EAST ASIA

Bell Ringer: Can you label China, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea,

and Taiwan

Landforms • East Asia stretches from

the western provinces of China to the eastern coast of Japan. – Mongolia – Taiwan– N. Korea– South Korea

• East Asia include high mountains, vast deserts, cold climates, and Pacific waters.

Landforms

Mountains and Plateaus•Mountains have limited contact between China and other parts of Asia.

•Kunlun Mountains: Source of River water in Asia

•Qinling Shandi Mountains divide the Northern part of China from the South

River Systems•Huang He, Chang jiang, and the Xi Jiang have all been critical to the development of East Asia

•They provide crop irrigation, hydroelectric power, and transportation.

Human Environment Interaction•The Three Gorges Dam: will help

control the flooding of the Chang Jiang River. (the 3rd longest river in the world)

–Generates power–Allows ships to sail into China

•This is the biggest dam in the entire world, cost 37 billion dollars to build.

•13 cities, 140 towns, and more than 1,600 villages have been submerged under the world's largest reservoir. An official count of 1.3 million people were relocated.

•By shifting a significant mass of water, the dam will literally SLOW THE ROTATION OF THE EARTH

China

• Because of China’s geography it has followed its own direction.

• In it’s early history, China was ruled by dynasties.– Dynasty is a series of rulers

from the same family.– Shang Dynasty, Zhou

Dynasty, Qin Dynasty, Han Dynasty, Qing Dynasty,

Life sized soldiers buried with Shi Huangdi (Qin Dynasty)

Great Wall

• China was attacked by invaders from the steppes of Central Asia.

• The Chinese built and extended the Great Wall over many centuries in an attempt to keep out invaders from Mongolia.

Nationalists vs. Communists• By the 1900’s, people in China wanted to form

a republic. This led to the formation of the Nationalist Party.

• Another party known as the Chinese Communist Party also became powerful during this time. • The two parties fought for control of China.

• In 1949, Mao Zedong, the leader of the Communist party, took control of what is now known as The People’s Republic of China.– The Nationalists in China fled to Taiwan.

The Koreas

• The Ancestors of Koreans today probably migrated from China

• Korea was united under dynasties for hundreds of years until Japan took over in 1910.

• The Japanese continued to rule Korea until they were defeated in World War II

• After the war the Soviet Union controlled North Korea and the United States

North Korea and South Korea

• In 1950, Korean troops from the North invaded South Korea.

• US and South Korean troops were able to push North Korea to the 38th Parallel, that still divides North and South Korea today.

• In 1953, a treaty was signed that officially divided the Communist North Korea from the Democratic South Korea.