Colloquially referred to as the Stans , Central Asia, also called Middle Asia comprises of the area between the mineral rich Caspian Sea in the East and China in the West as well as from Afghanistan to the South and Russia in the North (Karthe, Chalov & Borchardt, 2015). It is home to 5 nations in some definitions and 6 in others. The basic 5 are Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. In most definitions however, Afghanistan is also considered as part of Central Asia. One of the most common but non-pertinent factor is the towering effect of Russia in all of the histories of these nations. All initial 5 nations once formed the formidable Soviet Union, which was mainly controlled by Russia (Karthe, Chalov & Borchardt, 2015). Further, Afghanistan was once occupied by Russia, whom it eventually managed to fight off. In the contemporary times, the area has a general correlation in religion, population and physical geography albeit with some outliers.
The population in Central Asia is extremely sparse and mainly limited to the urban areas. Most of the countries in the region are however vast. The combination of vast area and low population results in a relatively low population density. Another common trend is that most of the populace lives in urban areas leaving large tracts of land absolutely uninhabited. The most populated nations in the area are Afghanistan and Uzbekistan both with approximately 30 million people (Hoggarth, 2016). Kazakhstan is the only other country with over 10 million inhabitants coming in third at 17 million people (Hoggarth, 2016). Tajikistan has about 9 million people, followed by Kyrgyzstan with 6 million and finally Turkmenistan with about 5.3 million (Karthe, Chalov & Borchardt, 2015).
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The religious aspect of Central Asia is perhaps among the most unique characteristic as the area is almost overwhelming Muslim (Poliakov & Olcott, 2016). This is unique as most of the area was under the Soviet Union for almost half a century. A common feature of the nations that fell under communism is the abandonment of religion as happened in China and East Germany (Poliakov & Olcott, 2016). However, Central Asia managed to maintain an overwhelmingly Islamic population throughout the Soviet dispensation and is still predominantly Islamic to date. However, unlike the Middle East where religion forms an integral part of governance, Islam in Central Asia is relegated to a cultural position (Poliakov & Olcott, 2016). A majority of the nations in Central Asia recognize Islam as the religion of the majority. It is however not enforced as the official religion with state matters remaining predominantly secular (Poliakov & Olcott, 2016).
From a physical geography perspective, despite its modest population which in total mirrors that of Nigeria, a relatively small West African Country, Central Asia is exponentially large (Klinge, Böhner& Erasmi, 2015). The physical features and topography also varies greatly. However, a majority of the region is covered by vast deserts and grassy lowlands. This makes most of the land unconducive for farming thus relegating most of the population to livestock herding (Klinge, Böhner& Erasmi, 2015). This has resulted in a very common trend of vast fallow areas in majority of the nations in the region. Most members of the populace will, therefore, be urbanized not because of economic activities but out of necessity due to the uninhabitable nature of the rest of the areas (Klinge, Böhner& Erasmi, 2015).
Despite the dry weather, a common feature in the area is large rivers and a collection of water bodies spread throughout the area. Major rivers include the Amu Darya, Murghab, Syt Dayra, Irtysh, and Hari River (Klinge, Böhner& Erasmi, 2015). Water bodies within the area apart from the vas Caspian Sea include the Aral Sea and Lake Balkhash. All these water bodies form part of the Endorheic Basin (Karthe, Chalov & Borchardt, 2015). A recent common problem in the region is the reduction on water level in the rivers and water bodies mainly due to human activities, specifically irrigation and industrial use of water. Water has always been a precious commodity in the region and in the recent past, the situation has been getting increasingly worse, in some cases creating potential international disputes (Karthe, Chalov & Borchardt, 2015).
Albeit there are general congruencies and trend in the characteristics outlined herein above, some nations stand out as outliers in each characteristic. With regard to population density, Uzbekistan stands out as having the highest population density which currently stands at approximately 70 people per square kilometer (Hoggarth, 2016). This is more than double the average for the region. This can be credited to a better economy mainly driven by mineral resources mainly gold as well as fossil fuels. Kazakhstan on the other hand, has the lowest population density at 6 people per square kilometer (Hoggarth, 2016). It is by far the largest nation in the region with most of its land being uninhabitable. With regard to religion, most of the nations have over 90% Muslim population except Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. Kazakhstan has a 26% Christian population with Kyrgyzstan having a 17% Russian Orthodox Population (Poliakov & Olcott, 2016). On the extreme end is Afghanistan with a 99% Muslim population (Poliakov & Olcott, 2016). With regard to physical geography, whereas most of Central Asia is flat, grassy and dry, some parts of Afghanistan, specifically around the Wakhan Corridor is extremely mountainous complete with permafrost and snowcapped peaks (Karthe, Chalov & Borchardt, 2015).
The totality of the foregoing creates a unique region with exceeding congruencies including historical, current, and physical aspects. Central Asia, at one point under near total control of the Soviet Union now includes a total of 6 nations, all of them independent and recognized by the international community. The population is sparse and the economies generally poor with the exception of Uzbekistan. Generally, the nations have an overwhelming Islamic population although they remain secular in governance. Finally, with the exception of some parts of Afghanistan, the region is generally flat and dry thus a majority of the populace is urbanized.
References
Hoggarth, D. (2016). The rise of Islamic finance: Post ‐ colonial market ‐ building in central Asia and Russia. International Affairs , 92 (1), 115-136.
Karthe, D., Chalov, S., & Borchardt, D. (2015). Water resources and their management in central Asia in the early twenty first century: status, challenges and future prospects. Environmental Earth Sciences , 73 (2), 487-499.
Klinge, M., Böhner, J., & Erasmi, S. (2015). Modeling forest lines and forest distribution patterns with remote-sensing data in a mountainous region of semiarid central Asia. Biogeosciences , 12 (10), 2893-2905.
Poliakov, S. P., & Olcott, M. B. (2016). Everyday Islam: Religion and tradition in rural Central Asia: London: Routledge.
