Western countries are states that are geographically located in Western Europe. The statistics compiled by UN experts include nine powers on this list: France, Belgium, Austria, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Germany, Monaco, Switzerland, and the Netherlands. However, in political terms, all members of the European Union are included in the concept of Western countries. The list is thus replenished. 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 formed on the territory of the former Roman Empire. After the collapse of the powerful state in 476, barbarian kingdoms created by Germanic tribes formed in its place. The largest was the political and economic union of the Franks - modern France. The Great Powers were also Visigoth settlements on the site of present-day Spain, the Kingdom of the Ostrogoths (Italy), the state of the Anglo-Saxons (Great Britain) and others.
All these new political entities 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, in 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. Bourgeois revolutions took place in the most developed powers, republics were formed (Netherlands, Great Britain, France). In the early modern times, almost all the advanced countries of the continent 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 XV-XVI centuries the Renaissance began here, which, having begun in Italy, spread to other states of the region. In the XVII-XVIII centuries in Western Europe, the Enlightenment began - 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 wave of bourgeois revolutions that swept the western countries in a matter of decades. Their main result was the approval of the capitalist mode of production.
XIX century in the history of Western Europe
The era of the Napoleonic Wars fundamentally changed the map of the mainland. The subsequent decisions of the Vienna Congress contributed to the process. Western countries in the 19th century changed significantly in political, economic, social and cultural relations. First of all, innovations touched the position of powers in the international arena. In 1815, the Holy Union was created , which outlined the 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 form, which became a kind of prelude to two world wars. The 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 hostilities.
Western European states in the 20th century
The new century was marked by two terrible shocks, world wars. The main arena of hostilities became the territories 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. Decisions adopted at conferences of Western countries and the Soviet Union defined the post-war structure on the mainland.
The second half of the 20th century was marked by the confrontation of 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. In addition, in 1948, the West European Union was founded here, which lasted until 2011. In 1992, the European Union was formed under the Maastricht Treaty. Western countries, the list of which is now 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 occupies more than 4 million square kilometers - this is the seventh place in the world.
A feature of the modern development of Western Europe is their desire for integration, despite centrifugal trends in several regions. Powers occupy a leading position in the world in terms of reserves of currency, gold, level of economic and cultural development. The latter circumstance is determined by the fact that Western European states are one of the leaders in the international arena.