Writing Sample, M.A.

in East Asia Regional Studies, Columbia University

Zhu Jihui

Historical evolution of The Eurocentrism and The European civilization

Zhu Jihui
Eurocentrism is defining European self-image through contacts with the other civilizations. It is the
assertion of the superiority of European civilization over the other civilizations and of the universal diffusion
of a norm based on European civilization.1 European civilization is a collective cultural identity of the
Europeans, which has gone through different historical stages and spacial shifts, including accumulation of
culture, and the awareness of the common identity under various dynamics including ideology and religion.
Throughout history, European civilization lies at the core of Eurocentrism, while Eurocentrism provided the
perspective, self-image, and stimulated the empowerment of European civilization.
Ancient Greece saw the emergence of a preliminary, rough understanding of Europe in terms of the
designation of geographical boundaries and climatic differences with its neighbor Asia and Africa, with
minimal cultural or political content2. The ancient Greek mariners came up with the original continental
distinctions, later solidified by Greek scholars as classical tripartite world view:The Aegean Sea lay at the
heart of the Greek conception of the globe; Asia essentially denoted those lands to its east, Europe those
lands to its west and north, and Libya those lands to the south.3 The ancient Greeks living in separate
clusters around the Aegean Sea nonetheless shared a common value of the city state, citizens freedom as
well as democracy, which laid down the first cornerstones of the European civilization. However, the
separate Mediterranean tribes and city states developing on their own fail to conglomerate into one clear-cut
European civilization; lacking a foundation, eurocentrism was non-existent.
Throughout the medieval period, European civilization started to take shape circling its shared faith-Christianity. In St. Jeromes Vulgate Bible, Noahs successors Shem, Ham and Japheth, were given one of
1
2
3

Blaut, James M. Eight Eurocentric Historians. New York: Guilford Press, 2000. Print. p. 4
Lewis, M.WE. & K.E. Wigen, The Myth of Continents: a critique of metageography (Berkeley, University of California Press, 1997). p. 22.
Lewis, M.WE. & K.E. Wigen, The Myth of Continents: a critique of metageography (Berkeley, University of California Press, 1997). p. 22.
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Writing Sample, M.A. in East Asia Regional Studies, Columbia University

Zhu Jihui

the three parts of the world for their inheritance, and these were Asia, Africa, and Europe, respectively. 4
Europe was unified under the concept of Christendom, deemed by its followers as the land of the one and
only true religion in the world, against the threats of mighty Islamic Empires in the crusades. On the other
hand, eurocentrism remained overshadowed by a strong presence of the Orient. Nevertheless Christianity
dominated the representations of the European self-image and identity.
Renaissance marked the nascence of eurocentrism as it saw a formation of European self-image by
discovering and colonizing the uncivilized New World and rediscovering ancient Greek and Roman
cultures5. During the Renaissance, European civilization not only reconnected with the shared ancient
Greek and Roman heritage, but also absorbed the revolutionary thought on the relationship between man and
God, approving mans achievements and values, and encouraging the human reasoning in finding new
determinants of the developments of the societies.6 The discovery of the New World as well as the
maritime expeditions had found Europe an otherthe barbaric America. In assertion of the European
civilization as superior to this other and shared only by the Europeans, Eurocentrism emerged as a result
of the success in capitalists accumulation of wealth, military might and territorial conquest. European
civilization was promoted by this idea of Eurocentrism through the expansion of colonies and trade
networks throughout the world.
18th century Enlightenment was a boom in European civilization, as it witnessed the emergence of a series
of revolutionary bourgeois ideas including human reason and rationality, penetrating and reforming the ideas
on humans as individuals with the ability of employing their rationality, as well as the ideas on the structures
of human society. The "good institutions", according to Adam Smith, must ensure the management of
political life through reason, are those of a democracy that guarantees the liberty and legal equality of
4
5
6

Lewis, M.WE. & K.E. Wigen, The Myth of Continents: a critique of metageography (Berkeley, University of California Press, 1997). p. 23.
Amin, Samir. Eurocentrism. London: Zed Books, 1989. Print. p. 151
Amin, Samir. Eurocentrism. London: Zed Books, 1989. Print. p. 151
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Writing Sample, M.A. in East Asia Regional Studies, Columbia University

individuals.7

Zhu Jihui

During Enlightenment, the bourgeois ideology and ideal forms of citizens, society, and

political norms were crystallized, hailing liberty, democracy, and equality as the consummate norm of the
ideal political institutions.
Empowered by a sound theoretical and ideological foundation, Enlightenment was one hundred percent
Eurocentric. Enlightenment thinkers recognized the elsewhere civilizations achieving some extent of
civility(the concept of noble savage), yet Europe is leading the progress of mankind as the best civilization
in the world, as European race were more capable of controlling their nature through reason, had a better
ability to restrain themselves as opposed to the barbarians and savages. The European civilization was
deemed by the Enlightenment thinkers as the most liberated civilization as oppose to the despotic Orient. In
Montesquieus illustration in his Persian Letters of the encounters between two Persian princes with France,
the contact of which manifested the "inner principles" (as he calls it) such as justice and freedom of the
European civilization.8 In terms of Europes encounters with the Oriental civilization, We are not presented
with a confrontation between the civilised and the uncivilised, but between two cultures, the European being
more fascinating, more seductive, and, therefore, closer to universal civilization.9 Eurocentrism during the
Enlightenment not only crystalized the ideal bourgeois forms of society and mankind, but also established
the universality of European civilization as the ultimate, ideal state for all the civilizations in the world. A
dominant ideology must succeed in affirming itself as a system founded on eternal truths with a
transhistorical vocation.

10

The European civilization incorporating the ideas of the Enlightenment asserted

itself as the dominant ideology withholding eternal truths of the classical triplet: liberty, equality, and private

Amin, Samir. Eurocentrism. London: Zed Books, 1989. Print. p. 14

Ifversen, Jan, The Meaning of European Civilization: a historical-conceptual approach, Centre for Cultural Research Work in Progress 51-97
Aarhus: Aarhus University, 1997. http://www.hum.au.dk/ckulturf/pages/publications/ji/european_civilization.htm
9
Ifversen, Jan, The Meaning of European Civilization: a historical-conceptual approach, Centre for Cultural Research Work in Progress 51-97
Aarhus: Aarhus University, 1997. http://www.hum.au.dk/ckulturf/pages/publications/ji/european_civilization.htm
10
Amin, Samir. Eurocentrism. London: Zed Books, 1989. Print. p.155
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Writing Sample, M.A. in East Asia Regional Studies, Columbia University

property.

Zhu Jihui

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19th century marked the high point of Eurocentrism as European civilization diffused cross continents
through the expansion of European colonies of the European empires and nation states armed by mighty
military power and capital amassed by industrial revolution. European civilization secured its dominion of
the world while it was increasingly associated with the industrial capitalism and was unsurpassed by any
other civilization in terms of influence or affluence. Eurocentrism promoted European civilization, in that it
not only asserted the superiority of European civilization, but also imposed it on Europes widespread
colonies. Europes self-image was further established as the ruler, while the rest of the world was its
submissive subjects. This process was later coined by Edward Said as Orientalism, which means identifying
Europe itself by othering the rest of the world as the Orient. By the late of 19th century, European nation
states, established on the premises of parliamentary democracy, rule of law achieved the zenith of
powerImperialism (e.g. British Empire, France, Germany). Due to the success of colonialism and
industrial capitalism, Eurocentric beliefs seemed to be continually confirmed as both true and useful, and
they gradually evolved into the Eurocentric world-model of modern times.

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Max Weber, probably the

greatest social scientist during the late 19th and early 20th century, glorified European Miracle in terms of
the Wests rationalityinnovativeness, inventiveness, progressiveness, desire to achieve, as well as the
putative irrationality of other civilizations.

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Eurocentrism during the 19th century justified the superiority

of the European civilization but also the diffusion of it to the rest of the world.
Early 20th century saw the broadening of Eurocentrism to Western-centrism based on the shared
political (parliament, democracy, rule of law, constitutionalism, civil rights) and cultural belief system and
Industrial Capitalist ideology of the Europe with U.S. The European ideasliberty, equality, basic human
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12

13

Amin, Samir. Eurocentrism. London: Zed Books, 1989. Print. p.16

Blaut, James M. Eight Eurocentric Historians. New York: Guilford Press, 2000. Print. p. 5
Blaut, James M. Eight Eurocentric Historians. New York: Guilford Press, 2000. Print. p. 27
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Writing Sample, M.A. in East Asia Regional Studies, Columbia University

Zhu Jihui

rights were incorporated to the United Nations Charter as well as the ECtHR after the end of World War II.
The ideological confrontation of the USSR and U.S. led alliance of the NATO West in the Cold War further
deepened the othering process: Euro-American world is the free world, as opposed to the authoritarian
USSR. The establishment of European Union marked the solidarity of the European countries on the
premises of a shared value on further enhancement of human rights through social state, welfare and
insurance system. Eurocentrism is promoting European civilization through asserting the European value
and belief systems as universal, unequivocal, politically correct standards standing on a moral high ground.
Throughout history, Eurocentrism promotes European civilization and asserts European superiority in
terms of religion, economic and political systems, as well as cultural values and beliefs. However, the
self-image of Europe has always been bound to shifts of European political and economic status in the world,
as well as the encounters and clashes between different European civilization and the rest.

Bibliography:
Amin, Samir. Eurocentrism. London: Zed Books, 1989. Print.
Blaut, James M. Eight Eurocentric Historians. New York: Guilford Press, 2000. Print
Ifversen, Jan, The Meaning of European Civilization: a historical-conceptual approach, Centre for Cultural
Research

Work

in

Progress

51-97

Aarhus:

Aarhus

University,

1997.

http://www.hum.au.dk/ckulturf/pages/publications/ji/european_civilization.htm
Huntington, Samuel P. The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order. New York: Simon &
Schuster, 1996. Print.
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