Greece Did Not Create Western Civilization

The misconception of our origins

The Greeks were one of the greatest civilizations in history, with Democracy, beautiful sculptures and some of the greatest literature being under their vast belt of achievements; but their seemingly most obvious achievement, the birth of Western Civilization, is not on the list. Claiming the Greeks as the fathers of the West is an act of disservice towards legitimate history, as it bluntly ignores the historical disconnect between East and West that truly gave birth to Western Civilization. Although there is no denying the influence of the Greeks in Western Culture, they did not create it, but rather acted as a guide for the ones that did make it, the Romans and Barbarians.

But Democracy?

Although the Greeks can be credited as the creators of Democracy, they were not the ones who spread the idea, and to an extent, the democratic institutions of today are not based off on the Greeks at all. The fallacy of claiming that the Greeks spread democracy is that it ignores an entire era where they were completely absent in the West; the Roman period. After the end of the Roman Republic, the West never returned to democratic institutions for centuries, and the Roman Republic itself was not directly influenced by the Greeks.

On the contrary, the Roman Republican institutions were an isolated matter; as it was created by the Roman dislike for Kings rather than being an institution imported from the Greeks. This seemingly technical fact is vital to understanding the story of our origins, as the Western World chose the Romans over the Greeks.

From the Italian city-states to the Magna Carta and the uniquely Dutch Republican System, all forms of democratic/anti-monarchical institutions in Western Europe following the fall of Imperial Rome were either directly influenced by the Roman Republic or developed on their own.

Misconception of Greeks

“The Greeks founded Democracy”. This statement is inherently flawed, as the “Greeks” at play here are the Athenians, not the entire Greek nation. In fact, the majority of Greek history consisted of countless diverse and separated Greek states.

Furthermore, the only times where the Greeks unified (pre-modern) were during the Hellenistic and Roman Periods respectively; and the idea of “Greek” in both eras differed greatly from the ideas modern society has of them. For instance, the Greeks in the Hellenistic Age were ethnically diverse and relatively autocratic, while the Greeks of the Roman Age were Roman in all but ethnicity.

This is an important link to the story, as the Ancient Greeks are the ones we associate with the founding of Western Civilization; but since we have already dispelled that myth above, we must look towards the area where the Greeks did make a lasting impact.

The Balkans had fallen under the swathe of the Eastern Roman Empire during the dying years of a unified Imperial Rome, and this split between East and West answers the question of the Greek “creation” of Western society.

As the West became a Medieval World carved out by Barbarian Tribes and influenced by the fallen Roman laws and institutions, the Hellenized Romans of the East continued to be Roman to the core. From laws to the Central administration, the East kept the Ancient Roman traditions intact for a millennium before falling to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 C.E.

This is important, as, in the time period between the fall of Western Rome to the East in 1453 C.E, the Eastern Romans slowly became more Greek and Orthodox Christian, and this slow transition resulted in the Modern Greek culture and to an extent, the cultures of the Balkans.

Then who did create Western Civilization and where does this leave the Greeks?

The point of this article is not to undermine the Ancient Greek achievements, but rather to paint a bigger picture of “Western Civilization” and dispelling the myth of one “creator”. Even the Romans, who arguably have the greater claim to Western Civilization, also cannot be called the Creator of the West, as if the cycle continues, the Barbarians whose empires descended into the modern countries of Western Europe has an even greater claim!

In conclusion, no one culture can be claimed as the “Cradle of Western Civilization”, as this is a huge oversimplification and disservice to the true complexity of Western history.

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