Central Asia Explained

This is Asia. It's a very big place. It is in fact bigger than Texas, Germany, the Solomon Islands, Mongolia, and Los Angeles combined, so you know it's got to be incredibly diverse, which in fact it is, as it is very often divided into numerous different regions to help people comprehend the whole deal. Looking at the UN sub-regions just for simplicity, there's East Asia, the place people most often mean when they refer to something as Asian, Southeast Asia, popular nowadays with backpackers and digital nomads, South Asia, basically India, Pakistan, and co., North Asia, literally just Siberia, Southwest Asia, generally more often referred to as the Middle East, and lastly, for the topic of this video, we look towards the center, z, of Asia, located just to the east of Central Asia. This area however, much like many other Central regions around the world, isn't generally as well-known by the outside world as the other regions of Asia, but that doesn't mean they aren't still full of fascinating cultures and interesting history, so here's a basic guide to Central Asia as made by an American living in Germany who still hasn't yet visited. Central Asia contains five different countries, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Tajikistan. Afghanistan is also sometimes included, but is mostly considered part of South Asia. Aside from the more Persian-based culture of Tajikistan, the countries of Central Asia all have varying Turkic cultures, including their titular nationalities, as well as numerous other groups, like the Tatars and Karakalpaks. Seeing as the area borders Russia to the north, and also kind of to the west, Iran to the south, and China to the east, Central Asian cultures have often been known to borrow elements from these three areas, namely in the use of Cyrillic in most of their languages, the use of the Persian suffix "-stan", instead of the Latin "-ia", and the millennia of shared history with China. The climate of Central Asia ranges from 30°C summers to winters dipping well below minus 40°C, and is largely made up of vast grassy steppes, which didn't historically support full-on agriculture in quite the same way as the semi-nomadic tribes which did develop in the area, and who would eventually arise into various different khanates. By the way, khan has nothing to do with KhAnubis, that's a different etymology entirely. The region was a major part of the Silk Road in its heyday, boasting cities such as Samarkand, Bukhara, Khokhans, Osh, Almaty, and several others, and Uzbekistan really got the lion's share of those, obviously helping the region financially, considering none of the countries have access to the wide open sea, except maybe through the Caspian now that Russia built the Volgodon Canal, but this is before that. In fact, Uzbekistan is one of only two double-landlocked countries in the world, that is a landlocked country whose only neighbors are other landlocked countries, which is actually kind of impressive considering Uzbekistan borders five different countries, and the only other double-landlocked country is Liechtenstein. Sorry Uzbekistan, didn't mean to rub it in your face like that. Throughout the vast majority of its short history, Central Asia was also at the heart of the vast Mongol Empire, where it served as the crossroads between the empire's vast holdings, and would later be split between the Chagatai Khanate and the Golden Horde after the empire's collapse. The General Timur, or Tamerlane, also somewhat pejoratively known as Timur the Lame, would then establish the Timur Empire across Persia and Central Asia, with its capital in the city of Samarkand, before moving to Herat in modern-day Afghanistan in 1405. In the latter half of the 2nd millennium AD, after Tamerlane's empire broke up, the rivaling Khanates of Central Asia gradually came under Russian rule, at first by the Russian Empire, and then later by the Soviet Union until its collapse in 1991. Thus, Russian influence can often be seen throughout, namely the Cyrillic alphabet used in most of their languages, and the widespread use of the Russian language itself, though do keep in mind the Cyrillic alphabet is being phased out in many places. Although the USSR was a strictly atheist country, Islam is and has for centuries been particularly prevalent in the region, with Kazakhstan being the northernmost Muslim-majority nation in the world. Many notable people also hail from Central Asia, for instance the Persian polymath Muhammad bin Musa al-Khwarizmi, who, as his name suggests, came from the region of Khwarizm, and whose name, after he invented algebra of course, would be Latinized to Algorithmi, which would give rise to the modern term Algorithm, the source of all my happiness and despair as a YouTuber. Since there are only five countries to talk about, I think I'll give you all a brief overview of each of these countries. First, this is Kazakhstan, its capital city is Astana, its largest city is Almaty, and it is home to 16 million people, 65% of whom are of Kazakh descent, with the others belonging to over 130 other ethnic groups, including Russians and even Germans. Kazakhstan is physically by far the largest of all these countries, being the 9th largest in the world and the largest landlocked country in the world, with its westernmost point being closer to France than to its easternmost point, and its southernmost point being closer to Saudi Arabia than to Saturn. Next we have Kyrgyzstan, a smaller, more mountainous country based in the capital of Bishkek. Home to 6.4 million people, the term Kyrgyz might sound vaguely familiar to anyone who speaks Turkish, literally meaning we are 40, referring to the original 40 clans united by the folk hero Manas against the Uyghurs, as according to the Epic of Manas, in a sense Kyrgyzstan's founding legend. Moving west we get to Uzbekistan, with its capital and largest city Tashkent, one of the many aforementioned cities on the Silk Road. Uzbekistan has a population of 34 million, making up nearly half the population of the entire region. Uzbekistan is home to the aforementioned region of Khorizm, as well as the Autonomous Republic of Karakalpakstan, and of course the famous cities of Khiva, Tashkent, Bukhara, Samarkand, and so many others. To the south is Turkmenistan, known today rather sadly more for its poor governmental record and… gimmicky leaders. The capital and largest city Ashgabat is known for its grand boulevards, grandiose architecture, and vast expanses of white-colored buildings. Turkmenistan is also home to the Darvaza Gas Crater, also known as the Gates to Hell, a crater filled with natural gas which has been burning ever since it was lit on fire to prevent the gas from spreading after an accident… that happened in 1971. Finally, we have Tajikistan, a smaller republic at the south end of the Fergana Valley. With its capital and largest city Dushanbe, its 9.2 million citizens, or at least 84% of them, are of Tajik descent, an Iranian group speaking a more or less Persian-based dialect, again completely different from the Turkic dialects spoken by its northern neighbors, and perhaps more similar to that spoken in its southern neighbor, Afghanistan. So hopefully this video has given you a better idea of what this place is like, and maybe even made you consider going there one day, I certainly want to, of course after we're allowed to go outside and travel again. Of course, the region is largely gaining in popularity, and visa requirements are already being lightened, especially for US and EU travelers, so hopefully Central Asia can get the attention it deserves once again. Thanks for watching, obviously this was supposed to be more of an introductory video, so there's still so much more to talk about regarding the region. Nevertheless, if you found this video interesting, be sure to give it a like, share it with someone who might also find it interesting, follow me on Twitter and Instagram, and subscribe to learn something new every Sunday.