Western Culture: countries, religion and characteristics

We explain what Western culture is and which countries make it up. Also, its general characteristics, religion, politics and more.

What is Western Culture?

Western culture or Western civilization is called a loosely defined set of countries, cultures, languages ​​and religions typical of the western hemisphere of the world, as opposed to the eastern cultures or civilizations of the east of the planet.

Western culture It has as its cradle the Egyptian, Sumerian and Greco-Roman antiquityand covers the various cultures originating (or not) in Europe, North Africa, the Balkans and certain territories of the Middle East, especially those that were part of the Roman Empire or that are linked to the biblical and Christian tradition.

It is, however, about a concept little rooted in geography, and more in the philosophical, artistic, ethnic and cultural traditions that define the Western and Eastern ‘way of being’ respectively. Western nations are supposed to share certain minimal defining traits that, in their diversity, unite them philosophically and culturally.

See also: European Union.

Origin of the term West

The term ‘West’ began to be used in Europe, in times prior to the imperial expansion of the Modern Era and the very idea of ​​nation-states. It was used to distinguish by opposition the citizens of Catholic Europe, often engaged in religious struggles against Islam, from those who belonged to Arab, Slavic, African or Asian cultures, with which they had historically tense relations.

Thus, it began to divide the world into two hemispheres: the Western, under European command, and the Easternunder the command of the various Asian or Middle Eastern empires and kingdoms. This idea was later extended to the European colonies around the world, many of which are not geographically located in the West, such as Australia.

Definition of the West

There is no clear and concise definition of the West, as has been seen. But in general terms it could be summarized in five cultural coordinates common to all current Western nations:

Occidental countries

In the contemporary world, the following countries are considered to be members of the Western world:

• Europe. United Kingdom (England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales), France, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, Portugal, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Ireland, Finland, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, Greece, Cyprus, Malta, Romania, Bulgaria and the so-called European “micro-states”, such as the Vatican or Luxembourg.
• America. The United States, Mexico, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, El Salvador, Panama, Cuba, Venezuela, Dominican Republic, Peru, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Chile, Ecuador, Puerto Rico, Bolivia, Belize, Nicaragua and Honduras.
• Africa. The Republic of South Africa.
• Middle East. Israel.
• Oceania. Australia and New Zealand.

4. Western religions

Although it is recognized that Christianity is the main religious and mystical support of the West, the following religions are recognized within it:

• Catholic. Whose sole representative is the Catholic Church based in the Vatican.
• Protestant. It brings together a set of Christian sects resulting from the reform of Martin Luther in the 16th century, such as the Lutheran, Calvinist, Anglican, Evangelical Churches, etc.
• Judaism. The Jewish nation, despite not being Christian, is recognized as part of Western religious thought.

5. The Western State

Western nations share certain defining traits among themselves, which have to do with their political and philosophical heritage, as well as their particular formation process, as is the case of:

• Separation between State and Religion. Since the end of the Middle Ages, religion was gradually displaced from political power and became an intimate, almost personal matter, which has nothing to do with the laws.
• Rule of Law. Western countries were built on the Roman notion of respect for the law, that is, that there is a set of rules of the game to which all citizens agree to submit and that regulate daily life.
• The rule of law. The exercise of citizenship in the West aims, at least in theory, at the construction of a society in which all citizens are equal before the law and must respond to the same sanctions and enjoy the same rights without distinction.
• Consumer society. Although there are nations that have tried to contravene this capitalist principle that organizes societies around the production and satisfaction of their needs through capital (such as Cuba), and that not only Western nations are governed by said principle, He links it as such with Western consumerism as a result of bourgeois society and the Industrial Revolution.

Western languages

Western languages ​​are, broadly speaking, those derived from Indo-European, mostly derived from Latinthe Slavic or Germanic languages, despite the fact that some others such as Hungarian, Basque (Basque), Finnish or the pre-Columbian languages ​​that survived the conquest do not have a known root.

Westernization

Many regions of the world have been forcibly westernizedwhether through commercial mechanisms or cultural colonization, if not through the occupation of their territories by Western powers that have left their mark.

Such is the case of Japan, for example, whose Asian roots have nothing to do with the West, but which after the American occupation shows obvious signs of westernization.

The same could be said of the large European colonies in the world, such as some African and Asian countries or the continents of America and Oceania.

Differences with the East

The philosophical, political and ethnic differences between the West and the East date back to time immemorial. The ancient Greeks were constantly invaded by the Persian Empireand its defensive military exploits (or offensive, such as the conquest of Troy, located in modern-day Turkey) are part of the history (military, literary, political) of the West, as well as the sieges of Islam on Christian Europe, the crusades against the Moros in the ‘Holy Land’, or even in the 20th century the political and strategic struggle between the United States and its allies and the Soviet Union and the League of Arab Nations.

At the same time, it is often said that the East of the world houses ways of life and philosophies that are complementary to the Western vision, and that is why There has been a growing appreciation in the West for ritual practices and mystics from India, China and other Asian cultures.

Exceptions of the West

The concept of ‘the West’ does not seem to include cultures that are nevertheless very close to it both geographically and historically, such as Viking Culture of Northern Europethe American Pre-Columbian culture (what remains of it) or the African culture itself.

The decline of the West

Much has been said about the supposed decline of Western culture and civilization, especially after the painful imprint left by the 20th century and its two World Wars (First and Second), which led to numerous traumas and a kind of spiritual and philosophical dead end.