Western countries are states that are geographically located on the territory of Western Europe. Statistics compiled by UN specialists include nine powers in this list: France, Belgium, Austria, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Germany, Monaco, Switzerland, and the Netherlands. However, in the political aspect, all members of the European Union are included in the concept of Western countries. The list is thus growing. The following countries can be added to it: Finland, Denmark, Greece, Italy, Iceland, Norway, Portugal, 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 the powerful state in 476, barbarian kingdoms were formed in its place, created by the Germanic tribes. The largest was the political and economic association of the Franks - modern France. The Visigoth settlements on the site of present-day Spain, the kingdom of the Ostrogoths (Italy), the Anglo-Saxon state (Great Britain) and others were also great powers.
All these new political formations were united by a 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, an absolute form of monarchical power was established during the late Middle Ages.
New time
The states of Western Europe went through the stages of feudalism and capitalism. Bourgeois revolutions took place in the most developed powers, republics were formed (the Netherlands, Great Britain, France). In the early modern times, almost all the advanced countries of the mainland joined the struggle to discover and develop new lands. This period is known in historical science under the name "Great geographical discoveries". The leaders in this area are Portugal and Spain.
Western countries had a common path of cultural development: in the 15th-16th centuries, the Renaissance began here, which, starting in Italy, spread to other states of the region. In the XVII-XVIII centuries, the Age of Enlightenment began in Western Europe - 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 that swept the Western countries in a matter of decades. Their main result was the establishment of the capitalist mode of production.
XIX century in the history of Western Europe
The era of the Napoleonic wars radically changed the map of the mainland. The subsequent decisions of the Viennacongress. Western countries in the 19th century changed significantly in political, economic, social and cultural terms. First of all, the innovations affected the position of the powers in the international arena. In 1815, the Holy Alliance was created, which marked a trend towards the consolidation of Western European states.
A feature of the era is that in the 19th century large military-political blocs began to be created, which became a kind of prelude to two world wars. The leading states of Western Europe at that time made a real leap in industrial and industrial development. A new militarized economy has been created, geared towards large-scale hostilities.
Western European states in the 20th 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 Western countries and the Soviet Union determined the post-war structure on the mainland.
The second half of the 20th century was marked by a confrontation between two systems - socialist and capitalist. The development of Western countries was fundamentally different 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 Western Europe. In addition, in 1948, the Western European Union was founded here, whichlasted until 2011. The European Union was formed in 1992 under the Maastricht Treaty. 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 Romance and Germanic. The territory covers more than 4 million square kilometers - this is the seventh largest in the world.
A feature of the modern development of the countries of Western Europe is their desire for integration, despite centrifugal tendencies in a number of regions. Powers occupy a leading place in the world in terms of reserves of currency, gold, 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.
