Unit 7: North Africa and Southwest Asia
The region of North Africa and Southwest Asia is incredibly wide and spans more than 100° degrees of longitude. Although its east-west extent is not as wide as Russia's, this vast area has connected Eastern Europe and Western Asia since 100 BCE. Consequently, this region has an extraordinary level of ethnolinguistic diversity.
The region of North Africa and Southwest Asia includes countries in the sub-region of North Africa, with countries on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea: Western Sahara, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, and Egypt. It also borders the Atlantic Ocean, the Sahara Desert, and African Transition Zone (the Sahel). Egypt's Sinai Peninsula includes territory in Africa and Asia. Southwest Asia also includes sub-regions.
Because there are so many variations within this region, we occasionally focus on one sub-region to highlight some key concepts. Depending on the map you are studying, different countries are often categorized into different sub-regions.
Here is a list of countries that comprise these sub-regions. Note that geographers may include different countries in these lists.
- Caucasus: Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan
- Central Asia (also called Turkestan): Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Afghanistan
- Middle East: Israel, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Iraq, and Iran
- Arabian Peninsula: Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Qatar, UAE (United Arab Emirates), and Kuwait
This region is also the hearth of the three largest monotheistic religions in the world and is home to sacred places for Christians, Jews, and Muslims. This proximity has caused centuries of conflict among religious and ethnic groups throughout a region that has its own history of conquest. Finally, we will apply the themes of urbanization and inequality, which we have studied throughout this course.
Completing this unit should take you approximately 5 hours.
Upon successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- describe the physical geography of North Africa and Southwest Asia, including the Sahel or African Transition Zone, and factors that have led to desertification in some areas;
- relate the distribution of oil and mineral resources in North Africa and Southwest Asia to the concepts of inequality and globalization;
- explain how the position of North Africa and Southwest Asia as a major crossroads promoted diversity in the human landscape;
- describe the pattern of colonization in North Africa and Southwest Asia and how it affected the human landscape, including its pattern of urbanization;
- summarize why Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are tied to North Africa and Southwest Asia and how these religious ties have impacted the human landscape; and
- identify factors that have contributed to border disputes and violent conflicts in North Africa and Southwest Asia and how these barriers have impeded development.
7.1: Maps of North Africa and Southwest Asia
Let's begin our examination of North Africa and Southwest Asia by studying a political map.
Study this map of North Africa and Southwest Asia so you are familiar with the locations of the countries and some of the major water bodies.
7.2: Geographic Features and Cultural Adaptations of North Africa and Southwest Asia
Let's begin by exploring the physical features of North Africa and Southwest Asia and then examining how the population has adapted to their physical environment. For example, natural resources have contributed to the region's economic wealth, but access to fresh water continues to pose a major challenge to many of its residents. Some adaptations date back to when humans first settled the Fertile Crescent. Although there are alpine climates in the region's highlands and temperate conditions along the coastal areas, the region's arid climate is its defining characteristic.
The arid climate poses the most significant challenge to these sparsely-populated areas, including the Sahara Desert of North Africa and the Arabian Desert of Southwest Asia. These deserts are so hot because they mostly lie in the tropics. For example, the average temperature of the Arabian Desert ranges from approximately 38 to 42°C from May to September. The Rub' al-Khali (the Empty Quarter) is too hot and dry even for desert nomads. To the north, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan also have vast areas with arid conditions, but they are not as hot.
Isolated highlands rise above these arid regions. The Atlas Mountains of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and the Iranian Plateau exhibit alpine climates because the conditions are so different from those at their bases.
The countries of the Caucasus Mountains have highland climates with cool semi-arid and even humid subtropical climates at their base. There are narrow temperate swaths along the coasts of Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia in North Africa and Israel, Lebanon, Syria, and Turkey in Southwest Asia. These areas are more densely populated than the arid and highland areas of this region.
Since arid climates pervade this region, water is a valuable resource to the populations that inhabit it. Fresh water on the Arabian Peninsula comes from nonrenewable groundwater and seawater desalination. Renewable aquifers and ephemeral streams collect runoff from rainfall in the mountains. However, this surface water is limited to areas west and southwest of the Arabian Peninsula.The map in Figure 7.1 is more than ten years old, but it accurately reflects the water resources that exist in parts of North Africa and Southwest Asia.
Read these two texts, which introduce this region's physical geography and cultural adaptations, and explain why this region is so arid. Notice that North Africa and Southwest Asia are home to the Fertile Crescent, which includes the Nile, Tigris, and Euphrates river valleys.
Watch this video for more detail on the physical features of North Africa and Southwest Asia. Note that Rueschhoff uses the term "Middle East" for the area Finlayson calls Southwest Asia (which is the term we use in this course).
7.3: Urbanization in North Africa and Southwest Asia
The population in this region tends to live near sources of fresh water. For example, 100 percent of the Egyptian population lives in Cairo, Alexandria, or elsewhere along the banks of the Nile River and Suez Canal. In 2011, the population of Cairo was 21,750,020, making it the sixth-largest city in the world and the largest city in the region of North Africa and Southwest Asia.
Cairo is a primate city because Alexandria, the next largest city in Egypt, is only one-third its size (5,483,605 population). On the Bosphorus Strait, Istanbul is the third largest city in the region, with a population of 15,636,243.The pace of urbanization has differed across North Africa and Southwest Asia. For example, the populations of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, the former Soviet republics, were primarily rural until the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991. The Soviet Union had created these cities to support its own national economy rather than develop the local economy of each country. Urban development has been underway since then as these countries seek to engage in the global economy.
According to the United Nations Population Division, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan were at least 50 percent urban in 2020. Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan were still predominantly rural – only 37 percent and 28 percent of their populations lived in urban areas (World Urbanization Prospects 2018).
Urbanization is high in other parts of North Africa and Southwest Asia. For example, more than 75 percent of the population lives in urban areas in countries on the Arabian Peninsula (except for Yemen). The sub-regions of North Africa and the Middle East are also highly urban. The Caucasus sub-region has moderate urbanization levels, ranging from about 57 percent in Azerbaijan to 60 percent in Georgia to 62 percent in Armenia (World Urbanization Prospects 2018).
The water resources and existing infrastructure in these cities are already strained and will not support rapid urbanization. For example, the situation in Cairo has been dire for a long time. With a population density of 52,000 people per square kilometer, many people live in slums, and they do not benefit from city services such as garbage collection. Indeed, Manshiyat Nasser, one of Cairo's slums, is known as Garbage City. (See Figure 7.3)
7.4: The Arabian Peninsula's Oil Resources
Arid conditions in North Africa and Southwest Asia have severely limited agricultural production as a source of wealth. However, the economic futures of many parts of this region began to brighten in 1908 when engineers discovered oil in what is now Iran. This precious resource was soon found in Iraq in 1927, Bahrain in 1932, and Kuwait and Saudi Arabia in 1938. Oil would eventually be discovered in Qatar, Oman, UAE (United Arab Emirates), Syria, and Yemen.
Our resources highlight the importance of oil to this region, including the challenges of transporting it through chokepoints. The thematic map in Figure 7.4 shows that several countries have large amounts of proven oil reserves.
Notice that Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, and Kuwait are shaded black or dark brown, which indicates they continue to have significant oil reserves. North Africa and Southwest Asia are oil-rich due to three primary conditions that evolved in geologic history. See Figure 7.5.
Much of the Arabian Peninsula was still underwater more than 60 million years ago. The rivers that fed into this ocean were loaded with nutrients, which allowed a variety of marine life to flourish. When algae, bacteria, fish, reptiles, and other marine creatures died, they accumulated on the ocean floor in thick layers that grew to be miles deep.
Pressure on the lower layers increased as more layers accumulated. The fossilized marine life which lines the lower parts was compressed and transformed into oil which was trapped in place on the ocean floor by thick layers of salt.
As the Arabian Peninsula rose due to tectonic activity, the ocean waters receded, exposing the land surface.Figure 7.6 shows the locations of Saudi Arabia's oil fields which intersect Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, UAE, Oman, and Iraq in the east and northeast. The ongoing war in Yemen has left its fossil fuel deposits untapped.
The west side of the Arabian Peninsula, including the Hijaz and Asir Mountains, contains mineral resources such as copper, gold, and iron ore. Fossil fuels are vital to the economies in other parts of North Africa and Southwest Asia. The sub-region of Central Asia, which we will explore in the next section, is rich in natural gas, oil, and minerals.
7.5: Sub-Region of Central Asia
The sub-region of Central Asia includes Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. These countries are former Soviet Socialist Republics (SSRs), except for Afghanistan. Many people are aware of Afghanistan due to its strategic location, but they tend to overlook the rest of Central Asia. This area was a critical historical crossroads between Eastern Europe and Western Asia and an area of cultural diffusion.
Figure 7.7 is a reference map that shows the countries that comprise the sub-region of Central Asia.
The countries of Central Asia were part of a historical region known as Turkestan that dates back to 3000–2001 BCE. The Silk Road, or more accurately, Silk Routes, traversed this vast area. Figure 7.8 is a map of the Silk Routes in approximately 1200 CE.
Although the map does not include the current country boundaries, the place names along the routes provide points of reference and show the extent of these ancient trade routes, which extended from Europe to the eastern coast of China.- Talas is a town in northwest Kyrgyzstan
- Osh is a city in southern Kyrgyzstan
- Samarkand is a city in southeastern Uzbekistan
- Merv was near the current city of Mary in southeastern Turkmenistan
- Herat is in western Afghanistan
Read this text to learn more about the Silk Routes and the geography of the Central Asia sub-region.
Figure 7.9 displays the Tian Shan, the Hindu Kush, and the Pamirs mountain ranges. The Tian Shan mountain range spans Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and China. The Silk Routes followed various passes through these mountain ranges to connect the populations in Eastern Europe and Western Asia.
Today, these mountains provide mineral resources for Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan. In Figure 7.9, the unlabeled lake in the Tian Shan Mountains is Kyrgyzstan's Lake Issyk-Kul, which is the second-largest mountain lake in the world after Lake Titicaca in the Andes Mountains.Kyrgyzstan has an exclave and enclaves. An enclave is a part of a country or entity that is completely surrounded by another country or entity. Figure 7.10 shows the four Uzbek enclaves and the two Tajik enclaves within Kyrgyzstan. For example, a resident of one of the Tajik enclaves must travel through Kyrgyzstan to reach the rest of Tajikistan.
Figure 7.11 shows a larger-scale map of the four Uzbek enclaves and one of the two Tajik enclaves within southwestern Kyrgyzstan. These enclaves and exclave result from border disputes.
The political situation in Afghanistan has changed significantly since our textbook was written in 2012. The first democratically-elected president of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan took office in 2014. Several key stakeholders expressed their desire to reduce U.S. involvement in Afghanistan during the next several years. In 2020, the United States pledged to withdraw its military forces and those of its allies and partners in an agreement with the Taliban (without the Afghan government). The Taliban promised they would not engage in or support terrorist activities (although they have not lived up to this promise).
When the United States and its allies withdrew their military forces in August 2021, Afghanistan's political leaders fled the country, and the Afghan military collapsed with little opposition. Within two months, Afghanistan was under Taliban control. The Taliban has since increased its oppression of Afghan society and has severely curtailed the rights of the women who had become prominent citizens and business leaders in their communities before the change in leadership. As of June 2022, no countries have recognized the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan as the legitimate successor of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.
Afghanistan has vast mineral resources like many of its neighbors in Central Asia. Given Afghanistan's current geopolitical situation, it is unclear whether these resources will be produced to benefit the Afghani people.
Read this article. The USGS map of mineral resources shows the greatest concentration of mineral resources is in Afghanistan's Hindu Kush mountain range. Similar concentrations of mineral resources are found in the countries of the Tian Shan and Pamir mountains. These belts of rare earth elements – rare metals (REE-RM) in Central Asia result from tectonic activity and other geologic processes that occurred during the past hundreds of millions of years.
The challenge of extracting these resources is magnified in a country that lacks the necessary infrastructure (roadways, railways, and electricity). Since Afghanistan and the other countries of Central Asia are landlocked, transportation to foreign markets depends on railway transport which is challenged by the region's rugged terrain and harsh climate. The prevailing religious and territorial conflicts, which we explore in the next section, present additional barriers to trade.
7.6: The Religious Hearths of North Africa and Southwest Asia
Religion is a critical element of culture to human geographers who study the spatial distribution of religion, how communities practice their faith, and how a population's beliefs influence their culture and institutions. The origin of three of the world's primary religions – Judaism, Christianity, and Islam – resides in the region of North Africa and Southwest Asia, the sub-region many call the Middle East or the Holy Land.
Jerusalem has been the center of this territorial struggle because all three religions believe it is one of the holiest places on Earth. The city remains divided: West Jerusalem is part of Israel, and East Jerusalem is in the Palestinian West Bank. Israel controls the Old City of Jerusalem, which contains the sites holy to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, despite its location in East Jerusalem. The cities of Mecca and Medina in today's Saudi Arabia are also holy to Islam. See the reference map in Figure 7.12 for the locations of Jerusalem, Mecca, and Medina.
In this course, we provide a brief overview of how the history of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam has affected the human landscape and explain conflicts regarding identity, religion, and physical geography. Be mindful of the fact that there are several interpretations of these events, and the details remain controversial. We encourage you to study this history further since we only provide a cursory assessment here.
You should be able to answer these questions after you review the following resources.- What is the connection between Mecca and Abraham, the patriarch of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam?
- What places do these three religions consider holy? Why?
- What places are holy to more than one of these religions?
- What triggered the Jewish diaspora in 70 CE?
- What is the current spatial distribution of Jews?
- How did the spatial diffusion of Christianity occur?
- Where did Christianity spread?
- How did the spatial diffusion of Islam occur?
- Where did Islam spread?
- What is the spatial distribution of Sunni and Shia Muslims?
Read this text to understand why location is so important to the followers of these three religions.
Watch the first 4:37 of this video. We will watch the rest later.
7.7: Conquest in North Africa and Southwest Asia
Like several areas we have explored, the region of North Africa and Southwest Asia has been conquered and ruled by outsiders throughout history. Its religious significance and strategic location as a crossroads between Eastern Europe and Western Asia have made it an asset to anyone who controls it.
Read this text for a few of the highlights of the history of conquest in this region
This region was controlled by the Assyrians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Mongols, and Ottomans. The Russian Empire conquered Central Asia to challenge the British Empire's influence in India and Southeast Asia. This area, called Russian Turkestan (see Figure 7.13) from 1867 to 1917, included Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. Notice that Afghanistan, a protectorate of the British Empire during this time, was not part of Russian Turkestan.
7.8: The Impact of Conquest on the Caucasus Sub-Region
The map in Figure 7.14 shows that Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia make up the Caucasus sub-region which is strategically located east of the Black Sea and west of the Caspian Sea. Foreign powers have long sought to control this heavily-traveled territory which has served as a geographic bridge between Eastern Europe and Western Asia. The Romans, Persians, Arabs, Mongols, Ottomans, and Russians have all conquered this territory since the fourth century BCE.
The Soviet Union ruled the sub-regions of Central Asia and the Caucasus during much of the 20th century. All of these countries were SSRs except for Afghanistan. Note that the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979, sparking the Soviet-Afgan War, which lasted until 1989. Russia also tried to seize the country of Georgia in August 2008, a former SSR, after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.
The Caucasus has seen many conflicts due to its ethnolinguistic diversity. Figure 7.13 highlights four of these areas: Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Nagorno-Karabakh, and the Azerbaijan exclave of Nakhichevan. As in Sub-Saharan Africa, borders have been imposed on the population without regard for the pre-existing human geography.
For example, Georgia includes several ethnolinguistic regions that are not ethnically Georgian, such as South Ossetia, Abkhazia, and Adjara, which have sought independence from Georgia. Adjara is not shown on the map but surrounds the city of Batumi in the south.
South Ossetia is part of a larger region known as Ossetia, which straddles the Russian-Georgian border. The South Ossetians have sought independence from Georgia since Georgia gained its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. In 2008, Georgia tightened its control over the region by force, which prompted Russia to invade the region in support of Ossetian independence. Although South Ossetians are not ethnically Georgian or Russian, many believe Russian support will help them achieve independence from Georgia.
The Abkhaz and Adjarian ethnic groups are also seeking independence from Georgia. Similar ethnic conflicts have arisen between Azerbaijan and Armenia, resulting in the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh and the Azerbaijan exclave of Nakhichevan.More than 50 ethnic groups live in this sub-region. Its connections between Eastern Europe and Western Asia and its rugged terrain (see Figure 7.15) have contributed to its extraordinarily diverse ethnolinguistic landscape. Figure 7.16 illustrates some of this diversity. Indo-European and Turkic languages are spoken in addition to the three language families unique to the Caucasus. The mountainous topography of this sub-region has helped these separate ethnolinguistic groups to develop.
The country of Armenia used to extend farther to the west into Turkey. Its territory has seen significant losses and has been conquered numerous times throughout history. During World War I, the Ottoman Empire engaged in genocide to rid the territory of the Armenian population. Watch this video to learn why the Ottoman Empire sought to remove the Armenians.
7.9: Decolonization and Western Sahara
In 1881, Spain claimed the region it called Spanish Sahara during the Berlin Conference. Spain was interested in this coastal area as a port for transporting slaves and for commercial fishing.
After World War I, Spain left the administration of the Spanish Sahara to Spanish Morocco, which is shown in Figure 7.17.
In 1975, Spain completely withdrew from Spanish Morocco when Morocco annexed the northern two-thirds of the region, and Mauritania annexed the southern third. A local resistance group called the Polisario Front, backed by Algeria, challenged the claims Morocco and Mauritania were making and staged a guerilla war to fight for the independence of Western Sahara.
Mauritania withdrew in 1979, leaving Morocco to claim the entire territory. During the 1980s, Morocco constructed a series of sand and stone walls to restrict the Polisario Front to the eastern side of the territory, with a narrow strip to the south along the Mauritanian border. The map in Figure 7.18 shows the location of these walls and indicates when they were builtFigure 7.19 shows what one of these walls looks like from the Polisario side. The berms are about three meters high, built along the hills and ridges, and fortified with fences and landmines.
By 1991, the United Nations (UN) intervened, brokered a halt to the fighting, and worked to resolve the matter. A stalemate persists, with armed clashes breaking out as Morocco continues to push for annexation and the Polisario Front continues to advocate for independence. Clearly, conquest and conflict have defined much of the region of North Africa and Southwest Asia.
Read this article for more on the situation in Western Sahara.
7.10: The Modern Political Landscape of North Africa and Southwest Asia
Let's look at how this region's history of conquest and colonization has influenced its current political landscape. Conflict in the form of war, terrorism, and even genocide still affects parts of this region. Inequality is particularly acute.
Several countries have a theocratic government. In 2011, during the so-called Arab Spring, thousands of empowered citizens protested their governments' failure to recognize the needs of the people. However, any democratic progress that resulted was short-lived.Read this text to learn more about the current political conditions in North Africa and Southwest Asia.
As in Syria, Yemen has been the site of a devastating civil war. Saudi Arabia continues to back the Yemeni government against the Houthi movement. Some human rights experts accuse Saudi Arabia and its supporters, including the United States, of engaging in genocide of the Houthi people.
Little has changed in Yemen since these articles were published in 2018. In May 2022, the United Nations (UN) brokered a truce that allowed some aid to reach civilians, but the situation remains dire. The UN has called Yemen the worst humanitarian crisis in the world. By March 2022, more than 17 million Yemenis needed food assistance. The UN estimates that 7.3 million of these people will experience emergency levels of hunger by the end of 2022.
Read these two articles for more on the conditions in Yemen and the Houthi movement.The author of this article notes that tension between religious sects is a significant factor responsible for the violence and hunger in Yemen, but it is not the only cause.
7.11: Religious Conflict in North Africa and Southwest Asia
Religion is an aspect of culture that defines the identity of many people. However, religion also has a geographic component because it diffuses the movement of people and their communication with one another. It leaves a mark on the landscape when people identify and build sacred places where they gather in search of community and moral guidance.
However, people also use the cloak of religion to destroy their physical and human landscape. Globalization has exacerbated this conflict when people feel their identities are threatened by the pervasiveness of other cultures.Read this text for examples of religious conflict that continues to characterize much of this region.
The vast majority of Muslims reject Islamic extremism. The oppressive measures ISIS and other violent groups support do not come from the Islam of Muhammad.
Watch this presentation. Pay attention to the author's explanation of the difference between cultural practices and the Islamic faith.Watch this video on the harm extremism inflicts on young girls and women. Laura Boushnak, a Palestinian photographer born in Kuwait, shares her images of the perseverance of women in the face of oppression.
Unit 7 Assessment
- Receive a grade
Take this assessment to see how well you understood this unit.
- This assessment does not count towards your grade. It is just for practice!
- You will see the correct answers when you submit your answers. Use this to help you study for the final exam!
- You can take this assessment as many times as you want, whenever you want.