China and India have the two largest populations in the world, and are expected to grow rapidly economically.
The Asian Century is the projected 21st-century dominance of
Asian politics and culture, assuming certain demographic and economic
trends persist. The concept of Asian Century parallels the
characterization of the 19th century as Britain's Imperial Century, and the 20th century as the American Century.
A 2011 study by the Asian Development Bank
found that an additional 3 billion Asians could enjoy living standards
similar to those in Europe today, and the region could account for over
half of global output by the middle of this century. It warned, however,
that the Asian Century is not preordained.
The growing importance and emphasis of unity in Asia, as well as
maturing and progressive relationships among countries in the region
further solidify the creation of the 21st Asian Century.
Origin
In 1924, Karl Haushofer
used the term "Pacific age," envisaging the growth of Japan, China and
India: "A giant space is expanding before our eyes with forces pouring
into it which ... await the dawn of the Pacific age, the successor of
the Atlantic age, the over-age Mediterranean and European era." The phrase Asian Century arose in the mid to late 1980s, and is attributed to a 1988 meeting with People's Republic of China (PRC) leader Deng Xiaoping and Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi
in which Deng said that '[i]n recent years people have been saying that
the next century will be the century of Asia and the Pacific, as if
that were sure to be the case. I disagree with this view.' Prior to this, it made an appearance in a 1985 US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations hearing. It has been subsequently reaffirmed by Asian political leaders, and is now a popularly used term in the media.
Reasons
Asia's robust economic performance over the three decades preceding
2010, compared to that in the rest of the world, made perhaps the
strongest case yet for the possibility of an Asian Century. Although
this difference in economic performance had been recognized for some
time, specific individual setbacks (e.g., the 1997 Asian financial crisis)
tended to hide the broad sweep and general tendency. By the early 21st
century, however, a strong case could be made that this stronger Asian
performance was not just sustainable but held a force and magnitude that
could significantly alter the distribution of power on the planet.
Coming in its wake, global leadership in a range of significant
areas—international diplomacy, military strength, technology, and soft power—might also, as a consequence, be assumed by one or more of Asia's nation states.
Among many scholars have provided factors that have contributed to the significant Asian development, Kishore Mahbubani
provides seven pillars that rendered the Asian countries to excel and
provided themselves with the possibility to become compatible with the
Western counterparts. The seven pillars include: free-market economics,
science and technology, meritocracy, pragmatism, culture of peace, rule
of law and education.
Demographics
Population growth in Asia is expected to continue through at least
the first half of the 21st century, though it has slowed significantly
since the late 20th century. At four billion people in the beginning of
the 21st century, the Asian population is predicted to grow to more than
five billion by 2050. While its percent of the world population is not expected to greatly
change, North American and European shares of the global population are
expected to decline.
Economics
The global contribution to world's GDP by major economies from 1 AD to 2003 AD according to Angus Maddison's estimates. Before 18th century, China and India were the two largest economies by GDP output.
Projected GDP of 7 largest economies in 2050.
Projected shares of global GDP by region to 2050.
One of the busiest shopping streets in the world, Nanjing Road in Shanghai is an example of economic growth in mainland China, and its large consumer base.
India's middle-class population of 300 million is growing at an annual rate of 5%. Shown here is a residential area in the Mumbai metropolitan area.
The major driver is continued productivity growth in Asia,
particularly in China and India, as living standards rise. Even without
completely converging with European or North American living standards,
Asia's might produce half of global GDP by 2050. This is a large shift
compared to the immediate post-cold war, when North America and Europe
combined produced half of global GDP. A 2011 study by the Asian Development Bank
stated that: "By nearly doubling its share of global gross domestic
product (GDP) to 52 percent by 2050, Asia would regain the dominant
economic position it held some 300 years ago, before the industrial
revolution.
The notion of the Asian Century assumes that Asian economies can
maintain their momentum for another 40 years, adapt to shifting global
economic and technological environment, and continually recreate
comparative advantages. In this scenario, according to 2011 modelling by
the Asian Development Bank Asia's GDP would increase from $17 trillion
in 2010 to $174 trillion in 2050, or half of global GDP. In the same
study, the Asian Development Bank
estimates that seven economies would lead Asia's powerhouse growth;
under the Asian Century scenario, the region would have no poor
countries, compared with eight in 2011.
Since China's economic reforms in the late 1970s (in farm privatization) and early 1990s (in most cities), the Chinese economy has enjoyed three decades of economic growth rates between 8 and 10%. The Indian economy
began a similar albeit slower ascent at the end of the 1980s and early
1990s, and has averaged around 4% during this period, though growing
slightly over 8% in 2005, and hitting 9.2% in 2006 before slowing to 6%
in 2009, then reaching 8.9% in 2010. A Goldman Sachs report suggests that the Indian economy could surpass the US economy by 2043, but India "will remain a low-income country for several decades, with per capita incomes well below its other BRIC peers. If India
fulfills its growth potential, it can become a motor for the world
economy, and a key contributor to generating spending growth".
Both of these developments involved policy of a degree of managed liberalisation of the economy as well as a turning outwards of the economy towards globalization
(both exports and attracting inward investment). The magnitude of this
liberalisation and globalisation is still subject to debate. They were
part of conscious decisions by key political leaders, especially in
India and the PRC. Also, the populations of the two countries offer a
potential market of over two and a quarter billion.
The development of the internal consumer market in these two countries
has been a major basis for economic development. This has enabled much
higher national growth rates for China and India in comparison to Japan,
the EU and even the US.
The international cost advantage on goods and services, based on
cheaper labor costs, has enabled these two countries to exert a global
competitive pressure.
The term Easternization has been used to refer to the spread of oriental (mainly Japanese) management techniques to the West.
The trend for greater Asian economic dominance has also been based on the extrapolations of recent historic economic trends. Goldman Sachs, in its BRIC
economic forecast, highlighted the trend towards mainland China
becoming the largest and India the second largest economies by the year
2050 in terms of GDP. The report also predicted the type of industry
that each nation would dominate, leading some to deem mainland China
'the industrial workshop of the world' and India 'one of the great
service societies'. As of 2009, the majority of the countries that are considered newly industrialized are in Asia.
By 2050, the East Asian and South Asian economies will have increased by over 20 times. With that comes a rise in Human Development Index,
the index used to measure the standards of living. India's HDI will
approach .8. East Asia's would approach .94 or fairly close to the
living standards of the western nations such as the EU and the US. This
would mean that it would be rather difficult to determine the difference
in wealth of the two. Because of East Asian and Indian populations,
their economy would be very large, and if current trends continue,
India's long-term population could approach double that of China. East
Asia could surpass all western nations' combined economies as early as
2030. South Asia could soon follow if the hundreds of millions in
poverty continue to be lifted into middle class.
The Gross National Cool
of Japan is soaring; Japanese cultural products, including TV shows,
are undoubtedly "in" among American audiences and have been for years.
About 2.3 million people studied the language worldwide in 2003:
900,000 South Koreans, 389,000 Chinese, 381,000 Australians, and 140,000
Americans study Japanese in lower and higher educational institutions.
Feng shui
books topped the nonfiction best-seller lists and feng shui schools
have multiplied. Major banks and multinational corporations employ feng
shui consultants to advise them on the organization of their offices.
There has been a readiness to supplement Eastern forms of medicine,
therapy, and massage and reject traditional Western medicine in favor of
techniques, such as acupressure and acupuncture. Practices such as moxibustion and shiatsu enjoy enormous popularity in the West.
So do virtually all the Eastern martial arts, such as kung fu, judo,
karate, aikido, taekwondo, kendo, jujitsu, tai chi, qigong, ba gua, and
xing yi, with their many associated schools and subforms.
Asian cuisine is quite popular in the West due to Asian
immigration and subsequent interest from non-Asians into Asian
ingredients and food. Even small towns in Britain, Canada, Scandinavia,
or the United States generally have at least one Indian or Chinese
restaurant.
Restaurants serving pan-Asian and Asian-inspired cuisine have also
opened across North America, Australia and other parts of the world. P.F. Chang's China Bistro and Pei Wei Asian Diner
which serve Asian and Asian-inspired food is found across the United
States and in regards for the former, in other parts of the world as
well. Asian Beer Cafe in Melbourne serves a selection of Asian content inspired by the cuisines of East Asia, Southeast Asia and India. Asian-inspired food products have also been launched including from noodle brand, Maggi. In Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and the UK an Asian-inspired range of noodles known as Maggi Fusian and a long running range in Germany and Austria known as, Maggi Magic Asia
includes a range of noodles inspired by food dishes found in China,
Japan, Korea, India, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and Thailand.
Yoga has gained popularity outside India and the rest of Asia and has entered mainstream culture in the Western world.
Though the use of English continues to spread, Asian languages
are becoming more popular to teach and study outside the continent. The
study of Chinese has recently gained greater attention in the United
States, owing to a growing belief in the economic advantages of knowing
it. It is being encouraged through the PRC's support of Confucius Institutes, which have opened in numerous nations to teach the Chinese language and culture.
Chinese has been rated as the second most used language on the
internet with nearly a quarter speaking Chinese, Japanese came as
fourth, and Korean as the tenth as of 2010. According to the CIA, China hosted the most users, Japan the third, India the fourth, and South Korea as the tenth as of 2008.
India has the largest film industry in the world, and Indian Film Industry produces more films than Nollywood and Hollywood.
In the early years of the twentieth century very few people were
vegetarians. The figure given for the United Kingdom during World War 2
was 100,000 out of a population of some 50 million – around 0.2 percent
of the total. By the 1990s the figure was estimated as between 4.2
percent and 11 percent of the British population and rising rapidly.
As Porritt and Winner observe, as recently as the 1960s and early '70s,
"being a vegetarian was considered distinctively odd," but "it is now
both respectable and common place."
The spread of the Korean wave, particularly K-pop and Korean dramas, outside Asia has led to the establishment of services to sustain this demand. Viki and DramaFever are examples of services providing Korean dramas to international viewers alongside other Asian content. SBS PopAsia
and Asian Pop Radio are two radio-related music services propagating
the proliferation of K-pop throughout Australia. Apart from K-pop, Asian
Pop Radio is also devoted to other Asian pop music originating from
Indonesia, Thailand, Japan, Malaysia and Singapore.
Similarly, SBS PopAsia focuses on other East Asian pop music from China
and Japan and to some extent Southeast Asian pop music in conjunction
with K-pop. The rising popularity of Asian-related content has resulted
in "SBS PopAsia" becoming a brand name for SBS content such as TV shows and news originating from Asia such as China, South Korea, Japan and India.
The growing awareness and popularity of Eastern culture and
philosophies in the West has led to Eastern cultural objects being sold
in these countries. The most well known being statues of the Buddha which range from statues sold for the garden to items sold for the house. Statues of Hindu gods such as Ganesha and East Asian iconography such as the Yin and yang are also sold in many stores in Western countries. Ishka a chain store
in Australia sells many Asian-origin content particularly from India.
The selling of Eastern cultural objects has however been met by
criticism, with some saying many who buy these items do not understand
the significance of them and that it is a form of Orientalism.
Emojis which originated in Japan and later spread to other parts of Asia have now become mainstream in Western societies. Eastern emoticons
particularly Japanese emoticons known as "kaomoji" have also become
popular in the West in conjunction with Western-origin emoticons,
resulting in a blend of the two.
A 2006 study showed North American instant messaging users rated the
importance of using emoticons much lower than Indian and East Asian
users.
However, by the 2010s, a 2013 questionnaire showed 74% of people in the
US responded positively to the question, “Do you use stickers or emoji
in messaging apps?” Characters used as emoticons that are used in certain Asian languages such as Kannada,
an Indian language, has spread to and become popular to use on Western
websites after initially being used on Japanese sites such as 2channel.
Asian-origin characters that have become popular to use on Western
websites include ಠ and ಥ (both of Kannada origin), ง (Thai origin), 益
(Mandarin origin), ㅅ (Korean origin) and ヮ and ツ (both of Japanese
origin), for example, which are all used with other symbols to create
emoticons.
Religion
As
recently as the 1950s, Crane Brinton, the distinguished historian of
ideas, could dismiss "modern groups that appeal to Eastern wisdom" as
being in effect "sectarian", "marginal", and "outside the main current
of Western thought and feeling".
Yet some Westerners have converted to Eastern religions or at least
have shown an interest in them. An example is Maharishi Mahesh Yogi,
whom the Beatles followed, first to Bangor in Wales in 1967, and
subsequently to India to study Transcendental Meditation in 1968. The
Dalai Lama, whose book The Art of Happiness became a best-seller, can
attract huge crowds in New York's Central Park or London's Wembley
Stadium.
Buddhism in some countries is the second biggest religion.
FWBO is one of the biggest and fastest-growing Buddhist organizations in the West.
Belief in reincarnation
has never been a part of official Christian or Jewish teaching, or at
least, in Christianity, it has been a formal heresy since it was
rejected by a narrow margin at the Second Council of Constantinople in
AD 553.
However nearly all polling in Western countries reveals significant
levels of this belief. "Puzzled People" undertaken in the 1940s
suggested that only 4 percent of people in Britain believed in
reincarnation. Geoffrey Gorer's survey, carried out a few years later,
arrived at 5 percent (1955, p. 262). However, this figure had reached 18
percent by 1967 (Gallup, 1993), only to increase further to a sizable
29 percent by 1979, a good six-fold increase on the earlier "Puzzled
People" figure. Eileen Barker has reported that around one-fifth of
Europeans now say that they believe in reincarnation.
Karma, which has its roots in ancient India and is a key concept in Hinduism, Buddhism and other Eastern religions, has entered the cultural conscience of many in the Western world. John Lennon's 1970 single, "Instant Karma!" is credited towards the popularization of karma in the Western world and is now a widely known and popular concept today giving rise to catchphrases and memes and figuring in other forms of Western popular culture.
The cargo of a container ship from East Asia being unloaded at the Jawaharlal Nehru Port in Navi Mumbai, India. Increasing economic integration of Asian countries has also brought them closer politically.
The global political position of China and to a lesser extent India
has risen in international bodies and amongst the world powers, leading
the United States and European Union to become more active in the process of engagement with these two countries. China is also a permanent member of the UN Security Council.
Although India is not a permanent member, it is possible that it will
become one or at the least gain a more influential position. Japan is also attempting to become a permanent member,
though the attempts of both are opposed by other Asian countries (i.e.
India's bid is opposed by Pakistan; Japan's bid is opposed by China,
South Korea, North Korea).
An Asian regional bloc may be further developed in the 21st century around ASEAN and other bodies on the basis of free trade agreements.
However, there is some political concern amongst the national
leaderships of different Asian countries about PRC's hegemonic ambitions
in the region. Another new organization, the East Asian Summit, could also possibly create an EU-like trade zone.
The Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov encouraged the idea of a triple alliance between Russia, the PRC and India first formulated by Indian strategist Madhav Das Nalapat in 1983, and supported the idea of a multipolar world. With the November 2006 visit of Hu Jintao to India, the idea seems to be gaining some momentum.
Human Capital
The
2007 World Bank Report on globalization notes that "rising education
levels were also important, boosting Asian growth on average by 0.75 to 2
percentage points."
The rapid expansion of human capital through quality education
throughout Asia has played a significant role in experiencing "higher
life expectancy and economic growth, and even to the quality of
institutions and whether societies will make the transition into modern
democracies".
3G (Global Growth Generators)
The
Asian countries with the most promising growth prospects are:
Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Mongolia, Pakistan,
Philippines, Sri Lanka and Vietnam. Developing Asia is projected to be
the fastest growing region until 2050, driven by population and income
growth: 9 of 11 3G countries came from Asia. Vietnam has the highest Global Growth Generators Index, China is second with 0.81, followed by India's 0.71.
Based on a report from the HSBC Trade Confidence Index (TCI) and
HSBC Trade Forecast, there are 4 countries with significant trade volume
growth – Egypt, India, Vietnam and Indonesia – with growth is projected
to reach at least 7.3 percent per year until 2025
Next Eleven
The Next Eleven (known also by the numeronymN-11) are the eleven countries – Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Turkey, South Korea, and Vietnam – identified by Goldman Sachsinvestment bank and economist Jim O'Neill in a research paper as having a high potential of becoming, along with the BRICs/BRICS, the world's largest economies in the 21st century. The bank chose these states,
all with promising outlooks for investment and future growth, on 12
December 2005. At the end of 2011, the four major countries (Mexico,
Indonesia, Nigeria and Turkey) also known as MINT,
made up 73 percent of all Next Eleven GDP. BRIC GDP was $13.5 trillion,
while MIKT GDP at almost 30 percent of that: $3.9 trillion.
Challenges to realizing the Asian Century
Asia's growth is not guaranteed. Its leaders will have to manage multiple risks and challenges, particularly:
Growing inequality within countries, in which wealth and
opportunities are confined to the upper echelons. This could undermine
social cohesion and stability.
Many Asian countries like India and Pakistan will not be able to
make the necessary investments in infrastructure, education and
government policies that would help them avoid the Middle Income Trap.
Intense competition for finite natural resources, such as land,
water, fuel or food, as newly affluent Asians aspire to higher standards
of living.
Global warming and climate change, which could threaten agricultural
production, coastal populations, and numerous major urban areas.
Rampant corruption, which plagues many Asian governments.
Aging population can have a direct influence on the continuous
economic development of Asian countries in terms of such as, but not
limited to, declining labor force, change of consumption patterns,
strain on public finances and so on.
Criticism
Despite
forecasts that predict the rising economic and political strength of
Asia, the idea of an Asian Century has faced criticism. This has
included the possibility that the continuing high rate of growth could
lead to revolution, economic slumps, and environmental problems, especially in mainland China. Some believe that the 21st century will be multipolar,
and no one country or continent will have such a concentration of
influence. However some proponents of the Asian Century respond that
since the two most populous countries (China and India) are in Asia then
it's only natural that they will play a bigger role in the world's
affairs than smaller countries and thus it won't be a multipolar
century. Finally, although the British Empire was a superpower during
the nineteenth century, controlling nearly a quarter of the world's area
and population, during the 20th century there was still a balance of
political power with the British and other European colonial empires from 1900 until 1945, and with the US and the Soviet Union from 1945 until 1991.
The Western world, with the West as defined in the book Clash of Civilizations (1996) by Samuel P. Huntington in dark blue. Latin America, depicted in teal, is either a part of the West or a separate civilization intertwined with the West
The Western world refers to various nations depending on the context, most often including at least part of Europe, Australasia and the Americas, with the status of Latin America being disputed by some authors. Also known as the West, there are many accepted definitions, all closely interrelated. The Western world is also known as the Occident (from the Latin word occidens, "sunset, West") in contrast to the Orient (from Latin word oriens, "rise, East") or Eastern world.
Historians, such as Carroll Quigley in "The Evolution of Civilizations", contend that Western civilization was born around AD 500, after the total collapse of the Western Roman Empire, leaving a vacuum for new ideas to flourish that were impossible in Classical societies. In either view, between the fall
of the Western Roman Empire and the Renaissance, the West (or those
regions that would later become the heartland of the culturally "western
sphere") experienced a period of first, considerable decline,
and then readaptation, reorientation and considerable renewed material,
technological and political development. This whole period of roughly a
millennium is known as the Middle Ages, its early part forming the "Dark Ages", designations that were created during the Renaissance and reflect the perspective on history, and the self-image, of the latter period.
The knowledge of the ancient Western world was partly preserved during this period due to the survival of the Eastern Roman Empire and the introduction of the Catholic Church; it was also greatly expanded by the Arab importation[16][17] of both the Ancient Greco-Roman and new technology through the Arabs from India and China to Europe.
Since the Renaissance, the West evolved beyond the influence of
the ancient Greeks and Romans and the Islamic world, due to the
successful Second Agricultural, Commercial, Scientific, and Industrial revolutions (propellers of modern banking concepts) peaked with the 18th century's Age of enlightenment, through the Age of exploration's
expansion of peoples of Western and Central European empires,
particularly the globe-spanning colonial empires of 18th and 19th
centuries. Numerous times, this expansion was accompanied by Catholicmissionaries, who attempted to proselytize Christianity.
Generally speaking, the current consensus would locate the West,
at the very least, in the cultures and peoples of Europe (at least the European Union member states, EFTA countries, European microstates), the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and parts of Latin America. There is debate among some as to whether Latin America as a whole is in a category of its own. Whether Russia should be categorized as "East" or "West" has been "an ongoing discussion" for centuries.
Western/European culture
The School of Athens depicts a fictional gathering of the most prominent thinkers of classical antiquity. Fresco by Raphael, 1510–1511
European cultural influences concerning artistic, musical,
folkloric, ethic and oral traditions, whose themes have been further
developed by Romanticism.
The concept of Western culture is generally linked to the classical definition of the Western world.
In this definition, Western culture is the set of literary, scientific,
political, artistic and philosophical principles that set it apart from
other civilizations. Much of this set of traditions and knowledge is
collected in the Western canon.
The term has come to apply to countries whose history is strongly
marked by European immigration or settlement, such as the Americas, and
Oceania, and is not restricted to Europe.
The geopolitical divisions in Europe that created a concept of East and West originated in the ancient tyrannical and imperialistic Graeco-Roman times. 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 Eastern and Southern Slavic peoples.
Map with 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 Age of Exploration as Europe spread its culture to other parts of the world. Roman Catholics were the first major religious group to immigrate to the New World,
as settlers in the colonies of Portugal and Spain (and later, France)
belonged to that faith. English and Dutch colonies, on the other hand,
tended to be more religiously diverse. Settlers to these colonies
included Anglicans, Dutch Calvinists, English Puritans and other nonconformists, English Catholics, Scottish Presbyterians, French Huguenots, German and Swedish Lutherans, as well as Quakers, Mennonites, Amish, and Moravians.
Ancient Greek-Hellenistic worlds (13th–1st centuries BC)
The then Hellenic division between the barbarians (term used by Ancient Greeks for all non-Greek-speaking people) and the Greeks contrasted in many societies the Greek-speaking culture of the Greek settlements around the Mediterranean to the surrounding non-Greek cultures. Herodotus considered the Persian Wars of the early 5th century BC a conflict of Europa versus Asia (which he considered all land north and east of the Sea of Marmara, respectively).
The terms "West" and "East" were not used by any Greek author
to describe that conflict. The anachronistic application of those terms
to that division entails a stark logical contradiction, given that, when
the term "West" appeared, it was used by Hellenistic Roman Catholic of Greek heritage but also of Latin-speaking culture, in opposition to the Greek Orthodox and their Greek-speaking culture.
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, including Christian Greek thought.
Ancient Roman world (509 BC–AD 476)
Ancient Rome (753 BC – AD 476) was a civilization that grew from a city-state founded on the Italian Peninsula
about the 8th century BC to a massive empire straddling the
Mediterranean Sea. In its 10-centuries expansion, Roman civilization
shifted from a small monarchy (753 – 509 BC), to a republic (509 – 27 BC), to an autocratic
empire (27 BC – AD 476). It came to dominate Western, Central and
Southeastern Europe and the entire area surrounding the Mediterranean
Sea through conquest using the Roman legions and then through cultural assimilation
by eventually giving Roman citizenship privileges to the whole
population. Nonetheless, despite its great legacy, a number of factors
led to the eventual decline and fall of the Roman Empire.
The Roman Republic
in 218 BC after having managed the conquest of most of the Italian
peninsula, on the eve of major successful and deadliest war with the Phoenicians. The Roman Empire in AD 117. During 350 years the Roman Republic turned into an Empire expanding up to twenty-five times its area.
The Roman Empire succeeded the approximately 500-year-old Roman Republic (c. 510 BC – 30 BC), which had been weakened by the conflict between Gaius Marius and Sulla and the civil war of Julius Caesar against Pompey and Marcus Brutus. During these struggles hundreds of senators were killed, and the Roman Senate had been refilled with loyalists of the First Triumvirate and later those of the Second Triumvirate. In 350 years, from the successful and deadliest war with the Phoenicians began in 218 BC to the rule of Emperor Hadrian
by AD 117, Ancient Rome expanded up to twenty-five times its area. The
same time passed before its fall in AD 476. Rome had expanded long
before the empire reached its zenith with the conquest of Dacia
in AD 106, under Emperor Trajan. During its territorial peak, the Roman
Empire controlled about 5 000 000 km² (2,300,000 sq.mi.) of land
surface and had a population of 100 million. From the time of Caesar
(100 – 44 BC) to the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, Rome dominated Southern Europe, the Mediterranean coast of Northern Africa and the Western Middle East, including the ancient trade routes
with population living outside. Ancient Rome has contributed greatly to
the development of law, war, art, literature, architecture, technology
and language in the Western world, and its history continues to have a major influence on the world today. Latin language has been the base from which Romance languages evolved and it has been the official language of the Catholic Church
and all Catholic religious ceremonies all over Europe until 1967, as
well as an or the official language of countries such as Poland
(9th–18th centuries).
Graphical map of post-AD 395 Roman Empire highlighting differences between western Roman Catholic and eastern Greek Orthodox parts, on the eve of the death of last emperor to rule on both the western and eastern halves. The concept of "East-West" originated in the cultural division between Christian Churches. Western and Eastern Roman Empires on the eve of Western collapse in September of AD 476.
In AD 395, a few decades before its Western collapse, the Roman Empire formally split into a Western and an Eastern
one, each with their own emperors, capitals, and governments, although
ostensibly they still belonged to one formal Empire. The Western Roman Empire provinces eventually were replaced by Northern EuropeanGermanic ruled kingdoms in the 5th century due to civil wars, corruption, and devastating Germanic invasions from such tribes as the Goths, the Franks and the Vandals by their late expansion throughout Europe. The three-day Visigoths's AD 410 sack of Rome who had been raiding Greece not long before, a shocking time for Graeco-Romans, was the first time after almost 800 years that Rome had fallen to a foreign enemy, and St. Jerome, living in Bethlehem at the time, wrote that "The City which had taken the whole world was itself taken." However, the Pope would be spearing slaughter and destruction by the followed sack of AD 455 lasted 14 days this time conducted by the Vandals, retaining Rome's ethernal spirit through the Holy See of Rome (the Latin Church) for centuries to come. 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.
The Roman Empire is where the idea of "the West" began to emerge. By Rome's central location at the heart of the Empire, "West" and "East" were terms used to denote provinces west and east of the capital itself. Therefore, Iberia (Portugal and Spain), Gaul (France), Mediterranean coast of North Africa (Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco) and Britannia were all part of the "West",
while 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, with the idea of formally dividing the Empire into true two halves: Eastern and Western.
The dissolution of the Western half (nominally in AD 476, but in
truth a long process that ended by AD 800) left only the Eastern Roman
Empire alive. The East continued to call themselves Eastern Romans even
after AD 610 – 800 when Greek had become official language of the empire
(was Latin) and the Pope's crowning of Charlemagne as Emperor of the Romans,
while the West began thinking in terms of Western Latins (those living
in the old Western Empire) and Eastern Greeks (those inside the Roman
remnant to the east).
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 Western Roman Empire" and beginning of the Early Middle Ages.
The Eastern Roman Empire surviving the fall of the Western, protected
Roman legal and cultural traditions, combining them with Greek and
Christian elements, for another thousand years. The name Byzantine
Empire was used after the Byzantine Empire ended, the inhabitants of the
Byzantine Empire continued to call themselves Romans for long time as
the term “Roman” was meant to signify all Christians.
Middle
Ages: Byzantine Empire (AD 395–1450), Holy Roman Empire (AD
800/962–1806), East-West Schism (AD 1054) and Protestant Reformation
(16th century)
As the Eastern (Orthodox)
and Western (firstly Catholic, then Protestant as well) churches spread
their influence, the line between Eastern and Western Christianity was
moving. Its movement was affected by the influence of the Byzantine
empire and the fluctuating power and influence of the Catholic church in
Rome. Beginning in the Middle Ages religious cultural hegemony slowly
waned in Europe generally. This process may have prompted the geographic
line of religious division to approximately follow a line of cultural divide.
The influential American conservative political scientist, adviser and academic Samuel P. Huntington
argued that this cultural division still existed during the Cold War as
the approximate Western boundary of those countries that were allied
with the Soviet Union.
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.
Map of the Byzantine Empire in AD 1180 on the eve of the Latin Fourth Crusade
In AD 800 under Charlemagne, the Early Medieval Franks established an empire that was recognized by the Pope in Rome as the Holy Roman Empire
(Latin Christian revival of the ancient Roman Empire, under perpetual
Germanic rule from AD 962) inehiriting ancient Roman Empire's prestige
but offending the Roman Emperor in Constantinople. The crowning of the
Emperor by the Pope led to the assumption that the highest power was the
papal hierarchy, quintessential Roman Empire's spiritual heritage authority, establishing then, until the Protestant Reformation, the civilization of West Christendom. The Latin Rite Catholic Church of western and central Europe split with the eastern, Greek-speaking Patriarchates three months after Pope's death in April 1054, during the Christian East–West Schism (also known as the Great Schism).
Following the 1054 Great Schism, both the Western Church and Eastern Church continued to consider themselves uniquely orthodox and catholic. Augustine
wrote in On True Religion: “Religion is to be sought... only among
those who are called Catholic or orthodox Christians, that is, guardians
of truth and followers of right.” Over time, the Western Church
gradually identified with the "Catholic" label, and people of Western
Europe gradually associated the "Orthodox" label with the Eastern Church
(although in some languages, the "Catholic" label is not necessarily
identified with the Western Church). This was in note of the fact that
both Catholic and Orthodox were in use as ecclesiastical adjectives as
early as the 2nd and 4th centuries respectively.
In 1071, the Byzantine army was defeated by the MuslimTurco-Persians of medieval Asia, resulting in the loss of most of Asia Minor. The situation was a serious threat to the future of the Eastern OrthodoxByzantine Empire. The Emperor sent a plea to 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 had no allegiance to the
Byzantine Emperor and established their own states in the conquered
regions, including the heart of the Byzantine Empire.
Meanwhile, the extent of both Christendoms expanded, as Germanic
peoples, Bohemia, Poland, Hungary, Scandinavia, Baltic peoples, British
Isles and the other non-Christian lands of the northwest were converted
by the Western Church, while Slavic peoples, Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia, Montenegro, Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, and Georgia were converted by the Eastern Church. 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.
Decline of the Byzantine Empire (13th-15th centuries) began by Latin ChristianFourth Crusade in AD 1202-04, considered to be one of the most prominent acts that solidified the schism between the Christian churches of GreekByzantine Rite and LatinRoman Rite. It had evolved from an anti-Western riot in 1182 broke out in Constantinople and targeting Latins, the extremely wealthy (after previous Crusades) Venetians in particular, into a successful attempt to maintain control over the coast of Catholic present-day Croatia (specifically the Dalmatia, region of interest to maritime
medieval Venetian Republic moneylenders and its rivals, such as the
Republic of Genoa) rebelling against the Venetian economical domination. What followed dealt an irrevocable blow to the already weakened Byzantine Empire with the Crusader army's sack of Constantinople in April 1204, capital of the Greek Christian-controlled Byzantine Empire, described as one of the most profitable and disgraceful sacks of a city in history which would be paving the way for Muslim conquests in present-day Turkey and Balkans in the coming centuries (only a handful of the Crusaders followed to the stated destination thereafter, the Holy Land). The geographical identity of the Balkans is historically known as a crossroads of cultures, a juncture between the Latin and Greek bodies of the Roman Empire, the destination of a massive influx of pagans (meaning "non-Christians") Bulgars and Slavs, an area where Orthodox and Catholic Christianity met, as well as the meeting point between Islam and Christianity. The Papal Inquisition is established in AD 1229 on a permanent basis, run largely by clergymen in Rome, and abolished six centuries later; before AD 1100, the Catholic Church suppressed
what they believed to be heresy, usually through a system of
ecclesiastical proscription or imprisonment, but without using torture,
and seldom resorting to executions.
Both these religious wars ended by the Peace of Westphalia (1648), which enshrined the concept of the nation-state, and the principle of absolute national sovereignty in international law. As European influence spread across the globe, these Westphalian principles, especially the concept of sovereign states, became central to international law and to the prevailing world order.
Colonial West: discovery of America, mercantilism and imperialism (15th–20th centuries)
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 and the Industrial Revolution, produced 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 was one of the most important
events in history.
Replica of the IberianSanta María, the Italianmerchantnavigator Christopher Columbus's flagship during his first voyage, a large carvel-built ocean-going ship, financed by Catholic Monarchs of Castile and Aragon. Colombus had estimated a travel distance of 2,400 miles (3,860 km), far too low.
Colonialisation by Western/European powers (and others) since 1492.
This process of influence (and imposition) began with the voyages of discovery, colonization, conquest, and exploitation of Portugal enforced as well by papal bulls in 1450s (by the fall of the Byzantine Empire), granting Portugal navigation, war and trade monopoly for any newly discovered lands, and competing Spain. It continued with the rise of the Dutch East India Company by Spanish discovery of the New World, and the creation and expansion of the English and French
colonial empires. Due to the reach of these empires, Western
institutions expanded throughout the world. 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, 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.
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. The most famous of these travelers was Venetian Marco Polo.
But these journeys had little permanent effect on the 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 OttomanTurks consolidated control over the eastern Mediterranean, closing off key overland trade routes.
The Portuguese
spearheaded the drive to find oceanic routes that would provide cheaper
and easier access to South and East Asian goods, by advancements in
maritime technology such as the caravel
ship introduced in the mid-1400s. This chartering of oceanic routes
between East and West began with the unprecedented voyages of Portuguese
and Spanish sea captains, and would eventually expand across the globe initiating European colonialism by Hispano-Italian 1492 exploring voyage by merchant, navigator, and colonizerChristopher Columbus. These voyages were influenced by medieval European adventurers after the European spice trade
with Asia, who had journeyed overland to the Far East contributing to
geographical knowledge of parts of the Asian continent upon their
return, and are of enormous significance in Western history as they marked the beginning of the European exploration, colonization and exploitation of the American continents and that of their native inhabitants. The European colonization of the Americas was the outset of the Atlantic slave trade
between the 1490s and the 1800s, which also contributed to the
development of African intertribal warfare and racist ideology. Until
the abolition of its slave trade in 1807, the British Empire alone (which had started colonial efforts in 1578,
almost a century after Portuguese and Spanish empires) was responsible
for the transportation of 3.5 million African slaves to the Americas, a
third of all slaves transported across the Atlantic. The Holy Roman Empire dissolved in 1806 by the French Revolutionary Wars; abolition of the Roman Catholic Inquisition followed.
In early-19th century the systematic urbanisation
process (migration from villages in search of jobs to places where
factories were set up) had began, and the concentration of labour into
factories led to the rise in the population of the towns particularly
(world population had been rising as well, it is estimated it reached
one billion for the first time in 1804), while the new philosophical movement later known as Romanticism originated after the previous Reason of the 1600s and Enlightenment of 1700s, that enabled 19th century Western world's sustained economic development.
Western world's major national buildings and churces by the colonial 15th–20th centuries.
Before the urbanisation and industrialization of the 1800s, demand for oriental goods such as porcelain, silk, spices and tea
remained the driving force behind European imperialism in Asia, and
(with the important exception of British East India Company rule in
India) the European stake in Asia remained confined largely to trading
stations and strategic outposts necessary to protect trade. Industrialisation,
however, dramatically increased European demand for Asian raw
materials; and the severe Long Depression of the 1870s provoked a
scramble for new markets for European industrial products and financial
services in Africa, the Americas, Eastern Europe, and especially in Asia
(Western powers exploited their advantages in China for example by the Opium Wars), and resulted in so-called "New Imperialism", which saw a shift in focus between trade, indirect rule and formal colonial control of vast overseas territories ruled as political extensions of their mother countries. The later years of the 19th century saw the transition from "informal imperialism" (hegemony) by military influence and economic dominance, to direct rule (a revival of colonial imperialism) in the African continent and Middle East.
Between the 1870s and 1914 (so-called Beautiful Era, socioeconomically optimistic and innovative decades by the Second Industrial Revolution),
the established colonial powers in Asia (United Kingdom, France,
Netherlands) added to their empires also vast expanses of territory in
the Indian Subcontinent and South East Asia. Japan was involved primarily in the so-called Meiji period
(1868–1912), though earlier contact with the Portuguese, the Spaniards
and the Dutch were also present in the recognition of European nations
as strategically important to the Japanese Empire.
The traditional Japanese society was virtually overturned into an
industrial and militarist power like Western countries such as the
United Kingdom, the French Third Republic, and similarly to the German Empire, the Russian Empire, and the United States, following the Spanish–American War in 1898, quickly emerged as new imperial powers in East Asia and in the Pacific Ocean area.
Though the overt colonial era has passed, Western nations, as
comparatively rich, well-armed, and culturally powerful states, still
wielded a large degree of influence throughout the world.
Cold War context (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 presently independent Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania) and Warsaw Pact countries like Poland, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, East Germany (now united with Germany), Czechoslovakia (now split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia).
The Third World consisted of countries, many of which were unaligned with either, and important members included India, Yugoslavia, Finland (Finlandization) and Switzerland (Swiss Neutrality); some include the People's Republic of China,
though this is disputed, since the People's Republic of China, as
communist, had friendly relations — at certain times — with the Soviet
bloc, and had a significant degree of importance in global geopolitics.
Some Third World countries aligned themselves with either the US-led
West or the Soviet-led Eastern bloc.
A number of countries did not fit comfortably into this neat
definition of partition, including Switzerland, Sweden, Austria, and Ireland, which chose to be neutral. Finland was under the Soviet Union's military sphere of influence (see FCMA treaty)
but remained neutral and was not communist, nor was it a member of the
Warsaw Pact or Comecon but a member of the EFTA since 1986, and was west
of the Iron Curtain.
In 1955, when Austria again became a fully independent republic, it did
so under the condition that it remain neutral, but as a country to the
west of the Iron Curtain, it was in the United States' sphere of
influence. Spain did not join the NATO until 1982, towards the end of
the Cold War and after the death of the authoritarian Franco.
During the Cold War II, a new definition emerged. More specifically, Cold War II, also known as the Second Cold War, New Cold War, Cold War Redux, Cold War 2.0, and Colder War, refers to the tensions, hostilities, and political rivalry that intensified dramatically in 2014 between the Russian Federation on the one hand, and the United States, European Union, NATO and some other countries on the other hand. Tensions escalated in 2014 after Russia's annexation of Crimea, military intervention in Ukraine, and the 2015 Russian military intervention in the Syrian Civil War. By August 2014, both sides had implemented economic, financial, and
diplomatic sanctions upon each other: virtually all Western countries,
led by the US and EU, imposed restrictive measures on Russia; the latter reciprocally introduced retaliatory measures.
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 worlds are sometimes separately considered "akin" to the West.
Many anthropologists, sociologists and historians oppose "the West and the Rest" in a categorical manner.
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.
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.
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, 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 the people state that religion is important,
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, low level of
religiosity is common as a result of experiencing processes of
secularization similar to European ones. The official religions
of the United Kingdom and some Nordic countries are forms of
Christianity, even though the majority of European countries have no
official religion. Despite this, Christianity, in its different forms,
remains the largest faith in most Western countries.
Christianity remains the dominant religion in the Western world, where 70% are Christians. 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 77.4% in North America) described themselves as Christians.
Modern political definition
Countries of the Western world are generally considered to
share certain fundamental political ideologies, including those of
liberal democracy, the rule of law, human rights and gender equality
(although there are notable exceptions, especially in foreign policy).
All of these are prerequisites, for example, for a state to become a
full member of the European Union and therefore from modern political point of view all European Union member states from the Western, Central and Southeastern Europe are considered part of the Western world.
Though the Cold War has ended, and some members of the former Eastern Bloc
make a general movement towards liberal democracy and other beliefs
held in common by traditionally Western states, most of the former Soviet republics (except Baltic states)
are not considered Western because of the small presence of social and
political reform, as well as the significant cultural, economic and
political differences to what is known today as described by the term "The West": United States of America and Canada, European Union and European Free Trade Association member states, Israel, Australia and New Zealand.
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 Western (e.g. Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, Macao, Qatar, Israel), and therefore left out when "Western world" is used to denote developed countries. Privatization policies (involving government enterprises and public services) and multinational corporations
are often considered a visible sign of Western nations's economic
presence, especially in Third World countries, and represent common
institutional environment for powerful politicians, enterprises, trade
unions and firms, bankers and thinkers of the Western world.
Countries by income group
The existence of "The North" implies the existence of "The South", and the socio-economic divide between North and South. 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 the terms "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,
although, as most countries are located in the northern hemisphere in
general, some have considered this distinction equally unhelpful. Modern
financial services and technologies are largely developed by Western nations: Bitcoin, most known digital currency is subject to skepticism in the Eastern world whereas Western nations are more open to it.
The 35 high-income countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which include: Australia, Canada, Iceland, Israel, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, South Korea, Switzerland, the United States and the countries of the EU (except for: Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Malta and Romania), are generally included in what used to be called developed world, although the OECD includes countries, namely, Chile, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Mexico, Slovenia and Turkey, that are not yet fully industrial countries, but newly industrialised countries. Although Andorra, Cyprus, Hong Kong, Macau, Malta, Liechtenstein, Monaco, San Marino, Singapore, Taiwan and Vatican City, are not members of the OECD, they might also be regarded as developed countries, because of their high living standards, high per capita incomes, and their social, economic and political structure are quite similar to those of the high income OECD countries.
Latin America and the Orthodox world
Huntington's map of major civilizations. What constitutes Western civilization in post-Cold War
world is coloured dark blue. He also dwells that Latin America (shown
in purple) is either a part of the West or a separate civilization akin
to the West. Turkey, Russia, and Mexico are considered "torn countries" that are either already part of the West or in the process of joining the West.
Controversial American conservative political scientist, adviser and academic Samuel P. Huntington considered Latin America and the Orthodox world somewhat distinct from his conception of the Western world for his geopolitical analysis. However he further dwells on the subject by stating that while in general researchers consider that the West
has three main components, European, North America 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
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 and America did not have at all. Both Europe and North
America felt the effects of the Reformation and combined Catholic and
Protestant culture. Historically, Latin America has been only Catholic,
although this may be changing due to the influx of Protestants into the
region. Some regions in Latin America incorporates indigenous cultures,
which did not exist in Europe, and 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, Brazil, Chile and Uruguay on the other. However, he does
mention that the modus operandi of the Catholic Church was to
incorporate native elements of pagan European cultures into the general
dogma of Catholicism, and the Native American elements could be
perceived in the same way.
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. 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 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, the second option is the most appropriate and
useful; he also mentions that the underlying conflict of Latin American
belonging to the West must be eventually addressed in order to develop a
cohesive Latin American identity.
Huntington's view has, however, been contested on a number of occasions as biased.
Definition of the West by Norway
The official statistics bureau of Norway, Statistics Norway, has used a definition of the "West" as "EU28/EEA,
United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand", and a definition of
the "Rest of the World" as "Asia, Africa, Latin America, Oceania
excluding Australia and New Zealand, and Europe outside EU/EEA", for the
purpose of immigration statistics.
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.
Palestinian-American literary critic Edward Said uses the term occident in his discussion of orientalism. According to his binary,
the West, or Occident, created a romanticized vision of the East, or
Orient to justify colonial and imperialist intentions. This
Occident-Orient binary focuses on the Western vision of the East instead
of any truths about the East. His theories are rooted in Hegel's Master-slave dialectic:
The Occident would not exist without the Orient and vice versa.
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.
The term "West" may also be used pejoratively
by certain tendencies and especially critical of the influence of the
traditional West, due to the history of most of the members of the
traditional West being previously involved, at one time or another, in
outright imperialism
and colonialism. Some of these critics also claim that the traditional
West has continued to engage in what might be viewed as modern
implementations of imperialism and colonialism, such as neoliberalism
and globalization. (It should be noted that many Westerners who
subscribe to a positive view of the traditional West are also very
critical of neoliberalism and globalization, for their allegedly
negative effects on both the developed and developing world.)
Allegedly, definitions of the term "Western world" that some may consider "ethnocentric" others consider "constructed" around one or another Western culture. The British writer Rudyard Kipling wrote about this contrast: East is East and West is West and never the twain shall meet,
expressing his belief that somebody from the West "can never understand
the Asian cultures" as the latter "differ too much" from the Western
cultures. Some may view this alleged incompatibility as a precursor to
Huntington's "clash of civilizations" theory.
From a very different perspective, it has also been argued that the
idea of the West is, in part, a non-Western invention, deployed in the
non-West to shape and define non-Western pathways through or against
modernity.
Views on torn countries
According to Samuel P. Huntington, Turkey, whose political leadership has systematically tried to Westernize the predominantly Muslim
country with only 3% of its territory within Europe since the 1920s, is
his chief example of a "torn country" that is attempting to join
Western civilization. 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, joined NATO, and
are seeking to join the European Union since the 1960s with very slow progress.
Mexico and Russia are also considered to be torn by Huntington. He also
gives the example of Australia as a country torn between its Western
civilizational heritage and its growing economic engagement with Asia.
Russia, Japan, and India also, are what Huntington terms 'swing
civilizations'.
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