The Western civilization , or the western world , indicates the cultural surface resulting from the Greek civilization (Pensée, Science), from the Roman civilization (right) and from the culture Judéo-chrétien (Morale).
See also: Amorce=Pour geographical and geopolitical vision of the “Occident”, to see, Occident
Originally definite like the cultural zone of Western Europe, the contemporary uses of the term refers today to the companies of the Europe and their descendants genealogical, cultural, linguistic, philosophical which include the countries from which the majority culture is derived from the European culture, such as the Canada and the the United States, the Australia and the New Zealand, sometimes the South Africa and countries of the South America.
These geographical areas are recut with the spheres of expansion of the religions Protesting E and Catholique. Western civilization is also the cradle of the Laïcité. The orthodoxe countries of religion are not included in this definition.
Etymology
- the use of the term of Western civilization goes back to the Western Empire of Charlemagne (see Occident).
- the Mediterranean basin is regarded as the cradle of this Civilization.
Geographical space
Western civilization proceeds, via its extension out of its borders of origins, of:- the foundation of the countries of Europe, diffused from the world by the Colonization, some reaching the size of a colonial Empire;
- the construction of the the United States of America and of the Canada.
Historical divisions
The Western thought is often considered to be worked by the culture greco-Roman and the culture Judeo-Christian, the Rebirth, the Age of Enlightenment and colonialism. Consequently the term Western Pensée does not make it possible to define two currents distinct from traditions and values: on the one hand, the moral tradition and religious values; and in addition, of the values layman, with often a rationalist tradition anticlerical.
Hellenic
Hellenic division between Juif S and Greek dissociated in many companies, the culture hellénophone of the Greek colonies around the the Mediterranean of the surrounding not-Greek cultures. Hérodote regarded the medic wars of fifth century BC as a conflict between the Europe and the Asia. The Western term and Was not used by the Greek authors to describe this conflict.
Roman
Although the Mediterranean basin was unified by the Romans, there was a distinction between on the one hand, the Eastern provinces, where the Greek was the Lingua franca , and on the other hand, Western provinces, where Latin was generally spoken. Into 292, the Dioclétien emperor divided the empire into two areas, each one managed by a Auguste and a César. Starting from Ve century, the Roman capacity crumbled in Western half, but remained in its part Is, with a new Roman capital inaugurated into 330 with Constantinople by the Roman Emperor Constantin I and Christendom was established as a religion official of the empire.
Christian woman
Under the reign of Charlemagne, the Francs established an empire which was recognized like the Roman Holy roman Empire by the patriarch of Rome, which offended the Roman Emperor Constantinople. The crowning of the Emperor by the Pape led to the assumption that the highest capacity was the papal hierarchy, establishing, until the Protestant Réforme, the civilization of Western Christendom. The Christian Church of the Latin rite of the Central and Western Europe directed by the patriarch of Rome dissociated from the Eastern patriarchate héllènophone during the Great Schism. At the same time, each one of them knows an expansion, in Scandinavia, Germany, in the British Isles, and in other territories not-Christians of the North-West were converted by the Church of occident, while the Russia and the majority of Eastern Europe were converted by the Eastern Church.
Colonial West
The voyage of exploration, conquest and exploitation of Spanish and Portuguese and the assenssion of the British, Dutch, and French empires saw the expansion of the institutions of the western world around the world. The dissolution of Western Christendom and the legal establishment in the international law of principle of souverainté national, culminated during the French revolution with the creation of the State nation. Coupled with the industrial revolution in Great Britain, these political institutions and economic managed to influence the majority of the nations of the world of today.
Western civilization during the Cold war
Countries concerned
During the Cold war, a new definition emerged. The Earth was divided into three “worlds”. The first world, the “free world”, was composed of the member of NATO and another aligned or neutral country. The second world was the Eastern bloc in the sphere of influence of the Soviet Union and the countries of the Warsaw Pact; generally the Yugoslavia and the Popular republic of China were included there because subjected to the communist ideology, although not depending directly on Moscow. The Tiers-monde consisted of non-aligned countries (the India, of the African countries,…).
There was a certain number of countries which did not correspond exactly to this definition of this division, such as Switzerland, Sweden, and the Irish Republic, which chose to be neutral. Finland was under the sphere of influence of the Soviet Union but remained neutral, was neither communist, nor member of the Warsaw Pact (or the Comecon). In 1955, when Austria became again a fully independent republic, it made it under the condition that it remained neutral, but as country of the West of the iron curtain, it was in the sphere of influence of the United States.
The Turkey was member of NATO but she was seldom regarded as being first world or world Western. Spain joined NATO only in 1982, towards the end of the cold war and after the death of the authoritative Franco general. The western world became synonymous with the first world but it included/understood the exceptions of Western Europe mentioned above in this paragraph and excluded Turkey.
Cultural surface
August 1stIn opposition to the communist values, Western civilization endeavoured to put forward the values of freedom, of tolerance, with the the United States of belief as a God (see for example In God We Trust).
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