Chapter 4: The Western Civilization

Introduction

The Western civilization has developed instruments of reason, such as good understanding of physical nature and human culture through scientific knowledge, political freedom and democracy, etc. However, modern West has been less successful in some areas. For example, it was unsuccessful to find lasting and balanced solutions to social conflict among nations. In addition, Western civilization had no ability to regulate science and technology, which are not only improving conditions of life but also producing weapons of mass destruction. Furthermore, it had no mechanisms to avoid the development of totalitarian (Nazism), semi-totalitarian (Fascism). Therefore, the world wars and totalitarian movements of the 20th century have proven that Western civilization, despite its amazing achievements, is fragile and perishable.

However, the Western Civilization’s biggest motivation is relentless pursuit of progress, change, and rebuilding. This is reflected in the Italian Renaissance (15th century) ; the Enlightenment (18th century) ; the English Revolution (17th century) , French Revolution (18th century), and American Revolution (18th century); the Industrial Revolution (18th and 19th centuries); the Scientific and Technological Revolution (20th century) ; and the Information and Virtualization Waves (21st century).

The Origin of Western Civilization

Western civilization was a merger of two cultural zones that arose in the ancient world: the Judeo-Christian and the Greco-Roman. It was based on the four elements: The Hebrews, The Greeks, The Romans and the Early Christianity.

The Hebrews developed an awareness of the self, or I. In addition, Hebrews created the idea of moral freedom, that everyone is responsible for his or her own actions.

The Greeks. They brought the idea that human cause the community problems and finds the solutions. Law is an achievement of the rational mind rather than as a proclamation imposed by divinities. They also developed the idea of political freedom and the possibility of democratic and other political institutions. They believed that human mind comprehends the general rules of nature. This led to the search for truth, the collection of data, and the generation of theoretical explanations. The quest for truth was also associated for the admiration of beauty, exemplified in architecture, sculptures, pottery, and clothes.

The Romans learned the role of law in the acquired new states, allowing Roman jurists to demonstrate the virtues of pragmatism and common sense. In addition, they selectively incorporated elements of the legal codes and traditions of many nations into Roman law. Therefore, Roman law was defined by the universal principles of common rationality and humanity. The Romans built networks of good roads and aqueducts for supplying water. Economic problems caused the decline of the Roman Empire. In 476, the Roman Empire ended. The fall of Rome brought to decline social and intellectual life Trade, city life, central authority, and learning deteriorated or disappeared.

Fourth impact is the early Christianity. When the Roman Empire was in decline, a new religion, Christianity, began to reach out across the Mediterranean world and triumphed throughout Europe and the establishment of Germanic kingdoms. It was a new phase in Western history -- the end of ancient world and the beginning of the Middle Ages.

During the early Middle Ages (500 to 1050 CE) Christianity was at the center and Latin as the language of spiritual life. On 25 December 800, Pope Leo crowned Charlemagne the “Emperor of the West” in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. In addition, it was a mark for the foundation of the Holy Roman Empire, which survived from 1254 to 1806.

By the 13th century, Western (European) civilization began to advance in the basic institutions and ideas, such as universities, and representative assemblies. Nevertheless, all these developments happened in a very small area. Its center was in the North, in a triangle between Paris, Cologne, and London. The exterior countries did not share in all the manifestations of this civilization, such as Spain, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Poland, Bohemia, and Italy. Furthermore, beyond these countries the impact of this new civilization dropped off sharply. It was the Islamic Civilization.

Great voyages of exploration and significant mechanical inventions both began in the 15th century. Europeans occupied the three new continents – North America, South America and Australia. First time, many of the peoples of the world were brought into contact with a single civilization. Eventually, in the 21st century, Western Civilization transformed into Global Civilization.

Western – Jewish Civilization

One can identify many ways as a Jew. In a cultural light, as one who participates in the culture, language, theater, or literature of the Jewish people. From the Bible, Jewish people was a migrant. The great German sociologist Max Weber saw the Jews entering history as a tribal confederacy of peasants and husbandmen in quest of land. From there, the Jews went on to become hegemonic leaders in Canaan, create a series of kingdoms, and write The Bible, a foundational work for Western Civilization.

Do the Jews have a civilization? The authoritative Encyclopedia Judaica traces the complex history of a related issue: Jewish identity. There are some important historical developments for the appearance of this identity; Babylonian Exile, fall of Judea to Roman legions and the persecutions of the Jews by the Nazis. Beginning in 1948, all Jews became entitled to refuge in the state of Israel. Because the definitional issues are so complex and the question, “Who is a Jew” has constant debates. Maybe the summary, made by Eisenstadt, brought a suitable solution: “Jewish people not merely as a religious or ethnic group or nation or “people,” but as bearers of civilization”

The Rise of Christianity

Saint Paul (5 CE to 67 CE) had been the most important figure of the Apostolic Age and created numerous Christian churches. In addition, the result was that Christianity grew into a separate, universalistic faith that could appeal to all. Middle Ages, Christianity assumed the dominant position in intellectual thought and civilizational formation in Europe.

There are several significant events to improve the Christianity, four of which are particularly crucial: The Crusades, the Inquisition, Schism and Reformation.

The Crusades; a sequence of religious wars authorized by the Roman Catholic Church in the period of 11th. – 18th. centuries. The major goal was to capture the Eastern Mediterranean and other regions from Islamic rule. The wars were conducted for a variation of motives including defeating paganism and heresy, fixing conflicts among rival Roman Catholic clusters, and for political and land gain.

The Inquisition; a judicial institution that was organized in the 13th. century by the papacy and sometimes by secular governments, officially to contest heresy. It took place first in France (12th. century), but later in Spain, Portugal and in their colonies in Africa, Asia, and the Americas (exemplified by the Peruvian and Mexican inquisitions). The Inquisition was ended at the beginning of the 19th. century.

Schism; There was a political struggle for domination between the Latin Pope and the Greek Patriarch, and there were also certain doctrinal differences. In 1054, the quarrel gained so much intensity that a great Schism took place. Christianity was divided between the Roman Catholic Church and the Greek Orthodox Church.

Reformation; The revival of learning from the 14th. to the 17th. century is known as the Renaissance. Scholars who had studied philosophy began to question the Roman Catholic Church is teaching and the administration of the Church by its leaders. In 1517, Martin Luther manifested the 95 Thesis that was protest of the sale of indulgences (pardons for sins) and finally the Protestant Reformation began in Germany.

There are major differences between the Roman Catholic Church and the Protestant Church. The semi-divine Popes and clergy composed of the hierarchy ruled The Roman Catholic Church. The Protestant Churches, by contrast, have many different, theology-oriented branches. Briefly, The Protestant churches generally follow a simpler liturgy than does the Catholic Church.

The Civilizing Society of the Western Civilization

The roots of Western civilization are in Europe, where since the 15th. century, a series of revolutionary changes shaped society. Trade grew, towns were raised, printing originated, and information was disseminated; knowledge and gunpowder-equipped armies prompted local feudal supremacy structures to give way to centralized, absolute, well-managed monarchies. The Italian Renaissance (14th. century–17th. century) directed attention to new scholarship and increased curiosity for beauty and innovations.

Pioneer sailors from Portugal, Spain, Holland, and Italy began discovering the coasts of the oceans and invading lands. Globe-oriented trade paths took huge wealth (gold, silver, and slave trade) back to Europe, positively shifting its economy and society. While this wealth was arriving from colonies, Western Europe into two hostile camps. Protestantism prevailed in most of northern Europe, whereas the Roman Catholic Church kept its grip in southern Europe. All of these developments caused to rise of the contemporary Western secular society.

The growth of secularism produced enormous improvement in reasoning, first via the intellectuals of the Age of Enlightenment in the 18th. century.

Some European countries had been extending their rule overseas in North America, the Caribbean, the coast of northern Africa, and the Far East.

The American Revolution (1775-83) transformed a colonized society into a fully functioning independent nation. The colonists had decided to determine their own destiny. This policy led to the war for independence. By the end, a vast new republic, the United States of America.

The French Revolution of 1789, arguably the most significant event in thousands of years, was a powerful impetus to evaluation of hereditary monarchical governments. Soon this revolution shook the entire continent of Europe. Revolution brought three main idea; liberty, equality and fraternity. Revolution also introduced some heroes like Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821). France conquered much of Europe under the command of this general. In the end, the English beat Napoleon’s forces at the battle of Waterloo, in 1815.

The Industrial Revolution in England triggered the rapid development of education in Western civilization. The applications of machines required skillful engineers and workers. In addition, machines shortened the length of working day and people had more time to spend on education. Developments in education have some significant conclusions. For example, with the advent of the Industrial Revolution, education became more specialized and categorized by different kinds of professions; however, some elements of liberal arts education have remained central, as a form of general education, in most profession curricula. In Western civilization, the literacy rate is close to 100%, and the high school graduation rate ranges from 96% in Portugal downward.

The rapid development of globalization, triggered by the Internet, global transportation systems, and businesses has generated numerous implications for education in the 21st . century, such as transforming society from real to virtual, the rapid spread of the developing nations. Furthermore, China became the World Factory and India became the World Laboratory. However, Globalization threatened the localization and brought the clash of civilizations.

Government

The legacy of the French Revolution and the subsequent wars was a wish for better democracy and for more national self-determination. Italy, Central and Eastern Europe, and the Balkans were under control of multinational Empires (the Austrian, Russian, and Ottoman), and the various diverse nationalities within these empires typically sought either self-rule or independence. These struggles occupied center stage and resulted in two big new European states, Germany and Italy.

Several countries were taking great steps toward installing mature parliamentary systems of democracy (including free elections and independent press). It maintained that in the 19th. century.

After World War I, the Great Depression struck Western Civilization. This led to the rise of Fascism in Portugal, Spain and Italy, and Nazism in Germany. Those developments culminated eventually in World War II (1939-45). Europe then split into the political West (Western Civilization without Central Europe) and the political East (Soviet Union and its satellites). The Cold War began in 1945 between the West, which promoted democracy and capitalism, and the East, which practiced state communism and central planning. The Polish Revolution, from 1980 to 1989, led by the workers movement called “Solidarity,” was followed by the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.

European Union

It was the desire of France, after engaging in devastating wars three times with Germany (1871, 1914-18, and 1940- 45), to curtail any further hostilities with Germany; the two countries had once both found themselves in the empire of the Franks, so perhaps this situation could be imitated. The European Coal and Steel Community in 1951 became the first step for the EU. It members were France, West Germany, Luxemburg, Belgium, Holland, and Italy. These six countries thus became the core countries of the coming Western European unity.

Following this successful beginning for Western European integration, a series of similar steps were taken, and new organizations formed: the European Atomic Energy Community and then, the European Economic Community, formed in 1957.

In 1973, the original six were joined by Great Britain, Ireland, and Denmark. These nine lands now began calling themselves the European Community. By 1986 Spain, Portugal, and Greece were admitted, after three years of preparation. In 1993, the European Union was created, with a common currency (among 17 nations only), law, and a restructured European Parliament, European Commission, European Council, and Court of Justice. Through the next process of acquiring new members from political Eastern Europe, the European Union expanded to embrace 28 countries and 600 million consumers. It constitutes today the largest single trading entity.

Military

In 1949 the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was formed. It was to be an alliance of national military forces spearheaded by such democratic Western allies as the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Canada. In response, the Warsaw Pact was signed in 1955; it was to be a Soviet-led alliance of Eastern Europe’s military forces and its target was Western Europe during the period of the Cold War between the West and East.

A space race, triggered by the American and Russian efforts to expand arsenals of long-range nuclear missiles, concluded with the Americans transporting a man to the moon in 1969. It also led to the placement of many satellites in orbit around the globe, laying the foundations for historic progress in civilian communications, navigation, and land surveying through such technology as the Global Positioning System.

Economy and Quality of Life

The Cold War years from 1945 to 1991, unexpectedly, saw vast economic advances, especially for the Western Civilization. The United States provided or lent money on an immense scale (the Marshall Plan of 1948) to get European states, plus Japan, back on their feet after World War II and to stop the dissemination of communism. The standard of living grew intensely in the West.

The Civilizing Common Culture of the Western Civilization

There are some legacies of western culture; classical Greco-Roman culture, Italian Renaissance, liberal European culture (English, French), Soviet, Fascist, and Nazi cultures in the 20th. century, German culture, North American culture, Latin American culture, Slavic culture and the Scandinavian culture.

All of which have contributed, gradually, to defining the civilizing culture of the Western civilization in Europe and beyond from the 8th to 21st century: Christian religion, the Scientific Revolution, Enlightenment, Revolutions, Capitalist Mind, Socialist Mind, Democracy, EU, Globalization, etc.

The Civilizing Infrastructure of the Western Civilization

The Scientific Revolution of the 15th. to 17th. centuries replaced the motionless earth with a “mechanized” one. Gradually Newtonian science has become the science of Western Civilization as well as the whole world, and its mechanistic paradigm has led to the development of technology in the form of water pumps, engines, automobiles, railroads, and factory systems.

The term “Industrial Revolution” symbolized the shift from an agrarian, handicraft, labor-intensive economy to one dominated by machine-driven manufacturing, specialization of tasks, a free flow of capital, and the concentration of people in the cities of the emerging Industrial Society. Revolution brought significant renovations to humanity; factory system, railroads, steamboats, post office and telegraph, financial system, urbanization, per capita income, population growth, etc.

Major Trends of the Western Civilization Main trends of the Western Civilization are as fallows;

• The development of science, technology, and education,
• The development of mass-produced,
• The development of capitalism,
• The development of Industrial, Information, and Virtualization Waves,
• The development of the Globalization Wave,
• The development of the awareness of the necessity for the sustainable development of world civilization,
• The contribution to the war of civilizations (21st . century) due to the past colonialism and the clash of Westernization versus Modernization.