Western world
See Occident (movement) for the French political movement.The term
Western world or "
the West" can have multiple meanings depending on its context. Originally defined as
Western Europe, most modern uses of the term refer to the societies of Europe and their close genealogical, linguistic, and philosophical colonial descendants, typically included are those countries whose dominant culture is derived from
European
culture, such as
North and
South America,
Australia and
New Zealand.
|
Several Definitions of the Western world |
At different times and in different contexts, the definition of
the West (also on rare occasions called the Occident) varies. Even definitions of what constitutes the West today vary. To define what is typical of modern
Western society and
Western culture is hindered by the lack of a clear definition and the dichotomy between Western Christian and Western secular thought.
Historical divisions
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Diachronic map showing the Centum (blue) and Satem (red) areals. The supposed area of origin of Satemization is shown in darker red. |
Centum-Satem splitA linguistic split occured with Indo-Europeans circa 6000-4000 BC. A
satemization process developed in the East part of the Indo-European areal. Those dialects of
Proto-Indo-European language that occured in the Western part evolved later in
Germanic,
Celtic,
Italic and
Helenic families, whose areal situated in Western Europe. Those occured in the Eastern part later evolved into
Slavic,
Baltic,
Iranian,
Indo-Aryan and
Armenian languages. This split pre-determined differences in cultures of the peoples of the both parts.
;HellenicThe
Hellenic division between
Greeks and "
barbarians" contrasted 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. 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.
;Roman
|
Western and Eastern parts of Roman Empire |
Although the
Mediterranean basin was united by Romans, there was a distinction between the Empire's more urbanized eastern regions, where Greek was the
lingua franca, on the one hand, and the mostly
Latin-speaking, rural western regions on the other. In A.D.
292,
Roman Emperor Diocletian, divided the
Roman Empire into two regions, each administered by an
Augustus and a
Caesar (the
Tetrarchy); from the 5th century onwards, Roman rule crumbled in the
western half, but endured in the eastern part, while a new Roman capital had been inaugurated in A.D. 330 at Constantinople by
Roman Emperor Constantine I and
Christianity had been established as the state religion of the empire.
Christian |
Religious split in Europe (Catolicism and Protestantism are in blue and violet, Orthodoxy is in rose |
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
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.
During the
Cold War, a new definition emerged. The
Earth was divided into three "worlds". The
First World 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 include
India,
Yugoslavia and for a time the
People's Republic of China, though some find it expedient to group the latter two under
Second World because of their
communist ideology.
There were a number of countries which did not 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 sphere of influence but remained neutral, was not communist, nor was it a member of the
Warsaw Pact or
Comecon. 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 was not usually regarded as either part of the First or Western worlds.
Spain did not join NATO until 1982, towards the end of the Cold War and after the death of the authoritarian
Franco.
The Western world became a synonym for
the first world but included the West European exceptions mentioned earlier in this paragraph and excluded Turkey.
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A common understanding of Western Europe in modern times. |
As the term "Western world" does not have a strict international definition, Governments do not use the term in legislation of international treaties and instead rely on other definitions. If the term is used in academic articles it tends to be reserved for use in articles about those areas and times where the Western Roman Empire had a direct influence.
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 "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 ,
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
Turkey and
Mexico, that are not wealthy industrial 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 "west" or "north" countries, because their high living standards and their social, economical and political structure are quite similar to those of the OECD member countries.
The "West" may also be used as a cultural and social reference to "Western society". In this context both
Latin America and the
Philippines may be considered part of the West, particularly in writings on high art and literature. See:
Western civilization. [
1] [
2]
The "West" may also be used
pejoratively by those especially critical of the influence of the West and its history of
imperialism and
colonialism.
Ethnocentric definitions of the term Western world are definitions constructed around one of the
Western cultures. 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.
In the
Near East or
Middle East, (both terms relative to Europe as being in the west), the distinction between
Western Europe and Eastern Europe is of less importance; countries that western Europeans might think of as part of
Eastern Europe, i.e.
Russia, might be counted as
Western in the Middle East, in the sense of being both European and Christian. People from the West are known by many in
the East and Middle East as "Westerners".
Culturally, many Latin Americans, particularly Argentines and Uruguayans, and to somewhat lesser extent also Brazilians and Chileans, firmly consider themselves Westerners. Although most Western Europeans and North Americans would probably not include these Latin Americans in their concept of Western. This happens mainly due to racist misconceptions and due to the fact that in Latin America, europeans mixed with aboriginal populations. In time, this may create, due to the resentment this attitude produces in the
"Forgotten Westerners of the Southern Cone", a hybrid culture of their own.
A series of scholars of civilization, including
Arnold 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. Most recently, in 1993,
Samuel P. Huntington has appropriated these studies in order to forge a
political science prophecy he labelled the "
The Clash of Civilizations?" in a
Foreign Affairs article and a book,
The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, in 1996. According to Huntington's prophecy, what he calls "conflicts between civilizations" will be the primary tensions of the 21st century world. In this prophecy, the West is based on religion, as the countries of
western and
central Europe historically influenced by two forms of
Western Christianity, namely
Catholicism and
Protestantism, together with the
United States,
Canada,
Australia, and
New Zealand. 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 "Western civilization", it reinforces racist and/or xenophobic notions about "non-Western" societies, as well as blatantly ignoring non-Western democracies.
In Huntington's thesis, the historically
Eastern Orthodox nations of southeastern and
eastern Europe constitute a distinct "Euro-Asiatic civilization"; although European and
Christian, these nations were not, in Huntington's view, shaped by the cultural influences of the Renaissance. The
Renaissance did not affect Orthodox Eastern Europe due to Ottoman domination, despite the decisive influence of
Greek emigré scholars such as
Georgios Gemistos Plethon,
Manuel Chrysoloras,
Theodorus of Gaza,
Ioannis Argyropoulos,
Markos Mousouros and
Demetrius Chalcondyles on it. The Renaissance was weak in predominantly Catholic
Hungary because its Ottoman rulers sought to limit
Austria's influence in the region. Some claim the reforms of
Peter the Great (1682-1725) and
Catherine II the Great (1762-96) were inspired by the Enlightenment. However, they departed considerably from the Enlightenment idea of respect for the individual: Peter's projects for
St Petersburg cost the lives of 30,000 workers, and under both Peter and Catherine most Russians remained
serfs.
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.
Western countries have in common a high average material
standard of living, compared to the rest of the world. They often also have
democracy,
rule of law and developed bodies of laws that have some expression of
rights for citizens in law. In addition, moderate levels of education, and a similar, "modern"
popular culture may reflect the Western or
Westernized society. Militarily and diplomatically, these Western societies have generally been allied with each other to one degree or another since
World War II.
The term
Western thought is at times unhelpful, since it can define two separate (although related) sets of traditions and values: Firstly, the Christian (or Western Christian) moral tradition and religious values; Secondly, secular values, often with a rationalist anti-clerical tradition.
Some ideas that might be considered cornerstones of Western tradition are:
Christianity,
secularism, rational
deductive reasoning,
rule of law, esteem for human
civilization, the development of
science and
technology. The
Enlightenment has had a major influence in the western thought over the last two centuries.
The Debate over Greek Origins of Medieval 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
[Charles Freeman. The Closing of the Western Mind. Knopf, 2003. ISBN 140004085X], 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
Byzantine Empire during the Medieval West's
Dark Ages and transmitted therefrom by emigré scholars. Morever, European peoples not included in Western Christendom, such as the Greeks, have redefined their relationship to this new, secular, variant of Western civilization, and increasingly participate in it in since then.
Therefore, 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 philosopher
Bertrand Russell, in his
History of Western Philosophy, accepted the idea of the West as the heir to ancient Greek and Jewish culture, but went on to treat Islam and Marxism as developments within Western culture.
Christianity
In the
20th Century, Christianity declined in influence in many western countries, in
Europe and elsewhere.
Secularism became increasingly important. However, while church attendance is in decline, most westerners still identify themselves as Christians (e.g. 70% in the
UK) and occasionally attend church on major occasions. In the so-called
Bible Belt of the
Southern United States religion and
religious fundamentalism are important.
During the
colonial era, western thought might be said to have been implanted in the
Americas and in
Australasia.
Religious schism
In the early
4th century, the 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 (see
Great Schism). 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.
Today, the term "western" refers to the group of nations which are allied with the
United States and
Western Europe. These are generally nations which enjoy relatively strong economies and stable governments, have chosen
democracy as a form of governence, favor capitalism and free international trade, and have some form of political and military alliance with the western
hegemons, especially with the
United States.
This definition of "western" is not necessarily tied to the geographic sense of the word. Geographically western nations such as
Cuba and
Venezuela are normally not considered "western" due to their political opposition to the powerful western leaders. Conversely, some eastern nations, for example, Kuwait, Japan and South Korea, are often considered "western", due to their alliance with the western hegemons, and their powerful standing on the world stage.
Though the
Cold War has ended, and the former
Soviet Bloc is making a general movement towards capitalism and other values common for the United States and Western Europe, most former
Soviet republics are not considered "western" because of small presence of international capital in their economy.
Russia is an exception to this, and is sometimes called a "western" nation. Russia's standing as "western" is somewhat controversial, as critics persist that it has not completely reversed itself from its Cold War ideology and its alliance with the USA is not reliable. Nevertheless, growing presence of Western capital in Russia's economy, combined with its recent strengthening of ties with the western hegemons, does occasionally grant it inclusion in the "Western World".
Attacks on Western values can be as far as some nineteenth century revolutionary or naturalist philosophers such as Nietzsche, Marx, Godwin and Bakunin (mainly through their strong criticism of religion, puritan morality and authoritarian politics); while the whole Western subculture movement has mainly flourished in the decades following the First World War, as a more general criticism towards the modernist school of thinking and values, which was reflected in the "Beat" movement, the
Dada movement, Existentialism in Europe and the situationalist critique. This countercultural movement eventully led to the post-modernist thinking and values. Many people in today's Western world also advocate
Islamic values or
Asian values as a reaction towards the more conventional values of the Western world, asserting that there are a coherent set of traits that define the West, but those traits are inferior and are usually associated with moral decline, greed, and decadence. Some who hold this view are concerned about the
Westernization of the rest of the world, or concerned about the era of
New Age thinkers who sometimes attempts to adapt Eastern traditions in a Western context.
Asian values in particular criticise a perceived Western emphasis on the individual to the detriment of society as a whole. Another common critic of Western civilisation is its emphasis on materialistic values, as it fails to truly give meaning to individual's lives as well as forming a cohesive and sane social bond between citizens.
It should also be noted that until recently, historians and other scholars were unaware of the influence of Islamic civilization on the Western European Enlightenment, such as the contribution of
algebra, astronomy and
chemistry; as do they also failed to recognize the influence of Middle-Eastern and Egyptian societies on the Greek civilization, that is regarded by most scholars as the common-place source of the modern Western civilization.
Since the countries in the "West" were generally those that explored and colonized outside of Europe, the term
Western became, to some people, associated with European
colonialism. However, empires are obviously not a particularly Western phenomenon.
Many
African Americans converted to the
Nation of Islam or
Islam due to early American Christianity's role in keeping slaves and former slaves in check. Although not reflective of Christianity's teachings, often
European Americans would encourage Christianity among blacks due to Jesus' teachings of non-violence, something not strictly adhered to in Western Christian thought, a hypocrisy that leads many young African Americans, even today, to feel that Islam is more reflective of their values.
*"I think it would be a good idea." — Response to "What is your opinion of Western civilization?", a quotation popularly attributed to
Mahatma Gandhi.
*"It is an elastic idea; it fits all men. It implies a certain kind of society, a certain kind of awakened spirit. I don't imagine my father's Hindu parents would have been able to understand the idea. So much is contained in it: the idea of the individual, responsibility, choice, the life of the intellect, the idea of vocation and perfectibility and achievement. It is an immense human idea. It cannot be reduced to a fixed system. It cannot generate fanaticism. But it is known to exist, and because of that, other more rigid systems in the end blow away.", said by
V.S. Naipaul in 1990. [
3]
*
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 0306803046.
**v. 2. From the defeat of the Spanish Armada to the Battle of Waterloo; ISBN 0306803054.
**v. 3. From the American Civil War to the end of World War II; ISBN 0306803062.
