Western world

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The Western world as derived from Samuel P. Huntington's 1996 Clash of Civilizations:[1] in light blue are Latin America and the Orthodox World, which are either a part of the West or distinct civilizations intimately related to the West.[2][3]

The Western world, also known as the West, primarily refers to various

Latin oriens 'origin, sunrise, east'). The West is considered an evolving concept; made up of cultural, political, and economic synergy among diverse groups of people, and not a rigid region with fixed borders and members.[8] Definitions of "Western world" vary according to context and perspectives.[9]

Modern-day Western world essentially encompasses the nations and states where civilization or culture is considered

West Roman Empire lasted for only about a century and a half. This caused many people in Western Europe to envy the Byzantine Empire and consider the Christians there as heretics.[9] In 1054 CE, when the church in Rome excommunicated the patriarch of Byzantium, the politico-religious division between the Western church and Eastern church culminated in the Great Schism or the East–West Schism.[9][20] Even though friendly relations continued between the two parts of the Christendom for some time, the crusades made the schism definitive with hostility.[21] The West during these crusades tried to capture trade routes to the East and failed, it instead discovered the Americas.[22] In the aftermath of European colonization of these newly discovered lands, an idea of the Western world, as an inheritor of Latin Christendom emerged.[23]

The English word "West" initially meant an adverb for direction. By the Middle Ages, Europeans began to use it to describe Europe. Since the eighteenth century, following

Western-style democracy; while a country like Cuba, located in the Western Hemisphere, is argued as not being a part of the West as it aligns with the ideals of communism.[29]
Depending on the context and the historical period in question, Russia was sometimes seen as a part of the West, and at other times juxtaposed with it.[30][31][32] Running parallel to the rise of the United States as a great power and the development of communication–transportation technologies "shrinking" the distance between both the Atlantic Ocean shores, the aforementioned country (United States) became more prominently featured in the conceptualizations of the West.[30]

Between the eighteenth century to the mid-twentieth century, prominent countries in the West such as the United States, Canada, Brazil, Argentina, Australia, and New Zealand have been once envisioned as ethnocracies for whites.[33][34][35] Racism is cited as a contributing factor to Westerners' colonization of the New World, which today constitutes much of the "geographical" Western world.[36][37] Starting from the late 1960s, certain parts of the Western World have become notable for their diversity due to immigration.[38][39] The idea of "the West" over the course of time has evolved from a directional concept to a socio-political concept that had been temporalized and rendered as a concept of the future bestowed with notions of progress and modernity.[30]

Introduction

The origins of Western civilization can be traced back to the

religion. Western Civilization is also closely associated with Christianity,[58] the dominant religion in the West, with roots in Greco-Roman and Jewish thought. Christian ethics, drawing from the ethical and moral principles of its historical roots in Judaism, has played a pivotal role in shaping the foundational framework of Western societies.[59][60][61] Earlier civilizations, such as the ancient Egyptians and Mesopotamians, had also significantly influenced Western civilization through their advancements in writing, law codes, and societal structures.[58] The convergence of Greek-Roman and Judeo-Christian influences in shaping Western civilization has led certain scholars to characterize it as emerging from the legacies of Athens and Jerusalem,[62][63][64] or Athens, Jerusalem and Rome.[65]

In ancient Greece and Rome, individuals identified primarily as subjects of states, city-states, or empires, rather than as members of Western civilization. The distinct identification of Western civilization began to crystallize with the rise of Christianity during the Late Roman Empire. In this period, peoples in Europe started to perceive themselves as part of a unique civilization, differentiating from others like Islam, giving rise to the concept of Western civilization. By the 15th century, Renaissance intellectuals solidified this concept, associating Western civilization not only with Christianity but also with the intellectual and political achievements of the ancient Greeks and Romans.[58]

Historians, such as

Discovery and Enlightenment, and the Industrial and Scientific Revolutions.[76][77] The widespread influence of Western culture extended globally through imperialism, colonialism, and Christianization by Western powers from the 15th to 20th centuries. This influence persists through the exportation of mass culture, a phenomenon often referred to as Westernization.[78]

There was debate among some in the 1960s as to whether Latin America as a whole is in a category of its own.[79]

Culture

Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man, based on the correlations of ideal human proportions with geometry described by the ancient Roman architect Vitruvius in Book III of his treatise De architectura
Middle Eastern philosophy and theology

belief systems, political systems, artifacts and technologies of the Western world. The core of Western civilization, broadly defined, is formed by the combined foundations of Greco-Roman civilization and Western Christianity.[80][81][82][83][84][85][86][87][88] Western culture also comprises and has been influenced by other elements, such as Germanic and Celtic
cultures. While Western culture is a broad concept, and does not relate to a region with fixed members or geographical confines, it generally relates to the cultures of countries with historical ties to a European country or a number of European countries, or to the variety of cultures within Europe itself. However, countries toward the east of Europe are sometimes excluded from definitions of the Western world.

Western culture is characterized by a host of artistic, philosophic, literary and

.

While traditionally shunned as a mainspring of Western civilization in favour of early Aegean cultures, the

Near-Eastern cultures,[106] and major advances in literature, engineering, and science, and provided the culture for the expansion of early Christianity and the Greek New Testament.[107][108][109] This period overlapped with and was followed by Rome, which made key contributions in law, government, engineering and political organization.[110]

Western culture continued to develop with the Christianization of European society during the Middle Ages, the reforms triggered by the
subcultures or countercultures (such as New Age movements) and increasing cultural syncretism resulting from globalization and human migration
.

Historical divisions

The West of the Mediterranean Region during the Antiquity

The geopolitical divisions in Europe that created a concept of East and West originated in the

Graeco-Roman times.[124] The Eastern Mediterranean was home to the highly urbanized cultures that had Greek as their common language (owing to the older empire of Alexander the Great and of the Hellenistic successors), whereas the West was much more rural in its character and more readily adopted Latin as its common language. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the beginning of the Medieval times (or Middle Ages), Western and Central Europe were substantially cut off from the East where Byzantine Greek culture and Eastern Christianity became founding influences in the Eastern European world such as the East and South Slavic peoples.[citation needed
]

The main travels of the Age of Discovery (began in 15th century)

Roman Catholic Western and Central Europe, as such, maintained a distinct identity particularly as it began to redevelop during the Renaissance. Even following the Protestant Reformation
, Protestant Europe continued to see itself as more tied to Roman Catholic Europe than other parts of the perceived civilized world. Use of the term West as a specific cultural and geopolitical term developed over the course of the ]

Ancient Greek and Hellenistic worlds (13th–1st centuries BC)

The ancient Greek world, c. 550 BC
The ancient Hellenistic Greek world from 323 BC

The

Berber city-states of the Garamantes).[citation needed
]

The then Hellenic division between the

Persian Wars of the early 5th century BC a conflict of Europa versus Asia (which he considered all land north and east of the Sea of Marmara, respectively).[citation needed] The Greeks would highlight what they perceived as a lack of freedom in the Persian world, something that they viewed as antithetical to their culture.[126]

According to a few writers, the future conquest of parts of the Roman Empire by Germanic peoples and the subsequent dominance by the Western Christian papacy (which held combined political and spiritual authority, a state of affairs absent from Greek civilization in all its stages), resulted in a rupture of the previously existing ties between the Latin West and Greek thought,[127] including Christian Greek thought.[citation needed]

Ancient Roman world (6th century BC – AD 395–476)

Carthaginians
Eastern
Roman Empires on the eve of Western collapse in September of AD 476.
The Roman Empire in AD 117. During 350 years the Roman Republic turned into an Empire expanding up to twenty-five times its area.

fall of the Roman Empire.[citation needed
]

The

Latin language has been the base from which Romance languages evolved and it has been the official language of the Catholic Church and all Catholic religious ceremonies all over Europe until 1967, as well as an or the official language of countries such as Italy and Poland (9th–18th centuries).[128][citation needed
]

Ending invasions on Roman Empire since the 2nd and throughout the 5th centuries

In AD 395, a few decades before its Western collapse, the Roman Empire formally split into a

Holy See of Rome (the Latin Church) for centuries to come.[130][131] The ancient Barbarian tribes, often composed of well-trained Roman soldiers paid by Rome to guard the extensive borders, had become militarily sophisticated "Romanized barbarians", and mercilessly slaughtered the Romans conquering their Western territories while looting their possessions.[132]

The Roman Empire is where the idea of "the West" began to emerge.[g]

The

Eastern Roman Empire, governed from Constantinople, is usually referred to as the Byzantine Empire after AD 476, the traditional date for the fall of the Roman Empire and beginning of the Early Middle Ages. The survival of the Eastern Roman Empire protected Roman legal and cultural traditions, combining them with Greek and Christian elements, for another thousand years. The name Byzantine Empire was first used centuries later, after the Byzantine Empire ended. The dissolution of the Western half, nominally ended in AD 476, but in truth a long process that ended by the rise of Catholic Gaul (modern-day France) ruling from around the year AD 800, left only the Eastern Roman Empire alive. The Eastern half continued to think of itself as the Eastern Roman Empire until AD 610–800, when Latin ceased to be the official language of the empire. The inhabitants called themselves Romans because the term "Roman" was meant to signify all Christians. The Pope crowned Charlemagne as Emperor of the Romans of the newly established Holy Roman Empire, and the West began thinking in terms of Western Latins living in the old Western Empire, and Eastern Greeks (those inside the Roman remnant of the old Eastern Empire).[133]

The birth of the European West during the Middle Ages

East-West Schism

This internal conflict of legacies had possibly emerged since the

pagan religions.[h]

Germanic migrations
.

The Eastern Roman Empire included lands south-west of the Black Sea and bordering on the Eastern Mediterranean and parts of the Adriatic Sea. This division into Eastern and Western Roman Empires was later reflected in the administration of the Roman Catholic and Eastern Greek Orthodox churches, with Rome and Constantinople debating over whether either city was the capital of Western religion.[citation needed]

As the

political scientist, adviser and academic Samuel P. Huntington argued that this cultural division still existed during the Cold War as the approximate Western boundary of those countries that were allied with the Soviet Union.[i]

in Rome

In AD 800 under

papal hierarchy, quintessential Roman Empire's spiritual heritage authority, establishing then, until the Protestant Reformation, the civilization of Western Christendom.[citation needed
]

The earliest concept of Europe as a cultural sphere (instead of simple geographic term) is believed to have been formed by

Alcuin of York during the Carolingian Renaissance of the 9th century, but was limited to the territories that practised Western Christianity at the time.[134]

The

Augustine wrote in On True Religion: "Religion is to be sought... only among those who are called Catholic or orthodox Christians, that is, guardians of truth and followers of right."[136] Over time, the Western Christianity gradually identified with the "Catholic" label, and people of Western Europe gradually associated the "Orthodox" label with Eastern Christianity (although in some languages the "Catholic" label is not necessarily identified with the Western Church). This was in note of the fact that both Catholic and Orthodox were in use as ecclesiastical adjectives as early as the 2nd and 4th centuries respectively. Meanwhile, the extent of both Christendoms expanded, as Germanic peoples, Bohemia, Poland, Hungary, Scandinavia, Finnic peoples, Baltic peoples, British Isles and the other non-Christian lands of the northwest were converted by the Western Church, while Eastern Slavic peoples, Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro, Russian territories, Vlachs and Georgia were converted by the Eastern Orthodox Church.[citation needed
]

The Byzantine Empire in AD 1180 before Latin Fourth Crusade

In 1071, the Byzantine army was defeated by the

Pope in Rome to send military aid to restore the lost territories to Christian rule. The result was a series of western European military campaigns into the eastern Mediterranean, known as the Crusades. Unfortunately for the Byzantines, the crusaders (belonging to the members of nobility from France, German territories, the Low countries, England, Italy and Hungary) had no allegiance to the Byzantine Emperor and established their own states in the conquered regions, including the heart of the Byzantine Empire
.

The Holy Roman Empire would dissolve on 6 August 1806, after the French Revolution and the creation of the Confederation of the Rhine by Napoleon.

The Greek Byzantine Empire split by a newly established Latin Crusader State after the Fourth Crusade (shown partly in Greece and partly in Turkey)

The

Catholic Church suppressed what they believed to be heresy, usually through a system of ecclesiastical proscription or imprisonment, but without using torture,[141] and seldom resorting to executions.[142][143][144][145]

This very profitable

Late Medieval Period, backed by many of the German princes and helped by the development of the printing press, in an attempt to reform corruption within the church.[146][147][148][k]

Both these religious wars ended with the

Westphalian principles, especially the concept of sovereign states, became central to international law and to the prevailing world order.[149]

Expansion of the West: the Era of Colonialism (15th–20th centuries)

"Why do the Christian nations, which were so weak in the past compared with Muslim nations begin to dominate so many lands in modern times and even defeat the once victorious Ottoman armies?"..."Because they have laws and rules invented by reason."

Ibrahim Muteferrika, Rational basis for the Politics of Nations (1731)[150]

King John III of Portugal
(c. 1536) (green)
Apex of Spanish Empire in 1790

In the 13th and 14th centuries, a number of European travelers, many of them Christian missionaries, had sought to cultivate trading with Asia and Africa. With the Crusades came the relative contraction of the Orthodox Byzantine's large silk industry in favor of Catholic Western Europe and the rise of Western Papacy. The most famous of these merchant travelers pursuing East–west trade was Venetian Marco Polo. But these journeys had little permanent effect on east–west trade because of a series of political developments in Asia in the last decades of the 14th century, which put an end to further European exploration of Asia: namely the new Ming rulers were found to be unreceptive of religious proselytism by European missionaries and merchants. Meanwhile, the Ottoman Turks consolidated control over the eastern Mediterranean, closing off key overland trade routes.[citation needed]

The

Roman Catholic Inquisition followed.[citation needed
]

Due to the reach of these empires, Western institutions expanded throughout the world. This process of influence (and imposition) began with the

discovery of the New World, and the creation and expansion of the English and French colonial empires, and others.[citation needed] Even after demands for self-determination from subject peoples within Western empires were met with decolonization, these institutions persisted. One specific example was the requirement that post-colonial societies were made to form nation-states (in the Western tradition), which often created arbitrary boundaries and borders that did not necessarily represent a whole nation, people, or culture (as in much of Africa), and are often the cause of international conflicts and friction even to this day. Although not part of Western colonization process proper, following the Middle Ages Western culture in fact entered other global-spanning cultures during the colonial 15th–20th centuries.[citation needed] Historically colonialism had been justified with the values of individualism and enlightenment.[154]

Catholic Monarchs of Castile and Aragon.[155] Columbus had estimated a travel distance of 2,400 nmi (4,400 km), far too low.[156]


Colonialisation by Western/European powers (and others) since 1492
Agricultural and Scientific
revolutions in the 1600s, forever modified the economy worldwide.


The French Revolution had a major impact on European and Western history of governance by ending feudalism and creating the path for future advances in broadly defined individual freedoms.
[157][158] Its impact on French nationalism was profound, while also stimulating nationalist movements throughout Europe.[159] Modern historians argue the concept of the nation state was a direct consequence of the Revolution.[160][155] Freedom movements for human and women rights, against slavery and religious control, are recorded with the French Revolution, including the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen of 1789.

The concepts of a world of

nation-states born by the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, coupled with the ideologies of the Enlightenment, the coming of modernity, the Scientific Revolution[161] and the Industrial Revolution,[162] would produce powerful social transformations, political and economic institutions that have come to influence (or been imposed upon) most nations of the world today. Historians agree that the Industrial Revolution has been one of the most important events in history.[163]

The course of

United States of America, evolving from the ratification of the Constitution of the United States by thirteen States on the North American East Coast
before end of the 18th century.

In the early-19th century, the systematic

Late Modern period
.


Western empires as they were in 1910

Women's Suffrage Parade in New York City, May 6, 1912

During the socioeconomically optimistic and innovative decades of the

Meiji period (1868–1912), though earlier contacts with the Portuguese, Spaniards and Dutch were also present in the Japanese Empire's recognition of the strategic importance of European nations. Traditional Japanese society became an industrial and militarist power like the Western British Empire and the French Third Republic, and similar to the German Empire.[verification needed][citation needed
]

At the close of the Spanish–American War in 1898 the Philippines, Puerto Rico, Guam and Cuba were ceded to the United States under the terms of the Treaty of Paris. The US quickly emerged as the new imperial power in East Asia and in the Pacific Ocean area. The Philippines continued to fight against colonial rule in the Philippine–American War.[172]

By 1913, the

aftermath of the Second World War, decolonizing efforts were employed by all Western powers under United Nations (ex-League of Nations) international directives.[citation needed] Most of colonized nations received independence by 1960. Great Britain showed ongoing responsibility for the welfare of its former colonies as member states of the Commonwealth of Nations. But the end of Western colonial imperialism saw the rise of Western neocolonialism or economic imperialism. Multinational corporations came to offer "a dramatic refinement of the traditional business enterprise", through "issues as far ranging as national sovereignty, ownership of the means of production, environmental protection, consumerism, and policies toward organized labor." Though the overt colonial era had passed, Western nations, as comparatively rich, well-armed, and culturally powerful states, wielded a large degree of influence throughout the world, and with little or no sense of responsibility toward the peoples impacted by its multinational corporations in their exploitation of minerals and markets.[177][178] The dictum of Alfred Thayer Mahan is shown to have lasting relevance, that whoever controls the seas controls the world.[179]

Enlightenment (17th–18th centuries)

free speech, inquisitorial forces will impose "an undeserved thraldom upon learning".[182]

The achievements of the 17th century included the invention of the

nebulae and comets, and paving the way for improvements in navigation and cartography. Astronomy became the second most popular scientific profession, after medicine.[183]

A common metanarrative of the Enlightenment is the "secularization theory". Modernity, as understood within the framework, means a total break with the past. Innovation and science are the good, representing the modern values of

Condorcet wrote about the progress of humanity in the Sketch of the Progress of the Human Mind (1794), from primitive society to agrarianism, the invention of writing, the later invention of the printing press and the advancement to "the Period when the Sciences and Philosophy threw off the Yoke of Authority".[185]

French writer

Sephardic community, but for Jews who sought out Jewish sources to guide their own path to secularism, Spinoza was as important as Voltaire and Kant.[186]

Cold War (1947–1991)

During the Cold War, a new definition emerged. Earth was divided into three "worlds". The First World, analogous in this context to what was called the West, was composed of NATO members and other countries aligned with the United States.

The Second World was the

Eastern bloc in the Soviet sphere of influence, including the Soviet Union (15 republics including the then-occupied and presently independent Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania) and Warsaw Pact countries like Poland, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, East Germany (now united with Germany), and Czechoslovakia
(now split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia).

The Third World consisted of countries, many of which were

People's Republic of China
, though this is disputed, since the People's Republic of China, as communist, had friendly relations—at certain times—with the Soviet bloc, and had a significant degree of importance in global geopolitics. Some Third World countries aligned themselves with either the US-led West or the Soviet-led Eastern bloc.

"Western Christian civilization" (red) and "Eastern Christian civilization" (brown), according to Samuel Huntington. For Huntington, Latin America (dark green) was part of the West or a descendant civilization that was twinned to it. For Rouquié, Latin America is the "Third World of the West."

A number of countries did not fit comfortably into this neat definition of partition, including Switzerland, Sweden, Austria, and

FCMA treaty) but remained neutral and was not communist, nor was it a member of the Warsaw Pact or Comecon but a member of the EFTA since 1986, and was west of the Iron Curtain. In 1955, when Austria again became a fully independent republic, it did so under the condition that it remain neutral; but as a country to the west of the Iron Curtain, it was in the United States' sphere of influence. Spain did not join the NATO until 1982, seven years after the death of the authoritarian Franco
.

The 1980s advent of Mikhail Gorbachev led to the end of the Cold War following the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

Cold War II context

In a debated

measures.[197][198]

Modern definitions

Asia (as the "Eastern world"), the Arab world, and Africa

The exact scope of the Western world is somewhat subjective in nature, depending on whether cultural, economic, spiritual or political criteria are employed. It is a generally accepted Western view to recognize the existence of at least three "major worlds" (or "cultures", or "civilizations"), broadly in contrast with the Western: the Eastern world, the Arab and the African worlds, with no clearly specified boundaries. Additionally, Latin American and Orthodox European worlds are sometimes either a sub-civilization within Western civilization or separately considered "akin" to the West.

Many anthropologists, sociologists and historians oppose "the West and the Rest" in a categorical manner.[199] The same has been done by Malthusian demographers with a sharp distinction between European and non-European family systems. Among anthropologists, this includes Durkheim, Dumont, and Lévi-Strauss.[199]

Since the fall of the iron curtain the following countries are generally accepted as the Western world:

UK, Norway, Iceland and Switzerland; Australia and New Zealand. In addition, the microstates of Andorra, Liechtenstein, Monaco, San Marino, and Vatican City
are considered Western.

Cultural definition

In modern usage, Western world refers to Europe and to areas whose populations largely originate from Europe, through the Age of Discovery's imperialism.[201][26][202]

The Western world derived on Samuel P. Huntington's 1996 Clash of Civilizations.[1] In turquoise are Latin America and the Orthodox World, which are either a part of the West or distinct civilizations intimately related to the West.[2][3]

In the 20th century, Christianity declined in influence in many Western countries, mostly in the European Union where some member states have experienced falling church attendance and membership in recent years,[203] and also elsewhere. Secularism (separating religion from politics and science) increased. However, while church attendance is in decline, in some Western countries (i.e. Italy, Poland, and Portugal), more than half of the people state that religion is important,[204] and most Westerners nominally identify themselves as Christians (e.g. 59% in the United Kingdom) and attend church on major occasions, such as Christmas and Easter. In the Americas, Christianity continues to play an important societal role, though in areas such as Canada, a low level of religiosity is common due to a European-type secularization. The official religions of the United Kingdom and some Nordic countries are forms of Christianity, while the majority of European countries have no official religion. Despite this, Christianity, in its different forms, remains the largest faith in most Western countries.[205]

Christianity remains the dominant religion in the Western world, where 70% are Christians.[206] A 2011 Pew Research Center survey found that 76.2% of Europeans, 73.3% in Oceania, and about 86.0% in the Americas (90% in Latin America and the Caribbean and 77.4% in Northern America) described themselves as Christians.[206][207]

Since the mid-twentieth century, the west became known for its

irreligious sentiments, following the Age of Enlightenment and the French Revolution, inquisitions were abolished in the 19th and 20th centuries, this hastened the separation of church and state, and secularization of the Western world where unchurched spirituality is gaining more prominence over organized religion.[208]

Certain parts of the Western World have become notable for their diversity since the late 1960s.[38][39] Earlier, between the eighteenth century to mid-twentieth century, prominent western countries like the United States, Canada, Brazil, Argentina, Australia, and New Zealand have been once envisioned as homelands for whites. [33][34][35] Racism has been noted as a contributing factor to Westerners' colonization of the New World, which makes up much of the geographical West today.[36][37]

Countries in the Western world are also the most keen on digital and televisual media technologies, as they were in the postwar period on television and radio: from 2000 to 2014, the Internet's market penetration in the West was twice that in non-Western regions.[209]

Latin America

Huntington's map of major civilizations.[1] What constitutes Western civilization in post-Cold War world is coloured dark blue. He also shows that Latin America (shown in purple) is either a sub-civilization within Western civilization or a separate civilization akin to the West.

American political scientist, adviser and academic Samuel P. Huntington considered Latin America as separate from the Western world for the purpose of his geopolitical analysis.[1] Huntington's view has, however, been contested on a number of occasions as biased.[210][211] Huntington also states that, while in general researchers consider that the West has three main components (European, North American and Latin American), in his view, Latin America has followed a different development path from Europe and North America. Although it is a scion of European (mainly Spanish and Portuguese) civilization, it also incorporates, to an extent, elements of indigenous American civilizations, absent from North America and Europe. It has had a corporatist and authoritarian culture that Europe had to a much lesser extent. Both Europe and North America felt the effects of the Reformation and combined Catholic and Protestant culture. Historically, Latin America has been only Catholic, although this is changing due to the influx of Protestants into the region. Some regions in Latin America incorporate indigenous cultures, which did not exist in Europe and were effectively annihilated in the United States, and whose importance oscillates between two extremes: Mexico, Central America, Peru and Bolivia, on the one hand, and Argentina and Chile on the other.[212] However, he does mention that the modus operandi of the Catholic Church was to incorporate native elements of pagan European cultures into the general dogma of Catholicism, and the Native American elements could be perceived in the same way.[213]

Subjectively, Latin Americans are divided on whether to consider themselves part of the West. A vast corpus of bibliographical material produced by Latin Americans and North Americans exposes in detail their cultural differences. Huntington goes on to mention that Latin America could be considered a sub-civilization within Western civilization, or a separate civilization intimately related to the West and divided as to its belonging to it. While the second option is the most appropriate and useful for an analysis focused on the international political consequences of civilizations, including relations between Latin America, on the one hand, and North America and Europe, on the other, he also mentions that the underlying conflict of Latin America belonging to the West must eventually be addressed in order to develop a cohesive Latin American identity.[214][215]

Other countries

Most of

British colonialism respectively.[218] English, the country's lingua franca, is the main language used in official and business capacities and the sole language of record in South African courts.[219][220][221] English and Afrikaans – most similar to Dutch – are two of South Africa's eleven official languages.[222][223] Christianity is the dominant religion and many denominations incorporate worship practices from traditional African religions. The Methodist, Roman Catholic, Anglican, Dutch Reformed, Lutheran, Pentecostal and Seventh-day Adventist denominations are also popular.[224]

The Philippines, although geographically part of the Eastern world and having a majority population that does not possess European ethnic origins aside from a significant minority, maintains strong Western-based influences in its culture.[225] Cape Verde also has significant influence from the Western world due to Portuguese colonization, seen through the country's language (Portuguese), music, art[226] and the prevalence of Christianity.[227] The country's population is also overall, a mixture of African and European descent.[228] European influence is also evident in Namibia, which has a sizeable minority of European descent and was previously administered by Germany and then South Africa.[229][230][231]

Economic definition

Countries by income group
European Single Market
members. 2017

The term "Western world" is sometimes interchangeably used with the term First World or developed countries, stressing the difference between First World and the Third World or developing countries. This usage occurs despite the fact that many countries that may be culturally Western are developing countries – in fact, a significant percentage of the Americas are developing countries. It is also used despite many developed countries or regions not being culturally Western (e.g. Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macao). Privatization policies (involving government enterprises and public services) and multinational corporations are often considered a visible sign of Western nations' economic presence, especially in Third World countries, and represent a common institutional environment for powerful politicians, enterprises, trade unions and firms, bankers and thinkers of the Western world.[232][233][234][235][236]

Views on torn countries

According to Samuel P. Huntington, some countries are torn on whether they are Western or not, with typically the national leadership pushing for Westernization, while historical, cultural and traditional forces remain largely non-Western.[237] These include Turkey, whose political leadership has since the 1920s tried to Westernize the predominantly Muslim country with only 3% of its territory within Europe. It is his chief example of a "torn country" that is attempting to join Western civilization.[1] The country's elite started the Westernization efforts, beginning with Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, who took power as the first president of the modern Turkish nation-state in 1923, imposed western institutions and dress, removed the Arabic alphabet and embraced the Latin alphabet. It joined NATO and since the 1960s has been seeking to join the European Union with very slow progress.[238]

Other views

A series of scholars of civilization, including Arnold J. Toynbee, Alfred Kroeber and Carroll Quigley have identified and analyzed "Western civilization" as one of the civilizations that have historically existed and still exist today. Toynbee entered into quite an expansive mode, including as candidates those countries or cultures who became so heavily influenced by the West as to adopt these borrowings into their very self-identity. Carried to its limit, this would in practice include almost everyone within the West, in one way or another. In particular, Toynbee refers to the intelligentsia formed among the educated elite of countries impacted by the European expansion of centuries past. While often pointedly nationalist, these cultural and political leaders interacted within the West to such an extent as to change both themselves and the West.[79]

The

paleontologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin conceived of the West as the set of civilizations descended from the Nile Valley Civilization of Egypt.[239]

Palestinian-American literary critic

master-slave dialectic: The Occident would not exist without the Orient and vice versa.[citation needed] Further, Western writers created this irrational, feminine, weak "Other" to contrast with the rational, masculine, strong West because of a need to create a difference between the two that would justify imperialist ambitions, according to the Said-influenced Indian-American theorist Homi K. Bhabha.[citation needed
]

The West has been recognized for its politically individualist beliefs.[240] The idea of "the West" over the course of time has evolved from a directional concept to a sociopolitical concept, and has been temporalized and rendered as a concept of the future bestowed with notions of progress and modernity.[30] The progress of the West in the attainment of Women's rights since the late nineteenth century has been noticeable; in the twenty-first century, women in general of the West have been considered the "liberated, autonomous subjects" in comparison to women from 'other cultures' who are still becoming so. Feminism has often been "criticized for being inherently white and western."[241][242]

Map illustrations of the West according to different but closely interrelated definitions
  • Division of the Roman Empire after 395 into western and eastern part. The geopolitical divisions in Europe that created a concept of East and West originated in the Roman Empire.
    Division of the Roman Empire after 395 into western and eastern part. The geopolitical divisions in Europe that created a concept of East and West originated in the Roman Empire.
  • Latin alphabet world distribution. The dark green areas show the countries where this alphabet is the sole official (or de facto official) national script. The light green places show the countries where the alphabet co-exists with other scripts.
    Latin alphabet world distribution. The dark green areas show the countries where this alphabet is the sole official (or de facto official) national script. The light green places show the countries where the alphabet co-exists with other scripts.
  • Countries with 50% or more Christians are colored purple while countries with 10% to 50% Christians are colored pink.
    Countries with 50% or more Christians are colored purple while countries with 10% to 50% Christians are colored pink.
  • Relative degree of religiosity by country. Based on a 2006–2008 worldwide survey by Gallup.
    Relative degree of religiosity by country. Based on a 2006–2008 worldwide survey by Gallup.
  • Human language families
    Human
    language families
  • Western Palearctic, a part of the Palearctic realm, one of the eight biogeographic realms dividing the Earth's surface
    Western Palearctic, a part of the Palearctic realm, one of the eight biogeographic realms
    dividing the Earth's surface
  • Geopolitical Occident of Europe, according to the Intermediate Region theory of Dimitri Kitsikis
    Geopolitical Occident of Europe, according to the Intermediate Region theory of Dimitri Kitsikis
  • Indo-European languages
  • European Union (in blue) and European Free Trade Association (in green)
    European Union (in blue) and European Free Trade Association (in green)
  • Human Development Index Report (based on 2018 data, published in 2019)
    Human Development Index Report (based on 2018 data, published in 2019)
  • Legal systems of the world
    Legal systems of the world
  • Secular states in blue
    Secular states in blue
  • Relative geographic prevalence of Christianity versus the second most prevalent religion Islam and lack of either religion, in 2006
    Relative geographic prevalence of Christianity versus the second most prevalent religion Islam and lack of either religion, in 2006

See also

Organisations

Representation in the United Nations

Notes

  1. ^ Comprising Australia and New Zealand, excluding the Pacific island nations.
  2. Baltics and territories of Western European nations geographically located in the coast of North Africa, such as Madeira and the Canary Islands
    .
  3. ^ Latin America's status as a part of the West is undisputed by most researchers and disputed by others.[4]
  4. ^ See [40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48]
    See [49][50][51][52][53]
    The Parthenon, a former temple (Athens, c. 430 BC). The Victorious Youth, a controversial Greek bronze (Greece, c. 300–100 BC). Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus, seats up to 14,000 people (Epidaurus, c. 150 BC).
  5. Christian basilica (Trier, c. AD 310).
See [54][55][56][57]
  • Augustus. (16, 27 January BC). Octavian/Augustus officially proclaimed that he had saved the Roman Republic and carefully disguised his power under republican forms: Consuls continued to be elected, tribunes of the plebeians continued to offer legislation, and senators still debated in the Roman Curia
    . However, it was Octavian who influenced everything and controlled the final decisions, and in final analysis, had the legions to back him up, if it became necessary.
  • Iberia (Portugal and Spain), Gaul (France), the Mediterranean coast of North Africa (Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco) and Britannia were all part of the "West". Greece, Cyprus, Anatolia, Lebanon, Syria, Israel, Palestine, Egypt, and Libya were part of the "East". Italy itself was considered central, until the reforms of Diocletian dividing the Empire into true two halves: Eastern and Western.[citation needed
    ]
  • Eastern European location around the Danube river. This situation may have led to Huns' successful invasion that originated Empire's division (and later its collapse) during the course of the 3rd century AD.[citation needed
    ]
  • ^ Others have fiercely criticized these views arguing they confuse the Eastern Roman Empire with Russia, especially considering the fact that the country that had the most historical roots in Byzantium (Greece) expelled communists and was allied with the West during the Cold War. Still, Russia accepted Eastern Christianity from the Byzantine Empire (by the Patriarch of Constantinople: Photios I) linking Russia very close to the Eastern Roman Empire world. Later on, in 16th century Russia created its own religious centre in Moscow. Religion survived in Russia beside severe persecution carrying values alternative to the communist ideology.[citation needed]
  • demands
    ).
  • United States of America (1776) during the Industrial Revolution
    .
  • ^ Portuguese sailors began exploring the coast of Africa and the Atlantic archipelagos in 1418–19, using recent developments in navigation, cartography and maritime technology such as the caravel, in order that they might find a sea route to the source of the lucrative spice trade.[citation needed] In 1488, Bartolomeu Dias rounded the southern tip of Africa under the sponsorship of Portugal's John II, from which point he noticed that the coast swung northeast (Cape of Good Hope).[citation needed] In 1492 Christopher Columbus would land on an island in the Bahamas archipelago on behalf of the Spanish, and documenting the Atlantic Ocean's routes would be granted a coat of arms by Pope Alexander VI motu proprio in 1502.[citation needed] With the discovery of the American continent or '
    italics were inspired and designed from transcriptions during this period.) Renaissance architectural works, revivals of Classical and Gothic styles, flourished during this modern period throughout Western colonial empires
    . In 1497 Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama made the first open voyage from Europe to India.[citation needed] In 1520, Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese navigator in the service of the Crown of Castile ('Spain'), found a sea route into the Pacific Ocean.
  • Indian Subcontinent
    .
  • ^ Although Christianized by early Middle Ages, Ireland is soon colonised in 16th- and 17th-century with settlers from the neighboring island of Great Britain (several people committed in the establishment of these colonies in Ireland, would later also colonise North America initiating the British Empire), while Iceland still uninhabited long after the rest of Western Europe had been settled, by 1397–1523 would eventually be united in one alliance with all of the Nordic states (kingdoms of Denmark, Sweden and Norway).
  • Dervish state (a portion of present-day Somalia)[168] and Liberia
    still being independent.
  • ^ In ancient Greece (8th century BC – AD 6th century), hegemony denoted the politico-military dominance of a city-state over other city-states.[169] The dominant state is known as the hegemon.[170]
  • Citations

    1. ^ a b c d e THE WORLD OF CIVILIZATIONS: POST-1990 scanned image Archived 12 March 2007 at the Wayback Machine
    2. ^
      ISBN 978-0-684-84441-1. The origin of western civilization is usually dated to 700 or 800 AD. In general, researchers consider that it has three main components, in Europe, North America and Latin America. [...] However, Latin America has followed a quite different development path from Europe and North America. Although it is a scion of European civilization, it also incorporates more elements of indigenous American civilizations compared to those of North America and Europe. It also currently has had a more corporatist and authoritarian culture. Both Europe and North America felt the effects of Reformation and combination of Catholic and Protestant cultures. Historically, Latin America has been only Catholic, although this may be changing. [...] Latin America could be considered, or a sub-set, within Western civilization, or can also be considered a separate civilization, intimately related to the West, but divided as to whether it belongs with it.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link
      )
    3. ^ .
    4. ^ Espinosa, Emilio Lamo de (4 December 2017). "Is Latin America part of the West?" (PDF). Elcano Royal Institute. Archived (PDF) from the original on 22 April 2019.
    5. .
    6. ^ "Is Eastern Europe part of the Western world?". www.studycountry.com. Retrieved 27 December 2023.
    7. ^ Espinosa, Emilio Lamo de. "Is Latin America part of the West?". Elcano Royal Institute. Retrieved 27 December 2023.
    8. . The making of the West depended on cultural, political, and economic interaction among diverse groups. The West remains an evolving concept, not a fixed region with unchanging borders and members.
    9. ^ a b c Shvili, Jason (26 April 2021). "The Western World". worldatlas.com. Archived from the original on 1 October 2022.
    10. . the term "Western" — refer to the culture of classical antiquity that arose in Greece and Rome; survived the collapse of the Roman Empire; spread to western and northern Europe; then during the great periods of exploration and colonization of the fifteenth through nineteenth centuries expanded to the Americas, Australia and areas of Asia and Africa; and now exercises global political, economic, cultural, and military power far greater than the size of its territory or population might otherwise suggest.
    11. . people in these early civilizations viewed themselves as subjects of states or empires, not as members of Western civilization. With the rise of Christianity during the Late Roman Empire, however, peoples in Europe began to identify themselves as part of a civilization different from others, such as that of Islam, leading to a concept of a Western civilization different from other civilizations. In the fifteenth century, Renaissance intellectuals began to identify this civilization not only with Christianity but also with the intellectual and political achievements of the ancient Greeks and Romans. Important to the development of the idea of a distinct Western civilization were encounters with other peoples. Between 700 and 1500, encounters with the world of Islam helped define the West. But after 1500, as European ships began to move into other parts of the world, encounters with peoples in Asia, Africa, and the Americas not only had an impact on the civilizations found there but also affected how people in the West defined themselves. At the same time, as they set up colonies, Europeans began to transplant a sense of Western identity to other areas of the world, especially North America and parts of Latin America, that have come to be considered part of Western civilization.
    12. . During the 18th and 19th centuries, Western civilization expanded geographically, in whole or in part. [...] a host of major trends... occurred essentially in parallel, suggesting significant cohesion within an expanded Western civilization. The industrial revolution, though launched in Britain, turned out to be a transatlantic process very quickly. ... The same applies to the new movement to limit per capita birth rates – the demographic transition that ran through Western civilization during the 19th century... and the outcomes by 1900, in unprecedentedly low birth rates per family combined with rapidly falling infant death rates, was essentially the same through out this expanded Western world.
    13. ISBN 978-9004139046. Side by side with Christianity, the classical Greco-Roman world forms the sound foundation of Western civilization. Greek philosophy
      is also the origin for the methods and contents of the philosophical thought and theological investigation in Islam and Judaism.
    14. .
  • . First, IR focuses primarily on and legitimizes the actions and decisions of the US and the global North/West. Second, IR privileges certain political projects, such as neoliberal economic policies, state-centrism, and Northern/Western liberal democracy. Third, IR legitimizes the most privileged socio-political players and institutions, in both the Global North/West and the Global South [...] When we say 'North/West,' we mean primarily the US, but also Great Britain, 'Western' European countries, and, depending on context, limited others.
  • . For example, it is now fairly common place in many universities in the global north/west and in some universities in the south/east to include gender-related modules, including studies on gender and language, in their curricula.
  • ISBN 9780199237432. The awareness that East and West were not only different regions of the world but also regions filled with different peoples, with different cultures, worshipping different gods and, most crucially, holding different views on how best to live their lives, we owe not to an Asian but to a Western people: the Greeks. It was a Greek historian, Herodotus
    , writing in the fifth century B.C.E., who first stopped to ask what it was that divided Europe from Asia [...] This East as Herodotus knew it, the lands that lay between the European peninsula and the Ganges
  • ^ Shvili, Jason (26 April 2021). "The Western World". worldatlas.com. Archived from the original on 1 October 2022. The concept of the Western world, as opposed to other parts of the world, was born in ancient Greece, specifically in the years 480-479 BCE, when the ancient Greek city states fought against the powerful Persian Empire to the east.
  • . Building on concepts from the Near East, Greeks originated the idea of the West as a separate region, identifying Europe as the West (where the sun sets) and different from the East (where the sun rises).
  • ^ "East-West Schism". britannica.com. Archived from the original on 29 September 2023.
  • . But even after 1054 friendly relations between east and west continued. The two parts of Christendom were not yet conscious of a great gulf of separation between them, and people on both sides still hoped that the misunderstandings could be cleared up without too much difficulty. The dispute remained something of which ordinary Christians in east and west were largely unaware. It was the Crusades which made the schism definitive: they introduced a new spirit of hatred and bitterness, and they brought the whole issue down to the popular level.
  • . The Crusades, like the wars of Rome with Persia, were attempts of the West to capture trade routes to the East; the discovery of America was a result of the failure of the Crusades.
  • . While "Western Civilization" is a common theme in the curriculum of secondary and tertiary education, there is a great deal of disagreement about what the terms "West" or "Western" world signify. I have defined it as those "religious traditions, institutions, cultures and nations, including their contemporary shared values, that together emerged as the intellectual descendants and transformers of Latin Christendom." Geographically, this entails Western Europe (including Poland and other central European countries), North America and many other parts of the world that share these traditions and histories, or have adopted them. Much of Central and South America seem to reflect these traditions and values.
  • . The English word "West" was originally an adverb of direction. It meant, in effect, "farther down, farther away". By the Middle Ages, it was already being used by Europeans to describe Europe, and by the late six-teenth century, it had become associated with forward movement, with youth and vigor, and ultimately, as Europe expanded—westward—with "civilization". Ever since the eighteenth century, the word has been applied not only to Europe but also to Europe's settlers overseas, to the wider European World.
  • ^ Appiah, Kwame Anthony (9 November 2016). "There is no such thing as western civilisation". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 8 April 2023. Often, in recent years, "the west" means the north Atlantic: Europe and her former colonies in North America. The opposite here is a non-western world in Africa, Asia and Latin America – now dubbed "the global south" – though many people in Latin America will claim a western inheritance, too. This way of talking notices the whole world, but lumps a whole lot of extremely different societies together, while delicately carving around Australians and New Zealanders and white South Africans, so that "western" here can look simply like a euphemism for white.
  • ^ . Retrieved 28 June 2018.
  • ^ Western Civilization Archived 11 August 2017 at the Wayback Machine, Our Tradition; James Kurth; accessed 30 August 2011
  • , pp. 91-95.
  • ^ Shvili, Jason (26 April 2021). "The Western World". worldatlas.com. Archived from the original on 1 October 2022. Thus, Japan could be considered part of the West because it maintains a Western-style democracy, even though it is located in the Far East. At the same time, Cuba still clings to communism, and it is argued by many that the ruling regime of Cuba does not hold so-called Western values, even though it is geographically in the Western Hemisphere.
  • ^ a b c d Bavaj, Riccardo (21 November 2011). ""The West": A Conceptual Exploration". academia.edu. Archived from the original on 2 August 2022.
  • S2CID 153551831
    .
  • ^ Alexander Lukin. Russia Between East and West: Perceptions and Reality Archived 13 November 2017 at the Wayback Machine. Brookings Institution. Published on 28 March 2003
  • ^ .
  • ^
    whitening thesis called for an influx of white, preferably northern-European, blood in order for Brazilian society to achieve its goals to become an advanced nation. To the chagrin of the thesis' supporters, "nonwhite" immigrants started arriving on Brazilian shores, too.
  • Goñi, Uki (31 May 2021). "Time to challenge Argentina's white European self-image, black history experts say". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 21 December 2022. "The whitening
  • project was a successful endeavor in terms of the erasure of blackness," said Edwards. [...] Argentina's pro-European immigration policy was initiated under its 1853 constitution
  • ^ a b
    • "The Immigration Restriction Act and the White Australia policy". National Archives of Australia. Retrieved 19 December 2022. The Immigration Restriction Act 1901 was a landmark law which provided the cornerstone of the unofficial 'White Australia' policy and aimed to maintain Australia as a nation populated mainly by white Europeans. It included a dictation test of 50 words in a European language, which became the chief way unwanted migrants could be excluded. The policy remained in place for many decades.
    • "White New Zealand policy introduced | NZHistory, New Zealand history online". nzhistory.govt.nz. Retrieved 8 March 2021. New Zealand's immigration policy in the early 20th century was strongly influenced by racial ideology. The Immigration Restriction Amendment Act 1920 required intending immigrants to apply for a permanent residence permit before they arrived in New Zealand. Permission was given at the discretion of the minister of customs. The Act enabled officials to prevent Indians and other non-white British subjects entering New Zealand.
  • ^ . In the western world, racism evolved, twinned with the doctrine of white supremacy, and helped fuel the European exploration, conquest and colonization of much of the rest of the world.
  • ^ . Western world racism inflated the values of "Europeanness" and "Whiteness" in areas of civilization, human worth, and culture, and deflated the values of "African-ness" and "Blackness".
  • ^ . Intellectually and culturally, the Western world after 1965 was notable for its diversity and innovation.
  • ^ a b Browne, Anthony (3 September 2000). "The last days of a white world". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 18 November 2022. We are near a global watershed - a time when white people will not be in the majority in the developed world — Just 500 years ago, few had ventured outside their European homeland. [...] clearing the way, they settled in North America, South America, Australia, New Zealand and, to a lesser extent, southern Africa. But now, around the world, whites are falling as a proportion of population.
  • . The list of books which have celebrated Greece as the "cradle" of the West is endless; two more examples are Charles Freeman's The Greek Achievement: The Foundation of the Western World (1999) and Bruce Thornton's Greek Ways: How the Greeks Created Western Civilization (2000)
  • . The reason why even such a sophisticated historian as Pagden can do it is that the idea that Greece is the cradle of civilisation is so much rooted in western minds and school curricula as to be taken for granted.
  • . In 1979, a friend of de Boer's invited him to join a team of scientists that was going to Greece to assess the suitability of the ... But the idea of learning more about Greece — the cradle of Western civilization, a fresh example of tectonic forces at ...
  • .
  • .
  • . for ancient Greece was the cradle of Western culture ...
  • . PART I PRE-SOCRATIC PHILOSOPHY CHAPTER II THE CRADLE OF WESTERN THOUGHT:
  • . The capital of Greece, one of the world's most glorious cities and the cradle of Western culture,
  • . In short, Greece, despite having been the cradle of Western culture, was then an "other" space separate from the West.
  • ^ Library Journal. Vol. 97. Bowker. April 1972. p. 1588. Ancient Greece: Cradle of Western Culture (Series), disc. 6 strips with 3 discs, range: 44–60 fr., 17–18 min
  • . and making Egypt play the same role in African education and culture that Athens and Greece do in Western culture.
  • . Greece has long been considered the seedbed or cradle of Western civilization.
  • . The Special Case of Greece The ancient Greece was a cradle of the Western culture,
  • . Ancient Greece is often called the cradle of western civilization. ... Ideas from literature and science also have their roots in ancient Greece.
  • .
  • ^ Michael Ed. Grant (1964). The Birth Of Western Civilisation, Greece & Rome. Thames & Hudson. Retrieved 4 January 2016 – via Amazon.co.uk.
  • ^ HUXLEY, George; et al. "9780500040034: The Birth of Western Civilization: Greece and Rome". AbeBooks.com. Retrieved 4 January 2016.
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  • ^ Religions in Global Society – Page 146, Peter Beyer – 2006
  • ^ Cambridge University Historical Series, An Essay on Western Civilization in Its Economic Aspects, p.40: Hebraism, like Hellenism, has been an all-important factor in the development of Western Civilization; Judaism, as the precursor of Christianity, has indirectly had had much to do with shaping the ideals and morality of western nations since the Christian era.
  • S2CID 147430371
    . The contrast between Athens and Jerusalem, as the twin fonts of Western civilization, is often thought to sum up a number of structural dichotomies...
  • .
  • ^ Brague, Rémi (2009). "Eccentric Culture: A Theory of Western Civilization". philpapers.org. Retrieved 17 December 2023. Western culture, which influenced the whole world, came from Europe. But its roots are not there. They are in Athens and Jerusalem… The Roman attitude senses its own incompleteness and recognizes the call to borrow from what went before it. Historically, it has led the West to borrow from the great traditions of Jerusalem and Athens: primarily the Jewish and Christian tradition, on the one hand, and the classical Greek tradition on the other.
  • ISSN 2396-9113
    . The fact that modern international law is one of the products of Western European civilization means that it rests, as all that civilization, upon the threefold heritage of the ancient Mediterranean world, the heritage of Rome, Athens and Jerusalem.
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  • . "For many centuries the world of Islam was in the forefront of human civilization and achievement ... In the era between the decline of antiquity and the dawn of modernity, that is, in the centuries designated in European history as medieval, the Islamic claim was not without justification."
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    was contrary to the spirit of the Gospel, and they themselves opposed its execution. For centuries this was the ecclesiastical attitude both in theory and in practice. Thus, in keeping with the civil law, some Manichæans were executed at Ravenna in 556. On the other hand, Elipandus of Toledo and Felix of Urgel, the chiefs of Adoptionism and Predestinationism, were condemned by councils, but were otherwise left unmolested. We may note, however, that the monk Gothescalch, after the condemnation of his false doctrine that Christ had not died for all mankind, was by the Synods of Mainz in 848 and Quiercy in 849 sentenced to flogging and imprisonment, punishments then common in monasteries for various infractions of the rule.
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  • . Hugh McLeod, emeritus professor of Church History at the University of Birmingham, provides a helpful summary of the decline of Christendom in Western Europe in four stages: 1 Toleration of alternative forms of Christianity (in the Reformation and post-Reformation era in the 16th century and onward). 2 Publication of literature that was critical of Christianity (in the Enlightenment era of the 18th century). 3 Separation of church and state (from the 18th century onward). 4 The "gradual loosening of the ties between church and society". [...] At least since the mid-20th century, many European countries have experienced a decline in churched religion. In particular, declining church attendance has been an important aspect of this process, and a characteristic of the development that has been described as the secularization process. [...] The secularization processes in the Western world involve a partial replacement of established Christianity by unchurched spirituality, characterized by á la carte religion and a focus on "me and my experiences".
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    )
  • ISBN 978-0-684-84441-1.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link
    )
  • ISBN 978-0-684-84441-1 – via mercaba.org/SANLUIS/Historia/Universal/Huntington,%20Samuel%20-%20El%20choque%20de%20civilizaciones.pdf (in Spanish). The origin of western civilization is usually dated to 700 or 800 AD. In general, researchers consider that it has three main components, in Europe, North America and Latin America"... "However, Latin America has followed a quite different development path from Europe and North America. Although it is a scion of European civilization, it also incorporates, to varying degrees, elements of indigenous American civilizations, absent from North America and Europe.Both Europe and North America felt the effects of the Reformation and combined Catholic and Protestant culture. Historically, Latin America has been only Catholic, although this may be changing. Latin American civilization incorporates indigenous cultures, which did not exist in Europe, which were effectively annihilated in North America, and whose importance oscillates between two extremes: Mexico, Central America, Peru and Bolivia, on the one hand, and Argentina and Chile, on the other. The political evolution and the economic development of Latin America have clearly separated from the predominant models in the North Atlantic countries. Subjectively, Latin Americans themselves are divided when it comes to identifying themselves. Some say: "Yes, we are part of the West." Others say: "No, we have our own unique culture"; and a vast bibliographical material produced by Latin Americans and North Americans exposes in detail their cultural differences. Latin America could be considered, or a sub-civilization within Western civilization, or a separate civilization, intimately related to the West and divided as to its belonging to it.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link
    )
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