The Western world, also known as the West and the Occident (from Latin: occidens "sunset, west"; as contrasted with the Orient), is a term generally referring to all European and heavily culturally and linguistically European nations primarily situated in the Western Hemisphere.
The concept of the Western world has its roots in Greco-Roman civilization in Europe, the advent of Christianity, and the Great Schism in the 11th Century which divided the religion into Eastern and Western halves. In the modern era, Western culture has been heavily influenced by the traditions of The Renaissance and The Enlightenment, and shaped by expansive colonialism in the 18th-19th Century. Its political usage was temporarily informed by mutual antagonism with the Soviet bloc during the Cold War in the mid to late 20th Century. In the contemporary political and cultural context, the Western World generally refers to the nations of the Americas, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Israel.[1][2][3]
Introduction
The West originated with ancient Greece and ancient Rome. Over time, their associated empires grew first to the east and south, conquering and absorbing many older great civilizations of the ancient Near East; later, they grew to the north and west to includeWestern Europe.
Other historians, such as Carroll Quigley (Evolution of Civilizations), contend that Western Civilization was born around 400 AD, after the total collapse of theWestern 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 experienced a period of considerable decline,[4]known as the Middle Ages, which include the Dark Ages and the Crusades.
The knowledge of the ancient Western world was partly preserved during this period due to the survival of the Eastern Roman Empire; it was also greatly expanded by the Arab World,[5]and mostly by the concurrent ascendency of the Islamic Golden Age.[6] The Arab importationof both the Ancient and new technology from the Middle East and the Orient to Renaissance Europe represented “one of the largest technology transfers in world history.”[7][8]
Since the Renaissance, the West evolved beyond the influence of the ancient Greeks and Romans and the Islamic world due to the Commercial,[9] Scientific,[10] and Industrial Revolutions,[11] and the expansion of the Christian peoples of Western European empires, and particularly the globe-spanning empires of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Since the Age of Discovery and Columbus, the notion of the West expanded to include the Americas, though much of the Americas have considerable pre-Western cultural influence. Australia, New Zealand and all countries of Latin Americaand the West Indies are considered part of Western culture due to their former status as settler colonies of Western Christian nations. Although many parts of Latin America and the West Indies are a blend of European, African and indigenous cultural influence, the same argument can be made to the United States. Generally speaking, the current consensus would locate the West, at the very least, in the cultures and peoples of Western Europe, Australia, New Zealand and entire Western Hemisphere. With the exceptions of Australia, New Zealand and perhaps Israel, it is worth noting that The West has geographical relevance. There is debate among some as to whether Eastern Europe is in a category of its own. The argument supporting Eastern Europe being a part of the west is that Eastern European countries such as Bulgaria and Romania are now a part of the European Union, which mostly comprises western countries. However, there are distinct cultural differences. Besides most eastern European Christians coming from a traditionally Orthodox Christian background, the impact ofCommunism on these cultures in the 20th Century was great. Although not located in Western Europe, Greece and Cyprus are normally considered a part of the Western World. This is partly due to not being under the rule of Communism and partly due to western culture having ancient Greek roots.[12]
Some people assume developed countries in Asia, such as Japan, Singapore, Taiwan, and South Korea, are a part of the western world, because of their strong economic, political and military ties to Western Europe, NATO or the United States. However, while there are Western influences in their cultures, they nonetheless maintain largely different and distinctive cultures, religions (although Christianity is amajor religion in South Korea), languages, customs, and worldviews that are products of their own indigenous development, rather than Western influences.
Japan and South Korea, in particular, are the only Asian members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the two leading full democracies in Asia, having a high standard of living and a high level of human development. Although these Asian countries are not western, these are amongst the generally accepted political characteristics of Western nations.[citation needed] However, having a high level of human development is not mutually exclusive to the west. Japan, South Korea, and Singapore all have higher income levels and standards of living compared to most to all of the western hemisphere (which is entirely apart of the The West).
[edit]Western culture
Main article: Western culture
Further information: History of Western civilization
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| History of Western philosophy |
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| Western philosophy |
| Pre-Socratic · Ancient Medieval · Renaissance · Modern Contemporary 16th · 17th · 18th · 19th · 20th Century |
| See also |
| Western culture · Western world |
The term "Western culture" is used very broadly to refer to a heritage of social norms, ethical values, traditional customs, religious beliefs, political systems, and specific artifacts andtechnologies.
Specifically, Western culture may imply:
- a Biblical-Christian cultural influence in spiritual thinking, customs and either ethic or moral traditions, around Post-Classical Era.
- European cultural influences concerning artistic, musical, folkloric, ethic and oral traditions, whose themes have been further developed by Romanticism.
- a Graeco-Roman Classical and Renaissance cultural influence, concerning artistic, philosophic, literary, and legal themes and traditions, the cultural social effects ofmigration period and the heritages of Celtic, Germanic, Slavic and other ethnic groups, as well as a tradition of rationalism in various spheres of life, developed by Hellenistic philosophy, Scholasticism, Humanisms, the Scientific Revolution and Enlightenment, and including, in political thought, widespread rational arguments in favour offreethought,[citation needed] human rights,[citation needed] equality[citation needed] anddemocratic[citation needed] values averse to irrationality and theocracy.[citation needed]
The concept of Western culture is generally linked to the classical definition of the Western world. In this definition, Western culture is the set of literary, scientific, political, artistic and philosophical principles that set it apart from other civilizations. Much of this set of traditions and knowledge is collected in the Western canon. [13]
The term has come to apply to countries whose history is strongly marked by European immigration or settlement, such as the Americas, and Australasia, and is not restricted to Europe.
Some tendencies that define modern Western societies are the existence of political pluralism, laicism, generalization of middle class, prominent subcultures or countercultures (such as New Age movements), increasing cultural syncretism resulting from globalization andhuman migration. Modern shape of these societies are strongly based upon the Industrial Revolution and their associated social and environmental problems as class struggle and pollution and reactions to them, such as syndicalism and environmentalism.
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