Western world
In 395 AD, the Roman Empire formally split into a Western and an Eastern one, each with their own emperors, capitals, and governments. This division marked the beginning of a distinct identity for the West, which would later crystallize with the rise of Christianity during the Late Roman Empire. Ancient Greece and Rome are generally considered to be the birthplaces of Western civilization, with Greece influencing philosophy, democracy, science, aesthetics, and architecture, while Rome influenced law, warfare, governance, republicanism, engineering, and religion. The Latin language has been the base from which Romance languages evolved and it was the official language of the Catholic Church until 1967. In 410 AD, the Visigoths sacked Rome, shocking Greco-Romans who had not seen such an event in almost 800 years. St. Jerome, living in Bethlehem at the time, wrote that "The City which had taken the whole world was itself taken." The fall of the Western Roman Empire left a vacuum for new ideas to flourish, leading to a period of decline followed by readaptation and renewed development.
In 1054 CE, the church in Rome excommunicated the patriarch of Byzantium, culminating the politico-religious division between the Western church and Eastern church known as the Great Schism. This schism made the split definitive through the Crusades, which were series of western European military campaigns into the eastern Mediterranean. The Holy Roman Empire would dissolve on the 6th of August 1806, after the French Revolution and the creation of the Confederation of the Rhine by Napoleon. The earliest concept of Europe as a cultural sphere is believed to have been formed by Alcuin of York during the Carolingian Renaissance of the 9th century. In 1204, the Crusader army sacked Constantinople, capital of the Greek Christian-controlled Byzantine Empire, described as one of the most profitable and disgraceful sacks of a city in history. This event paved the way for Muslim conquests in present-day Turkey and the Balkans in the coming centuries. The Papal Inquisition was established in AD 1229 on a permanent basis, run largely by clergymen in Rome, and abolished six centuries later.
In 1492, European colonialism expanded across the globe with the exploring voyage of merchant, navigator, and Hispano-Italian colonizer Christopher Columbus. Such voyages marked the beginning of the European exploration, colonization and exploitation of the American continents and their native inhabitants. The European colonization of the Americas led to the Atlantic slave trade between the 1490s and the 1800s, which contributed to the development of African intertribal warfare and racist ideology. Before the abolition of its slave trade in 1807, the British Empire alone was responsible for the transportation of 3.5 million African slaves to the Americas, a third of all slaves transported across the Atlantic. By 1913, the British Empire held sway over 412 million people, 24 percent of the world population at the time. At its apex, the phrase "the empire on which the sun never sets" described the British Empire, because its expanse around the globe meant that the sun always shone on at least one of its territories. Most of the colonized nations received independence by 1960, but Western neocolonialism or economic imperialism rose as multinational corporations came to offer dramatic refinements of traditional business enterprises.
In 1794, French writer Condorcet wrote about the progress of humanity in the Sketch of the Progress of the Human Mind, from primitive society to agrarianism, the invention of writing, the later invention of the printing press and the advancement to "the Period when the Sciences and Philosophy threw off the Yoke of Authority." The Enlightenment embodied the ideals of improvement and progress, with Descartes and Isaac Newton regarded as exemplars of human intellectual achievement. In the early 19th century, the systematic urbanization process had begun, and the concentration of labor into factories led to the rise in the population of the towns. World population had been rising as well, estimated to have first reached one billion in 1804. During the socioeconomically optimistic and innovative decades of the Second Industrial Revolution between the 1870s and 1914, also known as the "Beautiful Era," established colonial powers added vast expanses of territory in the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. By 1920, the British Empire covered 24 percent of the Earth's total land area, making its political, legal, linguistic and cultural legacy widespread throughout the Western world.
During the Cold War, a new definition emerged where Earth was divided into three worlds. The First World, analogous 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 and Warsaw Pact countries like Poland, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, East Germany, and Czechoslovakia. The Third World consisted of countries many of which were unaligned with either the west or the east; important members included India, Yugoslavia, Finland, and Switzerland. In 1955, when Austria again became a fully independent republic, it did so under the condition that it remain neutral but remained in the United States' sphere of influence. Spain did not join NATO until 1982, seven years after the death of the authoritarian Franco. The 1980s advent of Mikhail Gorbachev led to the end of the Cold War following the dissolution of the Soviet Union. 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.
In 1586, the earliest use of the term "Western world" in the English language appeared in the writings of William Warner. In modern usage, Western world refers to Europe and to areas whose populations largely originate from Europe through the Age of Discovery's imperialism. Since the mid-twentieth century, the west became known for its irreligious sentiments, following the Age of Enlightenment and the French Revolution, as inquisitions were abolished in the 19th and 20th centuries. This hastened the separation of church and state, and secularization of the Western world where unchurched spirituality is gaining more prominence over organized religion. Certain parts of the Western world have become notable for their diversity since the late 1960s due to immigration and changes in fertility rates. Christianity remains the dominant religion in the Western world, where 70 percent are Christians. A 2011 Pew Research Center survey found that 76.2 percent of Europeans, 73.3 percent in Oceania, and about 86.0 percent in the Americas described themselves as Christians. Countries in the Western world are also the most keen on digital and televisual media technologies, with Internet market penetration in the West being twice that in non-Western regions from 2000 to 2014.
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Common questions
When did the Roman Empire formally split into Western and Eastern halves?
The Roman Empire formally split into a Western and an Eastern one in 395 AD. This division marked the beginning of a distinct identity for the West, which would later crystallize with the rise of Christianity during the Late Roman Empire.
Who first used the term Western world in English language history?
William Warner wrote about the earliest use of the term Western world in the English language in 1586. Modern usage refers to Europe and areas whose populations largely originate from Europe through the Age of Discovery's imperialism.
What year did the Holy Roman Empire dissolve officially?
The Holy Roman Empire dissolved on the 6th of August 1806 after the French Revolution and the creation of the Confederation of the Rhine by Napoleon. This event occurred following centuries of political evolution within the Western world framework.
How many African slaves were transported to the Americas by the British Empire before abolition?
Before the abolition of its slave trade in 1807, the British Empire alone was responsible for the transportation of 3.5 million African slaves to the Americas. This figure represents a third of all slaves transported across the Atlantic between the 1490s and the 1800s.
When did Spain join NATO relative to the death of Franco?
Spain did not join NATO until 1982, which was seven years after the death of the authoritarian leader Francisco Franco. The country remained outside the alliance during the Cold War period while other nations like Austria chose neutrality.