Russian Steppes Essay

Mongolia, but there were also some harsh times, like with Genghis Khan and his reign. They

The grasslands of Central Asia are known as steppes. In ancient times the only people that lived there were pastoralists. These were nomadic people who survived by herding animals who fed on grass, the only plants that grew there. The land and harsh environment taught these nomadic people to be harsh and do what was necessary The people of this land were viewed as uncivilized and barbaric by settled people.

Being the world’s largest country by land area, nearly twice the size of Canada, Russia’s population ranks sixth in the world, and is spread across 5,000 miles from the Baltic Sea in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. Russia borders 14 other countries, spans 11 time zones and has a wide range of environments that include deserts, deep forests, and an arctic tundra. Russia contains Europe’s longest river, the Volga River, as well as its largest lake, Lake Ladoga. Its climate can be described as highly continental, from extreme cold in its northern regions and Siberia to subtropical in areas along the Black Sea. Russia’s capital and largest city is Moscow, followed by St. Petersburg. These cities combined are Russia’s most prominent

It massive forests and frozen tundra’s have picturesque views that would astound anyone. The country has a land surface area of 6,592,735 square miles, making the largest country by land comparably to the world. Since Russia is the biggest country in the world, it has every landscape imaginable. From Lake Baikal, the biggest lake in Europe, to the Ryn desert, and the cold Siberian forests. Russia has it all when it comes to land geography. The northern part of Russia concealed with the Arctic Ocean, which is froze for the majority of the year. To the west the only way Russia has access to the Atlantic Ocean is through the Black Sea, and then through the Mediterranean Sea. Another way to access the Atlantic Ocean is through the Baltic Sea or through the Barents Sea, which is only operable in the summer, since in the winter everything over the 60-degree latitude line turns into ice. Even though Russia can access the Atlantic Ocean through the sea when you look at a map, there is two more non-geographic obstacles. The first one is that countries that are around the sea, for example, Turkey, and Denmark, which are part of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), can deny or make it hard for Russia to use those routes. NATO’s purpose is to pledge the liberty and safety of its members through military and political methods. In other words, if one NATO country takes a conflict with a non-member of NATO, then all

Eurasia has a predominately East-West axis. This means that much of the landmass shares similar climates, hours of sun, diseases, and crops. This is important for many reasons. It was easy for people of East Eurasia to migrate to West Eurasia and vice-versa. Technology could diffuse faster, crops were basically universal across the mega-continent, and livestock could be moved far because of similar climates. This was very beneficial towards the advancement of the Eurasian people.

Islam soon acquired vast amounts of territory in Afro-Eurasia, and according to the map, “The Growing Worlds of Islam (900-1500),” it occupied an area from parts of central Asia to West Africa and Eastern Europe by the start of the sixteenth century. This map documents the phases of the growth of Islam for six hundred years, which combined with further analysis will reveal each step in the conquest of each new phase of territory. Controlling all of these nations created standardized trade and common business practices throughout the empire. Using already intact trade routes, such as the Silk Roads, documented in the map provided as document 1, the Islamic empire built an economic system that was unified by common religious beliefs. Comparing the trade routes mapped on both the Silk Roads map and the “The Growing Worlds of Islam (900-1500)” map, one can see that they are very similar, suggesting that they remained the same and that the Islamic empire just took over the control of each. Yet it was not just the Silk Roads that saw a revival at the hands of Muslim commercial excursions. The Mediterranean and Indian Ocean sea routes, as well as the trans-Saharan routes were given new life as well due to the Islamic empire. These routes not only produced trade, but they also opened up opportunities for new agricultural products and a sharing of ideas and innovations. These

Based on document six, China is surrounded by the Pacific Ocean (to the west), the Himalayan Mountains (to the southwest), and the Gobi Desert (up north). These natural barriers helped stop foreigners from invading China, thus helping the civilization develop. Furthermore,

This is a very important statement, because this statement is essentially Diamond’s answer to Yali’s question as to why “white people” came to dominate the rest of the world. However, I want to start off with what an average humans needs in order to survive; shelter, food, and water. Shelter was an important issue Diamond skipped over. Although is seems insignificant, without shelter, there’s no way agriculture can be established. There must be a place built in order to protect our ancestors from the elements, or else no matter how great agriculture is, one will die if exposed too long to extreme weather conditions. About food and water, Diamond argues how well the land of the Eurasians was so fertile, meaning water must also be available as well. So, with this fertile land, agriculture was successful and gave Eurasians the upper hand in population growth. This is a good point as Diamond covers all his bases as to why Eurasians had the better land. Eurasia’s large landmass and similar climate throughout allowed the exchange of crops and the successful use of them in different parts of Eurasia. This gave rise to successful agriculture and surplus of resources throughout

1. Who was the group of people that controlled the steppe in Russia? What do we know about them? Why does the author think this group was the ruling class in the region?

Southeast Asia for example was only identified because it was “a suitable geographical platform for military strategists.” There are not many characteristics that are unique to that part of the world. Considering the agricultural patterns for example, they are the same patterns found in southern China and central Madagascar to name a few. There is no concrete way to define landmasses based on environmental criteria since there are many different, unrelated areas with the same environmental conditions. Southwest Asia and North Africa is another example of this.

How is the weather different in Barcelona, Spain compared to the weather in Irkutsk, Siberia in February?hot and dry winters are mild,summers shorts winter's long cold

Many thousands of years ago, upon the earliest creations of civilization, there were two thriving civilizations. Both of which knew little to nothing about each other’s existence. In this ancient world, there was no connection of the two civilizations, no trade in commerce or culture. It was not until the second century BC that Europe and Eastern Asia interacted in a significant way. What is known as “The Silk Road” was established during the Han Dynasty of China, it was a network of trade routes that created a link between these two regions during this ancient world (ancient.eu). Though these routes have history prior to the Han Dynasty, this is when many historians see the routes in full practice. This time during the second century BC was crucial in the connection of these separately thriving civilizations, connecting them through commerce, religion, and exploration.

Long distance trading had made it possible for people from different cultures to interact. Silk roads were one of the famous trade routes that were used in the ancient time. It stretched from China to central Asia and westward. It merged into one big series of routes. Traders traveled segments of the route, passing their goods on to others who took them further along the road, and in turn, passed them on again. The effect of long-distance exchanges altered the political geography of Afro-Eurasia. The Middle East became a commercial middle ground between the Mediterranean and Indian. The horse-riding nomads of Inner Eurasia made long-distance trade possible. Kushan empire in Afghanistan and the Indus River basin embraced a large and diverse

Mountain ranges on the eastern border of Russia include Dzhugdzhur Khrebet, Khrebet Gydan, and Khrebet Gydan. All of the mountain ranges that define the eastern and southern borders, as well as the Ural Mountains create an area in west Russia in which there is little vegetation and harsh weather.

Russia, officially known as the Russian Federation, has a total area of 17,098,242 sq km (“The World Factbook”) and is the largest country in the world. It is about 1.8 times the size of the United States (“The World Factbook”). Most of Russia is either large stretches of plains or areas with a lot of forests and mountains, with the exception of the Siberian Tundra. It is difficult to perfectly describe Russia’s climate because of it’s large size. However, in general, the country only has two seasons, summer and winter. In the summer they have very warm, continental weather and they have very harsh winters with a lot of snow. Russia is plentiful in natural resources. They are particularly