Everything about Western Civilisation totally explained
The term
Western world,
the West or the
Occident (
Latin:
occidens -sunset, -west, as distinct from the
Orient) can have multiple meanings dependent on its context (for example, the time period, or the regional social situation). Accordingly, the basic definition of what constitutes “the West” varies, expanding and contracting over time, in relation to various historical circumstances. Some historians believe the West originated in the northern and eastern Mediterranean with
ancient Greece and
ancient Rome. While other historians such as Carroll Quigley's Evolution of Civilizations contend that Western Civilization was born around 400 AD, after the total collapse of the Western Roman Empire, leaving a vacuum for new ideas to flourish that were impossible in Classical societies. Over time, their associated
empires grew first to the east and south conquering many older civilizations, and later to the north and west to include
Central and
Western Europe. Between the fall of the
Western Roman Empire and the
Renaissance, the West experienced a period of relative decline, known as the
Middle ages, which included the
Dark ages and the
Crusades. The knowledge of the ancient Western world was preserved and survived during this period due to the concurrent ascendency of the
Islamic Golden Age to the east and south. The term "first world" was also used, but not commonly.
Since the Renaissance, the West evolved beyond the influence of the ancient Greeks and Romans due to the growth of Western European empires, and particularly the globe-spanning
British Empire of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Since the
Age of Discovery and
Columbus, the notion of the West expanded to include
the Americas, though much of the Americas have considerable
pre-Western cultural influence.
Australia,
New Zealand, and, sometimes,
South Africa are considered part of Western culture due to their former status as settler colonies of Western nations. In addition,
Israel and
Lebanon may be considered part of the West due to their geographic location and late European colonial origins in the early twentieth century. Generally speaking, the current consensus would locate the West, at the very least, in the cultures and peoples of Europe, North America, Australia, and New Zealand.
In a linguistic context, the languages of most nations of the West are members of the
Indo-European language family. It should be noted, however, that the Indo-European languages are not exclusively, or even mainly Western;
Persian,
Pashto,
Urdu and
Sanskrit are
Indo-European languages as well. There are several linguistic exceptions within the West, including
Semitic languages, predominantly
Arabic and
Hebrew, which are members of the
Afro-Asiatic language family, as well as
Finnish and
Hungarian, which belongs to the
Uralic family and
Basque, whose linguistic family is completely unknown.
In a religious context, some would define the
Abrahamic religions of
Judaism and
Christianity as 'Western'.
In the current political or economic context the term the "West" often includes developed nations in the East, such as
Japan,
Taiwan and
South Korea. However, these nations have different and distinctive cultures, religions (although Christianity is a
major religion in South Korea), languages, customs, and worldviews that are products of their own indigenous development, rather than solely Western influences. Japan, in particular, is a founding member of the
G8, a member of the
OECD, an industrialized
democracy, with a high standard of living, high level of
human development and a major economic power. All of these are generally accepted political or economic characteristics of Western nations.
There is debate among some as to whether
Eastern Europe is in a category of its own. Culturally
Eastern Europe, although having mainly eastern orthodox and Islamic influences, is usually more or less accepted into the 'West', mainly because of its geographic location in what is mostly Europe (and cultural ties). It, however, doesn't fill the traditional economic and living standard criteria which one associates with "The West".
Historical divisions
The origins of the word "West" in terms of geopolitical boundaries started in the 1900s. Prior to this most humans would have thought about different nations, languages, individuals, and geographical regions, but with no idea of Western nations as we know it today. Many world maps were so crude and inaccurate before the 1800s that geographical and political differences would be harder to measure. Few would have access to good maps and even fewer had access to accurate descriptions of who lived in far away lands.
Western thought as we think of it today, is shaped by ideas of the 1900s and 1800s, originating mainly in Europe. What we think of as Western thought today is defined as
Greco-Roman and
Judeo-Christian culture, the
Renaissance, the
Enlightenment and
colonialism. As a consequence the term "Western thought" is, at times, unhelpful and vague, since it can define separate, though related, sets of traditions and values:
- The Christian moral tradition and respective set of religious values;
- The humanist tradition and set of secular values, often with rationalist, anti-clerical beliefs;
Less acknowledged but equally as important was the influence of the Germanic cultures whose people overran Western Europe beginning in the fifth century AD and effectively became the rulers of Western Europe into the modern age, first in the form of the Goths and the Vandals and later in the form of the Franks who unified the West. In addition, many individuals throughout history don't easily fit into a false dichotomy of East or West.
Hellenic
The
Hellenic division between the barbarians and the
Greeks contrasted in many societies the
Greek-speaking culture of the Greek settlements around the Mediterranean to the surrounding non-Greek cultures.
Herodotus considered the
Persian Wars of the early 5th century BC a conflict of
Europe versus
Asia (which he considered to be all land West and East of the
Sea of Marmara, respectively). The terms "West" and "East" were not used by any Greek author to describe that conflict. The anachronistic application of those terms to that division entails a stark logical contradiction, given that, when the term West appeared, it was used in opposition to the Greeks and Greek-speaking culture.
Western society is sometimes claimed to trace its cultural origins to both
Greek thought and
Christian religion, thus following an evolution that began in ancient Greece, continued through the
Roman Empire and, with the coming of
Christianity (which has its origins in the
Middle East), spread throughout Europe.
However, the conquest of the western parts of the
Roman Empire by
Germanic peoples and the subsequent advent of
despotism in the form of dominance by the Western Christian
Papacy (which held combined political and spiritual authority, a
state of affairs absent from Greek civilization in all its stages), resulted into a rupture of the previously existing ties between the Latin West and Greek thought, including Christian Greek thought. The
Great Schism and the
Fourth Crusade confirmed this deviation. Hence, the Medieval West is limited to Western
Christendom only, as the Greeks and other European peoples not under the authority of the
Papacy are not included in it. The clearly Greek-influenced form of Christianity,
Orthodoxy, is more linked to Eastern than Western Europe. On the other hand, the Modern West, emerging after the
Renaissance as a new civilization, has been influenced by (its own interpretation of) Greek thought, which was preserved in the Roman (Byzantine) Empire during the Medieval West's
Dark Ages and transmitted therefrom by emigration of scholars and
courtly marriages. The Renaissance in the West emerged partly from currents within the Roman (Byzantine) Empire. Moreover, European peoples not included in Western Christendom such as the Greeks have redefined their relationship to this new, secular, variant of Western civilization, and have increasingly participated in it since then.
Thus the idea of Western society being influenced from (but not being the single evolution of) ancient Greek thought makes sense only for the post-
Renaissance period of Western history.
The Roman Empire
Ancient Rome (510 BC-AD 476) was a civilization that grew from a
city-state founded on the
Italian Peninsula circa the 9th century BC to a massive empire straddling the
Mediterranean Sea. In its twelve-century existence, Roman civilization shifted from a
monarchy, to a
republic, to an
autocratic empire. It came to dominate
Western Europe, the
Balkans and the entire area surrounding the
Mediterranean Sea through conquest using the
Roman legions and then through
cultural assimilation by giving Roman privileges and eventually citizenship to the whole empire. Nonetheless, despite its great legacy, a number of factors led to the eventual
decline of the Roman Empire.
The
Western Roman Empire eventually broke into several kingdoms in the 5th century due to civil wars, corruption, and devastating
Germanic Invasions from such tribes as the
Goths, the
Franks and the
Vandals; the Eastern Roman Empire, governed from
Constantinople, is usually referred to as the
Byzantine Empire after 476, the traditional date for the "fall of the Western Roman Empire" and for the subsequent onset of the
Early Middle Ages. The Eastern Roman Empire survived the fall of the West, and protected Roman legal and cultural traditions combining them with
Greek and Christian elements, for another thousand years.
The Roman Empire succeeded the about 500 year-old Roman Republic (510 BC - 1st century BC), which had been weakened by the conflict between
Gaius Marius and
Sulla and the civil war of
Julius Caesar against
Pompey and
Marcus Brutus. During these struggles hundreds of senators were killed, and the
Roman Senate had been refilled with loyalists of the
First Triumvirate and later those of the
Second Triumvirate.
Several dates are commonly proposed to mark the transition from Republic to Empire, including the date of Julius Caesar's appointment as perpetual
roman dictator (44 BC), the victory of Caesar's heir
Octavian at the
Battle of Actium (
September 2, 31 BC), and the Roman Senate's granting to Octavian the
honorific Augustus. (
January 16, 27 BC). Octavian/Augustus officially proclaimed that he'd saved the Roman Republic and carefully disguised his power under republican forms;
consuls continued to be elected,
tribunes of the plebeians continued to offer legislation, and senators still debated in the
Roman Curia. However, it was Octavian who influenced everything and controlled the final decisions, and in final analysis, had the legions to back him up, if it ever became necessary.
Roman expansion began long before the state was changed into an Empire and reached its zenith under emperor
Trajan with the conquest of
Dacia in AD 106. During this territorial peak the Roman Empire controlled approximately 5 900 000 km² (2,300,000 sq.mi.) of
land surface. From the time of Caesar to the Fall of the Western Empire, Rome dominated
Western Eurasia and the
Mediterranean, comprising the majority of its population.
Ancient Rome has contributed greatly to the development of law, war, art, literature, architecture, technology and language in the Western world, and its
history continues to have a major influence on the world today.
The Roman Empire is where the idea of the "West" began to emerge. Due to Rome's central location at the heart of the Empire, "West" and "East" were terms used to denote provinces west and east of the capital itself. Therefore,
Iberia (Spain),
Gaul (France),
Africa (Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco) and
Brittania were all part of the "West", while Greece, Anatolia, Syria, and Egypt were part of the "East." Italy itself was considered central up until the reforms of
Diocletian, when the idea of formally dividing the Empire into true Eastern and Western halves was introduced. In 395, the Roman Empire formally split into a Western Roman Empire and an Eastern one, each with their own emperors, capitals, and governments, although ostensibly they still belonged to one formal Empire. The dissolution of the Western half (nominally in 476, but in truth a long process that ended by 500) left only the Eastern Empire alive, and for centuries the East continued to call themselves Eastern Romans, while the West began to think in terms of Latins (those living in the old Western Empire) and Greeks (those inside the Roman remnant to the east).
Christian schism
In the early 4th century, the
Roman Emperor Constantine the Great established the city of
Constantinople as the capital of the
Eastern Roman Empire. The Eastern Empire included lands east of the
Adriatic Sea and bordering on the Eastern
Mediterranean and parts of the
Black Sea. These two divisions of the Eastern and Western Empires were reflected in the administration of the
Christian Church, with
Rome and
Constantinople debating and arguing over whether either city was the capital of Christianity. As the eastern and western churches spread their influence, the line between "East" and "West" can be described as moving, but generally followed a
cultural divide that was defined by the existence of the Byzantine empire and the fluctuating power and influence of the church in Rome. Some, including Huntington, theorized that this cultural division still existed during the
Cold War as the approximate western boundary of those countries that were allied with the
Soviet Union; others have criticized these views on the basis that they confuse the Eastern Roman Empire with Russia, especially considering the fact that the country that had the most historical roots in Byzantium, Greece, was allied with the West during the Cold War.
Under
Charlemagne, the
Franks established an empire that was recognized as the
Holy Roman Empire by the Christian
Patriarch of Rome, offending the
Roman Emperor in
Constantinople. The crowning of the Emperor by the
Pope led to the assumption that the highest power was the papal hierarchy, establishing, until the
Protestant Reformation, the civilization of
Western Christendom. The
Latin Rite Christian Church of
western and
central Europe headed by the
Patriarch of Rome split with the eastern, Greek-speaking Patriarchates during the
Great Schism. Meanwhile, the extent of each expanded, as Scandinavia, Germany, Britain, and the other non-Christian lands of the northwest were converted by the
Western Church, while Russia and much of Eastern Europe were converted by the
Eastern Church.
In this context, the Protestant reformation may be viewed as a schism within the Latin Church. Martin Luther, in the wake of precursors, broke with the Pope and with the Emperor, backed by many of the German princes. These changes were adopted by the Scandinavian kings. Later, the commoner Jean Cauvin (John Calvin) assumed the religio-political leadership in Geneva, a former ecclesiastical city whose prior ruler had been the Bishop. The English King later improvised on the Lutheran model, but subsequently many Calvinist doctrines were adopted by popular dissenters, leading to the English Civil War. Both royalists and dissenters colonized North America, eventually resulting in an independent
United States of America.
The Colonial "West"
The
Reformation and consequent dissolution of Western
Christendom as even a theoretical unitary political body, resulted in the
Thirty Years War, ending in the
Peace of Westphalia, which enshrined the concept of the
nation-state and the principle of absolute
national sovereignty in
international law. These concepts of a world of nation-states, coupled with the ideologies of the
Enlightenment, the coming of
modernity, and the
Industrial Revolution, produced powerful political and economic institutions that have come to influence (or been imposed upon) most nations of the world today.
This process of influence (and imposition) began with the voyages of discovery, colonization, conquest, and exploitation of
Spain and
Portugal; it continued with the rise of the
Dutch East India Company, and the creation and expansion of the
British and
French colonial empires. Due to the reach of these empires, Western institutions expanded throughout the world. Even after demands for self-determination from subject peoples within Western empires were met with decolonization, these institutions persisted; one specific example was the requirement that post-colonial societies were made to form nation-states (in the Western tradition), which often created arbitrary boundaries and borders that didn't necessarily represent a whole nation, people, or culture, and are often the cause of international conflicts and friction even to this day. Though the overt colonial era has passed, Western nations, as comparatively rich, well-armed, and culturally powerful states, still wield a large degree of influence throughout the world.
Palestinian-American literary critic
Edward Said uses the term occident in his discussion of
orientalism. According to his binary, the West, or Occident, created a romanticized vision of the East, or Orient, in order to justify colonial and imperialist intentions. This Occident-Orient binary is focused on the Western vision of the East instead of any truths about the East. His theories are rooted in
Hegel's Master-Slave dialectic; the Occident wouldn't exist without the Orient and vice versa. Further, Western writers created this irrational, feminine, weak "Other" to contrast with the rational, masculine, strong West because of a need to create a difference between the two that would justify imperialist ambitions. Said influenced Indian-American theorist
Homi K. Bhabha.
The Cold War
During the
Cold War, a new definition emerged. The
Earth was divided into three "worlds". The
First World, analogous in this context to what was called
the West, was composed of
NATO members and other countries aligned with the
United States. The
Second World was the
Eastern bloc in the
Soviet sphere of influence, including the
Soviet Union and
Warsaw Pact countries. The
Third World consisted of countries
unaligned with either, and important members included
India and
Yugoslavia; some include the
People's Republic of China, though this is disputed, as the
People's Republic of China was
communist, had friendly relations--at certain times--with the Soviet bloc, and had a significant degree of importance in global geopolitics.
There were a number of countries which didn't fit comfortably into this neat definition of partition, including
Switzerland,
Sweden, and the
Republic of Ireland, which chose to be neutral.
Finland was under the
Soviet Union's military sphere of influence (see
FCMA treaty) but remained neutral, wasn't communist, nor was it a member of the
Warsaw Pact or
Comecon but a member of the
EFTA since 1986, and was west of the
Iron Curtain. In 1955, when
Austria again became a fully independent republic, it did so under the condition that it remained neutral, but as a country to the west of the
Iron Curtain, it was in the
United States sphere of influence.
Turkey was a member of NATO but wasn't usually regarded as either part of the First or Western worlds.
Spain didn't join NATO until 1982, towards the end of the Cold War and after the death of the authoritarian
Franco.
Modern definitions
The exact scope of the Western world is somewhat subjective in nature, depending on whether cultural, economic or political criteria are used. In general however these definitions always include the following countries: the countries of Western Europe(UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain etc), the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. These are Western European or Western European-derived nations which enjoy relatively strong economies and stable governments, have chosen
democracy as a form of governance, favor
capitalism and free
international trade, and have some form of political and
military alliance or cooperation.
Many anthropologists, sociologists and historians oppose "the West and the Rest" in a categorical manner. The same has been done by Malthusian demographers with a sharp distinction between European and non-European family systems. Among anthropologists, this includes
Durkheim,
Dumont and
Lévi-Strauss.
(External Link
) (External Link) These are generally countries that share similar history, religions, languages, values and traditions. Culturally, many Latin Americans, particularly Argentines, Uruguayans, Chileans, Colombians, Cubans and Brazilians, firmly consider themselves Westerners, especially the
ruling classes.
Some countries like
Israel,
Lebanon, and
Turkey may be considered Western because of the blend of Western and non-Western culture.
In the 20th century, Christianity declined in influence in many western countries, in
Western Europe and elsewhere.
Secularism (separating religion from politics and science) increased. However, while church attendance is in decline, most Westerners nominally identify themselves as Christians (for example 70% in the
UK) and occasionally attend church on major occasions. In the United States, Christianity continues to play an important societal role, thus helping to maintain Christianity's important role in Western culture. The
official religion of the United Kingdom and some Nordic countries is Christianity, even though the majority of European countries have no official religion. Despite this, Christianity, in its different forms, remains the largest faith in most Western countries.
Political
Countries of the Western world are generally considered to share certain fundamental political ideologies, including those of
liberal democracy, the
rule of law,
human rights and a high degree of
gender equality. Additionally countries with strong political and military ties to
Western Europe,
NATO or the United States, such as
Japan,
Israel and
South Korea can be said to be Western in a political sense at least.
As such, this definition of the term "Western" isn't necessarily tied to the geographic sense of the word. A geographically Western nation such as
Cuba is sometimes not considered politically Western due to its general rejection of
liberal democracy,
freedom of the press, and
personal liberty. Conversely, some Eastern nations, for example, Japan, India, Israel, Taiwan, South Africa, and South Korea, could be considered politically Western, due to their adoption of indigenous liberal democratic political institutions similar in structure to those of the traditionally Western nations.
Economic
]]
Though the
Cold War has ended, and some members of the former
Eastern Bloc are making a general movement towards liberal democracy and other values held in common by the traditionally Western states, some former
Soviet republics are not considered Western because of the small presence of social and political reform, as well as their obvious cultural, economic and political differences to what is known today as described by the term "the West" (
Western Europe,
North America,
Australia and
New Zealand). These include the three Transcaucasian republics (
Azerbaijan,
Georgia,
Armenia), as well as
Kazakhstan,
Tajikistan,
Turkmenistan,
Uzbekistan,
Kyrgyzstan,
Russia,
Belarus and
Ukraine.
Although it's inaccurate to do so, the term "Western world" is often interchangeable with the term
First World stressing the difference between First World and the
Third World or
developing countries. The term "
The North" has in some contexts replaced earlier usage of the term "the West", particularly in the critical sense, as a more robust demarcation than the terms "West" and "East". The North provides some absolute geographical indicators for the location of wealthy countries, most of which are physically situated in the
Northern Hemisphere, although, as most countries are located in the northern hemisphere in general, some have considered this distinction to be equally unhelpful. The thirty countries in the
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which include: the
EU (except
Romania and
Bulgaria),
Norway,
Iceland,
Switzerland,
Canada, the
United States,
Australia,
New Zealand,
South Korea and
Japan, generally include what used to be called the "first world" or the "developed world", although the OECD includes a few countries, namely
Mexico and
Turkey, that are not yet fully industrial countries, but
newly industrialized countries. The existence of "The North" implies the existence of "
The South", and the
socio-economic divide between North and South. Although
Israel,
Singapore,
Taiwan and
Hong Kong are not members of the OECD, they might also be regarded as "western" or "northern" countries or regions, because their high living standards and their social, economical and
political structure are quite similar to those of the OECD member countries.
Other Views
A series of scholars of civilization, including
Arnold J. Toynbee,
Alfred Kroeber and
Carroll Quigley have identified and analyzed "
Western civilization" as one of the
civilizations that have historically existed and still exist today. Toynbee entered into quite an expansive mode, including as candidates those countries or cultures who became so heavily influenced by the West as to adopt these borrowings into their very self-identity; carried to its limit, this would in practice include almost everyone within the West, in one way or another. In particular, Toynbee refers to the
intelligentsia formed among the educated elite of countries impacted by the European expansion of centuries past. While often pointedly nationalist, these cultural and political leaders interacted within the West to such an extent as to change both themselves and the West.
Yet more recently,
Samuel P. Huntington has taken a far more restricted approach, forging a
political science hypothesis he labeled the "
The Clash of Civilizations?" in a
Foreign Affairs article and a book. According to Huntington's hypothesis, what he calls "conflicts between civilizations" will be the primary tensions of the 21st century world. In this hypothesis, the West is based on religion, as the countries of
Western and
Central Europe were historically influenced by the two forms of
Western Christianity, namely
Catholicism and
Protestantism. Also, many Anglophone countries share these traits, for example,
Australia and
New Zealand, as well as the more heterogeneous
United States and
Canada. Of course, so does
Latin America. Huntington's thesis was influential, but was by no means universally accepted; its supporters say that it explains modern conflicts, such as those in the former
Yugoslavia; the thesis' detractors fear that by equating values like
democracy with the concept of "Western civilization", it reinforces stereotypes that some perceive as being common within the West about non-traditionally Western societies that some may consider racist or xenophobic; others believe that Huntington ignores the existence of non-Western democracies such as the East Asian, South-Central Asian, and Latin American democracies. As such, these detractors believe that it'll serve to provoke and amplify conflict rather than illuminating a way to find an accommodating world order, or in particular cases a commonly agreed solution.
In Huntington's narrow thesis, the historically
Eastern Orthodox nations of southeastern and
Eastern Europe constitute a distinct "Euro-Asiatic civilization"; although European and mainly
Christian (as well as notable
Muslim influence and populations, particularly in the Balkans and southern/central Russia), these nations were not, in Huntington's view, shaped by the cultural influences of the Renaissance. The
Renaissance didn't affect
Orthodox Eastern Europe due in part to the proximity of Ottoman domination; though the decisive influence on the Renaissance of
Greek emigré scholars should be acknowledged.
Other views might be made regarding Eastern Europe.
Huntington also considered the possibility that
South America is a separate civilization from the West, but also mused that it might become a third part (the first two being North America and Europe) of the West in the future.
The
theologian and
paleontologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin conceived of the West as the set of civilizations decended from the
Nile Valley Civilization of
Egypt.
The term the "West" may also be used
pejoratively by certain tendencies especially critical of the influence of the traditional West, due to the history of some of the members of the traditional West being previously involved, at one time or another, in outright
imperialism and
colonialism. Some of these critics also claim that the traditional West has continued to engage in what might be viewed as modern implementations of
imperialism and
colonialism, such as
neoliberalism and
globalization. (It should be noted that many Westerners who subscribe to a positive view of the traditional West are also very critical of neoliberalism and globalization, for their allegedly negative effects on both the developed and developing world.) Allegedly, definitions of the term "Western world" that some may consider "
ethnocentric" are considered by some to be "
constructed" around one or another
Western culture. The British writer
Rudyard Kipling wrote about this contrast:
East is East and West is West and never the twain shall meet, expressing that somebody from the West can never understand the Asian cultures as the latter differ too much from the Western cultures. Some may view this alleged incompatibility as a precursor to Huntington's "clash of civilizations" theory.
Paradoxically, today Asia and Africa to varying degrees may be considered quasi-Western. Many East Asians and South Asians and Africans and others associate or even identify with the cosmopolitan cultures and international societies referred to sometimes as Western. Likewise, many in the West identify with a transcultural humanity, a notion often found in visions of the sacred.
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