dual strategy in developing its health-care system.
• On the one hand, people make use of traditional Chinese medicines, including herbal remedies.
• Acupuncture is another important part of Chinese medicine.
• On the other hand, China’s doctors also use Western medicine to treat disease.
• Western drugs and surgery have their place in the treatment of illness.
• Most Chinese cities have hospitals, and the villages have clinics staffed by trained medical workers called “barefoot doctors.”
• Section 2: Mongolia and Taiwan

Main Ideas
• Taiwan and Mongolia have developed in the shadow of their giant neighbor—China.
• The countries of the region include both capitalist and socialist economies.

Places & Terms
Economic tiger
Pacific Rim

A History of Nomads and Traders
The histories of Mongolia and Taiwan have been closely connected to that of China.

THE MONGOLIAN EMPIRE The Mongols were nomadic herders for thousands of years. Mongol history was changed forever by Genghis Khan, a title that means “supreme conqueror.” Genghis Khan died in 1227, having conquered all of Central Asia and begun the conquest ofChina. He was succeeded by his son Ogadai, who continued his policies of conquest and expansion. Mongol armies commanded by other sons and grandsons of Genghis Khan moved east, west, and south out of Mongolia. The Mongol empire broke up in the 1300s. Eventually the Chinese gained control of Mongolia in the 17th century. The Chinese ruled Mongolia for hundreds of years. Only in 1911 were the Mongolians finally able to push the Chinese out and achieve their independence. Under the influence of its powerful neighbor Russia, Mongolia became the Mongolian People’s Republic in 1924. For about 72 years, the Communists ruled Mongolia. However, after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1989, the Communist Party in Mongolia lost its power. The country began moving toward political democracy and a free-enterprise economy.

TAIWAN’S LINK TO CHINA
The island of Taiwan experienced many prehistoric migrations from southern China and southeast Asia. Malay and Polynesian peoples also settled there. Over the centuries, other settlers and groups of people from China settled on the island. In the sixth century, for example, some Han Chinese arrived. Later, when famine struck Fujian province in the 17th century, a large number of Chinese migrated from the mainland. That contributed to the large Chinese settlementson the island. The Manchu Dynasty conquered Taiwan in 1683. The Japanese seized Taiwan (then called Formosa) after winning a war with China in 1895. Japan kept the island until its defeat in World War II. Then Chinese Nationalists took control of the island as part of their fight with the Communists for control of mainland China. When the Nationalists lost to the Communists in 1949, they moved their government to Taiwan. There they established the Republic of China. However, the People’s Republic of China has never recognized Taiwan as a separate country and considers it a province.

Cultures of Mongolia and Taiwan
China is a cultural hearth that has influenced its neighbors. It has been the source for many of the important ideas and inventions that have shaped Mongolia and Taiwan and the rest of the region.

MONGOLIA
Mongolia has both ruled and been ruled by China. Kublai Khan was the Mongol emperor of China when Marco Polo visited in the 13th century. In the mid-14th century, the Chinese rose up against theirMongol rulers and drove them out of China. In the 17th century, theChinese under the Manchus conquered Mongolia, which they ruled for hundreds of years. This interaction produced a profound cultural influence as the Mongols adopted many aspects of Chinese culture. The most important festival in Mongolia is the annual Naadam festival of the Three Games of Men. The festival, which dates back 2,300 years, begins each year on July 11. The three games are wrestling, archery, and horse racing. The competitors are highly skilled, and winners receive titles proclaiming their abilities. All of these contests have their roots in the ancient way of life of the Mongolian people.

TAIWAN
Unlike Mongolia, Taiwan has a population that is almost exclusively
Chinese. Thus, the culture of the island is Chinese. The capital city
of Taipei includes Buddhist temples as well as museums of Chinese art.
The island has many universities and about 30 daily newspapers. The
population is well-educated, and most of the people speak the official
language of Northern Chinese (also called Mandarin).
The people of Taiwan combine a number of religious and ethical
beliefs. More than 90 percent practice a blend of Buddhism,
Confucianism, and Taoism. A small number are Christian and an even
smaller percentage practice other religions.

Two Very Different Economies
The economies of Mongolia and Taiwan have roots in the past. Raising
livestock, a part of the nomadic life, is at the core of the Mongolian economy.
Because Taiwan is an island, trade is key to its economy.

ECONOMIC PROSPECTS FOR MONGOLIA
A large part of the population of Mongolia still engages in herding and managing livestock. For centuries, the economy was based on the nomadic herding of sheep, goats, camels, horses, and cattle. More goats are being raised to meet the demands of the cashmere industry, which uses soft wool from goats of the region. Of the millions of animals kept in herds in the country, nearly a third are sheep. Animals and animal products are used for domestic consumption as well as for export.
Although livestock remains the basis of the economy, Mongolia is now committed to the development of other industries. Under the Communist government, the state owned and operated most of the factories in the country. The Soviets guided
Mongolia’s economy for about 70 years. When the Soviet Union fellapart, Mongolia was one of the first Communist countries to attempt to shift to a market economy. The transition has been difficult as the country has turned increasingly from a Soviet-style managed economy to a free-market economy. Mongolia has large deposits of fuels such as coal and petroleum. It also has rich deposits of metals such as copper, gold, and iron. Those resources are used in both manufacturing and construction, industries which are of growing importance to the economy.

TAIWAN’S ECONOMIC SUCCESS
Taiwan has one of the world’s most successful economies. It has succeeded despite the fact that it has few natural resources. However, it has a highly trained and motivated work force. Taiwan’s prosperity is based on its strong manufacturing industries and its trade with other nations. Among the most successful products of its factories are radios, televisions, calculators, and computers. Taiwanese companies sell their products around the world. Taiwan is considered one of the economic tigers of Asia, along with Singapore and South Korea. An economic tiger is a nation that has rapid economic growth due to cheap labor, high technology, and aggressive exports. It is one of the very prosperous economies of the western Pacific. These economies are highly industrialized and trade with nations around the world. They are part of the Pacific Rim—the countries surrounding the Pacific Ocean. The Pacific Rim is an economic and social region. It includes the countries of East Asia, Southeast Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Chile, and the west coast of the United States.

Daily Life in Mongolia and Taiwan
The daily life of people in Mongolia and Taiwan shows traditional influences as well as modern influences. This blending of old and new can be seen in both work and play.

HERDING IN MONGOLIA
As you learned earlier in this section, the people of Mongolia were nomads who guided their animals from grassland to grassland. The land through which they traveled has an unpredictable, hostile environment. The climate is extreme. Long, cold winters lasting six months alternate with short, hot summers of only two months. Severe winter weather makes it difficult for livestock to survive. Bad weather can kill animals from intense cold and starvation. Nomads live in tents called yurts that are made of felt covered with leather. This is the traditional form of shelter in Mongolia. Yurts can even be found in the capital of Ulaanbaatar. Today, many of the people of Mongolia still spend their days raising sheep, cattle, and goats. Some still follow the nomadic way of life, but most people care for livestock on farms and ranches. Often these farms have small villages in the center, with shops, offices, and houses.

WESTERN INFLUENCES IN TAIWAN
Although Mongolia remains relatively isolated from the West, Taiwan has opened itself to many Western influences. For example, baseball has become popular in Taiwan and in other parts of Asia, particularly Japan. As a part of this general interest in the sport, Little League baseball has also become popular in parts of Asia. Little League became popular after World War II. In 1974, the United States banned teams from foreign countries from the Little League World Series. In part, that was a response to the success of Taiwan’s teams which, throughout the 1970s, dominated the World Series. However, they were restored to competition in 1976. By the 1980s, there were leagues in the United States and 30 other countries.
Section 3: The Koreas: North and South

Main Ideas
• The Korean peninsula is divided into two separate countries.
• North Korea is a Communist country, and South Korea is a democracy.

Places & Terms
Three Kingdoms
Seoul
Pyongyang



Section 4: Japan

Main Ideas
• Japan has an ancient culture and traditions.
• Japan is the economic giant of East Asia.

Places & Terms
Samurai
Shogun