Western world

The term Western world or "the West" can have multiple meanings depending on its context. Originally defined as Western Europe, most modern uses of the term refer to the societies of Western and Central Europe and their close genealogical, linguistic, and philosophical colonial descendants, typically included are those countries whose ethnic identity and dominant culture are derived from European culture.

Western countries

To define what is typical of Western society and Western culture, it is necessary to understand its context. At different times and in different contexts, the definition of the West (also called the Occident) varies. It is not always clear which definition is being used.

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Historical

Hellenic division:

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The Hellenic division between Greeks and "barbarians" predates the division between East and West. The contrast was between Greek-speaking culture of mainland Greece, the Aegean, the Ionian coast and Magna Graecia in southern Italy, and the surrounding non-Greek cultures of Thrace and Anatolia, the Persian Empire, Phoenicians and Egypt. The division can be traced back to the Trojan War, which is dated traditionally at 1194 BC - 1184 BC. Presuming it had an historical basis, the conflict was between Achaeans and the non-Greek Trojans in western Anatolia. The Greeks also considered the Persian Wars of the early 5th century BC a conflict of east versus west.

Related Topics:
Hellenic - Greeks - Barbarian - Greek-speaking - Greece - Aegean - Ionia - Magna Graecia - Italy - Thrace - Anatolia - Persian Empire - Phoenicians - Egypt - Trojan War - 1194 BC - 1184 BC - Achaeans - Trojans - Persian Wars - 5th century BC

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Roman Empire division:

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The Mediterranean basin was united by Romans, but distinctions remained between the Empire's mostly Latin-speaking western half and the more urbanized eastern half, where Greek was the lingua franca. In A.D. 292, the Roman Emperor, Diocletian, divided the Roman Empire into two regions, each administered by an Augustus and a Caesar (the Tetrarchy); the eastern part evolved into the Byzantine empire, a Christian theocracy where the emperor was also head of spiritual life ("caesaropapism"). At the same time, Roman rule in the western half crumbled under pressures from outside the empire and was slowly rebuilt, but the culture divided between two sources of power, the Pope and the Emperor.

Related Topics:
Mediterranean - Latin - Lingua franca - 292 - Roman Emperor - Diocletian - Roman Empire - Augustus - Caesar - Tetrarchy - Byzantine empire - Caesaropapism - Western half - Pope - Emperor

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Christian division:

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The distinctions between the western and eastern parts of the Christian world remained through the Middle Ages, despite a nominal sense of Christian unity (the concept of "Christendom") brought about by the conquests of Christian lands by the Muslim Arabs and Turks. The Franks under Charlemagne established a western empire, which was recognized as the Holy Roman Empire by the Pope, offending the Byzantine Emperor. The Latin Rite church of western and central Europe headed by the Pope (the Patriarch of Rome) split with the eastern, Greek-speaking Patriarchates during the Great Schism. The extent of each expanded during the Middle Ages, as Scandinavia, Germany, Britain, and the other non-Christian lands of the northwest were converted by the Western Church, while Russia and much of Eastern Europe by the Eastern Church. "Latin" and "Frankish" Crusaders sacked the Byzantine capital Constantinople in 1204 during the Fourth Crusade as ruthlessly as they had the 'infidel' Muslims.

Related Topics:
Christian - Middle Ages - Christendom - Muslim - Arab - Turks - Franks - Charlemagne - Holy Roman Empire - Byzantine - Latin Rite - Western - Central Europe - Great Schism - Crusader - Constantinople - Fourth Crusade

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Cold War

During the Cold War, a new definition emerged. The Earth was divided into three "worlds". The First World was composed of NATO members and other countries aligned with the United States. The Second World was the Eastern bloc in the Communist sphere of influence, such as the Soviet Union, the People's Republic of China, etc. The Third World consisted of countries unaligned with either.

Related Topics:
Cold War - Earth - First World - NATO - Second World - Eastern bloc - Communist - Sphere of influence - Soviet Union - People's Republic of China - Third World - Unaligned with either

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There were a number of countries which did not fit comfortably into this neat definition of partition, including Switzerland, Sweden, and the Republic of Ireland, which chose to be neutral. Finland was under the Soviet Union's sphere of influence but remained neutral, was not communist, nor was it a member of the Warsaw Pact or Comecon. 1955, when Austria again became a fully independent republic, it did so under the condition that it remained neutral, but as a country to the west of the Iron Curtain it was in the United States sphere of influence. Turkey was a member of NATO but was not usually regarded as either part of the First or Western worlds. Spain did not join NATO until 1982, towards the end of the Cold War and after the death of the authoritarian dictator Franco. The Western world became a synonym for the first world but included the West European exceptions mentioned earlier in this paragraph and excluded Turkey.

Related Topics:
Switzerland - Sweden - Republic of Ireland - Finland - Warsaw Pact - Comecon - 1955 - Austria - Iron Curtain - Turkey - Spain - Franco

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Post-Cold War

After the end of the Cold War, the phrase "second world" fell into disuse, and "first world" came to refer to the democratic, wealthy, industrial, developed nations, most of which had been aligned with the U.S. The "third world" came to refer to the poor, unindustrialized developing nations. That is, the term "Western" is not so much a geographical definition as it is a cultural and economic one, therefore:

Related Topics:
Developed nation - Developing nation

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• African history can speak of Western influences by the European countries that lie to its north, as well as by the relatively westernized country of South Africa at its southernmost tip.
• Australia and New Zealand can be considered Westernized countries located in the East.
• International companies founded in America may be considered foreign influences in Europe, but be said to be Western when their presence is seen (and sometimes criticized) in the Orient.
• Economically, Japan, although located very far east, may still be considered Western or "first world" despite the fact that it remains culturally non-Western.

Nowadays, people differ in their definitions of the West, and different definitions overlap only partly. There are certainly non-Western developed nations, not all Western countries are members of NATO, etc.

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Further definitions

As the term "Western world" does not have a strict international definition, Governments do not use the term in legislation of international treaties and instead rely on other definitions. If the term is used in academic articles it tends to be reserved for use in articles about those areas and times where the Western Roman Empire had a direct influence.

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The term "Western world" is often interchangably with the term First World stressing the difference between First World and the Third World or developing countries. The term "The North" has in some contexts replaced earlier usage of the term "the west", particularly in the critical sense, as a more robust demarcation than "west" and "east". The North provides some absolute geographical indicators for the location of wealthy countries, most of which are physically situated in the Northern Hemisphere. The thirty countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which include the EU countries, Norway, Iceland, Switzerland, Canada, the United States, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, Turkey, South Korea and Japan, generally include what used to be called the "first world" or the "developed world", although the OECD includes a few countries, namely Turkey and Mexico, that are not wealthy industrial countries. The existence of "The North" implies the existence of "The South", and the socio-economic divide between North and South.

Related Topics:
First World - Third World - The North - Northern Hemisphere - Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development - EU - Norway - Iceland - Switzerland - Canada - United States - Mexico - Australia - New Zealand - Turkey - South Korea - Japan - The South - Socio-economic - Divide between North and South

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The "West" may also be used as a cultural and social reference to "Western society". In this context South America may be considered part of the West, particularly in writings on high art and literature. http://www.brasembottawa.org/en/culture_academic/fine_arts.html http://www.aei.org/publications/pubID.11413/pub_detail.asp

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The "West" may also be used pejoratively by those especially critical of the influence of the West and its history of imperialism and colonialism.

Related Topics:
Pejoratively - Imperialism - Colonialism

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Ethnocentric definitions of the term Western world are definitions constructed around one of the Western cultures. The British writer Rudyard Kipling wrote about this contrast: East is East and West is West and never the twain shall meet, expressing that somebody from the West can never understand the Asian cultures as the later differ too much from the Western cultures.

Related Topics:
Western culture - Rudyard Kipling

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In the Near East or Middle East, (both terms relative to Europe as being in the west), the distinction between Western Europe and Eastern Europe is of less importance; countries that western Europeans might think of as part of Eastern Europe, i.e. Russia, might be counted as Western in the Middle East, in the sense of being both European and Christian. People from the West are known by many in the East and Middle East as "Westerners".

Related Topics:
Near East - Middle East - Western Europe - Eastern Europe - Russia - The East

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The Huntington definition

In 1993, Samuel P. Huntington published the article "The Clash of Civilizations?" in Foreign Affairs, which was later expanded into a book, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, in 1996. Huntington's thesis was that the world can be understood as being made up of several civilizations, and that conflicts between civilizations will be the primary tensions of the post-cold-war world, replacing the ideological conflicts (i.e capitalism vs. communism) that characterized the cold-war world. According to Huntington's thesis, the primarily Roman Catholic and Protestant countries of western and central Europe, together with the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, constitute the "Euro-Atlantic" civilization, which share a common system of values, shaped by the historic influence of the Renaissance, Reformation, and Enlightenment. Huntington and his followers understood "The West" to be roughly synonymous with the Euro-Atlantic civilization, although countries with roots in other civilizations, such as Greece, Turkey, or Japan, may choose to ally themselves with the West as a result of having absorbed "Western" ideas and values into their societies. Huntington's thesis was influential, but was by no means universally accepted; its supporters say that it explains modern conflicts, such as those in the former Yugoslavia; the thesis' detractors fear that by equating values like democracy with "Western civilization", it reinforces racist and/or xenophobic notions about "non-Western" societies, as well as blatantly ignoring non-Western democracies (for example India, which holds roughly a third of all the people in the world who live under a democratic system).

Related Topics:
Samuel P. Huntington - The Clash of Civilizations? - Roman Catholic - Protestant - Western - Central Europe - United States - Canada - Australia - New Zealand - Renaissance - Reformation - Enlightenment - Greece - Turkey - Japan - Yugoslavia - Democracy - India

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In Huntington's thesis, the historically Eastern Orthodox nations of southeastern and eastern Europe constitute a distinct "Euro-Asiatic civilization"; although European and Christian, these nations were not, in Huntington's view, shaped by the cultural influences of the Renaissance, Reformation, and Enlightenment, and were not "Western" in the same sense as the Euro-Atlantic civilization. Huntington also considered Latin America to be a separate civilization from the West.

Related Topics:
Eastern Orthodox - Eastern Europe - Christian - Latin America

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