Western culture, sometimes equated with Western
civilization, Occidental culture, the Western
world, Western society, and European civilization,
is a term used very broadly to refer to a
heritage of social norms, ethical values,
traditional customs, belief systems, political
systems and specific artifacts and technologies
that have some origin or association with
Europe. The term also applies beyond Europe
to countries and cultures whose histories
are strongly connected to Europe by immigration,
colonization, or influence. For example, Western
culture includes countries in the Americas
and Australasia, whose language and demographic
ethnicity majorities are European. The development
of western culture has been strongly influenced
by Christianity.Western culture is characterized
by a host of artistic, philosophic, literary
and legal themes and traditions; the heritage
of various European peoples. Christianity,
including the Roman Catholic Church, Protestantism
and the Orthodox Church,, has also played
a prominent role in the shaping of Western
civilization since at least the 4th century
as did Judaism (particularly Hellenistic Judaism
and Jewish Christianity). Before the Cold
War era, the traditional Western viewpoint
identified Western civilization with the Western
Christian (Catholic-Protestant) countries
and culture.A cornerstone of Western thought,
beginning in ancient Greece and continuing
through the Middle Ages and Renaissance, is
the idea of rationalism in various spheres
of life, especially religion, developed by
Hellenistic philosophy, scholasticism and
humanism. The Catholic Church was for centuries
at the center of the development of the values,
ideas, science, laws and institutions which
constitute Western civilization. Empiricism
later gave rise to the scientific method during
the scientific revolution and the Enlightenment.
Ancient Greece is considered the birthplace
of many elements of Western culture, with
the world's first democratic system of government
and major advances in philosophy, science
and mathematics. Greece was followed by Rome,
which made key contributions in law, government,
engineering and political organization. Western
culture continued to develop with the Christianisation
of Europe during the Middle Ages and the reform
and modernization triggered by the Renaissance.
The Church preserved the intellectual developments
of classical antiquity and is the reason many
of them are still known today. Medieval Christianity
created the modern university, the hospital
system, scientific economics, natural law
(which would later influence the creation
of international law) and numerous other innovations
across all intellectual fields. Christianity
played a role in ending practices common among
pagan societies, such as human sacrifice,
slavery, infanticide and polygamy. The globalization
by successive European colonial empires spread
European ways of life and European educational
methods around the world between the 16th
and 20th centuries. European culture developed
with a complex range of philosophy, medieval
scholasticism and mysticism and Christian
and secular humanism. Rational thinking developed
through a long age of change and formation,
with the experiments of the Enlightenment
and breakthroughs in the sciences. Tendencies
that have come to define modern Western societies
include the concept of political pluralism,
individualism, prominent subcultures or countercultures
(such as New Age movements) and increasing
cultural syncretism resulting from globalization
and human migration.
== Terminology ==
The West as a geographical area is unclear
and undefined. More often a country's ideology
is what will be used to categorize it as a
Western society. There is some disagreement
about what nations should or should not be
included in the category and at what times.
Many parts of the Eastern Roman Empire are
considered Western today but were Eastern
in the past. Geographically, the "West" of
today would include Europe (especially the
European Union countries) together with extra-European
territories belonging to the English-speaking
world, the Hispanidad, the Lusosphere; and
the Francophonie in the wider context. Since
the context is highly biased and context-dependent,
there is no agreed definition what the "West"
is.
It is difficult to determine which individuals
fit into which category and the East–West
contrast is sometimes criticized as relativistic
and arbitrary. Globalism has spread Western
ideas so widely that almost all modern cultures
are, to some extent, influenced by aspects
of Western culture. Stereotyped views of "the
West" have been labeled Occidentalism, paralleling
Orientalism—the term for the 19th-century
stereotyped views of "the East".
As Europe discovered the wider world, old
concepts adapted. The area that had formerly
been considered the Orient ("the East") became
the Near East as the interests of the European
powers interfered with Meiji Japan and Qing
China for the first time in the 19th century.
Thus the Sino-Japanese War in 1894–1895
occurred in the Far East while the troubles
surrounding the decline of the Ottoman Empire
simultaneously occurred in the Near East.
The term Middle East in the mid-19th century
included the territory east of the Ottoman
Empire, but West of China—Greater Persia
and Greater India—is now used synonymously
with "Near East" in most languages.
== History ==
The earliest civilizations which influenced
the development of western culture were those
of Mesopotamia; the area of the Tigris–Euphrates
river system, largely corresponding to modern-day
Iraq, northeastern Syria, southeastern Turkey
and southwestern Iran: the cradle of civilization.The
Greeks contrasted themselves to their Eastern
neighbors, such as the Trojans in Iliad, setting
an example for later contrasts between east
and west. In the Middle Ages, the Near East
provided a contrast to the West, though it
had been Hellenized since the time of Alexander
the Great.
Concepts of what is the West arose out of
legacies of the Western Roman Empire and the
Eastern Roman Empire. Later, ideas of the
west were formed by the concepts of Latin
Christendom and the Holy Roman Empire. What
we think of as Western thought today originates
primarily from Greco-Roman and Germanic influences,
and includes the ideals of the Middle Ages,
the Renaissance, and the Enlightenment, as
well as Christian culture.
=== Classical West ===
In Homeric literature, and right up until
the time of Alexander the Great, for example
in the accounts of the Persian Wars of Greeks
against Persians by Herodotus, we see the
paradigm of a contrast between the West and
East.
Nevertheless, the Greeks felt they were the
most civilized and saw themselves (in the
formulation of Aristotle) as something between
the wild barbarians of most of Europe and
the soft, slavish Middle-Easterners. Ancient
Greek science, philosophy, democracy, architecture,
literature, and art provided a foundation
embraced and built upon by the Roman Empire
as it swept up Europe, including the Hellenic
World in its conquests in the 1st century
BCE. In the meantime, however, Greece, under
Alexander, had become a capital of the East,
and part of an empire. The Celts also created
some significant literature in the ancient
world whenever they were given the opportunity
(an example being the poet Caecilius Statius).
They also developed a large amount of scientific
knowledge themselves, as seen in their Coligny
Calendar.
For about five hundred years, the Roman Empire
maintained the Greek East and consolidated
a Latin West, but an East-West division remained,
reflected in many cultural norms of the two
areas, including language. Although Rome,
like Greece, was no longer democratic, the
idea of democracy remained a part of the education
of citizens.Eventually, the empire became
increasingly split into a Western and Eastern
part, reviving old ideas of a contrast between
an advanced East, and a rugged West. In the
Roman world one could speak of three main
directions: North (Celtic tribal states and
Parthians), the East (lux ex oriente), and
finally South, which implied danger, historically
via the Punic Wars (Quid novi ex Africa?).
From the time of Alexander the Great (the
Hellenistic period) Greek civilization came
in contact with Jewish civilization. Christianity
would eventually emerge from the syncretism
of Hellenic culture, Roman culture, and Second
Temple Judaism, gradually spreading across
the Roman Empire and eclipsing its antecedents
and influences. The rise of Christianity reshaped
much of the Graeco-Roman tradition and culture;
the Christianised culture would be the basis
for the development of Western civilization
after the fall of Rome (which resulted from
increasing pressure from barbarians outside
Roman culture). Roman culture also mixed with
Celtic, Germanic and Slavic cultures, which
slowly became integrated into Western culture:
starting mainly with their acceptance of Christianity.
=== Medieval West ===
The Medieval West was at its broadest the
same as Christendom, including both the "Latin"
West, also called "Frankish" during Charlemagne's
reign and the Orthodox Eastern part, where
Greek remained the language of empire.
After the fall of Rome, much of Greco-Roman
art, literature, science and even technology
were all but lost in the western part of the
old empire. However, this would become the
centre of a new West. Europe fell into political
anarchy, with many warring kingdoms and principalities.
Under the Frankish kings, it eventually, and
partially, reunified, and the anarchy evolved
into feudalism.
Much of the basis of the post-Roman cultural
world had been set before the fall of the
Empire, mainly through the integration and
reshaping of Roman ideas through Christian
thought. The Greek and Roman paganism had
been completely replaced by Christianity around
the 4th and 5th centuries, since it became
the official State religion following the
baptism of emperor Constantine I. Orthodox
Christian Christianity and the Nicene Creed
served as a unifying force in Christian parts
of Europe, and in some respects replaced or
competed with the secular authorities. The
Jewish Christian tradition out of which it
had emerged was all but extinguished, and
antisemitism became increasingly entrenched
or even integral to Christendom. Art and literature,
law, education, and politics were preserved
in the teachings of the Church, in an environment
that, otherwise, would have probably seen
their loss. The Church founded many cathedrals,
universities, monasteries and seminaries,
some of which continue to exist today.
Medieval Christianity created the first modern
universities. The Catholic Church established
a hospital system in Medieval Europe that
vastly improved upon the Roman valetudinaria
and Greek healing temples. These hospitals
were established to cater to "particular social
groups marginalized by poverty, sickness,
and age," according to historian of hospitals,
Guenter Risse. Christianity played a role
in ending practices common among pagan societies,
such as human sacrifice, slavery, infanticide
and polygamy. Francisco de Vitoria, a disciple
of Thomas Aquinas and a Catholic thinker who
studied the issue regarding the human rights
of colonized natives, is recognized by the
United Nations as a father of international
law, and now also by historians of economics
and democracy as a leading light for the West's
democracy and rapid economic development.
Joseph Schumpeter, an economist of the twentieth
century, referring to the Scholastics, wrote,
"it is they who come nearer than does any
other group to having been the 'founders'
of scientific economics." Other economists
and historians, such as Raymond de Roover,
Marjorie Grice-Hutchinson, and Alejandro Chafuen,
have also made similar statements. Historian
Paul Legutko of Stanford University said the
Catholic Church is "at the center of the development
of the values, ideas, science, laws, and institutions
which constitute what we call Western civilization."In
a broader sense, the Middle Ages, with its
fertile encounter between Greek philosophical
reasoning and Levantine monotheism was not
confined to the West but also stretched into
the old East. The philosophy and science of
Classical Greece was largely forgotten in
Europe after the collapse of the Western Roman
Empire, other than in isolated monastic enclaves
(notably in Ireland, which had become Christian
but was never conquered by Rome). The learning
of Classical Antiquity was better preserved
in the Byzantine Eastern Roman Empire. Justinian's
Corpus Juris Civilis Roman civil law code
was preserved in the East and Constantinople
maintained trade and intermittent political
control over outposts such as Venice in the
West for centuries. Classical Greek learning
was also subsumed, preserved and elaborated
in the rising Eastern world, which gradually
supplanted Roman-Byzantine control as a dominant
cultural-political force. Thus, much of the
learning of classical antiquity was slowly
reintroduced to European civilization in the
centuries following the collapse of the Western
Roman Empire.
The rediscovery of the Justinian Code in Western
Europe early in the 10th century rekindled
a passion for the discipline of law, which
crossed many of the re-forming boundaries
between East and West. In the Catholic or
Frankish west, Roman law became the foundation
on which all legal concepts and systems were
based. Its influence is found in all Western
legal systems, although in different manners
and to different extents. The study of canon
law, the legal system of the Catholic Church,
fused with that of Roman law to form the basis
of the refounding of Western legal scholarship.
During the Reformation and Enlightenment,
the ideas of civil rights, equality before
the law, procedural justice, and democracy
as the ideal form of society began to be institutionalized
as principles forming the basis of modern
Western culture, particularly in Protestant
regions.
In the 14th century, starting from Italy and
then spreading throughout Europe, there was
a massive artistic, architectural, scientific
and philosophical revival, as a result of
the Christian revival of Greek philosophy,
and the long Christian medieval tradition
that established the use of reason as one
of the most important of human activities.
This period is commonly referred to as the
Renaissance. In the following century, this
process was further enhanced by an exodus
of Greek Christian priests and scholars to
Italian cities such as Venice after the end
of the Byzantine Empire with the fall of Constantinople.
From Late Antiquity, through the Middle Ages,
and onwards, while Eastern Europe was shaped
by the Orthodox Church, Southern and Central
Europe were increasingly stabilized by the
Catholic Church which, as Roman imperial governance
faded from view, was the only consistent force
in Western Europe. In 1054 came the so-called
Great Schism that, following the Greek East
and Latin West divide, separated Europe into
religious and cultural regions present to
this day. Until the Age of Enlightenment,
Christian culture took over as the predominant
force in Western civilization, guiding the
course of philosophy, art, and science for
many years. Movements in art and philosophy,
such as the Humanist movement of the Renaissance
and the Scholastic movement of the High Middle
Ages, were motivated by a drive to connect
Catholicism with Greek and Arab thought imported
by Christian pilgrims. However, due to the
division in Western Christianity caused by
the Protestant Reformation and the Enlightenment,
religious influence—especially the temporal
power of the Pope—began to wane.From the
late 15th century to the 17th century, Western
culture began to spread to other parts of
the world through explorers and missionaries
during the Age of Discovery, and by imperialists
from the 17th century to the early 20th century.
During the Great Divergence, a term coined
by Samuel Huntington the Western world overcame
pre-modern growth constraints and emerged
during the 19th century as the most powerful
and wealthy world civilization of the time,
eclipsing Qing China, Mughal India, Tokugawa
Japan, and the Ottoman Empire. The process
was accompanied and reinforced by the Age
of Discovery and continued into the modern
period. Scholars have proposed a wide variety
of theories to explain why the Great Divergence
happened, including lack of government intervention,
geography, colonialism, and customary traditions.
=== Modern era ===
Coming into the modern era, the historical
understanding of the East-West contrast—as
the opposition of Christendom to its geographical
neighbors—began to weaken. As religion became
less important, and Europeans came into increasing
contact with far away peoples, the old concept
of Western culture began a slow evolution
towards what it is today. The Age of Discovery
faded into the Age of Enlightenment of the
18th century, during which cultural and intellectual
forces in Western Europe emphasized reason,
analysis, and individualism rather than traditional
lines of authority. It challenged the authority
of institutions that were deeply rooted in
society, such as the Catholic Church; there
was much talk of ways to reform society with
toleration, science and skepticism.
Philosophers of the Enlightenment included
Francis Bacon, René Descartes, John Locke,
Baruch Spinoza, Voltaire (1694–1778), David
Hume, and Immanuel Kant. influenced society
by publishing widely read works. Upon learning
about enlightened views, some rulers met with
intellectuals and tried to apply their reforms,
such as allowing for toleration, or accepting
multiple religions, in what became known as
enlightened absolutism. New ideas and beliefs
spread around Europe and were fostered by
an increase in literacy due to a departure
from solely religious texts. Publications
include Encyclopédie (1751–72) that was
edited by Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d'Alembert.
The Dictionnaire philosophique (Philosophical
Dictionary, 1764) and Letters on the English
(1733) written by Voltaire spread the ideals
of the Enlightenment.
Coinciding with the Age of Enlightenment was
the scientific revolution, spearheaded by
Newton. This included the emergence of modern
science, during which developments in mathematics,
physics, astronomy, biology (including human
anatomy) and chemistry transformed views of
society and nature. While its dates are disputed,
the publication in 1543 of Nicolaus Copernicus's
De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the
Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres) is often
cited as marking the beginning of the scientific
revolution, and its completion is attributed
to the "grand synthesis" of Newton's 1687
Principia.
The Industrial Revolution was the transition
to new manufacturing processes in the period
from about 1760 to sometime between 1820 and
1840. This included going from hand production
methods to machines, new chemical manufacturing
and iron production processes, improved efficiency
of water power, the increasing use of steam
power, and the development of machine tools.
These transitions began in Great Britain,
and spread to Western Europe and North America
within a few decades.
The Industrial Revolution marks a major turning
point in history; almost every aspect of daily
life was influenced in some way. In particular,
average income and population began to exhibit
unprecedented sustained growth. Some economists
say that the major impact of the Industrial
Revolution was that the standard of living
for the general population began to increase
consistently for the first time in history,
although others have said that it did not
begin to meaningfully improve until the late
19th and 20th centuries. The precise start
and end of the Industrial Revolution is still
debated among historians, as is the pace of
economic and social changes. GDP per capita
was broadly stable before the Industrial Revolution
and the emergence of the modern capitalist
economy, while the Industrial Revolution began
an era of per-capita economic growth in capitalist
economies. Economic historians are in agreement
that the onset of the Industrial Revolution
is the most important event in the history
of humanity since the domestication of animals,
plants and fire.
The First Industrial Revolution evolved into
the Second Industrial Revolution in the transition
years between 1840 and 1870, when technological
and economic progress continued with the increasing
adoption of steam transport (steam-powered
railways, boats, and ships), the large-scale
manufacture of machine tools and the increasing
use of machinery in steam-powered factories.
== Arts and humanities ==
Some cultural and artistic modalities are
characteristically Western in origin and form.
While dance, music, visual art, story-telling,
and architecture are human universals, they
are expressed in the West in certain characteristic
ways.
In Western dance, music, plays and other arts,
the performers are only very infrequently
masked. There are essentially no taboos against
depicting a god, or other religious figures,
in a representational fashion.
=== Music ===
In music, Catholic monks developed the first
forms of modern Western musical notation in
order to standardize liturgy throughout the
worldwide Church, and an enormous body of
religious music has been composed for it through
the ages. This led directly to the emergence
and development of European classical music,
and its many derivatives. The Baroque style,
which encompassed music, art, and architecture,
was particularly encouraged by the post-Reformation
Catholic Church as such forms offered a means
of religious expression that was stirring
and emotional, intended to stimulate religious
fervor.The symphony, concerto, sonata, opera,
and oratorio have their origins in Italy.
Many musical instruments developed in the
West have come to see widespread use all over
the world; among them are the violin, piano,
pipe organ, saxophone, trombone, clarinet,
accordion, and the theremin. The solo piano,
symphony orchestra, and the string quartet
are also significant musical innovations of
the West.
=== Painting and photography ===
Jan van Eyck, among other renaissance painters,
made great advances in oil painting, and perspective
drawings and paintings had their earliest
practitioners in Florence. In art, the Celtic
knot is a very distinctive Western repeated
motif. Depictions of the nude human male and
female in photography, painting, and sculpture
are frequently considered to have special
artistic merit. Realistic portraiture is especially
valued.
Photography, and the motion picture as both
a technology and basis for entirely new art
forms were also developed in the West.
=== Dance and performing arts ===
The ballet is a distinctively Western form
of performance dance. The ballroom dance is
an important Western variety of dance for
the elite. The polka, the square dance, and
the Irish step dance are very well known Western
forms of folk dance.
Greek and Roman theatre are considered the
antecedents of modern theatre, and forms such
as medieval theatre, passion plays, morality
plays, and Commedia dell'arte are considered
highly influential. Elizabethan theater, with
such luminaries as William Shakespeare, Christopher
Marlowe, and Ben Jonson, is considered one
of the most formative and important eras for
modern drama.
The soap opera, a popular culture dramatic
form, originated in the United States first
on radio in the 1930s, then a couple of decades
later on television. The music video was also
developed in the West in the middle of the
20th century. Musical theatre was developed
in the West in the 19th and 20th Centuries,
from music hall, comic opera, and Vaudeville;
with significant contributions from the Jewish
diaspora, African-Americans, and other marginalized
peoples.
=== Literature ===
While epic literary works in verse such as
the Mahabharata and Homer's Iliad are ancient
and occurred worldwide, the prose novel as
a distinct form of storytelling, with developed,
consistent human characters and, typically,
some connected overall plot (although both
of these characteristics have sometimes been
modified and played with in later times),
was popularized by the West in the 17th and
18th centuries. Of course, extended prose
fiction had existed much earlier; both novels
of adventure and romance in the Hellenistic
world and in Heian Japan. Both Petronius'
Satyricon (c. 60 CE) and the Tale of Genji
by Murasaki Shikibu (c. 1000 CE) have been
cited as the world's first major novel but
they had a very limited long-term impact on
literary writing beyond their own day until
much more recent times.
Tragedy, from its ritually and mythologically
inspired Greek origins to modern forms where
struggle and downfall are often rooted in
psychological or social, rather than mythical,
motives, is also widely considered a specifically
European creation and can be seen as a forerunner
of some aspects of both the novel and of classical
opera.
=== Architecture ===
Important western architectural motifs include
the Doric, Corinthian, and Ionic columns,
and the Romanesque, Gothic, Baroque, and Victorian
styles are still widely recognised, and used
even today, in the West. Much of western architecture
emphasizes repetition of simple motifs, straight
lines and expansive, undecorated planes. A
modern ubiquitous architectural form that
emphasizes this characteristic is the skyscraper,
first developed in New York, London, and Chicago.
== Scientific and technological inventions
and discoveries ==
A notable feature of Western culture is its
strong emphasis and focus on innovation and
invention through science and technology,
and its ability to generate new processes,
materials and material artifacts with its
roots dating back to the Ancient Greeks. The
scientific method as "a method or procedure
that has characterized natural science since
the 17th century, consisting in systematic
observation, measurement, and experiment,
and the formulation, testing, and modification
of hypotheses" was almost entirely fashioned
by the Italian Galileo Galilei.The Western
world has been the leading force in the technological
and scientific disciplines: whether measured
in people or events, 97 percent of accomplishment
in the scientific inventories occurred in
Europe and North America. The Dictionary of
Scientific Biography (DoSB) sponsored by the
American Council of Learned Societies, concluded
that 81 percent of the most significant scientists
and mathematicians come from Europe compared
to 76 percent in the Human Accomplishment
set, numbers that rise to 94 and 91 percent
respectively when the United States and Canada
are included. The United Kingdom, France,
Germany and Italy alone account for 72 percent
of all the significant scientific figures
in science from 1400 to 1950. Add in Russia
and the Netherlands, and 80 percent of all
significant figures are accounted for.By the
will of the Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel
the Nobel Prize were established in 1895.
The prizes in Chemistry, Literature, Peace,
Physics, and Physiology or Medicine were first
awarded in 1901. The percentage of ethnically
European noble prize winners during the first
and second halves of the 20th century were
respectively 98 and 94 percent. A study by
the Ministry of International Trade and Industry
(MITI) – Japan's equivalent of the Department
of Trade and Industry (DTI) concluded that
54% of the world's most important inventions
were British. Of the rest, 25% were American
and 5% Japanese.It was the West that first
developed steam power and adapted its use
into factories, and for the generation of
electric power. The electrical motor, dynamo,
transformer, and electric light, and indeed
most of the familiar electrical appliances,
were inventions of the West. The Otto and
the Diesel internal combustion engines are
products whose genesis and early development
were in the West. Nuclear power stations are
derived from the first atomic pile constructed
in Chicago in 1942.Communication devices and
systems including the telegraph, the telephone,
radio, television, communications and navigation
satellites, mobile phone, and the Internet
were all invented by Westerners. The pencil,
ballpoint pen, Cathode ray tube, liquid-crystal
display, light-emitting diode, camera, photocopier,
laser printer, ink jet printer, plasma display
screen and world wide web were also invented
in the West.Ubiquitous materials including
concrete, aluminium, clear glass, synthetic
rubber, synthetic diamond and the plastics
polyethylene, polypropylene, polyvinyl chloride
and polystyrene were invented in the West.
Iron and steel ships, bridges and skyscrapers
first appeared in the West. Nitrogen fixation
and petrochemicals were invented by Westerners.
Most of the elements were discovered and named
in the West, as well as the contemporary atomic
theories to explain them.The transistor, integrated
circuit, memory chip, and computer were all
first seen in the West. The ship's chronometer,
the screw propeller, the locomotive, bicycle,
automobile, and airplane were all invented
in the West. Eyeglasses, the telescope, the
microscope and electron microscope, all the
varieties of chromatography, protein and DNA
sequencing, computerised tomography, Nuclear
magnetic resonance, x-rays, and light, ultraviolet
and infrared spectroscopy, were all first
developed and applied in Western laboratories,
hospitals and factories.In medicine, the pure
antibiotics were created in the West. The
method of preventing Rh disease, the treatment
of diabetes, and the germ theory of disease
were discovered by Westerners. The eradication
of smallpox, was led by a Westerner, Donald
Henderson. Radiography, Computed tomography,
Positron emission tomography and Medical ultrasonography
are important diagnostic tools developed in
the West. Other important diagnostic tools
of clinical chemistry including the methods
of spectrophotometry, electrophoresis and
immunoassay were first devised by Westerners.
So were the stethoscope, electrocardiograph,
and the endoscope. Vitamins, hormonal contraception,
hormones, insulin, Beta blockers and ACE inhibitors,
along with a host of other medically proven
drugs were first utilized to treat disease
in the West. The double-blind study and evidence-based
medicine are critical scientific techniques
widely used in the West for medical purposes.In
mathematics, calculus, statistics, logic,
vectors, tensors and complex analysis, group
theory and topology were developed by Westerners.
In biology, evolution, chromosomes, DNA, genetics
and the methods of molecular biology are creatures
of the West. In physics, the science of mechanics
and quantum mechanics, relativity, thermodynamics,
and statistical mechanics were all developed
by Westerners. The discoveries and inventions
by Westerners in electromagnetism include
Coulomb's law (1785), the first battery (1800),
the unity of electricity and magnetism (1820),
Biot–Savart law (1820), Ohm's Law (1827),
and the Maxwell's equations (1871). The atom,
nucleus, electron, neutron and proton were
all unveiled by Westerners.In business, economics,
and finance, double entry bookkeeping, credit
card, and the charge card were all first used
in the West.Westerners are also known for
their explorations of the globe and outer
space. The first expedition to circumnavigate
the Earth (1522) was by Westerners, as well
as the first journey to the South Pole (1911),
and the first moon landing (1969). The landing
of robots on Mars (2004 and 2012) and on an
asteroid (2001), the Voyager 2 explorations
of the outer planets (Uranus in 1986 and Neptune
in 1989), Voyager 1's passage into interstellar
space (2013), and New Horizons' flyby of Pluto
(2015) were significant recent Western achievements.
== Media ==
The Western media refers to the news media
of the Western world. The roots of the Western
media can be traced back to the late 15th
century, when printing presses began to operate
throughout Western Europe. The emergence of
news media in the 17th century has to be seen
in close connection with the spread of the
printing press, from which the publishing
press derives its name.In the 16th century,
a decrease in the preeminence of Latin in
its literary use, along with the impact of
economic change, the "discoveries" arising
from trade and travel, navigation to the "new"
world, science and arts and the development
of increasingly rapid communications through
print led to a rising corpus of vernacular
media content in Western Europe.After the
launch of the satellite Sputnik 1 by the Soviet
Union in 1957, satellite transmission technology
was dramatically realised, with the U.S. launching
Telstar in 1962 linking live media broadcasts
from the UK to the US. The first digital broadcast
satellite (DBS) system began transmitting
in America in 1975.Beginning in the 1990s,
the Internet has contributed to a tremendous
increase in the accessibility of Western media
content. Departing from media offered in bundled
content packages (magazines, CDs, television
and radio slots), the Internet has primarily
offered unbundled content items (articles,
audio and video files).
== Religion ==
The native religions of Europe were polytheistic
but not homogenous—however they were similar
insofar as they were predominantly Indo-European
in origin. Roman religion was similar to but
not the same as Hellenic religion—likewise
the same for indigenous Germanic polytheism,
Celtic polytheism and Slavic polytheism. Western
culture, for at least the last 1000 years,
has been considered nearly synonymous with
Christian culture. Before this time many Europeans
from the north, especially Scandinavians,
remained polytheistic, though southern Europe
was predominantly Christian from the 5th century
onwards.
Western culture, throughout most of its history,
has been nearly equivalent to Western Christian
culture, and many of the population of the
Western hemisphere could broadly be described
as cultural Christians. The notion of "Europe"
and the "Western World" has been intimately
connected with the concept of "Christianity
and Christendom" many even attribute Christianity
for being the link that created a unified
European identity.As in other areas, the Jewish
diaspora and Judaism exist in the Western
world. Non-European groups, and Jews in particular,
have been subjected to intense racism, ethnic
and religious hatred, xenophobia, discrimination,
and persecution in the West. This has included
pogroms, forced conversion, displacement,
segregation and ghettos, ethnic cleansing,
genocide, and other forms of violence and
prejudice.Religion has waned considerably
in Europe, where many are today irreligious,
agnostic or atheist and they make up about
18% of the European population. In terms of
irreligion, over half of the populations of
the Czech Republic (79% of the population
was agnostic, atheist or irreligious), the
United Kingdom (~25%), Germany (25–33%),
France (30–35%) and the Netherlands (39–44%)
are agnostic, atheist, or otherwise non-religious.
However, per another survey by Pew Research
Center from 2011, Christianity remains the
dominant religion in the Western world where
70–84% are Christians, According to this
survey, 76% of Europeans described themselves
as Christians, and about 86% of the Americas
population identified themselves as Christians,
(90% in Latin America and 77% in North America).
And 73% in Oceania are self-identify as Christian,
and 76% in South Africa is Christian.According
to new polls about religiosity in the European
Union in 2012 by Eurobarometer, Christianity
is the largest religion in the European Union,
accounting for 72% of the EU population. Catholics
are the largest Christian group, accounting
for 48% of the EU population, while Protestants
make up 12%, Eastern Orthodox make up 8% and
other Christians make up 4%. Non believer/Agnostic
account 16%, Atheist account's 7%, and Muslim
2%.Throughout the Western world there are
increasing numbers of people who seek to revive
the indigenous religions of their European
ancestors, such groups include Germanic, Roman,
Hellenic, Celtic and Slavic, polytheistic
reconstructionist movements, likewise, Wicca,
new age spirituality and other neo-pagan belief
systems enjoy notable minority support in
Western nations.
== Sport ==
Since classical antiquity, sport has been
an important facet of Western cultural expression.
A wide range of sports were already established
by the time of Ancient Greece and the military
culture and the development of sports in Greece
influenced one another considerably. Sports
became such a prominent part of their culture
that the Greeks created the Olympic Games,
which in ancient times were held every four
years in a small village in the Peloponnesus
called Olympia. Baron Pierre de Coubertin,
a Frenchman, instigated the modern revival
of the Olympic movement. The first modern
Olympics were held at 1896 Athens in.
The Romans built immense structures such as
the Colisseum in Rome to house their festivals
of sport. The Romans exhibited a passion for
blood sports, such as the infamous Gladiatorial
battles that pitted contestants against one
another in a fight to the death. The Olympic
Games revived many of the sports of Classical
Antiquity—such as Greco-Roman wrestling,
discus and javelin.
The sport of bullfighting is a traditional
spectacle of Spain, Portugal, southern France,
and some Latin American countries. It traces
its roots to prehistoric bull worship and
sacrifice and is often linked to Rome, where
many human-versus-animal events were held.
Bullfighting spread from Spain to its Central
and South American colonies, and in the 19th
century to France, where it developed into
a distinctive form in its own right.
Jousting and hunting were popular sports in
the Western Europe of the Middle Ages, and
the aristocratic classes of Europe developed
passions for leisure activities. A great number
of the popular global sports were first developed
or codified in Europe. The modern game of
golf originated in Scotland, where the first
written record of golf is James II's banning
of the game in 1457, as an unwelcome distraction
to learning archery. The Industrial Revolution
that began in Britain in the 18th Century
brought increased leisure time, leading to
more time for citizens to attend and follow
spectator sports, greater participation in
athletic activities, and increased accessibility.
These trends continued with the advent of
mass media and global communication. The bat
and ball sport of cricket was first played
in England during the 16th century and was
exported around the globe via the British
Empire. A number of popular modern sports
were devised or codified in Britain during
the 19th Century and obtained global prominence—these
include ping pong, modern tennis, association
football, netball and rugby.
Football (also known as soccer) remains hugely
popular in Europe, but has grown from its
origins to be known as the world game. Similarly,
sports such as cricket, rugby, and netball
were exported around the world, particularly
among countries in the Commonwealth of Nations,
thus India and Australia are among the strongest
cricketing nations, while victory in the Rugby
World Cup has been shared among the Western
nations of New Zealand, Australia, South Africa
and England.
Australian Rules Football, an Australian variation
of football with similarities to Gaelic football
and rugby evolved in the British colony of
Victoria in the mid-19th century. The United
States also developed unique variations of
English sports. English migrants took antecedents
of baseball to America during the colonial
period. The history of American football can
be traced to early versions of rugby football
and association football. Many games known
as "football" were being played at colleges
and universities in the United States in the
first half of the 19th century. American football
resulted from several major divergences from
rugby, most notably the rule changes instituted
by Walter Camp, the "Father of American Football".
Basketball was invented in 1891 by James Naismith,
a Canadian physical education instructor working
in Springfield, Massachusetts in the United
States.
== Themes and traditions ==
Western culture has developed many themes
and traditions, the most significant of which
are:
Greco-Roman classic letters, arts, architecture,
philosophical and cultural tradition, which
include the influence of preeminent authors
and philosophers such as Socrates, Plato,
Aristotle, Homer, Virgil, and Cicero, as well
as a long mythologic tradition.
Christian ethical, philosophical, and mythological
tradition, stemming largely from the Christian
Bible, particularly the New Testament Gospels.
Monasteries, schools, libraries, books, book
making, universities, teaching, education,
and lecture halls.
A tradition of the importance of the rule
of law.
Secular humanism, rationalism and Enlightenment
thought. This set the basis for a new critical
attitude and open questioning of religion,
favouring freethinking and questioning of
the church as an authority, which resulted
in open-minded and reformist ideals inside,
such as liberation theology, which partly
adopted these currents, and secular and political
tendencies such as laicism, agnosticism and
atheism.
Generalized usage of some form of the Latin
or Greek alphabet, and derived forms, such
as Cyrillic, used by those southern and eastern
Slavic countries of Christian Orthodox tradition,
historically under the Byzantine Empire and
later within the Russian czarist or Soviet
area of influence. Other variants of the Latin
or Greek alphabets are found in the Gothic
and Coptic alphabets, which historically superseded
older scripts, such as runes, and the Egyptian
Demotic and Hieroglyphic systems.
Natural law, human rights, constitutionalism,
parliamentarism (or presidentialism) and formal
liberal democracy in recent times—prior
to the 19th century, most Western governments
were still monarchies.
A large influence, in modern times, of many
of the ideals and values developed and inherited
from Romanticism.
An emphasis on, and use of, science as a means
of understanding the natural world and humanity's
place in it.
More pronounced use and application of innovation
and scientific developments, as well as a
more rational approach to scientific progress
(what has been known as the scientific method),
as opposed to more empiric discoveries in
the Eastern world.
== See also ==
== Notes ==
== References ==
=== Citations ===
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Ankerl, Guy (2000). Coexisting Civilizations:
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== External links ==
An overview of the Western Civilization
