The west of the Mediterranean region during antiquity The geopolitical divisions in Europe that created a concept of
East and
West originated in the
ancient tyrannical and imperialistic
Graeco-Roman times. The Eastern
Mediterranean was home to the highly urbanized cultures that had
Greek as their common language (owing to the older empire of
Alexander the Great and of the
Hellenistic successors), whereas the West was much more rural in its character and more readily adopted Latin as its common language. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the beginning of medieval times (or
Middle Ages), Western and Central Europe were substantially cut off from the East, where
Byzantine Greek culture and
Eastern Christianity became founding influences in the Eastern European world such as the East and South Slavic peoples. (began in 15th century)
Roman Catholic Western and Central Europe thus maintained a distinct identity, particularly as it began to redevelop during the Renaissance. Even following the Protestant
Reformation, Protestant Europe continued to see itself as more tied to Roman Catholic Europe than other parts of the perceived "civilized world". Use of the term
West as a specific cultural and geopolitical term developed over the course of the
Age of Exploration as Europe spread its culture to other parts of the world. Roman Catholics were the first major religious group to migrate to the
New World, as settlers in the colonies of
Spain and
Portugal (and later,
France) belonged to that faith.
English and
Dutch colonies, on the other hand, tended to be more religiously diverse. Settlers to these colonies included
Anglicans, Dutch
Calvinists, English
Puritans and other
nonconformists,
English Catholics, Scottish
Presbyterians, French
Huguenots, German and Swedish
Lutherans, as well as
Quakers,
Mennonites,
Amish, and
Moravians.
Ancient Roman world (6th century BC – AD 395–476) in 218 BC after having managed the conquest of most of the Italian Peninsula, on the eve of its most successful and deadliest war with the
Carthaginians in AD 117. During 350 years the Roman Republic turned into an Empire expanding up to twenty-five times its area.
Ancient Rome (6th century BC – AD 476) is a term to describe the ancient
Roman society that conquered Central Italy assimilating the Italian
Etruscan culture, growing from the
Latium region since about the 8th century BC, to a massive empire straddling the
Mediterranean Sea. In its 10-centuries territorial expansion,
Roman civilization shifted from a small
monarchy (753–509 BC), to a
republic (509–27 BC), into an
autocratic empire (27 BC – AD 476). Its Empire came to dominate Western, Central and Southeastern Europe, Northern Africa and, becoming an autocratic Empire a vast
Middle Eastern area, when it ended. Conquest was enforced using the
Roman legions and then through
cultural assimilation by eventual recognition of some form of Roman citizenship's privileges. Nonetheless, despite its great legacy, a number of factors led to the eventual decline and ultimately
fall of the Roman Empire. The
Roman Empire succeeded the approximately 500-year-old
Roman Republic ( 510–30 BC). In 350 years, from the successful and deadliest
war with the
Phoenicians which began in 218 BC to the rule of
Emperor Hadrian by AD 117, ancient Rome expanded up to twenty-five times its area. The same time passed again before its fall in AD 476. Rome had expanded long before the empire reached its zenith with the conquest of
Dacia in AD 106 (modern-day
Romania) under Emperor Trajan. During its territorial peak, the Roman Empire controlled about of land surface and had a population of 100 million. From the time of Caesar (100–44 BC) to the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, Rome dominated
Southern Europe, the Mediterranean coast of
Northern Africa and the
Levant, including the ancient trade
routes with population living outside. Ancient Rome has contributed greatly to the development of law, war, art, literature, architecture, technology and language in the
Western world, and its
history continues to have a major influence on the world today. The
Latin language has been the base from which
Romance languages evolved and it has been the official language of the
Catholic Church and all Catholic religious ceremonies all over Europe until 1967, as well as one of, or the official language of countries such as Italy and Poland (9th–18th centuries). on Roman Empire since the 2nd and throughout the 5th centuries establishing mostly
Germanic kingdoms in its place In AD 395, a few decades before its Western collapse, the Roman Empire formally split into a
Western and an
Eastern one, each with their own emperors, capitals, and governments, although ostensibly they still belonged to one formal Empire. The
Western Roman Empire provinces eventually were replaced by
Northern European Germanic ruled kingdoms in the 5th century due to
civil wars, corruption, and devastating Germanic invasions from such tribes as the
Huns,
Goths, the
Franks and the
Vandals by their late
expansion throughout Europe. The three-day Visigoths's
AD 410 sack of Rome who had been raiding Greece not long before, a shocking time for
Greco-Romans, was the first time after almost 800 years that Rome had fallen to a foreign enemy, and
St. Jerome, living in Bethlehem at the time, wrote that "The City which had taken the whole world was itself taken." There followed the
sack of AD 455 lasting 14 days, this time conducted by the
Vandals, retaining Rome's eternal spirit through the
Holy See of Rome (the
Latin Church) for centuries to come. The ancient
Barbarian tribes, often composed of well-trained Roman soldiers paid by Rome to guard the extensive borders, had become militarily sophisticated "Romanized barbarians", and mercilessly slaughtered the Romans conquering their Western territories while looting their possessions. The Roman Empire is where the idea of "the West" began to emerge. The
Eastern Roman Empire, governed from
Constantinople, is usually referred to as the
Byzantine Empire after AD 476, the traditional date for the fall of the Roman Empire and beginning of the
Early Middle Ages. The survival of the Eastern Roman Empire protected Roman legal and cultural traditions, combining them with Greek and Christian elements, for another thousand years. The name Byzantine Empire was first used centuries later, after the Byzantine Empire ended. The dissolution of the Western half, nominally ended in AD 476, but in truth a long process that ended by the rise of Catholic
Gaul (modern-day
France) ruling from around the year AD 800, left only the Eastern Roman Empire alive. The Eastern half continued to think of itself as the Roman Empire. The inhabitants called themselves Romans because the term "Roman" was meant to signify all
Christians. The Pope crowned
Charlemagne as
Emperor of the Romans of the newly established
Holy Roman Empire, and the West began thinking in terms of
Western Latins living in the old Western Empire, and
Eastern Greeks (those inside the Roman remnant of the old Eastern Empire).
The birth of the European West during the Middle Ages 's conquests (AD 527–565)In the early 4th century, the central focus of power was on two separate imperial legacies within the Roman Empire: the older
Aegean Sea Greek heritage (of
Classical Greece) in the Eastern Mediterranean, and the newer most successful
Tyrrhenian Sea Latin heritage (of
Ancient Latium and Tuscany) in the Western Mediterranean. A turning point was
Constantine the Great's decision to establish the city of
Constantinople (today's
Istanbul) in modern-day
Turkey as the "New Rome" when he picked it as capital of his Empire (later called "
Byzantine Empire" by modern historians) in AD 330. in AD 1025 before Christian
East-West Schism This internal conflict of legacies had possibly emerged since the
assassination of Julius Caesar three centuries earlier, when Roman imperialism had just been born with the Roman Republic becoming "Roman Empire", but reached its zenith during 3rd century's
many internal civil wars. This is the time when the
Huns (part of the ancient Eastern European tribes named
barbarians by the Romans) from modern-day
Hungary penetrated into the
Dalmatian (modern-day
Croatia) region then originating in the following 150 years in the Roman Empire officially splitting in two halves. Also the time of the formal acceptance of Christianity as Empire's
religious policy, when the Emperors began actively banning and fighting previous
pagan religions. s. The Eastern Roman Empire included lands south-west of the
Black Sea and bordering on the
Eastern Mediterranean and parts of the
Adriatic Sea. This division into Eastern and Western Roman Empires was later reflected in the administration of the
Roman Catholic and Eastern Greek Orthodox churches, with Rome and Constantinople debating over whether either city was the capital of
Western religion. As the
Eastern (Orthodox) and Western (Catholic) churches spread their influence, the line between Eastern and Western Christianity was moving. Its movement was affected by the influence of the Byzantine empire and the fluctuating power and influence of the Catholic church in Rome. The geographic line of religious division approximately followed a line of
cultural divide.
Frankish Empire before
Charlemagne's coronation in Rome In AD 800 under
Charlemagne, the
Early Medieval Franks established an empire that was recognized by the
Pope in Rome as the
Holy Roman Empire (Latin Christian revival of the ancient Roman Empire, under perpetual Germanic rule from AD 962) inheriting ancient Roman Empire's prestige but offending the
Eastern Roman Emperor in Constantinople, and leading to the
Crusades and the East–West Schism. The crowning of the Emperor by the Pope led to the assumption that the highest power was the
papal hierarchy, quintessential Roman Empire's spiritual heritage authority, establishing then, until the Protestant Reformation, the civilization of
Western Christendom. The earliest concept of Europe as a cultural sphere (instead of simple geographic term) is believed to have been formed by
Alcuin of York during the
Carolingian Renaissance of the 9th century, but was limited to the territories that practised
Western Christianity at the time. The
Latin Church of western and central Europe split with the eastern
Greek patriarchates in the Christian
East–West Schism, also known as the "Great Schism", during the
Gregorian Reforms (calling for a more central status of the Roman Catholic Church Institution), three months after
Pope Leo IX's death in April 1054. Following the 1054
Great Schism, both the
Western Church and
Eastern Church continued to consider themselves
uniquely orthodox and catholic.
Augustine wrote in On True Religion: "Religion is to be sought... only among those who are called Catholic or orthodox Christians, that is, guardians of truth and followers of right." Over time, the
Western Christianity gradually identified with the "Catholic" label, and people of Western Europe gradually associated the "Orthodox" label with
Eastern Christianity (although in some languages the "Catholic" label is not necessarily identified with the Western Church). This was in note of the fact that both Catholic and Orthodox were in use as ecclesiastical adjectives as early as the 2nd and 4th centuries respectively. Meanwhile, the extent of both Christendoms expanded, as Germanic peoples, Bohemia, Poland, Hungary, Scandinavia, Finnic peoples, Baltic peoples, British Isles and the other non-Christian lands of the northwest were converted by the Western Church, while Eastern Slavic peoples, Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro, Russian territories,
Vlachs and Georgia were converted by the
Eastern Orthodox Church. In 1071, the Byzantine army was defeated by the
Muslim Turco-Persians of medieval
Asia, resulting in the loss of most of
Asia Minor. The situation was a serious threat to the future of the
Eastern Orthodox Byzantine Empire. The Emperor sent a plea to the
Pope in Rome to send military aid to restore the lost territories to Christian rule. The result was a series of western European military campaigns into the eastern Mediterranean, known as the Crusades. Unfortunately for the Byzantines, the crusaders (belonging to the members of nobility from France, German territories, the Low countries, England and Italy) had no allegiance to the Byzantine Emperor and established their own states in the conquered regions,
including the heart of the Byzantine Empire. The Holy Roman Empire would
dissolve on 6 August 1806, after the
French Revolution and the creation of the
Confederation of the Rhine by
Napoleon. after the Fourth Crusade (shown partly in Greece and partly in Turkey) The
decline of the Byzantine Empire (13th–15th centuries) began with the
Latin Christian Fourth Crusade in AD 1202–04, considered to be one of the most important events, solidifying the
schism between the
Christian churches of
Greek Byzantine Rite and
Latin Roman Rite. An
anti-Western riot in 1182 broke out in
Constantinople targeting Latins. The extremely wealthy (after previous
Crusades)
Venetians in particular made a
successful attempt to maintain control over the coast of
Catholic present-day Croatia (specifically the
Dalmatia, a region of interest to the
maritime medieval Venetian Republic moneylenders and its rivals, such as the Republic of Genoa) rebelling against the Venetian economic domination. What followed dealt an irrevocable blow to the already weakened Byzantine Empire with the
Crusader army's sack of Constantinople in April 1204, capital of the
Greek Christian-controlled
Byzantine Empire, described as one of the most profitable and disgraceful sacks of a city in history. This paved the way for Muslim conquests in
present-day Turkey and the
Balkans in the coming centuries (only a handful of the Crusaders followed to the stated destination thereafter, the
Holy Land). The geographical identity of the Balkans is historically known as a crossroads of cultures, a juncture between the
Latin and
Greek bodies of the
Roman Empire, the destination of a massive influx of pagans (meaning
"non-Christians")
Bulgars and
Slavs, an area where
Catholic and
Orthodox Christianity met, as well as the meeting point between
Islam and Christianity. The
Papal Inquisition was established in AD 1229 on a permanent basis, run largely by clergymen in Rome, and abolished six centuries later. Before AD 1100, the
Catholic Church suppressed what they believed to be heresy, usually through a system of ecclesiastical proscription or imprisonment, but without using torture, and seldom resorting to executions. ,
Protestant Reformer This very profitable
Central European Fourth Crusade had prompted the 14th century
Renaissance (translated as 'Rebirth') of
Italian city-states including the
Papal States, on eve of the Protestant Reformation and
Counter-Reformation (which established the
Roman Inquisition to succeed the
Medieval Inquisition). There followed the discovery of the American continent, and consequent dissolution of West Christendom as even a theoretical unitary political body, later resulting in the religious
Eighty Years War (1568–1648) and
Thirty Years War (1618–1648) between
various Protestant and Catholic states of the
Holy Roman Empire (and emergence of
religiously diverse confessions). In this context, the Protestant Reformation (1517) may be viewed as a schism within the Catholic Church. German monk
Martin Luther, in the wake of precursors, broke with the pope and with the emperor by the Catholic Church's abusive commercialization of
indulgences in the
Late Medieval Period, backed by many of the German princes and helped by the development of the
printing press, in an attempt to reform corruption within the church. Both these religious wars ended with the
Peace of Westphalia (1648), which enshrined the concept of the
nation-state, and the principle of absolute
national sovereignty in
international law. As European influence spread across the globe, these
Westphalian principles, especially the concept of sovereign states, became central to international law and to the prevailing world order.
Expansion of the West: the Era of Colonialism (15th–20th centuries) and explorations since 1336: first arrival places and dates; main Portuguese
spice trade routes in the
Indian Ocean (blue);
territories claimed by
King John III of Portugal () (green) in 1790 In the 13th and 14th centuries, a number of European travelers, many of them Christian
missionaries, had sought to cultivate trading with Asia and
Africa. With the Crusades came the relative contraction of the Orthodox
Byzantine's large silk industry
in favor of Catholic Western Europe and the rise of
Western Papacy. The most famous of these
merchant travelers pursuing
East–west trade was Venetian
Marco Polo. But these journeys had little permanent effect on east–west trade because of a series of political developments in Asia in the last decades of the 14th century, which put an end to further European exploration of Asia: namely the new
Ming rulers were found to be unreceptive of religious proselytism by European missionaries and merchants. Meanwhile, the
Ottoman Turks consolidated control over the eastern
Mediterranean, closing off key overland trade routes. The
Portuguese spearheaded the drive to find oceanic routes that would provide cheaper and easier access to South and East Asian goods, by advancements in maritime technology such as the
caravel ship introduced in the mid-1400s. The charting of oceanic routes between East and West began with the unprecedented voyages of Portuguese and
Spanish sea captains. In 1492,
European colonialism expanded across the globe with the
exploring voyage of merchant, navigator, and Hispano-Italian colonizer
Christopher Columbus. Such voyages were influenced by medieval European adventurers after the European
spice trade with Asia, who had journeyed overland to the Far East contributing to geographical knowledge of parts of the Asian continent. They are of enormous significance in
Western history as they marked the beginning of the
European exploration,
colonization and exploitation of
the American continents and their
native inhabitants. The
European colonization of the Americas led to the
Atlantic slave trade between the 1490s and the 1800s, which also contributed to the development of African intertribal warfare and racist ideology. Before the abolition of its slave trade in 1807, the
British Empire alone (which had started colonial efforts
in 1578, almost a century after Portuguese and Spanish empires) was responsible for the transportation of 3.5 million African slaves to the Americas, a third of all slaves transported across the Atlantic. The
Holy Roman Empire was dissolved in 1806 by the
French Revolutionary Wars; abolition of the
Roman Catholic Inquisition followed. Due to the reach of these empires, Western institutions expanded throughout the world. This process of influence (and imposition) began with the
voyages of discovery,
colonization, conquest, and exploitation of
Portugal enforced as well by
papal bulls in 1450s (by the
fall of the Byzantine Empire), granting Portugal navigation, war and trade monopoly for any newly discovered lands, and competing
Spanish navigators. It continued with the rise of the
Dutch East India Company by the destabilizing Spanish
discovery of the New World, and the creation and expansion of the
English and
French colonial empires, and others. Even after demands for self-determination from subject peoples within Western empires were met with
decolonization, these institutions persisted. One specific example was the requirement that
post-colonial societies were made to form nation-states (in the Western tradition), which often created arbitrary boundaries and borders that did not necessarily represent a whole nation, people, or culture (as in much of Africa), and are often the cause of international conflicts and friction even to this day. Although not part of Western colonization process proper, following the
Middle Ages Western culture in fact entered other global-spanning cultures during the colonial 15th–20th centuries. Historically
colonialism had been justified with the values of
individualism and
enlightenment. The concepts of a world of
nation-states born by the
Peace of Westphalia in 1648, coupled with the ideologies of the Enlightenment, the coming of
modernity, the
Scientific Revolution and the
Industrial Revolution, would produce powerful social transformations, political and
economic institutions that have come to
influence (or been imposed upon) most nations of the world today. Historians agree that the Industrial Revolution has been one of the most important events in history. The course of
three centuries since Christopher Columbus' late 15th century's voyages, of
deportation of slaves from Africa and
British dominant northern-
Atlantic location, later developed into modern-day
United States of America, evolving from the ratification of the
Constitution of the United States by
thirteen States on the North American
East Coast before end of the 18th century.
Enlightenment (17th–18th centuries) Eric Voegelin described the 18th-century as one where "the sentiment grows that one age has come to its close and that a new age of Western civilization is about to be born". According to Voeglin the Enlightenment (also called the
Age of Reason) represents the "atrophy of Christian transcendental experiences and [seeks] to enthrone the
Newtonian method of science as the only valid method of arriving at truth". Its precursors were
John Milton and
Baruch Spinoza. Meeting
Galileo in 1638 left an enduring impact on John Milton and influenced Milton's great work
Areopagitica, where he warns that, without
free speech, inquisitorial forces will impose "an undeserved thraldom upon learning". The achievements of the 17th century included the invention of the
telescope and acceptance of
heliocentrism. 18th century scholars continued to refine
Newton's theory of gravitation, notably
Leonhard Euler,
Pierre Louis Maupertuis,
Alexis-Claude Clairaut,
Jean Le Rond d'Alembert,
Joseph-Louis Lagrange,
Pierre-Simon de Laplace. Laplace's five-volume
Treatise on Celestial Mechanics is one of the great works of 18th-century Newtonianism.
Astronomy gained in prestige as new observatories were funded by governments and more powerful telescopes developed, leading to the discovery of new planets,
asteroids,
nebulae and
comets, and paving the way for improvements in
navigation and
cartography. Astronomy became the second most popular scientific profession, after
medicine. A common metanarrative of the Enlightenment is the "secularization theory". Modernity, as understood within the framework, means a total break with the past. Innovation and science are the good, representing the modern values of
rationalism, while faith is ruled by superstition and traditionalism. Inspired by the Scientific Revolution, the Enlightenment embodied the ideals of improvement and progress.
Descartes and
Isaac Newton were regarded as exemplars of human intellectual achievement.
Condorcet wrote about the progress of humanity in the
Sketch of the Progress of the Human Mind (1794), from
primitive society to
agrarianism, the invention of writing, the later invention of the
printing press and the advancement to "the Period when the Sciences and Philosophy threw off the Yoke of Authority". French writer
Pierre Bayle denounced Spinoza as a
pantheist (thereby accusing him of
atheism). Bayle's criticisms garnered much attention for Spinoza. The pantheism controversy in the late 18th century saw
Gotthold Lessing attacked by
Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi over support for Spinoza's pantheism. Lessing was defended by
Moses Mendelssohn, although Mendelssohn diverged from pantheism to follow
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz in arguing that God and the world were not of the same substance (equivalency). Spinoza was excommunicated from the Dutch
Sephardic community, but for Jews who sought out Jewish sources to guide their own path to secularism, Spinoza was as important as Voltaire and Kant.
19th century In the early 19th century, the systematic
urbanization process (migration from villages in search of jobs in manufacturing centers) had begun, and the concentration of labor into factories led to the rise in the population of the towns. World population had been rising as well. It is estimated to have first reached one billion in 1804. Also, the new philosophical movement later known as
Romanticism originated, in the wake of the previous Age of
Reason of the 1600s and the
Enlightenment of 1700s. These are seen as fostering the 19th century
Western world's sustained economic development. Before the urbanization and industrialization of the 1800s, demand for
oriental goods such as
porcelain,
silk,
spices and
tea remained the driving force behind European imperialism in Asia, and (with the important exception of British East India Company rule in India) the European stake in Asia remained confined largely to trading stations and strategic outposts necessary to protect trade.
Industrialization, however, dramatically increased European demand for Asian raw materials; and the severe Long Depression of the 1870s provoked a scramble for new markets for European industrial products and financial services in Africa, the Americas, Eastern Europe, and especially in Asia (Western powers exploited their advantages in
China for example by the
Opium Wars). This resulted in the "
New Imperialism", which saw a shift in focus from trade and
indirect rule to formal colonial control of vast overseas territories ruled as political extensions of their mother countries. The later years of the 19th century saw the transition from "informal imperialism" (
hegemony) by military influence and economic dominance, to direct rule (a revival of colonial
imperialism) in the
African continent and
Middle East. During the socioeconomically optimistic and innovative decades of the
Second Industrial Revolution between the 1870s and 1914, also known as the "
Beautiful Era", the established colonial powers in Asia (United Kingdom, France, Netherlands) added to their empires also vast expanses of territory in the
Indian subcontinent and
Southeast Asia. Japan was involved primarily during the
Meiji period (1868–1912), though earlier contacts with the Portuguese, Spaniards and Dutch were also present in the
Japanese Empire's recognition of the strategic importance of European nations. Traditional Japanese society became an industrial and militarist power like the Western
British Empire and the
French Third Republic, and similar to the
German Empire. At the close of the
Spanish–American War in 1898 the
Philippines,
Puerto Rico,
Guam and
Cuba were ceded to the
United States under the terms of the
Treaty of Paris. The US quickly emerged as the new imperial power in
East Asia and in the
Pacific Ocean area. The Philippines continued to fight against colonial rule in the
Philippine–American War. By 1913, the
British Empire held sway over 412 million people, of the world population at the time, and by 1920, it covered , of the Earth's total land area. At its apex, the phrase "
the empire on which the sun never sets" described the British Empire, because its expanse around the globe meant that the sun always shone on at least one of its territories. As a result, its political,
legal,
linguistic and
cultural legacy is widespread throughout the
Western world. In the
aftermath of the Second World War, decolonizing efforts were employed by all Western powers under
United Nations (ex-
League of Nations) international directives. Most of the colonized nations received independence by 1960. Great Britain showed ongoing responsibility for the welfare of its former colonies as
member states of the Commonwealth of Nations. But the end of Western colonial imperialism saw the rise of Western
neocolonialism or
economic imperialism. Multinational corporations came to offer "a dramatic refinement of the traditional business enterprise", through "issues as far ranging as national sovereignty, ownership of the means of production, environmental protection, consumerism, and policies toward organized labor." Though the overt colonial era had passed,
Western nations, as comparatively rich, well-armed, and culturally powerful states, wielded a
large degree of influence throughout the world, and with little or no sense of responsibility toward the peoples impacted by its multinational corporations in their exploitation of minerals and markets. The dictum of
Alfred Thayer Mahan is shown to have lasting relevance, that whoever controls the seas controls the world.
Cold War (1947–1991) During the
Cold War, a new definition emerged. Earth was divided into three "worlds". The
First World, analogous in this context to what was called
the West, was composed of
NATO members and other countries aligned with the United States. The Second World was the
Eastern bloc in the Soviet
sphere of influence, including the
Soviet Union and
Warsaw Pact countries like
Poland,
Bulgaria,
Hungary,
Romania,
East Germany, and
Czechoslovakia. The Third World consisted of countries, many of which were
unaligned with either the west or the east; important members included India,
Yugoslavia,
Finland (
Finlandization) and Switzerland (
Swiss Neutrality); some include the
People's Republic of China, though this is disputed, since the People's Republic of China, as communist, had friendly relations—at certain times—with the Soviet bloc, and had a significant degree of importance in global geopolitics. Some Third World countries aligned themselves with either the US-led West or the Soviet-led Eastern bloc. A number of countries did not fit comfortably into this neat definition of partition, including Switzerland, Sweden, Austria, and
Ireland, which chose to be neutral. Finland was under the Soviet Union's military sphere of influence (see
FCMA treaty) but remained neutral and was not communist, nor was it a member of the Warsaw Pact or Comecon but a member of the EFTA from 1986, and was west of the
Iron Curtain. In 1955, when Austria again became a fully independent republic, it did so under the condition that it remain neutral; but as a country to the west of the Iron Curtain, it was in the
United States' sphere of influence. Spain did not join NATO until 1982, seven years after the death of the authoritarian
Franco. The 1980s advent of
Mikhail Gorbachev led to the end of the Cold War following the
dissolution of the Soviet Union. ==Modern definitions==