Western Asia - History

History

See also: History of Western Asia and Ancient Western Asia

Western Asia has been a key region for human development for most of history. The majority of modern paleontologists believe that Homo Sapiens originated in East Africa and spread out of Africa through Western Asia. As such this region contains some of mankind's oldest homelands and human settlements.

Apart from its place as an early crossroads for human migration, the region was important to social and cultural development. The first Agricultural Revolution, the invention of agriculture which enabled the development of permanent settlements, occurred here. Not surprisingly, the first civilizations emerged here as well. Indeed, the First Persian Empire is considered by many historians to be the world's first superpower. Those innovations that enabled the development of civilization gradually spread throughout Africa, South Asia, and Europe forming the basis for the development of civilization in all of those regions.

Western Asia continued to be the source of many of mankind's most important innovations. The invention of the first written language occurred here in Mesopotamia. This region has also been credited with the invention of the wheeled cart, the boat sail, and the windmill.

For most of the last three millennia, the region has been united under one or two powerful states; each one succeeding the last, and at times, eastern and western based polities. The main states in this regard were the Assyrian Empire, the Babylonian Empire, the Achaemenid Empire, the Seleucid Empire, the Parthian Empire, the Roman Empire, the Sassanid Empire, the Byzantine Empire, the Umayyad Caliphate, the Abbasid Caliphate, the Safavid Empire, and the Ottoman Empire.

Western Asia is the birthplace of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, as well as other monotheistic religions. In recent history the region has been largely dominated by the Islamic faith.