North Africa and Southwest Asia realm has a profound and diverse history and is considered “the scene of several of the world's great ancient civilizations, based in its river valleys and basins”. The importance and impact of this geographic realm is claimed to be highly influential and prominent: “from this realm's culture hearths diffused ideas, innovations, and technologies that changed the world” (Nijman et. al., 2004). Therefore this essay aims to analyze the impact and effects of its major geographic qualities, focusing on the two following ones: population distribution and world religions.
The factor of population distribution is highly important to consider in the given realm as it is correlated directly with a range of other geographic aspects. The greatest percentage of the population in this realm has always been located around water sources, where the environment, especially the ground, is not so dry and arid than in the other regions – the places of concentration of a great amount of people include the Nile, Mediterranean Sea, the southern side of the Caspian Sea, Lower mountain slopes of Iran, and Euphrates and Tigris Basin (Singleton, 2016). Such geographic quality implied the development of settlements and infrastructure in certain regions, thus reshaping the landscapes, environment and, most importantly, society itself. In future, a great increase in population of certain areas will lead to straining water supplies, cities and their public services.
The aspect of world religions in the given realm may be considered from both cultural and geographic perspectives. The North Africa/Southwest Asia realm implies coexisting of three world religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam (Nijman et. al., 2004). These religions, however, often come into conflict with each other, due to the geographic qualities they possess. So long as it came to occur that different religions consider the same place as sacred, as in the case of Jerusalem (Fox), both contradictions and clashes have appeared on such basis. The current situation in Syria and Iraq, with their great cgaos and destruction, may be showed as an example to it. It is also claimed that “the division of the Middle East into countries with borders that did not reflect inherent ethnic, tribal, and religious realties was a formula for future crisis” (Henley-Putnam University, 2011). Therefore the conflicts in the North Africa/Southwest Asia realms keep having highly adverse effect on the civic population and the everyday lives of the citizens.
References
Henley-Putnam University (2011). The Middle East, Southwest Asian and North Africa are
on Fire. Henley-Putnam University. Retrieved from http://www.henley-putnam.edu/articles/the-middle-east-southwest-asia.aspx
Nijman, J., Muller, O.P., Blij, J. H (2004). Geography: Realms, Regions and Concepts.
11th edition, John Wiley and Sons. Print.
Singleton, C. (2016). North Africa & Southwest Asia (Chapter 7). Early Culture Hearths.
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