Transcript Hence, the relationship that exists among world cultures impacts

Unit 7
Southwest Asia
Asia is the largest continent on
the Earth.
Asia is a region or a land of
contrasts.
It has some of the driest
deserts, highest mountains, and
longest rivers in the world.
Southwest Asia is called the
Middle East.
The Middle East has its share of
diverse landscapes, whose
geographic factors influence a
society's ability to control territory
and shape the domestic and
foreign policies of the society.
Middle Eastern people have
adapted to the physical
environment in selected places and
regions.
Historically, it is believed that the
Mesopotamians learned to grow
crops, from early farmers, along
the fertile plains between the Tigris
and Euphrates Rivers.
The development of
agriculture became a yearround process.
The Sumerian farmers also
faced the challenges of the
rivers flooding and destroying
homes, shelters, and human
life. They learned to build canals
to irrigate crops and innovated
structures such as the dikes to
control the rivers when flooding
seasons occurred.
Today, with modern techniques
to improve farming, the
discovery of oil, and the
introduction of modern
medicine, the population in the
Middle East has grown.
The relationship that exists
among world cultures impacts
cultural, geographic, and
political boundaries within and
among several Middle Eastern
countries, such as Iraq.
Iraq was known as Mesopotamia
and contained the Fertile Crescent
where one of the world’s oldest
civilizations began.
After World War II, Israel was
partitioned off by the United
Nations as a home for the Jewish
people.
Israel’s government is a limited
government.
Hammurabi lived in Mesopotamia
and wrote the first code of laws for
his people.
Iran has an unlimited government.
Observance of Ramadan is part of
the Five Pillars of Faith.
The Middle East is considered a
region because of their religion.
Language does not really play a
very big part.
Most Middle Eastern countries are
considered to be deserts and semiarid lands.
Because of water resources, many
people settled in the Middle East.
Jerusalem is divided into several
cultural sections:
Islam, Judaism, Christianity
The Ottoman empire controlled
much of the Middle East before the
British moved in and created
separate countries.
Modernization is when new
innovations and inventions allow
high-tech cities to grow.
In most Middle Eastern counties
today, women probably have the
least voice in the governemnts.
The area of Southwest Asia that is
important to both the Jewish and
Christian faith is the Holy Land.
The Sunni people and the Shia
people disagree about the rightful
leaders of the Muslim world today.
The Persian Gulf is very important
to the United States. This
waterway helps the US preserve our
import of oil from the Middle East.