ABSTRACT
In this the second volume of our two-volume review of the changing geography of Africa and Asia over the last twenty-five years, we are considering all those parts of Asia outside of the Middle East (which was included in the first volume). Until the early years after the Second World War most of this vast area was either under colonial rule or, like China, heavily in the thrall of outside powers. Although many commentators would have stated then that Soviet Asia was also in effect several colonial territories of a socialist but imperialist state, the commonest position was to accept the incorporation of these territories as constituent parts of the Union.
