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org/wiki/Western_culture

Western culture
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Western culture, sometimes equated with Western civilization, Occidental culture, the Western
world, Western society or 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 currently
European.

Western culture is characterized by a host of artistic, philosophic, literary, and legal themes and
traditions; the heritage of Greek, Roman, Jewish,[1] Celtic, Slavic, and other ethnic and linguistic
groups,[2][3] as well as Christianity including the Roman Catholic Church,[4][5][6] and the Orthodox
Church,[7][8] which played an important part in the shaping of Western civilization since at least the
4th century.[9][10][11][12][13] Before the Cold War era, the traditional Western viewpoint identified
Western Civilization with the Western Christian (Catholic-Protestant) countries and culture.[14][15]

A cornerstone of Western thought, beginning in ancient Greece and continuing through the Middle
Ages and Renaissance and into modern times, is a tradition of rationalism in various spheres of life,
developed by Hellenistic philosophy, Scholasticism, humanism, the Scientific revolution and the
Enlightenment. Values of Western culture have, throughout history, been derived from political
thought, widespread employment of rational argument favouring freethought, assimilation of
human rights, the need for equality, and democracy.

Ancient Greece is considered the birthplace 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.[16] Western culture continued to develop with the Christianisation of Europe during
the Middle Ages, the reform and modernization triggered by the Renaissance, and with
globalization by successive European empires, that 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.[17] 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 existence of political
pluralism, prominent subcultures or countercultures (such as New Age movements), and increasing
cultural syncretism resulting from globalization and human migration

Contents

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1 Terminology
2 History
2.1 Classical West
2.2 Medieval West
2.3 Modern era
3 Arts and humanities
3.1 Music
3.2 Painting and photography
3.3 Dance and performing arts
3.4 Literature
3.5 Architecture
4 Scientific and technological inventions and discoveries
5 Media
6 Religion
7 Sport
8 Themes and traditions
9 See also
Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man. A
10 References
10.1 Notes symbol of the importance of empiricism
10.2 Further reading in Western culture since the
11 External links Renaissance.

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, as well as the
Hispanidad, the Lusosphere or the Francophonie in the
wider context. Since the context is highly biased and
context-dependent, there is no agreed definition what the
"West" is.
Plato, along with Socrates and
It is difficult to determine which individuals fit into which Aristotle, helped to establish Western
category and the EastWest contrast is sometimes philosophy.
criticized as relativistic and arbitrary.[18][19][20] Globalism

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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 Orientalismthe
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 The Beatles, the best-selling band in
Qing China for the first time, in the 19th century.[21] history, continue to influence the
Thus, the Sino-Japanese War in 18941895 occurred in western culture in advences in music
the Far East, while the troubles surrounding the decline of and fashion.
the Ottoman Empire simultaneously occurred in the Near
East.[22] The term Middle East, in the mid-19th
century, included the territory east of the Ottoman
Empire, but West of ChinaGreater Persia and
Greater Indiais now used synonymously with
"Near East" in most languages.

History
East and West in 1980, as defined by the Cold
The earliest civilizations which influenced the War. The Cold War had divided Europe
development of western culture were those of politically into East and West, with the Iron
Mesopotamia; the area of the TigrisEuphrates river Curtain splitting Central Europe.
system, largely corresponding to modern-day Iraq,
northeastern Syria, southeastern Turkey and
southwestern Iran: the cradle of civilization.[23][24]

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. Post-1990 Huntington's major civilizations
(Western is colored dark blue).
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.

Western culture is neither homogeneous nor unchanging. As with all other cultures, it has evolved

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and gradually changed over time. Nevertheless, it is

possible to follow the evolution and history of the
West, and appreciate its similarities and differences,
its borrowings from, and contributions to, other
cultures of humanity.

Classical West

In Homeric literature, and right up until the time of Map of the Western world including the
Alexander the Great, for example in the accounts of Anglosphere and the European Union. (2017)
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 The Roman Empire at its greatest extent.
formulation of Aristotle)
Alexander the Great 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. The history of Hellenism and Judaism is a history of interaction between

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the two cultures that heavily influenced the western civilisation.[25] Later, Christianity emerged
from Judaism on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean, and both spread around the Roman world,
with Christianity being the more popular religion. 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. 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,[15][26] 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. Two main symbols of the medieval
Under the Frankish kings, it eventually, and partially, western civilisation on one picture: the
reunified, and the anarchy evolved into feudalism. gothic St. Martin's cathedral in Spisk
Podhradie (Slovakia) and the Spi
Much of the basis of the post-Roman cultural world had Castle behind the cathedral.
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. 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.
Justinian I
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

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conquered by Rome).[27] 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 civilisation 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, [28] there was a
massive artistic, architectural, scientific and philosophical revival, as a result of an increased
interest for Classical antiquity. 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.[29] In 1054 came the
so-called Great Schism that, following the Greek East and
Latin West divide, separated Europe into religious and
The discovery of the New World by cultural regions present to this day. Until the Age of
Christopher Columbus. Enlightenment,[30] Christian culture took over as the
predominant force in western civilization, guiding the
course of philosophy, art, and science for many years.
[29][31] 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.[32][33][34] However, due
to the division in Western Christianity caused by the Protestant Reformation and the
Enlightenment, religious influenceespecially the temporal power of the Popebegan to
wane.[35][36]

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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[37] 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 contrastas the opposition of Christendom to its
geographical neighborsbegan 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 The United States
with toleration, science and skepticism. Constitution
Philosophers of the Enlightenment included Francis Bacon, Ren
Descartes, John Locke, Baruch Spinoza, Voltaire (16941778), David
Hume, and Immanuel Kant.[38] 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
La Libert guidant le
from solely religious texts. Publications include Encyclopdie
(175172) that was edited by Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond Peuple by French painter
d'Alembert. The Dictionnaire philosophique (Philosophical Dictionary, Eugne Delacroix
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.[39][40][41][42][43][44] While its dates are disputed, the publication in 1543 of
Nicolaus Copernicus's De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Heavenly

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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.[45] These transitions began in Great Britain, and spread to Western Europe and North
America within a few decades.[46]

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.[48][49][50] The precise start and end of A Watt steam engine. The steam
the Industrial Revolution is still debated among historians, as is engine, made of iron and fueled
the pace of economic and social changes.[51][52][53][54] GDP per primarily by coal, propelled the
capita was broadly stable before the Industrial Revolution and Industrial Revolution in Great
the emergence of the modern capitalist economy, [55] while the Britain and the world.[47]
Industrial Revolution began an era of per-capita economic
growth in capitalist economies.[56] 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[57] 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.
[58][59][60]

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.

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Music

The symphony, concerto, sonata, opera, and oratorio have their origins
in Italy. Many important musical instruments used by cultures all over
the world were also developed in the West; 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 important performing musical forms.

Many forms of popular music have been derived from African-

German composer and Americans, and their innovations of jazz and blues serve as the basis
pianist Ludwig van from which much of modern popular music derives. Folklore and
Beethoven. music during 19th and 20th centuries, initially by themselves, but later
played and further developed together with White and Black
Americans, British people, and Westerners in general. These include
jazz, blues and rock music (that in a wider sense include the rock and roll and heavy metal genres),
rhythm and blues, funk, hip hop, techno as well as the ska and reggae genres from Jamaica. Several
other related or derived styles were developed and introduced by Western pop culture such as pop
and dance music.

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.[61] 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.

Mona Lisa, by Bacchus, by Judith Slaying The Night Watch, by

Leonardo da Vinci Caravaggio Holofernes, by Rembrandt
Artemisia
Gentileschi

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Les Demoiselles The House on the Bella with White

d'Avignon, by Pablo Bridge, by Diego Collar, by Marc
Picasso Rivera Chagall

Dance and performing arts

The ballet is a distinctively Western form of performance dance.[62]

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.

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.

Literature
Classical music, opera
While epic literary works in verse such as the Mahabharata and and ballet. Swan lake
Homer's Iliad are ancient and occurred worldwide, the prose novel as a pictured (here, Zenaida
distinct form of storytelling, with developed, consistent human Yanowsky as Odette)
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[63] 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 (ca 60 CE) and the Tale of Genji by Murasaki
Shikibu (ca 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 it's 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.

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Homer, Ancient Sappho, Ancient Xenophon, Ancient Terence, Roman

Greek epic poet Greek poet Greek writer and playwright
historian

Virgil, Roman poet Dante Alighieri, Christine de Pizan, Miguel de Cervantes,

Italian (Florentine) French author Spanish playwright,
poet poet and novelist

William Joost van den Lus Vaz de Cames, Molire, French

Shakespeare, English Vondel, Dutch poet Portuguese poet playwright and actor
poet and playwright and playwright

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Margaret Cavendish, Voltaire, French Olympe de Gouges, Goethe, German

English philosopher, writer, historian and French playwright writer
poet, scientist, philosopher and political activist
fiction-writer, and
playwright

Jane Austen, English Mary Shelley, Lord Byron, English Victor Hugo, French
novelist English novelist poet poet and novelist

Edgar Allan Poe, Multatuli, Dutch Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Leo Tolstoy, Russian
American author, writer Russian writer writer
poet, editor and
literary critic

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Miles Franklin, Oscar Wilde, Irish Anton Chekov, Virginia Woolf,

Australian writer and playwright and Russian playwright English writer
feminist author and writer

Anna Akhmatova, Octavio Paz, Jorge Luis Borges, Pablo Neruda,

Russian poet Mexican writer and Argentinian writer Chilean poet
poet and poet

Machado de Assis, Gabriel Garca Ursula K. Le Guin,

Brazilian writer Mrquez, Colombian American novelist
writer

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.

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The Acropolis in The Colosseum in Sagrada Familia in The Pula Arena in

Athens, Greece. Rome, Italy. Barcelona, Spain. Pula, Croatia.

The Neuschwanstein The Hagia Sophia in Saint Sophia The Eiffel Tower in
Castle in Schwangau, Istanbul, Turkey. Cathedral in Kiev, Paris, France.
Germany. Ukraine.

The U.S. Supreme The Chapultepec The Winter Palace in The Sydney Opera
Court Building in Castle in Mexico St Petersburg, House in Sydney,
Washington, D.C., City, Mexico. Russia. Australia.
United States.

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The Palacio do Rietveld Schrder Palace of the

Planalto in Brasilia, House in Utrecht, Argentine National
Brazil. Netherlands. Congress in Buenos
Aires, Argentina.

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.[64][65]

The Western World has been the leading force in the technological and scientific disciplines: for
example 97 percent of all scientific discoveries occurred in Europe and North America. Britain,
France, Germany and Italy alone account for 72 percent of all the significant scientific figures in
science from 1400-1950. Add in Russia and the Netherlands, and 80 percent of all significant
figures are accounted for.[66] Furthermore 79% of the world's most important inventions were either
British or American.[67]

It was the West that first developed steam power and adapted its use into factories, and for the
generation of electrical 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,
communication and navigation satellites, mobile phone, and the Internet were all invented by
Westerners. The pencil, ballpoint pen, CRT, LCD, LED, 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, PVC and polystyrene were invented in the
West. Iron and steel ships, bridges and skyscrapers first appeared in the West. Nitrogen fixation and

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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 aeroplane 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, NMR,
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),
BiotSavart 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 explorations of the outer planets (Uranus in 1986 and Neptune in
1989), Voyager 1's passage into interstellar space (2013), and New Horizon's flyby of Pluto (2015)
were significant recent Western achievements.

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Pythagoras, Greek Hippocrates, Greek Euclid, Greek Archimedes, Greek

mathematician physician mathematician polymath

Hypatia, Greek Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo Galilei, Johannes Kepler,

mathematician and Italian polymath Italian polymath German
astronomer mathematician,
astronomer, and
astrologer

Isaac Newton, Sophie Germain, Pierre de Fermat, milie du Chtelet,

English French French French
mathematician, mathematician and mathematician mathematician and
astronomer, and physicist physicist
physicist

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Leonhard Euler, Carl Linnaeus, William Herschel, Ada Lovelace,

Swiss Swedish botanist, British astronomer English
mathematician, physician, and and composer mathematician and
physicist, zoologist programmer
astronomer, logician
and engineer

Carl Friedrich Gauss, Gregor Mendel, Louis Pasteur, Sofia Kovalevskaya,

German German scientist French biologist, Russian
mathematician microbiologist and mathematician
chemist

Charles Darwin, Agnes Pockels, Michael Faraday, Marie Curie, Polish

English biologist, German pioneer in English scientist physicist and chemist
naturalist and chemistry
geologist

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Max Planck, German Albert Einstein, Nettie Stevens, Thomas Edison,

theoretical physicist German theoretical American geneticist American inventor
physicist

Guglielmo Marconi, Inge Lehmann, Carlos Chagas, Gerty Cori, Czech-

Italian inventor and Danish seismologist Brazilian sanitary American biochemist
electrical engineer and geophysicist physician, scientist
and bacteriologist

James Clerk Rita Dorothy Hodgkin, Annie Jump Cannon,

Maxwell, Scottish Levi-Montalcini, British chemist American
scientist in the field Italian neuroscientist astronomer
of mathematical
physics

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Ernest Rutherford, Barbara McClintock, Nikola Tesla, Rosalind Franklin,

New Zealand-born American scientist Serbian-American English chemist and
British physicist and cytogeneticist inventor, engineer X-ray
and physicist crystallographer

Grace Hopper, Gertrude B. Elion,

American computer American biochemist
scientist and pharmacologist

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.[68]

In the 16th century, a decrease in the pre-eminence 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.[69]

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 1961 linking live media
broadcasts from the UK to the US. The first digital broadcast satellite (DBS) system began
transmitting in America in 1975.[70]

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Beginning in the 1990s, the Internet has contributed to a tremendous increase in the accessibility of
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).[71]

Religion
The native religions of Europe
were polytheistic but not
homogenoushowever they were
similar insofar as they were
predominantly Indo-European in
origin. Roman religion was similar
to but not the same as Hellenic
Border between Catholic religionlikewise the same for
Christianity, Protestant indigenous Germanic polytheism,
St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican
Christianity, Orthodox Celtic polytheism and Slavic
City.
Christianity and Islam. polytheism. Western culture, for at
least the last 1000 years, has been
considered nearly synonymous
with Christian culture.[72] 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 Christ the Redeemer in Rio de
equivalent to Christian culture, and many of the population of Janeiro, Brazil.
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.[15]

As in other areas, Judaism is found in the Western world. Minority groups, and Jews in particular,
often had to contend with discrimination and persecution. This could include being subjected to
violence and/or destruction of property (this may be referred to as a pogrom) as well as being
expelled or banned from various polities, hoping to find havens in other places.[73]

Religion has waned considerably in Europe, where many are today irreligious, agnostic or atheist
and they make up about 18% of the European population.[74] 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%),[75] Germany (25-33%),[76] France (3035%)[77][78][79] and the
Netherlands (3944%) are agnostic, atheist, or otherwise non-religious.

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However, per another survey by Pew Research Center from 2011, Christianity remains the
dominant religion in the Western world where 7084% are Christians,[80] According to this survey,
76% of Europeans described themselves as Christians,[80][81][82] and about 86% of the Americas
population identified themselves as Christians,[83] (90% in Latin America and 77% in North
America).[84] And 73% in Oceania are self-identify as Christian, and 76% in South Africa is
Christian.[80]

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.[85] 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%.[86] Non believer/Agnostic account 16%,[85] Atheist account's 7%,[85] and Muslim 2%.[85]

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 The Bull-Leaping Fresco from
years in a small village in the Peloponnesus called Olympia. the Great Palace at Knossos,
Baron Pierre de Coubertin, a Frenchman, instigated the modern Crete. Sport has been an
revival of the Olympic movement. The first modern Olympics
important part of Western cultural
were held at Athens in 1896.
expression since Classical
The Romans built immense structures such as the Colisseum in Antiquity.
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
Antiquitysuch 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.

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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 Baron Pierre de
number of popular modern sports were devised or codified in Britain Coubertin, founder of the
during the 19th Century and obtained global prominencethese International Olympic
include Ping Pong, modern tennis, Association Football, Netball and Committee, and
Rugby. considered father of the
modern Olympic Games.
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. From these American origins, basketball has become one of the
great international participation sports.

Professionalism in sport in the West became prevalent during the 20th Century, further adding to
the increase in sport's popularity, as sports fans began following the exploits of professional athletes
through radio, television, and the internetall while enjoying the exercise and competition
associated with amateur participation in sports.

Themes and traditions

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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.
Judeo-Christian ethical, philosophical, and mythological tradition, the Jewish and Christian
Bible
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 timesprior 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. This is especially noticeable
when compared to Eastern culture's historical lack of scientific innovation and advancements.

See also
Classical tradition
Culture during the Cold War
Eastern world
European diaspora
Christendom
Western religion
Western world
Westernization

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References
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civilization". Encyclopdia Britannica
10. Caltron J.H Hayas, Christianity and Western Civilization (1953),Stanford University Press, p. 2: That
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Further reading

Ankerl, Guy (2000). Global communication without universal civilization. INU societal
research. Vol. 1: Coexisting contemporary civilizations: Arabo-Muslim, Bharati, Chinese, and
Western. Geneva: INU Press. ISBN 2-88155-004-5

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Barzun, Jacques From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life 1500 to the
Present HarperCollins (2000) ISBN 0-06-017586-9.
Daly, Jonathan. "The Rise of Western Power: A Comparative History of Western Civilization
(http://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/the-rise-of-western-power-9781441161314/)" (London and
New York: Bloomsbury, 2014). ISBN 978-1441161314.
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External links

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