Higher education in Asian countries and the role of international ...

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that it had become impossible to continue the occupation. Consequently majority of the
colonized areas in Asia and rest of the world were decolonized and this resulted in the birth of
many new independent states; at the end of nineteenth century there were 57 sovereign states
with total population of 1.63 billion 10 where as today 266 11 entities (both countries and
territories) with total world population of 6.80 billion. Among these political entities there are
203 sovereign states. 12 Likewise Asia was comprised of few sovereign states, before the era of
colonialism, but today it has 48 independent states and 12 dependencies (Wikipedia, 2010).
4.2.4 Economic history of Asia
Full picture of the history of Asian economy can be seen by taking into account the history of
several distinct regions collectively. These regions had varied levels of economic growth and
development. Historically three major civilizations (Indus valley civilization, Chinese
civilization and Near East Civilization in Mesopotamia.) were dominant on Asian economy since
the emergence of agrarian society 10,000 year ago (Gupta, 2004), (Hamilton, 2009). As there
was limited trade between and among these civilizations so the economies of these parts
expanded and progressed more or less independently. In Mesopotamia Tigris and Euphrates; in
China Yangtze, Yellow, Mekong and Pearl rivers; in India Indus, Brahmaputra and Ganges
rivers provided plenty of water for fertile lands of these regions (Jones & Liu, 2009). These
Rivers, fertile lands and accessibility to sea played a key role in the growth of the economies of
these regions. Perhaps this is one of the main reasons that these civilizations were the richest and
the most prosper in terms of economy and culture (Dahlman & Aubert, 2001).
10
http://www.ppionline.org/ndol/print.cfm?contentid=252023 Retrieved on 9th February 2010
11
European Commission- List of countries, territories and currencies (December 2009) http://publications.europa.eu/code/en/en-
5000500.htm Retrieved on 9th February 2010
12
Population: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_population Retrieved on 9th February 2010