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| {{Short description|Countries with an originally European shared culture}} | | {{nosource|date=May 2022}} |
| {{About|the grouping of countries with an originally European shared culture|other uses|Western World (disambiguation)}}
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| {{Redirect-multi|2|Western power|Westerners|historical politics in Korea|Westerners (Korean political faction)|other uses|Western Power (disambiguation)|and}}
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| {{Use dmy dates|date=June 2021}}
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| {{Use American English|date=July 2020}}
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| The '''Western world''', also known as the '''West''', refers to various [[region]]s, [[nation]]s and [[state (polity)|states]], depending on the context, most often consisting of the majority of [[Europe]],{{efn|Including [[North Asia]] ([[Siberia]]) and the [[Special member state territories and the European Union#Outermost regions|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.<ref>{{cite web|title=Western Countries 2020|date=4 June 2020|url=https://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/western-countries/}}</ref>}} [[North America]],{{efn|Latin America's status as Western is disputed by some researchers.<ref>{{cite web|last=Espinosa|first=Emilio Lamo de|publisher=[[Elcano Royal Institute]]|title=Is Latin America part of the West?|date=4 December 2017|url=http://www.realinstitutoelcano.org/wps/wcm/connect/82c0209e-08a3-455e-827b-4ef4a2586044/WP-14-2017-LamoDeEspinosa-Is-Latin-America-part-of-the-West.pdf?MOD=AJPERES&CACHEID=82c0209e-08a3-455e-827b-4ef4a2586044}}</ref>}} and [[Oceania]].<ref name="Western Civilization1">[https://web.archive.org/web/20170811111356/http://www.mmisi.org/ir/39_01_2/kurth.pdf Western Civilization], Our Tradition; James Kurth; accessed 30 August 2011</ref> 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 [[Global North and Global South|North–South divide]], the countries of the ''Global North'' (often equated with [[Developed country|developed countries]]).<ref name=":1">{{cite web|title=Introduction: Concepts of the Global South|url=http://gssc.uni-koeln.de/node/451|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160904205139/http://gssc.uni-koeln.de/node/451|archive-date=2016-09-04|access-date=2016-10-18|website=gssc.uni-koeln.de}}</ref>
| | '''Western world''' has meant various things at various times. In the earliest history of Europe it referred to Ancient Greece and the Aegean. During the [[Roman Empire]], it meant the Western Roman Empire (covering the area from Croatia to Britain). At other times, it has meant [[Western Europe]] or [[Europe]] or [[Christendom]]. During the [[Cold War]], it sometimes meant the [[Democracy|democratic]] countries or those allied with the various [[NATO]] powers. |
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| [[File:Western World Latin America torn countries.png|thumb|right|The Western world based-on [[Samuel P. Huntington]]'s 1996 ''[[Clash of Civilizations]]''.<ref name="WorldOfCivil2">[http://s02.middlebury.edu/FS056A/Herb_war/clash3.htm THE WORLD OF CIVILIZATIONS: POST-1990] scanned image {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070312101415/http://s02.middlebury.edu/FS056A/Herb_war/clash3.htm|date=12 March 2007}}</ref> In turquoise are [[Latin America]] and the [[Eastern Orthodoxy in Europe|Orthodox World]], which are either a part of the West or distinct civilizations intimately related to the West.<ref>{{cite book|author=Huntington, Samuel P.|url=https://archive.org/details/clashofcivilizat00hunt/page/38|title=Clash of Civilizations|year=1991|isbn=978-0-684-84441-1|edition=6th|location=Washington, DC|pages=[https://archive.org/details/clashofcivilizat00hunt/page/38 38–39]|quote=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 more elements of indigenous American civilizations compared to those of North America and Europe. It also currently has had a more corporatist and authoritarian culture. Both Europe and North America felt the effects of Reformation and combination of Catholic and Protestant cultures. Historically, Latin America has been only Catholic, although this may be changing. [...] Latin America could be considered, or a sub-set, within Western civilization, or can also be considered a separate civilization, intimately related to the West, but divided as to whether it belongs with it.)}}</ref><ref name="Simon Schuster Clash of Civilizations">{{cite book|last1=Huntington|first1=Samuel P.|title=The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order|date=2 August 2011|publisher=Simon & Schuster|isbn=978-1451628975|pages=151–154}}</ref>]] | | In this day and age, it often refers to the places that have a European heritage culture, called [[western civilization]]. This European heritage itself is a combination of, Judeo-Christian ethic, Classical Greco-Roman thinking and the cultural practices of the "barbarian" peoples of Northern Europe. Under the strictest definition, it would include North America, Australia and Western/Central Europe: with the identities of [[Latin America]], [[Eastern Europe]], the [[Philippines]], [[Singapore]], [[Israel]] and [[South Africa]] being disputed due to the mix of both western and non western culture. |
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| The concept of the Western part of the earth has its roots in the theological, methodological and emphatical [[East–West Schism|division]] between the Western [[Catholic Church|Roman Catholic]] and [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Eastern Orthodox]] Churches.<ref name="BideleuxJeffries48">{{cite book | title=A history of eastern Europe: crisis and change |last1=Bideleux | first1=Robert | last2=Jeffries | first2=Ian | publisher=Routledge | isbn=978-0-415-16112-1 | page=48 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=U39AYJm1L94C|year=1998 }}</ref>
| | [[Category:Geography]] |
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| 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.<ref name="concept" /><ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2492371|title=Russia's Perception of Her Relationship with the West|first=Marc|last=Raeff|journal=Slavic Review|date=March 1964}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2492370|title=Russia and the West: A Comparison and Contrast|first=Henry L.|last=Roberts|journal=Slavic Review|date=March 1964}}</ref><ref>Alexander Lukin. [https://www.brookings.edu/research/russia-between-east-and-west-perceptions-and-reality/ Russia Between East and West: Perceptions and Reality] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171113221714/https://www.brookings.edu/research/russia-between-east-and-west-perceptions-and-reality/ |date=13 November 2017 }}. [[Brookings Institution]]. Published on 28 March 2003</ref> 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 ({{lang-de|Zukunftsbegriff}}) bestowed with notions of progress and modernity.<ref name="concept">{{Cite journal|url=http://ieg-ego.eu/en/threads/crossroads/political-spaces/riccardo-bavaj-the-west-a-conceptual-exploration|title="The West": A Conceptual Exploration|first=Riccardo|last=Bavaj|journal=European History Online|date=21 November 2011}}</ref>
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| 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.<ref name="concept" />
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| [[File:Clash of Civilizations world map (Major cultural spheres).png|thumb|"[[Western Christianity|Western Christian civilization]]" (red) and "[[Eastern Christianity|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."]]
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| 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 telegraph cable|transatlantic cable]] and the [[radiotelephone]]) played a decisive role in modern [[globalization]].
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| In modern usage, ''Western world'' sometimes<ref name="Western Civilization">[http://www.mmisi.org/ir/39_01_2/kurth.pdf Western Civilization], Our Tradition; James Kurth; accessed 30 August 2011</ref> refers to Europe and to areas whose [[European emigration|populations have had a large presence of particular European ethnic groups]] since the 15th century [[Age of Discovery]].<ref name="autogenerated1">{{cite book | last1 = Thompson | first1 = William |first2 = Joseph|last2= Hickey | year = 2005 | title = Society in Focus | publisher = Pearson|location = Boston, MA| id = 0-205-41365-X}}</ref><ref name="ChristImp2011">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TjIRhe9eWqgC&q=age+of+discovery%2C+christian+imperialism&pg=PA1 | last1 = Gregerson | first1 = Linda |first2 = Susan|last2= Juster | year = 2011 | title = Empires of God: Religious Encounters in the Early Modern Atlantic | publisher = University of Pennsylvania Press |access-date=28 June 2018| isbn = 978-0812222609 }}</ref> 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 [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland|British]] influence deriving from the [[First Fleet|colonisation of British explorers]] and the [[European Australians|immigration of Europeans in the 20th century]] which has since grounded the country to the Western world politically and culturally.<ref>Peter N. Stearns, Western Civilization in World History, Themes in World History, Routledge, 2008, {{ISBN|1134374755}}, pp. 91-95.</ref>
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| == Introduction ==
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| [[Western culture]] was influenced by many older civilizations of the [[ancient Near East]],<ref name="Spielvogel2016">{{cite book|author=Jackson J. Spielvogel|title=Western Civilization: Volume A: To 1500|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F_i5DQAAQBAJ&pg=PA32|date=14 September 2016|publisher=Cengage Learning|isbn=978-1-337-51759-1|pages=32–}}</ref> such as [[Canaan]],<ref>Religions in Global Society – Page 146, Peter Beyer – 2006</ref><ref name="Cambridge University Historical Series">Cambridge University Historical Series, ''An Essay on Western Civilization in Its Economic Aspects'', p.40: Hebraism, like Hellenism, has been an all-important factor in the development of Western Civilization; Judaism, as the precursor of Christianity, has indirectly had had much to do with shaping the ideals and morality of western nations since the Christian era.</ref><ref name="Judaism"/> [[Minoan civilization|Minoan Crete]], [[Sumer]], [[Babylonia]], and also [[Ancient Egypt]]. It originated in the [[Mediterranean Sea|Mediterranean]] basin and its vicinity; [[Ancient Greece]]{{efn|See notes:<ref name="Duchesne2011" group=n>{{cite book|author=Ricardo Duchesne|title=The Uniqueness of Western Civilization|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pWmDPzPo0XAC&pg=PA297|date=7 February 2011|publisher=BRILL|isbn=978-90-04-19248-5|page=297|quote=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)|author-link=Ricardo Duchesne}}</ref><ref name="BotticiChalland2013" group=n>{{cite book|author1=Chiara Bottici|author2=Benoît Challand|title=The Myth of the Clash of Civilizations|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QW1lrPMXprwC&pg=PA88|date=11 January 2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-136-95119-0|page=88|quote=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.}}</ref><ref name="Broad2007" group=n>{{cite book|author=William J. Broad|title=The Oracle: Ancient Delphi and the Science Behind Its Lost Secrets|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8Oi_sVWIXLAC&pg=PA120|year=2007|publisher=Penguin Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-14-303859-7|page=120|quote=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 ...}}</ref><ref name="EllynMcGinnis2004" group=n>{{cite book|author1=Maura Ellyn|author2=Maura McGinnis|title=Greece: A Primary Source Cultural Guide|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N69iOTtVHGYC&pg=PT8|year=2004|publisher=The Rosen Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-8239-3999-2|page=8}}</ref><ref name="FindlingPelle2004" group=n>{{cite book|author1=John E. Findling|author2=Kimberly D. Pelle|title=Encyclopedia of the Modern Olympic Movement|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QmXi_-Jujj0C&pg=PR23|year=2004|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-313-32278-5|page=23}}</ref><ref name="ThompsonMullin" group=n>{{cite book|author1=Wayne C. Thompson|author2=Mark H. Mullin|title=Western Europe, 1983|year=1983|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=serMXIpALD0C|publisher=Stryker-Post Publications|page=337|isbn=9780943448114|quote=for ancient Greece was the cradle of Western culture ...}}</ref><ref name="Copleston2003" group=n>{{cite book|author=Frederick Copleston|title=History of Philosophy Volume 1: Greece and Rome|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y08L-MC36JUC&pg=PA13|date=1 June 2003|publisher=A&C Black|isbn=978-0-8264-6895-6|page=13|quote=PART I PRE-SOCRATIC PHILOSOPHY CHAPTER II THE CRADLE OF WESTERN THOUGHT:}}</ref><ref name="Iozzo2001" group=n>{{cite book|author=Mario Iozzo|title=Art and History of Greece: And Mount Athos|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q51-HAiZQwMC&pg=PA7|year=2001|publisher=Casa Editrice Bonechi|isbn=978-88-8029-435-1|page=7|quote=The capital of Greece, one of the world's most glorious cities and the cradle of Western culture,}}</ref><ref name="Melotti2011" group=n>{{cite book|author=Marxiano Melotti|title=The Plastic Venuses: Archaeological Tourism in Post-Modern Society|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jgIrBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA188|date=25 May 2011|publisher=Cambridge Scholars Publishing|isbn=978-1-4438-3028-7|page=188|quote=In short, Greece, despite having been the cradle of Western culture, was then an “other” space separate from the West.}}</ref><br />See notes <ref group=n>{{cite book|title=Library Journal|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TFZVAAAAYAAJ|date=April 1972|publisher=Bowker|volume=97|page=1588|quote=Ancient Greece: Cradle of Western Culture (Series), disc. 6 strips with 3 discs, range: 44–60 fr., 17–18 min}}</ref><ref name="Burstein2002" group=n>{{cite book|author=Stanley Mayer Burstein|title=Current Issues and the Study of Ancient History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=17xmAAAAMAAJ|year=2002|publisher=Regina Books|isbn=978-1-930053-10-6|page=15|quote=and making Egypt play the same role in African education and culture that Athens and Greece do in Western culture.}}</ref><ref name="Jr.2015" group=n>{{cite book|author=Murray Milner, Jr.|title=Elites: A General Model|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MvYlBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA62|date=8 January 2015|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|isbn=978-0-7456-8950-0|page=62|quote=Greece has long been considered the seedbed or cradle of Western civilization.}}</ref><ref name="Aa.Vv.2011" group=n>{{cite book|title=Slavica viterbiensia 003: Periodico di letterature e culture slave della Facoltà di Lingue e Letterature Straniere Moderne dell'Università della Tuscia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f9fTPUTPPhkC&pg=PA148|date=10 November 2011|publisher=Gangemi Editore spa|isbn=978-88-492-6909-3|page=148|quote=The Special Case of Greece The ancient Greece was a cradle of the Western culture,}}</ref><ref name="Covert2011" group=n>{{cite book|author=Kim Covert|title=Ancient Greece: Birthplace of Democracy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KVMYJNvUiYkC&pg=PP5|date=1 July 2011|publisher=Capstone|isbn=978-1-4296-6831-6|page=5|quote=Ancient Greece is often called the cradle of western civilization. ... Ideas from literature and science also have their roots in ancient Greece.}}</ref>{{multiple image|align = right|total_width = 450|background color = #ede9e8|image1 = The_Parthenon_in_Athens.jpg|image2 = Arte greca, giovane vittorioso, 300-100 ac. 02.JPG|image3 = Epidauros.jpg|footer = The ''[[Parthenon]]'', a former [[Ancient Greek temple|temple]] ([[Athens]], {{circa}} 430 BC). The ''[[Victorious Youth]]'', a controversial [[Ancient Greek art|Greek]] [[bronze]] ([[Greece]], {{circa}} 300–100 BC). ''[[Theatre of ancient Greece|Ancient Theatre]] [[Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus|of Epidaurus]]'', seats up to 14,000 people ([[Epidaurus]], {{circa}} 150 BC).}}}} and [[Ancient Rome]]{{efn|{{multiple image|align = right|total_width = 450|background color = #ede9e8|image1 = Pontdugard.jpg|image2 = Rome_Pantheon_front.jpg|image3 = Trier Konstantinbasilika BW 2017-06-16 14-07-56.jpg|footer = ''[[Pont du Gard]]'', a [[Roman aqueduct]] ([[Vers-Pont-du-Gard]], {{circa}} 20 BC-AD 50). The ''[[Pantheon, Rome|Pantheon]]'', a former [[Roman temple|temple]] visited—in 2013 alone—by over 6 million people ([[Rome]], {{circa}} AD 120). The ''[[Aula Palatina]]'', a [[Roman Empire|Roman]] [[Ancient Roman architecture#Basilica|palace]], then a [[State church of the Roman Empire|Christian]] [[basilica]] ([[Trier]], {{circa}} AD 310).}} See notes <ref group=n>{{cite book|title=Rome: the cradle of western civilisation as illustrated by existing monuments |author=Henry Turner Inman |isbn=9781177738538 }}</ref><ref group=n>{{cite book|url=https://www.amazon.co.uk/Birth-Western-Civilisation-Greece-Rome/dp/B0013K3FW6 |title=The Birth Of Western Civilisation, Greece & Rome |author=Michael Ed. Grant |website=Amazon.co.uk |access-date=4 January 2016|publisher=Thames & Hudson |year=1964 }}</ref><ref group=n>{{cite web|url=http://www.abebooks.com/9780500040034/Birth-Western-Civilization-Greece-Rome-0500040036/plp |title=9780500040034: The Birth of Western Civilization: Greece and Rome |author=HUXLEY, George |display-authors=etal |website=AbeBooks.com |access-date=4 January 2016}}</ref><ref group=n>{{cite web|url=http://www.geographicus.com/P/AntiqueMap/AncientCities-bradford-1835 |title=Athens. Rome. Jerusalem and Vicinity. Peninsula of Mt. Sinai.: Geographicus Rare Antique Maps |website=Geographicus.com |access-date=4 January 2016}}</ref><ref group=n>{{cite web |url=http://file104.filthbooks.org/6kln6_the-story-of-western-civilization-greece-and-rome-build-great-civilizati.pdf |title=Download This PDF eBooks Free |website=File104.filthbooks.org |access-date=4 January 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160107211225/http://file104.filthbooks.org/6kln6_the-story-of-western-civilization-greece-and-rome-build-great-civilizati.pdf |archive-date=7 January 2016 }}</ref>}} are generally considered to be the birthplaces of Western civilization—Greece having heavily influenced Rome—the former due to its impact on [[Western philosophy|philosophy]], [[democracy]], [[Ancient Greece#Science and technology|science]], [[aesthetics]], as well as [[History of architecture#European|building designs and proportions and architecture]]; the latter due to its influence on [[Western art|art]], [[law]], [[war]]fare, [[governance]], [[republicanism]], [[Roman engineering|engineering]] and [[State church of the Roman Empire|religion]]. Western civilization is also strongly associated with [[Christianity]]<ref name="PerryChase2012">{{cite book|author=Marvin Perry, Myrna Chase, James Jacob, Margaret Jacob, Theodore H. Von Laue|title=Western Civilization: Since 1400|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N6jytVCocwMC|date=1 January 2012|publisher=Cengage Learning|isbn=978-1-111-83169-1|page=XXIX}}</ref> (and to a lesser extent, with [[Judaism]]), which is in turn shaped by [[Hellenistic philosophy]] and [[Roman culture]].<ref name="Judaism">[http://www.britannica.com/topic/Judaism/The-Judaic-tradition Role of Judaism in Western culture and civilization], "Judaism has played a significant role in the development of Western culture because of its unique relationship with Christianity, the dominant religious force in the West". [http://www.britannica.com/topic/Judaism Judaism] at [[Encyclopædia Britannica]]</ref> In the modern era, [[Western culture]] has been heavily influenced by the [[Renaissance]], the Ages of [[Age of Exploration|Discovery]] and [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]] and the [[Industrial Revolution|Industrial]] and [[Scientific Revolution]]s.<ref name="ScienceDaily">{{cite web | title=Western culture | publisher=[[Science Daily]] | url=https://www.sciencedaily.com/terms/western_culture.htm}}</ref><ref name="Khana">{{cite web | title=A brief history of Western culture | publisher=[[Khan Academy]] | url=https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/ap-art-history/cultures-religions-ap-arthistory/a/a-brief-history-of-western-culture}}</ref> Through extensive [[imperialism]], [[colonialism]] and [[Christianization]] by some Western powers in the [[history of colonialism|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]].{{verify source|date=August 2021}}{{citation needed|date=August 2021}}
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| [[File:Flickr - portableantiquities - Hilt Fitting.jpg|thumb|left|upright=0.6|Gold and [[garnet]] [[cloisonné]] (and mud), military fitting from the [[Staffordshire Hoard]] before cleaning]]
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| Historians, such as [[Carroll Quigley]] in ''"The Evolution of Civilizations"'',<ref>{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/details/CarrollQuigley-TheEvolutionOfCivilizations-AnIntroductionTo |title=The Evolution of Civilizations – An Introduction to Historical Analysis (1979)|page=84 |date=10 March 2001 |access-date=31 January 2014}}</ref> 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 [[decline of the Roman Empire|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,<ref>[http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/195896/history-of-Europe Middle Ages] "Of the three great civilizations of Western Eurasia and North Africa, that of Christian Europe began as the least developed in virtually all aspects of material and intellectual culture, well behind the Islamic states and Byzantium."</ref> and then readaptation, reorientation and considerable renewed material, technological and political development.{{citation needed|date=February 2018}}
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| 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 [[Islamic contributions to Medieval Europe|Arab importation]]<ref>[[H. G. Wells]], ''[[The Outline of History]]'', [http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/sherwood/Wells-Outline/Text/Part-II.htm Section 31.8, The Intellectual Life of Arab Islam] "For some generations before Muhammad, the Arab mind had been, as it were, smouldering, it had been producing poetry and much religious discussion; under the stimulus of the national and racial successes it presently blazed out with a brilliance second only to that of the Greeks during their best period. From a new angle and with a fresh vigour it took up that systematic development of positive knowledge, which the Greeks had begun and relinquished. It revived the human pursuit of science. If the Greek was the father, then the Arab was the foster-father of the scientific method of dealing with reality, that is to say, by absolute frankness, the utmost simplicity of statement and explanation, exact record, and exhaustive criticism. Through the Arabs it was and not by the Latin route that the modern world received that gift of light and power."</ref><ref>{{cite book | last=Lewis | first=Bernard | author-link=Bernard Lewis | year=2002 | title=What Went Wrong | publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] | isbn=978-0-06-051605-5 | page=[https://archive.org/details/whatwentwrongcl00lewi/page/3 3] | url=https://archive.org/details/whatwentwrongcl00lewi/page/3 }} "For many centuries the world of Islam was in the forefront of human civilization and achievement ... In the era between the decline of antiquity and the dawn of modernity, that is, in the centuries designated in European history as medieval, the Islamic claim was not without justification."</ref> of both the [[Classical antiquity|Ancient Greco-Roman]] and new technology through the Arabs from India and China to Europe.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.es.flinders.edu.au/~mattom/science+society/lectures/lecture11.html |title=Science, civilization and society |publisher=Es.flinders.edu.au |access-date=6 May 2011 |archive-date=27 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160327031433/http://www.es.flinders.edu.au/~mattom/science+society/lectures/lecture11.html |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|author=Richard J. Mayne, Jr. |url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/195896/history-of-Europe |title=Middle Ages |publisher=Britannica.com |access-date=6 May 2011}}</ref>
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| 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 Revolution|Second Agricultural]], [[Commercial Revolution|Commercial]],<ref>[http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/bus/A0813037.html InfoPlease.com], commercial revolution</ref> [[Scientific Revolution|Scientific]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/ENLIGHT/SCIREV.HTM |title=The Scientific Revolution |publisher=Wsu.edu |date=6 June 1999 |access-date=6 May 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110501215623/http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/ENLIGHT/SCIREV.HTM |archive-date=1 May 2011 }}</ref> and [[Industrial Revolution|Industrial]]<ref>{{cite web|author1=Eric Bond |author2=Sheena Gingerich |author3=Oliver Archer-Antonsen |author4=Liam Purcell |author5=Elizabeth Macklem |url=http://industrialrevolution.sea.ca/innovations.html |title=Innovations |publisher=The Industrial Revolution |date=17 February 2003|access-date=6 May 2011}}</ref> revolutions (propellers of [[history of banking#17th–19th centuries – The emergence of modern banking|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.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/05/how-islam-created-europe/476388/ |title=How Islam Created Europe; In late antiquity, the religion split the Mediterranean world in two. Now it is remaking the Continent. |publisher=TheAtlantic.com |date=May 2016 |access-date=25 April 2016}}</ref> Numerous times, this expansion was accompanied by [[Catholic missions|Catholic]] [[missionaries]], who attempted to proselytize Christianity.
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| There is debate among some as to whether [[Latin America]] as a whole is in a category of its own.<ref name="Arnold J. Toynbee 1966">Cf., Arnold J. Toynbee, ''Change and Habit. The challenge of our time'' (Oxford 1966, 1969) at 153–56; also, Toynbee, ''A Study of History'' (10 volumes, 2 supplements).</ref>
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| ==Culture==
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| {{Excerpt|Western culture}}
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| ==Historical divisions==
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| {{More citations needed section|date=July 2018}}
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| The geopolitical divisions in Europe that created a concept of ''East'' and ''West'' originated in the [[Classical antiquity|ancient]] tyrannical and imperialistic [[Graeco-Roman]] times.<ref name="BideleuxJeffries48" /> The Eastern [[Mediterranean Sea|Mediterranean]] was home to the highly urbanized cultures that had [[Greek language|Greek]] as their common language (owing to the older empire of [[Alexander the Great]] and of the [[Diadochi|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 Empire|Byzantine]]'' Greek culture and [[Eastern Christianity]] became founding influences in the Eastern European world such as the East and South Slavic peoples.{{citation needed|date=June 2020}}
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| [[File:Age of Discovery explorations in English.png|thumb|upright=1.5|Map with the main travels of the [[Age of Discovery]] (began in 15th century).]]
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| [[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''.
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| 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 [[Spanish Empire|Spain]] and [[Portuguese Empire|Portugal]] (and later, [[French colonial empire|France]]) belonged to that faith. [[British Empire|English]] and [[Dutch Empire|Dutch]] colonies, on the other hand, tended to be more religiously diverse. Settlers to these colonies included [[Anglican]]s, Dutch [[Calvinists]], English [[Puritans]] and other [[Nonconformist (Protestantism)|nonconformists]], [[Maryland Toleration Act|English Catholics]], Scottish [[Presbyterian]]s, French [[Huguenot]]s, German and Swedish [[Lutherans]], as well as [[Quakers]], [[Mennonites]], [[Amish]], and [[Moravian Church|Moravians]].{{citation needed|date=July 2018}}
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| ===Ancient Greek and Hellenistic worlds (13th–1st centuries BC)===
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| {{Main|Ancient Greece|Hellenistic period}}{{More citations needed section|date=November 2021}}{{Cleanup rewrite|date=November 2021|neutrality is disputed}}
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| [[File:Location greek ancient.svg|upright=1.5|thumb|The [[Greek colonies|Ancient Greek world]], {{circa|550 BC}}]]
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| [[File:Diadochi satraps babylon-it.png|upright=1.5|thumb|The [[Hellenistic period|Ancient Hellenistic Greek world]] from 323 BC]]
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| [[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]])<ref>Sri Aurobindo, "Ideal of Human Unity" included in ''Social and Political Thought'', 1970.</ref> such as [[Classical Athens|Athens]], [[Sparta]], [[Thebes, Greece|Thebes]], and [[Ancient Corinth|Corinth]], by [[Middle East|Middle]] and [[Near East|Near]] Eastern ones ([[Sumer]]ian cities such as [[Uruk]] and [[Ur]]; [[Ancient Egypt]]ian city-states, such as [[Thebes, Egypt|Thebes]] and [[Memphis, Egypt|Memphis]]; the [[Phoenicia]]n [[Tyre, Lebanon|Tyre]] and [[Sidon]]; the five [[Philistines|Philistine]] city-states; the [[Berber people|Berber]] city-states of the [[Garamantes]]).{{citation needed|date=June 2020}}
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| The then [[Ancient Greece|Hellenic]] division between the [[barbarian]]s (term used by Ancient Greeks for all non-Greek-speaking people) and the [[Greek people|Greeks]] contrasted in many societies the [[Greek language|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|date=June 2020}} 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.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Hanson|first=Victor Davis|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XGr16-CxpH8C|title=Carnage and Culture: Landmark Battles in the Rise to Western Power|date=18 December 2007|publisher=Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-307-42518-8|language=en}}</ref>
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| 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 (sociology)|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,<ref>[[Charles Freeman (history writer)|Charles Freeman]]. ''The Closing of the Western Mind''. Knopf, 2003. {{ISBN|1-4000-4085-X}}</ref> including Christian Greek thought.{{citation needed|date=June 2020}}
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| ===Ancient Roman world (6th century BC – AD 395–476)===
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| {{Main|Roman Republic|Roman Empire|Fall of the Western Roman Empire}}
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| {{More citations needed section|date=April 2018}}{{Cleanup rewrite|date=November 2021|neutrality is disputed}}
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| [[File:Map of Rome and Carthage at the start of the Second Punic War.svg|upright=1.5|thumb|right|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]]]]
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| | footer = 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 Roman Empire|western]] and [[Eastern Roman Empire|eastern]] halves. The concept of "East-''West"'' originated in the cultural division between [[Christianity|Christian]] Churches.<ref name="BideleuxJeffries48" /> [[Western Roman Empire|Western]] and [[Eastern Roman Empire|Eastern]] Roman Empires on the eve of Western collapse in September of AD 476.
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| [[File:Roman Empire Trajan 117AD.png|upright=1.5|thumb|right|The [[Roman Empire]] in AD 117. During 350 years the Roman Republic turned into an Empire expanding up to twenty-five times its area]]
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| [[Ancient Rome]] (6th century BC – AD 476) is a term to describe the ancient [[Roman society]] that conquered Central Italy assimilating the Italian [[Villanovan culture|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 [[Roman Republic|republic]] (509–27 BC), into an [[autocracy|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|date=June 2020}}
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| The [[Roman Empire]] succeeded the approximately 500-year-old [[Roman Republic]] ({{circa}} 510–30 BC).{{efn|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|date=July 2018}} 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 [[Augustus|Octavian]] at the [[Battle of Actium]] (2, 31 September BC), and the Roman Senate's granting to Octavian the [[honorific]] ''[[Augustus (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: [[Consul]]s continued to be elected, [[tribune]]s of the plebeians continued to offer legislation, and senators still debated in the [[curia|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.}} In 350 years, from the successful and deadliest [[Second Punic War|war]] with the [[Phoenicia]]ns 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 {{Convert|5000000|km2|}} 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 [[Amber Road|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 of Rome|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).<ref>Karin Friedrich et al., The Other Prussia: Royal Prussia, Poland and Liberty, 1569–1772, Cambridge University Press, 2000, {{ISBN|0-521-58335-7}}, Google Print, p. 88</ref>{{citation needed|date=November 2021}}
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| [[File:Invasions of the Roman Empire 1.png|upright=1.5|thumb|right|Ending [[Migration Period|invasions]] on Roman Empire since the 2nd and throughout the 5th centuries]]
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| In AD 395, a few decades before its Western collapse, the Roman Empire formally split into a [[Western Roman Empire|Western]] and an [[Eastern Roman Empire|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 peoples|Germanic]] ruled kingdoms in the 5th century due to [[Fall of the Western Roman Empire|civil wars, corruption, and devastating Germanic invasions]] from such tribes as the [[Huns]], [[Goths]], the [[Franks]] and the [[Vandals]] by their late [[Migration period|expansion]] throughout Europe. The three-day Visigoths's [[Sack of Rome (410)|AD 410 sack of Rome]] who had been raiding Greece not long before, a shocking time for [[Graeco-Roman]]s, was the first time after almost 800 years that Rome had fallen to a foreign enemy, and [[Jerome|St. Jerome]], living in Bethlehem at the time, wrote that "The City which had taken the whole world was itself taken."<ref>St Jerome, ''Letter CXXVII. To Principia'', [[s:Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume VI/The Letters of St. Jerome/Letter 127]] paragraph 12.</ref> There followed the [[Sack of Rome (455)|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.<ref>Dominic Selwood, [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/06/02/day-ad-455-beginning-end-rome/ "On this day in AD 455: the beginning of the end for Rome"] 2 June 2017.</ref><ref>Irina-Maria Manea, [https://www.historia.ro/sectiune/general/articol/alaric-barbarians-and-rome-a-complicated-relationship "Alaric, Barbarians and Rome: a Complicated Relationship"].</ref> 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.<ref>Rodney Stark, [https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=wqwMAwAAQBAJ&pg=PT45&lpg=PT45&dq=barbarians+romans+slaughter+western&source=bl&ots=wGVZVw7NgO&sig=iyoMp01vWUMwo3R6EmXjtccwBoA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj2ir7_17PcAhUL16QKHdcYDn0Q6AEIzgEwIQ#v=onepage&q=barbarians%20romans%20slaughter%20western&f=false "How the West Won: The Neglected Story of the Triumph of Modernity"].</ref>
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| The Roman Empire is where the idea of ''"the West"'' began to emerge.{{Efn|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, [[Iberian peninsula|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|date=June 2020}}}}
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| 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.
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| 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 [[Christianity|Christians]]. The Pope crowned [[Charlemagne]] as [[Holy Roman Emperor|''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|date=June 2020}}
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| ===Middle Ages===
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| {{Main|Byzantine Empire|Holy Roman Empire|East–West Schism|Protestant Reformation}}
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| {{Further|Christendom|Greek scholars in the Renaissance|Peace of Westphalia}}{{More citations needed section|date=November 2021}}{{Cleanup rewrite|2=section|date=September 2015}}
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| [[File:Justinien 527-565.svg|thumb|upright=1.5|left|Apex of [[Byzantine Empire]]'s conquests (AD 527–565).]]
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| [[File:Map of the Byzantine Empire, 1025 AD.PNG|thumb|upright=1.5|Map of the [[Byzantine Empire]] in AD 1025 before Christian [[East-West Schism]].]]
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| In the early 4th century, the central focus of power was on two apart Imperial (including [[army general]]s') legacies, within the Roman Empire: the older [[Aegean Sea]] [[Greece|Greek]] heritage (of [[Classical Greece]]) in the Eastern Mediterranean, and the newer most successful [[Tyrrhenian Sea]] [[Latin]] heritage (of [[Etruria|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.
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| 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 [[List of Roman civil wars and revolts#3rd century|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 [[Dalmatia]]n (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 [[religion|religious]] policy, when the Emperors began actively banning and fighting previous [[pagan religion]]s.{{Efn|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|date=November 2021}}}}
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| [[File:Spread of Christianity to AD 600 (1).png|thumb|History of the spread of Christianity: in AD 325 (dark blue) and AD 600 (blue) following Western Roman Empire's collapse under [[Germanic migration]]s.]]
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| 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 [[Greek East and Latin West|Roman Catholic and Eastern Greek Orthodox]] churches, with Rome and Constantinople debating over whether either city was the capital of [[Catholicity|Western religion]].{{citation needed|date=June 2020}}
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| As the [[Orthodox Christianity|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. <!-- Beginning in the Middle Ages religious cultural hegemony slowly waned in Europe generally. This process may have prompted -->The geographic line of religious division approximately followed a line of [[cultural divide]].{{citation needed|date=June 2020}} 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]].{{efn|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|date=July 2018}}}}
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| [[File:Frankish empire.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.5|Rise of the Germanic [[Frankish Empire]] before [[Coronation of the Holy Roman Emperor|Charlemagne's coronation]] in Rome.]]
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| 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 [[history of the Papacy|papal hierarchy]], quintessential Roman Empire's spiritual heritage authority, establishing then, until the Protestant Reformation, the civilization of [[Christendom|Western Christendom]].{{citation needed|date=June 2020}}
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| [[File:[email protected]|thumb|upright=1.5|Map of the Byzantine Empire in AD 1180 before Latin [[Fourth Crusade]].]] | |
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| The [[Latin Rite]] Catholic Church of western and central Europe split with the eastern [[Greek Rite|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.<ref name=WUP>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RfO1J6hjcdgC&pg=PA210 |editor-first=Kenneth Meyer |editor-last=Setton |title=A History of the Crusades |publisher=Wisconsin University Press |year=1969 |isbn=9780299048341 |pages=209–210}}</ref> Following the 1054 [[East–West Schism|Great Schism]], both the [[Western Christianity|Western]] Church and [[Eastern Orthodoxy|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."<ref>{{cite book|last1=Dulles S.J.|first1=Avery|editor1-last=Reno|editor1-first=R.R.|year=2012|title=The Orthodox Imperative: Selected Essays of Avery Cardinal Dulles, S.J.|publisher=First Things Press|pages=224|edition=Kindle|url=https://www.amazon.com/Orthodox-Imperative-Selected-Essays-Cardinal-ebook/dp/B008R551PO}}</ref> 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|date=June 2020}}
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| In 1071, the Byzantine army was defeated by the [[Muslim]] [[Turco-Persian]]s of medieval [[Asia]], resulting in the loss of most of [[Asia Minor]]. The situation was a serious threat to the future of the [[Eastern Orthodoxy|Eastern Orthodox]] [[Byzantine Empire]]. The Emperor sent a plea to the [[Papacy|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, [[Fourth Crusade|including the heart of the Byzantine Empire]].
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| The Holy Roman Empire would [[Dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire|dissolve]] on 6 August 1806, after the [[French Revolution]] and the creation of the [[Confederation of the Rhine]] by [[Napoleon]].
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| The [[decline of the Byzantine Empire]] (13th–15th centuries) began with the [[Roman Catholic Church|Latin Christian]] [[Fourth Crusade]] in AD 1202–04, considered to be one of the most important events, solidifying the [[East-West Schism|schism]] between the [[Christianity|Christian]] churches of [[Greek language|Greek]] [[Byzantine Rite]] and [[Latin language|Latin]] [[Roman Rite]]. An [[massacre of the Latins|anti-Western riot]] in 1182 broke out in [[Constantinople]] targeting Latins. The extremely wealthy (after previous [[Crusades]]) [[Republic of Venice|Venetians]] in particular made a [[Siege of Zara|successful attempt to maintain control]] over the coast of [[Catholic]] present-day Croatia (specifically the [[Dalmatia#Middle Ages|Dalmatia]], a region of interest to the [[Maritime Republic|maritime]] medieval Venetian Republic moneylenders and its rivals, such as the Republic of Genoa) rebelling against the Venetian economic domination.<ref name=wolff>{{cite book|chapter-url=http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/History/History-idx?type=turn&entity=History.CrusTwo.p0188&id=History.CrusTwo&isize=text&q1=Scandinavia |title=The later Crusades, 1189–1311 |chapter=V: The Fourth Crusade |last1=Wolff |first1=R. L. | editor=Hazard, H. W. |page=162 |publisher=University of Wisconsin Press |year=1969 |access-date=9 November 2013}}</ref> What followed dealt an irrevocable blow to the already weakened Byzantine Empire with the [[Siege of Constantinople (1204)|Crusader army's sack of Constantinople]] in April 1204, capital of the [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Greek Christian]]-controlled [[Byzantine Empire]], described as one of the most profitable and disgraceful sacks of a city in history.<ref name="Phillips">Phillips, ''The Fourth Crusade and the Sack of Constantinople'', Introduction, xiii.</ref> This paved the way for Muslim conquests in [[Anatolia|present-day Turkey]] and the [[Balkans]] in the coming centuries (only a handful of the Crusaders followed to the stated destination thereafter, the [[Crusader states|Holy Land]]).{{efn|The Dalmatia remained under Venice domination throughout next centuries (even constituting an Italian territorial claim by the [[Treaty of Versailles#Italy|Treaty of Versailles]] in the [[aftermath of the First World War]] and through successive [[Italian fascism|Italy's fascist period]]'s [[Italian Fascism and racism|demands]]).}} The geographical identity of the Balkans is historically known as a crossroads of cultures, a juncture between the [[Latin]] and [[Greek language|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 [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Orthodox]] Christianity met,<ref>{{cite book |author=Goldstein, I. |title=Croatia: A History |url=https://archive.org/details/croatia00ivog |url-access=registration |publisher=McGill-Queen's University Press |year=1999}}</ref> 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,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08026a.htm|title=CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Inquisition|website=Newadvent.org|access-date=13 October 2017}}</ref> and abolished six centuries later. Before AD 1100, the [[Catholic Inquisition|Catholic Church suppressed]] what they believed to be heresy, usually through a system of ecclesiastical proscription or imprisonment, but without using torture,<ref name="Lea1888">{{cite book |last=Lea |first=Henry Charles |author-link=Henry Charles Lea |title=A History of the Inquisition In The Middle Ages |volume=1 |chapter=Chapter VII. The Inquisition Founded |quote=The judicial use of torture was as yet happily unknown... |year=1888|isbn=1-152-29621-3}}</ref> and seldom resorting to executions.<ref>{{cite book|last=Foxe |first=John |author-link=John Foxe |title=Foxe's Book of Martyrs |chapter=Chapter V |chapter-url=http://www.jesus.org.uk/vault/library/foxes_book_of_martyrs.pdf |title-link=Foxe's Book of Martyrs |access-date=21 July 2018 |archive-date=26 November 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121126164105/http://www.jesus.org.uk/vault/library/foxes_book_of_martyrs.pdf |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Blötzer |first=J. |encyclopedia=The Catholic Encyclopedia |title=Inquisition |url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08026a.htm |access-date=26 August 2012 |year=1910 |publisher=Robert Appleton Company |quote=... in this period the more influential ecclesiastical authorities declared that the [[death penalty]] was contrary to the spirit of the Gospel, and they themselves opposed its execution. For centuries this was the ecclesiastical attitude both in theory and in practice. Thus, in keeping with the civil law, some Manichæans were executed at Ravenna in 556. On the other hand, Elipandus of Toledo and Felix of Urgel, the chiefs of Adoptionism and Predestinationism, were condemned by councils, but were otherwise left unmolested. We may note, however, that the monk Gothescalch, after the condemnation of his false doctrine that Christ had not died for all mankind, was by the Synods of Mainz in 848 and Quiercy in 849 sentenced to flogging and imprisonment, punishments then common in monasteries for various infractions of the rule.}}</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Blötzer |first=J. |encyclopedia=The Catholic Encyclopedia |title=Inquisition |url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08026a.htm |access-date=26 August 2012 |year=1910 |publisher=Robert Appleton Company |quote=[...] the occasional executions of heretics during this period must be ascribed partly to the arbitrary action of individual rulers, partly to the fanatic outbreaks of the overzealous populace, and in no wise to ecclesiastical law or the ecclesiastical authorities.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Lea |first=Henry Charles |title=A History of the Inquisition In The Middle Ages |volume=1 |chapter=Chapter VII. The Inquisition Founded |isbn=1-152-29621-3}}</ref>
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| This very profitable [[Central Europe]]an Fourth Crusade had prompted the 14th century [[Renaissance Italy|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 [[List of states in the Holy Roman Empire|various Protestant and Catholic states]] of the [[Holy Roman Empire]] (and emergence of [[Protestantism|religiously diverse]] [[Criticism of the Catholic Church|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.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://courses.wcupa.edu/jones/his101/web/37luther.htm |title=Background to Against the Sale of Indulgences by Martin Luther |publisher=West Chester University of Pennsylvania |website=Wcupa.edu |date=2012 |access-date=6 July 2018 |archive-date=19 December 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141219220326/http://courses.wcupa.edu/jones/his101/web/37luther.htm |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.markedbyteachers.com/as-and-a-level/history/how-important-was-the-role-of-the-princes-in-bringing-about-the-success-of-the-lutheran-reformation-in-germany-in-the-years-1525-to-1555.html |title=How important was the role of the princes in bringing about the success of the Lutheran Reformation in Germany in the years 1525 to 1555? |publisher=Marked by Teachers|website=markedbyteachers.com |date=2009}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.history.com/topics/reformation |title=The Reformation |publisher=A&E Television Networks|website=history.com}}</ref>{{efn|These changes were adopted by the [[Scandinavia]]n 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 [[List of English monarchs|the King]] and [[Parliament of England|Parliament]] lead to the [[English Civil War]] (1642–1651) between royalists and parliamentarians, while both [[British colonization of the Americas#North America|colonized]] North America eventually resulting in an independent [[United States of America]] (1776) during the [[Industrial Revolution]].}}
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| 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 sovereignty|Westphalian principles]], especially the concept of sovereign states, became central to international law and to the prevailing world order.<ref name="kissinger">{{cite book|author=Henry Kissinger|year=2014|title=World Order: Reflections on the Character of Nations and the Course of History|chapter=Introduction and Chpt 1|publisher=[[Allen Lane]]|isbn=978-0241004265|author-link=Henry Kissinger}}</ref>
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| ===Colonialism (15th–20th centuries)===
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| {{Main|New World|Analysis of Western European colonialism and colonization|Mercantilism|Imperialism}}{{More citations needed section|date=November 2021}}{{quote box|width=25%|quote="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."|source=[[Ibrahim Muteferrika]], ''Rational basis for the Politics of Nations'' (1731)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ted.com/talks/niall_ferguson_the_6_killer_apps_of_prosperity.html|title=The 6 killer apps of prosperity|date=11 August 2017|website=Ted.com|access-date=11 August 2017}}</ref>
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| }}
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| [[File:Portuguese discoveries and explorationsV2en.png|thumb|upright=1.5|[[Portuguese discoveries]] and explorations since 1336: first arrival places and dates; main Portuguese [[spice trade]] routes in the [[Indian Ocean]] (blue); [[Portuguese empire|territories claimed]] by [[King John III of Portugal]] (c. 1536) (green).]]
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| [[File:SpanishEmpire1790.svg|thumb|upright=1.5|Apex of [[Spanish Empire]] in 1790.]]
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| In the 13th and 14th centuries, a number of European travelers, many of them Christian [[missionary|missionaries]], had sought to cultivate trading with [[Asia]] and [[Africa]]. With the Crusades came the relative contraction of the Orthodox [[Byzantine silk|Byzantine]]'s large silk industry [[History of silk#Spread of production (8th-16th centuries)|in favour of Catholic Western Europe]] and the rise of [[Papal States|Western Papacy]]. The most famous of these [[Chronology of European exploration of Asia#Middle Ages|merchant travelers]] pursuing [[Spice trade#Age of European Discovery: finding a new route and a New World|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 dynasty|Ming]] rulers were found to be unreceptive of religious proselytism by European missionaries and merchants. Meanwhile, the [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]] [[Turkish people|Turks]] consolidated control over the eastern [[Mediterranean Sea|Mediterranean]], closing off key overland trade routes.{{citation needed|date=June 2020}}
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| The [[Kingdom of Portugal|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 [[Kingdom of Spain|Spanish]] sea captains. In 1492 [[European colonialism]] expanded across the globe with the [[Voyages of Christopher Columbus|exploring voyage]] of merchant, navigator, and [[Hispano]]-[[Kingdom of Italy (Holy Roman Empire)|Italian]] [[colonialism|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 [[History of Western civilization|Western history]] as they marked the beginning of the [[European ethnic groups|European]] exploration, [[colonization]] and exploitation of [[Americas|the American continents]] and their [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas#European colonization|native inhabitants]].{{efn|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|date=June 2020}} In 1488, [[Bartolomeu Dias]] rounded the southern tip of Africa under the sponsorship of Portugal's [[John II of Portugal|John II]], from which point he noticed that the coast swung northeast ([[Cape of Good Hope]]).{{citation needed|date=June 2020}}
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| In 1492 [[Christopher Columbus]] would land on an island in the [[The Bahamas|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|date=June 2020}}
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| 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 [[Imperialism|imperialistic]] view accompanied by the invention of [[history of gunpowder#Europe|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 [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|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 [[Transmission of the Greek Classics|transmitted]] from there by Latin [[Latin translations of the 12th century|translations]] and [[Greek scholars in the Renaissance|emigration of Greek scholars]] through [[Renaissance humanism]]. (Popular [[typefaces]] such as [[italics]] were inspired and designed from transcriptions during this period.) [[Renaissance architecture|Renaissance architectural]] works, [[Revivalism (architecture)|revivals]] of [[Classical architecture|Classical]] and [[Gothic architecture|Gothic]] styles, flourished during this modern period throughout [[History of architecture#European and colonial architecture|Western colonial empires]]<!-- , with the former embodying Roman Catholic Church and republican values while the latter having more conservative and Protestant Church connotations -->.
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| In 1497 Portuguese navigator [[Vasco da Gama]] made the first open voyage from Europe to India.{{citation needed|date=June 2020}}
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| In 1520, [[Ferdinand Magellan]], a Portuguese navigator in the service of the [[Crown of Castile]] ('[[Spain]]'), found a sea route into the [[Pacific Ocean]].}}{{efn|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.<ref>M. Weisner-Hanks, Early Modern Europe 1450–1789 (Cambridge, 2006)</ref> 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 people|English]] and the [[France|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]].}}{{efn|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 [[Kalmar Union|one alliance]] with all of the Nordic states (kingdoms of [[Denmark]], [[Sweden]] and [[Norway]]).}} 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 [[British Empire#"First" British Empire (1583–1783)|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.<ref>{{Cite book |first=Niall |last=Ferguson |author-link=Niall Ferguson |title=Empire: The Rise and Demise of the British World Order and the Lessons for Global Power |location=New York |publisher=Basic Books |year=2004 |page=[https://archive.org/details/empire00nial/page/62 62] |isbn=978-0-465-02329-5 |url=https://archive.org/details/empire00nial/page/62 }}</ref> The [[Holy Roman Empire]] was dissolved in 1806 by the [[French Revolutionary Wars]]; abolition of the [[Roman Catholic Inquisition]] followed.{{citation needed|date=June 2020}}
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| Due to the reach of these empires, Western institutions expanded throughout the world. This process of influence (and imposition) began with the [[Age of Discovery|voyages of discovery]], [[European colonization of the Americas|colonization, conquest, and exploitation]] of [[Portuguese Empire|Portugal]] enforced as well by [[papal bull]]s in 1450s (by the [[fall of the Byzantine Empire]]), granting Portugal navigation, war and trade monopoly for any newly discovered lands,<ref name="Daus33">{{harvnb|Daus|1983|p=33}}</ref> and competing [[Spanish Empire|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 [[British Empire|English]] and [[French colonial empire|French]] colonial empires, and others.{{citation needed|date=June 2020}} 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 [[Postcolonialism|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|date=June 2020}}
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| | footer = Replica of the [[Iberian Peninsula|Iberian]] ''[[Santa María (ship)|Santa María]]'', the wealthy [[Genoese colonies|Genoese merchant]] [[navigator]] Christopher Columbus's flagship during his first voyage, a large [[Carvel (boat building)|carvel-built]] ocean-going ship, financed by [[Catholic Monarchs]] of Castile and Aragon.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.vanderkrogt.net/statues/object.php?webpage=CO&record=es098|title=Columbus Monuments Pages: Valladolid|access-date=3 January 2010}}</ref> Columbus had estimated a travel distance of {{convert|2400|mi|km|-1}}, far too low.<ref name="Morison-Admiral">[[Samuel Eliot Morison]], ''Admiral of the Ocean Sea: The Life of Christopher Columbus'', (Boston: Atlantic-Little, Brown, 1942). Reissued by the Morison Press, 2007. {{ISBN|1-4067-5027-1}}
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| {{listen
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| | title = <center>"The Letter of Columbus on the Discovery of America"<br>Read by Availle for LibriVox</center>
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| | description = <center>Audio 00:20:05 ([https://www.archive.org/stream/lettercolumbuso00librgoog#page/n44/mode/2up full text])</center>
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| [[History of colonialism|Colonialisation]] by Western/European powers (and others) since 1492.
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| [[File:William Bell Scott - Iron and Coal.jpg|thumb|upright|The [[Industrial Revolution]], which began in [[Great Britain]] in the 1760s and was preceded by the [[Second Agricultural Revolution|Agricultural]] and [[Scientific Revolution|Scientific]] revolutions in the 1600s, forever modified the economy worldwide.]]
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| 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]]<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/lect/mod07.html |title=Modern West Civ. 7: The Scientific Revolution of the 17 Cent |publisher=Fordham.edu |access-date=6 May 2011 |archive-date=11 May 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110511153904/http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/lect/mod07.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> and the [[Industrial Revolution]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://mars.wnec.edu/~grempel/courses/wc2/lectures/industrialrev.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20001214091900/http://mars.wnec.edu/~grempel/courses/wc2/lectures/industrialrev.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=14 December 2000 |title=The Industrial Revolution |publisher=Mars.wnec.edu |access-date=6 May 2011}}</ref> would produce powerful social transformations, political and [[History of banking#17th–19th centuries – The emergence of modern banking|economic]] institutions that have come to [[Political philosophy|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.<ref>[http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/IndustrialRevolutionandtheStandardofLiving.html Industrial Revolution and the Standard of Living: The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics], Library of Economics and Liberty</ref>
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| The course of [[Early modern period|three centuries]] since Christopher Columbus' late 15th century's voyages, of [[Atlantic slave trade|deportation of slaves]] [[Slavery in the colonial history of the United States|from Africa]] and [[British Isles|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 [[History of the United States Constitution#Ratification of the Constitution|thirteen States]] on the North American [[East Coast of the United States|East Coast]] before end of the 18th century.
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| 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.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/sixbillion/sixbillion.htm |title=The World at Six Billion|publisher=United Nations |date=12 October 1999 |access-date=1 August 2010}}</ref> Also, the new philosophical movement later known as [[Romanticism]] originated, in the wake of the previous Age of [[17th-century philosophy|Reason]] of the 1600s and the [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]] of 1700s. These are seen as fostering the 19th century ''Western world'''s sustained economic development.<ref>{{Cite book |author=Wim Van Den Doel |title=The Dutch Empire. An Essential Part of World History |publisher=BMGN – Low Countries Historical Review |year=2010 |quote=The Western belief in progress, Enlightenment thinking and the scientific revolution were elements that enabled the Western economy to develop in the nineteenth century in a way that was fundamentally different from most of the economies in the rest of the world. Europeans had not been able to sell much to the Asians in the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, but after the Industrial Revolution the situation was completely different, and the European textile industry, for example, was easily able 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 about 1800, what historians term ‘the [[great divergence]]’ took place, which was the separation of the economic development of the Western World, on the one hand, and of almost all of Asia and Africa on the other.}}</ref> Before the urbanisation and industrialization of the 1800s, demand for [[orientalism|oriental]] goods such as [[porcelain]], [[silk]], [[spice]]s 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.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Webster |first=Richard A. |title=European expansion since 1763 |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/colonialism/European-expansion-since-1763 |access-date=23 July 2018 |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |quote=The global expansion of western Europe between the 1760s and the 1870s differed in several important ways from the expansionism and colonialism of previous centuries. Along with the rise of the Industrial Revolution, which economic historians generally trace to the 1760s, and the continuing spread of industrialization in the empire-building countries came a shift in the strategy of trade with the colonial world. Instead of being primarily buyers of colonial products (and frequently under strain to offer sufficient salable goods to balance the exchange), as in the past, the industrializing nations increasingly became sellers in search of markets for the ''growing'' volume of their machine-produced goods.}}</ref> [[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]]).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/colonialism/European-expansion-since-1763 |title=European expansion since 1763 |publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica |access-date=4 August 2018}}</ref> 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.{{efn|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 [[Ethiopian Empire|Ethiopia]] (Abyssinia), the [[Dervish state]] (a portion of present-day [[Somalia]])<ref>Camille Pecastaing, ''Jihad in the Arabian Sea'' (Stanford: Hoover Institution Press, 2011), In the land of the Mad Mullah: Somalia {{Full citation needed|date=July 2019}}</ref> and [[Liberia]] still being independent.}} The later years of the 19th century saw the transition from "informal imperialism" ([[hegemony]]){{efn|In [[ancient Greece]] (8th century BC – AD 6th century), hegemony denoted the politico-military dominance of a [[city-state]] over other city-states.<ref name="TheColumbia">{{cite book |title=The Columbia Encyclopedia|edition=Fifth|year=1994|location=New York |publisher= Columbia University Press |isbn= 0-231-08098-0|editor-first=Barbara A.|editor-last=Chernow|editor2-first=George A.|editor2-last=Vallasi |page=1215}}</ref> The dominant state is known as the ''hegemon''.<ref>''Oxford English Dictionary'': "A leading or paramount power; a dominant state or person"</ref>}} by military influence and economic dominance, to direct rule (a revival of colonial [[imperialism]]) in the [[African continent]] and [[Middle East]].<ref name="Shillington">Kevin Shillington, ''History of Africa''. Revised second edition (New York: Macmillan Publishers Limited, 2005), 301.</ref>
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| | footer = [[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#Effects on slavery|Industrial society]]'s [[the enlightenment|enlightenment]] provided Europe with a different view on [[human dignity]] when the Mediterranean [[Ottoman Turks]] still used to ostensibly market slaves.
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| Western empires as they were in 1910.
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| During the socioeconomically optimistic and innovative decades of the [[Second Industrial Revolution]] between the 1870s and 1914, also known as the "[[Belle Epoque|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 [[Empire of Japan|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]].{{verify source|date=July 2021}}{{citation needed|date=July 2021}}
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| 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 (1898)|Treaty of Paris]]. The US quickly emerged as the new imperial power in [[East Asia]] and in the [[Pacific Ocean#European exploration|Pacific Ocean area]]. The Philippines continued to fight against colonial rule in the [[Philippine–American War]].<ref>{{cite journal |last=Coloma |first=Roland Sintos |title=White gazes, brown breasts: imperial feminism and disciplining desires and bodies in colonial encounters |journal=Paedagogica Historica |volume=48 |issue=2 |date=2012 |page=243|doi=10.1080/00309230.2010.547511 |s2cid=145129186 }}</ref>
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| By 1913, the [[British Empire]] held sway over 412 million people, {{Percentage|412,000,000|1,791,020,000}} of the world population at the time,<ref>[[#refMaddison2001|Maddison 2001]], pp. 97 "The total population of the Empire was 412 million [in 1913]", 241 "[World population in 1913 (in thousands):] 1 791 020".</ref> and by 1920, it covered {{convert|35500000|km2|sqmi|-5|abbr=on}},<ref>{{cite journal|date=September 1997|title=Expansion and Contraction Patterns of Large Polities: Context for Russia|journal=[[International Studies Quarterly]]|volume=41|issue=3|page=502|doi=10.1111/0020-8833.00053|author=Rein Taagepera|author-link=Rein Taagepera|jstor=2600793 |url=http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/3cn68807}}</ref> {{Percentage|35,500,000|148,940,000}} of the Earth's total land area.<ref>{{cite web|title=The World Factbook — Central Intelligence Agency|url=https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/world/|website=www.cia.gov|access-date=10 September 2016|quote=land: 148.94 million sq km}}</ref> 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.<ref>[[#refJackson2013|Jackson]], pp. 5–6.</ref> As a result, its political, [[Common law|legal]], [[English language|linguistic]] and [[Culture of the United Kingdom|cultural]] legacy is widespread throughout the ''Western World''.{{citation needed|date=June 2020}} 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|date=June 2020}} 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 [[Neocolonialism|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.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Zamora|first=Stephen|title=Review of Global Reach: the Power of the Multinational Corporations, by Richard J. Barnet and Ronald E. Muller.|url=https://scholarship.law.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2459&context=lawreview|journal=Catholic University Law Review|volume= 26| issue = 2 Winter 1977|pages=449–456}}</ref><ref>R. Vernon, ''Sovereignty at Bay: the Multinational Spread of U.S. Enterprises'' (1971).</ref> The dictum of [[Alfred Thayer Mahan]] is shown to have lasting relevance, that whoever controls the seas controls the world.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://spectator.org/securing-the-worlds-commercial-sea-lanes/|title=Securing the World's Commercial Sea Lanes {{!}} The American Spectator {{!}} Politics Is Too Important To Be Taken Seriously.|website=The American Spectator|language=en|access-date=13 November 2019}}</ref>
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| === Enlightenment (17th–18th centuries) ===
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| {{Main|Age of Enlightenment|Scientific Revolution}}
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| [[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|Age of Reason]]) represents the "atrophy of Christian transcendental experiences and [seeks] to enthrone the [[Isaac Newton|Newtonian]] method of science as the only valid method of arriving at truth".<ref>Voeglin, E., ''From Enlightenment to Revolution'', p. 3</ref> Its precursors were [[John Milton]] and [[Baruch Spinoza]].<ref>{{cite book |title=Enlightenment Essays: Volumes 1-4 |date=1970 |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Enlightenment_Essays/VuEYAAAAIAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0}}</ref> 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".<ref>{{cite magazine |last1=Rosen |first1=Jonathan |title=Return to Paradise: The Enduring Relevance of John Milton |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2008/06/02/return-to-paradise |access-date=27 February 2021 |magazine=The New Yorker |date=26 May 2008}}</ref>
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| 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 [[comet]]s, and paving the way for improvements in [[navigation]] and [[cartography]]. Astronomy became the second most popular scientific profession, after [[medicine]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Burns |first=William E. |title=Science in the Enlightenment: An Encyclopedia |publisher=ABC-CLIO |date=2003 |pages=10–12}}</ref>
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| 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.<ref>{{cite book|author1-link=David Biale |last1=Biale |first1=David |title=Not in the Heavens: The Tradition of Jewish Secular Thought |publisher=Princeton University Press |page=x}}</ref> 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".<ref>{{cite book |title=Science and Technology in World History |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press |date=2015 |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Science_and_Technology_in_World_History/eR0AEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Enlightenment+Scientific&pg=PA293&printsec=frontcover |page=293|isbn=9781421417752 }}</ref>
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| 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.<ref>{{cite book |last=Biale |first=David |title=Not in the Heavens: The Tradition of Jewish Secular Thought |date=27 October 2015 |publisher=Princeton University Press |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KW2YDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA29 |page=29|isbn=9780691168043}}</ref>
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| === Cold War (1947–1991) ===
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| {{Main|Cold War|Western Bloc|First World}}
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| {{unreferenced section|date=April 2021}}
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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).
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| The Third World consisted of countries, many of which were [[Non-Aligned Movement|unaligned with either]], and important members included India, [[Yugoslavia]], Finland ([[Finlandization]]) and Switzerland ([[Foreign relations of 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.
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| {{Hidden begin|ta1=center|border=1px #aaa solid|title=Maps on the Cold War East–west division|style=overflow-x:scroll}}
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| {| style="margin:auto;"
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| |[[File:Cold War Map 1959.svg|thumb|upright=1.8|Spheres of influence between the ''Western world'' and the [[Soviet Union]] during the [[Cold War]].]]
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| |{{Three worlds}}
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| {| style="margin:auto;"
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| |[[File:Cold War Map 1980.svg|thumb|upright=1.8|East and West in 1980, as defined by the [[Cold War]]. The Cold War had divided Europe politically into East and West, with the Iron Curtain splitting Central Europe.]]
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| |[[File:Europe 1988.svg|thumb|upright=1.6|European [[trade bloc]]s as of 1988. [[European Economic Community|EEC]] member states are marked in blue, [[European Free Trade Association|EFTA]] – green, and [[Comecon]] – red.]]
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| | image2 = Christianity percent population in each nation World Map Christian data by Pew Research.svg
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| | footer = Cold War [[colonial empire]]s through decolonization. The global distribution of Christians: a darker shade means a higher proportion of Christians.<ref>{{cite web|author=ANALYSIS |url=http://www.pewforum.org/2012/12/18/table-religious-composition-by-country-in-percentages/ |title=Table: Religious Composition by Country, in Percentages |publisher=Pewforum.org |date=19 December 2011 |access-date=17 August 2012}}</ref>
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| {{Hidden end}}
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| A number of countries did not fit comfortably into this neat definition of partition, including Switzerland, Sweden, Austria, and [[Republic of Ireland|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 [[Francisco Franco|Franco]]. The 1980s advent of [[Mikhail Gorbachev]] led to the end of the Cold War following the dissolution of the [[Soviet Union]].
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| ===Cold War II context===
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| {{Main|Second Cold War}}
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| In a debated [[Second Cold War|Cold War II]], a new definition emerged inside the realm of western journalism. More specifically, Cold War II,<ref name="Dmitri Trenin">{{cite web |url=https://foreignpolicy.com/2014/03/04/welcome-to-cold-war-ii/ |title=Welcome to Cold War II |author=Dmitri Trenin |date=4 March 2014 |website=Foreign Policy |publisher=Graham Holdings |access-date=4 February 2015}}</ref> also known as the Second Cold War, New Cold War,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/nov/19/new-cold-war-back-to-bad-old-days-russia-west-putin-ukraine |title=The new cold war: are we going back to the bad old days? |author=Simon Tisdall |date=19 November 2014 |website=The Guardian |access-date=4 February 2015}}</ref> Cold War Redux,<ref name=redux>{{cite news|last1=Laudicina|first1=Paul|title=Ukraine: Cold War Redux Or New Global Challenge?|url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/paullaudicina/2014/05/15/ukraine-cold-war-redux-or-new-global-challenge/|access-date=9 January 2015|work=Forbes|date=15 May 2014}}</ref> Cold War 2.0,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/09/140912-cold-war-geography-russia-ukraine-sanctions/ |title=Is the Cold War Back? |author=Eve Conant |date=12 September 2014 |website=National Geographic |publisher=National Geographic Society |access-date=4 February 2015}}</ref> and Colder War,<ref name=JMauldin>{{cite news|last1=Mauldin|first1=John|title=The Colder War Has Begun|url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnmauldin/2014/10/29/book-review-the-colder-war-by-marin-katusa/|access-date=22 December 2014|work=Forbes|date=29 October 2014}}</ref> 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.<ref name="Dmitri Trenin"/><ref>[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nikolas-kozloff/as-cold-war-ii-looms-wash_b_8307470.html As Cold War II Looms, Washington Courts Nationalist, Rightwing, Catholic, Xenophobic Poland], ''[[Huffington Post]]'', 15 October 2015.</ref> Tensions escalated in 2014 after Russia's [[Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation|annexation of Crimea]], [[War in Donbass|military intervention in Ukraine]], and the [[Russian military intervention in the Syrian Civil War|2015 Russian military intervention in the Syrian Civil War]].<ref>{{cite news|title='The Cold War never ended...Syria is a Russian-American conflict' says Bashar al-Assad|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/10/14/the-cold-war-never-endedsyria-is-a-russian-american-conflict-say/ |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220111/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/10/14/the-cold-war-never-endedsyria-is-a-russian-american-conflict-say/ |archive-date=11 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|newspaper=The Telegraph|access-date=24 January 2017|date=14 October 2016}}{{cbignore}}</ref><ref name="larger">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/13/world/middleeast/syria-russia-airstrikes.html?_r=0 |title=U.S. Weaponry Is Turning Syria Into Proxy War With Russia |work=The New York Times |access-date=14 October 2015 |date=12 October 2015}}</ref><ref name="prox">{{cite news |url=http://edition.cnn.com/2015/10/13/middleeast/syria-civil-war/index.html |title=U.S., Russia escalate involvement in Syria |publisher=CNN |access-date=17 October 2015 |date=13 October 2015}}</ref> 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 [[International sanctions during the Ukrainian crisis|restrictive measures]] on Russia; the latter reciprocally introduced retaliatory [[International sanctions during the Ukrainian crisis#Sanctions by Russia|measures]].<ref>{{cite news |url=http://edition.cnn.com/2014/03/24/politics/obama-europe-trip/|title=U.S. and other powers kick Russia out of G8|date=25 March 2014 |access-date=7 August 2014 |publisher=CNN}}</ref><ref>Johanna Granville, [https://www.academia.edu/7011881/Playing_Poker_with_Putin "The Folly of Playing High-Stakes Poker with Putin: More to Lose than Gain over Ukraine."] 8 May 2014.</ref>
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| ==Modern definitions==
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| {{Multiple image
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| | footer = [[Asia]] (as the "[[Eastern world]]"), the [[Arab world]], and [[Africa]].
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| 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 world|Arab]]'' and the ''[[Africa]]n'' worlds, with no clearly specified boundaries. Additionally, ''[[Latin America]]n'' and ''[[Eastern Orthodoxy by country|Orthodox]]'' worlds are sometimes separately considered "akin" to the West.
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| | image1 = Latin America (orthographic projection).svg
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| | image2 = OrthodoxyInEurope.png
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| | footer = [[Latin America]] and [[Eastern Orthodoxy by country|Orthodox]] worlds.
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| Many anthropologists, sociologists and historians oppose "the West and the Rest" in a categorical manner.<ref name="LabyrinthofKinship">{{cite web|last=Goody|first=Jack|date=2005|title=The Labyrinth of Kinship|url=https://newleftreview.org/issues/ii36/articles/jack-goody-the-labyrinth-of-kinship|access-date=24 July 2007|website=New Left Review}}</ref> The same has been done by Malthusian demographers with a sharp distinction between European and non-European family systems. Among anthropologists, this includes [[Émile Durkheim|Durkheim]], [[Louis Dumont|Dumont]], and [[Claude Lévi-Strauss|Lévi-Strauss]].<ref name="LabyrinthofKinship"/>
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| Since the fall of the iron curtain the following countries are generally accepted as the Western world:<ref name="worldatlas.com">{{Cite web|url=https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/list-of-western-countries.html|title=The Western World|website=WorldAtlas|date=26 April 2021}}</ref> the [[United States]], [[Canada]]; the countries of the [[European Union]] plus [[UK]], [[Norway]], [[Iceland]] and [[Switzerland]]; [[Australia]] and [[New Zealand]].
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| ===Cultural definition===
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| {{Further|Western culture|Culture of Europe|Culture of America}}
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| In modern usage, ''Western world'' refers to [[Europe]] and to areas whose populations largely [[European emigration|originate from Europe]], through the [[Age of Discovery|Age of Discovery's]] imperialism.<ref name="autogenerated1"/><ref name=ChristImp2011/>
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| In the 20th century, Christianity [[postchristianity|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,<ref name="About SecE">{{cite news|work=USA Today |url=https://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2005-02-21-god-europe_x.htm|title=What place for God in Europe|access-date=24 July 2009|date=22 February 2005|first=Peter|last=Ford}}</ref> 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 [[importance of religion by country|religion is important]],<ref name="Eurostat Religion">{{Cite journal|journal=Special Eurobarometer 225 |title=Social values, Science and Technology|publisher=Europa, web portal|author=Eurostat|year=2005 |url=http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/archives/ebs/ebs_225_report_en.pdf|page=9|access-date=11 June 2009|author-link=Eurostat}}</ref> 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 [[state religion|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.<ref>See ARDA data archives: http://www.thearda.com/internationalData/regions/index.asp</ref>
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| Christianity remains the dominant religion in the ''Western world'', where 70% are Christians.<ref name="Global Christianity">{{cite web|author=ANALYSIS |url=http://www.pewforum.org/Christian/Global-Christianity-exec.aspx |title=Global Christianity |publisher=Pewforum.org |date=19 December 2011 |access-date=17 August 2012}}</ref> A 2011 [[Pew Research Center]] survey found that 76.2% of [[Europe]]ans, 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.<ref name="Global Christianity"/><ref>{{cite web|author=ANALYSIS |url=http://www.pewforum.org/Christian/Global-Christianity-europe.aspx |title=Europe |publisher=Pewforum.org |date=19 December 2011 |access-date=17 August 2012}}</ref>
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| 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.<ref>{{cite book |author=Maurice Roche |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1BonDwAAQBAJ&q=%22western+world%22+tv+age&pg=PA28 |title=Mega-Events and Social Change: Spectacle, Legacy and Public Culture |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2017 |isbn=9781526117083 |page=329}}</ref> Wikipedia has been blocked intermittently in China since 2004.<ref>{{cite news |last=Reid |first=David |date=15 May 2019 |title=China blocks Wikipedia in all languages |work=CNBC |url=https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/15/china-blocks-wikipedia-in-all-languages.html |access-date=23 May 2019}}</ref>
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| ====Latin America====
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| [[File:The Western World in Clash of Civilizations.png|thumb|upright=1.5|The Western world based-on [[Samuel P. Huntington]]'s 1996 ''[[Clash of Civilizations]]''.<ref name=WorldOfCivil>[http://s02.middlebury.edu/FS056A/Herb_war/clash3.htm THE WORLD OF CIVILIZATIONS: POST-1990] scanned image {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070312101415/http://s02.middlebury.edu/FS056A/Herb_war/clash3.htm |date=12 March 2007 }}</ref> [[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.<ref>{{cite book|title=Clash of Civilizations|author=Huntington, Samuel P.|year=1991|isbn=978-0-684-84441-1|edition=6th|location=Washington, D.C.|pages=[https://archive.org/details/clashofcivilizat00hunt/page/38 38–39]|quote=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.|via=mercaba.org/SANLUIS/Historia/Universal/Huntington,%20Samuel%20-%20El%20choque%20de%20civilizaciones.pdf (in Spanish)|url=https://archive.org/details/clashofcivilizat00hunt/page/38}}</ref>]]
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| [[File:Clash of Civilizations mapn2.png|upright=1.5|right|thumb|Huntington's map of major civilizations.<ref name="WorldOfCivil2" /> 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.]]
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| 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.<ref name="WorldOfCivil2"/> 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, [[Paraguay]], [[Colombia]], [[Venezuela]], [[Ecuador]], [[Chile]], [[Peru]] and [[Bolivia]], on the one hand, and [[Uruguay]], [[Brazil]] and [[Argentina]] on the other. 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.<ref>{{cite book|title=Clash of Civilizations|author=Huntington, Samuel P.|year=1991|isbn=978-0-684-84441-1|edition=6th|location=Washington, D.C.|pages=[https://archive.org/details/clashofcivilizat00hunt/page/110 110–111]|via=mercaba.org/SANLUIS/Historia/Universal/Huntington,%20Samuel%20-%20El%20choque%20de%20civilizaciones.pdf (in Spanish)|url=https://archive.org/details/clashofcivilizat00hunt/page/110}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite book|title=Clash of Civilizations|author=Huntington, Samuel P.|year=1991|isbn=978-0-684-84441-1|edition=6th|location=Washington, D.C.|pages=[https://archive.org/details/clashofcivilizat00hunt/page/38 38–39]|quote=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.|via=mercaba.org/SANLUIS/Historia/Universal/Huntington,%20Samuel%20-%20El%20choque%20de%20civilizaciones.pdf (in Spanish)|url=https://archive.org/details/clashofcivilizat00hunt/page/38}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Clash of Civilizations|author=Huntington, Samuel P.|year=1991|isbn=978-0-684-84441-1|edition=6th|location=Washington, D.C.|pages=[https://archive.org/details/clashofcivilizat00hunt/page/148 148–150]|via=mercaba.org/SANLUIS/Historia/Universal/Huntington,%20Samuel%20-%20El%20choque%20de%20civilizaciones.pdf (in Spanish)|url=https://archive.org/details/clashofcivilizat00hunt/page/148}}</ref> Huntington's view has, however, been contested on a number of occasions as biased.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Fuentes |first1=Carlos |title=Huntington and the Mask of Racism |url=http://www.digitalnpq.org/archive/2004_spring/fuentes.html |website=NPQ}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Citrin |first1=Jack |author-link1=Jack Citrin |last2=Lerman |first2=Amy |last3=Murakami |first3=Michael |last4=Pearson |first4=Kathryn |title=Testing Huntington: Is Hispanic Immigration a Threat to American Identity? |journal=Perspectives on Politics |date=2007 |volume=5 |issue=1 |pages=31–48 |url=https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/c699/4178fd4b678b5681ca9073f70c1baec13685.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190530024850/https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/c699/4178fd4b678b5681ca9073f70c1baec13685.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-date=30 May 2019 |doi=10.1017/s1537592707070041|s2cid=14565278 }}</ref>
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| ====Other countries====
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| The [[Philippines]], although geographically part of the Eastern world and having a majority population that does not possess European roots aside from a significant minority, maintains strong Western-based influences in its culture.<ref name="Britannica">{{cite web|title=Philippines - Cultural life|url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Philippines/Cultural-life|access-date=11 March 2022|website=Britannica|quote=Although geographically part of Southeast Asia, the country is culturally strongly Euro-American}}</ref> From the country's traditional art, [[Bahay na bato|architecture]], [[fashion and clothing in the Philippines|fashion]], music, cuisine, language ([[Spanish language in the Philippines|Spanish]] and [[Philippine English|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 [[Philip II of Spain|King Philip II]] as Las Islas Filipinas.<ref>{{cite web|author=ANALYSIS |url=http://www.pewforum.org/Christian/Global-Christianity-americas.aspx |title=Americas |publisher=Pewforum.org |date=19 December 2011 |access-date=17 August 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|author=ANALYSIS |url=http://www.pewforum.org/global-religious-landscape-christians.aspx |title=Global religious landscape: Christians |publisher=Pewforum.org |date=19 December 2011 |access-date=17 August 2012}}</ref> [[Cape Verde]] also has significant influence from the Western world due to Portuguese colonization, seen through the country's language ([[Cape Verdean Portuguese|Portuguese]]), music, art<ref>{{cite web|title=Cape Verde - Cultural life|url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Cabo-Verde/Cultural-life|access-date=12 March 2022|website=Britannica}}</ref> and the prevalence of Christianity.<ref>{{cite web|title=Cape Verde|url=http://www.globalreligiousfutures.org/countries/cape-verde#/?affiliations_religion_id=0&affiliations_year=2010®ion_name=All%20Countries&restrictions_year=2016|website=Pew-Templeton Research|access-date=12 March 2022}}</ref> The country's population is also overall, a mixture of African and European descent.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://asemana.sapo.cv/spip.php?article53126&ak=1|title=População cabo-verdiana: "57% dos genes são de origem africana e 43 %, de origem europeia"|work=[[A Semana]]|date=27 May 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130501115847/http://asemana.sapo.cv/spip.php?article53126&ak=1|archive-date=1 May 2013|language=Portuguese}}</ref> European influence is also evident in [[Culture of Namibia|Namibia]], which has a sizeable [[White Namibians|minority]] of European descent and was previously administered by Germany and then [[South Africa]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=2015-07-07 |title=Namibia: A unique snapshot of German colonial Africa |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/africa/namibia-a-unique-snapshot-of-german-colonial-africa-10373137.html |access-date=2022-05-09 |website=The Independent |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Kamm |first=Henry |date=1976-10-30 |title=South‐West Africa City Remains 'More German Than Germany' |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1976/10/30/archives/southwest-africa-city-remains-more-german-than-germany.html |access-date=2022-05-09 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Namibia |url=https://www.sahistory.org.za/place/namibia |access-date=2022-05-07 |website=South African History Online}}</ref>
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| Most of [[South Africa]]'s population is not of European ancestry, excepting a sizeable [[White South Africans|minority]].<ref name="cib11">{{cite book|url=http://www.statssa.gov.za/census/census_2011/census_products/Census_2011_Census_in_brief.pdf|title=Census 2011: Census in brief|publisher=Statistics South Africa|year=2012|isbn=978-0621413885|location=Pretoria|pages=23–25|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150513171240/http://www.statssa.gov.za/census/census_2011/census_products/Census_2011_Census_in_brief.pdf|archive-date=13 May 2015|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=South African Culture |url=http://culturalatlas.sbs.com.au/south-african-culture/south-african-culture-core-concepts |access-date=2022-05-07 |website=Cultural Atlas |language=en}}</ref> The primary sources of the country's [[Constitution of South Africa|constitution]] are [[Roman-Dutch law|Roman-Dutch mercantile law]] & personal law and [[English Common law]], imports of Dutch settlement and [[British colonialism]] respectively.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Snyman|first1=Pamela|last2=Barratt|first2=Amanda|name-list-style=amp|date=2 October 2002|title=Researching South African Law|url=http://www.llrx.com/features/southafrica.htm|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080617154356/http://www.llrx.com/features/southafrica.htm|archive-date=17 June 2008|access-date=23 June 2008|publisher=w/ Library Resource Xchange}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite web|title=People and Culture of South Africa|url=https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/people-and-culture-south-africa|url-status=live|access-date=2021-09-28|website=www.sahistory.org.za}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|date=2015-11-13|title=Why South African students want to be taught in English|language=en-GB|work=BBC News|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-34811562|access-date=2021-09-28}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Chabalala|first=Jeanette|title=English will be only language of record in courts - Mogoeng|url=https://www.news24.com/news24/SouthAfrica/News/english-will-be-only-language-of-record-in-courts-mogoeng-20170929|access-date=2021-09-28|website=News24|language=en-US}}</ref> English and [[Afrikaans]] – most similar to [[Dutch language|Dutch]] – are two of South Africa's eleven official languages.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Rawlings|first=Alex|title=Is Afrikaans in danger of dying out?|url=https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200514-is-afrikaans-in-danger-of-dying-out|access-date=2021-09-28|website=www.bbc.com|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 - Chapter 1: Founding Provisions|url=https://www.gov.za/documents/constitution/chapter-1-founding-provisions|url-status=live|access-date=2021-09-28|website=www.gov.za}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite web|title=South African Culture - Religion|url=http://culturalatlas.sbs.com.au/south-african-culture/south-african-culture-religion|access-date=2021-10-06|website=Cultural Atlas|language=en}}</ref>
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| ===Economic definition===
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| [[File:Income groups 2016 by GNI per capita.png|upright=1.0|left|thumb|Countries by income group]]{{More citations needed section|date=April 2018}}
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| The term ''"Western world"'' is sometimes interchangeably used with the term [[First World]] or [[developed country|developed countries]], stressing the difference between First World and the [[Third World]] or [[developing country|developing countries]]. This usage occurs despite the fact that many countries that may be culturally Western are [[developing country|developing countries]] – in fact, a significant percentage of the Americas are developing countries. It is also used despite many [[developed country|developed countries or regions]] not being culturally Western (e.g. [[Japan]], [[Singapore]], [[South Korea]], [[Taiwan]], [[Hong Kong]], and [[Macau|Macao]]). [[Privatization]] policies (involving government enterprises and public services) and [[multinational corporation]]s 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''.<ref>Paul Starr, [https://www.princeton.edu/~starr/articles/articles80-89/Starr-MeaningPrivatization-88.htm "The Meaning of Privatization," Yale Law and Policy Review 6: 6–41" 1988].</ref><ref>James C. W. Ahiakpor, [https://acton.org/pub/religion-liberty/volume-2-number-5/multinational-corporations-third-world-predators-o "Multinational Corporations in the Third World: Predators or Allies in Economic Development?" 20 July 2010].</ref><ref>Investopedia, [https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/021715/why-are-most-multinational-corporations-either-us-europe-or-japan.asp "Why are most multinational corporations either from the US, Europe or Japan"].</ref><ref>Jackson J. Spielvogel, [https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=ZXYWAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA710&lpg=PA710&dq=corporations+western+world&source=bl&ots=NorhrticVX&sig=IV6iwvWuGeV9973Icdir6qskqAA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiSooXH9bPcAhWOKFAKHSjTDl0Q6AEI7AEwGg#v=onepage&q=corporations%20western%20world&f=false "Western Civilization: A Brief History, Volume II: Since 1500" 2016].</ref><ref>United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Foreign Relations. Subcommittee on Multinational Corporations, [https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=UeuQzyI17B4C&pg=PA178&lpg=PA178&dq=corporations+western+world&source=bl&ots=Q0FpS9fCcs&sig=LQh86Zv4hLfsLqd4ii8Tg8y_P2o&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiSooXH9bPcAhWOKFAKHSjTDl0Q6AEI6QEwGQ#v=onepage&q=corporations%20western%20world&f=false "Multinational corporations and United States foreign policy Part 11" 1975].</ref>
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| ==Views on torn countries==
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| 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.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Huntington |first1=Samuel |title=The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order |date=1996 |publisher=Simon & Schuster |location=New York |page=43}}</ref> These include [[Turkey]], whose political leadership has since the 1920s tried to Westernize the predominantly [[Islam|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.<ref name="WorldOfCivil2"/> 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 [[accession of Turkey to the European Union|join the European Union]] with very slow progress.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order|author=Samuel P. Huntington|publisher=The Free Press|pages=144–149}}</ref>
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| ==Other views==
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| 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 [[civilization]]s 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.<ref name="Arnold J. Toynbee 1966"/>
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| The [[theologian]] and [[paleontologist]] [[Pierre Teilhard de Chardin]] conceived of the West as the set of civilizations descended from the [[Nile Valley Civilizations|Nile Valley Civilization]] of [[Egypt]].<ref>Cf., Teilhard de Chardin, ''Le Phenomene Humain'' (1955), translated as ''The Phenomena of Man'' (New York 1959).</ref>
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| Palestinian-American literary critic [[Edward Said]] uses the term "Occident" in his discussion of [[Orientalism]]. According to his [[binary opposition|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|date=April 2021}} 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|date=May 2021}}
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| {{Hidden begin|ta1=center|border=1px #aaa solid|title=Map illustrations of the West according to different but closely interrelated definitions|style=overflow-x:scroll}}
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| <gallery>
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| File:Theodosius_I's_empire.png|Division of the [[Roman Empire]] after 395 into western and eastern part. The geopolitical divisions in Europe that created a concept of ''East'' and ''West'' originated in the Roman Empire.
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| File:Latin alphabet world distribution.svg|Latin alphabet world distribution. The dark green areas show the countries where this alphabet is the sole official (or de facto official) national script. The light green places show the countries where the alphabet co-exists with other scripts.
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| File:Christian world map.png|Countries with 50% or more [[Christianity|Christians]] are colored purple while countries with 10% to 50% Christians are colored pink
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| File:Religion in the world.PNG|Map showing relative degree of religiosity by country. Based on a 2006–2008 worldwide survey by Gallup.
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| File:Primary Human Language Families Map.png|Human [[language families]].
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| File:Western palearctic.png|[[Western Palearctic]], a part of the [[Palearctic realm]], one of the eight [[biogeographic realm]]s dividing the Earth's surface.
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| File:Intermediate Region Western Boundary FR.JPG|Geopolitical Occident of Europe, according to the [[Intermediate Region]] theory of [[Dimitri Kitsikis]]
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| File:Indo-European-speaking world.png|[[Indo-European languages]].
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| File:EU and EFTA.svg|European Union (in blue) and European Free Trade Association (in green).
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| File:2019 UN Human Development Report.svg|[[Human Development Index]] Report (based on 2018 data, published in 2019).
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| File:Map of the Legal systems of the world (en).png|Legal systems of the world.
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| File:Secular States Map.svg|Secular states in blue.
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| File:Christ_Islam.png|Relative geographic prevalence of Christianity versus the second most prevalent religion [[Islam]] and lack of either religion, in 2006.
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| </gallery>
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| {{Hidden end}}
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| ==See also==
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| {{portal|Civilizations|World}}
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| {{div col|colwidth=15em}}
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| * [[Americanization]]
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| * [[Americas]]
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| * [[Anglicisation]]
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| * [[English-speaking world|Anglophone]]
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| * [[Atlanticism]]
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| * [[Eastern world]]
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| * [[East-West dichotomy]]
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| * [[Europeanisation]]
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| * [[Far West (Taixi)|Far West]]
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| * [[First World]]
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| * [[Francophonie]]
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| * [[Free world]]
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| * [[North–South divide in the World|Global North]]
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| * [[Global South]]
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| * [[Golden billion]]
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| * [[Hispanophone]]
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| * [[History of Western civilization]]
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| * [[Maghreb]]
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| * [[Mid-Atlantic English]]
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| * [[Monroe Doctrine]]
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| * [[Three-world model]]
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| * [[Western esotericism]]
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| * [[Western hemisphere]]
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| * [[Western philosophy]]
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| * [[Western civilization]]
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| * [[Anti-Western sentiment]]
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| {{div col end}}
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| ; Organisations:
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| * [[European Council]]
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| * [[European Economic Area|European Economic Area (EEA)]]
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| * [[G10 currencies]]
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| * [[Group of Seven|Group of Seven (G7)]]
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| * [[Group of Twelve|Group of Twelve (G12)]]
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| ; Representation in the United Nations:
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| * [[Eastern European Group]]
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| * [[Western European and Others Group]]
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| ==Notes==
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| {{notelist|1}}
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| {{reflist|1|group=n|liststyle=upper-alpha}}
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| ==References==
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| {{reflist}}
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| ==Further reading==
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| * {{Cite book|last= Ankerl |first= Guy |others= Global communication without universal civilization |year= 2000 |series= INU societal research |volume= 1 |title=Coexisting contemporary civilizations: Arabo-Muslim, Bharati, Chinese, and West |publisher= INU Press |location= Geneva |isbn= 2-88155-004-5 }}
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| * Bavaj, Riccardo: [http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0159-2011112107 ''"The West": A Conceptual Exploration ''], [[European History Online]], Mainz: [[Institute of European History]], 2011, retrieved: 28 November 2011.
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| * Conze, Vanessa, [http://ieg-ego.eu/en/threads/crossroads/political-spaces/vanessa-conze-abendland?set_language=en&-C= ''Abendland''], [http://www.ieg-ego.eu/ EGO - European History Online], Mainz: [http://www.ieg-mainz.de/likecms/index.php Institute of European History], 2017, retrieved: 8 March 2021 ([https://d-nb.info/1149297131/34 pdf]).
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| * Daly, Jonathan. "[http://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/the-rise-of-western-power-9781441161314/ The Rise of Western Power: A Comparative History of Western Civilization]" (London and New York: Bloomsbury, 2014). {{ISBN|9781441161314}}.
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| * Daly, Jonathan. "[http://www.tandfindia.com/books/details/9781138774810/ Historians Debate the Rise of the West]" (London and New York: Routledge, 2015). {{ISBN|978-1-13-877481-0}}.
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| * [http://www.learner.org/resources/series58.html ''The Western Tradition'' homepage at Annenberg/CPB] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190420105224/http://www.learner.org/resources/series58.html |date=20 April 2019 }} – where you can watch each episode on demand for free (Pop-ups required). Videos are also available as a [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYbocufkwRFAS80nLFShkXSblfcFTXwRH YouTube playlist].
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| * [[J. F. C. Fuller]]. A [[Military history|Military History]] of the Western World. Three Volumes. New York: [[Da capo|Da Capo]] Press, Inc., 1987 and 1988.
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| : V. 1. From the earliest times to the [[Battle of Lepanto]]; {{ISBN|0-306-80304-6}}.
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| : V. 2. From [[The Defeat of the Spanish Armada|the defeat of the Spanish Armada]] to [[Battle of Waterloo|the Battle of Waterloo]]; {{ISBN|0-306-80305-4}}.
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| : V. 3. From the [[American Civil War]] to the end of [[World War II]]; {{ISBN|0-306-80306-2}}.
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| {{Cultural gens}}
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| {{Western culture}}
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| {{Authority control}}
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| [[Category:Civilizations]]
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| [[Category:Country classifications]]
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| [[Category:Cultural concepts]]
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| [[Category:Cultural regions]]
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| [[Category:Historiography of Europe]]
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| [[Category:Western culture]]
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