1 What is the Eastern World?
“I wisely started with a map.”
J. R. R. Tolkien
This course is Geography of the Eastern World. So, what is the Eastern World?
This course is a Regional Geography course. When geographers create regions, they strive to incorporate as many similarities as possible in order to develop a recognizable region, while keeping out differences. So, what are the similarities of the Eastern World?
Well, we already wrote the OER textbook for Geography of the Western World. Thus, we could take our answer from that book and say that everything that is not in the Western World must be in the Eastern World. That may be true, but it seems inelegant to approach the topic that way. Therefore, while noting our western references, let’s at least be somewhat reflective about the Eastern World. In doing so, let’s take the same inquisitive views of analysis.
We could begin with the word “Eastern.” Would this include every place that is west of the zero line – 0° longitude eastward to 180° longitude? This zero mark is the prime meridian that passes through Greenwich, England. This longitude line runs through northwestern Africa; for instance, almost through the capital city of Accra in Ghana.
The 180° longitude line intersects the easternmost corner of Russia. (Note that in the Western World book, we place Russia and the slightly larger Russian Domain into the Western World.) Going eastward to that line would include all of Asia, the Indian Ocean, and a modest share of the surface area of the Pacific Ocean, roughly a quarter of that area. and a number of islands up to Fiji. This area of 0° to 180° longitude would encompass Australia, New Zealand, and most of the islands of the Pacific World. Correctly used, all of this 0°-180° is the Eastern Hemisphere.
Anyway, is that set of countries what we mean by the Eastern World? No.
Sometimes one of the shared characteristics is a feature of the physical landscape. Since the Eastern World would seem to consist of half of the world, while the Western World is the other half, this is a huge array of lands that would have to share common features. Indeed, the Eastern World has many different landscapes, as does the Western World. Southeast Asia is known for islands, peninsulas, and mountains, but not deserts. The vast Asian landscape includes the world’s highest mountains (the Himalayas), deserts (Southwest (the Middle East) and Central Asia mainly are deserts), thousands of islands, various tropical rain forests, and more. Africa features the world’s largest desert (Sahara), equatorial rain forests, but relatively few mountains. Is there some way to identify the typical landscape of the Eastern World? No.
Nevertheless, there is one important element of countries’ landscapes as they relate to the understanding of regions. Are the lands contiguous? That is, does a country of the region share an international border with another country of the same region? Normally, this too is a requirement (or being nearby for island states) for inclusion in the region. However, the Eastern World is a region comprising half the world; surely, contiguity cannot be maintained throughout the whole western half of the world. This is correct. That means that we need to consider each of the sub-regions of the Eastern World.
Does each country of North Africa and the Middle East (known using the acronym NAME in this book) border another country in NAME? Yes, with the understanding the Bahrain is an island state within the same realm and only barely off the continental lands of the Middle East. East Asia? Yes, with the islands of Japan offshore. South Asia? Yes, with Sri Lanka and other islands. Southeast Asia? This is trickier, as the regions features continental States such as Vietnam and Cambodia, as well as archipelagic (island) States like Indonesia and the Philippines. Plus, there is Malaysia that holds both continental and island territories. Even so, the region is pretty well contained. Sub-Saharan Africa? Very well contained, plus Madagascar and a few other islands offshore. So, our rule of contiguity is acceptable when we assess it based on the sub-regions of the Western World. Central Asia? Landlocked, so lacking offshore islands, whereas it is very compact featuring the former Central Asian republics of the Soviet Union, then across the Caspian Sea to Azerbaijan, another former Soviet republic. The Eastern World does well with contiguity testing.
That brings us to the human or cultural landscape. Are there shared features of the Eastern World when we consider the people of these lands? Economic development is a key indicator of quality of life in the human landscape. Many economies in the Western World have been very fruitful. The Human Development Index, measuring life span, education, and income as features of successful societal advances, is dominated by countries of the Western World, not for all of the Eastern World. For 2020, the only non-Western placeholders in the top fifty are Hong Kong #4, Singapore #11, Japan and Israel tied at #19 South Korea #23, as well as the oil-rich States of UAE #31, Saudi Arabia #40, Bahrain #42, Qatar #45, and Brunei #47. However, it also is true that not all Western World countries are greatly developed, as Haiti ranks #170 out of 189 countries; nevertheless, after the Solomon Islands at #151, except for Haiti, all of the lower ranked countries are in the Eastern World. For the Eastern World, economic development spans a great range, from oil-rich countries and Asian economic tigers (Japan) to adject poverty in #189 Niger.
Language is a core feature of culture. For the Western World, language works well as Indo-European languages dominate throughout that half of the world; however, as seen in this map (https://i.redd.it/zt18gbmzrwm41.png), this is much more complicated in the Eastern World. First, there are Indo-European languages prominent in a section of the Eastern World – Hindi in India, Persian (Farsi) in Iran, Urdu in Pakistan, and Bengali in Bangladesh are examples. Second, there are several different families of languages across the Eastern World – Nilo-Saharan, Sino-Tibetan, Altaic, Afro-Asiatic, etc.
Religion is a key element of culture. It is immediately apparent that Christianity is a shared feature throughout the Western World. On this very detailed map of world religions – https://i.imgur.com/rzv85dn.png , Christianity is highlighted in red, blue, and purple shades (not to be confused with the pink and lavender shades of Eastern religions, such as Taoism and Shintoism). Here we have a problem similar to that of Indo-European languages. Christianity dominates the Western World, but also is prominent in part of the Eastern World – most of the southern portion of Africa. However, North Africa and the Middle East are nearly uniformly Islamic, as is Central Asia and portions of South Asia and archipelagic SE Asia. India has Hinduism, continental SE Asia seats Buddhism.
For the other half of the world, if a country’s society speaks an Indo-European language, predominantly and historically professes the Christian faith, and borders another country in the Western World (or if an island, then is nearby), then it is in the Western World.
If both Christian religion and Indo-European language, then Western World. True. In the mathematics of logic, the contrapositive must also be true. The contrapositive would be expressed as this: If not the Western World, then not both Christian religion and Indo-European language. In other words, if the Eastern World (equaling that which is not the Western World), then not both Christian religion and Indo-European language.
We notice a few examples of native Indo-European languages in the Eastern World. Are tose places also dominated by Christianity? India – no, since 80% Hindu and 2% Christian, Iran – no, Pakistan – no, Bangladesh – no.
We had examples of Christianity being the predominant faith in certain countries of the Eastern World – specifically in southern Africa. Do those countries speak an Indo-European language? Here we find the effect of colonialism. French and English are common in the southern half of Africa, though of course not the native languages of the region. Unlike in Latin America and the Caribbean, where Spanish (and Portuguese) dominate the landscape, greatly overshadowing almost all native languages, in southern Africa the language mix is more balanced and more complicated.
So here we have to be more nuanced in our appraisal. My new statement of logic is this: If the Eastern World, then not both Christian religion and singularly dominant Indo-European language. In fact, Africa does not have a single country where English is over 20% as the first language; while it often may be a common additional language (in Zimbabwe, English 3% as a first language, 80% as an additional language). Similarly, French is spoken in numerous African countries, but typically as an additional language.
Is that it for cultural factors? We have mentioned colonialism above, but in fact we may need to add it as a full criterion. Which countries of the modern world once were colonies of European powers? Almost all non-European countries. So which countries were not under European influence? Korea (so now North and South), Japan, Thailand, and Liberia. A handful of other countries did not have their full area colonized or could better be characterized by only being in the sphere of influence of a European colonizer. Let’s say China, Nepal, Bhutan, Afghanistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Ethiopia.
Let’s take three criteria for the Eastern World:
- – not dominated by Christianity, and
- – not dominated by an Indo-European language, and
- – was colonized or strongly affected by a European power
Can we find any Eastern World countries that do not satisfy at least two of those three criteria?
- – Liberia – not colonized since its independence in 1847, dominantly Christian, but English as a second language
That seems to be the list. Thus, we are compelled to ask if Liberia can be placed in any other region. No, there is no other reasonable regional fit for Liberia. So, it must be in Sub-Saharan Africa within the Eastern World.
Therefore, now we ask about contiguity. Every Eastern World country should share a border with another country of the Eastern World or be adjacent land separated only by a narrow section of water from another country of the Eastern World. OK, that rule works quite easily for the Eastern World.
That took a lot of effort. To sum up again, it is location, language, religion, and colonialism that are the keys to determining which countries are in the Eastern World.
Did you know?
Cited and additional bibliography:
Fisher, Max. “Map: European Colonialism Conquered Every Country in the World but These Five.” Vox, June 24, 2014. https://www.vox.com/2014/6/24/5835320/map-in-the-whole-world-only-these-five-countries-escaped-european.
“Latest Human Development Index Ranking | Human Development Reports.” Accessed August 26, 2021. http://hdr.undp.org/en/content/latest-human-development-index-ranking.
“List of Countries by English-Speaking Population.” In Wikipedia, August 26, 2021. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_countries_by_English-speaking_population&oldid=1040709556.
Rydge, Richard. Buddhist Temple. July 25, 2016. Photo. https://www.flickr.com/photos/rikpiks/34423422053/.
WorldAtlas. “10 Countries Who Were Never Colonized by Europeans,” August 27, 2019. https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/10-countries-who-were-never-colonized-by-europeans.html.
