The Characteristics Of The Western And Non-Western Civilizations

This essay will explore the rise of the West through examination of the evolution of European civilization. The theories and works of numerous authors, regarding how and why the Great Divergence occurred, will be considered; mainly the role of government, technological development and culture. Ultimately, it will be clear that the struggle for power in Europe led to a shift in the culture of Europe, which eventually led to the rulers that were vying for power making decisions that benefited their subjects rather than the government or church. Thus, the Great Divergence can be linked to the contrasting ideologies of the West and those of

In regard to the rest of the postclassical world, Western Europe was well behind politically, economically and technologically. It chose to adapt the advancements of other civilizations rather than creating its own. Yet because of their geographical position and lack of political unity, Western Europe was not required to be as advanced as the rest of the postclassical world. Instead, Western Europe was defined by a desire to emulate the Roman Empire, Christian authority, learning and philosophy and political and economical systems based on relations between different classes.

Civilization: The West and the Rest, presented by Niall Ferguson, is a documentary in which Ferguson reveals what he calls the six killer applications which has helped Western civilization dominate over everyone else. These six applications are competition, science, property, medicine, consumerism, and work. Ferguson asks many questions over the course of the series as well as provides examples as to how Western civilization has surpassed other nations and empires. Ferguson’s main question in each episode is, “If we lose our monopoly over apps like these, could Western civilization be consigned to history.” This paper will analyze Ferguson’s questions and the examples he provides for the killer applications of competition, science, property, medicine, consumerism, and work, as well as his conclusions as to why the West has risen to the top, how the rest are passing up the West, as well as his conclusions to if the West can remain above the rest.

Lars Brownworth took the pleasure of writing the novel “Lost to the West.” Where within this he elaborates on a period of history that is seamlessly ignored in history. Courses instructing this discipline habitually over look the ‘new’ Rome deeming it insignificant. Brownworth’s dominant emphasis is too merely educate his readers on this gap in history. Which he does commendably however; his interpretations are not ineludibly bipartisan and quite candidly that leads to the book to be less successful in its purpose. These biases include: subjectively identifying other nations, glorifying his obviously favorite emperors and villain-zing his less favorite. While his approach is chronologically adequate he plagues his book by not only the previously stated biases, but creating the book too brief, and having to decide what information is substantial to retain; which he decides.

First, Mr. Stark is a Social Science Professor at Baylor University, who is well versed to tell the story of Western Civilization. Mr. Rodney Stark the Author of How The West Won, is committed to truth, with a willingness to go out on a limb for truthful historical data that may be “barbaric” to today’s society, but in fact, he wrote about a part of the true history. His story telling from a historical point of view is fantastically told. Some of the many things he writes about: the western civilization did shape the rest of the world, uniquely, through the early times of Mesopotamia, through Greek culture, Roman Empire and on to modern eras. Additionally, how the ancient Greek culture survived

The civilizations, as identified by Huntington are Sinic [Chinese or Confusious], Japanese, Hindu, Islamic, Orthodox [Russian], Western [Europe, North American, Australia, New Zealand], Latin American and possibly African. And it is among these groups that share a “common interest and common values” and have a “common culture or civilization” that will lead to more interdependence on members of the same civilization and less dependent on the West. Huntington’s theory is that the West has had [at one time or another] a negative impact on every other civilization, and this has led to a decline of power and influence around the world, especially the Islam civilization. Therefore he predicts, “the fault lines between civilizations will be the battle lines of the future.”

The Byzantine Empire, the successor of the Roman empire, is one of many religious civilizations that existed in the first millennium. While it was a Christian realm, simultaneous empires were to be found with other religious-political doctrines, such as the Islamic Umayyad, Abbasid and Fatimid empire and Buddhist China. This high diversity of beliefs, which shaped the entire societal and political structure, has undoubtedly influenced each others at a certain extent, and it was the case of Byzantium, which, after several moments of rise and decline, saw several political and religious reforms in an effort to centralize worship characteristics and create a more homogenous population. Perhaps one of the most significant of these refinements and one feature that displays the relevance of external influence is the beginning of Iconoclasm. Meanwhile, in the Asian continent, and particularly in China, a new religious-political dogma was emerging, known as Neo Confucianism. In this paper I shall discuss the iconoclast controversy, as an attempt to unify religious practices and beliefs, and its

While learning about the Western Hemisphere civilizations I have noticed a few similarities between them. For example, the Anasazi and the Woodland cultures both grew and cultivated their own food, such as corn (Ancient America Lecture, Slide 24 and 29). Another similarity that I found was that the Incas and the Aztecs both worshiped the sun god (Ancient America Lecture, Slide 41 and 48). On the other hand, I noticed a couple differences between the civilizations. For instance, both the Mayans and Aztecs performed human sacrifices regularly, but the Incas did not (Openstax, Chapter 1, section 7 and 13). The Incas would instead offer the gods food, clothes, and coca leaves and would only perform human sacrifices in times of dire emergency (Openstax,

The shaping of any culture requires adaptation to their environment and its problems, such as economical, social and geographical, and the learning from these in order for their culture to live by and survive. The Christian Church would prove the most important in shaping a new European religious civilization. In as much as Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam undergirded civilizations in Asia and Africa, Christianity served as the basic unifying force that held together the new European civilization. (Sivers 2015) This process entails having the ability of shaping ones behavior in order to survive and have this same behavior passed onto the following generations.

In Samuel P. Huntington’s article “The West: Unique, Not Universal,” he addresses his audience with a very controversial question: Is Western Culture universal or unique? Huntington elaborately opens up this question with research and examples to explain and persuade readers that the West will never be a universal culture for all, but rather a unique culture that will be accepted by those who appreciate it. For decades now, historians and scholars have debated with one another to determine who is right and wrong. However, from a handful of articles from different scholars, Samuel Huntington’s statement that the West is unique rather than universal is supported and even further elaborated on by these particular sources. A common understanding between all the sources, that must be noted, is that a civilization’s culture is not comprised of material goods but rather their culmination of their religion(s), values, language(s) and traditions. While although there are scholars out their that negate the West is unique, a large amount of scholars still argue and strengthen Huntington’s argument that the West has unique and exclusive characteristics that make them distinctive and rare.

Western Civilization from 1589 to 1914 had many specific changes that contributed to the structure of the western world before World War I. In the absolutism state sovereignty is embodied in the person of the ruler. Kings were absolute kings and were resposible to no none except god. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries absolute rulers had to respect the fundamental laws of their land. They had to control competing jurisdictions, institutions or groups that were interested in their territory. They regulated religious sects. France of Louis was the classic model of absolutism. Louis XIV, " the sun king," was a devoted Catholic who believed that god had estalblished kings as rulers on the earth. The French language and culture became

The rise of the West refers to a period of time when Western Europe rose to power due to many environmental, political, and social factors. Many historians attribute the Rise of the West to the time period of 1450 to 1850. This power surge of Western Europe has been attributed to the global dominance of Western Europe and America in the 21 century. The interesting aspect regarding the Rise of the West is how Western Europe developed so differently from other parts of the world, leading it to be the superpower of the world. Over the past 50 years, the idea of the rise of the West has been closely re-examined. Prior to the 1950s, historians believed that the rise of the West occurred because it was destined to; because Europe is the best and

Western culture and policies have shaped the modern world, especially the Middle East, in many ways. Since the sixteenth century, the nations of Western civilization have been the driving wheels of modernization. Globalization is simply the spread of modern institutions and ideas from one high power to the wider world. Technological innovation and economic growth along with such concepts as democracy, individualism, and the rule of law administered by an impartial judiciary, set Western societies above and beyond any possible rival. Other cultures looked to the West as a model, a threat, or some combination of both. One country that was most successful in their confrontations with Western states was Japan, who incorporated Western

Western Civilization has had a tremendous influence on many different cultures worldwide. From the Hispanic cultures in South and Central America, to the Caribbean islands, and also to the various exotic African countries, and even to the distinguished cultures that reside in the continent of Asia. In many ways than one, these cultures have been molded to be as westernized as they could possibly be without losing their traditional customs indefinitely. They’re religion, fashion sense, and family structures have all been altered in some form so that it could resemble the western nation’s patriarch. Countries in North America and Europe have for centuries traveled to different continents in the world and colonized many nations, as a result of that, many of the customs and traditions of those people have been shaped to be a bit more westernized.

The term “behavior” refers one’s acts dominated by ideology in response to certain situations. Behavior derives from the long development of culture in which people are defined what is supposed to act based on the identity given. In other words, one’s behavior sometimes is the demonstration of one’s identity. Living in a multi-culture world, people from various cultures may behave totally different toward a situation or stimulus. Western and eastern cultures typically reflects the point of behavioral differentiations among distinct cultures. The United States, as a superpower established in last hundreds of years, possesses distinguishing features of western culture such as open and liberty. Meanwhile, China is an eastern country with an ancient civilization stands for conservative culture. Therefore, as represents of these two cultures, the United States and China are appropriate examples to explore the behavioral differentiations, and the differences in behavior can be well demonstrated through daily behaviors like classroom, driving and dining.