Why does ping get higher if the server is in a different region? [duplicate]

I love playing Minecraft servers on my phone, but it usually baffles me that when I want to play my most favorite server, CubeCraft, has higher ping than the rest of the servers.

Now, to put it simply, I'm from GMT+8, so I'm somewhere at Asia, and the only server that has normal ping is The Hive, the only featured server with an Asian region.

The others are from either NA (Lifeboat, Mineplex, Mineville, Galaxite) or EU (CubeCraft, Galaxite), and they give around 200 ping, whereas EU servers give 300 ping. In Hive AS, the ping is usually 69.

So why does servers in foreign regions give higher ping?

Network latency (sometimes called ping, after a tool used to measure it) can be affected by many things, but a big one is distance. This is why stock brokers get offices as close to the exchange as possible, so that the latency on their transactions is a short as possible.

The Asian server is closest to you so has the lowest latency.

I would guess the EU server is further from you than the others, so the latency is longer.