This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "History of Western civilization" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(May 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Western civilization traces its roots back toEurope and theMediterranean. It began inancient Greece, transformed inancient Rome, and evolved intomedievalWestern Christendom before experiencing such seminal developmental episodes as the development ofScholasticism,the Renaissance, theReformation, theScientific Revolution,the Enlightenment, theIndustrial Revolution, and the development ofliberal democracy. The civilizations ofclassical Greece and Rome are considered seminal periods in Western history. Major cultural contributions also came from theChristianizedGermanic peoples, such as theFranks, theGoths, and theBurgundians.Charlemagne founded theCarolingian Empire and he is referred to as the "Father of Europe".^[1] Contributions also emerged from pagan peoples of pre-Christian Europe, such as theCelts andGermanic pagans as well as some significant religious contributions derived fromJudaism andHellenistic Judaism stemming back toSecond TempleJudea,Galilee, and the earlyJewish diaspora;^[2][3][4] and some other Middle Eastern influences.^[5]Western Christianity has played a prominent role in the shaping ofWestern civilization, which throughout most of its history, has been nearly equivalent toChristian culture. (There were Christians outside of the West, such as China, India, Russia, Byzantium and the Middle East).^{[6][7][8][9][10]} Western civilization has spread to produce the dominant cultures of modern Americas and Oceania, and has had immense global influence in recent centuries in many ways.

Following the 5th centuryFall of Rome, Europe entered the Middle Ages, during which period theCatholic Church filled the power vacuum left in the West by the fall of theWestern Roman Empire, while theEastern Roman Empire (or Byzantine Empire) endured in the East for centuries, becoming a Hellenic Eastern contrast to the Latin West. By the 12th century, Western Europe was experiencing aflowering of art and learning, propelled by the construction of cathedrals, the establishment ofmedieval universities, and greatercontact with themedieval Islamic world viaAl-Andalus andSicily, from whereArabic texts on science andphilosophy weretranslated into Latin.Christian unity was shattered by the Reformation from the 16th century. A merchant class grew out ofcity states, initially in the Italian peninsula (seeItalian city-states), and Europe experienced the Renaissance from the 14th to the 17th century, heralding an age of technological and artistic advance and ushering in theAge of Discovery which saw the rise of such global European empires as those ofPortugal andSpain.

TheIndustrial Revolution began in Britain in the 18th century. Under the influence of theEnlightenment, theAge of Revolution emerged from the United States and France as part of the transformation of the West into its industrialised, democratised modern form. The lands of North and South America, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand became first part of European empires and then home to new Western nations, while Africa and Asia were largely carved up between Western powers. Laboratories of Western democracy were founded in Britain's colonies in Australasia from the mid-19th centuries, while South America largely created newautocracies. In the 20th century,absolute monarchy disappeared from Europe, and despite episodes ofFascism andCommunism, by the close of the century, virtually all of Europe was electing its leaders democratically. Most Western nations were heavily involved in theFirst andSecond World Wars and protractedCold War. World War II saw Fascism defeated in Europe, and the emergence of the United States andSoviet Union as rival global powers and a new "East-West" political contrast.

Other than in Russia, the European empires disintegrated after World War II andcivil rights movements and widescale multi-ethnic, multi-faith migrations to Europe, the Americas and Oceania lowered the earlier predominance of ethnic Europeans inWestern culture. European nations moved towards greater economic and political co-operation through theEuropean Union. TheCold War ended around 1990 with the collapse of Soviet-imposed Communism inCentral and Eastern Europe. In the 21st century, theWestern World retains significant global economic power and influence. The West has contributed a great many technological, political, philosophical, artistic and religious aspects to modern international culture: having been a crucible ofCatholicism,Protestantism, democracy, industrialisation; the first major civilisation to seek toabolish slavery during the 19th century, the first toenfranchise women (beginning in Australasia at the end of the 19th century) and the first to put to use such technologies assteam,electric andnuclear power. The West inventedcinema,television, radio, telephone, the automobile, rocketry, flight, electric light, thepersonal computer and theInternet; produced artists such asMichelangelo,Shakespeare,Leonardo da Vinci,Beethoven,Vincent van Gogh,Picasso,Bach andMozart; developed sports such assoccer,cricket,golf,tennis,rugby andbasketball; and transported humans to anastronomical object for the first time with the1969 Apollo 11 Moon Landing.

While the Roman Empire and Christian religion survived in an increasingly Hellenised form in theByzantine Empire centered at Constantinople in the East, Western civilization suffered a collapse of literacy and organization following the fall of Rome in AD 476. Gradually however, the Christian religion re-asserted its influence over Western Europe.

After theFall of Rome, thepapacy served as a source of authority and continuity. In the absence of amagister militum living in Rome, even the control of military matters fell to the pope.Gregory the Great (c 540–604) administered the church with strict reform. A trained Roman lawyer and administrator, and a monk, he represents the shift from the classical to the medieval outlook and was a father of many of the structures of the later Roman Catholic Church. According to theCatholic Encyclopedia, he looked upon Church and State as co-operating to form a united whole, which acted in two distinct spheres, ecclesiastical and secular, but by the time of his death, the papacy was the great power in Italy:^[11]

Pope Gregory the Great made himself in Italy a power stronger than emperor or exarch, and established a political influence which dominated the peninsula for centuries. From this time forth the varied populations of Italy looked to the pope for guidance, and Rome as the papal capital continued to be the center of the Christian world.

According to tradition, it was a Romanized Briton,Saint Patrick who introduced Christianity to Ireland around the 5th century. Roman legions had never conquered Ireland, and as the Western Roman Empire collapsed, Christianity managed to survive there. Monks sought out refuge at the far fringes of the known world: like Cornwall, Ireland, or the Hebrides. Disciplined scholarship carried on in isolated outposts likeSkellig Michael in Ireland, where literate monks became some of the last preservers in Western Europe of the poetic and philosophical works of Western antiquity.^[12]

By around 800 they were producing illuminated manuscripts such as theBook of Kells. Themissions of Gaelic monasteries led by monks like StColumba spread Christianity back into Western Europe during the Middle Ages, establishing monasteries initially in northern Britain, then through Anglo-Saxon England and the Frankish Empire during the Middle Ages.Thomas Cahill, in his 1995 bookHow the Irish Saved Civilization, credited Irish Monks with having "saved" Western Civilization during this period.^[13] According to art historianKenneth Clark, for some five centuries after the fall of Rome, virtually all men of intellect joined the Church and practically nobody in western Europe outside of monastic settlements had the ability to read or write.^[12]

Around AD 500,Clovis I, theKing of the Franks, became a Christian and united Gaul under his rule. Later in the 6th century, the Byzantine Empire restored its rule in much of Italy and Spain. Missionaries sent from Ireland by the Pope helped to convert England to Christianity in the 6th century as well, restoring that faith as the dominant in Western Europe.

Muhammed, the founder andProphet of Islam was born in Mecca in AD 570. Working as a trader he encountered the ideas of Christianity and Judaism on the fringes of the Byzantine Empire, and around 610 began preaching of a new monotheistic religion,Islam, and in 622 became the civil and spiritual leader ofMedina, soon after conqueringMecca in 630. Dying in 632, Muhammed's new creed conquered first the Arabian tribes, then the great Byzantine cities ofDamascus in 635 andJerusalem in 636. A multiethnicIslamic empire was established across the formerly Roman Middle East and North Africa. By the early 8th century,Iberia andSicily had fallen to the Muslims. By the 9th century,Malta,Cyprus, andCrete had fallen – and for a time the region ofSeptimania.^[14]

Only in 732 was theMuslim advance into Europe stopped by theFrankish leaderCharles Martel, saving Gaul and the rest of the West from conquest byIslam. From this time, the "West" became synonymous withChristendom, the territory ruled by Christian powers, asOriental Christianity fell todhimmi status under the MuslimCaliphates. The cause to liberate the "Holy Land" remained a major focus throughout medieval history, fueling many consecutivecrusades, only thefirst of which was successful (although it resulted in many atrocities,in Europe as well as elsewhere).

Charlemagne ("Charles the Great" in English) became king of the Franks. He conqueredGaul (modern day France), northern Spain, Saxony, and northern and central Italy. In 800,Pope Leo III crowned CharlemagneHoly Roman Emperor. Under his rule, his subjects in non-Christian lands like Germany converted to Christianity.

After his reign, the empire he created broke apart into the kingdom of France (fromFrancia meaning "land of the Franks"),Holy Roman Empire and the kingdom in between (containing modern day Switzerland, northern-Italy, Eastern France and the low-countries).

Starting in the late 8th century, theVikings began seaborne attacks on the towns and villages of Europe. Eventually, they turned from raiding to conquest, and conquered Ireland, most of England, and northern France (Normandy). These conquests were not long-lasting, however. In 954Alfred the Great drove the Vikings out of England, which he united under his rule, and Viking rule in Ireland ended as well. In Normandy the Vikings adoptedFrench culture and language, became Christians and were absorbed into the native population.

By the beginning of the 11th century Scandinavia was divided into three kingdoms, Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, all of which were Christian and part of Western civilization.Norse explorers reachedIceland,Greenland, and even North America, however only Iceland was permanently settled by the Norse. A period of warm temperatures from around 1000–1200 enabled the establishment of a Norse outpost in Greenland in 985, which survived for some 400 years as the most westerly outpost of Christendom. From here, Norseman attempted their short-lived Europeancolony in North America, five centuries beforeColumbus.^[14]

In the 10th century another marauding group of warriors swept through Europe, theMagyars. They eventually settled in what is today Hungary, converted to Christianity and became the ancestors of theHungarian people.

AWest Slavic people, thePoles, formed a unified state by the 10th century and having adopted Christianity also in the 10th century^[15][16] but with pagan rising in the 11th century.

By the start of the second millennium AD, the West had become divided linguistically into three major groups. TheRomance languages, based onLatin, the language of the Romans, theGermanic languages, and theCeltic languages. The most widely spoken Romance languages wereFrench,Italian,Portuguese andSpanish. Four widely spoken Germanic languages were English,German,Dutch, andDanish.Irish andScots Gaelic were two widely spoken Celtic languages in theBritish Isles.

Art historianKenneth Clark wrote that Western Europe's first "great age of civilisation" was ready to begin around the year 1000. From 1100, he wrote: "every branch of life – action, philosophy, organisation, technology [experienced an] extraordinary outpouring of energy, an intensification of existence". Upon this period rests the foundations of many of Europe's subsequent achievements. By Clark's account, the Catholic Church was very powerful, essentially internationalist and democratic in its structures and run by monastic organisations generally following theRule of Saint Benedict. Men of intelligence usually joined religious orders and those of intellectual, administrative or diplomatic skill could advance beyond the usual restraints of society – leading churchmen from faraway lands were accepted in local bishoprics, linking European thought across wide distances. Complexes like theAbbey of Cluny became vibrant centres with dependencies spread throughout Europe. Ordinary people also trekked vast distances onpilgrimages to express their piety and pray at the site ofholy relics.

Monumental abbeys and cathedrals were constructed and decorated with sculptures, hangings, mosaics and works belonging to one of the greatest epochs of art and providing stark contrast to the monotonous and cramped conditions of ordinary living.Abbot Suger of theAbbey of St. Denis is considered an influential early patron of Gothic architecture and believed that love of beauty brought people closer to God: "The dull mind rises to truth through that which is material". Clark calls this "the intellectual background of all the sublime works of art of the next century and in fact has remained the basis of our belief of the value of art until today".^[12]

By the year 1000feudalism had become the dominant social, economic and political system. At the top of society was themonarch, who gave land tonobles in exchange for loyalty. The nobles gave land tovassals, who served asknights to defend their monarch or noble. Under the vassals were thepeasants orserfs. Thefeudal system thrived as long as peasants needed protection by thenobility from invasions originating inside and outside of Europe. So as the 11th century progressed, the feudal system declined along with the threat of invasion.^{[citation needed]}

In 1054, after centuries of strained relations, theGreat Schism occurred over differences in doctrine, splitting the Christian world between theCatholic Church, centered in Rome and dominant in the West, and theOrthodox Church, centered inConstantinople, capital of the Byzantine Empire. The last pagan land in Europe was converted to Christianity with the conversion of theBaltic peoples in theHigh Middle Ages, bringing them into Western civilization as well.^[17]

As the medieval period progressed, the aristocratic military ideal ofChivalry and institution ofknighthood based around courtesy and service to others became culturally important. LargeGothic cathedrals of extraordinary artistic and architectural intricacy were constructed throughout Europe, includingCanterbury Cathedral in England,Cologne Cathedral in Germany andChartres Cathedral in France (called the "epitome of the first great awakening in European civilisation" by Kenneth Clark^[12]). The period produced ever more extravagant art and architecture, but also the virtuous simplicity of such asSt Francis of Assisi (expressed in thePrayer of St Francis) and the epic poetry ofDante Alighieri'sDivine Comedy. As the Church grew more powerful and wealthy, many sought reform. TheDominican andFranciscan Orders were founded, which emphasized poverty and spirituality.^[18]

Women were in many respects excluded from political and mercantile life, however, leading churchwomen were an exception. Medieval abbesses and female superiors of monastic houses were powerful figures whose influence could rival that of male bishops and abbots: "They treated with kings, bishops, and the greatest lords on terms of perfect equality;. . . they were present at all great religious and national solemnities, at the dedication of churches, and even, like the queens, took part in the deliberation of the national assemblies...".^[19] The increasing popularity ofdevotion to the Virgin Mary (the mother of Jesus) secured maternal virtue as a central cultural theme of Catholic Europe. Kenneth Clark wrote that the 'Cult of the Virgin' in the early 12th century "had taught a race of tough and ruthless barbarians the virtues of tenderness and compassion".^[12]

In 1095,Pope Urban II called for aCrusade to re-conquer theHoly Land from Muslim rule,^[20] when theSeljuk Turks prevented Christians from visiting the holy sites there. For centuries prior to the emergence of Islam,Asia Minor and much of theMid East had been a part of the Roman and later Byzantine Empires. The Crusades were originally launched in response to a call from the Byzantine Emperor for help to fight the expansion of the Turks intoAnatolia.

TheFirst Crusade succeeded in its task, butat a serious cost on thehome front, and the crusaders established rule over the Holy Land. However, Muslim forces reconquered the land by the 13th century, and subsequent crusades were not very successful. The specific crusades to restore Christian control of the Holy Land were fought over a period of nearly 200 years, between 1095 and 1291. Other campaigns in Spain and Portugal (theReconquista), andNorthern Crusades continued into the 15th century.

The Crusades had major far-reaching political, economic, and social impacts on Europe. They further served to alienate Eastern and Western Christendom from each other and ultimately failed to prevent the march of the Turks into Europe through theBalkans and theCaucasus.^[21]

After thefall of the Roman Empire, many of the classical Greek texts were translated into Arabic and preserved in themedieval Islamic world, from where theGreek classics along withArabic science andphilosophy weretransmitted to Western Europe andtranslated into Latin during theRenaissance of the 12th century and 13th century.^[22][23][24]

Cathedral schools began in the Early Middle Ages as centers of advanced education, some of them ultimately evolving intomedieval universities. During the High Middle Ages,Chartres Cathedral operated the famous and influentialChartres Cathedral School. The medieval universities of Western Christendom were well-integrated across all of Western Europe, encouraged freedom of enquiry and produced a great variety of fine scholars and natural philosophers, includingRobert Grosseteste of theUniversity of Oxford, an early expositor of a systematic method of scientific experimentation;^[25] and SaintAlbert the Great, a pioneer of biological field research.^[26] The ItalianUniversity of Bologna is considered the oldest continually operating university.^[27][28]

Philosophy in the High Middle Ages focused on religious topics.Christian Platonism, which modified Plato's idea of the separation between the ideal world of the forms and the imperfect world of their physical manifestations to the Christian division between the imperfect body and the higher soul was at first the dominant school of thought. However, in the 12th century the works of Aristotle were reintroduced to the West, which resulted in a new school of inquiry known asscholasticism, which emphasizedscientific observation. Two important philosophers of this period wereSaint Anselm andSaint Thomas Aquinas, both of whom were concerned with provingGod's existence through philosophical means. TheSumma Theologica by Aquinas was one of the most influential documents inmedieval philosophy andThomism continues to be studied today in philosophy classes. TheologianPeter Abelard wrote in 1122 "I must understand in order that I may believe... by doubting we come to questioning, and by questioning we perceive the truth".^[12]

InNormandy, the Vikings adopted French culture and language, mixed with the native population of mostly Frankish and Gallo-Roman stock and became known as theNormans. They played a major political, military, and cultural role in medieval Europe and even the Near East. They were famed for their martial spirit andChristian piety. They quickly adopted theRomance language of the land they settled in, their dialect becoming known asNorman, an important literary language. TheDuchy of Normandy, which they formed by treaty with the French crown, was one of the great largefiefs of medieval France. The Normans are famed both for their culture, such as their uniqueRomanesque architecture, and their musical traditions, as well as for their military accomplishments and innovations. Norman adventurers established a kingdom inSicily and southern Italy by conquest, and a Norman expedition on behalf of their duke led to theNorman Conquest of England. Norman influence spread from these new centres to theCrusader States in the Near East, to Scotland and Wales in Great Britain, and to Ireland.^[29]

Relations between the major powers in Western society: the nobility,monarchy andclergy, sometimes produced conflict. If a monarch attempted to challenge church power, condemnation from the church could mean a total loss of support among the nobles, peasants, and other monarchs. The Holy Roman EmperorHenry IV, one of the most powerful men of the 11th century,stood three days bare-headed in the snow at Canossa in 1077, in order to reverse his excommunication byPope Gregory VII.^[30] As monarchies centralized their power as theMiddle Ages progressed, nobles tried to maintain their own authority. The sophisticated Court ofHoly Roman EmperorFrederick II was based in Sicily, where Norman,Byzantine, and Islamic civilization had intermingled. His realm stretched through Southern Italy, through Germany and in 1229, he crowned himself King of Jerusalem. His reign saw tension and rivalry with the Papacy over control of Northern Italy.^[31] A patron of education,^[32] Frederick founded theUniversity of Naples.^[33]

Plantagenet kings first ruled theKingdom of England in the 12th century.Henry V left his mark with a famous victory against larger numbers at theBattle of Agincourt, whileRichard the Lionheart, who had earlier distinguished himself in theThird Crusade, was later romanticised as an iconic figure inEnglish folklore. A distinctiveEnglish culture emerged under the Plantagenets, encouraged by some of the monarchs who were patrons of the "father of English poetry",Geoffrey Chaucer. TheGothic architecture style was popular during the time, with buildings such asWestminster Abbey remodelled in that style.King John's sealing of theMagna Carta was influential in the development ofcommon law andconstitutional law. The 1215 Charter required the King to proclaim certain liberties, and accept that his will was notarbitrary – for example by explicitly accepting that no "freeman" (non-serf) could be punished except through thelaw of the land, a right which is still in existence today. Political institutions such as theParliament of England and theModel Parliament originate from the Plantagenet period, as do educational institutions including theuniversities ofCambridge andOxford.^[34][35]

From the 12th century onward inventiveness had re-asserted itself outside of the Viking north and the Islamic south of Europe. Universities flourished, mining of coal commenced, and crucial technological advances such as thelock, which enabled sail ships to reach the thriving Belgian city ofBruges via canals, and the deep sea ship guided by magnetic compass and rudder were invented.^[14]

A cooling in temperatures after about 1150 saw leaner harvests across Europe and consequent shortages of food and flax material for clothing. Famines increased and in 1316 serious famine gripped Ypres. In 1410, the last of the Greenland Norseman abandoned their colony to the ice. FromCentral Asia,Mongol invasions progressed towards Europe throughout the 13th century, resulting in the vastMongol Empire which became the largest empire of history and ruled over almost half of the human population and expanded through the world by 1300.^[14]

ThePapacy had its court at Avignon from 1305 to 1378^[36] This arose from the conflict between the Papacy and the French crown. A total of seven popes reigned at Avignon; all were French, and all were increasingly under the influence of the French crown. Finally in 1377Gregory XI, in part because of the entreaties of the mystic SaintCatherine of Sienna, restored theHoly See to Rome, officially ending the Avignon papacy.^[37] However, in 1378 the breakdown in relations between the cardinals and Gregory's successor,Urban VI, gave rise to theWestern Schism – which saw another line of Avignon Popes set up as rivals to Rome (subsequent Catholic history does not grant them legitimacy).^[38] The period helped weaken the prestige of the Papacy in the buildup to the Protestant Reformation.

In theLater Middle Ages, theBlack Plague struck Europe, arriving in 1347.^[39] Europe was overwhelmed by the outbreak ofbubonic plague, probably brought to Europe by theMongols. The fleas hosted by rats carried the disease and it devastated Europe. Major cities like Paris, Hamburg, Venice and Florence lost half their population. Around 20 million people – up to a third of Europe's population – died from the plague before it receded. The plague periodically returned over the coming centuries.^[14]

The last centuries of the Middle Ages saw the waging of theHundred Years' War between England and France. The war began in 1337 when the king of France laid claim to English-ruledGascony in southern France, and the king of England claimed to be the rightful king of France. At first, the English conquered half of France and seemed likely to win the war, until the French were rallied by a peasant girl, who would later become a saint,Joan of Arc. Although she was captured and executed by the English, the French fought on and won the war in 1453. After the war, France gained all ofNormandy, excluding the city ofCalais, which it gained in 1558.^[40]

Following the Mongols from Central Asia came theOttoman Turks. By 1400 they had captured most of modern-day Turkey and extended their rule into Europe through theBalkans and as far as the Danube, surrounding even the fabled city ofConstantinople. Finally, in 1453, one of Europe'sgreatest cities fell to the Turks.^[14] The Ottomans under the command ofSultan Mehmed II, fought a vastly outnumbered defending army commanded byEmperor Constantine XI – the last "Emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire" – and blasted down the ancient walls with the terrifying new weaponry of the cannon. The Ottoman conquests sent refugee Greek scholars westward, contributing to the revival of the West's knowledge of the learning ofClassical Antiquity.

Probably the first clock in Europe was installed in a Milan church in 1335, hinting at the dawning mechanical age.^[14] By the 14th century, themiddle class in Europe had grown in influence and number as the feudal system declined. This spurred the growth of towns and cities in the West and improved the economy of Europe. This, in turn helped begin a cultural movement in the West known as theRenaissance, which began in Italy. Italy was dominated bycity-states, many of which were nominally part of theHoly Roman Empire, and were ruled by wealthy aristocrats like theMedicis, or in some cases, by the pope.

TheRenaissance, originating from Italy, ushered in a new age of scientific and intellectual inquiry and appreciation of ancient Greek and Roman civilizations. The merchant cities ofFlorence,Genoa,Ghent,Nuremberg,Geneva,Zurich,Lisbon andSeville provided patrons of the arts and sciences and unleashed a flurry of activity.

TheMedici became the leading family of Florence and fostered and inspired the birth of theItalian Renaissance along with other families of Italy, such as theVisconti andSforza ofMilan, theEste ofFerrara, and theGonzaga ofMantua. Greatest artists likeBrunelleschi,Botticelli,Da Vinci,Michelangelo,Giotto,Donatello,Titian andRaphael produced inspired works – their paintwork was more realistic-looking than had been created by medieval artists and their marble statues rivalled and sometimes surpassed those ofClassical Antiquity. Michelangelo carved his masterpieceDavid from marble between 1501 and 1504.

Humanist historianLeonardo Bruni, split the history in the antiquity, Middle Ages and modern period.

Churches began being built in theRomanesque style for the first time in centuries. While art and architecture flourished in Italy and then the Netherlands, religious reformers flowered in Germany and Switzerland; printing was establishing itself in theRhineland and navigators were embarking on extraordinary voyages of discovery from Portugal and Spain.^[14]

Around 1450,Johannes Gutenberg developed a printing press, which allowed works of literature to spread more quickly.^[44] Secular thinkers likeMachiavelli re-examined the history of Rome to draw lessons for civic governance. Theologians revisited the works ofSt Augustine. Important thinkers of the Renaissance inNorthern Europe included the Catholic humanistsDesiderius Erasmus, a Dutch theologian, and the English statesman and philosopherThomas More, who wrote the seminal workUtopia in 1516.Humanism was an important development to emerge from the Renaissance. It placed importance on the study of human nature and worldly topics rather than religious ones. Important humanists of the time included the writersPetrarch andBoccaccio, who wrote in both Latin as had been done in the Middle Ages, as well as thevernacular, in their caseTuscan Italian.

As the calendar reached the year 1500, Europe was blossoming – withLeonardo da Vinci painting hisMona Lisa portrait not long afterChristopher Columbus reached theAmericas (1492),Amerigo Vespucci proved that America is not a part of India, the Portuguese navigatorVasco Da Gama sailed around Africa into the Indian Ocean andMichelangelo completed his paintings ofOld Testament themes on the ceiling of theSistine Chapel in Rome (the expense of such artistic exuberance did much to spur the likes ofMartin Luther in Northern Europe intheir protests against the Church of Rome).^[14]

For the first time in European history, events North of the Alps and on the Atlantic Coast were taking centre stage.^[14] Important artists of this period includedBosch,Dürer, andBreugel. In SpainMiguel de Cervantes wrote the novelDon Quixote, other important works of literature in this period were theCanterbury Tales byGeoffrey Chaucer andLe Morte d'Arthur by SirThomas Malory. The most famous playwright of the era was the EnglishmanWilliam Shakespeare whosesonnets and plays (includingHamlet,Romeo and Juliet andMacbeth) are considered some of the finest works ever written in the English language.

Meanwhile, the Christian kingdoms of northern Iberia continued their centuries-long fight toreconquer the peninsula from itsMuslim rulers. In 1492, the last Islamic stronghold,Granada, fell, and Iberia was divided between the Christian kingdoms of Spain and Portugal. Iberia'sJewish and Muslim minorities were forced toconvert to Catholicism or beexiled. The Portuguese immediately looked to expand outward sending expeditions to explore the coasts of Africa and engage in trade with the mostly Muslim powers on the Indian Ocean, making Portugal wealthy. In 1492, a Spanish expedition ofChristopher Columbus found theAmericas during an attempt to find a western route toEast Asia.

From the East, however, theOttoman Turks underSuleiman the Magnificent continued their advance into the heart of Christian Europe –besieging Vienna in 1529.^[14]

The 16th century saw the flowering of the Renaissance in the rest of the West. In theKingdom of Poland, astronomerNicolaus Copernicus deduced that thegeocentric model of the universe was incorrect, and that in fact theplanets revolve around the Sun. In the Netherlands, the invention of thetelescope and themicroscope resulted in the investigation of the universe and the microscopic world. The father of modern scienceGalileo andChristiaan Huygens developed more advance telescopes and used these in their scientific research. The father ofmicrobiology,Antonie van Leeuwenhoek pioneered the use of the microscope in the study of microbes and established microbiology as a scientific discipline. Advances inmedicine and understanding of the humananatomy also increased in this time.Gerolamo Cardano partially invented several machines and introduced essential mathematics theories. In England, SirIsaac Newton pioneered the science ofphysics. These events led to the so-calledScientific Revolution, which emphasized experimentation.

The other major movement in the West in the 16th century was theReformation, which would profoundly change the West and end its religious unity. The Reformation began in 1517 when the CatholicmonkMartin Luther wrote his95 Theses, which denounced the wealth and corruption of the church, as well as many Catholic beliefs, including the institution of thepapacy and the belief that, in addition to faith in Christ, "good works" were also necessary forsalvation. Luther drew on the beliefs of earlier church critics, like theBohemianJan Hus and the EnglishmanJohn Wycliffe. Luther's beliefs eventually ended in his excommunication from the Catholic Church and the founding of a church based on his teachings: theLutheran Church, which became the majority religion in northern Germany. Soon other reformers emerged, and their followers became known asProtestants. In 1525,Ducal Prussia became the first Lutheran state.^[45]

In the 1540s the FrenchmanJohn Calvin founded a church inGeneva which forbade alcohol and dancing, and which taughtGod had selected those destined to be saved from the beginning of time. HisCalvinist Church gained about half of Switzerland and churches based on his teachings became dominant in the Netherlands (theDutch Reformed Church) and Scotland (thePresbyterian Church). In England, when the Pope failed to grant KingHenry VIII a divorce, he declared himself head of the Church in England (founding what would evolve into today'sChurch of England andAnglican Communion). Some Englishmen felt the church was still too similar to the Catholic Church and formed the more radicalPuritanism. Many other small Protestant sects were formed, includingZwinglianism,Anabaptism andMennonism. Although they were different in many ways, Protestants generally called their religious leadersministers instead ofpriests, and believed only theBible, and notTradition offered divinerevelation.

Britain and the Dutch Republic allowed Protestant dissenters to migrate to their North American colonies – thus the future United States found its early Protestant ethos – while Protestants were forbidden to migrate to the Spanish colonies (thus South America retained its Catholic hue). A more democratic organisational structure within some of the new Protestant movements – as in the Calvinists of New England – did much also to foster a democratic spirit in Britain's American colonies.^[14]

The Catholic Church responded to the Reformation with theCounter Reformation. Some of Luther and Calvin's criticisms were heeded: the selling of indulgences was reined in by theCouncil of Trent in 1562. But exuberantbaroque architecture and art was embraced as an affirmation of the faith and new seminaries and orders were established to lead missions to far off lands.^[14] An important leader in this movement was SaintIgnatius of Loyola, founder of theSociety of Jesus (Jesuit Order) which gained many converts and sent such famous missionaries as SaintsMatteo Ricci to China,Francis Xavier to India andPeter Claver to the Americas.

As princes, kings and emperors chose sides in religious debates and sought national unity, religious wars erupted throughout Europe, especially in theHoly Roman Empire.Emperor Charles V was able to arrange thePeace of Augsburg between the warring Catholic and Protestant nobility. However, in 1618, theThirty Years' War began between Protestants and Catholics in the empire, which eventually involved neighboring countries like France. The devastating war finally ended in 1648. In thePeace of Westphalia ending the war, Lutheranism, Catholicism and Calvinism were all granted toleration in the empire. The two major centers of power in the empire after the war were ProtestantPrussia in the north and Catholic Austria in the south. TheDutch, who were ruled by the Spanish at the time, revolted and gained independence, founding a Protestant country. TheElizabethan era is famous above all for the flourishing ofEnglish drama, led by playwrights such asWilliam Shakespeare and for the seafaring prowess of English adventurers such asSir Francis Drake. Her 44 years on the throne provided welcome stability and helped forge a sense of national identity. One of her first moves as queen was to support the establishment of an English Protestant church, of which she became theSupreme Governor of what was to become theChurch of England.

By 1650, the religious map of Europe had been redrawn: Scandinavia, Iceland, north Germany, part of Switzerland, Netherlands and Britain were Protestant, while the rest of the West remained Catholic. A byproduct of the Reformation was increasing literacy as Protestant powers pursued an aim of educating more people to be able to read the Bible.^[46]

This sectionneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "History of Western civilization" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(May 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

From its dawn until modern times, the West had suffered invasions from Africa, Asia, and non-Western parts of Europe. By 1500 Westerners took advantage of their new technologies, sallied forth into unknown waters, expanded their power and theAge of Discovery began, with Western explorers from seafaring nations like Portugal and Castile (later Spain) and later Holland, France and England setting forth from the "Old World" to chart faraway shipping routes and discover "new worlds".

In 1492, theGenovese born mariner,Christopher Columbus set out under the auspices of theCrown of Castile (Spain) to seek an oversea route to theEast Indies via the Atlantic Ocean. Rather than Asia, Columbus landed inthe Bahamas, in theCaribbean.Spanish colonization followed and Europe established Western Civilization in the Americas. The Portuguese explorerVasco da Gama led the first sailing expedition directly from Europe to India in 1497–1499, by the Atlantic and Indian oceans, opening up the possibility of trade with the East other than via perilous overland routes like theSilk Road.Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese explorer working for the Spanish Crown (under the Crown of Castile), led an expedition in 1519–1522 which became the first to sail from the Atlantic Ocean into the Pacific Ocean and the first to cross the Pacific. The Spanish explorerJuan Sebastián Elcano completed the first circumnavigation of the Earth (Magellan was killed in the Philippines).

The Americas were deeply affected by European expansion, due to conquest, sickness, and introduction of new technologies and ways of life. The SpanishConquistadors conquered most of the Caribbean islands and overran the two great New World empires: theAztec Empire of Mexico and theInca Empire ofPeru. From there, Spain conquered about half of South America, all of Central America and much of North America. Portugal also expanded in the Americas, attempting to establish some fishing colonies in northern North America first (with a relatively limited duration) and conquering half of South America and calling their colonyBrazil. These Western powers were aided not only by superior technology likegunpowder, but also by Old World diseases which they inadvertently brought with them, and which wiped out large segments of theAmerindian population. The native populations, called Indians by Columbus, since he originally thought he had landed in Asia (but often called Amerindians by scholars today), were converted to Catholicism and adopted the language of their rulers, either Spanish or Portuguese. They also adopted much of Western culture. Many Iberian settlers arrived, and many of them intermarried with the Amerindians resulting in a so-calledMestizo population, which became the majority of the population of Spain's American empires.

Other European colonial powers followed in their wake, most prominently the English, Dutch, and French. All three nations established colonies through North and South America and the West Indies. English colonies were established on Caribbean islands such asBarbados,Saint Kitts andAntigua and onNorth America (largely through aproprietary system) in regions such asMaryland,Massachusetts andRhode Island. Dutch and French colonization efforts followed a similar pattern, focusing on the Caribbean and North America. The islands ofAruba,Curaçao andSint Maarten gradually came under Dutch control, while the Dutch established the colony ofNew Netherland in North America. France gradually colonizedLouisiana andQuebec during the 17th and 18th centuries, and transformed its West Indian colony ofSaint-Domingue into the wealthiest European overseas possession in the 18th century through a slave-basedplantation economy.^[47]

In the Americas, it seems that only the most remote peoples managed to stave off complete assimilation by Western and Western-fashioned governments. These include some of the northern peoples (i.e.,Inuit), some peoples in the Yucatán,Amazonian forest dwellers, and variousAndean groups. Of these, theQuechua people,Aymara people, andMaya people are the most numerous: at around 10–11 million, 2 million, and 7 million, respectively.^[48][49][50] Bolivia is the only country in the Americas with an indigenous majority.^[51]

Contact between the Old and New Worlds produced theColumbian Exchange, named after Columbus. It involved the transfer of goods unique to one hemisphere to another. Westerners broughtcattle,horses, andsheep to the New World, and from the New World Europeans receivedtobacco,potatoes, andbananas. Other items becoming important in global trade were thesugarcane andcotton crops of the Americas, and thegold andsilver brought from the Americas not only to Europe but elsewhere in the Old World.

As European settlers began to colonize the Americas, numerous cash cropplantations sprung up to accommodate increasing demand in Europe. Initially, the labour source of these plantations came from Europeanindentured servants; however, soon this system was supplemented by enslaved Africans imported by European slavers from Africa to the Americas via thetransatlantic slave trade. Roughly 12 million enslaved Africans were forcibly transported to the Americas, primarily to theWest Indies and South America. Once there, they were primarily forced to work on these plantations in brutal conditions, cultivating crops such as sugar, cotton and tobacco. Together with European trade to Africa and American trade to Europe, this trade was known as the "triangular trade".^[52][53] Slavery continued to underpin the economies of European colonies throughout the Americas until theabolitionist movement and slave resistance led to its abolition in the 19th century.^[54][55]

After trading with African rulers for some time, Westerners began establishing colonies in Africa. The Portuguese conquered ports in North, West and East Africa and inland territory in what is todayAngola andMozambique. They also established relations with theKingdom of Kongo in central Africa before, and eventually the Kongolese converted toCatholicism. TheDutch established colonies in modern-day South Africa, which attracted many Dutch settlers. Western powers also established colonies inWest Africa. However, most of the continent remained unknown to Westerners and their colonies were restricted to Africa's coasts.

Westerners also expanded in Asia. The Portuguese controlled port cities in theEast Indies, India,Persian Gulf,Sri Lanka, Southeast Asia and China. During this time, the Dutch began their colonisation of theIndonesian archipelago, which became theDutch East Indies in the early 19th century, and gained port cities in Sri Lanka andMalaysia and India. Spain conquered thePhilippines and converted the inhabitants to Catholicism. Missionaries fromIberia (including some from Italy and France) gained many converts in Japan until Christianity was outlawed by Japan's emperor. Some Chinese also became Christian, although most did not. Most of India was divided up between England and France.

As Western powers expanded they competed for land and resources. In the Caribbean,pirates attacked each other and the navies and colonial cities of countries, in hopes of stealing gold and other valuables from a ship or city. This was sometimes supported by governments. For example, England supported the pirate Sir Francis Drake in raids against the Spanish. Between 1652 and 1678, the threeAnglo-Dutch wars were fought, of which the last two were won by the Dutch. At the end of theNapoleonic Wars, England gainedNew Netherland (which was traded withSuriname and Dutch South Africa). In 1756, theSeven Years' War, orFrench and Indian War began. It involved several powers fighting on several continents. In North America, English soldiers and colonial troops defeated the French, and in India the French were also defeated by England. In EuropePrussia defeated Austria. When the war ended in 1763,New France and easternLouisiana were ceded to England, while western Louisiana was given to Spain. France's lands in India were ceded to England. Prussia was given rule over more territory in what is today Germany.

TheDutch navigatorWillem Janszoon had been the first documented Westerner to land in Australia in 1606^{[56][57][58]: section III.B} Another Dutchman,Abel Tasman later touched mainland Australia, and mappedTasmania and New Zealand for the first time, in the 1640s. The English navigator James Cook became first to map the east coast of Australia in 1770. Cook's extraordinary seamanship greatly expanded European awareness of far shores and oceans: hisfirst voyage reported favourably on the prospects of colonisation of Australia; hissecond voyage ventured almost to Antarctica (disproving long held European hopes of an undiscoveredGreat Southern Continent); and histhird voyage explored the Pacific coasts of North America and Siberia and brought him to Hawaii, where an ill-advised return after a lengthy stay saw him clubbed to death by natives.^[59]

Europe's period of expansion in early modern times greatly changed the world. New crops from the Americas improved European diets. This, combined with an improved economy thanks to Europe's new network of colonies, led to a demographic revolution in the West, withinfant mortality dropping, and Europeans getting married younger and having more children. The West became more sophisticated economically, adoptingMercantilism, in which companies were state-owned and colonies existed for the good of the mother country.

The West in the early modern era went through great changes as the traditional balance between monarchy,nobility andclergy shifted. With the feudal system all but gone, nobles lost their traditional source of power. Meanwhile, in Protestant countries, the church was now often headed by amonarch, while in Catholic countries, conflicts between monarchs and the Church rarely occurred and monarchs were able to wield greater power than they ever had in Western history.^{[citation needed]} Under the doctrine of theDivine right of kings, monarchs believed they were only answerable to God: thus giving rise toabsolutism.

At the opening of the 15th century, tensions were still going on between Islam and Christianity. Europe, dominated by Christians, remained under threat from the MuslimOttoman Turks. The Turks had migrated from central to western Asia and converted to Islam years earlier. Theircapture of Constantinople in 1453, thus extinguishing theEastern Roman Empire, was a crowning achievement for the newOttoman Empire. They continued to expand across the Middle East, North Africa and theBalkans. Under the leadership of the Spanish, a Christian coalition destroyed the Ottoman navy at thebattle of Lepanto in 1571 ending their naval control of theMediterranean. However, the Ottoman threat to Europe was not ended until a Polish led coalition defeated the Ottoman at theBattle of Vienna in 1683.^[60][61] The Turks were driven out ofBuda (the eastern part ofBudapest they had occupied for a century), Belgrade, and Athens – though Athens was to be recaptured and held until 1829.^[14]

The 16th century is often called Spain'sSiglo de Oro (golden century).^[62] From its colonies in the Americas it gained large quantities of gold and silver, which helped make Spain the richest and most powerful country in the world. One of the greatest Spanish monarchs of the era wasCharles I (1516–1556, who also held the title of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V). His attempt to unite these lands was thwarted by the divisions caused by theReformation and ambitions of local rulers and rival rulers from other countries. Another great monarch wasPhilip II (1556–1598), whose reign was marked by several Reformation conflicts, like the loss of the Netherlands and theSpanish Armada. These events and an excess of spending would lead to a great decline in Spanish power and influence by the 17th century.

After Spain began to decline in the 17th century, the Dutch, by virtue of its sailing ships, became the greatest world power, leading the 17th century to be called theDutch Golden Age. The Dutch followed Portugal and Spain in establishing anoverseas colonial empire – often under thecorporate colonialism model of theEast India andWest India Companies. After the Anglo-Dutch Wars, France and England emerged as the two greatest powers in the 18th century.^[63]

Louis XIV became king of France in 1643. His reign was one of the most opulent in European history. He built a large palace in the town ofVersailles.

TheHoly Roman Emperor exerted no great influence on the lands of theHoly Roman Empire by the end of theThirty Years' War. In the north of the empire,Prussia emerged as a powerful Protestant nation. Under many gifted rulers, like KingFrederick the Great, Prussia expanded its power and defeated its rival Austria many times in war. Ruled by theHabsburg dynasty, Austria became a great empire, expanding at the expense of theOttoman Empire and Hungary.

One land where absolutism did not take hold was England, which had trouble with revolutionaries.Elizabeth I, daughter ofHenry VIII, had left no direct heir to the throne. The rightful heir was actuallyJames VI of Scotland, who was crowned James I of England. James's son,Charles I resisted the power ofParliament. When Charles attempted to shut down Parliament, the Parliamentarians rose up and soon all of England was involved in a civil war. TheEnglish Civil War ended in 1649 with the defeat and execution of Charles I. Parliament declared a kinglessCommonwealth but soon appointed the anti-absolutist leader and staunchPuritanOliver Cromwell as Lord Protector. Cromwell enacted many unpopular Puritan religious laws in England, like outlawing alcohol and theaters, although religious diversity may have grown. (It was Cromwell, after all, that invited the Jews back into England after theEdict of Expulsion.) After his death, the monarchy was restored under Charles's son, who was crownedCharles II. His brother,James II succeeded him. James and his infant sonJames Francis Edward Stuart were Catholics.

Not wanting to be ruled by a Catholic dynasty, Parliament invited James's daughterMary and her husbandWilliam of Orange, to rule as co-monarchs. They agreed on the condition James would not be harmed. Realizing he could not count on the Protestant English army to defend him, he abdicated following theGlorious Revolution of 1688. BeforeWilliam III andMary II were crowned however, Parliament forced them to sign theEnglish Bill of Rights, which guaranteed some basic rights to allEnglishmen, granted religious freedom to non-Anglican Protestants, and firmly established the rights of Parliament. In 1707, theAct of Union of 1707 were passed by the parliaments ofScotland andEngland, merging Scotland and England into a singleKingdom of Great Britain, with asingle parliament. This new kingdom also controlled Ireland which had previously been conquered by England. Following theIrish Rebellion of 1798, in 1801 Ireland was formally merged with Great Britain to form theUnited Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Ruled by theProtestant Ascendancy, Ireland eventually became an English-speaking land, though the majority population preserved distinct cultural and religious outlooks, remaining predomininantly Catholic except in parts ofUlster andDublin. By then, the British experience had already contributed to theAmerican Revolution.

ThePolish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was an important European center for the development of modern social and political ideas. It was famous for its rare quasi-democratic political system, praised by philosophers such asErasmus; and, during theCounter-Reformation, was known for near-unparalleled religious tolerance, with peacefully coexisting Catholic, Jewish, Eastern Orthodox, Protestant and Muslim communities. With its political system the Commonwealth gave birth to political philosophers such asAndrzej Frycz Modrzewski (1503–1572),Wawrzyniec Grzymała Goślicki (1530–1607) andPiotr Skarga (1536–1612). Later, works byStanisław Staszic (1755–1826) andHugo Kołłątaj (1750–1812) helped pave the way for theConstitution of 3 May 1791, which historianNorman Davies calls "the first constitution of its kind in Europe".^[64] Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth's constitution enacted revolutionary political principles for the first time on the European continent. TheKomisja Edukacji Narodowej, Polish forCommission of National Education, formed in 1773, was the world's first national Ministry of Education and an important achievement of thePolish Enlightenment.^[65]

The intellectual movement called theAge of Enlightenment began in this period as well. Its proponents opposed the absolute rule of the monarchs, and instead emphasized the equality of all individuals and the idea that governments should derive their existence from theconsent of the governed. Enlightenment thinkers calledphilosophes (French for philosophers) idealized Europe's classical heritage. They looked atAthenian democracy and theRoman Republic as ideal governments. They believed reason held the key to creating an ideal society.^[66]

The EnglishmanFrancis Bacon espoused the idea that senses should be the primary means of knowing, while the FrenchmanRené Descartes advocated using reason over the senses. In his works, Descartes was concerned with using reason to prove his own existence and the existence of the external world, including God. Another belief system became popular among philosophes,Deism, which taught that a single god had created but did not interfere with the world. This belief system never gained popular support and largely died out by the early 19th century.

Thomas Hobbes was an English philosopher, best known today for his work onpolitical philosophy. His 1651 bookLeviathan established the foundation for most of Western political philosophy from the perspective ofsocial contract theory.^[67] The theory was examined also byJohn Locke (Second Treatise of Government (1689)) andRousseau (Du contrat social (1762)). Social contract arguments examine the appropriate relationship between government and the governed and posit that individuals unite into political societies by a process of mutual consent, agreeing to abide by common rules and accept corresponding duties to protect themselves and one another from violence and other kinds of harm.

In 1690 John Locke wrote that people have certainnatural rights like life, liberty and property and that governments were created in order to protect these rights. If they did not, according to Locke, the people had a right to overthrow their government. The French philosopherVoltaire criticized the monarchy and the Church for what he saw as hypocrisy and for their persecution of people of other faiths. Another Frenchman,Montesquieu, advocated division of government into executive, legislative and judicial branches. The French authorRousseau stated in his works that society corrupted individuals. Many monarchs were affected by these ideas, and they became known to history as theenlightened despots. However, most only supported Enlightenment ideas that strengthened their own power.^{[citation needed]}

TheScottish Enlightenment was a period in 18th century Scotland characterised by an outpouring of intellectual and scientific accomplishments. Scotland reaped the benefits ofestablishing Europe's first public education system and a growth in trade which followed theAct of Union with England of 1707 and expansion of theBritish Empire. Important modern attitudes towards the relationship between science and religion were developed by the philosopher/historianDavid Hume.Adam Smith developed and publishedThe Wealth of Nations, the first work in modern economics. He believed competition and private enterprise could increase thecommon good. The celebrated bardRobert Burns is still widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland.

European cities like Paris, London, andVienna grew into large metropolises in early modern times. France became the cultural center of the West. The middle class grew even more influential and wealthy. Great artists of this period includedEl Greco,Rembrandt, andCaravaggio.

By this time, many around the world wondered how the West had become so advanced, for example, theOrthodox ChristianRussians, who came to power after conquering the Mongols that had conquered Kiev in the Middle Ages. They beganwesternizing underCzar Peter the Great, although Russia remained uniquely part of its own civilization. The Russians became involved in European politics, dividing up thePolish–Lithuanian Commonwealth with Prussia and Austria.

During the late 18th century and early 19th century, much of the West experienced a series ofrevolutions that would change the course of history, resulting in new ideologies and changes in society. The first of these revolutions began in North America. TheThirteen Colonies ofBritish North America had by this period. The majority of the population was of English, Scottish, Welsh and Irish descent, while significant minorities included people of French, Dutch and German and Africa descent, as well as someNative Americans. Most of the population wasAnglican, others wereCongregationalist orPuritan, while minorities included other Protestant churches like theSociety of Friends and the Lutherans, as well as some Roman Catholics and Jews. The colonies had their own great cities and universities and continually welcomed new immigrants, mostly from Britain. After the expensiveSeven Years' War, Britain needed to raise revenue, and felt the colonists should bare the brunt of the new taxation it felt was necessary. The colonists greatly resented these taxes and protested the fact they could be taxed by Britain but had no representation in the government.

After Britain's KingGeorge III refused to seriously consider colonial grievances raised at thefirst Continental Congress, some colonists took up arms. Leaders of a new pro-independence movement were influenced by Enlightenment ideals and hoped to bring an ideal nation into existence. On 4 July 1776, the colonies declared independence with the signing of theUnited States Declaration of Independence. Drafted primarily byThomas Jefferson, the document's preamble eloquently outlines the principles of governance that would come to increasingly dominate Western thinking over the ensuing century and a half:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, thatall men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these arelife, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government.

George Washington led the newContinental Army against the British forces, who had many successes early in thisAmerican Revolution. After years of fighting, the colonists formed an alliance with France and defeated the British atYorktown, Virginia in 1781. The treaty ending the war granted independence to the colonies, which becameThe United States of America.

The other major Western revolution at the turn of the 19th century was theFrench Revolution. In 1789 France faced an economical crisis. The King called, for the first time in more than two centuries, theEstates General, an assembly of representatives of each estate of the kingdom: the First Estate (the clergy), the Second Estate (the nobility), and the Third Estate (middle class and peasants); in order to deal with the crisis. As the French society was gained by the same Enlightenment ideals that led to the American revolution, in which many Frenchmen, such as Lafayette, took part; representatives of the Third Estate, joined by some representatives of the lower clergy, created theNational Assembly, which, unlike the Estates General, provided the common people of France with a voice proportionate to their numbers.

The people of Paris feared the King would try to stop the work of the National Assembly and Paris was soon consumed with riots, anarchy, and widespread looting. The mobs soon had the support of the French Guard, including arms and trained soldiers, because the royal leadership essentially abandoned the city. On the fourteenth of July 1789 a mob stormed theBastille, a prison fortress, which led the King to accept the changes. On 4 August 1789 the National Constituent Assembly abolished feudalism sweeping away both the seigneurial rights of the Second Estate and the tithes gathered by the First Estate. It was the first time in Europe, where feudalism was the norm for centuries, that such a thing happened. In the course of a few hours, nobles, clergy, towns, provinces, companies, and cities lost their special privileges.

At first, the revolution seemed to be turning France into aconstitutional monarchy, but the other continental Europe powers feared a spread of the revolutionary ideals and eventually went to war with France. In 1792 KingLouis XVI was imprisoned after he had been captured fleeing Paris and the Republic was declared. The Imperial and Prussian armies threatened retaliation on the French population should it resist their advance or the reinstatement of the monarchy. As a consequence, King Louis was seen as conspiring with the enemies of France. His execution on 21 January 1793 led to more wars with other European countries. During this period France effectively became a dictatorship after the parliamentary coup of the radical leaders, theJacobin. Their leader,Robespierre oversaw theReign of Terror, in which thousands of people deemed disloyal to the republic were executed. Finally, in 1794, Robespierre himself was arrested and executed, and more moderate deputies took power. This led to a new government, theFrench Directory. In 1799, a coup overthrew the Directory and GeneralNapoleon Bonaparte seized power as dictator and even an emperor in 1804.

Liberté, égalité, fraternité (French for "Liberty,equality,fraternity"),^[68] now the nationalmotto of France, had its origins during the French Revolution, though it was only later institutionalised. It remains another iconic motto of the aspirations of Western governance in the modern world.

Some influential intellectuals came to reject the excesses of the revolutionary movement. Political theoristEdmund Burke had supported the American Revolution, but turned against the French Revolution and developed a political theory which opposed governing based on abstract ideas, and preferred 'organic' reform. He is remembered as a father of modern Anglo-conservatism. In response to such critiques, the American revolutionaryThomas Paine published his bookThe Rights of Man in 1791 as a defence of the ideals of the French Revolution. The spirit of the age also produced early works of feminist philosophy – notablyMary Wollstonecraft's 1792 book:A Vindication of the Rights of Woman.

TheNapoleonic Wars were a series of conflicts involvingNapoleon'sFrench Empire and changing sets of European allies by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation ofthe wars sparked by theFrench Revolution of 1789, they revolutionized European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to the application of modernmass conscription. French power rose quickly, conquering most of Europe, but collapsed rapidly after France's disastrousinvasion of Russia in 1812. Napoleon's empire ultimately suffered complete military defeat resulting in therestoration of the Bourbon monarchy in France. The wars resulted in the dissolution of theHoly Roman Empire and sowed the seeds of nascentnationalism inGermany and Italy that would lead to the two nations' consolidation later in the century. Meanwhile, theSpanish Empire began to unravel as Frenchoccupation of Spain weakened Spain's hold over its colonies, providing an opening fornationalist revolutions in Spanish America. As a direct result of the Napoleonic Wars, theBritish Empire became the foremostworld power for the next century,^[69] thus beginningPax Britannica.

France had tofight on multiple battlefronts against the other European powers. A nationwide conscription was voted to reinforce the old royal army made of noble officers and professional soldiers. With this new kind of army, Napoleon was able to beat the European allies and dominate Europe. The revolutionary ideals, based no more on feudalism but on the concept of a sovereign nation, spread all over Europe. When Napoleon eventually lost and the monarchy reinstated in France, these ideals survived and led to the revolutionary waves of the 19th century that brought democracy to many European countries.^[70][71]

With the success of the American Revolution, theSpanish Empire also began to crumble as theirAmerican colonies sought independence as well. In 1808, whenJoseph Bonaparte wasinstalled as the Spanish King by theNapoleonic French, the Spanishresistance resorted togoverning Juntas. When theSupreme Central Junta of Seville fell to the French in 1810, the Spanish American colonies developed themselves governing Juntas in the name of the deposedKing Ferdinand VII (upon the concept known as "Retroversion of the sovereignty to the people"). As this process led to open conflicts betweenindependentists andloyalists, theSpanish American Independence Wars immediately ensued; resulting, by the 1820s, in the definitive loss for the Spanish Empire of all its American territories, with the exception ofCuba andPuerto Rico.^[72]

The years following Britain's victory in the Napoleonic Wars were a period of expansion for Britain as it rebuilt the British Empire. The new United States grew even more rapidly. This period of expansion would help establish Anglicanism as the dominant religion, English as the dominant language, and English andAnglo-American culture as the dominant culture of two continents and many other lands outside the British Isles.

Rapid economic growth following the Napoleonic Wars was the continuing product of the ever-expandingIndustrial Revolution. The revolution began in Britain, whereThomas Newcomen developed asteam engine in 1712 to pump seeping water out of mines. This engine at first was powered by water, but soon coal and wood were heavily used. The British first learned to use steam power effectively. In 1804, the first steam powered railroad locomotive was developed in Britain, which allowed goods and people to be transported at faster speeds than ever before in history. Soon, large numbers of goods were being produced infactories. This resulted in great societal changes, and many people settled in the cities where the factories were located. Factory work could often be brutal.^[73]

With no safety regulations, people became sick from contaminants in the air intextile mills for, example. Many workers were also horribly maimed by dangerous factory machinery. Since workers relied only on their small wages for sustenance, entire families were forced to work, including children. These and other problems caused by industrialism resulted in some reforms by the mid-19th century. The economic model of the West also began to change, with mercantilism being replaced bycapitalism, in which companies, and later, largecorporations, were run by individual investors.^[74]

New ideological movements began as a result of the Industrial Revolution, including theLuddite movement, which opposed machinery, feeling it did not benefit the common good, and thesocialists, whose beliefs usually included the elimination ofprivate property and the sharing of industrial wealth.Unions were founded among industrial workers to help secure better wages and rights. Another result of the revolution was a change in societal hierarchy, especially in Europe, where nobility still occupied a high level on the social ladder. Capitalists emerged as a new powerful group, with educated professionals like doctors and lawyers under them, and the various industrial workers at the bottom. These changes were often slow however, with Western society as a whole remaining primarily agricultural for decades.^[75]

From 1837 until 1901,Queen Victoria reigned over Great Britain and the ever-expandingBritish Empire. TheIndustrial Revolution accelerated, making Britain the most powerful nation. It enjoyed relative peace and stability from 1815 until 1914, this period is often called thePax Britannica, from the Latin "British Peace". The monarch became more a figurehead and symbol of national identity; actual power was in the hands of theprime minister and the cabinet, and was based on a majority in the House of Commons. Two rival parties were theConservative Party and theLiberal Party. The Liberal constituency was made up mostly of businessmen, as many Liberals supported the idea of a free market. Conservatives were supported by the aristocracy and gentry landowners. Control of Parliament switched back and forth between the parties. Overall, it was a period of reform.^[76]

In 1832 more representation was granted to new industrial cities, and laws barring Catholics from serving in Parliament were repealed, although discrimination against Catholics, especially Irish Catholics, continued. Other reforms granted nearuniversal manhood suffrage, and state-supported elementary education for allBritons. More rights were granted to workers as well.

Ireland had been ruled from London since the Middle Ages. After the Protestant Reformation the British Establishment began a campaign of discrimination against Roman Catholic andPresbyterian Irish, who lacked many rights under thePenal Laws, and the majority of the agricultural land was owned by theProtestant Ascendancy. Great Britain and Ireland had become a single nation ruled from London without the autonomousParliament of Ireland after theAct of Union of 1800 was passed, creating theUnited Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In the mid-19th century, Ireland suffered a devastatingfamine, which killed 10% of the population^[77] and led to massive emigration: seeIrish diaspora.

Throughout the 19th century, Britain's power grew enormously and the sun quite literally "never set" on the British Empire, for it had outposts on every occupied continent. It consolidated control over such far flung territories as Canada and Jamaica in the Americas, Australia and New Zealand in Oceania;Malaya, Hong Kong andSingapore in the Far East and a line of colonial possessions from Egypt to theCape of Good Hope through Africa.^[78] All of India was under British rule by 1858.^[79]

In 1804, the Shah of the decliningMughal Empire had formally accepted the protection of theBritish East India Company. Many Britons settled in India, establishing a rich ruling class. They then expanded into neighbouringBurma. Among the British born in India were the immensely influential writersRudyard Kipling (1865) andGeorge Orwell (1903).^[80]

In the Far East, Britain went to war with the decliningQing dynasty of China when it tried to stop British merchants in China from selling the opium to the Chinese public. TheFirst Opium War (1840–1842), ended in a British victory, and China was forced to remove barriers to British trade and cede several ports and the island of Hong Kong to Britain. Soon, other powers sought these same privileges with China and China was forced to agree, ending Chinese isolation from the rest of the world. In 1853 an American expedition opened up Japan to trade with first the U.S., and then the rest of the world.

In 1833, Britain ended slavery by buying out all the owners throughout its empire after a successful campaign byabolitionists. Furthermore, Britain had a great deal of success attempting to get other powers to outlaw the practice as well.

As British settlement of southern Africa continued, the descendants of the Dutch in southern Africa, called theBoers orAfrikaners, whom Britain had ruled since theAnglo-Dutch Wars, migrated northward, disliking British rule. Explorers and missionaries likeDavid Livingstone became national heroes.Cecil Rhodes foundedRhodesia and a British army underLord Kitchener secured control of Sudan in the 1898Battle of Omdurman.

Following theAmerican Revolution, manyLoyalists to Britain fled north to what is today Canada (where they were calledUnited Empire Loyalists). Joined by mostly British colonists, they helped establish early colonies likeOntario andNew Brunswick. British settlement in North America increased, and soon there were several colonies both north and west of the early ones in the northeast of the continent, these new ones includedBritish Columbia andPrince Edward Island.^[81]

Rebellions broke out against British rule in 1837, but Britain appeased the rebels' supporters in 1867 by confederating the colonies into Canada, with its own prime minister. Although Canada was still firmly within the British Empire, its people now enjoyed a great degree of self-rule. Canada was unique in the British Empire in that it had a French-speaking province,Quebec, which Britain had gained rule over in theSeven Years' War.^[82]

TheFirst Fleet of British convicts arrived atNew South Wales, Australia in 1788 and established a British outpost and penal colony atSydney Cove.^[83] These convicts were often petty 'criminals', and represented the population spill-over of Britain'sIndustrial Revolution, as a result of the rapid urbanisation and dire crowding of British cities. Other convicts were political dissidents, particularly from Ireland. The establishment of a wool industry and the enlightenedgovernorship ofLachlan Macquarie were instrumental in transforming New South Wales from a notorious prison outpost into a budding civil society. Further colonies were established around the perimeter of the continent andEuropean explorers ventured deep inland. A free colony was established atSouth Australia in 1836 with a vision for a province of theBritish Empire with political and religious freedoms. The colony became a cradle of democratic reform. TheAustralian gold rushes increased prosperity and cultural diversity and autonomous democratic parliaments began to be established from the 1850s onward.^[84]

The native inhabitants of Australia, called theAborigines, lived ashunter-gatherers before European arrival. The population, never large, was largely dispossessed without treaty agreements nor compensations through the 19th century by the expansion of European agriculture, and, as had occurred when Europeans arrived in North and South America, faced superior European weaponry and suffered greatly from exposure toOld World diseases such assmallpox, to which they had no biologicalimmunity.

From the early 19th century, New Zealand was being visited by European explorers, sailors, missionaries, traders and adventurers (known asPākehā) and was administered by Britain from the nearbycolony of New South Wales. In 1840 Britain signed theTreaty of Waitangi with the natives of New Zealand, theMāori, in which Britain gained sovereignty over the archipelago. As moreEuropean settlers arrived, clashes resulted and the New Zealand colonial government foughtseveral wars before defeating the Māori. By 1870, New Zealand had a population made up mostly of European descent.^[85]

Following independence from Britain, the United States began expanding westward, and soon a number of new states had joined the union. In 1803, the United States purchased theLouisiana Territory from France, whose emperor,Napoleon I, had regained it from Spain. Soon, America's growing population was settling the Louisiana Territory, which geographically doubled the size of the country. At the same time, a series of revolutions and independence movements in Spain and Portugal's American empires resulted in the liberation of nearly all ofLatin America, as the region composed of South America, most of the Caribbean, and North America from Mexico south became known. At first Spain and its allies seemed ready to try to reconquer the colonies, but the U.S. and Britain opposed this, and the reconquest never took place. From 1821 on, the U.S. bordered the newly independent nation of Mexico. An early problem faced by the Mexican republic was what to do with its sparsely populated northern territories, which today make up a large part of the American West. The government decided to try to attract Americans looking for land. Americans arrived in such large numbers that both the provinces ofTexas andCalifornia had majoritywhite, English-speaking populations.

This led to a culture clash between these provinces and the rest of Mexico. When Mexico became a dictatorship under GeneralAntonio López de Santa Anna, the Texans declared independence. After several battles, Texas gained independence from Mexico, although Mexico later claimed it still had a right to Texas. After existing as a republic modeled after the U.S. for several years, Texas joined the United States in 1845. This led to border disputes between the U.S. and Mexico, resulting in theMexican–American War. The war ended with an American victory, and Mexico had to cede all its northern territories to the United States, and recognize the independence of California, which had revolted against Mexico during the war. In 1850, California joined the United States. In 1848, the U.S. and Britain resolved a border dispute over territory on the Pacific coast, called theOregon Country by giving Britain the northern part and the U.S. the southern part. In 1867, the U.S. expanded again, purchasing the Russian colony of Alaska, in northwestern North America.^[86]

Politically, the U.S. became more democratic with the abolishment of property requirements in voting, although voting remained restricted to white males. By the mid-19th century, the most important issue was slavery. TheNorthern states generally had outlawed the practice, while theSouthern states not only had kept it legal but came to feel it was essential to their way of life. As new states joined the union, lawmakers clashed over whether they should beslave states orfree states. In 1860, the anti-slavery candidateAbraham Lincoln was elected president. Fearing he would try to outlaw slavery in the whole country, several southern states seceded, forming theConfederate States of America, electing their own president and raising their own army. Lincoln countered that secession was illegal and raised an army to crush the rebel government, thus the advent of theAmerican Civil War (1861–65).

TheConfederates had a skilled military that even succeeded in invading the northern state ofPennsylvania. However, the war began to turn around, with the defeat of Confederates at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and at Vicksburg, which gave theUnion control of the importantMississippi River. Union forces invaded deep into the South, and the Confederacy's greatest general,Robert E. Lee, surrendered toUlysses S. Grant of the Union in 1865. After that, the south came under Union occupation, ending theAmerican Civil War. Lincoln was tragically assassinated in 1865, but his dream of ending slavery, exhibited in the wartimeEmancipation Proclamation, was carried out by hisRepublican Party, which outlawed slavery, granted blacks equality and black males voting rights viaconstitutional amendments. However, although the abolishment of slavery would not be challenged, equal treatment for blacks would be.^[87]

TheGettysburg Address, Lincoln's most famous speech and one of the most quoted political speeches inUnited States history, was delivered at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania on 19 November 1863, during the Civil War, four and a half months after theBattle of Gettysburg. Describing America as a "nation conceived in Liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal", Lincoln famously called on those gathered:

[We here] highly resolve that these dead shall not havedied in vain; that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom; and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

The years following theNapoleonic Wars were a time of change in Europe. The Industrial Revolution, nationalism, and several political revolutions transformed the continent.^[70]

Industrial technology was imported from Britain. The first lands affected by this were France, the Low Countries, and western Germany. Eventually the Industrial Revolution spread to other parts of Europe. Many people in the countryside migrated to major cities like Paris, Berlin, and Amsterdam, which were connected like never before by railroads. Europe soon had its own class of wealthy industrialists, and large numbers of industrial workers. New ideologies emerged as a reaction against perceived abuses of industrial society. Among these ideologies weresocialism and the more radicalcommunism, created by the GermanKarl Marx. According to communism, history was a series of class struggles, and at the time industrial workers were pitted against their employers. Inevitably the workers would rise up in a worldwide revolution and abolish private property, according to Marx. Communism was also atheistic, since, according to Marx, religion was simply a tool used by the dominant class to keep the oppressed class docile.

Several revolutions occurred in Europe following the Napoleonic Wars. The goal of most of these revolutions was to establish some form of democracy in a particular nation. Many were successful for a time, but their effects were often eventually reversed. Examples of this occurred in Spain, Italy, and Austria. Several European nations stood steadfastly against revolution and democracy, including Austria and Russia.

Two successful revolts of the era were the Greek andSerbian wars of independence, which freed those nations fromOttoman rule. Another successful revolution occurred in the Low Countries. After the Napoleonic Wars, the Netherlands was given control of modern-day Belgium, which had been part of the Holy Roman Empire. The Dutch found it hard to rule the Belgians, due to their Catholic religion and French language. In the 1830s, the Belgians successfully overthrew Dutch rule, establishing the Kingdom of Belgium.^[88]

In 1848 a series of revolutions occurred in Prussia, Austria, and France. In France, the king,Louis-Philippe, was overthrown and a republic was declared.Louis Napoleon, nephew ofNapoleon I was elected the republic's first president. Extremely popular, Napoleon was madeNapoleon III (since Napoleon I's son had been crownedNapoleon II during his reign), Emperor of the French, by a vote of the French people, ending France'sSecond Republic. Revolutionaries in Prussia and Italy focused more on nationalism, and most advocated the establishment of unified German and Italian states, respectively.

In thecity-states of Italy, many argued for a unification of all the Italian kingdoms into a single nation. Obstacles to this included the manyItalian dialects spoken by the people of Italy, and the Austrian presence in the north of the peninsula.Unification of the peninsula began in 1859.

The powerfulKingdom of Sardinia (also calledSavoy orPiedmont) formed an alliance with France and went to war with Austria in that year. The war ended with a Sardinian victory, and Austrian forces left Italy.Plebiscites were held in several cities, and the majority of people voted for union with Sardinia, creating theKingdom of Italy underVictor Emmanuel II. In 1860, the Italian nationalistGaribaldi led revolutionaries in an overthrow of the government of theKingdom of the Two Sicilies. A plebiscite held there resulted in a unification of that kingdom with Italy. Italian forces seized the easternPapal States in 1861.

In 1866Venetia became part of Italy after Italy's ally, Prussia, defeated that kingdom's rulers, the Austrians, in theAustro-Prussian War. In 1870, Italian troopsconquered the Papal States, completing unification.Pope Pius IX refused to recognize the Italian government or negotiate settlement for the loss of Church land.

Prussia in the middle and late parts of the 19th century was ruled by its king,Wilhelm I, and its skilled chancellor,Otto von Bismarck. In 1864, Prussia went to war with Denmark and gained several German-speaking lands as a result. In 1866, Prussia went to war with theAustrian Empire and won, and created a confederation of it and severalGerman states, called theNorth German Confederation, setting the stage for the 1871 formation of theGerman Empire.

After years of dealing with Hungarian revolutionaries, whose kingdom Austria had conquered centuries earlier, the Austrian emperor,Franz Joseph agreed to divide the empire into two parts: Austria and Hungary, and rule as both Emperor of Austria and king of Hungary. The newAustro-Hungarian Empire was created in 1867. The two peoples were united in loyalty to the monarch and Catholicism.

There were changes throughout the West in science, religion and culture between 1815 and 1870. Europe in 1870 differed greatly from its state in 1815. Most Western European nations had some degree of democracy, and two new national states had been created, Italy and Germany. Political parties were formed throughout the continent and with the spread of industrialism, Europe's economy was transformed, although it remained very agricultural.

The 19th and early 20th centuries saw important contributions to the process of modernisation ofWestern art andLiterature and the continuing evolution in the role of religion in Western societies.

Napoleon re-established the Catholic Church in France through theConcordat of 1801.^[89] The end of theNapoleonic Wars, signaled by theCongress of Vienna, brought Catholic revival and the return of the Papal States.^[90] In 1801, a new political entity was formed, theUnited Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, which merged the kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland, thus increasing the number of Catholics in the new state. Pressure for abolition of anti-Catholic laws grew and in 1829 Parliament passed theRoman Catholic Relief Act 1829, giving Catholics almost equal civil rights, including the right to vote and to hold most public offices. While remaining a minority religion in the British Empire, a steady stream of new Catholics would continue to convert from theChurch of England andIreland, notablyJohn Henry Newman and the poetsGerard Manley Hopkins andOscar Wilde. TheAnglo-Catholic movement began, emphasizing the Catholic traditions of the Anglican Church. New churches like theMethodist,Unitarian, andLDS Churches were founded. Many Westerners became less religious in this period, although a majority of people still held traditional Christian beliefs.

The 1859 publication ofOn the Origin of Species, by the English naturalistCharles Darwin, provided an alternative hypothesis for the development, diversification, and design of human life to the traditional poetic scriptural explanation known asCreationism. According to Darwin, only the organisms most able to adapt to their environment survived while others became extinct. Adaptations resulted in changes in certain populations of organisms which could eventually cause the creation of new species. Moderngenetics started withGregor Johann Mendel, a German-Czech Augustinianmonk who studied the nature of inheritance in plants. In his 1865 paper "Versuche über Pflanzenhybriden" ("Experiments on Plant Hybridization"), Mendel traced the inheritance patterns of certain traits in pea plants and described them mathematically.^[91]Louis Pasteur andJoseph Lister made discoveries about bacteria and its effects on humans. Geologists at the time made discoveries indicating the world was far older than most believed it to be. Earlybatteries were invented and atelegraph system was also invented, allowing global communication.

In 1869 Russian chemistDmitri Mendeleev published hisPeriodic table. The success of Mendeleev's table came from two decisions he made: The first was to leave gaps in the table when it seemed that the corresponding element had not yet been discovered. The second decision was to occasionally ignore the order suggested by the atomic weights and switch adjacent elements, such ascobalt andnickel, to better classify them into chemical families. At the end of the 19th century, a number of discoveries were made in physics which paved the way for the development of modern physics – includingMaria Skłodowska-Curie's work onradioactivity.

In Europe by the 19th century, fashion had shifted away from such artistic styles asMannerism,Baroque andRococo and sought to revert to the earlier, simpler art of the Renaissance by creatingNeoclassicism. Neoclassicism complemented the intellectual movement known asthe Enlightenment, which was similarly idealistic.Ingres,Canova, andJacques-Louis David are among the best-known neoclassicists.^[92]

Just as Mannerism rejected Classicism, so didRomanticism reject the ideas of the Enlightenment and the aesthetic of the Neoclassicists. Romanticism emphasized emotion and nature, and idealized the Middle Ages. Important musicians wereFranz Schubert,Pyotr Tchaikovsky,Richard Wagner,Fryderyk Chopin, andJohn Constable. Romantic art focused on the use of color and motion in order to portray emotion, but like classicism used Greek and Roman mythology and tradition as an important source of symbolism. Another important aspect of Romanticism was its emphasis on nature and portraying the power and beauty of the natural world. Romanticism was also a large literary movement, especially in poetry. Among the greatest Romantic artists wereEugène Delacroix,Francisco Goya,Karl Bryullov,J. M. W. Turner,John Constable,Caspar David Friedrich,Ivan Aivazovsky,Thomas Cole, andWilliam Blake.^[92]Romantic poetry emerged as a significant genre, particularly during theVictorian Era with leading exponents includingWilliam Wordsworth,Samuel Taylor Coleridge,Robert Burns,Edgar Allan Poe andJohn Keats. Other Romantic writers included SirWalter Scott,Lord Byron,Alexander Pushkin,Victor Hugo, andGoethe.

Some of the best regarded poets of the era were women.Mary Wollstonecraft had written one of the first works offeminist philosophy,A Vindication of the Rights of Woman which called for equal education for women in 1792 and her daughter,Mary Shelley became an accomplished author best known for her 1818 novelFrankenstein, which examined some of the frightening potential of the rapid advances of science.

In early 19th-century Europe, in response toindustrialization, the movement ofRealism emerged. Realism sought to accurately portray the conditions and hardships of the poor in the hopes of changing society. In contrast with Romanticism, which was essentially optimistic about mankind, Realism offered a stark vision of poverty and despair. Similarly, while Romanticism glorified nature, Realism portrayed life in the depths of an urban wasteland. Like Romanticism,Realism was a literary as well as an artistic movement. The greatRealist painters includeJean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin,Gustave Courbet,Jean-François Millet,Camille Corot,Honoré Daumier,Édouard Manet,Edgar Degas (both considered asImpressionists),Ilya Repin, andThomas Eakins, among others.

Writers also sought to come to terms with the new industrial age. The works of the EnglishmanCharles Dickens (including his novelsOliver Twist andA Christmas Carol) and the FrenchmanVictor Hugo (includingLes Misérables) remain among the best known and widely influential. The first great Russian novelist wasNikolai Gogol (Dead Souls). Then cameIvan Goncharov,Nikolai Leskov andIvan Turgenev.Leo Tolstoy (War and Peace,Anna Karenina) andFyodor Dostoevsky (Crime and Punishment,The Idiot,The Brothers Karamazov) soon became internationally renowned to the point that many scholars such asF. R. Leavis have described one or the other as the greatest novelist ever. In the second half of the centuryAnton Chekhov excelled in writing short stories and became perhaps the leading dramatist internationally of his period.American literature also progressed with the development of a distinct voice:Mark Twain produced his masterpiecesTom Sawyer andAdventures of Huckleberry Finn. InIrish literature, the Anglo-Irish tradition producedBram Stoker andOscar Wilde writing in English and aGaelic Revival had emerged by the end of the 19th century. The poetry ofWilliam Butler Yeats prefigured the emergence of the 20th-century Irish literary giantsJames Joyce,Samuel Beckett andPatrick Kavanagh. In Britain's Australian colonies,bush balladeers such asHenry Lawson andBanjo Paterson brought the character of a new continent to the pages of world literature.

The response of architecture to industrialisation, in stark contrast to the other arts, was to veer towards historicism. The railway stations built during this period are often called "the cathedrals of the age". Architecture during the Industrial Age witnessed revivals of styles from the distant past, such as theGothic Revival—in which style the iconicPalace of Westminster in London was re-built to house the mother parliament of the British Empire.Notre Dame de Paris Cathedral in Paris was also restored in the Gothic style, following its desecration during theFrench Revolution.

Out of the naturalist ethic of Realism grew a major artistic movement,Impressionism. The Impressionists pioneered the use oflight in painting as they attempted to capture light as seen from the human eye.Edgar Degas,Édouard Manet,Claude Monet,Camille Pissarro, andPierre-Auguste Renoir, were all involved in the Impressionist movement. As a direct outgrowth of Impressionism came the development ofPost-Impressionism.Paul Cézanne,Vincent van Gogh,Paul Gauguin,Georges Seurat are the best known Post-Impressionists. In Australia theHeidelberg School was expressing the light and colour of Australian landscape with a new insight and vigour.

TheIndustrial Revolution which began in Britain in the 18th century brought increased leisure time, leading to more time for citizens to attend and follow spectator sports, greater participation in athletic activities, and increased accessibility. The bat and ball sport ofcricket was first played in England during the 16th century and was exported around the globe via the British Empire. A number of popular modern sports were devised or codified in Britain during the 19th century and obtained global prominence – these includePing Pong,^[93][94] moderntennis,^[95]Association football,netball andrugby. The United States also developed popular international sports during this period. English migrants took antecedents ofbaseball to America during the colonial period.American football resulted from several major divergences from rugby, most notably the rule changes instituted byWalter Camp.Basketball was invented in 1891 byJames Naismith, a Canadian physical education instructor working in Springfield, Massachusetts in the United States. BaronPierre de Coubertin, a Frenchman, instigated the modern revival of theOlympic Games, with the first modern Olympics being held inAthens in 1896.^[96]

The years between 1870 and 1914 saw the expansion of Western power. By 1914, the Western and some Asian and Eurasian empires like theEmpire of Japan,Russian Empire,Ottoman Empire, andQing China dominated the entire planet. The major Western players in thisNew Imperialism were the United Kingdom, Russia, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden-Norway, and the United States. Japan was the only non-Western power involved in this new era ofimperialism.

Although the West had had a presence in Africa for centuries, its colonies were limited mostly to Africa's coast. Europeans, including the BritonsMungo Park andDavid Livingstone, the GermanJohannes Rebmann, and the FrenchmanRené Caillié, explored the interior of the continent, allowing greater European expansion in the later 19th century.

The period between 1870 and 1914 is often called theScramble for Africa, due to the competition between European nations for control of Africa. In 1830, France occupiedAlgeria in North Africa. Many Frenchmen settled on Algeria's Mediterranean coast. In 1882 Britain annexedEgypt. France eventually conquered most ofMorocco andTunisia as well.Libya was conquered by the Italians. Spain gained a small part of Morocco and modern-dayWestern Sahara. West Africa was dominated by France, although Britain ruled several smaller West African colonies. Germany also established two colonies in West Africa, and Portugal had one as well.Central Africa was dominated by theBelgian Congo. At first the colony was ruled by Belgium's king,Leopold II, however his regime was so brutal the Belgian government took over the colony.

The Germans and French also established colonies in Central Africa. The British and Italians were the two dominant powers in East Africa, although France also had a colony there.Southern Africa was dominated by Britain. Tensions between the British Empire and theBoer Republics led to theBoer Wars, fought on and off between the 1880s and 1902, ending in a British victory. In 1910 Britain united its South African colonies with the former Boer republics and established theUnion of South Africa, a dominion of the British Empire. The British established several other colonies in Southern Africa. The Portuguese and Germans also established a presence in Southern Africa. The French conquered the island ofMadagascar.

By 1914, Africa had only two independent nations,Liberia, a nation founded in West Africa by free black Americans earlier in the 19th century,^[97] and the ancient kingdom ofEthiopia in East Africa.^[98] Many Africans, like theZulus andAshanti, resisted European rule, but in the end Europe succeeded in conquering and transforming the continent. Missionaries arrived and established schools, while industrialists helped establishrubber,diamond andgold industries on the continent. Perhaps the most ambitious change by Europeans was the construction of theSuez Canal in Egypt, allowing ships to travel from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean without having to go all the way around Africa.

In Asia, China was defeated by Britain in the First Opium War and later Britain and France in theArrow War, forcing it to open up to trade with the West. Soon every major Western power as well as Russia and Japan hadspheres of influence in China, although the country remained independent.Southeast Asia was divided betweenFrench Indochina and BritishBurma. One of the few independent nations in this region at the time wasSiam. The Dutch continued to rule their colony of theDutch East Indies, while Britain and Germany also established colonies inOceania. India remained an integral part of the British Empire, with Queen Victoria being crownedEmpress of India. The British even built a new capital in India, New Delhi. The Middle East remained largely under the rule of the Ottoman Empire andPersia. Britain, however, established a sphere of influence in Persia and a few small colonies in Arabia and coastalMesopotamia.

The Pacific islands were conquered by Germany, the U.S., Britain, France, and Belgium. In 1893, the ruling class of colonists in Hawaii overthrew the Hawaiian monarchy ofQueen Liliuokalani and established a republic. Since most of the leaders of the overthrow were Americans or descendants of Americans, they asked to be annexed by the United States, which agreed to the annexation in 1898.

Latin America was largely free from foreign rule throughout this period, although the United States and Britain had a great deal of influence over the region. Britain had two colonies on the Latin American mainland, while the United States, following 1898, had several in theCaribbean. The U.S. supported the independence of Cuba andPanama, but gained a small territory in central Panama and intervened in Cuba several times. Other countries also faced American interventions from time to time, mostly in the Caribbean and southern North America.

Competition over control of overseas colonies sometimes led to war between Western powers, and between Western powers and non-Westerners. At the turn of the 20th century, Britain fought several wars withAfghanistan to prevent it from falling under the influence of Russia, which ruled all of Central Asia excluding Afghanistan. Britain and France nearly went to war over control of Africa. In 1898, the United States and Spain went to war after an American naval ship was sunk in the Caribbean. Although today it is generally held that the sinking was an accident, at the time the U.S. held Spain responsible and soon American and Spanish forces clashed everywhere from Cuba to thePhilippines. The U.S. won the war and gained several Caribbean colonies includingPuerto Rico and several Pacific islands, includingGuam and the Philippines. Important resistance movements to Western Imperialism included theBoxer Rebellion, fought against the colonial powers in China, and thePhilippine–American War, fought against the United States, both of which failed.

TheRusso-Turkish War (1877–78) left the Ottoman Empire little more than an empty shell, but the failing empire was able to hang on into the 20th century, until its finalpartition, which left the British and French colonial empires in control of much of the former Ottoman ruled Arab countries of the Middle East (British Mandate of Palestine,British Mandate of Mesopotamia,French Mandate of Syria,French Mandate of Lebanon, in addition to theBritish occupation of Egypt from 1882). Even though this happened centuries after the West had given up its futile attempts to conquer the "Holy Land" under religious pretexts, this fueled resentment against the "Crusaders" in the Islamic world, which along with thenationalisms hatched under Ottoman rule, contributed to the development ofIslamism.

The expanding Western powers greatly changed the societies they conquered. Many connected their empires via railroad and telegraph and constructed churches, schools, and factories.

By the late 19th century, the world was dominated by a fewgreat powers, including Great Britain, the United States, and Germany. France, Russia, Austria-Hungary, and Italy were also great powers.

Western inventors and industrialists transformed the West in the late 19th century and early 20th century. The AmericanThomas Edison pioneered electricity and motion picture technology.^[99] Other American inventors, theWright brothers, completed the first successful airplane flight in 1903.^[100] The first automobiles were also invented in this period.Petroleum became an important commodity after the discovery it could be used to power machines. Steel was developed in Britain byHenry Bessemer. This very strong metal, combined with the invention of elevators, allowed people to construct very tall buildings, calledskyscrapers.

In the late 19th century, the ItalianGuglielmo Marconi was able to communicate across distances using radio. In 1876, the firsttelephone was invented byAlexander Graham Bell, a Britishexpatriate living in America. Many became very wealthy from thisSecond Industrial Revolution, including the American entrepreneursAndrew Carnegie andJohn D. Rockefeller. Unions continued to fight for the rights of workers, and by 1914 laws limiting working hours and outlawingchild labor had been passed in many Western countries.

Culturally, the English-speaking nations were in the midst of theVictorian era, named for Britain's queen. In France, this period is called theBelle Époque, a period of many artistic and cultural achievements. Thesuffragette movement began in this period, which sought to gain voting rights for women, with New Zealand and Australian parliaments grantingwomen's suffrage in the 1890s. However, by 1914, only a dozen U.S. states had given women this right, although women were treated more and more as equals of men before the law in many countries.

Cities grew as never before between 1870 and 1914.^[101] This led at first to unsanitary and crowded living conditions, especially for the poor. However, by 1914, municipal governments were providing police and fire departments and garbage removal services to their citizens, leading to a drop in death rates. Unfortunately, pollution from burning coal and wastes left by thousands of horses that crowded the streets worsened the quality of life in many urban areas. Paris, lit up by gas and electric light, and containing the tallest structure in the world at the time, theEiffel Tower, was often looked to as an ideal modern city, and served as a model for city planners around the world.

Following theAmerican Civil War, great changes occurred in the United States. After the war, the formerConfederate States were put under federal occupation and federal lawmakers attempted to gain equality for blacks by outlawing slavery and giving them citizenship. After several years, however, Southern states began rejoining the Union as their populations pledged loyalty to the United States government, and in 1877Reconstruction as this period was called, came to an end. After being re-admitted to the Union, Southern lawmakers passedsegregation laws and laws preventing blacks from voting, resulting in blacks being regarded assecond-class citizens for decades to come.^[102]

Another great change beginning in the 1870s was the settlement of the western territories by Americans.^[103] The population growth in theAmerican West led to the creation of many new western states, and by 1912 all the land of the contiguous U.S. was part of a state, bringing the total to 48. As whites settled the West, however, conflicts occurred with the Amerindians. After severalIndian Wars, the Amerindians were forcibly relocated to small reservations throughout the West and by 1914 whites were the dominant ethnic group in the American West. As the farming and cattle industries of the American West matured and new technology allowed goods to be refrigerated and brought to other parts of the country and overseas, people's diets greatly improved and contributed to increased population growth throughout the West.

America's population greatly increased between 1870 and 1914, due largely to immigration.^[104] The U.S. had been receiving immigrants for decades but at the turn of the 20th century, the numbers greatly increased due partly to large population growth in Europe. Immigrants often faced discrimination, because many differed from most Americans in religion and culture. Despite this, most immigrants found work and enjoyed a greater degree of freedom than in their home countries. Major immigrant groups included the Irish, Italians, Russians, Scandinavians, Germans, Poles andDiaspora Jews. The vast majority, at least by the second generation, learned English, and adopted American culture, while at the same time contributing to that culture by, for example, introducing the celebration of ethnic holidays and foreign cuisine to America. These new groups also changed America's religious landscape. Although it remained mostlyProtestant,Catholics especially, as well as Jews andOrthodox Christians, increased in number.

The U.S. became a major military and industrial power during this time, gaining a colonial empire from Spain and surpassing Britain and Germany to become the world's major industrial power by 1900. Despite this, most Americans were reluctant to get involved in world affairs, and American presidents generally tried to keep the U.S. out of foreign entanglement.

The years between 1870 and 1914 saw the rise of Germany as the dominant power in Europe. By the late 19th century, Germany had surpassed Britain to become the world's greatest industrial power. It also had the mightiest army in Europe.^[105] From 1870 to 1871,Prussia was at war with France. Prussia won the war and gained two border territories,Alsace andLorraine, from France. After the war,Wilhelm took the titlekaiser from the Roman titlecaesar, proclaimed theGerman Empire, and all the German states other than Austria united with this new nation, under the leadership of Prussian ChancellorOtto von Bismarck.

After theFranco-Prussian War,Napoleon III was dethroned and France was proclaimed a republic. During this time, France was increasingly divided between Catholics and monarchists and anticlerical and republican forces. In 1900, church and state were officially separated in France, although the majority of the population remained Catholic. France also found itself weakened industrially following its war with Prussia due to its loss of iron and coal mines following the war. In addition, France's population was smaller than Germany's and was hardly growing. Despite all this, France's strong sense of nationhood, among other things, kept the country together.

Between 1870 and 1914, Britain continued to peacefully switch betweenLiberal andConservative governments, and maintained its vast empire, the largest in world history. Two problems faced by Britain in this period were the resentment ofBritish rule in Ireland and Britain's falling behind Germany and the United States in industrial production.

The European populations of Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa all continued to grow and thrive in this period and evolved democraticWestminster system parliaments.

Canada united as adominion of theBritish Empire under theConstitution Act, 1867 (British North America Acts). The colony of New Zealand gained its own parliament (called a "general assembly") and home rule in 1852.^[106] and in 1907 was proclaimed theDominion of New Zealand.^[107] Britain began to grant its Australian colonies autonomy beginning in the 1850s and during the 1890s, the colonies of Australia voted to unite. In 1901 they were federated as an independent nation under the British Crown, known as theCommonwealth of Australia, with a wholly electedbicameral parliament. TheConstitution of Australia had been drafted in Australia and approved by popular consent. Thus Australia is one of the few countries established by a popular vote.^[108] The SecondBoer War (1899–1902) ended with the conversion of the Boer republics of South Africa into British colonies and these colonies later formed part of theUnion of South Africa in 1910 with equal rights for the Boers, who dominated elections.

From the 1850s, Canada, Australia and New Zealand had becomelaboratories of democracy. By the 1870s, they had already granted voting rights to their citizens in advance of most other Western nations. In 1893, New Zealand became the first self-governing nation to extend theright to vote to women and, in 1895, the women ofSouth Australia also became the first to obtainthe right to stand for Parliament.

During the 1890s Australia also saw such milestones as the invention of thesecret ballot, the introduction of a minimum wage and the election of the world's first Labor Party government, prefiguring the emergence ofSocial Democratic governments in Europe. The old age pension was established in Australia and New Zealand by 1900.^[14]

From the 1880s, theHeidelberg School of art adapted Western painting techniques to Australian conditions, while writers likeBanjo Paterson andHenry Lawson introduced the character of a new continent intoEnglish literature andantipodean artists such as the opera singer DameNellie Melba began to influence the European arts.

The late 19th century saw the creation of two rival alliances in Europe. Germany, Italy, and Austria-Hungary formed theTriple Alliance.^[109] France and Russia also developed strong relations with one another, due to the financing of Russia's Industrial Revolution by French capitalists. Although it did not have a formal alliance, Russia supported theSlavicOrthodox nations of the Balkans and the Caucasus, which had been created in the 19th century after several wars and revolutions against theOttoman Empire, which by now was in decline and ruled only parts of the southernBalkan Peninsula. This Russian policy, calledPan-Slavism, led to conflicts with the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian Empires, which had many Slavic subjects. Franco-German relations were also tense in this period due to France's defeat and loss of land at the hands of Prussia in theFranco-Prussian War. Also in this period, Britain ended its policy of isolation from the European continent and formed an alliance with France, called theEntente Cordiale. Rather than achieve greater security for the nations of Europe, however, these alliances increased the chances of a general European war breaking out.

Other factors that would eventually lead to World War I were the competition for overseas colonies, the military buildups of the period, most notably Germany's, and the feeling of intense nationalism throughout the continent.

When the war broke out, much of the fighting was between Western powers, and the immediatecasus belli was an assassination. The victim was the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne,Franz Ferdinand, and he was assassinated on 28 June 1914 by a Yugoslav nationalist namedGavrilo Princip in the city ofSarajevo, at the time part of theAustro-Hungarian Empire. AlthoughSerbia agreed to all but one point of the Austrian ultimatum (it did not take responsibility in planning the assassination but was ready to hand over any subject involved on its territory), Austria-Hungary was more than eager to declare war, attacked Serbia and effectively beganWorld War I. Fearing the conquest of a fellow Slavic Orthodox nation, Russia declared war on Austria-Hungary. Germany responded by declaring war on Russia as well as France, which it feared would ally with Russia.

To reach France, Germany invaded neutral Belgium in August, leading Britain to declare war on Germany. The war quickly stalemated, withtrenches being dug from theNorth Sea to Switzerland. The war also made use of new and relatively new technology and weapons, includingmachine guns,airplanes,tanks,battleships, andsubmarines. Evenchemical weapons were used at one point. The war also involved other nations, withRomania and Greece joining theBritish Empire and France andBulgaria and theOttoman Empire joining Germany. The war spread throughout the globe with colonial armies clashing in Africa and Pacific nations such as Japan and Australia, allied with Britain, attacking German colonies in the Pacific.

In the Middle East, theAustralian and New Zealand Army Corps landed atGallipoli in 1915 in a failed bid to support an Anglo-French capture of the Ottoman capital ofIstanbul. Unable to secure an early victory in 1915, British Empire forces later attacked from further south after the beginning of theArab revolt and conqueredMesopotamia andPalestine from the Ottomans with the support of local Arab rebels. The British Empire also supported an Arab revolt against the Ottomans that was centered in theArabian Peninsula.

1916 saw some of the most ferocious fighting in human history with theSomme Offensive on theWestern Front alone resulting in 500,000 German casualties, 420,000 British and Dominion casualties, and 200,000 French casualties.^[110]

1917 was a crucial year in the war. The United States had followed a policy of neutrality in the war, feeling it was a European conflict. However, during the course of the war many Americans had died on board British ocean liners sunk by the Germans, leading to anti-German feelings in the U.S. There had also been incidents of sabotage on American soil, including theBlack Tom explosion. What finally led to American involvement in the war, however, was the discovery of theZimmermann Telegram, in which Germany offered to help Mexico conquer part of the United States if it formed an alliance with Germany. In April, the U.S. declared war on Germany.

The same year the U.S. entered the war, Russia withdrew. After the deaths of many Russian soldiers and hunger in Russia, a revolution occurred against the Czar,Nicholas II. Nicholas abdicated and a Liberal provisional government was set up. In October, Russian communists, led byVladimir Lenin rose up against the government, resulting in a civil war. Eventually, the communists won and Lenin became premier. Feeling World War I was a capitalist conflict, Lenin signed a peace treaty with Germany in which it gave up a great deal of its Central and Eastern European lands.

Although Germany and its allies no longer had to focus on Russia, the large numbers of American troops and weapons reaching Europe turned the tide against Germany, and after more than a year of fighting, Germany surrendered.

The treaties which ended the war, including the famousVersailles Treaty dealt harshly with Germany and its former allies. The Austro-Hungarian Empire were completely abolished and Germany was greatly reduced in size. Many nations regained their independence, including Poland,Czechoslovakia, andYugoslavia. The last Austro-Hungarian emperor abdicated, and two new republics, Austria and Hungary, were created. The last Ottoman sultan was overthrown by the Turkish nationalist revolutionary namedAtatürk and the Ottoman homeland of Turkey was declared a republic. Germany's kaiser also abdicated and Germany was declared a republic. Germany was also forced to give up the lands it had gained in the Franco-Prussian War to France, accept responsibility for the war, reduce its military and pay reparations to Britain and France.

In the Middle East, Britain gainedPalestine,Transjordan (modern-dayJordan), andMesopotamia as colonies. France gainedSyria andLebanon. An independent kingdom consisting of most of the Arabian peninsula,Saudi Arabia, was also established. Germany's colonies in Africa, Asia, and the Pacific were divided between the British andFrench Empires.

The war had cost millions of lives and led many in the West to develop a strong distaste for war. Few were satisfied with, and many despised the agreements made at the end of the war. Japanese and Italians were angry that they had not been given any new colonies after the war, and many Americans felt the war had been a mistake. Germans were outraged at the state of their country following the war. Also, unlike many in the United States had hoped for, democracy did not flourish in the world in the post-war period.The League of Nations, an international organization proposed by American presidentWoodrow Wilson to prevent another great war from breaking out, proved ineffective, especially because the United States Senate stopped Wilson White House from ratifying U.S. membership.^[111]

After World War I, most Americans regretted getting involved in world affairs and desired a "return to normalcy". The 1920s were a period of economic prosperity in the United States. Many Americans bought cars, radios, and other appliances with the help of installment payments. Also, many Americans invested in thestock market as a source of income. Movie theaters sprang up throughout the country, although at first they did not have sound. Alcoholic beverages were outlawed in the United States and women were granted the right to vote. Although the United States was arguably the most powerful nation in the post-war period, Americans remained isolationist and elected several conservative presidents during this period.

In October 1929 theNew York stock market crashed, leading to theGreat Depression. Many lost their life's savings and the resulting decline inconsumer spending led millions to lose their jobs as banks and businesses closed. In theMidwestern United States,a severe drought destroyed many farmers' livelihoods. In 1932, Americans electedFranklin D. Roosevelt president. Roosevelt followed aseries of policies which regulated the stock market and banks, and created many public works programs aimed at providing the unemployed with work. Roosevelt's policies helped alleviate the worst effects of the Depression, although by 1941 the Great Depression was still ongoing. Roosevelt also instituted pensions for the elderly and provided money to those who were unemployed. Roosevelt was also one of the most popular presidents in U.S. history, earning re-election in 1936, and also in 1940 and 1944, becoming the only U.S. president to serve more than two terms.

Europe was relatively unstable following World War I. Although many prospered in the 1920s, Germany was in a deep financial and economic crisis. Also, France and Britain owed the U.S. a great deal of money. When the United States went into Depression, so did Europe. There were perhaps 30 million people around the world unemployed following the Depression. Many governments helped to alleviate the suffering of their citizens and by 1937 the economy had improved although the lingering effects of the Depression remained. Also, the Depression led to the spread of radical left-wing and right-wing ideologies, likeCommunism andFascism.

In 1919–1921Polish–Soviet War took place. After theRussian Revolution of 1917 Russia sought to spreadcommunism to the rest of Europe. This is evidenced by the well-known daily order by marshalTukhachevsky to his troops: "Over the corpse of Poland leads the road to the world's fire. Towards Wilno, Minsk, Warsaw go!".^{[citation needed]} Poland, whose statehood had just been re-established by theTreaty of Versailles following thePartitions of Poland in the late 18th century achieved an unexpected and decisive victory at theBattle of Warsaw. In the wake of the Polish advance eastward, the Soviets sued for peace and the war ended with a ceasefire in October 1920. A formal peace treaty, thePeace of Riga, was signed on 18 March 1921. According to the British historianA. J. P. Taylor, the Polish–Soviet War "largely determined the course of European history for the next twenty years or more. [...] Unavowedly and almost unconsciously, Soviet leaders abandoned the cause of international revolution."^[112] It would be twenty years before the Bolsheviks would send their armies abroad to 'make revolution'. According to American sociologist Alexander Gella, "the Polish victory had gained twenty years of independence not only for Poland, but at least for an entire central part of Europe."^{[citation needed]}

In 1916, militant Irish republicans staged arising and proclaimed arepublic. The rising was suppressed after six days with leaders of the rising being executed. This was followed by theIrish War of Independence in 1919–1921 and theIrish Civil War (1922–1923). After the civil war, the island was divided. Northern Ireland remained part of the United Kingdom, while the rest of the island became theIrish Free State. In 1927, the United Kingdom renamed itself theUnited Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

In 1918, the UK granted the right to vote to women.^[113]

The relationship between Britain and its Empire evolved significantly over the period. In 1919, the British Empire was represented at the all-importantVersailles Peace Conference by delegates from itsdominions who had each suffered large casualties during the War.^[114]

TheBalfour Declaration at the1926 Imperial Conference, stated that Britain and its dominions were "equal in status, in no way subordinate one to another in any aspect of their domestic or external affairs, though united by common allegiance to the Crown, and freely associated as members of theBritish Commonwealth of Nations". These aspects to the relationship were eventually formalised by theStatute of Westminster in 1931 – a British law which, at the request and with the consent of the dominion parliaments clarified the independent powers of the dominion parliaments, and granted the former colonies full legal freedom except areas where they chose to remain subordinate. Previously the British Parliament had had residual ill-defined powers, and overriding authority, over dominion legislation.^[115] It applied to the six dominions which existed in 1931: Canada, Australia, theIrish Free State, theDominion of Newfoundland, New Zealand, and the Union of South Africa.

Each of the dominions remained within the British Commonwealth and retained close political and cultural ties with Britain and continued to recognize the British monarch as head of their own independent nations. Australia, New Zealand, and Newfoundland had to ratify the statute for it to take effect. Australia and New Zealand did so in 1942 and 1947 respectively. Newfoundland united with Canada in 1949 and the Irish Free State came to an end in 1937, when the citizens voted by referendum to replace its 1922 constitution. It was succeeded by the entirely sovereign modern state of Ireland.

Theinter-war years saw the establishment of the firsttotalitarian regimes in world history.^[116] The first was established in Russia following the revolution of 1917. The Russian Empire was renamed theUnion of Soviet Socialist Republics, or Soviet Union. The government controlled every aspect of its citizens' lives, from maintaining loyalty to the Communist Party to persecuting religion. Lenin helped to establish this state but it was brought to a new level of brutality under his successor,Joseph Stalin.

The first totalitarian state in the West was established in Italy. Unlike the Soviet Union however, this would be a Fascist rather than a Communist state.Fascism is a less organizedideology than Communism, but generally it is characterized by a total rejection of humanism and liberal democracy, as well as very intense nationalism, with a government headed by a single all-powerful dictator. The Italian politicianBenito Mussolini established theFascist Party (from which Fascism derives its name) following World War I. Fascists won the support of many disillusioned Italians, who were angry over Italy's treatment following World War I. They also employed violence and intimidation against their political enemies. In 1922, Mussolini seized power by threatening to lead his followers on a march on Rome if he was not named prime minister. Although he had to share some power with the monarchy, Mussolini ruled as a dictator.

Under his rule, Italy's military was built up and democracy became a thing of the past. One important diplomatic achievement of his reign, however, was theLateran Treaty, between Italy and the Pope, in which a small part of Rome whereSt. Peter's Basilica and other Church property was located was given independence asVatican City and the Pope was reimbursed for lost Church property. In exchange, the Pope recognized the Italian government.

Another Fascist party, theNazis, would take power in Germany. The Nazis were similar to Mussolini's Fascists but held many views of their own. Nazis were obsessed with racial theory, believing Germans to be part of a master race, destined to dominate the inferior races of the world. The Nazis were especially hateful of Jews. Another unique aspect of Nazism was its connection with a small movement that supported a return to ancient Germanic paganism.Adolf Hitler, a World War I veteran, became leader of the party in 1921. Gaining support from many disillusioned Germans, and by using intimidation against its enemies, the Nazi party had gained a great deal of power by the early 1930s. In 1933, Hitler was namedChancellor, and seized dictatorial power. Hitler built up Germany's military in violation of the Versailles Treaty and stripped Jews of all rights in Germany. Eventually, the regime Hitler created would lead to theSecond World War.

In Spain, a Republic was proclaimed in 1931 in the wake of the demise of the Bourbon monarchic regime and its dictatorial solution. In 1936, a military coup d'état against the republic started theSpanish Civil War, which ended in 1939 with the victory of the rebel side (supported by Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany), and withFrancisco Franco as dictator.

The late 1930s saw a series of violations of the Versailles Treaty by Germany, however, France and Britain refused to act.^[117] In 1938,Hitler annexed Austria in an attempt to unite all German-speakers under his rule. Next, he annexed a German-speaking area ofCzechoslovakia. Britain and France agreed to recognize his rule over that land and in exchange Hitler agreed not to expand his empire further. In a matter of months, however, Hitler broke the pledge and annexed the rest of Czechoslovakia. Despite this, the British and French chose to do nothing, wanting to avoid war at any cost. Hitler then formed a secret non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union, despite the fact that the Soviet Union was Communist and Germany was Nazi.

Also in the 1930s, Italy conquered Ethiopia. The Soviets too began annexing neighboring countries. Japan began taking aggressive actions towards China. After Japan opened itself to trade with the West in the mid-19th century, its leaders learned to take advantage of Western technology and industrialized their country by the end of the century. By the 1930s, Japan's government was under the control ofmilitarists who wanted to establish an empire in the Asia-Pacific region. In 1937, Japan invaded China.

In 1939, German forces invaded Poland, and soon the country was divided between the Soviet Union and Germany. France and Britain declared war on Germany,World War II had begun. The war featured the use of new technologies and improvements on existing ones. Airplanes calledbombers were capable of travelling great distances and dropping bombs on targets. Submarine, tank and battleship technology also improved. Most soldiers were equipped with hand-held machine guns and armies were more mobile than ever before. Also, the British invention ofradar would revolutionize tactics. German forces invaded and conquered the Low Countries and by June had even conquered France. In 1940 Germany, Italy and Japan formed an alliance and became known as theAxis powers. Germany next turned its attention to Britain.

Hitler attempted to defeat the British using only air power. In theBattle of Britain, German bombers destroyed much of the British air force and many British cities. Led by their prime minister, the defiantWinston Churchill, the British refused to give up and launched air attacks on Germany. Eventually, Hitler turned his attention from Britain to the Soviet Union. In June 1941, German forces invaded the Soviet Union and soon reached deep into Russia, surrounding Moscow,Leningrad, andStalingrad. Hitler's invasion came as a total surprise to Stalin; however, Hitler had always believed sooner or later Soviet Communism and what he believed were the "inferior" Slavic peoples had to be wiped out.

The United States attempted to remain neutral early in the war. However, a growing number feared the consequences of a Fascist victory. President Roosevelt began sending weapons and support to the British, Chinese, and Soviets. Also, the U.S. placed an embargo against the Japanese, as they continued their war with China and conquered many colonies formerly ruled by the French and Dutch, who were now under German rule. In 1941, Japan launched a surpriseattack on Pearl Harbor, an American naval base in Hawaii. The U.S. responded by declaring war on Japan. The next day, Germany and Italy declared war on the United States. The United States, theBritish Commonwealth, and theSoviet Union now constituted theAllies, dedicated to destroying theAxis powers. Other allied nations included Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and China.

In thePacific War, British, Indian and Australian troops made a disorganisedlast stand at Singapore, before surrendering on 15 February 1942. The defeat was the worst inBritish military history. Around 15,000 Australian soldiers alone became prisoners of war. Allied prisoners died in their thousands interned atChangi Prison or working as slave labourers on such projects as the infamousBurma Railway and theSandakan Death Marches. Australian cities and bases – notablyDarwin sufferedair raids andSydney suffered naval attack. U.S. GeneralDouglas MacArthur, based inMelbourne, Australia became "Supreme Allied Commander of the South West Pacific" and the foundations of the post warAustralia-New Zealand-United States Alliance were laid.

In May 1942, theRoyal Australian Navy andU.S. Navy engaged theJapanese in theBattle of the Coral Sea and halted the Japanese fleet headed for Australian waters. TheBattle of Midway in June effectively defeated the Japanese navy. In August 1942, Australian forces inflicted the first land defeat on advancing Japanese forces at theBattle of Milne Bay in the AustralianTerritory of New Guinea.^[118]

By 1942, German and Italian armies ruled Norway, the Low Countries, France, the Balkans, Central Europe, part of Russia, and most of North Africa. Japan by this year ruled much of China, Southeast Asia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and many Pacific Islands. Life in these empires was cruel – especially in Germany, wherethe Holocaust was perpetrated. Eleven million people – six million of them Jews – were systematically murdered by the German Nazis by 1945.^[119][120]

From 1943 on, the Allies gained the upper hand. American and British troops first liberated North Africa from the Germans and Italians. Next they invaded Italy, where Mussolini was deposed by the king and later was killed by Italian partisans. Italy surrendered and came under Allied occupation. After the liberation of Italy, American, British, and Canadian troopscrossed the English Channel and liberated Normandy, France, from German rule after great loss of life. The Western Allies were then able to liberate the rest of France and move towards Germany. During these campaigns in Africa and Western Europe, the Soviets fought off the Germans, pushing them out of the Soviet Union altogether and driving them out of Eastern and East-Central Europe. In 1945 the Western Allies and Soviets invaded Germany itself. The Soviets captured Berlin and Hitler committed suicide. Germany surrendered unconditionally and came under Allied occupation. The war against Japan continued however. American forces from 1943 on had worked their way across the Pacific, liberating territory from the Japanese. The British also fought the Japanese in such places as Burma. By 1945, the U.S. had surrounded Japan, however the Japanese refused to surrender. Fearing a land invasion would cost one million American lives, the U.S. used a new weapon against Japan, theatomic bomb, developed after years of work by an international team including Germans, in the United States. Theseatomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined with aSoviet invasion of many of Japan's occupied territories in the east, led Japan to surrender.

After the war the U.S., Britain and the Soviet Union attempted to cooperate. German and Japanese military leaders responsible for atrocities in their regimes were put on trial and many were executed. The international organization theUnited Nations was created. Its goal was to prevent wars from breaking out as well as provide the people of the world with security, justice and rights. The period of post-war cooperation ended, however, when the Soviet Union rigged elections in the occupied nations ofCentral and Eastern Europe to allow for Communist victories. Soon, all of Eastern and much of Central Europe had become a series of Communist dictatorships, all staunchly allied with the Soviet Union. Germany following the war had been occupied by British, American, French, and Soviet forces. Unable to agree on a new government, the country was divided into a democratic west and Communist east. Berlin itself was also divided, withWest Berlin becoming part of West Germany andEast Berlin becoming part ofEast Germany. Meanwhile, the former Axis nations soon had their sovereignty restored, with Italy and Japan regaining independence following the war.

World War II had cost millions of lives and devastated many others. Entire cities lay in ruins and economies were in shambles. However, in the Allied countries, the people were filled with pride at having stopped Fascism from dominating the globe, and after the war, Fascism was all but extinct as an ideology. The world's balance of power also shifted, with the United States and Soviet Union being the world's twosuperpowers.

Following World War II, the great colonial empires established by the Western powers beginning in early modern times began to collapse. There were several reasons for this. Firstly, World War II had devastated European economies and had forced governments to spend great deals of money, making the price of colonial administration increasingly hard to manage. Secondly, the two new superpowers following the war, the United States and Soviet Union were both opposed to imperialism, so the now weakened European empires could generally not look to the outside for help.^{[citation needed]} Thirdly, Westerners increasingly were not interested in maintaining and even opposed the existence of empires.^{[citation needed]} The fourth reason was the rise of independence movements following the war. The future leaders of these movements had often been educated at colonial schools run by Westerners where they adopted Western ideas like freedom, equality,self-determination and nationalism, and which turned them against their colonial rulers.^{[citation needed]}

The first colonies to gain independence were in Asia. In 1946, the U.S. granted independence to thePhilippines, its only large overseas colony. InBritish India,Mahatma Gandhi led his followers innon-violent resistance to British rule. By the late 1940s Britain found itself unable to work with Indians in ruling the colony, this, combined with sympathy around the world for Gandhi's non-violent movement, led Britain to grant independence to India, dividing it into the largelyHindu country of India and the smaller, largely Muslim nation ofPakistan in 1947.

In 1948 Burma gained independence from Britain, and in 1945Indonesian nationalists declaredIndonesian independence, which the Netherlands recognised in 1949 aftera four-year armed and diplomatic struggle. Independence forFrench Indochina came only after a great conflict. After the withdrawal of Japanese forces from the colony following World War II, France regained control but found it had to contend with an independence movement that had fought against the Japanese. The movement was led by theVietnameseHo Chi Minh, leader of the Vietnamese Communists. Because of this, the U.S. supplied France with arms and support, fearing Communists would dominate South-east Asia.^[121] In the end though, France gave in and granted independence, creatingLaos,Cambodia, CommunistNorth Vietnam, andSouth Vietnam.

In the Middle East, following World War II, Britain had granted independence to the formerly Ottoman territories of Mesopotamia, which becameIraq,Kuwait, and Transjordan, which becameJordan. France also granted independence toSyria andLebanon. BritishPalestine, however, presented a unique challenge. Following World War I, when Britain gained the colony, Jewish and Arab national aspirations conflicted, followed by a proposal of the UN to divided Mandatory Palestine into a Jewish state and an Arab state. The Arabs objected, Britain withdrew and theZionists declared the state ofIsrael on 14 May 1948.

The other major center of colonial power, Africa, was freed from colonial rule following World War II as well. Egypt gained independence from Britain and this was soon followed byGhana andTunisia. One violent independence movement of the time was fought inAlgeria, in which Algerian rebels went so far as to kill innocent Frenchmen. In 1962, however, Algeria gained independence from France. By the 1970s the entire continent had become independent of European rule, although a few southern countries remained under the rule of white colonial minorities.

By the close of the 20th century, the European colonial Empires had ceased to exist as significant global entities. Sunset for theBritish Empire came when Britain's lease on the great trading port of Hong Kong was brought to end, and politicalcontrol was transferred to the People's Republic of China in 1997. Soon after, in 1999, thetransfer of sovereignty over Macau was concluded between Portugal and China, bringing to a close six centuries of Portuguese colonialism. Britain remained culturally linked to its former empire through the voluntary association of theCommonwealth of Nations, and 14British Overseas Territories remained (formerly known asCrown colonies), consisting mainly of scattered island outposts. Currently, 15 independentCommonwealth realms retain theBritish monarch as their head of state. Canada, Australia and New Zealand emerged as vibrant and prosperous migrant nations. The once vastFrench colonial empire had lost its major possessions though a scattered territories remained asOverseas departments and territories of France. The shrunkenDutch Empire retained a few Caribbean islands as constituent countries of theKingdom of the Netherlands. Spain had lost its overseas possessions, but its legacy was vast – with Latin culture remaining throughout South and Central America. Along with Portugal and France, Spain had made Catholicism a global religion.

Of Europe's empires, only theRussian Empire remained a significant geo-political force into the late 20th century, having morphed into theSoviet Union andWarsaw Pact, which, drawing on the writings of the GermanKarl Marx, established a socialist economic model under Communist dictatorship, which ultimately collapsed in the early 1990s.^[122] Adaptations of Marxism continued as the stated inspiration for Governments in Central America and Asia into the 21st century – though only a handful survived the end of theCold War.

The end of the Western Empires greatly changed the world. Although many newly independent nations attempted to become democracies, many slipped into military and autocratic rule. Amid power vacuums and newly determined national borders, civil war also became a problem, especially in Africa, where the introduction of firearms to ancient tribal rivalries exacerbated problems.

The loss of overseas colonies partly also led many Western nations, particularly in continental Europe, to focus more on European, rather than global, politics as theEuropean Union rose as an important entity. Though gone, the colonial empires left a formidable cultural and political legacy, with English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian and Dutch being spoken by peoples across far flung corners of the globe. European technologies were now global technologies – religions like Catholicism and Anglicanism, founded in the West, were booming in post colonial Africa and Asia. Parliamentary (or presidential) democracies, as well as rival Communist style one party states invented in the West had replaced traditional monarchies and tribal government models across the globe. Modernity, for many, was equated with Westernisation.

From the end of World War II almost until the start of the 21st century, Western and world politics were dominated by the state of tensions and conflict between the world's twosuperpowers, the United States and theSoviet Union. In the years following World War II, the Soviets establishedsatellite states throughoutCentral and Eastern Europe, including historically and culturallyWestern nations like Poland and Hungary. Following the division of Germany, theEast Germans constructed theBerlin Wall, to preventEast Berliners from escaping to the "freedom" of West Berlin. The Berlin Wall would come to represent the Cold War around the world.^[123]

Rather than revert to isolationism, the United States took an active role in global politics following World War II to halt Communist expansion. After the war, Communist parties in Western Europe increased in prestige and number, especially in Italy and France, leading many to fear the whole of Europe would become Communist. The U.S. responded to this with theMarshall Plan, in which the U.S. financed the rebuilding of Western Europe and poured money into its economy. The Plan was a huge success and soon Europe was prosperous again, with many Europeans enjoying a standard of living close that in the U.S. (following World War II, the U.S. became very prosperous and Americans enjoyed the highest standard of living in the world). National rivalries ended in Europe and most Germans and Italians, for example, were happy to be living under democratic rule, regretting their Fascist pasts. In 1949, theNorth Atlantic Treaty was signed, creating the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, orNATO. The treaty was signed by the United States, Canada, the Low Countries, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Portugal, Italy, France, and Britain. NATO members agreed that if any one of them were attacked, they would all consider themselves attacked and retaliate. NATO would expand as the years went on, other nations joined, including Greece, Turkey, and West Germany. The Soviets responded with theWarsaw Pact, an alliance which bound Central and Eastern Europe to fight with theUnited States and its allies in the event of war.

One of the first actual conflicts of the Cold War took place in China. Following the withdrawal of Japanese troops after World War II, China was plunged intocivil war, pittingChinese Communists againstNationalists, who opposed Communism. The Soviets supported the Communists while the Americans supported the Nationalists. In 1949, the Communists were victorious, proclaiming the People's Republic of China. However, the Nationalists continued to rule the island ofTaiwan off the coast. With American guarantees of protection for Taiwan, China did not make an attempt to take over the island. A major political change in East Asia in this period was Japan's becoming a tolerant, democratic society and an ally of the United States. In 1950, another conflict broke out in Asia, this time in Korea.

The peninsula had been divided between a Communist North and non-Communist South in 1948 following the withdrawal of American and Soviet troops. In 1950, theNorth Koreans invaded South Korea, wanting to united the land under Communism. The UN condemned the action, and, because the Soviets were boycotting the organization at the time and therefore had no influence on it, the UN sent forces to liberate South Korea. Many nations sent troops, but most were from America. UN forces were able to liberate the South and even attempted to conquer the North. However, fearing the loss of North Korea, Communist China sent troops to the North. The U.S. did not retaliate against China, fearing war with the Soviet Union, so the war stalemated. In 1953 the two sides agreed to a return to the pre-war borders and a de-militarization of the border area.

The world lived in the constant fear ofWorld War III in the Cold War. Seemingly any conflict involving Communism might lead to a conflict between the Warsaw pact countries and the NATO countries. The prospect of a third world war was made even more frightening by the fact that it would almost certainly be anuclear war. In 1949 the Soviets developed their first atomic bomb, and soon both the United States and Soviet Union had enough to destroy the world several times over. With the development ofmissile technology, the stakes were raised as either country could launch weapons from great distances across the globe to their targets. Eventually, Britain, France, and China would also develop nuclear weapons. It is believed that Israel developed nuclear weapons as well.

One major event that nearly brought the world to the brink of war was theCuban Missile Crisis. In the 1950s a revolution in Cuba had brought the only Communist regime in theWestern Hemisphere to power. In 1962, the Soviets began constructing missile sites in Cuba and sending nuclear missiles. Because of its close proximity to the U.S., the U.S. demanded the Soviets withdraw missiles from Cuba. The U.S. and Soviet Union came very close to attacking one another, but in the end came to a secret agreement in which theNATO withdrew missiles in exchange for a Soviet withdrawal of missiles from Cuba.

The next great Cold War conflict occurred in Southeast Asia. In the 1960s,North Vietnam invadedSouth Vietnam, hoping to unite all ofVietnam under Communist rule. The U.S. responded by supporting the South Vietnamese. In 1964, American troops were sent to "save" South Vietnam from conquest, which many Americans feared would lead to Communist dominance in the entire region. TheVietnam War lasted many years, but most Americans felt the North Vietnamese would be defeated in time. Despite American technological and military superiority, by 1968, the war showed no signs of ending and most Americans wanted U.S. forces to end their involvement. The U.S. undercut support for the North by getting the Soviets and Chinese to stop supporting North Vietnam, in exchange for recognition of the legitimacy of mainland China's Communist government, and began withdrawing troops from Vietnam. In 1972, the last American troops left Vietnam and in 1975 South Vietnam fell to the North. In the following years Communism took power in neighboring Laos and Cambodia.

By the 1970s global politics were becoming more complex. For example, France's president proclaimed France was a great power in and of itself. However, France did not seriously threaten the U.S. for supremacy in the world or even Western Europe.^{[citation needed]} In the Communist world, there was also division, with the Soviets and Chinese differing over how Communist societies should be run. Soviet and Chinese troops even engaged in border skirmishes, although full-scale war never occurred.

The last great armed conflict of the Cold War took place inAfghanistan. In 1979, Soviet forces invaded that country, hoping to establish Communism. Muslims from throughout theIslamic World travelled to Afghanistan to defend that Muslim nation from conquest, calling it aJihad, orHoly War. The U.S. supported the Jihadists and Afghan resisters, despite the fact that the Jihadists were vehemently anti-Western. By 1989 Soviet forces were forced to withdraw and Afghanistan fell into civil war, with an Islamic fundamentalist government, theTaliban taking over much of the country.

The late 1970s had seen a lessening of tensions between the U.S. and Soviet Union, calledDétente. However, by the 1980s Détente had ended with the invasion of Afghanistan. In 1981, Ronald Reagan became President of the United States and sought to defeat the USSR by leveraging the United States capitalist economic system to outproduce the communist Russians. The United States military was in a state of low moral after its loss in the Vietnam War, and President Reagan began a huge effort to out-produce the Soviets in military production and technology. In 1985, a new Soviet leader,Mikhail Gorbachev took power. Gorbachev, knowing that the Soviet Union could no longer compete economically with the United States, implemented a number of reforms granting his citizens freedom of speech and introducing some capitalist reforms. Gorbachev and America's staunch anti-Communist presidentRonald Reagan were even able to negotiate treaties limiting each side's nuclear weapons. Gorbachev also ended the policy of imposing Communism inCentral and Eastern Europe. In the past Soviet troops had crushed attempts at reform in places like Hungary andCzechoslovakia. Now, however, Eastern Europe was freed from Soviet domination.

In Poland theRound Table Talks between the government and theSolidarity-led opposition led to semi-free elections in 1989. Elections in Poland where anti-communist candidates won a striking victory sparked off a succession of peaceful anti-communist revolutions in Central and Eastern Europe known as theRevolutions of 1989. Soon, Communist regimes throughout Europe collapsed.

In Germany, after calls from Reagan to Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall, the people of East and West Berlin tore down the wall and East Germany's Communist government was voted out. East and West Germany unified to create the country of Germany, with its capital in the reunified Berlin. The changes in Central and Eastern Europe led to calls for reform in the Soviet Union itself. A failed coup by hard-liners led to greater instability in the Soviet Union, and the Soviet legislature, long subservient to the Communist Party, voted to abolish the Soviet Union in 1991. What had been the Soviet Union was divided into many republics. Although many slipped into authoritarianism, most became democracies. These new republics included Russia,Ukraine, andKazakhstan. By the early 1990s, the West and Europe as a whole was finally free from Communism.^[124]

Following the end of the Cold War, Communism largely died out as a major political movement. After the fall of USSR, the United States became the world's only superpower.^[125]

Following World War II, there was an unprecedented period of prosperity in the United States. The majority of Americans entered themiddle class and moved from the cities into surrounding suburbs, buying homes of their own. Most American households owned at least one car, as well as the relatively new invention, the television. Also, the American population greatly increased as part of the so-called "baby boom" following the war. For the first time following the war, large of numbers of non-wealthy Americans were able to attendcollege.

Following the war, black Americans started what has become known as thecivil rights movement in the United States. After roughly a century of second-class citizenship following the abolition of slavery, blacks began seeking full equality. This was helped by the 1954decision by the Supreme Court, outlawing segregation in schools, which was common in the South.Martin Luther King Jr., a black minister from the South led many blacks and whites who supported their cause in non-violent protests against discrimination. Eventually, theCivil Rights Act andVoting Rights Act were passed in 1964, banning measures that had prevented blacks from voting and outlawing segregation and discrimination in the U.S.

In politics, the Democratic and Republican parties remained dominant. In 1945, the Democratic party relied on Southerners, whose support went back to the days when Democrats defended a state's right to own slaves, and Northeasterners and industrial Mid-Westerners, who supported the pro-labor and pro-immigrant policies of the Democrats. Republicans tended to rely on middle-class Protestants from elsewhere in the country. As the Democrats began championing civil rights, however, Southern Democrats felt betrayed, began voting Republican. Presidents from this period wereHarry Truman,Dwight Eisenhower,John F. Kennedy,Lyndon Johnson,Richard Nixon,Gerald Ford, andJimmy Carter. The years 1945–1980 saw the expansion of federal power and the establishment of programs to help the elderly and poor pay for medical expenses.

By 1980, many Americans had become pessimistic about their country. Despite its status as one of only two superpowers, theVietnam War as well as the social upheavals of the 1960s and an economic downturn in the 1970s led America to become a much-less confident nation.

At the close of the war, much of Europe lay in ruins with millions of homeless refugees. A souring of relations between the Western Allies and the Soviet Union then saw Europe split by anIron Curtain, dividing the continent between West and East. In Western Europe, democracy had survived the challenge of Fascism and began a period of intense rivalry with Eastern Communism, which was to continue into the 1980s. France and Britain secured themselves permanent positions on the newly formedUnited Nations Security Council, but Western European empires did not long survive the war, and no one Western European nation would ever again be the paramount power in world affairs.^[126]

Despite these immense challenges however, Western Europe again rose as an economic and cultural powerhouse. Assisted first by theMarshall Plan of financial aid from the United States, and later through closer economic integration through theEuropean Common Market, Western Europe quickly re-emerged as a global economic power house. The vanquished nations of Italy and West Germany became leading economies and allies of the United States. So marked was their recovery that historians refer to anItalian economic miracle and in the case of West Germany and Austria theWirtschaftswunder (German for "economic miracle").

Facing a new power balance between the Soviet East and American West, Western European nations moved closer together. In 1957, Belgium, France, the Netherlands, West Germany, Italy and Luxembourg signed the landmarkTreaty of Rome, creating theEuropean Economic Community, free of customs duties and tariffs, and allowing the rise of a new European geo-political force.^[126] Eventually, this organization was renamed theEuropean Union or (EU), and many other nations joined, including Britain, Ireland, and Denmark. The EU worked toward economic and political cooperation among European nations.

Between 1945 and 1980, Europe became increasingly socialist.^{[citation needed]} Most European countries becamewelfare states, in which governments provided a large number of services to their people through taxation. By 1980, most of Europe haduniversal health care and pensions for the elderly.^[127] The unemployed were also guaranteed income from the government, and European workers were guaranteed long vacation time. Many other entitlements were established, leading many Europeans to enjoy a very high standard of living. By the 1980s, however, the economic problems of the welfare state were beginning to emerge.^[128]

Europe had many important political leaders during this time.Charles de Gaulle, leader of the French government in exile during World War II, served as France's president for many years. He sought to carve out for France a great power status in the world.

Although Europe as a whole was relatively peaceful in this period, both Britain and Spain suffered from acts of terrorism. In Britain,The Troubles saw Irish republicans battle Unionists loyal to Britain. In Spain,ETA, aBasque separatist group, began committing acts of terror against Spaniards, hoping to gain independence for theBasques, an ethnic minority in north-eastern Spain. Both these terrorist campaigns failed, however.^[129][130]

For Greece, Spain and Portugal, ideological battles between left and right continued and the emergence of parliamentary democracy was troubled.^{[citation needed]} Greece experiencedCivil War, coup and counter-coup into the 1970s. Portugal, since the 1930s under a quasi-Fascist regime and among the poorest nations in Europe, fought a rearguard action against independence movements in its empire, until a 1974 coup. The last authoritarian dictatorship in Western Europe fell in 1975, whenFrancisco Franco, dictator of Spain, died. Franco had helped to modernize the country and improve the economy. His successor, KingJuan Carlos, transformed the country into a constitutional monarchy. By 1980, all Western European nations were democracies.^{[citation needed]}

Between 1945 and 1980, theBritish Empire was transformed from its centuries old position as a global colonial power, to a voluntary association known as theCommonwealth of Nations – only some of which retained any formal political links to Britain or its monarchy.^[131] Some former British colonies or protectorates disassociated themselves entirely from Britain.

The popular war time leaderWinston Churchill was swept from office at the 1945 election and the Labour Government ofClement Attlee introduced a program of nationalisation of industry and introduced wide-ranging social welfare. Britain's finances had been ravaged by the war andJohn Maynard Keynes was sent to Washington to negotiate the massiveAnglo-American loan on which Britain relied to fund its post-war reconstruction.^[132]

India was granted Independence in 1947 and Britain's global influence rapidly declined as decolonisation proceeded. Though the USSR and United States now stood as the post war super powers, Britain and France launched the ill-fated Suez intervention in the 1950s, and Britain committed to theKorean War.

From the 1960sThe Troubles afflictedNorthern Ireland, as British Unionist and Irish Republican paramilitaries conducted campaigns of violence in support of their political goals. The conflict at times spilled into Ireland and England and continental Europe. Paramilitaries such as theIRA (Irish Republican Army) wanted union with theRepublic of Ireland while the UDA (Ulster Defence Association) were supporters ofNorthern Ireland remaining within the United Kingdom.

In 1973, Britain entered theEuropean Common Market, stepping away from imperial and commonwealth trade ties. Inflation and unemployment contributed to a growing sense of economic decline – partly offset by the exploitation of North Sea Oil from 1974. In 1979, the electorate turned to Conservative Party leaderMargaret Thatcher, who became Britain's first female prime minister. Thatcher launched a radical program of economic reform and remained in power for over a decade. In 1982, Thatcher dispatched a British fleet to theFalkland Islands which successfully repelled anArgentine invasion of the British Territory, demonstrating that Britain could still project power across the globe.^[126]

Canada continued to evolve its own national identity in the post-war period. Although it was an independent nation, it remained part of the British Commonwealth and recognized the British monarch as the Canadian monarch as well. Following the war, French and English were recognized as co-equal official languages in Canada,^[133] and French became the only official language in the French-speaking province ofQuebec.^[134] Referendums were held in both 1980 and 1995 in which Quebecers, however, voted not to secede from the union. Other cultural changes Canada faced were similar to those in the United States.^[135] Racism and discrimination largely disappeared in the post-war years, and dual-income families became the norm. Also, there was a rejection of traditional Western values by many in Canada.^[136] The government also established universal health care for its citizens following the war.^[137]

Following World War II, Australia and New Zealand enjoyed a great deal of prosperity along with the rest of the West. Both countries remainedconstitutional monarchies within the evolvingCommonwealth of Nations and continued to recognise British monarchs as head of their own independent Parliaments. However, following British defeats by the Japanese in World War II, the post-war decline of theBritish Empire, and entry of Britain into theEuropean Economic Community in 1973, the two nations re-calibrated defence and trade relations with the rest of the world.

Following theFall of Singapore in 1941, Australia turned to the United States for military aid against theJapanese Empire and Australia and New Zealand joined the United States in theANZUS military alliance in the early 1950s and contributed troops to anti-communist conflicts in South-East Asia in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. The two nations also establishedmulticultural immigration programs with waves of economic and refugee migrants establishing bases for large Southern European, East Asian, Middle Eastern, and South Pacific islander communities. Trade integration with Asia expanded, particularly through good post-war relations with Japan.

TheMaori andAboriginal Australians had been largely dispossessed and disenfranchised during the 19th and early 20th centuries, but relations between the descendants of European settlers and the Indigenous peoples of Australia and New Zealand began to improve through legislative and social reform over the post-war period corresponding with thecivil rights movement in North America. TheFraser government became a vocal critic ofwhite-minority rule in ApartheidSouth Africa andRhodesia, concluding the Gleaeagles Agreement in 1977.^[138]

The arts also diversified and flourished over the period – withAustralian cinema,literature andmusical artists expanding their nation's profile internationally. The iconicSydney Opera House opened in 1973 andAustralian Aboriginal Art began to find international recognition and influence.

This sectionneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "History of Western civilization" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(May 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

The West went through a series of great cultural and social changes between 1945 and 1980. Mass media created a global culture that could ignore national frontiers. Literacy became almost universal, encouraging the growth of books, magazines and newspapers. The influence of cinema and radio remained, while televisions became near essentials in every home. A newpop culture also emerged with rock n roll and pop stars at its heart.

Religious observance declined in most of the West. Protestant churches also began focusing more onsocial gospel rather than doctrine, and theecumenical movement, which supported co-operation among Christian Churches. The Catholic Church changed many of its practices in theSecond Vatican Council, including allowingmasses to be said in the vernacular rather than Latin.Thecounterculture of the 1960s (and early 1970s)^[139] began in the United States as a reaction against the conservative government,social norms of the 1950s, thepolitical conservatism (and perceived socialrepression) of theCold War period, and theUS government's extensive military intervention inVietnam.^[140][141]

With the abolition of laws treating most non-whites as second-class citizens, overtinstitutional racism largely disappeared from the West.^{[citation needed]}

Although the United States failed to secure the legal equality of women with men (by the failure of Congress to ratify theEqual Rights Amendment), women continued working outside the home, and by 1980 the double-income family became commonplace in Western society. Beginning in the 1960s, many began rejecting traditional Western values and there was a decline in emphasis on church and the family.^[142]

Rock and roll music and the spread of technological innovations such astelevision dramatically altered the cultural landscape of western civilisation. The influential artists of the 20th century often belonged to the new technology artforms.

Rock and roll emerged from the United States out ofAfrican-American music from the 1950s to become a quintessential 20th-century art form.^[143] Artists such asChuck Berry andLittle Richard developed the new genre in the United States.British rock and roll emerged later, with bands and artists likeThe Beatles,The Rolling Stones andJimi Hendrix rising to unparalleled success during the 1960s. From Australia emerged the mega pop bandThe Bee Gees and hard rock bandAC/DC, who carried the genre in new directions through the 1970s. These musical artists were icons of radical social changes which saw many traditional notions of western culture alter dramatically.

Hollywood, California became synonymous with film during the 20th century andAmerican Cinema continued a period of immense global influence in the West after World War II. American cinema played a role in adjusting community attitudes through the 1940s to 1980 with seminal works likeJohn Ford's 1956WesternThe Searchers, starringJohn Wayne, providing a sympathetic view of the Native American experience; and 1962'sTo Kill a Mockingbird, based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel byHarper Lee and starringGregory Peck, challenging racial prejudice. The advent of television challenged the status of cinema and the artform evolved dramatically from the 1940s through the age of glamorous icons likeMarilyn Monroe and directors likeAlfred Hitchcock to the emergence of such directors asStanley Kubrick,George Lucas andSteven Spielberg, whose body of work reflected the emergingSpace Age and immense technological and social change.

This sectionneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "History of Western civilization" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(May 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

The 1980s were a period of economic growth in the West, though the1987 Stock Market Crash saw much of the West enter the 1990s in a downturn. The 1990s and turn of the century in turn saw a period of prosperity throughout the West. TheWorld Trade Organization was formed to assist in the organisation of world trade.^[144] Following the collapse of Soviet Communism, Central and Eastern Europe began a difficult readjustment towards market economies and parliamentary democracy. In thepost Cold War environment, new co-operation emerged between the West and former rivals like Russia and China, butIslamism declared itself a mortal enemy of the West, and wars were launched in Afghanistan and the mid-East in response.

The economic cycle turned again with theGreat Recession, but amidst a new economic paradigm, the effect on the West was uneven, with Europe and United States suffering deep recession, but Pacific economies like Australia and Canada, largely avoiding the downturn – benefitting from a combination of rising trade with Asia, good fiscal management and banking regulation.^[145][146] In the early 21st century, Brasil, Russia, India and China (theBRIC nations) were re-emerging as drivers of economic growth from outside North America and Western Europe.

In the early stages after the Cold War, Russian presidentBoris Yeltsin stared down an attempted restoration of Sovietism in Russia, and pursued closer relations with the West. Amid economic turmoil a class ofoligarchs emerged at the summit of the Russian economy. Yeltsin's chosen successor, the former spy,Vladimir Putin, tightened the reins on political opposition, opposed separatist movements within the Russian Federation, and battled pro-Western neighbour states like Georgia, contributing to a challenging climate of relations with Europe and America. Former Soviet satellites joined NATO and the European Union, leaving Russia again isolated in the East.^[147] Under Putin's long reign, the Russian economy profited from a resource boom in the global economy, and the political and economic instability of the Yeltsin era quickly became a thing of the past.^[148]

Elsewhere, both within and without the West, democracy and capitalism were in the ascendant – even Communist holdouts like mainland China and (to a lesser extent) Cuba and Vietnam, while retaining one party government, experimented with market liberalisation, a process which accelerated after the fall of European Communism, enabling the re-emergence of China as an alternative centre of economic and political power standing outside the West.

Free trade agreements were signed by many countries. The European nations broke down trade barriers with one another in the EU, and the United States, Canada, and Mexico signed theNorth American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Although free trade has helped businesses and consumers, it has had the unintended consequence of leading companies to outsource jobs to areas where labor is cheapest. Today, the West's economy is largely service and information-based, with most of the factories closing and relocating to China and India.^{[citation needed]}

European countries have had very good relations with each other since 1980. The European Union has become increasingly powerful, taking on roles traditionally reserved for the nation-state. Although real power still exists in the individual member states, one major achievement of the Union was the introduction of theEuro, a currency adopted by most EU countries.

Australia and New Zealand continued their large multi-ethnic immigration programs and became more integrated in the Asia Pacific region. While remainingconstitutional monarchies within theCommonwealth, distance has grown between them and Britain, spurred on by Britain's entry into the European Common Market. Australia and New Zealand have integrated their own economies via a free trade agreement. While political and cultural ties with North America and Europe remain strong, economic reform and commodities trade with the booming economies of Asia have set the South Pacific nations on a new economic trajectory with Australia largely avoiding a downturn in theGreat Recession which unleashed severe economic loss through North America and Western Europe.^[149]

Today Canada remains part of the Commonwealth, and relations between French and English Canada have continued to present problems. A referendum was held in Quebec, however, in 1980, in which Quebecers voted to remain part of Canada.

In 1990, the white-minority government of theRepublic of South Africa, led byF. W. de Klerk, began negotiations to dismantle the system ofapartheid. South Africa held itsfirst universal elections in 1994, which theAfrican National Congress (ANC), led byNelson Mandela, won by an overwhelming majority.^[150][151] The country has since rejoined the Commonwealth of Nations.

Since 1991, the United States has been regarded as the world's onlysuperpower.^[152] Politically, the United States is dominated by the Republican and Democratic parties. Presidents of the United States between 1980 and 2006 have beenRonald Reagan,George H. W. Bush,Bill Clinton, andGeorge W. Bush. Since 1980, Americans have become far more optimistic about their country than they were in the 1970s.^[153] Since the 1960s, a large number of immigrants have been coming into the U.S., mostly from Asia and Latin America, with the largest single group being Mexicans. Large numbers from those areas have also been coming illegally, and the solution to this problem has produced much debate in the U.S.

On 11 September 2001, the United States suffered the worst terrorist attack in its history. Four planes were hijacked by Islamic extremists and crashed into theWorld Trade Center,the Pentagon, and a field in Pennsylvania.

The2008 financial crisis was triggered by a liquidity shortfall in the United States banking system,^[154] and resulted in thecollapse of large financial institutions, thebailout of banks by national governments, and downturns in stock markets throughout much of the West. The United States and Britain faced serious downturn, while Portugal, Greece, Ireland and Iceland faced major debt crises.^[155] Almost uniquely among Western nations, Australia avoided recession off the back of strong Asian trade and 25 years of economic reform and low levels of government debt.

Evidence of the major demographic and social shifts which have taken place within Western society since World War II can be found with the elections of national level leaders: United States (Barack Obama was elected president in 2009, becoming the firstAfrican-American to hold that office),^[156] France (Nicolas Sarkozy, apresident of France ofHungarian descent),^[157] Germany (Angela Merkel, the first female leader of that nation),^[158] and Australia (Julia Gillard, also the first female leader of that nation).^[159]

Following 1991, Western nations provided troops and aid to many war-torn areas of the world. Some of these missions were unsuccessful, like the attempt by the United States to provide relief inSomalia in the early 1990s. A very successful peace-making operation was conducted in the Balkans in the late 1990s, however. After the Cold War, Yugoslavia broke up into several countries along ethnic lines, and soon countries and ethnic groups within countries of the former Yugoslavia began fighting one another. Eventually, NATO troops arrived in 1999 and ended the conflict. Australian led a United Nations mission intoEast Timor in 1999 (INTERFET) to restore order during that nation's transition to democracy and independence from Indonesia.

The greatest war fought by the West in the 1990s, however, was thePersian Gulf War. In 1990, the Middle Eastern nation ofIraq, under its brutal dictatorSaddam Hussein, invaded the much smaller neighbouring country ofKuwait. After refusing to withdraw troops, the United Nations condemned Iraq and sent troops to liberate Kuwait. American, British, French, Egyptian and Syrian troops all took part in the liberation. The war ended in 1991, with the withdrawal of Iraqi troops from Kuwait and Iraq's agreement to allow United Nations inspectors to search forweapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

The West had become increasingly unpopular in the Middle East following World War II. The Arab states greatly disliked the West's support for Israel. Many soon had a special hatred towards the United States, Israel's greatest ally. Also, partly to ensure stability on the region and a steady supply of theoil the world economy needed, the United States supported many corrupt dictatorships in the Middle East.^[160][161]

In 1979, an Islamic revolution in Iran overthrew the pro-WesternShah and established an anti-WesternShiite Islamictheocracy. Following the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan, most of the country came under the rule of aSunni Islamic theocracy, theTaliban. The Taliban offered shelter to the Islamic terrorist groupAl-Qaeda, founded by the extremistSaudi Arabian exileOsama bin Laden. Al-Qaeda launched a series of attacks on United States overseas interests in the 1990s and 2000. Following theSeptember 11 attacks, however, the United States overthrew the Taliban government and captured or killed many Al Qaeda leaders, including Bin Laden.

In 2003, the United States led a controversial war in Iraq, because Saddam had never accounted for all his weapons of mass destruction. By May of that year, American, British, Polish and troops from other countries had defeated and occupied Iraq. Weapons of mass destruction however, were never found afterwards. In both Afghanistan and Iraq, the United States and its allies established democratic governments. Following the Iraq war, however, an insurgency made up of a number of domestic and foreign factions has cost many lives and made establishing a government very hard.

In March 2011, a multi-state coalition led byNATO began amilitary intervention in Libya to implementUnited Nations Security Council Resolution 1973, which was taken in response to threat made by the government ofMuammar Gaddafi against the civilian population of Libya during the2011 Libyan civil war.^[162]

In general, Western culture has become increasingly secular in Northern Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand. Nevertheless, in a sign of the continuing status of the ancient Western institution of thePapacy in the early 21st century, theFuneral of Pope John Paul II brought together the single largest gathering in history of heads of state outside the United Nations.^[163] It is likely to have been the largest single gathering ofChristianity in history, with numbers estimated in excess of four million mourners gathering in Rome.^{[164][165][166]} He was followed by another non-ItalianBenedict XVI, whose near-unprecedented retirement from the papacy in 2013 ushered in the election of theArgentinePope Francis – the first pope from the Americas, the new demographic heartland of Catholicism.^[167]

Personal computers emerged from the West as a new society changing phenomenon during this period. In the 1960s, experiment began on networks linking computers and from these experiments grew theWorld Wide Web.^[168] Theinternet revolutionised global communications through the late 1990s and into the early 21st century and permitted the rise of newsocial media with profound consequences, linking the world as never before. In the West, the internet allowed free access to vast amounts of information, while outside the democratic West, asin China and in Middle Eastern nations, a range of censorship and monitoring measures were instigated, providing a new socio-political contrast between east and west.^{[citation needed]}

Globalization has atrophied Western civilization by delegating the production of goods and economic development primarily toChina, which in 20 years has become aglobal power, economically influencing entire continents far from its geographical location, such asAfrica andSouth America. TheCOVID-19 pandemic, which originated in China, has exposed all the weaknesses of theWestern world.Western civilization found itself weak and unprepared to face a global pandemic; most medical devices and medicines were produced in China. Early information about the virus was suppressed, hidden, and censored. The shortage of medical devices caused serious crises in the Western healthcare system, which was stretched to the limit. The United States had a dramatic shortage of medicines because they were produced exclusively in China.Western medicine, the most advanced in the world and now considered modern medicine, has found itself in serious difficulty. However, it is precisely thanks to it that we have understood the virus and how to treat it, and found a vaccine to eradicate it and reduce the mortality risk.The COVID-19 pandemic has caused severesocioeconomic damage to Western civilization, much more deep than in other parts of the world. However, the entire world has suffered thelargest global recession. China has never paid any damages for what happened.China has denied evidence and responsibility for a virus generated on its territory in its laboratory inWuhan. The Western world was afraid and fearful of assigning responsibility.

Chicago historianWilliam H. McNeill wroteThe Rise of the West (1965) to show how the separate civilizations of Eurasia interacted from the very beginning of their history, borrowing critical skills from one another, and thus precipitating still further change as adjustment between traditional old and borrowed new knowledge and practice became necessary. He then discusses the dramatic effect ofWestern civilization on others in the past 500 years of history. McNeill took a broad approach organized around the interactions of peoples across the globe. Such interactions have become both more numerous and more continual and substantial in recent times. Before about 1500, the network of communication between cultures was that of Eurasia. The term for these areas of interaction differ from one world historian to another and includeworld-system andecumene. His emphasis on cultural fusions influenced historical theory significantly.^[169]

• Outline of the history of Western civilization
• Role of Christianity in civilization
• History of Europe
• Eurocentrism

Media

• Civilisation: A Personal View by Kenneth Clark (TV series), BBC TV, 1969
• The Ascent of Man (TV series), BBC TV, 1973

• Cole, Joshua and Carol Symes.Western Civilizations (Brief Fifth Edition) (2 vol 2020)
• Kishlansky, Mark A. et al.A brief history of western civilization : the unfinished legacy (2 vol 2007)vol 1 online; alsovol 2 online
• Perry, Marvin Myrna Chase, et al.Western Civilization: Ideas, Politics, and Society (2015)
• Rand McNally.Atlas of western civilization (2006)online
• Spielvogel, Jackson J.Western Civilization (10th ed. 2017)
• Bruce ThorntonGreek Ways: How the Greeks Created Western Civilization Encounter Books, 2002
• Tim BlanningThe Pursuit of Glory: Europe 1648–1815 Penguin Books, 2008
• Niall FergusonCivilization. The West and the rest Penguin Press, 2011
• Ian KershawTo Hell and Back: Europe 1914–1949 Penguin Books, 2015
• Richard J. EvansThe Pursuit of Power: Europe 1815–1914 Penguin Books, 2017
• Ian KershawTo Hell and Back: Europe 1914–1949 Penguin Books, 2015
• Ian KershawThe Global Age: Europe 1950–2017 Penguin Books, 2020

• Allardyce, Gilbert. "The rise and fall of the western civilization course."American Historical Review 87.3 (1982): 695–725.online
• Bavaj, Riccardo:"The West": A Conceptual Exploration,European History Online, Mainz:Institute of European History, 2011. Retrieved 28 November 2011.
• Bentley, Jerry H. "Cross-cultural interaction and periodization in world history."American Historical Review 101.3 (1996): 749–770.
• Douthit, Nathan. "The Dialectical Commons of Western Civilization and Global/World History."History Teacher 24#3 (1991), pp. 293–305,online.
• McNeill, William H. (1995). "The Changing Shape of World History".History and Theory.34 (2):8–26.doi:10.2307/2505432.JSTOR 2505432.
• Manning, Patrick. "The problem of interactions in world history."American Historical Review 101.3 (1996): 771–782.online
• Pincince, John. "Jerry Bentley World History, and the Decline of the 'West'"Journal of World History 25#4 (2014), pp. 631–43,online.
• Porciana, Haria, and Lutz Raphael, eds.Atlas of European Historiography: The Making of a Profession 1800–2005 ( Palgrave Macmillan, 2010) uses 80 maps to show how historians studied Europe.

• textbooks—online free to read

• Christendom
• Civilizations
• Western culture

• CS1 maint: others
• All articles with dead external links
• Articles with dead external links from August 2024
• Articles with permanently dead external links
• CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list
• CS1 errors: ISBN date
• CS1 Dutch-language sources (nl)
• Articles with dead external links from March 2025
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from January 2025
• Articles needing additional references from May 2024
• All articles needing additional references
• All articles with unsourced statements
• Articles with unsourced statements from October 2020
• Articles with unsourced statements from May 2011
• Articles with unsourced statements from May 2024
• Articles with unsourced statements from March 2007
• Articles with unsourced statements from January 2012
• Articles with unsourced statements from October 2012
• Articles with unsourced statements from March 2017