West

Countries generally considered part of the West, broadly

The West, or western world, is a geographic area that originally described the Europe. The extension of the space has varied throughout history. At a given period, it may also vary depending on the speaker and context.

At the turn of the twenty-first ^century , it is generally accepted that the West consists mainly of Europe , the Latin America and North America . It also deputy general of Australia and New Zealand or the South Africa.

The word and concept of the West is most often based on the underlying idea of a civilization common to this area (see article Western Civilization ), and a semantic opposition between the West and either the world or one or more other geographic areas (such as objections West / East and West / Communist Bloc ).

^eighteenth and ^nineteenth centuries

In the eighteenth ^century the word Western is already used, it is found on maps of the European maritime powers (at least since 1720 ) with reference to the " new world " also called " American system " in opposition to " European System "or" eastern hemisphere " .

On the other hand it often seems to be in the concept of the Western Hemisphere. A study by Jean-Marie Ruiz (University of Savoy) , traces the use of this concept to the time of assertion of independence from the United States . This concept is found in the source of the doctrines separatists, isolationists and interventionists of the founding fathers of the United States, Jefferson , Monroe ... An article by Claudio Finzi (publisher for his controversial reports in the middle of the New Right French) is also going in that direction.

XX ^century

The Cold War saw the emergence of the idea of "the West" meaning Western Europe and its Anglo-Saxon allies, as part of a Euro-American condominium from the Yalta agreements , as opposed to " Eastern Bloc ", consisting in the Soviet Union and the countries in its area of influence, and China 's Communist Mao Tse Tung . Countries that do not belong clearly to one of these blocks are non-aligned countries.

XXI ^century

The search for an exact definition of the word continues to emphasize its vagueness. For example, what category should be classified Japan? From a geopolitical point of view, economic and military, Japan is often equated with the West, yet it is evident that its population is not related to populations from Western Europe. Nevertheless, it is also a land of Far East that has developed on the Western model and adopted the values and worldview. Membership of Japan to the West is therefore taking this into account. By contrast the countries of Europe and Central Asia which are now considered as Western countries were in the proper sense, there is still some twenty years, in the phraseology of the time, "Eastern Europe".

Another common usage of the term West: it covers, more prosaically, the developed countries, or, more precisely, the OECD countries. From this point of view, the West includes rich countries in determining economic weight. West is the word, and used less ambiguous by the fact that, very nearly, his sphere of cultural influence and economic weight of countries in the strongest overlap almost exactly. West has the word again, a relatively precise meaning in a context of geopolitical, economic or military, who do not pose a major problem.

The West tends word now less about a geographical area that cultural sphere, or a belief system, derived from Enlightenment Europe, the European Middle Ages or the Roman Empire, which are collectively accepted certain values, which are adopted, copied, or relativized, criticized or opposed by those who are themselves outside the West. One can therefore say that the West is both defined by those who claim it and those who reject it, even if they themselves Western in opposition to their own civilization. Thus defined, the term "West" is the subject of a relative consensus.

A real sense of civilization

Map of world religions

It is thus very important concepts that are purely Western, including Western origin is not debate. For example, an essential contribution to the West is the autonomy of law. The autonomy of law is a legacy of Rome and of canon law (law of the Catholic Church) of the Middle Ages. This idea, fundamental to modern legal systems, has not always been so, had no place in traditional society, and took several centuries to establish itself: the right, in civilizations prior to Rome or not heiresses Rome was dependent on the morality and religion.

There was a fault line, familiar to sociologists and historians, between the West and the Muslim world, which already delineated two areas civilization in the tenth ^century. Islam, indeed, is the most successful mode of dependency law with regard to morality and the divine word: for a Muslim lawyer, the right comes from God and can not be autonomous, although case law Muslim jurists can be extremely complex, it is always interpret the word of God.

Religion and secularism

And rightly raises the thorny issue of religious spheres of influence, which is also involved in the definition of Western civilization. The Christian West as the context for use of this term we include or not Europe Eastern Orthodox majority. On this map of Europe, geographic areas historically attached to every Christian denomination were represented. Blue and purple, the Catholic and Protestant. Red, the Orthodox faith. From this point of view the West is predominantly Christian, if we confine ourselves to define Christianity in its traditional sphere of influence, medieval first (Western Europe and East) then colonial (Americas and Africa).

But the situation tends to get complicated in the modern world, precisely because one of the characteristics of modern Western civilization, particularly Europe, atheism, or more precisely a form of growing religious indifference. From this point of view, the current confrontation between the West and the Muslim world is less a clash between Christianity and Islam, a friction between a Western civilization in which religion is, as noted by Marcel Gauchet (The World , March 13, 2006), considered to be nothing more than the mode of private belief, even of derision, and societies where the religious left structuring at all levels of social organization. Let us not forget that the values and ways of life conveyed by the West are not only subversive to the traditional Muslim societies, but also for India and China traditional, which, although seeming to follow the medium term The example of Japan, saw rapid changes in their family and social structures.

westerner

To distinguish the concrete notion of the West as countries and peoples of the abstract and ideological field (democracy, capitalism ...), Alexander Zinoviev advocates the term ' westerner.

Notes

See also

Bibliography

• Philippe Zard, Fiction of the West, Paris, PUF, 1999.
• Boia Lucian: The West. A historical interpretation., Ed. Belles lettres, 2007.
• Nemo, Philippe : What the West?, PUF, 2004, 155p., ISBN 2-13054-628-5
• The meaning of the West, Arras, Artois Presses Universit, 2006.

Internal Links

• On the West and Western civilization:
  • Western civilization
  • Christian West
  • Westernization
• Several countries and regions located west of a set geographical have a name that includes the words "West" or "Western":
  • Western Roman Empire ;
  • Western Empire , another name of the Carolingian Empire ;
  • West Virginia ;
  • West Germany ;
  • Western Sahara.

External Links

• (En) History of Western Civilization

• Portal History
• Geography portal
• Geographic Information Portal

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