The Palgrave Concise Historical Atlas of Central Asia

Palgrave Macmillan, 2008. - 144 p. The Central Asian republics have been commanding attention in news rooms around the world since gaining independence in 1991. Importantly, foreign-policy makers and many international relations experts in Moscow, Beijing, Delhi, Istanbul and recently, Washington, D C , have been claiming that this region, its resources, and its transportation infrastructure are of vital and strategic importance for the globe. The great paradox is that the major world powers, divided by thousands of miles and located in completely different geopolitical environments, have such high stakes in this remote part of the world. The situation is especially puzzling as the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in its regional report on Central Asia in 2005 put many parts of the region on a par with the poorest countries in the world. "From the Silk Road to the Great Game, Central Asia has long been a region of great strategic, political, and economic importance. Currently the home of large oil reserves, Islamic terrorists, and new democracies, Central Asia is of growing visibility to Americans. In this atlas, Rafis Abazov provides 50 two-color maps, each accompanied by a facing page of explanatory text, that graphically illuminate the region's history tracing back to the 8th-7th centuries B.C. From the spread of Islam to the invasion of the Mongols, the area has been at the crossroads of some of the world's most important developments, all succinctly explained in this book. Students will regard it as a useful reference, and general readers will value it for its clarity and wealth of information."--pub. desc "From the Silk Road to the Great Game, Central Asia has long been a region of great strategic, political, and economic importance. Currently the home of large oil reserves, Islamic terrorists, and new democracies, Central Asia is of growing visibility to Americans. In this atlas, Rafis Abazov provides 50 two-color maps, each accompanied by a facing page of explanatory text, that graphically illuminate the region`s history tracing back to the 8th-7th centuries B.C. From the spread of Islam to the invasion of the Mongols, the area has been at the crossroads of some of the world`s most important developments, all succinctly explained in this book."--Publisher's information This atlas graphically illuminates the region's history tracing back to the 8th-7th century B.C. From the spread of Islam to the invasion of the Mongols, the area has been at the crossroads of some of the world's most important developments, all succinctly explained in this book.

The first comprehensive atlas of a region of growing importance

Rafis Abazov. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [113]-120) And Index.