Quite often in the literature you can find such a thing as the countries of the West, which is a kind of legacy from the Cold War, when the world was divided into two parts in relation to a particular economic system, of which at that time there were two - capitalist and socialist. Today the world has changed significantly, the capitalist economy has spread everywhere, but its structure has become much more complex.
Berlin Wall as the border of systems
After the Second World War, a political system was established in the world, which is commonly called Y alta, since the meeting, as a result of which Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin agreed on the political borders of Europe, took place in Y alta in 1945.
Thus, Europe was divided into socialist and capitalist parts. At that moment, the countries of the West included the FRG, also called West Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Great Britain and Greece. This list shows that "Westernness" is not so much a geographical as a political characteristic.
With the formation in 1949 of the military-political bloc NATO and the Warsaw Pact in 1955, the list of capitalist countries of the West began to be determined by the membership of a particular country in NATO. At the same time, all countries that had relations with the Warsaw Pact belonged to the socialist camp. The wall was a symbolic border between the two worlds, dividing Berlin into two zones of occupation - the Soviet and Western countries (USA, Great Britain and France).
Western countries in a broad context
In a broader sense, all the states of Europe and North America, that is, the countries of the so-called "Western written civilization", are referred to as Western. It is worth noting that very often theorists trace the genealogy of the Western world to two empires - the Roman and the Byzantine.
Western countries also have a common religious, political and cultural history. Politics plays an important role, although it has recently been losing ground under the onslaught of the economy. From scientists, sociologists and economists, one can increasingly hear the opinion that countries such as Japan and South Korea also belong to the countries of the West. Of course, Australia is one of them.
Western countries, or the first world
With the growth of social stratification and economic inequality in society, one can increasingly hear the opinion that the division into West and East is moreirrelevant, but we should talk about the Global North and South, since the most economically developed states are located in the Northern Hemisphere, while the least developed countries are concentrated in Africa and Southeast and Central Asia.
There is also a difficulty in assigning Russia to one system or another, because, despite the common cultural genealogy, the country has long been isolated from the capitalist community. In addition, not all Russians are ready to identify themselves with the countries of the West. At the same time, they prefer their own way, both in politics and in the economy.
The list of Western countries is as follows: UK, Ireland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Germany, Italy, Austria, France, Spain, Portugal, Greece, New Zealand, USA, Canada, Australia, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg.
