What is History of Asia?
[[Image:Silkroutes.jpg|thumb|300px|The [[Silk Road]] connected many civilisations across Asia.]] [[Image:East-Hem 1200ad.jpg|thumb|300px|Asia in 1200 AD, just before the [[Mongol Empire]]]] [[Image:Asia 1892 amer ency brit.jpg|thumb|300px|Map of [[Asia]], 1892]] The '''history of Asia''' can be seen as the history of several distinct regions, [[East Asia]], [[South Asia]], and the [[Middle East]] that have more or less context depending of the situation in the central Eurasian [[steppe]]. The [[coast]]al [[periphery]] was the home to some of the world's earliest known civilizations, with each of the three regions developing early civilizations around fertile river valleys. The civilizations in [[Mesopotamia]], the [[Indus Valley Civilization|Indus Valley]], and [[Ancient China|China]] had much in common. Therefore, it is likely that they exchanged technologies and ideas such as [[mathematics]] and the [[wheel]]. Other aspects such as that of writing developed individually in each area. Cities, states and then empires developed in these lowlands. The steppe region had long been inhabited by [[nomad]]s, and from the central steppes they could reach all areas of the Asian continent. The earliest known expansion out of the steppe is that of the [[Indo-European people|Indo-Europeans]] which spread their languages into the [[Middle East]], the [[Indian subcontinent]], and in the [[Tocharians]] to the borders of today's China. The northern part of the continent was not accessible to the steppe nomads due to the dense forests and the [[tundra]]. These areas had very few people. The centre and periphery were kept separate by mountains and [[desert]]s. The [[Caucasus Mountains|Caucasus]], [[Himalayas|Himalaya]], Karakum Desert, and Gobi Desert formed barriers that the steppe horsemen could only cross with difficulty. The city dwellers were more advanced in civilisation but they could do little militarily to defend against the mounted hordes of the steppe. Because the lowlands did not have enough open grasslands to supp