Westernization is a process that every
industrial country in the world has experienced
to at least some extent. They all have their own
paths to industrialization, however. These
paths represent their beliefs about he West and
its relative strengths or weaknesses. The 19th
and early 20th century offers three prominent
examples – Russia, China, and Japan
Japan adapted the best to western technology,
economics, and culture because it embraced the
process of Westernization the most. After
centuries of trying to keep the West out, Japan
suddenly opened up in 1854.
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Japanese decided that the only way to maintain
their sovereignty was to remain competitive by
adopting Western ideas. In less than half a
century, it had largely caught up with the West
in terms of industrial output and had begun
being a colonial power to be reckoned with
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Russia embraced Westernization only gingerly
because the tsars were reluctant to allow
anything in the country that would undermine
their authority. They wanted to have Western
technology, but did not want the cultural
background for that technology. This,
however, eventually lead to the Russian
Revolution.
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Western technology was seen as a threat to
traditional Chinese culture. Although Chinese
bureaucrats attempted to implement certain
reforms to help modernize the country and
keep it competitive, these reforms
accomplished very little. The Chinese were just
too suspicious of anything from the West.
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These three nations demonstrate three different
approaches to Westernization. Countries can
either embrace it whole heartedly, reject it
completely, or attempt to find some balance. In
the end, those countries that attempt
industrialization without liberalization are very
likely to see revolt and even revolution.
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The West began to have an impact on the rest
of the globe from about the fifteenth century.
According to the historian Lynda Shaffer in a
seminal article in the Journal of World History in
1994, the South began to have a similar impact
a millennium earlier. “The term southernization
is meant to be analogous to westernization.”
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A process called southernization first began in
Southern Asia. By the fifth century C.E. ,
developments associated with southernization
were present in India, where they spread to
China and then to the Middle East and the
Mediterranean basin. After 1200 they began to
have an impact on southern Europe.
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These developments included the discovery of
bullion sources, the emergence of a new
mathematics, the pioneering of trade routes,
the trade in tropical spices, the cultivation of
southern crops such as sugar and cotton, and
the invention of various technologies.
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. “Southernization was not overtaken by
westernization until the Industrial Revolution
in the eighteenth century…. Only after the
northwestern Europeans had added to their
own repertoire every one of the elements of
southernization did the world become divided
into a powerful, prestigious, and rich north and
an impoverished south perceived to be in need
of development.”