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Southwest Asia and North Africa

Southwest Asia and North Africa. Introduction. Rich cultural legacy Agricultural revolution Urban civilization Petroleum industry 68% of world’s oil reserves OPEC Political issues Islamic fundamentalism. Aleppo, Syria. Environmental Geography. Levant. Maghreb.

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Southwest Asia and North Africa

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  1. Southwest Asia and North Africa

  2. Introduction • Rich cultural legacy • Agricultural revolution • Urban civilization • Petroleum industry • 68% of world’s oil reserves • OPEC • Political issues • Islamic fundamentalism Aleppo, Syria

  3. Environmental Geography

  4. Levant Maghreb Mostly composed of deserts and uplands • Deserts: Sahara, Libyan, Nubian • Uplands:Arabian Peninsula, Anatolian Plateau, Iranian Plateau • Lowlands: Tigris-Euphrates River, Nile River

  5. Salinization • How? Extensive irrigation + arid climates • Salt accumulation in topsoil • Lower crop yields, and land abandonment • Where? Iraq, central Iran, Egypt, and irrigated Maghreb

  6. Water management • Qanat system • Tapping into groundwater through tunnel • Iran  Arabian Peninsula, and North Africa

  7. Fish catches between 1962 and 1992 Water management • Aswan High Dam (1970) • Benefits • Year-round cropping • Hydroelectricity • Detriments: • Salinization • Schistosomiasis • Damages fishing industry near the Nile Delta

  8. Hydropolitics • What? Interplay of water resource issues and politics • Where? Nile River • Sudan  Egypt Tigris-Euphrates River • Turkey  Iraq, Syria Jordan River • Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Syria

  9. Population and Settlement

  10. More than 400 million • Highest physiological densities • Tie between water and life • Population cluster • North Africa • The Nile Valley, and Maghreb region • Southwest Asia • Highlands, and better-watered shores of the Mediterranean

  11. Rural settlement patterns • What is the most important indicator of rural settlement? water

  12. Rural settlement patterns • Home to early form of agriculture • 1. Domestication • 10,000 years ago • Wheat, barley, cattle, sheep, goats • 2. Fertile Crescent • Early agricultural activity (5,000 years ago) • Lebanon, Syria, northern Iraq, and eastern Turkey

  13. Rural settlement patterns • Reflects interrelationship between water and life • 1. Pastoral nomadism • In the drier portions of the region, inadequate moisture make permanent settlement impossible • Seasonal movement of livestock from place to place • 2. Oasis settlement • Tightly clustered permanent settlement

  14. Rural settlement patterns • 3. Irrigated agriculture along exotic rivers • Exotic rivers • Transport water from distant, more humid lands into drier regions • eg. Nile, Tigris, Euphrates • Irrigated collective farming • eg. Kibbutzes • 4. Dryland agriculture • Depends on seasonal moisture to support farming • Practiced on the Mediterranean climate regions

  15. Urban settlement patterns • What shaped the urban landscapes? • Political system Religion Trades Globalization Colonialism

  16. Cities as centers of political authority • 3500 BC Mesopotamia • 3000 BC Egypt • Temples, palaces, tombs, and public buildings

  17. Cities as trading centers • 2000 BC the shores of the eastern Mediterranean • Beirut (Lebanon), Damascus (Syria) • Port facilities, warehouse districts, and commercial thoroughfares

  18. Cities as religious centers • Islam (622) • 8th century Baghdad, Cairo • Walled urban core (medina), bazaar

  19. colonialism • Added another layer of urban landscape features • Late 19th century North Africa • Algiers (French), Cairo (British)

  20. globalization • Since 1950 added to traditional urban centers • High-rise apartment houses, and sprawling squatter settlements Cairo, Egypt

  21. globalization • Since 1970 oil-rich states of the Persian Gulf • Modern Western urban design, futuristic architecture, and new transportation infrastructure Abu Dhabi, UAE

  22. Coexistence of old and new Fes, Morocco

  23. Migration patterns • Rural-to-urban shift • Saudi Arabian: 18% (1950)  83% (2000) • Migration within the region • To oil-rich states such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE • Migration between the region • Job • Turkish  Germany • Algerian, Moroccan  France • Political forces • Lebanese, Iranian  western Europe, North America • Jewish  Israel

  24. Cultural Coherence and Diversity

  25. Religion • Which religion has originated in Southwest Asia? Judaism (4000 years ago) Christianity (2000 years ago) Islam (622)

  26. BC 2000 AD 70 1948 Mesopotamia to Canaan Jewish Diaspora Jew’s return to Israel Geographies of religion • Judaism • Christianity • Outgrowth of Judaism • Emerged 2000 years ago near Israel

  27. Geographies of religion • Islam • Originated in Makkah (or Mecca) in AD 622 • Follows Quran (or Koran) • Divided into Shiites and Sunnis • Diffused to Persia (656), North Africa & Iberian Peninsula (750), Central/South Asia, and Southeast Asia

  28. Diffusion of Islam

  29. Modern religions

  30. Geographies of language • Afro-Asiatic • Semitic language • Arabic • Hebrew • Berber language • Indo-European • Indo-Iranian language • Persian • Kurdish • Altaic • Turkish language

  31. Geopolitical Framework

  32. Colonial legacy • When? • Late arrival because of Turkish Ottoman Empire • Began after WWI (1918) • Ended by the 1950s

  33. Colonial power - France • Maghreb • Algeria (1830s) • Tunisia (1881) • Morocco (1912) • After WWI • Syria (1918) • Lebanon (1918)

  34. Colonial power - Great Britain • British Protectorate before 1900 • Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, UAE, and Aden • Suez Canal (1869) • Egypt (1882), Sudan (1896) • After WWI • Palestine, Transjordan, Iraq

  35. So which countries have NOT been occupied by European powers? Turkey Saudi Arabia

  36. Decolonization and independence • North Africa • Egypt, Sudan, Libya, Tunisia, Morocco (1950s) • Algeria (1962) • Southwest Asia • Iraq (1932), Lebanon (1946), Syria (1946), etc… while containing the cultural seeds of its later trouble

  37. Arab-Israeli conflict

  38. Arab-Israeli conflict • “Intifada” (1987) • Demonstration, led by Palestinian, against the rule of Israel in Gaza Strip and the West Bank • Agreements between the PLO and Israel (1990s) • Potential control of the ruling Palestinian Authority (PA) in the Gaza Strip and West Bank

  39. Islamic fundamentalism • Khomeni took power in Iran (1979) • “Rule the country by the Islamic law” • Sudan (1989) • Algeria (1992~) • Egypt, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia…

  40. Conflicts within states • Lebanon (1975-95) • Discord among Christian and Muslim communities • Spillover of Arab-Israeli conflict • Iraq • South: Shiites • North: Kurds • Cyprus • Northern third: Islamic Turkish • South: Greek Orthodox

  41. Conflicts between states • Western Sahara  Morocco (late 1970s) • Libya  Israel, Western Europe, U.S…. (1969~) • Sudan  Egypt (1995) • Iran-Iraq war (1980-88) • Persian Gulf war (1990-91)

  42. Geopolitical issues • What is the destablizing force after WWII? Creation of Israel Rise of Islamic fundamentalism Cold war (eg. Libya) Ethnic differences (eg. Kurds) Political/religious divide (eg. Sudan, Labanon)

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