Kazakhstan is geographically connected as much to one as the other. In the vastness of Eurasia, the challenge of placing borders on human populations and cultures becomes particularly problematic. Multiple cores have influenced and interacted with each other for millennia. Countless geographic, historical, genetic, linguistic, and cultural threads overlap over thousands of miles of territory. Generally, the same geographic forces e. Thus, much of this area shares overlapping historical threads — like Mongolian invasion routes and Silk Road transport lines.
Further, much of the area is dominated by Turkic languages and Islam, including much of western China, the homeland of the Uighurs, a people that had wide influence on early Central Asian culture and whose history is tied to both China and Central Asia.
For instance, Mongolia has shared migration patterns and some cultural heritage with the more nomadic parts of Central Asia. However, it is neither Turkic-speaking nor majority-Muslim. In fact, many see Mongolia as a different core altogether: one which influenced Central Asia as much as East Asia and where the influences of those regions converge. This map draws most of Central Asia sometimes without Turkmenistan into a mass that stretches from Mongolia to Nepal.
This can be seen on one level as mapping the far reaches of Chinese influence. It also, again, draws in populations that are not likely to see themselves as part of a single geographic or cultural unit.
This map, at its largest, unites a vast swath of traditionally-Muslim lands under a single label. The core of the map is centered on the Turkic and Persian empires that once ruled or greatly influenced this part of the world. It also, however, draws in diverse languages and cultures that are not likely to self-identify with a single, sweeping label.
This is problematic as the Kyrgyz and Libyans, while both majority-Muslim, are otherwise quite distant from each other in geography, language, and culture. These mega-maps are somewhat useful in exploring the far reaches of certain historical, political, or cultural influences. However, they are unwieldy in terms of trying to understand a specific area or population in any practical sense.
Central Asia with Afghanistan included. Map by Stratfor. Afghanistan is the most common addition. Geographically, this includes much more of the mountain range that engulfs Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan and which helps form the tangible borders of the core. Afghanistan was also within the borders of many Turkic and Persian empires, was a central foci for the Great Game, and was heavily influenced, though not directly ruled, by the Soviets.
Here can be found the last survivors of the wild horse and the genetic center of many temperate fruits and nuts. It contains an array of maps based on geographic information systems and remote sensing images, numerous photographs, and extensive descriptive text.
Also included is extensive tabulation of the status and trends in exploitation and conservation of living and nonliving resources, as well as economic and social statistics. Its aim is to restore, maintain, and improve the productive functions of land in Central Asia, leading to better economic and social well-being, while preserving the ecological functions of the land. For an online preview of the book, click here.
The entire operation was conducted without the awareness of the Pakistani government. This event may have impacted al-Qaeda but has not likely diminished the fighting in Afghanistan. More than 80 percent of the heroin consumed in Europe is grown in Afghanistan. The drug trade has only multiplied the problems in this devastated country. Prudent and effective methods for the government to address the drug trade are matters for debate and negotiation.
Most of the country is ruled by warlords and clan leaders with few resources other than tradition and custom. Central Asia has enormous oil and natural gas reserves, and the core economic regions of the world will continue their work to extract these resources for economic gain.
In , a US government report indicated that vast amounts of mineral wealth were discovered in Afghanistan by American geologists and Pentagon officials.
Enormous deposits of iron, copper, gold, cobalt, and rare industrial minerals such as lithium are present in Afghanistan. Total reserves are unknown or have not been released, but if extracted, it would result in trillions of dollars of economic gain for the country.
Lithium is highly sought after and used in manufacturing batteries, computers, and electronic devices. The discovery of vast resources helps place the war in Afghanistan in perspective concerning global competition over the control of resources. It has been reported that China has already offered millions of dollars in incentive money to Afghan government officials to allow its country to mine copper.
Bribery and corruption in the Afghan government is a serious impediment to a stable political environment, but criminal activities are projected to persist and swell with the potential for additional mining wealth.
Afghanistan does not have a long-standing tradition of mining. Agriculture has been the main focus of economic activity for rural communities. A newfound potential for mineral wealth will change the future of Afghanistan. It will be interesting to watch how Afghanistan adapts to and benefits from discovering previously unknown resources.
The expansion of the Russian Empire under the tsars integrated Kazakhstan and its neighbors, which eased their transition when the tsarist system of the Russian government gave way to the Soviet Union. The influx of Russian people and culture had a significant influence on Kazakhstan. It is the ninth-largest state on the planet in terms of square miles and is more extensive in physical area than all Western Europe.
This vast land is host to a wide variety of physical landscapes, including the high, snow-capped peaks of the ranges on the Chinese border.
The western portions are lowlands bordering the Caspian Sea. The seemingly endless grasslands of the interior are one of the largest steppe regions in the world. The steppe region has a semiarid type B climate. A large portion of southern Kazakhstan is desert, including the northern regions of the Kyzyl Kum Desert. Colder type D climates are found in the northern regions of the country. The steppe produces grain in large quantities and other agricultural products, while the productive mining of minerals adds to the national wealth.
Kazakhstan ranks high in the mining of many metals and uranium. Even diamonds are found here. The Tengiz basin around the northeast shores of the Caspian Sea is home to extensive petroleum reserves. Oil pipelines are expanding to transport the oil to port locations and other countries, including China. Kazakhstan also has a forward capital. During the Soviet era, the capital was located in the southeast of Almaty. However, after gaining independence in , the capital was moved north to Astana to ensure that the Russian-dominated northeast would be monitored against devolutionary forces that desiring to secede and become part of the Russian Republic.
Uzbekistan physically borders all the Central Asian countries. It is the most populous Central Asian country, with a population that exceeds twenty-seven million.
During the Soviet era, the boundary lines were created to provide the central government with more control over its republics by politicizing enclaves. Geographers call Uzbekistan a doubly landlocked nation because all the countries that surround it are also landlocked. The primary source of freshwater comes from the Eastern Highland regions. The main rivers have been heavily diverted for irrigation and are often depleted before reaching their destination at the Aral Sea.
Cotton is the main agricultural crop. Uzbekistan is one of the top producers of cotton globally and is a significant exporter of world markets. The central and western regions have mainly arid desert climates and rely heavily on the freshwater flowing from the mountains.
Agriculture employs a full one-fourth of the population and accounts for one-fourth of the gross domestic product GDP. The extraction of gold, minerals, and fossil fuels are also prime economic activities.
Uzbekistan is a country of young people: about one-third of the population is under the age of fifteen. Education was heavily emphasized during the Soviet era; as a result, about 99 percent of the population is literate—though about one-third of the people still live in poverty. After the fall of the Soviet Union, Islam emerged in this country after Uzbekistan won its independence in In a culture of openness, Islam has risen in prominence to the point that approximately 88 percent of Uzbeks profess Islamic beliefs.
Tashkent has an unofficial population of more than three million people. The city, which sits on the confluence of a local river and its tributaries, started as a caravanserai or oasis for trade along the Silk Road. It is one of the oldest continually inhabited cities globally and has been one of the more important cities in Central Asia. Islamic styles from Iran heavily influence the historical architecture. Bukhara was another important city on the Silk Road and is known for its Asian carpet and textile industry.
This region has been an important cultural, economic, and scholarly center for most of its known existence.
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