Chapter Summary Southwest Asia

NAME DATE CLASS Chapter Summary Southwest Asia Lesson 1: Physical Geography of Southwest Asia • Southwest Asia, comprised of 15 countries, lies in the area where Asia meets Europe and Africa. Mountains and plateaus occur throughout the region. Most of the region has an arid, or very dry, climate. The Arabian Desert covers nearly the entire Arabian Peninsula and is one of the largest deserts in the world. • Southwest Asia’s highest mountains are in the Hindu Kush range. A vast plateau covers much of Iran and is surrounded by mountain ranges. The mountains of western Iran join those of eastern Turkey. The Arabian Peninsula (Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, and many other countries) is a plateau. To its southeast is the Arabian Sea. • The bodies of water that surround it mostly shape Southwest Asia. Turkey has coasts on the Mediterranean and Black Seas. Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Israel have coasts on the Mediterranean Sea. Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen border the long, narrow Red Sea. In the northeast, the peninsula is shaped by the Persian Gulf. Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Iraq, and Iran border the Persian Gulf. In the north, Iran borders the landlocked Caspian Sea. The Dead Sea is surrounded by land and lies between Israel and Jordan and is the lowest land elevation on earth (1300 feet or 396 m below sea level). • Desert landscapes and climates cover most of Southwest Asia. However, a Mediterranean climate prevails along Southwest Asia’s Mediterranean and Aegean coasts and across much of western Turkey. • Scarcity of water has shaped the region’s human history and settlement patterns. The most important resources are two fossil fuels that are in great demand: oil and natural gas. The world’s largest-known deposits of petroleum are in Southwest Asia. Lesson 2: History of Southwest Asia • Mesopotamia, a fertile plain between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in what is present- day Iraq, was one of the fi rst places people began to practice agriculture. This led to a more settled lifestyle, villages, and division of labor. Villages grew into cities and into the world’s fi rst civilizations. The Sumerians and Babylonians were two important civilizations of Mesopotamia. • Three of the world’s major religions originated in Southwest Asia: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. By A.D. 800, Islam had spread across nearly all of Southwest Asia. By the 1200s, crusaders from Western Europe set up Christian states along Southwest Asia’s Mediterranean coast. Mongols from Central Asia conquered Persia and Mesopotamia, Education. © McGraw-Hill Copyright making them part of the Mongol Empire. • The Ottomans were a group of Muslim tribes who, by the middle of the 1300s, had created an empire that lasted until the early 1900s. 1 NAME DATE CLASS Chapter Summary cont. Southwest Asia • After the end of World War I, Britain and France took control of the Ottoman Empire’s former territories under a mandate system, which led to eventual independence. Between 1930 and 1971, one country after another won its independence. • One of the mandates received by Britain after World War I was the territory called Palestine, which roughly corresponded to the land area of present-day Jordan and Israel, including the Land of Israel, which was the area inhabited by the Jews since ancient times. In 1947 the U.N. voted to divide the territory into two states, one Arab and one Jewish. The Arabs rejected this proposal, but the Jews accepted it. On the day in 1948 that Israel, the Jewish state, declared its independence, armies from fi ve neighboring Arab countries invaded. The war ended in a truce. During a brief war in 1967, Israel captured the West Bank, the Sinai Peninsula, the Gaza Strip, the Golan Heights, and the eastern part of Jerusalem. It has withdrawn from the Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza Strip. Peace has not yet been achieved. • Ethnic, religious, and political diff erences have led to civil wars and the rise of Islamist movements. A revolution in Iran in the late 1970s overthrew its monarchy and established an Islamic republic. Other confl icts and wars occurred. On September 11, 2001, Islamist terrorists attacked the United States, killing almost 3,000 people. Wars with Iraq and Afghanistan, led by the United States and the United Kingdom, followed. Lesson 3: Life in Southwest Asia • Southwest Asia has around 330 million people. Iran and Turkey, its most populous countries, each has about 80 million people. The region’s population is growing rapidly. Major cities include Istanbul, Damascus, Tehran and Baghdad. • Today, many countries of Southwest Asia are made up of major cities. In Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait, more than four-fi fths of the people live in cities. However, in Afghanistan and Yemen, more than two-thirds of the people live in rural areas. Some desert areas still have nomadic people called Bedouins living there. • The region is home to many diff erent ethnic groups. Islam remains the dominant religion in the area,with two main branches, Sunni and Shia. There is a signifi cant Jewish population in Israel and a large Christian population in Lebanon and Syria. Art is very important in Southwest Asia, including calligraphy, mosaics, weaving, storytelling, and poetry. • Since World War II, the region has undergone great change. The discovery of petroleum in the mid-1900s brought great wealth to the region, rapid modernization, and a struggle to control the region’s oil. Education. © McGraw-Hill Copyright • 2010 and 2011 marked the beginning of a period of uprisings in the Arab world that resulted in a change of government in many countries. • Scarcity of water has been a problem throughout the region’s history. Rapid population growth has made the need for water even greater. 2.

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