If you take the east 1/3 of Europe out of the picture, well, yeah, maybe then. But otherwise, it's undeniably east.

if you put russia in the picture, then geographically, czech is on the western half of Europe. but as i was saying earlier, its kinda like australia/NZ, these 2 countries are considered "western" even though there on the east half of the world.

I definitely do not think of Australia nor Aotearoa as west. Since they're very much in the east.

I think the west is more of a political force than a geographic force

No, west is one of the 4 directions on a compass.

The West-East division made at greenwich doesn't make any sense. It's too relative...

The true definition of the West-East division comes from the division of the Roman Empire:





So, to say France, Italy or Germany are eastern countries, it's a bit false...

I think the East-West political separation/division is a bit arbitrary and entirely irrelevant. A better separation of Europe would be North-South, each having distinct cultures, climatic conditions, and historical developments based primarily on the South's location along the Mediterranean Sea.

Edited 3/12/2016 20:27:05

Jai, you run into the same problems there. Is France North, or South? Hungary? Slovakia? Croatia? Switzerland? Romania? Bulgaria?

The West-East division made at greenwich doesn't make any sense. It's too relative...

What's that supposed to mean, too relative?

The true definition of the West-East division comes from the division of the Roman Empire:

Well, there was the West Roma and East Roma (Tsarigrad). What's to say that the true meaning of North and South doesn't come from North Yemen and South Yemen? Or that there are only three directions - Cao(North), Shu(West), and Wu (East)?

What's that supposed to mean, too relative?

Hmm, I meant it was a bit arbitrary. It was decided by the british empire and that's it... Not a good method to split the world in two lol.

Hmm, I meant it was a bit arbitrary. It was decided by the british empire and that's it... Not a good method to split the world in two lol.

Maybe, but everyone recognises it, everyone uses GMT, even the most anti-British countries there are, even the Islamic extremists, they all use GMT. And noone really cares enough to change it.

Edited 3/12/2016 21:14:02

I literally got right in the middle of the chart...


http://snag.gy/TbEmp.jpg

Edited 3/12/2016 21:30:33

Жұқтыру, Australia and NZ are often refered to as a "Western" nations because of their political and cultural affiliation with geographically western countries.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_world

"Western" or "Western World" doesn't just mean geography, but can instead be a code-word for countries with very similar political/economic stances that share a bond with eachother. It all depends on the context. During the cold war, west just meant any US ally.

Edited 3/12/2016 22:15:27

Yea, I think that definition is better.

Everyone follows the greenwitch time because of the simplicity of it... Sure, Russia could say tomorrow that the moscou time zone is GMT 0, but it's just gonna make it a whole mess to comunicate with other countries.

"Western" or "Western World" doesn't just mean geography, but can instead be a code-word for countries with very similar political/economic stances that share a bond with eachother. It all depends on the context. During the cold war, west just meant any US ally.

You mean First (Capitalist) World. But west is strictly geographic.

Everyone follows the greenwitch time because of the simplicity of it... Sure, Russia could say tomorrow that the moscou time zone is GMT 0, but it's just gonna make it a whole mess to comunicate with other countries.

So it is universally recognised. And there are strict longitude lines (I think it's every 15*) that say where each time zone begins and ends - at any rate, Russia's not getting to the middle. Frankly, I think differing timezones in general are just messy, that we should just all go with one timezone, like China has one national timezone, but that's another tale.

Just google "Western World" and you'll get the same thing as I said. Go to the "Western World" wikipedia and you get different definitions, including political, cultural, and economic. You fail to understand that "West" is code-word.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_world#Cultural_definition

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_world#Modern_political_definition

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_world#Economic_definition

Just since it's a popular misconception doesn't mean it's right.

The public decides the meaning of words. Many word's and saying's current definitions are rooted in past misconceptions. I don't know if you a native-English speaker (due to your username), but words aren't as single leveled as you seem to think.

The public decides the meaning of words.

Screw that.

Edited 3/12/2016 23:41:24