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TheWestern world, also known asthe West, primarily refers to variousnations andstates inWestern Europe,[a]Northern America, andAustralasia;[b] with some debate as to whether those inEastern Europe andLatin America[c] also constitute the West.[3][4] The Western world likewise is called theOccident (from Latin occidens'setting down, sunset, west') in contrast to theEastern world known as theOrient (from Latin oriens'origin, sunrise, east'). The West is considered an evolving concept; made up of cultural, political, and economic synergy among diverse groups of people, and not a rigid region with fixed borders and members.[5] Definitions of "Western world" vary according to context and perspectives.
Some historians contend that a linear development of the West can be traced fromAncient Greece and Rome,[6] while others argue that such a projection constructs a false genealogy.[7][8] A geographical concept of the West started to take shape in the 4th century CE whenConstantine, the first Christian Roman emperor, divided the Roman Empire between theGreek East and Latin West. TheEast Roman Empire, later called theByzantine Empire, continued for a millennium, while theWest Roman Empire lasted for only about a century and a half. Significant theological and ecclesiastical differences led Western Europeans to consider the Christians in the Byzantine Empire as heretics. In 1054 CE, when the church in Romeexcommunicated thepatriarch of Byzantium, the politico-religious division between theWestern church andEastern church culminated in the Great Schism or theEast–West Schism.[9] Even though friendly relations continued between the two parts ofChristendom for some time, thecrusades made the schism definitive with hostility.[10] The West during these crusades tried to capture trade routes to the East and failed, it instead discovered theAmericas.[11] In the aftermath of theEuropean colonization of the Americas, primarily involvingWestern European countries, an idea of the "Western" world, as an inheritor ofLatin Christendom emerged.[12] According to theOxford English dictionary, the earliest reference to the term "Western world" was from 1586, found in the writings ofWilliam Warner.[13]
The countries that are considered constituents of the West vary according to perspective rather than their geographical location. Countries like Australia and New Zealand, located in theEastern Hemisphere are included in modern definitions of the Western world, as these regions and others like them have been significantly influenced by theBritish—derived fromcolonization, andimmigration of Europeans—factors that grounded such countries to the West.[14] Depending on the context and the historical period in question,Russia was sometimes seen as a part of the West, and at other times juxtaposed with it, as well as endorsinganti-Western sentiment.[15][16][17]Running parallel to the rise of theUnited States as a great power and the development of communication–transportation technologies "shrinking" the distance between both theAtlantic Ocean shores, the US became more prominently featured in the conceptualizations of the West.[15]
Between the 18th century and mid-20th century, prominent countries in the West such as the United States, Canada, Brazil, Argentina, Australia, and New Zealand have been once envisioned asethnocracies forWhites.[18][19][20]Racism is cited as a contributing factor toEuropean colonization of theNew World, which today constitutes much of the "geographical" Western world.[21][22] Starting from the late 1960s, certain parts of the Western world have become notable for theirdiversity due toimmigration.[23][24] The idea of "the West" over the course of time has evolved from a directional concept to a socio-political concept that had been temporalized and rendered as a concept of the future bestowed with notions of progress and modernity.[15]
In ancient Greece and Rome, individuals identified primarily as subjects of states, city-states, or empires, rather than as members of Western civilization. The distinct identification of Western civilization began to crystallize with the rise of Christianity during theLate Roman Empire. In this period, peoples in Europe started to perceive themselves as part of a unique civilization, differentiating from others likeIslam, giving rise to the concept of Western civilization. By the 15th century,Renaissance intellectuals solidified this concept, associating Western civilization not only with Christianity but also with the intellectual and political achievements of the ancient Greeks and Romans.[43]
Historians, such asCarroll Quigley in"The Evolution of Civilizations",[51] contend that Western civilization was born around AD 500, after thefall of the Western Roman Empire, leaving a vacuum for new ideas to flourish that were impossible in Classical societies. In either view, between the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the Renaissance, the West (or those regions that would later become the heartland of the culturally "western sphere") experienced a period of decline, and then readaptation, reorientation and considerable renewed material, technological and political development.[52]Classical culture of theancient Western world was partly preserved during this period due to the survival of theEastern Roman Empire and the introduction of theCatholic Church; it was also greatly expanded by theArab importation[53][54] of both theAncient Greco-Roman and new technology through the Arabs from India and China to Europe.[55][56]
Since the Renaissance, the West evolved beyond the influence of the ancient Greeks and Romans and the Islamic world, due to the successfulSecond Agricultural,Commercial,[57]Scientific,[58] andIndustrial[59] revolutions (propellers ofmodern banking concepts). The West rose further with the 18th century'sAge of Enlightenment and through theAge of Exploration's expansion of peoples of European empires in the 18th and 19th centuries, particularly the globe-spanning colonial empires of Western Europe.[60] Numerous times, this expansion was accompanied byCatholicmissionaries, who attempted to proselytize Christianity.
The West of the Mediterranean Region during the Antiquity
The geopolitical divisions in Europe that created a concept ofEast andWest originated in theancient tyrannical and imperialisticGraeco-Roman times.[91] The EasternMediterranean was home to the highly urbanized cultures that hadGreek as their common language (owing to the older empire ofAlexander the Great and of theHellenistic 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 (orMiddle Ages), Western and Central Europe were substantially cut off from the East whereByzantine Greek culture andEastern Christianity became founding influences in the Eastern European world such as the East and South Slavic peoples.[citation needed]
Roman Catholic Western and Central Europe, as such, maintained a distinct identity particularly as it began to redevelop during the Renaissance. Even following the ProtestantReformation, Protestant Europe continued to see itself as more tied to Roman Catholic Europe than other parts of the perceivedcivilized world.Use of the termWest as a specific cultural and geopolitical term developed over the course of theAge of Exploration as Europe spread its culture to other parts of the world.Roman Catholics were the first major religious group to immigrate to theNew World, as settlers in the colonies ofSpain andPortugal (and later,France) belonged to that faith.English andDutch colonies, on the other hand, tended to be more religiously diverse. Settlers to these colonies includedAnglicans, DutchCalvinists, EnglishPuritans and othernonconformists,English Catholics, ScottishPresbyterians, FrenchHuguenots, German and SwedishLutherans, as well asQuakers,Mennonites,Amish, andMoravians.[citation needed]
TheRoman 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 theCarthaginians
Graphical map of post-AD 395Roman Empire highlighting differences between westernRoman Catholic and easternGreek Orthodox parts, on the eve of the death of last emperor to rule on both thewestern andeastern halves. The concept of "East-West" originated in the cultural division betweenChristian Churches.[91]Western andEastern Roman Empires on the eve of Western collapse in September of AD 476.
TheRoman Empire in AD 117. During 350 years the Roman Republic turned into an Empire expanding up to twenty-five times its area.
Ancient Rome (6th century BC – AD 476) is a term to describe the ancientRoman society that conquered Central Italy assimilating the ItalianEtruscan culture, growing from theLatium region since about the 8th century BC, to a massive empire straddling theMediterranean Sea. In its 10-centuries territorial expansion,Roman civilization shifted from a smallmonarchy (753–509 BC), to arepublic (509–27 BC), into anautocratic empire (27 BC – AD 476). Its Empire came to dominate Western, Central and Southeastern Europe, Northern Africa and, becoming an autocratic Empire a vastMiddle Eastern area, when it ended. Conquest was enforced using theRoman legions and then throughcultural 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 ultimatelyfall of the Roman Empire.[citation needed]
TheRoman Empire succeeded the approximately 500-year-oldRoman Republic (c. 510–30 BC). In 350 years, from the successful and deadliestwar with thePhoenicians began in 218 BC to the rule ofEmperor 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 ofDacia in AD 106 (modern-dayRomania) under Emperor Trajan. During its territorial peak, the Roman Empire controlled about 5,000,000 square kilometres (1,900,000 sq mi) of land surface and had a population of 100 million. From the time of Caesar (100–44 BC) to the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, Rome dominatedSouthern Europe, the Mediterranean coast ofNorthern Africa and theLevant, including the ancient traderoutes with population living outside. Ancient Rome has contributed greatly to the development of law, war, art, literature, architecture, technology and language in theWestern world, and itshistory continues to have a major influence on the world today. TheLatin language has been the base from whichRomance languages evolved and it has been the official language of theCatholic Church and all Catholic religious ceremonies all over Europe until 1967, as well as one of, or the official language of countries such as Italy and Poland (9th–18th centuries).[92][citation needed]
Endinginvasions on Roman Empire since the 2nd and throughout the 5th centuries establishing mostlyGermanic kingdoms in its place
In AD 395, a few decades before its Western collapse, the Roman Empire formally split into aWestern and anEastern one, each with their own emperors, capitals, and governments, although ostensibly they still belonged to one formal Empire. TheWestern Roman Empire provinces eventually were replaced byNorthern EuropeanGermanic ruled kingdoms in the 5th century due tocivil wars, corruption, and devastating Germanic invasions from such tribes as theHuns,Goths, theFranks and theVandals by their lateexpansion throughout Europe. The three-day Visigoths'sAD 410 sack of Rome who had been raiding Greece not long before, a shocking time forGreco-Romans, was the first time after almost 800 years that Rome had fallen to a foreign enemy, andSt. Jerome, living in Bethlehem at the time, wrote that "The City which had taken the whole world was itself taken."[93] There followed thesack of AD 455 lasting 14 days, this time conducted by theVandals, retaining Rome's eternal spirit through theHoly See of Rome (theLatin Church) for centuries to come.[94][95] The ancientBarbarian 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.[96]
The Roman Empire is where the idea of "the West" began to emerge.[f]
TheEastern Roman Empire, governed fromConstantinople, is usually referred to as theByzantine Empire after AD 476, the traditional date for the fall of the Roman Empire and beginning of theEarly Middle Ages. The survival of the Eastern Roman Empire protected Roman legal and cultural traditions, combining them with Greek and Christian elements, for another thousand years. The name Byzantine Empire was first used centuries later, after the Byzantine Empire ended. The dissolution of the Western half, nominally ended in AD 476, but in truth a long process that ended by the rise of CatholicGaul (modern-dayFrance) 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 until AD 610–800, when Latin ceased to be the official language of the empire. The inhabitants called themselves Romans because the term "Roman" was meant to signify allChristians. The Pope crownedCharlemagne asEmperor of the Romans of the newly establishedHoly Roman Empire, and the West began thinking in terms ofWestern Latins living in the old Western Empire, andEastern Greeks (those inside the Roman remnant of the old Eastern Empire).[97]
The birth of the European West during the Middle Ages
In the early 4th century, the central focus of power was on two separate imperial legacies within the Roman Empire: the olderAegean SeaGreek heritage (ofClassical Greece) in the Eastern Mediterranean, and the newer most successfulTyrrhenian SeaLatin heritage (ofAncient Latium and Tuscany) in the Western Mediterranean. A turning point wasConstantine the Great's decision to establish the city ofConstantinople (today'sIstanbul) in modern-dayTurkey as the "New Rome" when he picked it as capital of his Empire (later called "Byzantine Empire" by modern historians) in AD 330.
This internal conflict of legacies had possibly emerged since theassassination 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'smany internal civil wars. This is the time when theHuns (part of the ancient Eastern European tribes namedbarbarians by the Romans) from modern-dayHungary penetrated into theDalmatian (modern-dayCroatia) 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'sreligious policy, when the Emperors began actively banning and fighting previouspagan religions.
History of the spread of Christianity: in AD 325 (dark blue) and AD 600 (blue) following Western Roman Empire's collapse underGermanic migrations.
As theEastern (Orthodox) and Western (Catholic) churches spread their influence, the line between Eastern and Western Christianity was moving. Its movement was affected by the influence of the Byzantine empire and the fluctuating power and influence of the Catholic church in Rome. The geographic line of religious division approximately followed a line ofcultural divide.[citation needed]
In AD 800 underCharlemagne, theEarly Medieval Franks established an empire that was recognized by thePope in Rome as theHoly 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 theEastern Roman Emperor in Constantinople, and leading to theCrusades and the East–West Schism. The crowning of the Emperor by the Pope led to the assumption that the highest power was thepapal hierarchy, quintessential Roman Empire's spiritual heritage authority, establishing then, until the Protestant Reformation, the civilization ofWestern Christendom.[citation needed]
The earliest concept of Europe as a cultural sphere (instead of simple geographic term) is believed to have been formed byAlcuin of York during theCarolingian Renaissance of the 9th century, but was limited to the territories that practisedWestern Christianity at the time.[98]
TheLatin Church of western and central Europe split with the easternGreek patriarchates in the ChristianEast–West Schism, also known as the "Great Schism", during theGregorian Reforms (calling for a more central status of the Roman Catholic Church Institution), three months afterPope Leo IX's death in April 1054.[99] Following the 1054Great Schism, both theWestern Church andEastern Church continued to consider themselvesuniquely 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."[100] Over time, theWestern Christianity gradually identified with the "Catholic" label, and people of Western Europe gradually associated the "Orthodox" label withEastern Christianity (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 theEastern Orthodox Church.[citation needed]
The Byzantine Empire in AD 1180 before LatinFourth Crusade
In 1071, the Byzantine army was defeated by theMuslimTurco-Persians of medievalAsia, resulting in the loss of most ofAsia Minor. The situation was a serious threat to the future of theEastern OrthodoxByzantine Empire. The Emperor sent a plea to thePope 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 and Italy) had no allegiance to the Byzantine Emperor and established their own states in the conquered regions,including the heart of the Byzantine Empire.
The Greek Byzantine Empire split by a newly establishedLatin Crusader State after the Fourth Crusade (shown partly in Greece and partly in Turkey)
Thedecline of the Byzantine Empire (13th–15th centuries) began with theLatin ChristianFourth Crusade in AD 1202–04, considered to be one of the most important events, solidifying theschism between theChristian churches ofGreekByzantine Rite andLatinRoman Rite. Ananti-Western riot in 1182 broke out inConstantinople targeting Latins. The extremely wealthy (after previousCrusades)Venetians in particular made asuccessful attempt to maintain control over the coast ofCatholic present-day Croatia (specifically theDalmatia, a region of interest to themaritime medieval Venetian Republic moneylenders and its rivals, such as the Republic of Genoa) rebelling against the Venetian economic domination.[101] What followed dealt an irrevocable blow to the already weakened Byzantine Empire with theCrusader army's sack of Constantinople in April 1204, capital of theGreek Christian-controlledByzantine Empire, described as one of the most profitable and disgraceful sacks of a city in history.[102] This paved the way for Muslim conquests inpresent-day Turkey and theBalkans in the coming centuries (only a handful of the Crusaders followed to the stated destination thereafter, theHoly Land). The geographical identity of the Balkans is historically known as a crossroads of cultures, a juncture between theLatin andGreek bodies of theRoman Empire, the destination of a massive influx of pagans (meaning"non-Christians")Bulgars andSlavs, an area whereCatholic andOrthodox Christianity met,[103] as well as the meeting point betweenIslam and Christianity. ThePapal Inquisition was established in AD 1229 on a permanent basis, run largely by clergymen in Rome,[104] and abolished six centuries later. Before AD 1100, theCatholic Church suppressed what they believed to be heresy, usually through a system of ecclesiastical proscription or imprisonment, but without using torture,[105] and seldom resorting to executions.[106][107][108][109]
Both these religious wars ended with thePeace of Westphalia (1648), which enshrined the concept of thenation-state, and the principle of absolutenational sovereignty ininternational law. As European influence spread across the globe, theseWestphalian principles, especially the concept of sovereign states, became central to international law and to the prevailing world order.[113]
Expansion of the West: the Era of Colonialism (15th–20th centuries)
In the 13th and 14th centuries, a number of European travelers, many of them Christianmissionaries, had sought to cultivate trading with Asia andAfrica. With the Crusades came the relative contraction of the OrthodoxByzantine's large silk industryin favor of Catholic Western Europe and the rise ofWestern Papacy. The most famous of thesemerchant travelers pursuingEast–west trade was VenetianMarco 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 newMing rulers were found to be unreceptive of religious proselytism by European missionaries and merchants. Meanwhile, theOttomanTurks consolidated control over the easternMediterranean, closing off key overland trade routes.[citation needed]
ThePortuguese 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 thecaravel ship introduced in the mid-1400s. The charting of oceanic routes between East and West began with the unprecedented voyages of Portuguese andSpanish sea captains. In 1492,European colonialism expanded across the globe with theexploring voyage of merchant, navigator, and Hispano-Italian colonizerChristopher Columbus. Such voyages were influenced by medieval European adventurers after the Europeanspice 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 inWestern history as they marked the beginning of theEuropean exploration,colonization and exploitation ofthe American continents and theirnative inhabitants.[g][h] TheEuropean colonization of the Americas led to theAtlantic 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, theBritish Empire alone (which had started colonial effortsin 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.[115] TheHoly Roman Empire was dissolved in 1806 by theFrench Revolutionary Wars; abolition of theRoman Catholic Inquisition followed.[citation needed]
Due to the reach of these empires, Western institutions expanded throughout the world. This process of influence (and imposition) began with thevoyages of discovery,colonization, conquest, and exploitation ofPortugal enforced as well bypapal bulls in 1450s (by thefall of the Byzantine Empire), granting Portugal navigation, war and trade monopoly for any newly discovered lands,[116] and competingSpanish navigators. It continued with the rise of theDutch East India Company by the destabilizing Spanishdiscovery of the New World, and the creation and expansion of theEnglish andFrench colonial empires, and others.[citation needed] Even after demands for self-determination from subject peoples within Western empires were met withdecolonization, these institutions persisted. One specific example was the requirement thatpost-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 theMiddle Ages Western culture in fact entered other global-spanning cultures during the colonial 15th–20th centuries.[citation needed] Historicallycolonialism had been justified with the values ofindividualism andenlightenment.[117]
The concepts of a world ofnation-states born by thePeace of Westphalia in 1648, coupled with the ideologies of the Enlightenment, the coming ofmodernity, theScientific Revolution[118] and theIndustrial Revolution,[119] would produce powerful social transformations, political andeconomic institutions that have come toinfluence (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.[120]
In the early-19th century, the systematicurbanization process (migration from villages in search of jobs in manufacturing centers) had begun, and the concentration of labor 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.[121] Also, the new philosophical movement later known asRomanticism originated, in the wake of the previous Age ofReason of the 1600s and theEnlightenment of 1700s. These are seen as fostering the 19th centuryWestern world's sustained economic development.[122] Before the urbanization and industrialization of the 1800s, demand fororiental goods such asporcelain,silk,spices andtea 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.[123]Industrialization, 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 inChina for example by theOpium Wars).[124] This resulted in the "New Imperialism", which saw a shift in focus from trade andindirect rule to formal colonial control of vast overseas territories ruled as political extensions of their mother countries.[i] The later years of the 19th century saw the transition from "informal imperialism" (hegemony)[j] by military influence and economic dominance, to direct rule (a revival of colonialimperialism) in theAfrican continent andMiddle East.[128]
During the socioeconomically optimistic and innovative decades of theSecond Industrial Revolution between the 1870s and 1914, also known as the "Beautiful Era", the established colonial powers in Asia (United Kingdom, France, Netherlands) added to their empires also vast expanses of territory in theIndian Subcontinent andSoutheast Asia. Japan was involved primarily during theMeiji period (1868–1912), though earlier contacts with the Portuguese, Spaniards and Dutch were also present in theJapanese Empire's recognition of the strategic importance of European nations. Traditional Japanese society became an industrial and militarist power like the WesternBritish Empire and theFrench Third Republic, and similar to theGerman Empire.[verification needed][citation needed]
By 1913, theBritish Empire held sway over 412 million people,23% of the world population at the time,[130] and by 1920, it covered 35,500,000 km2 (13,700,000 sq mi),[131]24% of the Earth's total land area.[132] 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.[133] As a result, its political,legal,linguistic andcultural legacy is widespread throughout theWestern world.[citation needed] In theaftermath of the Second World War, decolonizing efforts were employed by all Western powers underUnited Nations (ex-League of Nations) international directives.[citation needed] Most of colonized nations received independence by 1960. Great Britain showed ongoing responsibility for the welfare of its former colonies asmember states of the Commonwealth of Nations. But the end of Western colonial imperialism saw the rise of Westernneocolonialism 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 alarge 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.[134][135] The dictum ofAlfred Thayer Mahan is shown to have lasting relevance, that whoever controls the seas controls the world.[136]
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 theAge of Reason) represents the "atrophy of Christian transcendental experiences and [seeks] to enthrone theNewtonian method of science as the only valid method of arriving at truth".[137] Its precursors wereJohn Milton andBaruch Spinoza.[138] MeetingGalileo in 1638 left an enduring impact on John Milton and influenced Milton's great workAreopagitica, where he warns that, withoutfree speech, inquisitorial forces will impose "an undeserved thraldom upon learning".[139]
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 ofrationalism, while faith is ruled by superstition and traditionalism.[141] Inspired by the Scientific Revolution, the Enlightenment embodied the ideals of improvement and progress.Descartes andIsaac Newton were regarded as exemplars of human intellectual achievement.Condorcet wrote about the progress of humanity in theSketch of the Progress of the Human Mind (1794), fromprimitive society toagrarianism, the invention of writing, the later invention of theprinting press and the advancement to "the Period when the Sciences and Philosophy threw off the Yoke of Authority".[142]
French writerPierre Bayle denounced Spinoza as apantheist (thereby accusing him ofatheism). Bayle's criticisms garnered much attention for Spinoza. The pantheism controversy in the late 18th century sawGotthold Lessing attacked byFriedrich Heinrich Jacobi over support for Spinoza's pantheism. Lessing was defended byMoses Mendelssohn, although Mendelssohn diverged from pantheism to followGottfried Wilhelm Leibniz in arguing that God and the world were not of the same substance (equivalency). Spinoza was excommunicated from the DutchSephardic community, but for Jews who sought out Jewish sources to guide their own path to secularism, Spinoza was as important as Voltaire and Kant.[143]
During theCold War, a new definition emerged. Earth was divided into three "worlds". TheFirst World, analogous in this context to what was calledthe West, was composed ofNATO members and other countries aligned with the United States.
The Second World was theEastern bloc in the Sovietsphere of influence, including the Soviet Union (15 republics including the then-occupied and presently independent Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania) andWarsaw Pact countries like Poland, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, East Germany (now united with Germany), andCzechoslovakia (now split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia).
The Third World consisted of countries, many of which wereunaligned with either, and important members included India,Yugoslavia, Finland (Finlandization) and Switzerland (Swiss Neutrality); some include thePeople'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.
A number of countries did not fit comfortably into this neat definition of partition, including Switzerland, Sweden, Austria, andIreland, which chose to be neutral.Finland was under theSoviet Union's military sphere of influence (seeFCMA 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 theIron 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 theUnited States' sphere of influence. Spain did not join the NATO until 1982, seven years after the death of the authoritarianFranco.
The exact scope of theWestern 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: theEastern world, theArab and theAfrican worlds, with no clearly specified boundaries. Additionally,Latin American andOrthodox European worlds are sometimes either a sub-civilization within Western civilization or separately considered "akin" to the West.
Many anthropologists, sociologists and historians oppose "the West and the Rest" in a categorical manner.[144] The same has been done by Malthusian demographers with a sharp distinction between European and non-European family systems. Among anthropologists, this includesDurkheim,Dumont, andLévi-Strauss.[144]
The Oxford English dictionary noted that the earliest use of the term "Western world" in the English language was in 1586, found in the writings ofWilliam Warner.[13]
In the 20th century, Christianitydeclined 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,[148] 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 thatreligion is important,[149] 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. Theofficial 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.[150]
Certain parts of the Western world have become notable for theirdiversity since the late 1960s.[23][24]Earlier, between the eighteenth century to mid-twentieth century, prominent western countries like the United States, Canada, Brazil, Argentina, Australia, and New Zealand have been once envisioned ashomelands forwhites.[18][19][20]Racism has been noted as a contributing factor toWesterners' colonization of theNew World, which makes up much of the geographical West today.[21][22]
Countries in theWestern 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, theInternet'smarket penetration in the West was twice that in non-Western regions.[154]
The term"Western world" is sometimes interchangeably used with the termFirst World ordeveloped countries, stressing the difference between First World and theThird World ordeveloping countries. This usage occurs despite the fact that many countries that may be culturally Western aredeveloping countries – in fact, a significant percentage of the Americas are developing countries. It is also used despite manydeveloped countries or regions not being culturally Western (e.g.Japan,Singapore,South Korea,Taiwan,Hong Kong, andMacao).Privatization policies (involving government enterprises and public services) andmultinational corporations are often considered a visible sign of Western nations' economic presence, especially in Third World countries, and represent a common institutional environment for powerful politicians, enterprises, trade unions and firms, bankers and thinkers of the Western world.[155][156][157][158][159]
Other views
A series of scholars of civilization, includingArnold J. Toynbee,Alfred Kroeber andCarroll Quigley have identified and analyzed "Western civilization" as one of thecivilizations 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 theintelligentsia 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.[64]
Palestinian-American literary criticEdward Said uses the term "Occident" in his discussion ofOrientalism. According to hisbinary, 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 inHegel'smaster-slave dialectic: The Occident would not exist without the Orient and vice versa.[citation needed] Further, Western writers created this irrational, feminine, weak "Other" to contrast with the rational, masculine, strong West because of a need to create a difference between the two that would justify imperialist ambitions, according to the Said-influenced Indian-American theoristHomi K. Bhabha.[citation needed]
The idea of "the West" over the course of time has evolved from a directional concept to a sociopolitical concept, and has been temporalized and rendered as a concept of the future bestowed with notions of progress and modernity.[15]
^By Rome's central location at the heart of the Empire, "West" and "East" were terms used to denote provinces west and east of the capital itself. Therefore,Iberia (Portugal and Spain),Gaul (France), the Mediterranean coast ofNorth Africa (Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco) andBritannia 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 ofDiocletian dividing the Empire into true two halves: Eastern and Western.[citation needed]
^In the 16th century, the Portuguese broke the (overland) medieval monopoly of the Arabs and Italians of trade (goods and slaves) between Asia andEurope by thediscovery of the sea route to India around the Cape of Good Hope.[114] 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 lucrativeJapan trade from the Portuguese. Later, theEnglish and theFrench established some settlements inIndia and trade withChina, and their own acquisitions would gradually surpass those of the Dutch. In 1763, the British eliminated French influence in India and established theBritish East India Company as the most important political force on theIndian Subcontinent.
^TheScramble for Africa was the occupation, division, and colonization of African territory by European powers during the period ofNew 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 onlyEthiopia (Abyssinia), theDervish state (a portion of present-daySomalia)[125] andLiberia still being independent.
^Inancient Greece (8th century BC – AD 6th century), hegemony denoted the politico-military dominance of acity-state over other city-states.[126] The dominant state is known as thehegemon.[127]
^Hunt, Lynn;Martin, Thomas R.;Rosenwein, Barbara H.;Smith, Bonnie G. (2015).The Making of the West: People and Cultures. Bedford/St. Martin's. p. 4.ISBN978-1457681523.The making of the West depended on cultural, political, and economic interaction among diverse groups. The West remains an evolving concept, not a fixed region with unchanging borders and members.
Richard, Carl J. (2010).Why We're All Romans: The Roman Contribution to the Western World. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.ISBN978-0742567801.In 1,200 years the tiny village of Rome established arepublic, conquered all of the Mediterranean basin and western Europe, lost its republic, and finally, surrendered itsempire. In the process the Romans laid the foundation of Western civilization. [...] The pragmatic Romans brought Greek and Hebrew ideas down to earth, modified them, and transmitted them throughout western Europe. [...]Roman law remains the basis for thelegal codes of most western European and Latin American countries — Even in English-speaking countries, wherecommon law prevails, Roman law has exerted substantial influence.
^Ware, Kallistos (1993).The Orthodox Church. Penguin Books.ISBN9780140146561.But even after 1054 friendly relations between east and west continued. The two parts of Christendom were not yet conscious of a great gulf of separation between them, and people on both sides still hoped that the misunderstandings could be cleared up without too much difficulty. The dispute remained something of which ordinary Christians in east and west were largely unaware. It was the Crusades which made the schism definitive: they introduced a new spirit of hatred and bitterness, and they brought the whole issue down to the popular level.
^Durant, Will;Durant, Ariel (2012).The Lessons of History. Simon and Schuster.ISBN9781439170199.The Crusades, like the wars of Rome with Persia, were attempts of the West to capture trade routes to the East; the discovery of America was a result of the failure of the Crusades.
^Peterson, Paul Silas (2019).The Decline of Established Christianity in the Western World. Routledge. p. 26.ISBN9780367891381.Archived from the original on 29 January 2023. Retrieved29 January 2023.While "Western Civilization" is a common theme in the curriculum of secondary and tertiary education, there is a great deal of disagreement about what the terms "West" or "Western" world signify. I have defined it as those "religious traditions, institutions, cultures and nations, including their contemporary shared values, that together emerged as the intellectual descendants and transformers of Latin Christendom." Geographically, this entails Western Europe (including Poland and other central European countries), North America and many other parts of the world that share these traditions and histories, or have adopted them. Much of Central and South America seem to reflect these traditions and values.
Kaufmann, Eric (2018).Whiteshift: Populism, Immigration and the Future of White Majorities. Penguin Books.ISBN9780241317105.Between 1896 and 1928, the Republicans won seven of nine presidential contests. Immigration restriction was an important part of their platform. [...] Ethno-traditional nationalists favour slower immigration in order to permit enough immigrants to voluntarily assimilate into the ethnic majority, maintaining the white ethno-tradition. [...] rapid immigration of ethnic outsiders raises existential questions for the ethnic majority. In this case, around whether the white majority is losing predominance in 'its' perceived homeland.
Kelkar, Kamala (16 September 2017)."How a shifting definition of 'white' helped shape U.S. immigration policy".PBS News.Archived from the original on 13 December 2022.By 1790, aNaturalization Act declared that "all male white inhabitants" would become citizens, a time when the country started enforcing its hierarchy of whiteness. [...] while the concept of whiteness has changed since the 18th century, they say thatwhite nationalism has historically been a motivation behind U.S. immigration policy
Green, James N.;Skidmore, Thomas (2021).Brazil: Five Centuries of Change. Oxford University Press.ISBN978-0190068981.Thewhitening thesis called for an influx of white, preferably northern-European, blood in order for Brazilian society to achieve its goals to become an advanced nation. To the chagrin of the thesis' supporters, "nonwhite" immigrants started arriving on Brazilian shores, too.
"The Immigration Restriction Act and the White Australia policy".National Archives of Australia.Archived from the original on 19 December 2022. Retrieved19 December 2022.The Immigration Restriction Act 1901 was a landmark law which provided the cornerstone of the unofficial'White Australia' policy and aimed to maintain Australia as a nation populated mainly by white Europeans. It included a dictation test of 50 words in a European language, which became the chief way unwanted migrants could be excluded. The policy remained in place for many decades.
"White New Zealand policy introduced | NZHistory, New Zealand history online".nzhistory.govt.nz.Archived from the original on 1 March 2021. Retrieved8 March 2021.New Zealand's immigration policy in the early 20th century was strongly influenced by racial ideology. The Immigration Restriction Amendment Act 1920 required intending immigrants to apply for a permanent residence permit before they arrived in New Zealand. Permission was given at the discretion of the minister of customs. The Act enabled officials to prevent Indians and other non-white British subjects entering New Zealand.
^abBrowne, Anthony (3 September 2000)."The last days of a white world".The Guardian.Archived from the original on 18 November 2022.We are near a global watershed - a time when white people will not be in the majority in the developed world — Just 500 years ago, few had ventured outside their European homeland. [...] clearing the way, they settled in North America, South America, Australia, New Zealand and, to a lesser extent, southern Africa. But now, around the world, whites are falling as a proportion of population.
^Ricardo Duchesne (7 February 2011).The Uniqueness of Western Civilization. BRILL. p. 297.ISBN978-90-04-19248-5.The list of books which have celebrated Greece as the "cradle" of the West is endless; two more examples are Charles Freeman's The Greek Achievement: The Foundation of the Western World (1999) and Bruce Thornton's Greek Ways: How the Greeks Created Western Civilization (2000)
^Chiara Bottici; Benoît Challand (11 January 2013).The Myth of the Clash of Civilizations. Routledge. p. 88.ISBN978-1-136-95119-0.The reason why even such a sophisticated historian as Pagden can do it is that the idea that Greece is the cradle of civilisation is so much rooted in western minds and school curricula as to be taken for granted.
^William J. Broad (2007).The Oracle: Ancient Delphi and the Science Behind Its Lost Secrets. Penguin Publishing Group. p. 120.ISBN978-0-14-303859-7.In 1979, a friend of de Boer's invited him to join a team of scientists that was going to Greece to assess the suitability of the ... But the idea of learning more about Greece — the cradle of Western civilization, a fresh example of tectonic forces at ...
^Wayne C. Thompson; Mark H. Mullin (1983).Western Europe, 1983. Stryker-Post Publications. p. 337.ISBN9780943448114.for ancient Greece was the cradle of Western culture ...
^Library Journal. Vol. 97. Bowker. April 1972. p. 1588.Ancient Greece: Cradle of Western Culture (Series), disc. 6 strips with 3 discs, range: 44–60 fr., 17–18 min
^Murray Milner Jr. (8 January 2015).Elites: A General Model. John Wiley & Sons. p. 62.ISBN978-0-7456-8950-0.Greece has long been considered the seedbed or cradle of Western civilization.
^Kim Covert (1 July 2011).Ancient Greece: Birthplace of Democracy. Capstone. p. 5.ISBN978-1-4296-6831-6.Ancient Greece is often called the cradle of western civilization. ... Ideas from literature and science also have their roots in ancient Greece.
^Henry Turner Inman.Rome: the cradle of western civilisation as illustrated by existing monuments.ISBN9781177738538.
^Religions in Global Society – Page 146, Peter Beyer – 2006
^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.
^Brague, Rémi (2009)."Eccentric Culture: A Theory of Western Civilization".philpapers.org.Archived from the original on 17 December 2023. Retrieved17 December 2023.Western culture, which influenced the whole world, came from Europe. But its roots are not there. They are in Athens and Jerusalem... The Roman attitude senses its own incompleteness and recognizes the call to borrow from what went before it. Historically, it has led the West to borrow from the great traditions of Jerusalem and Athens: primarily the Jewish and Christian tradition, on the one hand, and the classical Greek tradition on the other.
^Rosenne, Shabtai (1958)."The Influence of Judaism on the Development of International Law".Netherlands International Law Review.5 (2):119–149.doi:10.1017/S0165070X00029685 (inactive 1 November 2024).ISSN2396-9113.Archived from the original on 17 December 2023. Retrieved17 December 2023.The fact that modern international law is one of the products of Western European civilization means that it rests, as all that civilization, upon the threefold heritage of the ancient Mediterranean world, the heritage of Rome, Athens and Jerusalem.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of November 2024 (link)
^H. G. Wells,The Outline of History,Section 31.8, The Intellectual Life of Arab IslamArchived 14 December 2009 at theWayback Machine "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."
^Lewis, Bernard (2002).What Went Wrong.Oxford University Press. p. 3.ISBN978-0-06-051605-5. "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."
^Eric Bond; Sheena Gingerich; Oliver Archer-Antonsen; Liam Purcell; Elizabeth Macklem (17 February 2003)."Innovations". The Industrial Revolution.Archived from the original on 6 September 2011. Retrieved6 May 2011.
^"Westernization".Oxford Reference.Archived from the original on 15 January 2024. Retrieved15 January 2024.
^abCf., 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).
^Hanson, Victor Davis (2007).Carnage and Culture: Landmark Battles in the Rise to Western Power. Knopf Doubleday.ISBN978-0-307-42518-8.the term "Western" — refer to the culture of classical antiquity that arose in Greece and Rome; survived the collapse of the Roman Empire; spread to western and northern Europe; then during the great periods of exploration and colonization of the fifteenth through nineteenth centuries expanded to the Americas, Australia and areas of Asia and Africa; and now exercises global political, economic, cultural, and military power far greater than the size of its territory or population might otherwise suggest.
Freeman, Charles (September 2000).The Greek Achievement: The Foundation of the Western World. Penguin.ISBN978-0-14-029323-4.The Greeks provided the chromosomes of Western civilization. One does not have to idealize the Greeks to sustain that point. Greek ways of exploring the cosmos, defining the problems of knowledge (and what is meant by knowledge itself), creating the language in which such problems are explored, representing the physical world and human society in the arts, defining the nature of value, describing the past, still underlie the Western cultural tradition
Cartledge, Paul (2002).The Greeks: A Portrait of Self and Others. Oxford University Press.ISBN978-0-19-157783-3.Greekness was identified with freedom-spiritual and social as well as political-and slavery was equated with being barbarian, [...] 'democracy' was a Greek invention (celebrating its 2,500th anniversary in 1993/4) [...] an ancient culture, that of the Greeks — is both a foundation stone of our own (Western) civilization and at the same time in key respects a deeply alien phenomenon.
Pagden, Anthony (2008).Worlds at War: The 2,500 - Year Struggle Between East and West. Oxford University Press.ISBN978-0-19-923743-2.Had the Persians overrun all of mainland Greece, had they then transformed the Greek city-states into satrapies of the Persian Empire, had Greek democracy been snuffed out, there would have been no Greek theater, no Greek science, no Plato, no Aristotle, no Sophocles, no Aeschylus. The incredible burst of creative energy that took place during the fifth and fourth centuries B.C.E. and that laid the foundation for all of later Western civilization would never have happened. [...] in the years between 490 and 479 B.C.E., the entire future of the Western world hung precariously in the balance
Richard, Carl J. (16 April 2010).Why We're All Romans: The Roman Contribution to the Western World. Rowman & Littlefield.ISBN978-0-7425-6780-1.In 1,200 years the tiny village of Rome established a republic, conquered all of the Mediterranean basin and western Europe, lost its republic, and finally, surrendered its empire. In the process the Romans laid the foundation of Western civilization. [...] The pragmatic Romans brought Greek and Hebrew ideas down to earth, modified them, and transmitted them throughout western Europe. [...] Roman law remains the basis for the legal codes of most western European and Latin American countries — Even in English-speaking countries, where common law prevails, Roman law has exerted substantial influence
^Nightingale, Andrea (2007). "The Philosophers in Archaic Greek Culture". In Shapiro, H. A.; Antonaccio, Carla M. (eds.).The Cambridge Companion to Archaic Greece. Cambridge companions to the ancient world. Cambridge University Press. p. 171.ISBN978-0-521-52929-7.We have ample evidence that the Greek thinkers encountered and responded to many different cultures and ideologies. Consider, for example, the city of Miletus, which was the center of intellectual activity in sixth-century Ionia. Miletus bordered on the Lydian and, later, the Persian empires and had extensive dealings with these cultures.In addition, it had trading relations all over the Mediterranean and sent out numerous colonies to Egypt and Thrace. The Milesian thinkers thus encountered ideas and practices from all over the "known" world. In the Archaic period, the interaction of different peoples from Greece, Italy, Egypt, and the Near East created a cultural ferment that had a profound impact on Greek life and thought.
^Boardman, John (1982),"The material culture of Archaic Greece", in Boardman, John; Hammond, N. G. L. (eds.),The Cambridge Ancient History, vol. 3 (2nd ed.), Cambridge University Press, p. 450,doi:10.1017/chol9780521234474.018,ISBN978-0-521-23447-4, retrieved20 October 2024,Knowledge of Egyptian art after the mid century led to Greek exploitation of the harder stone, their white island marble, for the first time, and the creation of figures at life size or more. We know these best—the kouroi and korai—as dedications and grave markers, but a prime use for monumental statuary must have been as cult images and it is at about this time that the temple-houses, oikoi, for these images begin to receive a monumental form and, again probably through inspiration from Egypt are decorated with architectural orders: first the Doric in homeland Greece, then the orientalizing Ionic in the East Greek world.
^Green, P. (2008).Alexander The Great and the Hellenistic Age. Phoenix. p. xiii.ISBN978-0-7538-2413-9.
^Porter, Stanley E. (2013).Early Christianity in its Hellenistic context. Volume 2, Christian origins and Hellenistic Judaism: social and literary contexts for the New Testament. Leiden: Brill.ISBN978-9004234765.
^Hengel, Martin (2003).Judaism and Hellenism: studies in their encounter in Palestine during the early Hellenistic period. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock.ISBN978-1-59244-186-0.
^Spielvogel, Jackson J. (2016).Western Civilization: A Brief History, Volume I: To 1715 (Cengage Learning ed.). Cengage Learning. p. 156.ISBN978-1-305-63347-6.
^Neill, Thomas Patrick (1957).Readings in the History of Western Civilization, Volume 2 (Newman Press ed.). p. 224.
^Rüegg, Walter: "Foreword. The University as a European Institution", in:A History of the University in Europe. Vol. 1: Universities in the Middle Ages, Cambridge University Press, 1992,ISBN0-521-36105-2, pp. xix–xx
^Cf.Jeremy Waldron (2002),God, Locke, and Equality: Christian Foundations in Locke's Political Thought, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (UK),ISBN978-0-521-89057-1, pp. 189, 208
^McNeill, William H. (2010).History of Western Civilization: A Handbook (University of Chicago Press ed.). University of Chicago Press. p. 204.ISBN978-0-226-56162-2.
^Karin Friedrich et al., The Other Prussia: Royal Prussia, Poland and Liberty, 1569–1772, Cambridge University Press, 2000,ISBN0-521-58335-7, Google Print, p. 88
^Wolff, R. L. (1969)."V: The Fourth Crusade". In Hazard, H. W. (ed.).The later Crusades, 1189–1311. University of Wisconsin Press. p. 162.Archived from the original on 12 November 2020. Retrieved9 November 2013.
^Phillips,The Fourth Crusade and the Sack of Constantinople, Introduction, xiii.
^Lea, Henry Charles (1888). "Chapter VII. The Inquisition Founded".A History of the Inquisition In The Middle Ages. Vol. 1. General Books LLC.ISBN1-152-29621-3.The judicial use of torture was as yet happily unknown...
^Blötzer, J. (1910)."Inquisition".The Catholic Encyclopedia. Robert Appleton Company.Archived from the original on 26 October 2007. Retrieved26 August 2012.... in this period the more influential ecclesiastical authorities declared that thedeath 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.
^Blötzer, J. (1910)."Inquisition".The Catholic Encyclopedia. Robert Appleton Company.Archived from the original on 26 October 2007. Retrieved26 August 2012.[...] 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.
^Lea, Henry Charles (January 2010). "VII. The Inquisition Founded".A History of the Inquisition In The Middle Ages. Vol. 1. General Books LLC.ISBN978-1-152-29621-3.
^Daus 1983, p. 33 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFDaus1983 (help)
^Carlin, Na'ama (2022).Morality, Violence, and Ritual Circumcision. Routledge. p. 34.ISBN978-0367551957.Archived from the original on 31 December 2022. Retrieved31 December 2022.Specifically, these are 'Western' or 'White' values that find their foundation in Greco-Roman philosophy and espouse key notions such as individualism and enlightenment.
^Wim Van Den Doel (2010).The Dutch Empire. An Essential Part of World History. BMGN – Low Countries Historical Review.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 'thegreat 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.
^Webster, Richard A."European expansion since 1763".Encyclopædia Britannica.Archived from the original on 23 July 2018. Retrieved23 July 2018.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 thegrowing volume of their machine-produced goods.
^Camille Pecastaing,Jihad in the Arabian Sea (Stanford: Hoover Institution Press, 2011), In the land of the Mad Mullah: Somalia[full citation needed]
^Chernow, Barbara A.; Vallasi, George A., eds. (1994).The Columbia Encyclopedia (Fifth ed.). New York: Columbia University Press. p. 1215.ISBN0-231-08098-0.
^Oxford English Dictionary: "A leading or paramount power; a dominant state or person"
^Kevin Shillington,History of Africa. Rev. 2nd ed. (New York: Macmillan Publishers Ltd., 2005), 301.
^Coloma, Roland Sintos (2012). "White gazes, brown breasts: imperial feminism and disciplining desires and bodies in colonial encounters".Paedagogica Historica.48 (2): 243.doi:10.1080/00309230.2010.547511.S2CID145129186.
^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".
^ANALYSIS (19 December 2011)."Europe". Pewforum.org. Archived fromthe original on 4 January 2012. Retrieved17 August 2012.
^Peterson, Paul Silas (2019).The Decline of Established Christianity in the Western World. Routledge. pp. 46, 76, 84.ISBN9780367891381.Archived from the original on 29 January 2023. Retrieved29 January 2023.Hugh McLeod, emeritus professor of Church History at the University of Birmingham, provides a helpful summary of the decline of Christendom in Western Europe in four stages: 1 Toleration of alternative forms of Christianity (in the Reformation and post-Reformation era in the 16th century and onward). 2 Publication of literature that was critical of Christianity (in the Enlightenment era of the 18th century). 3 Separation of church and state (from the 18th century onward). 4 The "gradual loosening of the ties between church and society". [...] At least since the mid-20th century, many European countries have experienced a decline in churched religion. In particular, declining church attendance has been an important aspect of this process, and a characteristic of the development that has been described as the secularization process. [...] The secularization processes in the Western world involve a partial replacement of established Christianity by unchurched spirituality, characterized by á la carte religion and a focus on "me and my experiences".
Ankerl, Guy (2000).Coexisting contemporary civilizations: Arabo-Muslim, Bharati, Chinese, and West. INU societal research. Vol. 1. Global communication without universal civilization. Geneva: INU Press.ISBN2-88155-004-5.
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