18. Tokio, known as Yedo until 1868, is the national capital and largest city, and has an extensive commerce; its port, Yokohama, is the chief depot of the foreign trade; Kioto was formerly the capital and the residence of the emperor; Ozaka, the second city, is the principal port of the domestic commerce of the empire. Questions (I.)-1. How much of Asia is occupied by the Russian Empire? What countries does it include? What is its extent ?2. Name the principal resources of Siberia, and whence derived. What long route of inland commerce, and through what cities? What is said of Irkoutsk? What other towns?-3. What does Russian Turkestan include? How is it governed? Who are the inhabitants?-4. What is said of the population of Georgia? What is said of the Georgians? Of Tiflis?-5. What is said of Independent Turkestan?-6. What does the Chinese Empire include? Name in their order the five most extensive governments of the globe. What part of the land surface do they cover?-7. What is the total population of the empire? Of what race are they? How is the population distributed? What is said of the water population?-8. What GATHERING TEA. This plain contains the Valley of the Indus, the lower half of which is mostly desert, and the Valley of the Ganges, which is one of the most fertile and populous countries in the world, being surpassed only by portions of China. 3. Inhabitants. - The inhabitants number about 285 millions, form of government in China? What is said of religion?-9. What is the principal being about four fifths as many as in all Europe. occupation? How is it regarded? What is the character of the implements used?10. Name the staple productions. What do they furnish? What is said of manufactures? Which are the most valuable?-11. What is said of the domestic commerce of China? What are its water-routes? Where are caravans employed? How is the trade with Russia conducted? Which are the principal exports? The principal imports?-12. What is said of education?-13. What is said of the cities of China? Of their population? What is said of Pekin? Shanghai? Han-chau? Canton? Fuhchau? Nankin?-14. What is Corea? What is said of its people? Of their religion? Of Seoul? Maimatchin? Lassa?-15. Of what does the Empire of Japan consist?-16. What is said of the agricultural and manufactured products and the exports?-17. Of the government? What is the emperor called? What has been the policy of the Japanese towards foreigners? What European inventions have the Japanese adopted? How do the Japanese compare with the Chinese? What is said of their civilization? Of education?-18. For what is Tokio or Yedo noted? Yokohama? Kioto? Ozaka? (II.) 2. What is the population of Siberia? Where located? What is said of the exiles?-12. How are the government officers of China selected? For what are the Chinese distinguished? What arts have they long practised? What is said of the character of the Chinese? Of their public works? Six sevenths are Hindoos, whose religion is Brahminism; most of the remainder are either Mohammedans or Buddhists. There are also Parsees, or Persian fire-worshippers, Jews, and European Christians, and many whose religious belief is the grossest heathenism. The greater part of the Europeans are in the British army of India. The Hindoos have possessed a wonderfully rich poetical, philosophical, and religious literature from times long before the Christian era. British India is rapidly adopting the civilization of Europe. 4. Government.-The country is under the control of a Governor-General and a Supreme Council appointed by the British Government. The Queen of England is 'Empress of India." The capital is Calcutta. The rich and populous island of Ceylon is a separate colony. 108 BRITISH INDIA, INDO-CHINA, PERSIA, AFGHANISTAN, BELOOCHISTAN, AND ARABIA. fine fabrics of silk and cotton, and costly Cashmere shawls. Ceylon is noted for its export of coffee and cinnamon. 7. Railways, etc.-The principal cities are connected by railways, by means of which the cotton and other produce of the interior are brought to the ports. Nearly all the railways and telegraph lines of Asia are in British India. Steamboats ply on the principal rivers. 8. Calcutta, the capital and largest city of British India, is the chief commercial centre of Hindostan; Bombay is the chief cotton port; and Madras is the centre of an extensive trade. Benares, the chief seat of Hindoo learning and religion, is the most sacred city of Hindostan. Among other important cities are Lucknow, Patna, Hyderabad, Delhi, Surat, and Cashmere. 9. Indo-China.-Indo-China includes Burmah, now a part of British India, the native despotism of Siam, and the French dependencies of Tonquin, Anam, Cochin China, and Cambodia. The southeastern coast is called Cochin China. The interior of these countries is little known to Europeans. 10. Inhabitants.-The inhabitants resemble the Chinese in race, religion, and civilization. 11. Commerce.-The foreign commerce is chiefly with China and by inland routes. The productions and exports are similar to those of Hindostan. 12. Bankok, a large part of which consists of houses built on floating rafts of bamboo, is the capital of Siam and the largest city in the peninsula. Hue is the capital of Anam. 13. The British possess parts of the west coast of the Malay peninsula, and the island and fortified city of Singapore, one of the most important ports of the East. It controls the Strait of Malacca, the chief gateway of Asiatic maritime commerce, and is the great depot for tin, which is obtained from neighboring mountains and islands. Saigon, a fortified port on the southern coast, is the capital of French Cochin China. Questions (I.)-1. What does British India include? What is said of it?-2. Describe the surface of Hindostan.-3. How many inhabitants in British India? What portion are Hindoos? What is their religion? What other religions are found in India? With what are most of the European residents connected?-4. By whom is the country governed? What city is the capital? What island is a province of British India?-5. What are the principal vegetable productions? The chief article of food? Of clothing?-6. With what countries is the maritime commerce? What is said of the caravan trade? What are the most important exports?-7. What is said of the means of communication?-8. For what is Calcutta noted? Bombay? Madras ? Benares? Name other important cities.-9. What countries are included in IndoChina? What is the character of their governments? What name is given to the southeast coast? What is known of the interior?-10. What is said of the inhabitants?-11. Of the commerce? Of the productions and exports?-12. For what is Bankok noted? Hue?-13. What and where are the British possessions? Their port? Why important? Of what is it a depot? What other European nation has possessions in Indo-China? What and where is the capital? (II.)-1. What two valleys does it contain? What is the character of each ?— 3. What is said of Hindoe literature? Of the civilization of British India? CI. PERSIA, AFGHANISTAN, BELOOCHISTAN, ARABIA, AND TURKEY. 1. Persia, Afghanistan, and Beloochistan. — Per sia, Afghanistan, and Beloochistan occupy the desert plateau of Iran, between the valleys of the Tigris and the Indus. Persia is the largest and most important. They are traversed by many high mountain ranges. 2. The high plateaus of the central region contain broad steppes and deserts, with many rich oases which determine the caravan routes. 3. Beloochistan is mostly a barren wilderness. Afghanistan is of commercial and military importance because it contains the chief routes from India to Western Asia. 4. Governments.- The governments are extremely oppressive. The supreme ruler of Persia is called the Shah. Afghanistan is noted for its frequent and cruel civil wars; the monarch is called the Khan. Beloochistan consists of a number of small states, under the headship of the Khan of Kelat. 5. Inhabitants.-The inhabitants are of various Mohammedan races, and live mostly in towns and villages. The deserts and oases have a large nomadic population, mostly robber hordes of Arabs, Turks, and Afghans. The Persians, on account of their polite manners and comparatively high civilization, are sometimes called the French of Asia. 6. Exports. Persia exports silks, woollens, shawls, carpets, and cotton, silk, and wool. 7. The chief cities of Persia are Teheran, the capital; Ispahan, once one of the most splendid cities of the East, but now fallen into decay; Tabriz, noted for its great trade with Russia; Bushire, the principal port on the Persian Gulf; and Meshed, the Holy City of Persia. Kelat, the capital and chief town of Beloochistan, and Cabul, the capital and largest city of Afghanistan, Herat, and Kandahar are important as military stations and as depots of the great caravan routes. 8. Arabia.-Arabia is about one third as large as the United States. It consists of three regions: a great plateau, having many large and fertile valleys, occupies the interior; surrounding this is a broad belt of deserts, covering more than one third of the peninsula; along the coasts is a low and narrow sandy plain containing a few fertile districts. 9. Government.-The interior contains several independent states governed by despots called sultans. POLITICAL ASIA: TURKEY. About five sixths of the population live in towns and villages; the remainder are tribes of plundering nomads, called Bedouins. The heads of the tribes are called sheiks. They are nearly all subject to the sultans. The principal state is the Nedjed, which occupies the greater part of the interior plateau. Riad is the capital and the residence of the Sultan. Muscat, the capital of Oman, is the largest city of eastern Arabia. 10. Yemen and Hedjaz, on the western coast, are provinces of the Turkish Empire. Yemen is very fertile. Hedjaz contains the holy cities of Mecca and Medina. Mecca is the birthplace of Mohammed, and contains the Kaaba, the most sacred of mosques. It is annually crowded with caravans of pilgrims from all parts of the Mohammedan world. An immense amount of trade is at the same time carried on. The camel, "the ship of the desert," is the principal beast of burden. The horses of Arabia are famous for speed and beauty. 11. Besides the cities al ready mentioned are Sana; Jiddah, the port of Mecca; Mocha, noted for its coffee; and Aden, belonging to Great Britain. The most valuable pearl fishery in the world is at Bahrein Island, near the Strait of Ormus. 12. Asiatic Turkey.Asiatic Turkey is the most important part of the Ottoman Empire. 13. Government.-It is divided into provinces, which are governed by pachas appointed by the Sultan. Turkey was for centuries one of the richest regions of the world. The arbitrary and oppressive nature of the gov ernment has long since reduced it to utter poverty and degradation. Provinces once flourishing and densely populated are now dry and solitary wastes. 14. Commerce.-Maritime commerce is in a low condition. The caravan trade connects the chief cities with Arabia and Persia. There are few roads. Large quantities of raw silk are produced in the region of the Lebanon Mountains in the southwestern part of Asiatic Turkey. 15. The principal cities are Smyrna, the chief commercial city of Western Asia, noted for its exportation of figs and other dried fruits; Bagdad, the centre of the caravan trade with Arabia and Persia; Bassorah, 109 the chief port, near the Persian Gulf; Damascus, a depot of the caravan trade with Persia, and said to be the oldest city in the world; Beirut, the sea-port of Damascus; and Jerusalem, the sacred city of Christians, Jews, and Mohammedans. Aleppo, Brusa, and Trebizond also are important cities. Japan, China, and India have possessed extensive commerce, books, and definite systems of religion and government from the earliest ages. For many centuries the social condition of these countries remained unchanged. Important and rapid changes are now taking place in consequence of the adoption and introduction of the railway, the telegraph, and other prac tical applications of the sciences and arts of Europe. Questions (I.)-1. Where are Persia, Afghanistan, and Beloochistan? Which is the most important? By what are they traversed?-2. What is the character of the central region?-3. Of Beloochistan? Why is Afghanistan important?-4. What kind of government have these countries? What is the title of the Persian monarch? For what is Afghanistan noted? What is the monarch called? Of what does Beloochistan consist? Under what leadership?-5. What is said of the inhabitants? Of the population of the deserts and oases? Of the Persians?-6. What are the exports of Persia? -7. For what is Teheran noted? Ispahan? Tabriz? Bushire? Meshed? Kelat? What other caravan depots ?-8. How large is Arabia? Of what does it consist? What is the interior? What surrounds it? What surrounds the whole?-9. What does the interior contain? By whom governed? Which is the principal state? Where is it? What city is the capital? What is said of Muscat ?-10. Of Yemen and Hedjaz?-11. Name some other cities. For what is Bahrein Island noted?12. What is said of Asiatic Turkey?-13. How is it divided? By whom are the provinces governed?-14. What is said of the maritime commerce? Of the caravan trade? Of the roads? Where is silk produced?-15. What is said of Smyrna? Of Bagdad? Of Bassorah? Of Damascus ? Of Beirut? Of Jerusalem? What other important cities. (II.)-9. What part of the population is not nomadic? Who are the Bedouins? To whom are the Bedouins subject?-10. For what is Mecca noted? What is said of the pilgrims? Of trade? Of the camel? Of Arabian horses?-13. What was once the condition of Turkey? What is its present condition?-15. What is said of the social condition of Japan, China, and India? What changes are now going on? Malaysia. What archipelago southeast of Asia? What seas in Malaysia? What straits? Which is the largest island? What cities in Borneo? What group of islands northeast of Borneo? Name the two largest. What city on Luzon? On Mindanao? What island west of Borneo? What city and island in the Strait of Malacca belong to Great Britain? What three ports in Sumatra? What island between Sumatra and Borneo? South of Borneo? What three ports has it? To what group do Sumatra and Java belong? What island east of Borneo? What group east of Celebes? What colony south of Victoria? What is the capital? What other city? Which is larger, Tasmania or Ohio? What colony east of Tasmania? Name the chief islands of New Zealand. What strait separates them? Which has many volcanoes? What range of mountains in South Island? What city is the capital of the colony? What other city on North Island? What city on South Island? Polynesia.-What name is given to the small islands scattered over the Pacific? (Polynesia.) What islands northeast of New Caledonia? (For this and the following questions, see small maps and Map of Western Hemisphere.) To what country do they belong? What group south of the Tropic of Cancer? Name the three largest. What city is the capital? What volcano in Hawaii? What group east of the Friendly Islands? Which is the largest? Melanesia. What group of islands east of Malaysia? Which is Australia.-In which direction is the Australian continent long- Name the colonial divisions of the continent. (See Political 110 10 OCEANICA: QUESTIONS ON THE MAP.-REVIEW EXERCISES. |
