North Africa and Southwest Asia

The region of North Africa and Southwest Asia extends from the Atlantic coast of Morocco in the west to the border of Pakistan in the east, a distance of more than 7,000 km (4,350 miles) (see Figure 13.1). This is roughly the same distance as from Denver, Colorado, to London, England, or from Hawaii to Washington DC. On the north the region ‘faces’ Europe across the Mediterranean, Black and Caspian Seas and borders former Soviet Central Asia. The five North African countries extend south into the heart of the Sahara Desert. For long periods of history, at least since the times of ancient Greece, there have been contacts to the north. During the period of the Roman Empire Europe pushed into northern Africa and Southwest Asia. At other times, particularly in the seventh century and again in the fifteenth century, the Moors and later Ottoman Turkey moved into Europe, converting Europeans to Islam. Since the middle of the nineteenth century the pressure has almost exclusively been from the European side (see Table 13.1).