Asia: A Concise History

Introduction.

List of Maps.

Photo Credits.

PART 1: ANCIENT ASIA.

Chapter 1: Ancient West Asia.

The First Civilisation: Sumer.

The Great Empires: Babylon, Assyria and Persia.

Understanding the World: Religion and Myth.

Endgame: Greco-Roman Europe Versus Persian Asia.

Chapter 2: Ancient South Asia.

Asia’s Second Civilisation: The Indus Valley.

Epic India: The Aryan Invasion.

The Buddhist Revolution: The Mauryan Empire.

The Age of Invasion: From the Bactrians to the Huns.

Chapter 3: Ancient East Asia.

The Cradle of the East: The Shang Dynasty.

Classical China: The Zhou Dynasty.

Imperial Unifi cation: The Qin and Former Han Emperors.

Imperial Crisis: The Failure of the Later Han.

Chapter 4: Ancient Central Asia.

The Steppe: An Intercontinental Highway.

Nomads: The Scourge of the Sown.

The Spread of Buddhism: The First Pan-Asian Faith.

The Great Raid: Attila the Hun.

PART 2: MEDIEVAL ASIA.

Chapter 5: Medieval West Asia.

Islam: The Second Pan-Asian Faith.

The Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphates.

The Coming of the Seljuks.

The Crusades.

Safavid Persia.

The Ottoman Empire.

Chapter 6: Medieval South Asia.

The Arrival of Islam.

The Hindu and Buddhist Kingdoms.

The Mughal Empire.

European Rivalry.

The British Triumph.

Chapter 7: Medieval East Asia.

Tang and Song China.

Confucian Korea.

Feudal Japan.

The Ming Revival.

Chapter 8: Medieval Central Asia.

The Turks and the Qidans.

The Tibetan Empire.

The Mongol Empire.

Tamerlane, the Sword of Islam.

The Manchu Conquests.

Chapter 9: Medieval Southeast Asia.

Independent Vietnam.

The Khmer Empire.

The Kingdoms of Burma.

The Island Powers: Srivijaya, Mataram and Majapahit.

The Slow Spread of Islam.

The Advent of European Power.

The Rise of the Thai.

PART 3: MODERN ASIA.

Chapter 10: Modern West Asia.

The Fall of the Ottoman Empire.

Between World Wars.

The Founding of Israel.

Syria, Lebanon and Jordan.

Iraq versus Iran.

Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States.

Modern Turkey.

Chapter 11: Modern South Asia.

The British Raj.

The Indian Mutiny.

The End of Company Rule.

Gandhi and Indian Nationalism.

Independence and Partition.

Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

Chapter 12: Modern East Asia.

China's Humiliation.

Japanese Imperialism.

The People's Republic of China.

The Korean War.

The Rise of the Pacific Rim.

Chapter 13: Modern Central Asia.

The Russian Advance.

The Great Game.

Afghanistan, the Land of Bones.

Siberia and Mongolia.

The Central Asian Republics.

Chapter 14: Modern Southeast Asia.

The Dutch East Indies.

The British Possessions.

French Indochina and Thailand.

The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere.

Post-War Decolonisation.

The Republic of Indonesia.

The Tragedy of Vietnam.

Filipino Democracy.

Postscript: The Rise of Present-Day Asia.

Glossary.

Further Reading.

Index.