1519–?: Leaving Spain with five ships and 270 men in 1519, the Portuguese Ferdinand Magellan is the first to reach Asia from the East. In 1520, he discovers what is now known as the Strait of Magellan. In 1521 he reaches the Marianas and then the island of Homonhon in the Philippines.
Most of those units had coalesced as a continental landmass by about 160 million years ago, when the core of the Indian subcontinent broke off from Africa and began drifting northeastward to collide with the southern flank of Asia about 50 million to 40 million years ago.
Marco Polo
Marco's father and uncle were merchants and travellers before him and had established a reputation trading in the Middle East. Through their trade Marco's father, Niccolò, and his uncle, Maffeo developed a relationship with Kublai Khan, emperor of the Mongol Empire and founder of the Yuan Dynasty of China.
Polo's 13th Century journey to China was the first to be well-documented. However, Chinese historians recorded much earlier visits by people thought by some to have been emissaries from the Roman Empire during the Second and Third Centuries AD.
The word Asia originated from the Ancient Greek word Ἀσία, first attributed to Herodotus (about 440 BCE) in reference to Anatolia or to the Persian Empire, in contrast to Greece and Egypt. It originally was just a name for the east bank of the Aegean Sea, an area known to the Hittites as Assuwa.
The generally accepted theory, based on the 'Out of Africa' model, is that modern humans migrated from Africa and across to Asia about 50-70,000 years ago.
Japan: 15 Million Years Old
Japan became an influential country only during the Meiji Restoration era. This oldest country in Asia is also amongst the oldest countries in the world.
The existence of China was known to Roman cartographers, but their understanding of it was less certain. Ptolemy's 2nd-century AD Geography separates the Land of Silk (Serica) at the end of the overland Silk Road from the land of the Qin (Sinae) reached by sea.
It's not until the 3rd century BCE, after the unification of Qin, that we have evidence of the Greek world — now Rome's world, really — being fully aware of the existence of a civilization in what is now China.
The Asian presence in East Africa dates as far back as 2,000–3,000 years. Until the nineteenth century Asians were confined to the coastal areas as small scattered groups of merchants (Hollingsworth 1960).
Though the ancient Chinese rank high among the world's oldest civilisations (2000 BC), the development of a united China came almost 1100 years after the ancient Egyptians (3100 BC). Mesopotamia (4000 BC), Egypt (3100 BC) and the Indus Valley civilisations (3300 BC) all significantly pre-date ancient China.
The empire was sometimes referred to as Great Qing but increasingly as Zhongguo (see the discussion below). Dulimbai Gurun is the Manchu name for China, with "Dulimbai" meaning "central" or "middle," and "Gurun" meaning "nation" or "state."
With more than four thousand years of recorded history, China is the world's oldest continuous civilization. The largest country in Asia, China stretches from the continent's eastern seaboard to the borders of Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakstan in the west.
Asian immigration to Australia refers to immigration to Australia from part of the continent of Asia, which includes East Asia, Southeast Asia, and South Asia.The first major wave of Asian immigration to Australia occurred in the late 19th century, but the exclusionary White Australia policy, which was implemented to ...
The earliest traces of early humans, Homo erectus, in East Asia have been found in China. Fossilized remains of Yuanmou Man were found in Yunnan province in southwest China and have been dated to 1.7 Ma. Stone tools from the Nihewan Basin of the Hebei province in northern China are 1.66 million years old.
So far, the first signs of human presence in Asia are Homo erectus fossils dated to between 1.7 million and 1.9 million years ago in Dmanisi, Georgia, on Asia's western edge, and in Java, Southeast Asia (Science, 12 May 2000, p. 948).
So the answer to if the Chinese and Romans knew of each other is yes, but what they knew was really vague second-hand information. The Chinese knew the Romans wanted their silk, and the Romans knew they produced silk, but there was almost no direct contact between the two empires.
Its first written records date back to IV millennia BC. The Chinese civilization originated in Hwang Ho and Yangtze river basins. And it was there, where the ancient farmers' settlements developed into first Chinese towns and national unions.
According to records, the Greek scholar Ctesias [who lived in the 5th century BCE] was the first to call China “Seres,” meaning “the country of silk.” Apparently, the Greeks used the Chinese silk they saw to refer to ancient China.
There are claims of earlier landings by the Portuguese, Spanish, Chinese, Arabs and Romans, but there is little credible documented evidence.
The 500-‐year Roman Empire was relatively short-‐lived compared to the 3,000 years of Chinese dynastic history. However, the period from the first century CE to the middle of the fifth century was critical in creating long-‐lasting connections between East and West that continue to this day.
While the ancient Romans may have had aspirations to conquer China, the vast geographical distance between the two empires made trade a more feasible option. Despite this, it's clear that both the Roman Empire and the Chinese Empire were well aware of each other's existence.
In China, the "Dark Ages" didn't really exist at all. You'll remember from the article "Between the Han and the Tang" in Era 4 that China was in a state of disarray after the end of the Han dynasty in 220 CE. Because of the fall of this dynasty, trade along the Silk Road trade networks suffered.