Occidens - Introduction

Introduction

Western culture originated in the Mediterranean basin and its vicinity; Greece and Rome are often cited as its originators. Over time, their associated empires grew first to the east and west to include the rest of the Mediterraneanan and Black Sea coastal areas, conquering, absorbing, and being influenced by many older great civilizations of the ancient Near East (i.e. Phoenicia, Phoenician rooted Carthage and also Egypt); later, they expanded to the north of the Mediterranean Sea to include Western, Central, Southeastern, Eastern and Northern Europe. Christianization of Bulgaria (9th century), Christianization of Kievan Rus' (Russia, Ukraine, Belarus; 10th century), Christianisation of Scandinavia (12th century) and Christianization of Lithuania (14th century) brought the rest of European states to the Western civilisation.

Historians, such as Carroll Quigley (Evolution of Civilizations), contend that Western civilization was born around 400 AD, after the total collapse of the Western Roman Empire, leaving a vacuum for new ideas to flourish that were impossible in Classical societies. In either view, between the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the Renaissance, the West experienced a period of considerable decline, known as the Middle Ages, which include the Dark Ages and the Crusades.

The knowledge of the ancient Western world was partly preserved during this period due to the survival of the Eastern Roman Empire and the institutions of the Catholic Church; it was also greatly expanded by the Arab importation of both the Ancient Greco-Roman and new technology through Arabs from the India and China to Europe. Since the Renaissance, the West evolved beyond the influence of the ancient Greeks and Romans and the Islamic world due to the Commercial, Scientific, and Industrial Revolutions, and the expansion of the peoples of Western and Central European empires, and particularly the globe-spanning empires of the 18th and 19th centuries. Numerous times, this expansion was accompanied by Christian missionaries, who attempted to proselytize Christianity.

Generally speaking, the current consensus would locate the West, at the very least, in the cultures and peoples of Europe, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and a great part of Central and South America like Argentina and Brazil. There is debate among some as to whether Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) is in a category of its own. An argument supporting Central and Eastern Europe being a part of the West is that Central European, Southeastern European and Baltic countries such as Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Bulgaria and Romania are now part of the European Union and NATO, which mostly comprise Western countries. These countries were both heavily influenced by and influenced the Western World, and share sociological values and culture. Greece and Cyprus are geographically not located in western Europe, are usually considered a part of the Western world. This is because Western culture has Greek roots and partly due to political and economic reasons. Russia is often not counted as a part of the Western World. However, Russian culture (particularly literature, music and painting) is classified as a part of the Western culture.