Western countries: history and features of development

Western countries are states that are geographically located on the territory of Western Europe. Statistics compiled by UN experts include in this list nine powers: France, Belgium, Austria, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Germany, Monaco, Switzerland, the Netherlands. However, politically all members of the European Union are included in the concept of Western countries. The list is thus replenished. To it it is possible to add following countries: Finland, Denmark, Greece, Italy, Iceland, Norway, Portugal, the Great Britain, Spain.

A Brief History of Medieval Western Europe

Modern Western countries were formed on the territory of the former Roman Empire. After the collapse of a powerful state in 476, barbarian kingdoms created by German tribes were formed in its place . The largest was the political and economic unification of the Franks - modern France. Great Powers also included the Visigothic settlements in the place of present-day Spain, the Kingdom of the Ostrogoths (Italy), the State of the Anglo-Saxons (Great Britain) and others.

All these new political formations united the common path of development: the consolidation of tribes, the formation of a strong monarchical power, the subsequent fragmentation of territories and, finally, the centralization of lands and the formation of a single state. In many of them, during the late Middle Ages, an absolute form of monarchical power was established.

New time

The states of Western Europe went through the stages of feudalism and capitalism. In the most developed countries, bourgeois revolutions took place, republics were formed (Netherlands, Great Britain, France). In the early modern period, almost all the advanced countries of the continent joined in the struggle to discover and develop new lands. This period is known in historical science as "Great geographical discoveries". Leaders in this area are Portugal and Spain.

Western countries had a common path of cultural development: in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries there came the Renaissance, which began in Italy and spread to the rest of the states of the region. In the XVII-XVIII centuries in Western Europe came the era of the Enlightenment - the time of the emergence of new ideas about the natural rights of man and the responsibility of the monarch to the people. The result is a whole wave of bourgeois revolutions, which in a matter of decades embraced the Western countries. Their main result was the affirmation of the capitalist mode of production.

XIX century in the history of Western Europe

The era of Napoleonic wars radically changed the map of the mainland. His contribution to the process was also made by the subsequent decisions of the Congress of Vienna. Western countries in the 19th century have changed significantly in political, economic, social and cultural relations. First of all, innovations touched the situation of the powers on the international arena. In 1815, the Holy Alliance was established , which marked a trend towards the consolidation of Western European states.

The peculiarity of the epoch is that in the 19th century large military-political blocs began to be created, which became a kind of prelude to two world wars. Leading states of Western Europe at this time made a real leap in industrial and industrial development. A new militarized economy was created, aimed at conducting large-scale military operations.

Western European states in the XX century

The new century was marked by two terrible upheavals, world wars. The main arena of hostilities was the territory of Western Europe (1914-1918) and the Soviet Union (1941-1945). It was the battles on these lands that decided the outcome of the confrontation. The decisions taken at the conferences of the Western countries and the Soviet Union determined the post-war arrangement on the mainland.

The second half of the 20th century was marked by the opposition of the two systems - socialist and capitalist. The development of Western countries radically differed from the communist system in the Soviet Union. These contradictions led to the creation of military-political blocs: the Warsaw Treaty Organization in Eastern Europe and NATO in the Western. In addition, in 1948 the West European Union was founded here, which existed until 2011. In 1992, under the Maastricht Treaty , the European Union was formed. Western countries, whose list has now been replenished with new members, have reached a qualitatively new level of development.

Western Europe in the modern world

The total population of the European Union is more than 500 million people who speak the languages of the Indo-European family: mainly Romanesque and Germanic. The territory occupies more than 4 million square kilometers - this is the seventh place in the world.

A feature of the modern development of the countries of Western Europe is their desire for integration, despite the centrifugal tendencies in a number of regions. Powers occupy the leading place in the world for the reserves of currency, gold, the level of economic and cultural development. The latter circumstance determines the fact that the Western European states are one of the leaders in the international arena.