Europe, parts of the Americas, and those influenced by Europe through immigration and colonization, such as the United States, are geographically associated with Western civilization. Many of the ideas and developments emerged from the Mediterranean Basis and spread throughout modern day Europe and the Americas.
Since Western civilization is a concept and a set of ideas, the geographic scope encompasses the regions where people have been influenced by the social, theoretical, and cultural developments that have come to define Western civilization's shared cultural history.
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The term Western civilization, or Western culture, cannot be traced to a single point of origin. The Western world definition is complex and fluid. Scholars' understanding of where and who is "the West" has evolved over thousands of years, with one of the earliest known reference to "the West" taking place in 5th Century BCE, and was used to describe the division of the Church into the Western Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church.
Today, the Western civilization definition is widely understood as the study of the history and influences that contribute to modern Western thought, values, economic and political systems, and religious and spiritual beliefs. These encompass commonly held religious values, modernizing scientific innovations, and the shared history of those who live in "the West".
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A brief history of Western civilization draws on different traditions and refers to the art, culture, and enduring ideas that came from the Mediterranean, Europe, and the Americas that developed throughout history to the current understanding of a collective "Western" identity. Key contributors to Western civilization include Ancient Greece and Rome and their contributions to political ideology, the Judeo-Christian traditions and ethical beliefs, the art and culture that developed during the Renaissance, and the Scientific Revolution. All of these key contributors and more built upon one another and ultimately took modern shape to broadly form the West's social, political, and scientific beliefs and processes.
The Origins of Western Civilization
The concept of Western civilization originated in ancient Greece and Rome. The Ancient Greek empire existed between 700 and 480 BCE, and the Greeks built the first major urban centers in European history. The Greeks used human reason to observe the natural world. This period is often credited with the creation of Western philosophy, mathematics, science, and government. Athens was the largest and most influential of the Greek city-states and is largely accredited as the birthplace of democracy. The Romans conquered Greece and built an empire that extended across Europe and the Mediterranean Sea. They built upon Greek philosophies of reason and individualism and codified it into a system that was distributed across the continent.
Influence of the Judeo-Christian Tradition
Western civilization developed with Christianization during the Roman Empire and Middle Ages. In 380 CE, the Roman Empire adopted Christianity as the official religion of Rome. After the fall of the Roman Empire in 476 CE, the Christian Church emerged as the most powerful institution in Western Europe. The Judeo-Christian teachings contributed to Western iconography, and much of the Greco-Roman philosophy has been maintained through the lens of Judeo-Christian morality. These teachings continue to be seen in modern Western civilization values and cultures.
Impact of the Scientific Revolution on Western Civilization
In the 18th century, a period of scientific discovery spread across Europe. New ideas about the importance of empiricism, medicine and scientific methodology emerged that replaced traditional world views rooted in religion and mysticism. Empiricism, the theory that all knowledge is derived from sense-experience, paved the way for significant advances such as the printing press, which increased literacy and the circulation of books and Isaac Newton's discovery of gravity in 1687. These values of logic, reason and scientific discovery became associated with Western civilization.
The Importance of the Enlightenment
The Enlightenment is the period from the late 17th to early 18th century that emphasized reason and individualism in the west. It is also known as the "Age of Reason". This was a period of change in thought and reason, and shaped philosophical, political, and scientific discourse. This time period significantly impacted the Western world definition and understanding of itself.
During this period, influential documents were created that shaped society and government. In 1689, the Bill of Rights was signed in England, making it illegal for the monarchy to suspend or dispense the law, insisted on due process in criminal trials, and put restrictions on the government's ability to raise an army in peacetime or overtax its citizens.
Prominent thinkers, such as John Locke, advocated for a separation of church and state, religious tolerance, and the innate rights of people to be recognized by their governments. Other influential thinkers included Thomas Hobbes, Denis Diderot, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. These people argued that people are born free and rational, and that the government must serve the people, rather than its people serving their government.
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According to some scholars, a Western society definition is understood through three core characteristics: democracy, rational thinking, and individualism. These central beliefs shape the political and social structures that exist in the modern Western world, such as capitalist economic structures, democratic governance, and social norms.
Capitalism and Western Civilization
The economic system of capitalism was developed for the nature of humanity as understood in the Western tradition. Western civilization believed in the importance of individualism and that individuals must pursue their own material well-being and determine their own fate. Adam Smith, an 18th century economist, and philosopher wrote "The Wealth of Nations", a prominent book that advocates for a free market and promotes the idea that the economy is a competition in which individuals and nations either win or lose. His theories on economics contributed to the modern Wstern economic system that emphasizes the role of the individual, rather than a community, in their material pursuits.
Democratic Ethos and Western Civilization
The political system of democracy is one of the pillars of Western civilization. The Greek city-state of Athens developed the first democracy. Democracy was developed to give more political representation to a greater number of people. One of the core tenants of Western civilization is individualism, and democracy is a method for granting individuals more power and autonomy over their political systems. However, not democracy has always been limited to a small segment of the population. In Athens, only male citizens over the age of 18 could participate. As democracy was adopted by other Western countries, voting rights remained a prevalent issue.
Rationalism and Western Civilization
Rationalism is the belief that people come to knowledge through the use of logic and is independent of sensory experience. It developed during the Enlightenment period and laid the foundation for modern mathematical methods and rational philosophy. Politically, rationalism emphasized rational choice, utilitarianism, and secularism.
Notable thinkers included Rene Descartes, who was the first of modern rationalists, Baruch Spinoza, who used rationalism to understand ethics, and Gottfried Leibniz, who developed the present day notation for calculus. These thinkers contributed to the importance of the individual in Western civilization and the emphasis on reason and logic.
Individualism and Western Civilization
A pillar of Western social philosophy is individualism. Individualism emphasizes that people can think, choose, and act without interference from social influences, government oppression, or religious restraints. The rise of individualism can be traced back to the Renaissance.
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Modernly, the Western world is understood to include Western Europe, North America, and countries that have a shared Euro-centric history. The historical pillars of Western civilization: democracy, individualism, and more, prevail as key structures to modern Western society. The ideas, cultures, and structures associated with these pillars have developed and changed and will continue to evolve throughout the 21st century.
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The concept of a Western civilization has been somewhat controversial. Inherent to Western civilization is an "othering" of those who are not a part of it. Even to those considered to be included in the "West", the history and beliefs of Western civilization is broad and not everyone shares the same values. Western civilization has been influenced by non-European people and European people alike, and often the former do not receive sufficient acknowledgement of their contributions. Additionally, Western civilization can be defined by what it is not as much as it can be defined by what it is. Often held against the "East", some scholars have used Western beliefs to harmfully argue that Western civilization is in some way superior to its Eastern counterparts.
The Influence of Non-European People on Western Civilization
One issue with the concept of Western civilization is that Europe and the "West" has been greatly influenced by non-European culture, beliefs, and more. For example, the Western Renaissance was largely influenced by the Muslim world, and there was significant exchange across cultures in ideas, objects, and skills.
The Orient and the Occident
The concept of Western civilization can be compared to the terms "The Orient" and "The Occident". The Orient is considered the "East" and the Occident is the "West". The terms are antiquated, but used to be commonly used to refer to the cultural and historical differences between Western and Eastern civilizations. The East and the West have been historically used to understand one against the other, and the two terms demonstrate how they have been "othered" against each other, when in truth, much exchange has occurred between the two global regions.
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Western civilization is a broad term used to understand European-influenced cultures and their shared histories, beliefs, and structures. Western civilization refers to those living in western Europe, the Americas, and parts of the Mediterranean. It encompasses commonly held beliefs such as individualism, democracy, and rationalism, and originates in Ancient Greece. Greco-Roman influences contributed to a strong trust in reason in logic. Western civilization has evolved throughout history (through the Renaissance, the Middle Ages, and the Enlightenment) and continues to evolve today. Key thinkers from these periods include John Locke, who advocated for the separation of church and state, Adam Smith, who laid the groundwork for modern Western economic systems, and Rene Descartes, an early rationalist philosopher.
Western civilization did not develop in a vacuum, and Eastern cultures influenced the beliefs and developments as well. Western civilization was predominantly influenced by European cultures, without much influence from Amerindian cultures in North America. One of the most significant issues with the concept of Western civilization is how the West has been greatly influenced by outside cultures. The Orient and the Occident have frequently been defined against one another, but have an interconnected and shared history. Western civilization cannot be defined as a singular thing, and is a broad concept scholars use to better understand what unites the people who live in what is considered the West.
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Video Transcript
Western Civilization
In broad conversations about the chronology of creative expression, we often hear references to the West and Western Culture. But what does this mean? Are we talking about the American West, with its cowboys and outlaws? Are we talking about the Western Hemisphere? Which West are we talking about?
The answer is both…and neither. The term Western civilization is a catchall to refer to the many cultures of European heritage that share common cultural ideas, philosophical foundations, and ancestral beliefs. Basically, the idea is that these cultures all have a common heritage, which has been important in the development of each. This concept is sometimes used in contrast to so-called Eastern civilization to explain the underlying differences between cultures of Europe and Asia, though that dichotomy has been critiqued as exclusionary (what about the rest of the world?). That's the basic definition, but what does this really mean? For that, we'll have to go a little deeper into the West.
Main Influences
The most important thing to understand about Western civilization is that it's defined by this concept of shared heritage, or shared cultural foundations. So, what are these foundations? There are two main influences that form the basis for Western civilization:
Greco-Roman Influences
The first major influences on what would become Western civilization were two of Europe's first major, settled civilizations: the Greeks and the Romans. The Greeks built the first major urban centers in European history and dedicated their lives to philosophy, arts, and learning. The Romans built upon this and helped codify it into a system that was distributed across the continent.
We can see the influences of Greco-Roman thought throughout Western civilization. Western philosophies tend to focus strongly on the individual, and particularly on the power of individual logic and reason. It has long been assumed that these concepts were first defined by the Greeks, who believed that all things could be proven with rational logic and empirical data. This mindset also established a desire in Western civilization for proof and a tendency to trust things which could be proven to be true or legitimate, from government to science.
The Greeks and Romans also defined the basic aesthetic that has characterized art of European cultures for millennia. Greco-Roman art was rational, logical, and symmetrical. Even modern suburban homes and municipal buildings contain architectural elements of Roman temple design, and modern abstract paintings are measured by aesthetic values enshrined by the Greeks.
Judeo-Christian Influence
If Western cultures are so influenced by Greece and Rome, then why is monotheism a key component of Western civilization? After all, the Greeks and Romans were polytheists. The second major influence on Western civilization is a Judeo-Christian heritage, informed partly by Jewish custom but primarily by the Christian offshoot of Judaism.
Christian morality and virtues have formed the basis of most Western schools of ethics and behaviors, influencing ideas from sexual conduct to one's place in society. Judeo-Christian teachings have also inspired a strong binary worldview in Western civilizations. Rather than many gods, there is one. Rather than gradients of morality, there is only good and evil. Time can be understood as past and future.
So, Western civilization is a combination of Judeo-Christian and Greco-Roman values. Greeks and Romans established the Western artistic aesthetic, but a vast majority of Western iconography is based in Judaism and Christianity. Greeks and Romans established the basis for Western philosophy, but it has been maintained through the lens of Judeo-Christian morality.
Other Influences
Western history is generally seen as European history, but this is problematic as it ignores the simple fact that Europe never existed in isolation. In ancient times, the Greeks interacted constantly with Egyptians, Persians, Mesopotamians, and others--cultures typically excluded from the concept of the West. The Romans were equally influenced by people of North Africa and West Asia (also known as the Middle East), as was Europe for centuries afterwards. Islam, in particular, would continue to play a major role in European intellectual, artistic, and political history for millennia.
Beyond that, Europe would also be influenced by East Asian nations through trade, cultural contact, and the exchange of ideas. Things like paper money, the concept of printing, and all the money from the silk trade came to Europe from East Asia. This is one of the main criticisms of the concept of Western civilization: does it ignore the impact of non-Western people on Western history?
It has become clear that Western civilization has always been entangled with the East. The story of Western history and culture--often told in triumphant terms--has consistently marginalized the irrefutable influence of Asian and African cultures
Geographical Range
There's one question we still haven't addressed. What exactly is the West? As we've mentioned, Western history is generally associated with European history, but this delineation becomes much more complicated after 1492. Today, Western civilization is seen as encompassing all nations founded by European immigrants or on European-based principles. That means that the United States and Canada are Western nations (even though they are across an ocean from Europe), as is Australia (which is about as far east as you can go).
But what about nations that maintained a stronger sense of indigenous heritage? Are Mexico and Peru Western nations? Both are strongly connected to European traditions, but also have maintained a deep sense of pride in their indigenous heritages. And what about Guatemala, Honduras, or Nicaragua, where you may be more likely to hear Mayan spoken than Spanish?
All of the Americas are treated as part of Western civilization, but there is inherent conflict here. The designation obscures native heritage in favor of an imperialist one. The concept of Western civilization may be useful in understanding the similarities in many cultures, but it's flawed and fraught. The world's more complex than just 'the West versus the rest.'
Lesson Summary
European-based cultures are often categorized under the catchall term of Western civilization. The idea is that these cultures, while diverse, share foundational underpinnings from two primary sources, Greco-Roman intellectual life and Judeo-Christian religion. Together, these sources defined the bases of Western philosophy, morality, politics, social structures, and art. While the concept of Western civilization may be useful in some ways, it is also problematic in its tendency to ignore contributions from non-European peoples. So, perhaps in the end we can say that one of the main tenets of Western civilization is simply this: a belief that Western civilization exists.
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