Westernization
Westernization summarizes processes in which societies or parts of them adopt ideas, behaviors and economic structures from the western world . If these come from the United States , this process is also called Americanization , more specifically , it is primarily about values in the period after the Second World War, westernization .
Areas of Westernization
- western traditions in the jurisdiction , international law
- western ideals and ideologies
- Western consumer goods , fashions and attitudes towards life
Westernization of Germany
The historian Heinrich August Winkler , in his work Der long Weg nach Westen , published in 2000, expressed the thesis that Germany did not leave a special path - the "German special path" - not with integration into the West , but with reunification , and moved into the western world incorporated.
Westernization in Asian societies
The Empire of Japan (or after 1945 Japan ) is often cited as a prime example of Westernization . In the course of the Meiji Restoration - after a long phase of self-chosen isolation - it took over the industrial production methods customary in the West . Nevertheless, it tried to continue or to maintain its own traditions in the cultural sector (compare Kokutai and Nihonjinron ).
Westernization in Islamic Societies
Terminology
Western society and the Near and Middle East have grown considerably closer since the 19th century . There were sometimes violent frictions . In the 19th century (see also Age of Imperialism ) the British Empire ruled about a quarter of the world's land mass and was the undisputed number one world power . The Royal Navy dominated the world's oceans. These contacts expressed two things in relation to the technological and intellectual achievements of the modern West: Islamic peoples with smooth social and economic structures had relatively few Western influences. These states were mostly self-sufficient . This enabled them to reject westernization and to isolate themselves. Nonetheless, the upper classes of the urban population in particular took on the impulses of Western civilization in their lives.
history
Reformers such as the Turkish Mustafa Kemal Ataturk , the Iranian Reza Shah and the Tunisian Habib Bourguiba saw westernization as an opportunity to improve the underdeveloped status of their countries. Western values stood for the reformers for civilization and progress, while they associated Eastern values with backwardness and social stagnation.
The core component of their work was the secularly motivated displacement of religious authorities from the sphere of influence of social life. This Europeanization pervaded all areas of human life such as education, the fruitful examination of the music of the West or the forced introduction of Western clothing. For example, the hat reform dictated by the state in Turkey in 1924, when the Kemalist government banned the traditional headgear of the Ottoman Empire, the Fez , and made it mandatory to wear a felt hat. Egypt followed suit in 1953.
In some cases, the attempts at reform, particularly in the artistic field, brought about strange blossoms, such as the construction of the Cairo Opera or the establishment of the previously unknown symphony orchestras in Islamic countries. The musical tradition in the Orient was previously unknown to the necessary instruments, although in the course of the Turkish wars , European music was supplemented by military music from the Ottoman Empire.
The modernization programs mostly encountered a completely unprepared population without a previous cross-class discourse . That is why they often fizzled out because of the people's reflexive defensive stance. In particular, small groups from the upper class of the cities were open to the impulses offered. The improvements in the field of education and measures to introduce an economy based on the division of labor also contributed to driving the westernization forward in the course of time.
Many of the reforms failed because they were faced with growing nationalism . He equated westernization with colonialism . In this sense, westernization is seen by fundamentalist circles as a key explanatory model for the often desolate economic and political conditions in Islamic societies.
According to Sabah Alnasseri , the rigorous modernization and move towards a market economy and neoliberalism, supported by the IMF and the World Bank , did not lead to the promised prosperity and debt reduction of the affected countries, but worsened poverty, foreign debt and political repression. This failure, in turn, fueled distrust of Westernization. The only winners of this neoliberal opening ( infitah ) were the large landowners. The forcibly displaced smallholders and wage earners were marginalized. The resulting bread riots ended in bloody fashion by the deployed military (Egypt 1977, Algeria 1988, Tunisia 1984, Morocco 1984, Jordan in the 90s).
Differentiation from globalization
According to Brockhaus 1997, the term globalization comprises liberal economic theory and neoliberal market economy. Free trade and an open economy are seen as the driving forces of progress and the basis for alleviating frictions between societies through the mutual exchange of information and goods of all kinds. According to Czempiel, the liberal utopia sees the result of the exchange as a world order in which prosperity, peace and democracy bring about a replacement of the nation states.
Westernization, on the other hand, is a one-sided process.
Fundamentalism and Westernization
Islamic fundamentalists in particular make a connection between the failed reforms and former colonialism. Few of them, however, reject western scientific and technological achievements and accept the irreversible connection of Islamic states to "world civilization". The majority make use of the media and new forms of communication and show a keen interest in knowledge of Western philosophy, theology and the social sciences. However, they distance themselves vehemently from Western influences that could change the Muslim identity or the essence of Islam.
It is difficult to position yourself credibly in the discourse with the West and the fight against Westernization. On the one hand, mass media, for example, are accepted and used and the allegations go against the westernization through various television series from the USA or fashionable appearances from Europe. At the same time, theologians and intellectuals from the Islamic world feel compelled to distance themselves from radical approaches that refuse any rapprochement with the West and advocate a re-establishment of the conditions at the time of their prophet in Medina . According to Heine, the proportion of scientifically trained academics among these radical groups is relatively high.
Westernization, however, not only harbors dangers for Islamic identity, but also offers the possibility of creating and protecting identity.
Fundamentalist reaction
Western culture vigorously conquered a weakened East from the eighteenth century, which was unable to react adequately and to face the new challenges.
In contrast to earlier times, Islam did not see itself in a position to transform itself and thus to renew itself. As a result, he lost influence. This feeling of powerlessness became the trauma of the Muslim world. Muslims found it particularly embarrassing to no longer lead modernization, but to be dependent on European action and thinking. This caused the sharp division between the West and the East, especially Islam.
The increasing westernization and Europeanization of the Islamic world generated dissatisfaction with the new kind of globalization. As a result, they vehemently resisted any outside influence. The hitherto unknown suicide bombers represent a high point in this development. These acts of desperation signal hopelessness and the conviction to fight against an overpowering enemy.
The feeling of powerlessness, foreign rule and loss of identity caused by European colonialism was reinforced by the recognition of the economic and political superiority of the West. The majority of Muslims fled to return to the origins of Islam. Western observers describe the political directions that arose from this attitude as Islamist or fundamentalist. Fundamentalism is just one of the many responses all major religions have to the challenges of modernity. It grows out of the need to escape the problems of modernity and to withdraw into religion.
literature
- Anselm Doering-Manteuffel : How western are the Germans? Americanization and Westernization in the 20th Century. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1999, ISBN 3-525-34017-6 .
- Philipp Gassert : The Federal Republic, Europe and the West. On the westernization, democratization and some comparative deficits of contemporary historical research. In: Jörg Baberowski et al: History is always present. Four theses on contemporary history. DVA, Stuttgart / Munich 2001, ISBN 3-421-05564-5 , pp. 67-89.
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Heinrich August Winkler : The long way to the west. CH Beck, Munich 2000
- Volume 1: German history from the end of the Old Reich to the fall of the Weimar Republic. ISBN 3-406-46001-1 .
- Volume 2: German history from the "Third Reich" to reunification. ISBN 3-406-46002-X .
- Heinrich August Winkler: History of the West.
- Volume 1: From the beginnings in antiquity to the 20th century. CH Beck, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-406-59235-5 (3rd edition 2012)
- The time of the world wars 1914–1945 (1st edition 2011), ISBN 978-3406592362
- From the Cold War to the Fall of the Berlin Wall (1st edition 2014), ISBN 978-3406669842
- The time of the present (2015), ISBN 978-3406669866
- Ernst-Otto Czempiel , "The Doctrine of International Relations", 1969
- Schulze, Reinhard, "History of the Islamic World in the 20th Century", 1994
- Armstron, Karen; Islam: A Short History; 2002
- Beinin, Joel, "Islamic responses to the capitalist penetration of the Middle East" from Stowasser 1987
- Alnasseri, Sabah, "On the Crisis Situation in Arab Societies", 2001
- That. Stork, Joe (Ed.) 1997: "Political Islam", 1997
unless explicitly stated
- Adel Theodor Khoury, Ludwig Hagemann and Peter Heine, Lexikon des Islam, 1991, 1386ff
- Mentioned works:
- Piscatori, "Islam in a World of Nation-States", 1986
- Heine, "Radical Muslim Organizations in Egypt Today," 1983
- Stipek and Heine, "Ethnicity and Islam. Interdependence and Discrepancy between Social and Religious Concepts in the Present", 1984
- A. Al-Azmeh, Aziz, "The Islamization of Islam", 1995