esteem for, an individual.
When people became conscious of the taste of food and no longer ate simply for sustenance, this was also evidence of modernization. At this point, preservation of the individual progressed one step further, since eating delicious food takes into account the individuals pleasure and preference. The movement to protect an individual produces a culture unique to human beings. For example, we are now seriously thinking of how to protect the elderly as we are moving into an aging Society. However, from the viewpoint of the preservation of the human race, it is a total waste of time. It is more efficient to kill the old and focus on the young. Contrary to this principle of nature, human beings are trying hard to preserve the individual. And then of course the idea of human rights also grew from this idea. The concept of equality and welfare under the laws has spread. The concept of the family has been shifting from the extended family to a nuclear one in every civilization. Thus, modernization grows out of every human civilization or culture on earth. When we say "modernization", we tend to think it was a product of the West and that Asian countries or other countries imported it from Western civilization, but this is wrong. It is true that a great step towards modernization was made in Western civilization. Such a step stimulated the modernization of other civilizations, including Asia.
Modernization, however, by nature, did not grow out of culture, but by biological principle. It surpasses all kinds of culture. In fact, modernization in the West, made a great stride especially from the 12th century to the Renaissance.
This change was brought about by the contact between Western culture and Arabic culture. For example, in the 12th century, the concept of "love" was born in the Western Court.
It did not mean Simply a sexual unity between man and woman but it also contained a spiritual element various kinds of self-discipline and ethics. Such love was described in a number of poems and literary works. This concept of love apparently was born from the contact between Arabic culture and Western culture. Moreover, experimental science was born from alchemy, and medical treatment and medical science were also born from the union of Arabic and Western culture. Then desire for industrial technologies or commercial profits and ethics of diligence grew up rapidly in the West. Thus in the 17th century the foundation was built for a new industrial society. However, a similar sense of value or similar activities were actually found in China and Japan by the 14th century, although in figments and without logical connection with each other. Thus modernity started almost simultaneously both in the West and the East.
However, there was one great difference between the West and the East, namely that in Europe, which was the center of the West, there used to be one world under the reign of the Roman Empire. As you know, the Roman Empire spread elements of great civilization throughout the Western world such as laws, coins, roads and other products of civil engineering, and the construction of cities. The West was one big empire, where people shared the same religion, mainly Christianity, the same alphabet and similar myths.
One common, comprehensive, civilized world was formed there. And from around the 8th century, when the Roman Empire collapsed, various European nations were built out of the former Empire. That is to say, these nations and their citizens, were formed by breaking away from one huge empire and therefore, it was natural that these people shared aspects of the same civilization. The alphabet was used and the concept of laws was established upon the same basis.
All the religions were based on Christianity, although there were several variations. What was more remarkable was that the world of fine art had gone through the same changes simultaneously, from Eastern Europe to Southern Europe, therefore transcending national borders. There was the period of Romanesque art, then the Gothic period, Renaissance, and finally Baroque. Musical notation was also the same among European countries. It was of course the Catholic church which contributed to the universality of notation. In contrast to the west he region which we now call East Asia had no universal or united world. There was certainly a huge nation, China, in the center of East Asia and it had a cultural influence on surrounding regions. However, it is one thing to have an influence and quite another to have one united world. Chinese civilization was the civilization of the Han tribe and did not become the civilization of Asia.
Looking at the example of the Roman Empire, after its fall, Romans became Italians, and as a result the heritage of the Empire belonged equally to all the European nations that had formerly been a part of it. Italians may be a little aggressive and claim that it is theirs, but the French or Germans would disagree. Chinese civilization, in contrast, was derived from the Han tribe, and therefore did not belong to the Japanese, Koreans or Vietnamese. The Han people possessed a very strong patriotic spirit, which is why when China had a revolution, Chinese people said they would destroy the Manchurian tribe, which forms the Ch'ing
