What countries/regions of the world do you think of when you hear "Western"? (live, military)

[Stumbler.]

Do you think of the countries in the Western Hemisphere, Australia, New Zealand, plus the British Isles and Western Europe?

All of Europe? Historically, regions that have been part of Western Christendom (even if they are secular now)?

Developed countries with European or American influence?

What is your definition of the "Western" world?

[buahh]

Western Europe, the former Roman Empire.

[bartonfly]

I don't know that it's mean "western world", perhaps this is the countries situated in western hemisphere...

[dunno what to put here]

When someone mentions 'the West', I immediately think western Europe, including Scandinavia, the US and Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. I think 'the West' can also apply to eastern Europe, such as Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Estonia, which nowadays are considered developed democracies and are worlds apart from the likes of Belarus and Russia.

[bale002]

Originally Posted by buahh

Western Europe, the former Roman Empire.

In my view, absolutely not.

The Roman Empire was mostly the Mediterranean, and mostly central, eastern, and southern Mediterranean - the Mediterranean was the SUPERHIGHWAY of the day -, some of its most important regions begin modern-day Turkey, the Black Sea region, Syria, and Egypt that lasted for nearly a thousand years after the Germanic invasions of the western Empire. In my view, the successors of the Romans were to a greater extent the Islamic and later the Turkish and Russian Empires, and to a lesser extent the western Europeans (with the greatest exception perhaps being the legal framework, but then again English common law).

In my view, western civilization begins, basically, with Charlemagne, i.e. those Germanics especially who, though they may have emulated certain elements of Roman Empire institutions and culture, never lived under Roman Empire administration and, who, instead, took over the papacy in Rome around 754.

When I think of the roots of western civilization, then, I think of Charlemagne, not the Greeks and the Romans, and in the modern world I think of France, first, then Germany/Austria, plus of course the United Kingdom, but also Portugal/Spain, their domination of the seas starting around 1100, their domination of Italy starting around 1500, their offshoots in the Americas - the SUPERHIGHWAY of the modern world has been the Atlantic -, and eventually Australia/New Zealand. But I especially think of industrialization, the countries of early industrialization, France, UK and US, still the dominant military powers, a bit later Germany, Italy, (also Japan) etc.

If we conceive of the end of "western" civilization, the main reason, in my view, is the globalization of industrialization.

[jtur88]

Countries that have a longish history of being dominated by Western religious and philosophical thought. The distinction between Eastern and Western originally related to the line between Christendom and the non-Christian "Eastern" faiths. That conformed pretty closely with the geographical definition of Europe, and the Americas and Australia hadn't been discovered yet. It has nothing to do with the Western Hemisphere, which would have been called the Eastern Hemisphere if the Chinese had discovered it. As it happened, the Americas were colonized by people who already embraced Western culture.

Nowadays, Western is more often used to mean "Western democracies" or "Western Economies", and, specifically to the OP's question, when I hear the word Western, I think first of what subject the speaker is talking about when he uses the word Western. Which, if you want to understand the conversation, is not a bad idea.

[DrunkSam]

The American Continent, Europe excluding Russia, South Africa and the Australia & NZ.
Basically those countries influenced by Christianity, Western Capitalism and whatever ****s..

[AntonioR]

America (from Canada to Argentina), Western Europe (make a north-south line along the eastern border of Germany and stretch it to cover all the European latitudes; everything to the west of that line I consider Western Europe) , Australia and New Zealand.

There are islands of the West in the other places, but only in the places I mentioned does it extends through most of the territory.

[FrankCostello]

Originally Posted by Antonio84

America (from Canada to Argentina), Western Europe (make a north-south line along the eastern border of Germany and stretch it to cover all the European latitudes; everything to the west of that line I consider Western Europe) , Australia and New Zealand.

There are islands of the West in the other places, but only in the places I mentioned does it extends through most of the territory.

Your views on Europe are pretty unique. You're the only person I know who doesn't consider Sweden to be a part of the "western world".

[Davy-040]

Canada
USA
Scandinavia
Ireland
UK
Benelux
Germany
France
Iberia
Switerland
Austria
Italy