I don’t like the term Western civilization. It presupposes a false dichotomy between West and East. In essence there is simply civilization. As I have said before I make reference to the field of political anthropology (Johnson and Earle) and the rather clear evidence that there is a spectrum of development from primate bands, to various tribal configurations, to early states and finally to the creation of a global civilization. It is an historical arc that has its ups and downs but that also has an historical inevitability about it.
Civilization does not belong to any one ethnic or cultural configuration, instead it is the accumulation of discovery and novelty from every corner of the planet. The analogy is the national dish of Italy, pasta. Noodles were invented in China and brought to Italy by Marco Polo and tomatoes are indigenous to South America. The English enjoy tea from China and the French enjoy coffee, indigenous to North Africa and introduced to Europe via Arabia (and thence exported to South America). These are trivial examples but they reveal the reality of ‘Western’ civilization, which is that it is not necessarily Western at all.
The word Western is based on a false geographical line. It dates from the time of the Holy Roman empire, when Catholicism was based in Rome. The old Eastern Roman empire had become predominantly Eastern Orthodox and the line is an abstract separation between Rome and Constantinople, despite the fact that under this system Christianity becomes an ‘Middle Eastern’ religion.
Tribal cultures develop into states whenever and wherever the conditions are right. I don’t need to explain the history in detail, it’s relatively non-controversial. The oldest civilizations are reckoned to be Egypt and Sumeria (and possibly Mohenjo-Daro and China). ‘Western’ civilzation still uses the Sumerian duodecimal system to reckon time and measure geographical distance (360 degrees divided into 60 minutes and 60 seconds). Western astrology is really Sumerian astrology.
Of course Ancient Greece has had a big impact on ‘Western’ civilization, but the Greeks were primarily focused on Persia and India to the East. When Alexander initiated his conquests he went East, not West. Indeed, scratch the surface deeper and you find linguistic links between Sanskrit and many European languages, hence the term Indo-European.
The indigenous culture of the West, the culture of the Vikings, Celts, Gauls and Druids has been largely lost, replaced by the Eastern Greco-Roman and Christian cultures.
Much is made of the Renaissance and the Enlightenment as defining moments in the creation of ‘Western’ civilization, but as we all know these periods simply marked the rediscovery of Classical Eastern culture. Nor was it the Europeans that kept the flame of Eastern civilization alive. It was Islam. When the Christians had gained control of the Western Roman empire they attempted to extinguish the flame of Eastern civilzation. Emperor Justinian closed the philosophical schools and the Christians went on an orgy of book burning and violence to suppress all heretical and ‘pagan’ beliefs. The Classical tradition reappeared in the Christian world after European travellers encountered Arabic translations of Greek works, particularly in Islamic Spain.
There really is no ‘Western’ civilization, so why use the term? As far as I’m concerned it’s used by the intellectually lazy and those with a political agenda, particularly a leftist, anti-imperialist agenda. One of the false impressions the post-colonial critique gives, particularly in the hands of those who see themselves as victims of ‘Western’ colonialism, is that imperialism and colonialism is the fault of ‘white’ Europeans. It isn’t. Imperialism and colonialism occurs as a result of state expansion. The history of China is the history of such expansion with several emperors attempting to gain control of regional competitors, first within China and then in neighbouring cultures. If you travel throughout Asia, through Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, etc, to Korea and Japan you easily see the influence of Chinese culture on the region, in architecture, in astrology, in clothing. Japan essentially borrowed Chinese culture almost in total.
Indian culture expanded into Burma, Thailand, Cambodia and down to Indonesia. The island of Bali is the last remaining Hindu culture in the region, the invading Muslim culture almost wiped out the Hindu and Buddhist kingdoms of SE Asia.
The reasons why cultures rise and fall are complex, sometimes they collapse due to internal pressures, at other times they are defeated by superior military strength. South America may very well have been conquered by Muslims. Colombus ‘discovered’ the Americas in 1492, the same year his Queen, Isabella finally expelled the Muslims from their last stronghold, Granada. Columbus would not have been able to travel to the Americas without the advances made in navigation by Muslims. Would the Muslims have been less violent ‘Conquistadors’ than the Christians? Maybe, but they would still have brought the same European diseases and insisted on conversion to Islam. Why didn’t Muslims travel further west? We don’t know. Perhaps they thought there was nothing to be found. They had the capacity, they had been going on trade and slave capturing missions as far north as Ireland and Iceland (and entire Irish town was captured as slaves) and Islam had expanded east into India.
There are many accidents in history, Australia was a month away from becoming a French colony (or maybe not, La Perouse, who landed in Botany Bay just after Captain Cook, wasn’t very impressed).
There is another resaon for the success of civilizations and that is adaptability and openess. Closed cultures tend to decline. There was a point in history when Islam decided to close its doors to innovation. Rather than be ‘conquered’ by Europeans they actually surrendered through neglect. The clerics became fearful of change and instead of continuing the process of scientific innovation they handed the ball to Christian Europe (Islamic Spain was around two hundred years ahead of Northern Europe in medicine). The Ottoman Empire turned its back on many European innovations (except weaponry).
The point is that there was historical momentum to global expansion. It was never a question of ‘if’ America, Africa and Australia would be colonized but ‘when’ and by whom. The critics of the European slave trade ignore the fact that Arabs had colonized North Africa well before the Europeans and one of their main exports was slaves to serve the Muslim elites. The history of the Muslim slave trade is a neglected area of study, after all, the Europeans learnt the trade from the Arabs (and slavery still exists in parts of Islamic North Africa and the Janjaweed are simply doing what they have been doing for centuries, harvesting the black and infidel tribes of Sudan). If the Muslims had conquered South America they would have enslaved the indigenous tribes and imported African slaves – the entire Islamic economy was based on slavery and conquest.
It really was an accident of history that the Northern Europeans became the great global colonizers and there is no evidence to suggest they were worse or better than any other expansionist power.
The downside of any imperialist expansion is that the elites of the conquering power benefit and become wealthy at the expense of the conquered. In South America the elites of Meso-American empires benefitted from the enslavement of local tribes. The Spanish elites simply replaced the Aztec elites, at least the Spanish didn’t require human sacrifice.
The problem isn’t that ‘Western’ elites benefit, but that elites in general benefit. It’s simply racist to claim that there is a ‘Western’ imperialism and that ‘European’ culture has been more oppressive than any other culture in an expansionist phase.
There is also a considerable deal of hypocrisy on the part of non-European cultures who say they are trying to defend their ‘traditions’. The major ‘Western’ cities are actually the most culturally diverse places in the world. My own city of Melbourne has every culture represented in the faces on the street (the latest are Sudanese and Somalian, and Indian immigration has increased rapidly – according to the latest census Hinduism is the fastest growing religion). There are around 200 languages spoken in Australia. So whilst the West is opening itself to considerable change through immigration some other cultures are shouting to be able to keep their cultural purity, whilst accusing the ‘West’ of racism. Here’s the deal – cultures accorded special victim status can resist change and keep the ‘other’ out, but the West has to accept open immigration and the change it brings. Apparently European cultural preservationists are racist but non-European preservationists are only demanding their rights.
And this is the final point, not only is ‘Western’ civilization not really ‘Western’, it is constantly changing and as it receives more immigrants it becomes more global in outlook. Australia used to be a mainly English culture. That is fast receeding and Australia is becoming a cultural melting pot that is looking increasingly to Asia.
I should add that the next twenty years may very well see a shift in power and wealth from the traditional ‘Western’ powers to Asia. Is there any evidence that Asian capitalism and imperialism is any better than European and American capitalism and imperialism? Are Asian corporations any better than American? What if Japan had actually won the war in the Pacific? It may not seem relevant to the non-Australians out there but Australia faced the very real possibility of being invaded and conquered by Japan, and we all know how vicious Japanese imperialism was (just ask the Chinese and Koreans).
So, you guys have quit!!!
Nothing further to say.