dominance in Asia, and, as in Africa, certain
spheres of influence have been marked out in
which individual powers are allowed a free hand
in their dealings with the natives. The danger
of conflict between the European Powers arises
when the boundaries of such spheres approach
too near to each other, or perhaps intersect.
The supremacy of England is, of course, recog-
nized in India and Burma. Russia is pre-
dominant over all of northern Asia. Persia and
Afghanistan are at present neutral ground, or
rather the battle-places of Russian and British
influence. French influence is supreme in Indo-
China, and the power of the Dutch is predominant
in the East Indies. Germany, which has been the
last to enter the field, is an important factor in
the Turkish provinces of Asia Minor, and by the
seizure of Kiao-chau in 1897 gained a foothold
in China. That Empire, also, although still in-
tact, has effectually been partitioned into cer-
tain spheres, and the most interesting question
of the future is whether these spheres of influ-
ences in China are destined to become provinces
in fact, or whether one of the European Powers
will prove strong enough to exercise for itself
control over the entire enormous mass of the
Middle Kingdom. The problem, then, that
awaits solution is twofold. In the first place, it
concerns the relations of the European Powers
among themselves in regard to the distribution
of the prize of political and commercial power in
Asia. In the second i)lace, it must deal with the
task of the control of the Asiatic races by na-
tions differing from them in race, religion, and
civilization.
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, Ceylon, Straits Settlements, Cyprus, Aden, etc.), is under the sway of England, whose subjects, including 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, Kurdistan, Mesopotamia, Syria, and the Arabian territories of Hedjaz and Yemen. The subjects of the Sultan number between 15,000,000 and 20,000.000. Persia has an area about equal to that of Asatic Turkey, and its population is supposed to be not far from 10,000.000. French Indo-China (Annam, Tongking, Cambodia, Cochin 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, but 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) embrace about 160,000 square miles and a population not far from 50,000,000. Beluchistan embraces a very thinly peopled area equal to about half that of Afghanistan. Korea is about half as extensive as the Japanese Empire, covering about 80,000 square miles, and its population is about one-fifth 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 establishments on the coast of China. The great archipelago which lies to the southeast of the Asiatic continent belongs mainly to the Netherlands, the other possessors in the order of the extent of territory 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, Erdkunde von Asien (Berlin, 1832-59); Brauer and Plath, Handbuch der Geographie und Statistik von Asien (Leipzig, 1864); Reclus, Nouvelle geographie universelle, Vols. VII.-IX. (Paris, 1881-84); Lanier, L'Asie (Paris, 1888); Levasseur, La terre moins l'Europe (Paris, 1885); Sievers, Asien, Eine allgemeine Landeskunde (Leipzig, 1892); Keane, "Asia," Stanford's Compendium of Geography and Travel (London, 1896).
Physical Features. — Berghaus, Physikalischer Atlas (Gotha, 1892); Hann, Handbuch der Klimatologie (Stuttgart, 1897); Bartholomew, Physical and Political Atlas (New York, 1901).
Flora and Fauna. — Boissier, Flora Orientalis (Basel, 1867-88); Reisseck, Die Vegetation von Süd-Asien (Vienna, 1864); Annals of the Royal Botanic Gardens (Calcutta, 1887-1901); Wallace, 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 (Leipzig, 1885-88): Neumayr, Erdgeschiehte (id. 1895); Fütterer, Die allgemeinen geologischen Ergebnisse der neuen Forschungen in Zentral-Asien und China (Gotha, 1896) ; Suess, Beiträge zur Stratigraphie Central-Asiens (Vienna, 1894); also the authorities referred to under the separate countries.
Anthropology and Ethnology. — Of recent literature on Asian peoples may be mentioned: Winkler, Ural-Altäische Völker und Sprachen (Berlin, 1884), and the sections on Asia in Brinton, 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 Relations of Southwestern Asia," and other essays in the National Geographic Magazine (Washington, 1901).
Travel and Exploration. — Windt, From Pekin to Calais by Land (London, 1889) ; C. de Decken, À travers l'Asie (Brussels, 1894); Landsdell, Russian Central Asia (London, 1885); Hedin, Through Asia (New York, 1899); Bookwalter, Liberia and Central Asia (Springfield, Ohio, 1899); Hedin, "Die geographisch-wissenschaftlichen Ergebnisse meiner Reisen in Zentralasien, 1893-97," in Petermann's Mittheilungen, Ergän-
