Western World

Western world
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This article is about the grouping of countries with an originally European shared
culture. For other uses, see Western World (disambiguation).
Not to be confused with Western Bloc.
"Western power" and "Westerners" redirect here. For historical politics in Korea,
see Westerners (Korean political faction). For other uses, see Western Power
(disambiguation).
The Western world, also known as the West, refers to
various regions, nations and states, depending on the context, most often
consisting of the majority of Europe,[a] North America,[b] and Oceania.[3] The
Western world is also known as the Occident (from the Latin word occidens,
"sunset, West"), in contrast to the Orient (from the Latin word oriens, "rise, East")
or Eastern world. It might mean the Northern half of the North–South divide, the
countries of the Global North (often equated with capitalist developed countries).[4]
The Western world based-on Samuel P. Huntington's 1996 Clash of Civilizations.[5] In turquoise

are Latin America and the Orthodox World, which are either a part of the West or distinct civilizations
intimately related to the West.[6][7]
The concept of the Western part of the earth has its roots in the theological,
methodological and emphatical division between the Western Roman
Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches.[8]
Used to develop national identities, the overarching concept of the West was
forged in opposition to ideas such as "the East", "the Orient", "Eastern
barbarism", "Oriental despotism", or the "Asiatic mode of production". Depending
on the context and the historical period in question, Russia has sometimes been
seen as a part of the West, and at other times, juxtaposed with it. [9][10][11]
[12]
Transformed from a directional concept to a socio-political concept and with
the backdrop of the perception of an increasing acceleration of time, the idea of
the West was temporalized and rendered as a concept of the future
(German: Zukunftsbegriff) bestowed with notions of progress and modernity. [9]
US Supreme Court (1932—1935) building, built in neoclassical style, an architectural style of
the Western world.
Running parallel to both the rise of the United States as a great power, and the
development of communication and transportation technologies "shrinking" the
distance between both shores of the Atlantic Ocean, the aforementioned country
became more prominently featured in conceptualizations of the West. [9]
"Western Christian civilization" (red) and "Eastern Christian civilization" (brown), according to Samuel
Huntington. For Huntington, Latin America (dark green) was part of the West or a descendant
civilization that was twinned to it. For Rouquié, Latin America is the "Third World of the West."
By the mid-20th century, Western culture was exported worldwide through the
emergent mass media: film, radio, television and recorded music; and the
development and growth of international transport and telecommunication (such
as transatlantic cable and the radiotelephone) played a decisive role in
modern globalization.
In modern usage, Western world sometimes[13] refers to Europe and to areas
whose populations have had a large presence of particular European ethnic
groups since the 15th century Age of Discovery.[14][15] This is most evident in
Australia and New Zealand's inclusion in modern definitions of the Western
world: despite being part of the Eastern Hemisphere; these regions and those
like it are included due to its significant British influence deriving from
the colonisation of British explorers and the immigration of Europeans in the 20th
century which has since grounded both countries to the Western world politically
and culturally.[16]
Contents
 1Introduction
 2Culture
 3Historical divisions
o 3.1Ancient Greek and Hellenistic worlds
(13th–1st centuries BC)
o 3.2Ancient Roman world (6th century BC –
AD 395–476)
o 3.3Middle Ages
o 3.4Colonialism (15th–20th centuries)
o 3.5Enlightenment (17th–18th centuries)
o 3.6Cold War (1947–1991)
o 3.7Cold War II context
 4Modern definitions
o 4.1Cultural definition
 4.1.1Latin America
 4.1.2Other countries
o 4.2Economic definition
 5Views on torn countries
 6Other views
 7See also
 8Notes
 9References
 10Further reading
Introduction[edit]
Western culture was influenced by many older civilizations of the ancient Near
East,[17] such as Canaan,[18][19][20] Minoan Crete, Sumer, Babylonia, and also Ancient
Egypt. It originated in the Mediterranean basin and its vicinity; Ancient
Greece[c] and Ancient Rome[d] are generally considered to be the birthplaces of
Western civilization—Greece having heavily influenced Rome—the former due to
its impact on philosophy, democracy, science, aesthetics, as well as building
designs and proportions and architecture; the latter due to its influence
on art, law, warfare, governance, republicanism, engineering and religion.
Western civilization is also strongly associated with Christianity[21] (and to a lesser
extent, with Judaism), which is in turn shaped by Hellenistic
philosophy and Roman culture.[20] In the modern era, Western culture has been
heavily influenced by the Renaissance, the Ages
of Discovery and Enlightenment and the Industrial and Scientific Revolutions.[22]
[23]
Through extensive imperialism, colonialism and Christianization by some
Western powers in the 15th to 20th centuries and later exportation of mass
culture, much of the rest of the world has been extensively influenced by Western
culture, in a phenomenon often called Westernization.[verification needed][citation needed]
Gold and garnet cloisonné (and mud), military fitting from the Staffordshire Hoard before cleaning
Historians, such as Carroll Quigley in "The Evolution of Civilizations",[24] contend

that Western civilization was born around AD 500, after the total collapse of
the Western Roman Empire, leaving a vacuum for new ideas to flourish that were
impossible in Classical societies. In either view, between the fall of the Western
Roman Empire and the Renaissance, the West (or those regions that would later
become the heartland of the culturally "western sphere") experienced a period of
first, considerable decline,[25] and then readaptation, reorientation and
considerable renewed material, technological and political development. [citation needed]
The knowledge of the ancient Western world was partly preserved during this
period due to the survival of the Eastern Roman Empire and the introduction of
the Catholic Church; it was also greatly expanded by the Arab importation[26][27] of
both the Ancient Greco-Roman and new technology through the Arabs from India
and China to Europe.[28][29]
Since the Renaissance, the West evolved beyond the influence of the ancient
Greeks and Romans and the Islamic world, due to the successful Second
Agricultural, Commercial,[30] Scientific,[31] and Industrial[32] revolutions (propellers
of modern banking concepts). The West rose further with the 18th century's Age
of Enlightenment and through the Age of Exploration's expansion of peoples of
Western and Central European empires, particularly the globe-spanning colonial
empires of 18th and 19th centuries.[33] Numerous times, this expansion was
accompanied by Catholic missionaries, who attempted to proselytize Christianity.
There is debate among some as to whether Latin America as a whole is in a
category of its own.[34]
Culture[edit]
This section is an excerpt from Western culture.[edit]
Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man. Based on the correlations of ideal human
proportions with geometry described by the ancient Roman architect Vitruvius in Book III of his
treatise De architectura.
Plato, along with his student Aristotle and teacher Socrates, helped to establish Western philosophy.
Western culture, also known as Western civilization, Occidental culture, or

Western society, is the heritage of social norms, ethical values, traditional
customs, belief systems, political systems, artifacts and technologies of the
Western world. The term applies beyond Europe to countries and cultures whose
histories are strongly connected to Europe by immigration, colonization or
influence. For example, Western culture includes countries in the Americas,
Oceania and the Philippines. Western culture is most strongly influenced
by Greek philosophy, Roman law, and Christian culture.[35]
The expansion of Greek culture into the Hellenistic world of the eastern
Mediterranean led to a synthesis between Greek and Near-Eastern cultures,
[36]
and major advances in literature, engineering, and science, and provided the
culture for the expansion of early Christianity and the Greek New Testament.[37][38]
[39]
This period overlapped with and was followed by Rome, which made key
contributions in law, government, engineering and political organization. [40]
Western culture is characterized by a host of artistic, philosophic, literary
and legal themes and traditions. Christianity, primarily the Roman Catholic
Church,[41][42][43] and later Protestantism[44][45][46][47] has played a prominent role in
the shaping of Western civilization since at least the 4th century,[48][49][50][51][52] as
did Judaism.[53][54][55][56] A cornerstone of Western thought, beginning in ancient
Greece and continuing through the Middle Ages and Renaissance, is the idea
of rationalism in various spheres of life developed by Hellenistic
philosophy, scholasticism and humanism. Empiricism later gave rise to
the scientific method, the scientific revolution, and the Age of Enlightenment.
Western culture continued to develop with the Christianization of European
society during the Middle Ages, the reforms triggered by the Renaissance of the
12th century and 13th century under the influence of the Islamic world via Al-
Andalus and Sicily (including the transfer of technology from the East, and Latin
translations of Arabic texts on science and philosophy),[57][58][59] and the Italian
Renaissance as Greek scholars fleeing the fall of the Byzantine Empire after
the Muslim conquest of Constantinople brought classical traditions and
philosophy.[60] This major change for non-western countries and their people saw
a development in modernization into those non-western countries. [61] Medieval
Christianity is credited with creating the modern university,[62][63] the modern
hospital system,[64] scientific economics,[65][66] and natural law (which would later
influence the creation of international law).[67] Christianity played a role in ending
practices common among pagan societies, such as human sacrifice, slavery,
[68]
infanticide and polygamy.[69] European culture developed with a complex range
of philosophy, medieval scholasticism, mysticism and Christian and secular
humanism.[70][page needed] Rational thinking developed through a long age of change
and formation, with the experiments of the Enlightenment and breakthroughs in
the sciences. Tendencies that have come to define modern Western societies
include the concept of political pluralism, individualism,
prominent subcultures or countercultures (such as New Age movements) and
increasing cultural syncretism resulting from globalization and human migration.
Historical divisions[edit]
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The geopolitical divisions in Europe that created a concept

of East and West originated in the ancient tyrannical and imperialistic Graeco-
Roman times.[8] The Eastern Mediterranean was home to the highly urbanized
cultures that had Greek as their common language (owing to the older empire
of Alexander the Great and of the Hellenistic successors.), whereas the West
was much more rural in its character and more readily adopted Latin as its
common language. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the
beginning of the Medieval times (or Middle Ages), Western and Central Europe
were substantially cut off from the East where Byzantine Greek culture
and Eastern Christianity became founding influences in the Eastern European
world such as the East and South Slavic peoples. [citation needed]
Map with the main travels of the Age of Discovery (began in 15th century).
Roman Catholic Western and Central Europe, as such, maintained a distinct

identity particularly as it began to redevelop during the Renaissance. Even
following the Protestant Reformation, Protestant Europe continued to see itself
as more tied to Roman Catholic Europe than other parts of the
perceived civilized world. Use of the term West as a specific cultural and
geopolitical term developed over the course of the Age of Exploration as Europe
spread its culture to other parts of the world. Roman Catholics were the first
major religious group to immigrate to the New World, as settlers in the colonies
of Spain and Portugal (and later, France) belonged to that
faith. English and Dutch colonies, on the other hand, tended to be more
religiously diverse. Settlers to these colonies included Anglicans,
Dutch Calvinists, English Puritans and other nonconformists, English Catholics,
Scottish Presbyterians, French Huguenots, German and Swedish Lutherans, as
well as Quakers, Mennonites, Amish, and Moravians.[citation needed]
Ancient Greek and Hellenistic worlds (13th–1st centuries BC)
[edit]
Main articles: Ancient Greece and Hellenistic period
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The Ancient Greek world, c. 550 BC
The Ancient Hellenistic Greek world from 323 BC
Ancient Greek civilization had been growing in the first millennium BC into

wealthy poleis, so-called city-states (geographically loose political entities which
in time, inevitably end giving way to larger organisations of society, including
the empire and the nation-state)[71] such as Athens, Sparta, Thebes, and Corinth,
by Middle and Near Eastern ones (Sumerian cities such as Uruk and Ur; Ancient
Egyptian city-states, such as Thebes and Memphis;
the Phoenician Tyre and Sidon; the five Philistine city-states; the Berber city-
states of the Garamantes).[citation needed]
The then Hellenic division between the barbarians (term used by Ancient Greeks
for all non-Greek-speaking people) 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 Europa versus Asia (which he
considered all land north and east of the Sea of Marmara, respectively).[citation
needed]
The Greeks would highlight what they perceived as a lack of freedom in the
Persian world, something that they viewed as antithetical to their culture. [72]
According to a few writers, the future conquest of parts of the Roman Empire by
Germanic peoples and the subsequent 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 in a rupture of the
previously existing ties between the Latin West and Greek thought, [73] including
Christian Greek thought.[citation needed]
Ancient Roman world (6th century BC – AD 395–476)[edit]
Main articles: Roman Republic, Roman Empire, and Fall of the Western Roman
Empire
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The Roman Republic in 218 BC after having managed the conquest of most of the Italian peninsula,
on the eve of its most successful and deadliest war with the Carthaginians
Graphical map of post-AD 395 Roman Empire highlighting differences between western Roman

Catholic and eastern Greek Orthodox parts, on the eve of the death of last emperor to rule on both
the western and eastern halves. The concept of "East-West" originated in the cultural division
between Christian Churches.[8] Western and Eastern Roman Empires on the eve of Western collapse
in September of AD 476.
The Roman Empire in AD 117. During 350 years the Roman Republic turned into an Empire
expanding up to twenty-five times its area
Ancient Rome (6th century BC – AD 476) is a term to describe the

ancient Roman society that conquered Central Italy assimilating the
Italian Etruscan culture, growing from the Latium region since about the 8th
century BC, to a massive empire straddling the Mediterranean Sea. In its 10-
centuries territorial expansion, Roman civilization shifted from a
small monarchy (753–509 BC), to a republic (509–27 BC), into
an autocratic empire (27 BC – AD 476). Its Empire came to dominate Western,
Central and Southeastern Europe, Northern Africa and, becoming an autocratic
Empire a vast Middle Eastern area, when it ended. Conquest was enforced using
the Roman legions and then through cultural assimilation by eventual recognition
of some form of Roman citizenship's privileges. Nonetheless, despite its great
legacy, a number of factors led to the eventual decline and ultimately fall of the
Roman Empire.[citation needed]
The Roman Empire succeeded the approximately 500-year-old Roman
Republic (c. 510–30 BC).[e] In 350 years, from the successful and
deadliest war with the Phoenicians began in 218 BC to the rule of Emperor
Hadrian by AD 117, Ancient Rome expanded up to twenty-five times its area.
The same time passed before its fall in AD 476. Rome had expanded long before
the empire reached its zenith with the conquest of Dacia in AD 106 (modern-
day Romania) under Emperor Trajan. During its territorial peak, the Roman
Empire controlled about 5,000,000 square kilometres (1,900,000 sq mi) of land
surface and had a population of 100 million. From the time of Caesar (100–44
BC) to the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, Rome dominated Southern
Europe, the Mediterranean coast of Northern Africa and the Levant, including the
ancient trade routes with population living outside. 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. Latin language has been the base from
which Romance languages evolved and it has been the official language of
the Catholic Church and all Catholic religious ceremonies all over Europe until
1967, as well as an or the official language of countries such as Italy and Poland
(9th–18th centuries).[74][citation needed]
Ending invasions on Roman Empire since the 2nd and throughout the 5th centuries
In AD 395, a few decades before its Western collapse, the Roman Empire
formally split into a Western and an Eastern one, each with their own emperors,
capitals, and governments, although ostensibly they still belonged to one formal
Empire. The Western Roman Empire provinces eventually were replaced
by Northern European Germanic ruled kingdoms in the 5th century due to civil
wars, corruption, and devastating Germanic invasions from such tribes as
the Huns, Goths, the Franks and the Vandals by their late expansion throughout
Europe. The three-day Visigoths's AD 410 sack of Rome who had been raiding
Greece not long before, a shocking time for Graeco-Romans, was the first time
after almost 800 years that Rome had fallen to a foreign enemy, and St. Jerome,
living in Bethlehem at the time, wrote that "The City which had taken the whole
world was itself taken."[75] There followed the sack of AD 455 lasting 14 days, this
time conducted by the Vandals, retaining Rome's eternal spirit through the Holy
See of Rome (the Latin Church) for centuries to come.[76][77] The
ancient Barbarian tribes, often composed of well-trained Roman soldiers paid by
Rome to guard the extensive borders, had become militarily sophisticated
'romanized barbarians', and mercilessly slaughtered the Romans conquering
their Western territories while looting their possessions. [78]
The Roman Empire is where the idea of "the West" began to emerge.[f]
The Eastern Roman Empire, governed from Constantinople, is usually referred to
as the Byzantine Empire after AD 476, the traditional date for the fall of the
Roman Empire and beginning of the Early Middle Ages. The Eastern Roman
Empire surviving the fall of the Western protected Roman legal and cultural
traditions, combining them with Greek and Christian elements, for another
thousand years more. The name Byzantine Empire was first used centuries later,
after the Byzantine Empire ended. The dissolution of the Western half, nominally
ended in AD 476, but in truth a long process that ended by the rise of
Catholic Gaul (modern-day France) ruling from around the year AD 800, left only
the Eastern Roman Empire alive. The Eastern half continued to think of itself as
the Eastern Roman Empire for a while until AD 610–800, when Latin ceased to
be the official language of the empire. The inhabitants calling themselves
Romans was because the term “Roman” was meant to signify all Christians. The
Pope crowned Charlemagne as Emperor of the Romans of the newly
established Holy Roman Empire and the West began thinking in terms
of Western Latins living in the old Western Empire, and Eastern Greeks (those
inside the Roman remnant of the old Eastern Empire). [citation needed]
Middle Ages[edit]
Main articles: Byzantine Empire, Holy Roman Empire, East–West Schism,
and Reformation
Further information: Christendom, Greek scholars in the Renaissance,
and Peace of Westphalia
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Apex of Byzantine Empire's conquests (AD 527–565).
Map of the Byzantine Empire in AD 1025 before Christian East-West Schism.
In the early 4th century, the central focus of power was on two apart Imperial
(including army generals') legacies, within the Roman Empire: the older Aegean
Sea Greek heritage (of Classical Greece) in the Eastern Mediterranean, and the
newer most successful Tyrrhenian Sea Latin heritage (of Ancient Latium and
Tuscany) in the Western Mediterranean. Constantine the Great's decision to
establish the city of Constantinople (today's Istanbul) in modern-day Turkey as
the "New Rome" when he picked it as capital of his Empire (later called
"Byzantine Empire" by modern historians) in 330 AD, was a turning point.
This internal conflict of legacies had possibly emerged since the assassination of
Julius Caesar three centuries earlier, when Roman Imperialism had just been
born with the Roman Republic becoming "Roman Empire", but reached its zenith
during 3rd century's many internal civil wars. This is the time when the Huns (part
of the ancient Eastern European tribes named barbarians by the Romans) from
modern-day Hungary penetrated into the Dalmatian (modern-day Croatia) region
then originating in the following 150 years in the Roman Empire officially splitting
in two halves. Also the time of the formal acceptance of Christianity as
Empire's religious policy, when the Emperors began actively banning and fighting
previous pagan religions.[g]
History of the spread of Christianity: in AD 325 (dark blue) and AD 600 (blue) following Western
Roman Empire's collapse under Germanic migrations.
The Eastern Roman Empire included lands south-west of the Black Sea and

bordering on the Eastern Mediterranean and parts of the Adriatic Sea. This
division into Eastern and Western Roman Empires was later reflected in the
administration of the Roman Catholic and Eastern Greek Orthodox churches,
with Rome and Constantinople debating over whether either city was the capital
of Western religion.[citation needed]
As the Eastern (Orthodox) and Western (Catholic) churches spread their
influence, the line between Eastern and Western Christianity was moving. Its
movement was affected by the influence of the Byzantine empire and the
fluctuating power and influence of the Catholic church in Rome. The geographic
line of religious division approximately followed a line of cultural divide.[citation
needed]
The influential American conservative political scientist, adviser and
academic Samuel P. Huntington argued 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.[h]
Rise of the Germanic Frankish Empire before Charlemagne's coronation in Rome.
In AD 800 under Charlemagne, the Early Medieval Franks established an empire

that was recognized by the Pope in Rome as the Holy Roman Empire (Latin
Christian revival of the ancient Roman Empire, under perpetual Germanic rule
from AD 962) inheriting ancient Roman Empire's prestige but offending
the Eastern Roman Emperor in Constantinople, and leading to the Crusades and
the east–west schism. The crowning of the Emperor by the Pope led to the
assumption that the highest power was the papal hierarchy, quintessential
Roman Empire's spiritual heritage authority, establishing then, until the
Protestant Reformation, the civilization of Western Christendom.[citation needed]
Map of the Byzantine Empire in AD 1180 before Latin Fourth Crusade.
The Latin Rite Catholic Church of western and central Europe split with the
eastern Greek-speaking Patriarchates in the Christian East–West Schism, also
known as the "Great Schism", during the Gregorian Reforms (calling for a more
central status of the Roman Catholic Church Institution), three months after Pope
Leo IX's death in April 1054.[79] Following the 1054 Great Schism, both
the Western Church and Eastern Church continued to consider
themselves uniquely orthodox and catholic. Augustine wrote in On True Religion:
"Religion is to be sought... only among those who are called Catholic or orthodox
Christians, that is, guardians of truth and followers of right." [80] Over time,
the Western Church gradually identified with the "Catholic" label, and people of
Western Europe gradually associated the "Orthodox" label with the Eastern
Church (although in some languages the "Catholic" label is not necessarily
identified with the Western Church). This was in note of the fact that both
Catholic and Orthodox were in use as ecclesiastical adjectives as early as the
2nd and 4th centuries respectively. Meanwhile, the extent of both Christendoms
expanded, as Germanic peoples, Bohemia, Poland, Hungary, Scandinavia,
Finnic peoples, Baltic peoples, British Isles and the other non-Christian lands of
the northwest were converted by the Western Church, while Eastern Slavic
peoples, Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro, Russian territories, Vlachs and Georgia
were converted by the Eastern Church.[citation needed]
In 1071, the Byzantine army was defeated by the Muslim Turco-Persians of
medieval Asia, resulting in the loss of most of Asia Minor. The situation was a
serious threat to the future of the Eastern Orthodox Byzantine Empire. The
Emperor sent a plea to the Pope in Rome to send military aid to restore the lost
territories to Christian rule. The result was a series of western European military
campaigns into the eastern Mediterranean, known as the Crusades.
Unfortunately for the Byzantines, the crusaders (belonging to the members of
nobility from France, German territories, the Low countries, England, Italy and
Hungary) had no allegiance to the Byzantine Emperor and established their own
states in the conquered regions, including the heart of the Byzantine Empire.
The Holy Roman Empire would dissolve on 6 August 1806, after the French
Revolution and the creation of the Confederation of the Rhine by Napoleon.
Map of the Greek Byzantine Empire split by a newly established Latin Crusader State after the Fourth
Crusade (shown partly in Greece and partly in Turkey).
The decline of the Byzantine Empire (13th–15th centuries) began with the Latin

Christian Fourth Crusade in AD 1202–04, considered to be one of the most
important events, solidifying the schism between the Christian churches
of Greek Byzantine Rite and Latin Roman Rite. An anti-Western riot in 1182
broke out in Constantinople targeting Latins. The extremely wealthy (after
previous Crusades) Venetians in particular made a successful attempt to
maintain control over the coast of Catholic present-day Croatia (specifically
the Dalmatia, a region of interest to the maritime medieval Venetian Republic
moneylenders and its rivals, such as the Republic of Genoa) rebelling against the
Venetian economic domination.[81] What followed dealt an irrevocable blow to the
already weakened Byzantine Empire with the Crusader army's sack of
Constantinople in April 1204, capital of the Greek Christian-controlled Byzantine
Empire, described as one of the most profitable and disgraceful sacks of a city in
history.[82] This paved the way for Muslim conquests in present-day Turkey and
the Balkans in the coming centuries (only a handful of the Crusaders followed to
the stated destination thereafter, the Holy Land).[i] The geographical identity of the
Balkans is historically known as a crossroads of cultures, a juncture between
the Latin and Greek bodies of the Roman Empire, the destination of a massive
influx of pagans (meaning "non-Christians") Bulgars and Slavs, an area
where Catholic and Orthodox Christianity met,[83] as well as the meeting point
between Islam and Christianity. The Papal Inquisition was established in AD
1229 on a permanent basis, run largely by clergymen in Rome, [84] and abolished
six centuries later. Before AD 1100, the Catholic Church suppressed what they
believed to be heresy, usually through a system of ecclesiastical proscription or
imprisonment, but without using torture, [85] and seldom resorting to executions.[86][87]
[88][89]
This very profitable Central European Fourth Crusade had prompted the 14th

century Renaissance (translated as 'Rebirth') of Italian city-states including
the Papal States, on eve of the Protestant Reformation and Counter-
Reformation (which established the Roman Inquisition to succeed the Medieval
Inquisition). There followed the discovery of the American continent, and
consequent dissolution of West Christendom as even a theoretical unitary
political body, later resulting in the religious Eighty Years War (1568–1648)
and Thirty Years War (1618–1648) between various Protestant and Catholic
states of the Holy Roman Empire (and emergence of religiously
diverse confessions). In this context, the Protestant Reformation (1517) may be
viewed as a schism within the Catholic Church. German monk Martin Luther, in
the wake of precursors, broke with the pope and with the emperor by the Catholic
Church's abusive commercialization of indulgences in the Late Medieval Period,
backed by many of the German princes and helped by the development of
the printing press, in an attempt to reform corruption within the church. [90][91][92][j]
Both these religious wars ended with the Peace of Westphalia (1648), which
enshrined the concept of the nation-state, and the principle of absolute national
sovereignty in international law. As European influence spread across the globe,
these Westphalian principles, especially the concept of sovereign states, became
central to international law and to the prevailing world order. [93]
Colonialism (15th–20th centuries)[edit]
Main articles: New World, Analysis of Western European colonialism and
colonization, Mercantilism, and Imperialism
"Why do the Christian nations, which were so weak in the past compared with Muslim nations begin to dominate so
many lands in modern times and even defeat the once victorious Ottoman armies?"..."Because they have laws and rules
invented by reason."
Ibrahim Muteferrika, Rational basis for the Politics of Nations (1731)[94]
Portuguese discoveries and explorations since 1336: first arrival places and dates; main
Portuguese spice trade routes in the Indian Ocean (blue); territories claimed by King John III of
Portugal (c. 1536) (green).
Apex of Spanish Empire in 1790.
In the 13th and 14th centuries, a number of European travelers, many of them
Christian missionaries, had sought to cultivate trading with Asia and Africa. With
the Crusades came the relative contraction of the Orthodox Byzantine's large silk
industry in favour of Catholic Western Europe and the rise of Western Papacy.
The most famous of these merchant travelers pursuing East–west trade was
Venetian Marco Polo. But these journeys had little permanent effect on east–
west trade because of a series of political developments in Asia in the last
decades of the 14th century, which put an end to further European exploration of
Asia: namely the new Ming rulers were found to be unreceptive of religious
proselytism by European missionaries and merchants. Meanwhile,
the Ottoman Turks consolidated control over the eastern Mediterranean, closing
off key overland trade routes.[citation needed]
The Portuguese spearheaded the drive to find oceanic routes that would provide
cheaper and easier access to South and East Asian goods, by advancements in
maritime technology such as the caravel ship introduced in the mid-1400s. The
charting of oceanic routes between East and West began with the
unprecedented voyages of Portuguese and Spanish sea captains. In
1492 European colonialism expanded across the globe with the exploring
voyage of merchant, navigator, and Hispano-Italian colonizer Christopher
Columbus. Such voyages were influenced by medieval European adventurers
after the European spice trade with Asia, who had journeyed overland to the Far
East contributing to geographical knowledge of parts of the Asian continent. They
are of enormous significance in Western history as they marked the beginning of
the European exploration, colonization and exploitation of the American
continents and their native inhabitants.[k][l][m] The European colonization of the
Americas led to the Atlantic slave trade between the 1490s and the 1800s, which
also contributed to the development of African intertribal warfare and racist
ideology. Before the abolition of its slave trade in 1807, the British Empire alone
(which had started colonial efforts in 1578, almost a century after Portuguese and
Spanish empires) was responsible for the transportation of 3.5 million African
slaves to the Americas, a third of all slaves transported across the Atlantic.
[96]
The Holy Roman Empire was dissolved in 1806 by the French Revolutionary
Wars; abolition of the Roman Catholic Inquisition followed.[citation needed]
Due to the reach of these empires, Western institutions expanded throughout the
world. This process of influence (and imposition) began with the voyages of
discovery, colonization, conquest, and exploitation of Portugal enforced as well
by papal bulls in 1450s (by the fall of the Byzantine Empire), granting Portugal
navigation, war and trade monopoly for any newly discovered lands, [97] and
competing Spanish navigators. It continued with the rise of the Dutch East India
Company by the destabilising Spanish discovery of the New World, and the
creation and expansion of the English and French colonial empires, and others.
[citation needed]
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 did not necessarily represent a whole nation,
people, or culture (as in much of Africa), and are often the cause of international
conflicts and friction even to this day. Although not part of Western colonization
process proper, following the Middle Ages Western culture in fact entered other
global-spanning cultures during the colonial 15th–20th centuries. [citation needed]
Replica of the Iberian Santa María, the wealthy Genoese merchant navigator Christopher Columbus's
flagship during his first voyage, a large carvel-built ocean-going ship, financed by Catholic Monarchs of
Castile and Aragon.[98] Columbus had estimated a travel distance of 2,400 nmi (4,400 km), far too low.
[99]
Colonialisation by Western/European powers (and others) since 1492.
The Industrial Revolution, which began in Great Britain in the 1760s and was preceded by
the Agricultural and Scientific revolutions in the 1600s, forever modified the economy worldwide.
The concepts of a world of nation-states born by the Peace of Westphalia in

1648, coupled with the ideologies of the Enlightenment, the coming of modernity,
the Scientific Revolution[100] and the Industrial Revolution,[101] would produce
powerful social transformations, political and economic institutions that have
come to influence (or been imposed upon) most nations of the world today.
Historians agree that the Industrial Revolution has been one of the most
important events in history.[102]
The course of three centuries since Christopher Columbus' late 15th century's
voyages, of deportation of slaves from Africa and British dominant northern-
Atlantic location, later developed into modern-day United States of America,
evolving from the ratification of the Constitution of the United States by thirteen
States on the North American East Coast before end of the 18th century.
In the early-19th century, the systematic urbanisation process (migration from
villages in search of jobs in manufacturing centers) had begun, and the
concentration of labour into factories led to the rise in the population of the towns.
World population had been rising as well. It is estimated to have first reached one
billion in 1804.[103] Also, the new philosophical movement later known
as Romanticism originated, in the wake of the previous Age of Reason of the
1600s and the Enlightenment of 1700s. These are seen as fostering the 19th
century Western world's sustained economic development.[104] Before the
urbanisation and industrialization of the 1800s, demand for oriental goods such
as porcelain, silk, spices and tea remained the driving force behind European
imperialism in Asia, and (with the important exception of British East India
Company rule in India) the European stake in Asia remained confined largely to
trading stations and strategic outposts necessary to protect trade.
[105]
Industrialisation, however, dramatically increased European demand for Asian
raw materials; and the severe Long Depression of the 1870s provoked a
scramble for new markets for European industrial products and financial services
in Africa, the Americas, Eastern Europe, and especially in Asia (Western powers
exploited their advantages in China for example by the Opium Wars).[106] This
resulted in the "New Imperialism", which saw a shift in focus from trade
and indirect rule to formal colonial control of vast overseas territories ruled as
political extensions of their mother countries.[n] The later years of the 19th century
saw the transition from "informal imperialism" (hegemony)[o] by military influence
and economic dominance, to direct rule (a revival of colonial imperialism) in
the African continent and Middle East.[110]
The Slave Market (Gérôme painting), French painting made during the second industrial revolution:
portrays a 19th century's Mediterranean slave market, an example of the ruling in the Late Modern
period. Industrial society's enlightenment provided Europe with a different view on human dignity when
the Ottoman Turks were still used to slaves markets.
Western empires as they were in 1910.
During the socioeconomically optimistic and innovative decades of the Second

Industrial Revolution between the 1870s and 1914, also known as the "Beautiful
Era", the established colonial powers in Asia (United Kingdom, France,
Netherlands) added to their empires also vast expanses of territory in the Indian
Subcontinent and South East Asia. Japan was involved primarily during the Meiji
period (1868–1912), though earlier contacts with the Portuguese, Spaniards and
Dutch were also present in the Japanese Empire's recognition of the strategic
importance of European nations. Traditional Japanese society became an
industrial and militarist power like the Western British Empire and the French
Third Republic, and similar to the German Empire.[verification needed][citation needed]
At the close of the Spanish–American War in 1898 the Philippines, Puerto
Rico, Guam and Cuba were ceded to the United States under the terms of
the Treaty of Paris. The US quickly emerged as the new imperial power in East
Asia and in the Pacific Ocean area. The Philippines continued to fight against
colonial rule in the Philippine–American War.[111]
By 1913, the British Empire held sway over 412 million people, 23% of the world
population at the time,[112] and by 1920, it covered
35,500,000 km2 (13,700,000 sq mi),[113] 24% of the Earth's total land area.[114] At its
apex, the phrase "the empire on which the sun never sets" described the British
Empire, because its expanse around the globe meant that the sun always shone
on at least one of its territories.[115] As a result, its
political, legal, linguistic and cultural legacy is widespread throughout
the Western World.[citation needed] In the aftermath of the Second World War,
decolonizing efforts were employed by all Western powers under United
Nations (ex-League of Nations) international directives.[citation needed] Most of colonized
nations received independence by 1960. Great Britain showed ongoing
responsibility for the welfare of its former colonies as member states of the
Commonwealth of Nations. But the end of Western colonial imperialism saw the
rise of Western neocolonialism or economic imperialism. Multinational
corporations came to offer "a dramatic refinement of the traditional business
enterprise", through "issues as far ranging as national sovereignty, ownership of
the means of production, environmental protection, consumerism, and policies
toward organized labor." Though the overt colonial era had
passed, Western nations, as comparatively rich, well-armed, and culturally
powerful states, wielded a large degree of influence throughout the world, and
with little or no sense of responsibility toward the peoples impacted by its
multinational corporations in their exploitation of minerals and markets. [116][117] The
dictum of Alfred Thayer Mahan is shown to have lasting relevance, that whoever
controls the seas controls the world.[118]
Enlightenment (17th–18th centuries)[edit]
Main articles: Age of Enlightenment and Scientific Revolution
Eric Voegelin described the 18th-century as one where "the sentiment grows that
one age has come to its close and that a new age of Western civilization is about
to be born". According to Voeglin the Enlightenment (also called the Age of
Reason) represents the "atrophy of Christian transcendental experiences and
[seeks] to enthrone the Newtonian method of science as the only valid method of
arriving at truth".[119] Its precursors were John Milton and Baruch Spinoza.
[120]
Meeting Galileo in 1638 left an enduring impact on John Milton and influenced
Milton's great work Areopagitica, where he warns that, without free speech,
inquisitorial forces will impose "an undeserved thraldom upon learning". [121]
The achievements of the 17th century included the invention of the telescope and
acceptance of heliocentrism. 18th century scholars continued to refine Newton's
theory of gravitation, notably Leonhard Euler, Pierre Louis Maupertuis, Alexis-
Claude Clairaut, Jean Le Rond d'Alembert, Joseph-Louis Lagrange, Pierre-
Simon de Laplace. Laplace's five-volume Treatise on Celestial Mechanics is one
of the great works of 18th-century Newtonianism. Astronomy gained in prestige
as new observatories were funded by governments and more powerful
telescopes developed, leading to the discovery of new
planets, asteroids, nebulae and comets, and paving the way for improvements
in navigation and cartography. Astronomy became the second most popular
scientific profession, after medicine.[122]
A common metanarrative of the Enlightenment is the "secularization theory".
Modernity, as understood within the framework, means a total break with the
past. Innovation and science are the good, representing the modern values
of rationalism, while faith is ruled by superstition and traditionalism. [123] Inspired by
the Scientific Revolution, the Enlightenment embodied the ideals of improvement
and progress. Descartes and Isaac Newton were regarded as exemplars of
human intellectual achievement. Condorcet wrote about the progress of humanity
in the Sketch of the Progress of the Human Mind (1794), from primitive society
to agrarianism, the invention of writing, the later invention of the printing
press and the advancement to "the Period when the Sciences and Philosophy
threw off the Yoke of Authority".[124]
French writer Pierre Bayle denounced Spinoza as a pantheist (thereby accusing
him of atheism). Bayle's criticisms garnered much attention for Spinoza. The
pantheism controversy in the late 18th century saw Gotthold Lessing attacked
by Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi over support for Spinoza's pantheism. Lessing was
defended by Moses Mendelssohn, although Mendelssohn diverged from
pantheism to follow Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz in arguing that God and the world
were not of the same substance (equivalency). Spinoza was excommunicated
from the Dutch Sephardic community, but for Jews who sought out Jewish
sources to guide their own path to secularism, Spinoza was as important as
Voltaire and Kant.[125]
Cold War (1947–1991)[edit]
Main articles: Cold War, Western Bloc, and First World
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During the Cold War, a new definition emerged. 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 (15 republics including the then-occupied and
presently independent Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania) and Warsaw Pact countries like
Poland, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, East Germany (now united with Germany),
and Czechoslovakia (now split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia).
The Third World consisted of countries, many of which were unaligned with
either, and important members included India, Yugoslavia, Finland
(Finlandization) and Switzerland (Swiss Neutrality); some include the People's
Republic of China, though this is disputed, since the People's Republic of China,
as communist, had friendly relations—at certain times—with the Soviet bloc, and
had a significant degree of importance in global geopolitics. Some Third World
countries aligned themselves with either the US-led West or the Soviet-led
Eastern bloc.
show
Maps on the Cold War East–west division
A number of countries did not fit comfortably into this neat definition of partition,
including Switzerland, Sweden, Austria, and Ireland, which chose to be
neutral. Finland was under the Soviet Union's military sphere of influence
(see FCMA treaty) but remained neutral and was not 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 remain neutral; but as a
country to the west of the Iron Curtain, it was in the United States' sphere of
influence. Spain did not join the NATO until 1982, seven years after the death of
the authoritarian Franco.
The 1980s advent of Mikhail Gorbachev and the Chernobyl disaster led to the
end of the Cold War following the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
Cold War II context[edit]
Main article: Second Cold War
In a debated Cold War II, a new definition emerged inside the realm of western
journalism. More specifically, Cold War II,[127] also known as the Second Cold War,
New Cold War,[128] Cold War Redux,[129] Cold War 2.0,[130] and Colder War,[131] refers
to the tensions, hostilities, and political rivalry that intensified dramatically in 2014
between the Russian Federation on the one hand, and the United
States, European Union, NATO and some other countries on the other hand. [127]
Tensions escalated in 2014 after Russia's annexation of Crimea, military
[132]
intervention in Ukraine, and the 2015 Russian military intervention in the Syrian

Civil War.[133][134][135] By August 2014, both sides had implemented economic,
financial, and diplomatic sanctions upon each other: virtually all Western
countries, led by the US and EU, imposed restrictive measures on Russia; the
latter reciprocally introduced retaliatory measures.[136][137]
Modern definitions[edit]
Asia (as the "Eastern world"), the Arab world, and Africa.
The exact scope of the Western world is somewhat subjective in nature,

depending on whether cultural, economic, spiritual or political criteria are
employed. It is a generally accepted Western view to recognize the existence of
at least three "major worlds" (or "cultures", or "civilizations"), broadly in contrast
with the Western: the Eastern world, the Arab and the African worlds, with no
clearly specified boundaries. Additionally, Latin American and Orthodox worlds
are sometimes separately considered "akin" to the West.
Latin America and Orthodox worlds.
Many anthropologists, sociologists and historians oppose "the West and the
Rest" in a categorical manner.[138] 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.[138]
Since the fall of the iron curtain the following countries are generally accepted as
the Western world:[139] the United States, Canada; the countries of the European
Union plus UK, Norway, Iceland and Switzerland; Australia and New Zealand.
Cultural definition[edit]
Further information: Western culture, Culture of Europe, and Culture of the
United States
In modern usage, Western world refers to Europe and to areas whose
populations largely originate from Europe, through the Age of
Discovery's imperialism.[14][15]
In the 20th century, Christianity declined in influence in many Western countries,
mostly in the European Union where some member states have experienced
falling church attendance and membership in recent years, [140] and also
elsewhere. Secularism (separating religion from politics and science) increased.
However, while church attendance is in decline, in some Western countries (i.e.
Italy, Poland, and Portugal), more than half of the people state that religion is
important,[141] and most Westerners nominally identify themselves as Christians
(e.g. 59% in the United Kingdom) and attend church on major occasions, such as
Christmas and Easter. In the Americas, Christianity continues to play an
important societal role, though in areas such as Canada, a low level of religiosity
is common due to a European-type secularization. The official religions of the
United Kingdom and some Nordic countries are forms of Christianity, while the
majority of European countries have no official religion. Despite this, Christianity,
in its different forms, remains the largest faith in most Western countries. [142]
Christianity remains the dominant religion in the Western world, where 70% are
Christians.[143] A 2011 Pew Research Center survey found that 76.2%
of Europeans, 73.3% in Oceania, and about 86.0% in the Americas (90% in Latin
America and the Caribbean and 77.4% in Northern America) described
themselves as Christians.[143][144]
Countries in the Western world are also the most keen on digital and televisual
media technologies, as they were in the postwar period on television and radio:
from 2000 to 2014, the Internet's market penetration in the West was twice that in
non-Western regions.[145] Wikipedia has been blocked intermittently in China since
2004.[146]
Latin America[edit]
The Western world based-on Samuel P. Huntington's 1996 Clash of Civilizations.[147] Latin America,
depicted in turquoise, could be considered a sub-civilization within Western civilization, or a distinct
civilization intimately related to the West and descended from it. For political consequences, the
second option is the most adequate.[148]
Huntington's map of major civilizations.[5] What constitutes Western civilization in post-Cold War world

is coloured dark blue. He also dwells that Latin America (shown in purple) is either a sub-civilization
within Western civilization or a separate civilization akin to the West.
American political scientist, adviser and academic Samuel P.

Huntington considered Latin America as separate from the Western world for the
purpose of his geopolitical analysis.[5] However, he also states that, while in
general researchers consider that the West has three main components
(European, North American and Latin American), in his view, Latin America has
followed a different development path from Europe and North America. Although
it is a scion of European (mainly Spanish and Portuguese) civilization, it also
incorporates, to an extent, elements of indigenous American civilizations, absent
from North America and Europe. It has had a corporatist and authoritarian culture
that Europe had to a much lesser extent. Both Europe and North America felt the
effects of the Reformation and combined Catholic and Protestant culture.
Historically, Latin America has been only Catholic, although this is changing due
to the influx of Protestants into the region. Some regions in Latin America
incorporate indigenous cultures, which did not exist in Europe and were
effectively annihilated in the United States, and whose importance oscillates
between two extremes: Mexico, Central America, Peru and Bolivia, on the one
hand, and Argentina and Chile on the other. [149] However, he does mention that
the modus operandi of the Catholic Church was to incorporate native elements of
pagan European cultures into the general dogma of Catholicism, and the Native
American elements could be perceived in the same way. [150]
Subjectively, Latin Americans are divided when it comes to identifying
themselves. Some say: "Yes, we are part of the West." Others say: "No, we have
our own unique culture"; and a vast bibliographical material produced by Latin
Americans and North Americans exposes in detail their cultural differences.
Huntington goes on to mention that Latin America could be considered a sub-
civilization within Western civilization, or a separate civilization intimately related
to the West and divided as to its belonging to it. While the second option is the
most appropriate and useful for an analysis focused on the international political
consequences of civilizations, including relations between Latin America, on the
one hand, and North America and Europe, on the other, he also mentions that
the underlying conflict of Latin America belonging to the West must eventually be
addressed in order to develop a cohesive Latin American identity. [151]
[152]
Huntington's view has, however, been contested on a number of occasions as
biased.[153][154]
Other countries[edit]
The Philippines, although geographically part of the Eastern world and having a
majority population that does not possess European ethnic origins aside from a
significant minority, maintains strong Western-based influences in its culture.
[155]
From the country's traditional art, architecture, fashion, music, cuisine,
language (Spanish and English) and Christianity. The Philippines itself was a
creation of Spain, unifying certain parts of Southeast Asia into one entity as part
of Spanish Empire through conquest and negotiation, naming it after King Philip
II as Las Islas Filipinas.[156][157] Cape Verde also has significant influence from the
Western world due to Portuguese colonization, seen through the country's
language (Portuguese), music, art[158] and the prevalence of Christianity.[159] The
country's population is also overall, a mixture of African and European descent.
[160]
European influence is also evident in Namibia, which has a
sizeable minority of European descent and was previously administered by
Germany and then South Africa.[161][162][163]
Most of South Africa's population is not of European ancestry, excepting a
sizeable minority.[164][165] The primary sources of the
country's constitution are Roman-Dutch mercantile law & personal law
and English Common law, imports of Dutch settlement and British
colonialism respectively.[166] English, the country's lingua franca, is the main
language used in official and business capacities and the sole language of record
in South African courts.[167][168][169] English and Afrikaans – most similar to Dutch –
are two of South Africa's eleven official languages. [170][171] Christianity is the
dominant religion and many denominations incorporate worship practices from
traditional African religions. The Methodist, Roman Catholic, Anglican, Dutch
Reformed, Lutheran, Pentecostal and Seventh-day Adventist dominations are
also popular.[172]
Economic definition[edit]
Countries by income group
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The term "Western world" is sometimes interchangeably used with the term First

World or developed countries, stressing the difference between First World and
the Third World or developing countries. This usage occurs despite the fact that
many countries that may be culturally Western are developing countries – in fact,
a significant percentage of the Americas are developing countries. It is also used
despite many developed countries or regions not being culturally Western
(e.g. Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong,
and Macao). Privatization policies (involving government enterprises and public
services) and multinational corporations are often considered a visible sign of
Western nations' economic presence, especially in Third World countries, and
represent a common institutional environment for powerful politicians,
enterprises, trade unions and firms, bankers and thinkers of the Western world.[173]
[174][175][176][177]
Views on torn countries[edit]

According to Samuel P. Huntington, some countries are torn on whether they are
Western or not, with typically the national leadership pushing for Westernization,
while historical, cultural and traditional forces remain largely non-Western.
[178]
These include Turkey, whose political leadership has since the 1920s tried to
Westernize the predominantly Muslim country with only 3% of its territory within
Europe. It is his chief example of a "torn country" that is attempting to join
Western civilization.[5] The country's elite started the Westernization efforts,
beginning with Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, who took power as the first president of
the modern Turkish nation-state in 1923, imposed western institutions and dress,
removed the Arabic alphabet and embraced the Latin alphabet. It joined NATO
and since the 1960s has been seeking to join the European Union with very slow
progress.[179]
Other views[edit]
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. [34]
The theologian and paleontologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin conceived of the
West as the set of civilizations descended from the Nile Valley
Civilization of Egypt.[180]
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, to justify colonial and imperialist
intentions. This Occident-Orient binary focuses 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 would not exist without the Orient and vice versa.
[citation needed]
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, according to
the Said-influenced Indian-American theorist Homi K. Bhabha.[citation needed]
show
Map illustrations of the West according to different but closely interrelated definitions
See also[edit]
 Civilizations portal
 World portal
 Americanization
 Americas
 Anglicisation
 Anglophone
 Atlanticism
 Eastern world
 East–West dichotomy
 Europeanisation
 Far West
 First World
 Francophonie
 Free world
 Global North and Global South
 Golden billion
 Hispanophone
 History of Western civilization
 Maghreb
 Mid-Atlantic English
 Monroe Doctrine
 Three-world model
 Western esotericism
 Western hemisphere
 Western philosophy
 Western civilization
 Anti-Western sentiment
Organisations
European Council
European Economic Area (EEA)
European Union (EU)
G10 currencies
Group of Seven (G7)
Group of Twelve (G12)
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
Representation in the United Nations
 Eastern European Group

 Western European and Others Group
Notes[edit]
1. ^ Including North Asia (Siberia) and
the outermost regions of the European
Union such as Madeira and the Canary
Islands, which are parts of European
countries despite not being geographically
located in Europe.[1]
2. ^ Latin America's status as Western is
disputed by some researchers.[2]
3. ^ See notes:[n 1][n 2][n 3][n 4][n 5][n 6][n 7][n 8][n 9]
See notes [n 10][n 11][n 12][n 13][n 14]
The Parthenon, a
former temple (Athens, c. 430 BC).
The Victorious Youth, a
controversial Greek bronze (Greece, c. 300–
100 BC). Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus,
seats up to 14,000 people (Epidaurus, c. 150
BC).
4. ^
Pont du Gard, a Roman aqueduct (Vers-
Pont-du-Gard, c. 20 BC-AD 50).
The Pantheon, a former temple visited—in
2013 alone—by over 6 million people
(Rome, c. AD 120). The Aula Palatina,
a Roman palace, then
a Christian basilica (Trier, c. AD 310).
See notes [n 15][n 16][n 17][n 18][n 19]
5. ^ The Roman Republic 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[vague] 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 (2, 31 September BC),
and the Roman Senate's granting to
Octavian the honorific Augustus. (16, 27
January BC). Octavian/Augustus officially
proclaimed that he had 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 became necessary.
6. ^ By 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 (Portugal
and Spain), Gaul (France), the
Mediterranean coast of North
Africa (Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco)
and Britannia were all part of the "West".
Greece, Cyprus, Anatolia, Lebanon, Syria,
Israel, Palestine, Egypt, and Libya were part
of the "East". Italy itself was considered
central, until the reforms
of Diocletian dividing the Empire into true
two halves: Eastern and Western.[citation needed]
7. ^ Strategically more appealing than Rome
because of its access to a second smaller
water basin, the Euxine Sea (meaning
"hospitable", and later called Black Sea) and
its proximity to the Mesopotamia, the "would
be" next Roman Empire's conquest. The
Latins had become an Empire because they
had managed to control the Mediterranean
Sea, as water basins were the most
appealing locations to armies in the ancient
era. For this reason probably, the Romans
were more seduced by the strategic Asian
access of Byzantium in the Turkish area,
than that of any other Eastern
European location around the Danube river.
This situation may have led to Huns'
successful invasion that originated Empire's
division (and later its collapse) during the
course of the 3rd century AD.[citation needed]
8. ^ Others have fiercely criticized these views
arguing they confuse the Eastern Roman
Empire with Russia, especially considering
the fact that the country that had the most
historical roots in Byzantium (Greece)
expelled communists and was allied with the
West during the Cold War. Still, Russia
accepted Eastern Christianity from the
Byzantine Empire (by the Patriarch of
Constantinople: Photios I) linking Russia
very close to the Eastern Roman Empire
world. Later on, in 16th century Russia
created its own religious centre in Moscow.
Religion survived in Russia beside severe
persecution carrying values alternative to
the communist ideology.[citation needed]
9. ^ The Dalmatia remained under Venice
domination throughout next centuries (even
constituting an Italian territorial claim by
the Treaty of Versailles in the aftermath of
the First World War and through
successive Italy's fascist period's demands).
10. ^ These changes were adopted by
the Scandinavian kings. Later, French
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 paralleling the struggles
between the King and Parliament lead to
the English Civil War (1642–1651) between
royalists and parliamentarians, while
both colonized North America eventually
resulting in an independent United States of
America (1776) during the Industrial
Revolution.
11. ^ Portuguese sailors began exploring the
coast of Africa and the Atlantic archipelagos
in 1418–19, using recent developments in
navigation, cartography and maritime
technology such as the caravel, in order that
they might find a sea route to the source of
the lucrative spice trade.[citation needed] In
1488, Bartolomeu Dias rounded the
southern tip of Africa under the sponsorship
of Portugal's John II, from which point he
noticed that the coast swung northeast
(Cape of Good Hope).[citation needed] In
1492 Christopher Columbus would land on
an island in the Bahamas archipelago on
behalf of the Spanish, and documenting
the Atlantic Ocean's routes would be
granted a Coat of Arms by Pope Alexander
VI motu proprio in 1502.[citation needed] With the
discovery of the American continent or 'New
World' in 1492–1493, the European
colonial Age of Discovery and exploration
was born, revisiting an imperialistic view
accompanied by the invention of firearms,
while marking the start of the Modern Era.
During this long period the Catholic
Church launched a major effort to spread
Christianity in the New World and to convert
the Native Americans and others. A 'Modern
West' emerged from the Late Middle
Ages (after the Renaissance and fall of
Constantinople) as a new civilization greatly
influenced by the interpretation of Greek
thought preserved in the Byzantine Empire,
and transmitted from there by
Latin translations and emigration of Greek
scholars through Renaissance humanism.
(Popular typefaces such as italics were
inspired and designed from transcriptions
during this period.) Renaissance
architectural works, revivals of Classical and
Gothic styles, flourished during this modern
period throughout Western colonial empires.
In 1497 Portuguese navigator Vasco da
Gama made the first open voyage from
Europe to India.[citation needed] In 1520, Ferdinand
Magellan, a Portuguese navigator in the
service of the Crown of Castile ('Spain'),
found a sea route into the Pacific Ocean.
12. ^ In the 16th century, the Portuguese broke
the (overland) Medieval monopoly of the
Arabs and Italians of trade (goods and
slaves) between Asia and Europe by
the discovery of the sea route to
India around the Cape of Good Hope.
[95]
With the ensuing rise of the rival Dutch
East India Company, Portuguese influence
in Asia was gradually eclipsed; Dutch forces
first established fortified independent bases
in the East and then between 1640 and
1660 wrestled some southern Indian ports,
and the lucrative Japan trade from the
Portuguese. Later, the English and
the French established some settlements
in India and trade with China, and their own
acquisitions would gradually surpass those
of the Dutch. In 1763, the British eliminated
French influence in India and established
the British East India Company as the most
important political force on the Indian
Subcontinent.
13. ^ Although Christianized by early Middle
Ages, Ireland is soon colonised in 16th- and
17th-century with settlers from the
neighboring island of Great Britain (several
people committed in the establishment of
these colonies in Ireland, would later also
colonise North America initiating the British
Empire), while Iceland still uninhabited long
after the rest of Western Europe had been
settled, by 1397–1523 would eventually be
united in one alliance with all of the Nordic
states (kingdoms
of Denmark, Sweden and Norway).
14. ^ The Scramble for Africa was the
occupation, division, and colonization of
African territory by European powers during
the period of New Imperialism, between
1881 and 1914. It is also called the 'Partition
of Africa' and by some the 'Conquest of
Africa'. In 1870, only 10 percent of Africa
was under formal Western/European
control; by 1914 it had increased to almost
90 percent of the continent, with
only Ethiopia (Abyssinia), the Dervish
state (a portion of present-day Somalia)
[107]
and Liberia still being independent.
15. ^ In ancient Greece (8th century BC – AD
6th century), hegemony denoted the
politico-military dominance of a city-
state over other city-states.[108] The dominant
state is known as the hegemon.[109]
1. ^ Ricardo Duchesne (7 February

2011). The Uniqueness of Western
Civilization. BRILL. p. 297. ISBN 978-90-
04-19248-5. The list of books which have
celebrated Greece as the "cradle" of the
West is endless; two more examples are
Charles Freeman's The Greek
Achievement: The Foundation of the
Western World (1999) and Bruce Thornton's
Greek Ways: How the Greeks Created
Western Civilization (2000)
2. ^ Chiara Bottici; Benoît Challand (11
January 2013). The Myth of the Clash of
Civilizations. Routledge. p. 88. ISBN 978-1-
136-95119-0. The reason why even such a
sophisticated historian as Pagden can do it
is that the idea that Greece is the cradle of
civilisation is so much rooted in western
minds and school curicula as to be taken for
granted.
3. ^ William J. Broad (2007). The Oracle:
Ancient Delphi and the Science Behind Its
Lost Secrets. Penguin Publishing Group.
p. 120. ISBN 978-0-14-303859-7. In 1979,
a friend of de Boer's invited him to join a
team of scientists that was going to Greece
to assess the suitability of the ... But the
idea of learning more about Greece — the
cradle of Western civilization, a fresh
example of tectonic forces at ...
4. ^ Maura Ellyn; Maura McGinnis
(2004). Greece: A Primary Source Cultural
Guide. The Rosen Publishing Group.
p. 8. ISBN 978-0-8239-3999-2.
5. ^ John E. Findling; Kimberly D. Pelle
(2004). Encyclopedia of the Modern
Olympic Movement. Greenwood Publishing
Group. p. 23. ISBN 978-0-313-32278-5.
6. ^ Wayne C. Thompson; Mark H. Mullin
(1983). Western Europe, 1983. Stryker-Post
Publications.
p. 337. ISBN 9780943448114. for ancient
Greece was the cradle of Western culture ...
7. ^ Frederick Copleston (1 June
2003). History of Philosophy Volume 1:
Greece and Rome. A&C Black.
p. 13. ISBN 978-0-8264-6895-6. PART I
PRE-SOCRATIC PHILOSOPHY CHAPTER
II THE CRADLE OF WESTERN THOUGHT:
8. ^ Mario Iozzo (2001). Art and History of
Greece: And Mount Athos. Casa Editrice
Bonechi. p. 7. ISBN 978-88-8029-435-
1. The capital of Greece, one of the world's
most glorious cities and the cradle of
Western culture,
9. ^ Marxiano Melotti (25 May 2011). The
Plastic Venuses: Archaeological Tourism in
Post-Modern Society. Cambridge Scholars
Publishing. p. 188. ISBN 978-1-4438-3028-
7. In short, Greece, despite having been the
cradle of Western culture, was then an
“other” space separate from the West.
10. ^ Library Journal. Vol. 97. Bowker. April
1972. p. 1588. Ancient Greece: Cradle of
Western Culture (Series), disc. 6 strips with
3 discs, range: 44–60 fr., 17–18 min
11. ^ Stanley Mayer Burstein (2002). Current
Issues and the Study of Ancient History.
Regina Books. p. 15. ISBN 978-1-930053-
10-6. and making Egypt play the same role
in African education and culture that Athens
and Greece do in Western culture.
12. ^ Murray Milner Jr. (8 January 2015). Elites:
A General Model. John Wiley & Sons.
p. 62. ISBN 978-0-7456-8950-0. Greece
has long been considered the seedbed or
cradle of Western civilization.
13. ^ Slavica viterbiensia 003: Periodico di
letterature e culture slave della Facoltà di
Lingue e Letterature Straniere Moderne
dell'Università della Tuscia. Gangemi
Editore spa. 10 November 2011.
p. 148. ISBN 978-88-492-6909-3. The
Special Case of Greece The ancient
Greece was a cradle of the Western culture,
14. ^ Kim Covert (1 July 2011). Ancient
Greece: Birthplace of Democracy.
Capstone. p. 5. ISBN 978-1-4296-6831-
6. Ancient Greece is often called the cradle
of western civilization. ... Ideas from
literature and science also have their roots
in ancient Greece.
15. ^ Henry Turner Inman. Rome: the cradle of
western civilisation as illustrated by existing
monuments. ISBN 9781177738538.
16. ^ Michael Ed. Grant (1964). The Birth Of
Western Civilisation, Greece &
Rome. Amazon.co.uk. Thames & Hudson.
Retrieved 4 January 2016.
17. ^ HUXLEY, George;
et al. "9780500040034: The Birth of
Western Civilization: Greece and
Rome". AbeBooks.com. Retrieved 4
January 2016.
18. ^ "Athens. Rome. Jerusalem and Vicinity.
Peninsula of Mt. Sinai.: Geographicus Rare
Antique Maps". Geographicus.com.
Retrieved 4 January 2016.
19. ^ "Download This PDF eBooks
Free" (PDF). File104.filthbooks.org.
Archived from the original (PDF) on 7
January 2016. Retrieved 4 January 2016.
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Read by Availle for LibriVox
Audio 00:20:05 (full text)
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to the Asians in the sixteenth, seventeenth
and eighteenth centuries, but after the
Industrial Revolution the situation was
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to sell its cheap products throughout Asia.
Improved transport methods also meant
that European products could reach the
Asian market at a relatively low cost. From
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the continuing spread of industrialization in
the empire-building countries came a shift in
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pp. 38–39. ISBN 978-0-684-84441-1 – via
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untington,%20Samuel%20-%20El
%20choque%20de%20civilizaciones.pdf (in
Spanish). The origin of western civilization
is usually dated to 700 or 800 AD. In
general, researchers consider that it has
three main components, in Europe,
Northern America and Latin America. [...]
However, Latin America has followed a
quite different development path from
Europe and Northern America. Although it is
a scion of European civilization, it also
incorporates, to varying degrees, elements
of indigenous American civilizations, absent
from Northern America and Europe. It has
had a corporatist and authoritarian culture
that Europe had to a much lesser extent
and America did not have at all. Both
Europe and North America felt the effects of
the Reformation and combined Catholic and
Protestant culture. Historically, Latin
America has been only Catholic, although
this may be changing. [...] Latin America
could be considered, or a sub-civilization
within Western civilization, or a separate
civilization, intimately related to the West
and divided as to its belonging to it. [...] For
an analysis focused on the international
political consequences of civilizations,
including relations between Latin America,
on the one hand, and Northern America and
Europe, on the other, the second option is
the most appropriate and useful.
p. 46. ISBN 978-0-684-84441-1.
pp. 110–111. ISBN 978-0-684-84441-1 –
via
Spanish).
pp. 38–39. ISBN 978-0-684-84441-1 – via
Spanish). The origin of western civilization
is usually dated to 700 or 800 AD. In
general, researchers consider that it has
three main components, in Europe, North
America and Latin America"... "However,
Latin America has followed a quite different
development path from Europe and North
America. Although it is a scion of European
civilization, it also incorporates, to varying
degrees, elements of indigenous American
civilizations, absent from North America and
Europe. It has had a corporatist and
authoritarian culture that Europe had to a
much lesser extent and America did not
have at all. Both Europe and North America
felt the effects of the Reformation and
combined Catholic and Protestant culture.
Historically, Latin America has been only
Catholic, although this may be changing.
Latin American civilization incorporates
indigenous cultures, which did not exist in
Europe, which were effectively annihilated
in North America, and whose importance
oscillates between two extremes: Mexico,
Central America, Peru and Bolivia, on the
one hand, and Argentina and Chile, on the
other. The political evolution and the
economic development of Latin America
have clearly separated from the
predominant models in the North Atlantic
countries. Subjectively, Latin Americans
themselves are divided when it comes to
identifying themselves. Some say: "Yes, we
are part of the West." Others say: "No, we
have our own unique culture"; and a vast
bibliographical material produced by Latin
Americans and North Americans exposes in
detail their cultural differences. Latin
America could be considered, or a sub-
civilization within Western civilization, or a
separate civilization, intimately related to
the West and divided as to its belonging to
it.
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or Allies in Economic Development?" 20
July 2010.
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US, Europe or Japan".
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180. ^ Cf., Teilhard de Chardin, Le Phenomene
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Further reading[edit]
 Ankerl, Guy (2000). Coexisting
contemporary civilizations: Arabo-
Muslim, Bharati, Chinese, and West.
INU societal research. Vol. 1. Global
communication without universal
civilization. Geneva: INU
Press. ISBN 2-88155-004-5.
 Bavaj, Riccardo: "The West": A
Conceptual Exploration , European
History Online, Mainz: Institute of
European History, 2011, retrieved: 28
November 2011.
 Conze, Vanessa, Abendland, EGO -
European History Online,
Mainz: Institute of European History,
2017, retrieved: 8 March 2021 (pdf).
 Daly, Jonathan. "The Rise of Western
Power: A Comparative History of
Western Civilization" (London and
New York: Bloomsbury,
2014). ISBN 9781441161314.
 Daly, Jonathan. "Historians Debate
the Rise of the West" (London and
New York: Routledge,
2015). ISBN 978-1-13-877481-0.
 The Western Tradition homepage at
Annenberg/CPB Archived 20 April
2019 at the Wayback Machine –
where you can watch each episode on
demand for free (Pop-ups required).
Videos are also available as
a YouTube playlist.
 J. F. C. Fuller. A Military History of the
Western World. Three Volumes. New
York: Da Capo Press, Inc., 1987 and
1988.
V. 1. From the earliest times to the Battle of
Lepanto; ISBN 0-306-80304-6.
V. 2. From the defeat of the Spanish
Armada to the Battle of Waterloo; ISBN 0-306-
80305-4.
V. 3. From the American Civil War to the end
of World War II; ISBN 0-306-80306-2.
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Western world based-on Samuel P. Huntington's 1996 Clash of Civilizations.[5] In turquoise

Historians, such as Carroll Quigley in "The Evolution of Civilizations",[24] contend

Plato, along with his student Aristotle and teacher Socrates, helped to establish Western philosophy.

Western culture, also known as Western civilization, Occidental culture, or

The geopolitical divisions in Europe that created a concept

Roman Catholic Western and Central Europe, as such, maintained a distinct

This article may need to be rewritten to comply with Wikipedia's quality

The Ancient Hellenistic Greek world from 323 BC

Ancient Greek civilization had been growing in the first millennium BC into

This article may need to be rewritten to comply with Wikipedia's quality

Graphical map of post-AD 395 Roman Empire highlighting differences between western Roman

Ancient Rome (6th century BC – AD 476) is a term to describe the

This section may need to be rewritten to comply with Wikipedia's quality

Apex of Byzantine Empire's conquests (AD 527–565).

Map of the Byzantine Empire in AD 1025 before Christian East-West Schism.

The Eastern Roman Empire included lands south-west of the Black Sea and

In AD 800 under Charlemagne, the Early Medieval Franks established an empire

Map of the Byzantine Empire in AD 1180 before Latin Fourth Crusade.

The decline of the Byzantine Empire (13th–15th centuries) began with the Latin

This very profitable Central European Fourth Crusade had prompted the 14th

Apex of Spanish Empire in 1790.

Colonialisation by Western/European powers (and others) since 1492.

The concepts of a world of nation-states born by the Peace of Westphalia in

During the socioeconomically optimistic and innovative decades of the Second

intervention in Ukraine, and the 2015 Russian military intervention in the Syrian

Asia (as the "Eastern world"), the Arab world, and Africa.

The exact scope of the Western world is somewhat subjective in nature,

Huntington's map of major civilizations.[5] What constitutes Western civilization in post-Cold War world

American political scientist, adviser and academic Samuel P.

This section needs additional citations

The term "Western world" is sometimes interchangeably used with the term First

Views on torn countries[edit]

 Eastern European Group

See notes [n 15][n 16][n 17][n 18][n 19]

5. ^ The Roman Republic had been weakened

1. ^ Ricardo Duchesne (7 February

Audio 00:20:05 (full text)

100. ^ "Modern West Civ. 7: The Scientific

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