The Creation Of Western Civilization

The Origins of the Modern World by Robert B. Marks is a book about the historical changes that have happened in the period of 1400-1850. He shows that how Asia is the center prior of the 1800s not the standard Eurocentric and it 's a polycentric world in term of the world trade. In the Origins, he focuses on the economic history where geographical on China, India, and England. In the beginning of the book he starts with a summary of "Rise of the West" where he say " the west as dynamic, forward looking, progressive, and free, and Asia as stagnating, backward, and despotic. After that he started building up or narrating the historical events in five-chapters based on an his vision of the world history, and he does it in a way that makes the reader agree with him to get the main key of the historical concept such as conjuncture. Also he takes about the most advanced societies across the Eurasian (China and England) and the two economic structures ( biological old regime and trading networks). He also takes the importance of the Indian ocean and he sees it as the "most important crossroads for global exchanges of goods, ideas, and culture" when Europe was " a peripheral, marginal player trying desperately to gain access to the sources of wealth generated in Asia. He brings a very good evidence that pictures the traditional China 's technological and Naval superiority, of the "well-developed market system" in Asia. Also he showed he superior quality of the Indian cottons and the

The author, Robert B. Marks introduces the book, The Origins of the Modern World by introducing the reader to a global narrative of the origins of the modern world starting from 1400 to the present. The book presents the rise of the west as an issue of globalization of Asia, Africa, and the New World. Throughout the book, we see the connection made by the author between the environmental condition and the present economic status of a particular place. By the end of the book, readers are able to understand and reason out what created and solidified a gap between the east and the west, industrialized and non-industrialized and parts of the world that today are defined as the modern world.

The first civilizations, the foundations for future empires, were all founded and created between 3500 B.C.E. and 500 B.C.E. by groups of nomadic peoples who decided to settle in an area for certain group specific reasons. Some of the main states of the first civilization were Mesopotamia, Norte Chico, Egypt, Indus Valley, China, and Olmec. The second wave civilizations, built between 500 B.C.E. and 500 C.E., included the Persians, the Greeks, Romans, Chinese (Qin and Han), and India (Mauryan and Gupta). The first wave civilizations were sparked by the agricultural movement that led to the settlement of large groups of people in areas that became the cities and states that formed these first civilizations. The rise of civilization led to

From 1450 to 1750 C.E., the Europeans were beginning to settle in the Western part of Europe in places such as: France, Ireland, Spain, Portugal, the United Kingdom, and many more. Like many other of the surrounding countries and empires, the Europeans began to question many of the hierarchies in Europe at the time such as the Catholic Church by asking “Should we trust their process or attempt to reform?” or even “Should we ignore the intentions of the church and start something completely new that we believe is better for the people?” The development of both the Protestant Reformation and the Age of Enlightenment began to answer these questions and enforce their beliefs in European society. Through the inspiration of the “needed” change of tradition in European society the Protestant Reformation sought to bring back the early versions of Christianity, while the Age of Enlightenment sought to abandon Christianity and move forward. But both the Protestant Reformation and the Age of Enlightenment sought to focus on similar moral tenants such as the belief of individualism and the use of reason to analyze text. Overall, both the Protestant Reformation and the Age of Enlightenment in Europe desired to move away from the selfish, incompetent, and lazy Catholic Church of that time, and either move forward or reform to stabilize European thinking for centuries to come.

Characteristics of Western Civilization can be found in many different ancient civilizations. Ancient Greece has had the most influence on western civilization. Aspects of western civilization such as philosophy, Western values, and science were all influenced by ancient Greek. The roots of western civilization can be traced back to four thousand years ago, in ancient Greece.

The past centuries saw a clear distinction between the Western civilization and the non-western culture. The western civilization composed of Greece, Romans, Byzantine Empire, and the European while the non-western civilizations included East Asia, Egypt, Persian Empire, Sassanid Empire, African Societies and Kingdoms, Incas, Mayans, Aztecs, and Mongols. For a long period, the western civilizations prevailed around the world. They influenced, lead and controlled others in various sectors such as medicine, clothing, business orientations, religion, and government. In this paper, I will be affirming my conviction that the western civilizations had unique attributes that made them more powerful than the non-western civilizations. I will also show how the western cultures were influenced by the spread of Christianity, and how the western cultures have maintained their great influence and power over the other societies even in the modern era.

In Western Civilization there have been a few incredible people and events that would have an absolutely unbelievable effect on their current events and the future. Some of these people and events include Martin Luther and the Reformation, Elizabeth I, the American Revolution, Henry the VIII and Napoleon Bonaparte. They would create a lasting effect in not only their countries but also the world as well.

For this reason, Pope Loe IX led other church officials in implementing reform efforts that would see ensure that the church could get back its lost power. For this reason, Pope Loe IX gave orders to the Roman Catholic clergy to dismiss the church officials that had taken part in selling church offices, and to renounce their wives (McKay et al., 2014). The orders were essential for ensuring that the church could control the corruption that was becoming rampant in the church. The measures were also essential for sending a message to the secular leaders, which was presumably an indication that they were working on regaining their lost power. After the death of Pope Leo, Gregory VII, Leo’s successor, continued with the reform work based on his ideological foundation (McKay et al., 2014). One of the reforms was the expelling of secular influence within church and the papal institution, which led to the expansion of the papal powers. such reforms solved the problems that the church was facing, which means that they were appropriate for the realization of the predetermined

Before the Enlightenment, every law and every decision was made and accepted, only by the King. There was a traditional social structure consisting of the monarchy on the top, followed by the nobles and clergy, and then all of the lower class on the bottom, which included peasants, merchants, and craftsman. When the people of the Western a Society began to receive ideas from Enlightenment scholars and thinkers, the began to realize how wrong the ways of the King were. They began to revolt against and disagree with these ways of the King. These people, motivated by the ideas of the Enlightenment, challenged the traditional social and political structures of the Western society to eventually lead to human rights for everyone.

Arnold Pacey published Technology in World Civilization: A Thousand Year History in the year 1991. Arnold Pacey was an associate lecturer at The Open University in Britain as well as an author to three additional books: Meaning in Technology, The Maze of Ingenuity, The Culture of Technology. He published all four of his books within a ten-year span. Arnold Pacey was trained as an engineer but is well known as a historian of technology because of the conclusions he drew of society and technology and their relationship. Society is defined as the aggregate of people living together in a more or less ordered community. Technology is defined as the application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes, especially in industry. Technology influences every aspect of our lives today, but we often forget that it profoundly affected the lives of past generations dating back to the beginning of civilization. Perhaps not to today’s extent, but the impact was still dramatic. New inventions or innovations produced more food, created new processes and tools, made life easier and made war more devastating. This course traces the evolution of technology and its impact on civilization from the creation of elementary tools up to today’s latest devices and even looks into future technologies.

From the sixteenth to the eighteenth century, Europe went through a period of intense thorough transformation. Even though religious wars in Europe had ended by the end of the seventeenth century through the Treaty of Westphalia, Religion was not the only matter that generated conflict among Europeans. The intellectual atmosphere generated by the age of Enlightenment generated conflict with the Roman Catholic Church as well as with the Monarchial authorities because many European and Euro-American thinkers made use of reason to study the natural world as well as human behavior, doubting the fairness of their religious, economic, social, and political systems. As a result, many enlighten thinkers, commonly known as philosophes, questioned the principles of absolutism, a form of government in which the monarchs had the exclusive right to make laws, and formed new ideas of liberty and progress, which were distributed across Europe and the Americas. Even though some European thinkers defended the traditional system of absolutism, the Age of Enlightenment lead to a series of revolutions in Europe and Euro-America that promoted the notion of selfdom and influenced the creation of new governmental systems, challenging and ultimately weakening the traditional system of European royal absolutism.

Niall Ferguson’s thesis in his book “Civilization: The West and the Rest,” is to explain and prove why western civilization has exceeded the accomplishments of other nations throughout history up until present day. He attributes this world dominance to six “killer applications” the west had adopted and advanced beyond the means of any other civilizations. These applications were: competition, science, private property, medicine, consumption, and work.

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

Enlightenment philosophers, like Voltaire, railed against organized theocracies and argued that religion prevented rational inquiry while it endorsed repression, tyranny and war. The philosophy of Immanuel Kant, who sought, “liberation of the human mind from the dogmatic state of ignorance,” had a major impact on the future ideology of revolutionaries.4 It was Enlightenment ideas which challenged people to question religious orthodoxy and use their own intelligence to draw conclusions about the legitimacy of traditional authority. These philosophies were the foundation of modern, egalitarian, democratic societies which would later replace Louis XVI’s absolutist monarchy. Enlightenment ideals had profound effects upon the politics of the early and mid-nineteenth century. However, a severe backlash against rationalism and liberal ideologies in France caused the return of church-state power; while conversely, in the state of Prussia, Enlightenment ideals inspired a suppression of the church’s power.5 Whether or not Enlightenment ideals and values were able to root themselves permanently in society, the introduction and widespread acceptance of secular ideas created major changes across Europe.

Over the course of human history, order within society, through its many facets, has been considered to be a vital part of the development and maintenance of civilization. One such aspect of order, however, is arguably more important than all other characteristics: the creation and usage of social constructs. A social construct is defined as a social mechanism, phenomenon, or category created and developed by society, which aids in either the development or regression of society as a whole. While more commonly known constructs such as race and gender shape the mindsets of societies and civilizations as a whole over periods of time, the consequences of the existence of the construct itself can have both a positive or negative affect. Additionally, many social constructs are interconnected with each other, not exactly through topic matter but rather by the relationships and connections they establish with aspects of society and its influence upon it. However, race and gender are not the only constructs that shape mindsets and opinions, many lesser known ones also affect changes within society. Such examples include the constructs of higher education and gender bias, two seemingly different aspects of society and ideals. However, although they do not explicitly mention each other, Linda Lee and Anne Fausto-Sterling establish a clear connection between the two, especially in their dealings with societal development in their respective essays “The Case Against College” and