nearly all Moslem countries. Except that the use of Arabic inscriptions is one of its principal methods of decoration, it owes little to Arabia and much to Byzantium. The Persian variety of this art is more ornate, and less averse to representations of living beings. Both Moslem and Chinese art are closely connected with calligraphy, but Hindus rarely use writing for ornament.
In both art and literature modern Asia is inferior to the past more conspicuously than Europe.
As for science, astronomy was cultivated by the Babylonians at an early period, and it is probably from them that a knowledge of the heavenly bodies and their movements spread over Asia. Grammar and prosody were studied in India with a marvellous accuracy and minuteness several centuries before Christ. Mathematics were cultivated by the Chinese, Indians and Arabs, but nearly all the sciences based on the observation of nature, including medicine, have remained in a very backward condition. Much the same, however, might have been said of Europe until two centuries ago, and the scientific knowledge of the Arabs under the earlier Caliphates was equal or superior to that of any of their contemporaries. Histories and accounts of travels have been composed both in Arabic and Chinese.
19. It is only natural that Europe should have chiefly felt the influence of western Asia. Though Europeans may be indebted to China for some mechanical inventions, she was too distant to produce much direct effect, and the influence of India has been mainly directed towards Influence of Asia on other continents.the East. The resemblances between primitive Christianity and Buddhism appear to be coincidences, and though both early Greek philosophy and later Alexandrine ideas suggest Indian affinities, there is no clear connexion such as there is between certain aspects of Chinese thought and India.
Any general statement as to the debt owed by early European civilizations to western Asia would at present be premature, for though important discoveries have been made in Crete and Babylonia the best authorities are chary of positive conclusions as to the relations of Cretan civilization to Egypt and Babylonia. Egyptian influence within the Aegean area seems certain, and the theory that Greek writing and systems for reckoning time are Babylonian in origin has not been disproved, though the history of the alphabet is more complex than was supposed.
In historic times Asia has attempted to assert her influence over Europe by a series of invasions, most of which have been repulsed. Such were the Persian wars of Greece, and perhaps one may add Hannibal’s invasion of Italy, if the Carthaginians were Phoenicians transplanted to Africa. The Roman empire kept back the Persians and Parthians, but could not prevent a series of incursions by Avars, Huns, Bulgarians, and later by Mongols and Turks. Islam has twice obtained a footing in Europe, under the Arabs in Spain and under the Turks at Constantinople. The earlier Asiatic invasions were conducted by armies operating at a distance from their bases, and had little result, for the soldiery retired after a time (like Alexander from India), or more rarely (e.g. the Bulgarians) settled down without keeping up any connexion with Asia. The Turks, and to some extent the Arabs in Spain, were successful because they first conquered the parts of Asia and Africa adjoining Europe, so that the final invaders were in touch with Asiatic settlements. Though the Turks have profoundly affected the whole of eastern Europe, the result of their conquests has been not so much to plant Asiatic culture in Europe as to arrest development entirely, the countries under their rule remaining in much the same condition as under the moribund Byzantine empire.
In general, Europe has in historic times shown itself decidedly hostile to Asiatic institutions and modes of thought. It is only of recent years that the writings of Schopenhauer and the researches of many distinguished orientalists have awakened some interest in Asiatic philosophy.
The influence of Asia on Africa has been considerable, and until the middle of the 10th century greater than that of Europe. Some authorities hold that Egyptian civilization came from Babylonia, and that the so-called Hamitic languages are older and less specialized members of the Semitic family. The connexion between Carthage and Phoenicia is more certain, and the ancient Abyssinian kingdom was founded by Semites from south Arabia. The traditions of the Somalis derive them from the same region. The theory that the ruins in Mashonaland were built by immigrants from south Arabia is now discredited, but there was certainly a continuous stream of Arab migration to East Africa which probably began in pre-Moslem times and founded a series of cities on the coast. The whole of the north of Africa from Egypt to Morocco has been mahommedanized, and Mahommedan influence is general and fairly strong from Timbuktu to Lake Chad and Wadai. South of the equator, Arab slave-dealers penetrated from Zanzibar to the great lakes and the Congo during the second and third quarters of the 19th century, but their power, though formidable, has disappeared without leaving any permanent traces.
The relation to Asia of the pre-European civilizations of America is another of those questions which admit of no definite answer at present, though many facts support the theory that the semi-civilized inhabitants of Mexico and Central America crossed from Asia by Bering Straits and descended the west coast. Some authorities hold that Peruvian civilization had no connexion with the north and was an entirely indigenous product, but Kechua is in structure not unlike the agglutinative languages of central and northern Asia.
20. European influence on Asia has been specially strong at two epochs, firstly after the conquests of Alexander the Great, and secondly from the 16th century onwards. Alexander’s conquests resulted in the foundation of Perso-Greek kingdoms in Asia, which not only hellenized Influence of Europe on Asia.their own area but influenced the art and religion of India and to some extent of China. Then follows a long period in which eastern Europe was mainly occupied in combating Asiatic invasions, and had little opportunity of Europeanizing the East. Somewhat later the Crusades kept up communication with the Levant, and established there the power of the Roman Church, somewhat to the detriment of oriental Christianity, but intercourse with farther Asia was limited to the voyages of a few travellers. Looking at eastern Europe and western Asia only, one must say that Asiatic influences have on the whole prevailed hitherto (though perhaps the tide is turning), for Islam is paramount in this region and European culture at a low ebb. But the case is quite different if one looks at the two continents as a whole, for improvement in means of communication has brought about strange vicissitudes, and western Europe has asserted her power in middle and eastern Asia.
In the 16th century a new era began with the discovery by the Portuguese of the route to India round the Cape, and the naval powers of Europe started one after another on careers of oriental conquest. The movement was maritime and affected the nations in the extreme west of Europe rather than those nearer Asia, who were under the Turkish yoke. Also the parts of Asia affected were chiefly India and the extreme East. The countries west of India, being less exposed to naval invasion, remained comparatively untouched. It will thus be seen that European (excluding Russian) power in Asia is based almost entirely on improved navigation. There was no attempt to overwhelm whole empires by pouring into them masses of troops, but commerce was combined with territorial acquisition, and a continuity of European interest secured by the presence of merchants and settlers. The course of oriental conquest followed the events of European politics, and the possessions of European powers in the East generally changed hands according to the fortunes of their masters at home. Portugal was first on the scene, and in the 16th century established a considerable littoral empire on the coasts of East Africa, India and China, fragments of which still remain, especially Goa, where Portuguese influence on the natives was considerable. Before the century was out the Dutch appeared as the successful rivals of the Portuguese, but the real struggle for supremacy in southern Asia took place between France and England about 1740–1783. Both entered India as commercial companies, but the disorganized condition of the Mogul empire necessitated the use
