Why are South and East Asia so densely populated in comparison to other parts of the world?
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Not to be pedantic, but the population density of Asian countries isn’t much higher than the rest of the world; the Netherlands has a higher population density than India, for example.
If you mean overall population, then it largely comes down to crops. Rice is the staple crop of Asia, which can have two growing seasons each year. By contrast, wheat, the staple crop of Europe, only has one. More food = more people.
Pre-industrial civilizations are limited by agricultural production. China and India just so happen to have large river systems running through some of the best – and most expansive – agricultural areas in the world.
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