How and why Asia will once again become the economic center of the world
(demographically, it always was) after some 200 years of Western domination.
Summary
1 – Civilizational splendor and
colonization
2 – After the World War II, the entry
into globalized capitalism
3
- Social and demographic characterization of Central and East Asia
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1
– Civilizational splendour and
colonization
As
we have previously mentioned, in order to approach Asian demography we have treated
separatly West Asia, more specifically that of the dominant Islamic matrix,
which is being riddled by large and long lasting conflicts in which the
so-called West has had enormous responsibilities. The remaining territory – Central
and Eastern Asia – covers the vast majority of the continent's population, that
is, about 91.5% of the total, in 2016; it undoubtedly constitutes the most
dynamic area, at a global level, from an economic point of view.
Central
and Eastern Asia present a wide diversity of cultures and, in general, each
country has a composite reality, with great ethnic, linguistic and religious
variety.
Their
histories show a past filled with high civilizational elements resulting from
the over land trade links between the Persian world and India, or from China to
Western Asia, through Turkish or Mongolian khanates, and from there to the
Mediterranean and to Europe. In turn, maritime trade in the Indian Ocean lasted
for centuries, with links between East Africa, the Mediterranean, the Islamic
world and China, in the course of which there was a strong penetration of Islam
in the Philippines and Malaysia, in Bangladesh and in Indonesia.
When
the Europeans, with the Portuguese at their head, became involved in that
trade, they did it, at first, through the control of coastal warehouses (Ormuz,
Goa, Jaffna, Malacca...) followed by territorial occupation in the 18th and
19th centuries, with a more relevant role, in