On the Origins and Consequences of the Greco-Western Continuity Myth
The West (to the extent that it does exist) exists as a social and geopolitical entity, not one rooted in material reality. Acknowledging this, however, is a rather novel view. Throughout history, the prevailing Western view was that Western civilization was superior to all others due to its culture, and this was precisely what allowed it to build and maintain relative dominance around the globe. In reality, even ignoring the notion of cultural superiority over others, the idea that the West is a distinct entity is nothing more than historical revisionism.
Lockman argues that the essentialist view that the West is distinct from other civilizations emerged only after the renaissance. In order to justify the wielding of their newfound power to dominate the globe, European powers began to view themselves as part of an “unbroken cultural continuity”, meaning that the West was forced to find a common ancestor to explain what made the West different from ‘the rest.’ Conveniently, as Lockman notes, this push to create a united ‘Western’ identity coincided with the emergence of European hegemony over the rest of the globe. To summarize, in order to rationalize colonial domination, the West had to demonstrate its ‘superiority’, which could not be done while admitting it benefited greatly from the influence of other ‘lesser’ societies, and thus marked the beginning of the historical revisionism that is the unbroken cultural continuity theory.
The answer to this contradiction, to Western statesmen and scholars, was to solidify the link with Ancient Greece (and to a lesser extent, with Rome). There were, of course, some similarities between Ancient Greece and the post-Renaissance West, but it’s safe to say these aspects were self-selected by those wishing to justify the colonial expansion of Europe. Just one example is the adoption of the Greek contrast between the freedom found in Greece and the despotism found in Asia (presumably Turkey). Lockman seems to suggest that the West adopted this model primarily to confirm their already-existing biases against those outside of the West and thus the continuity between the West and Ancient Greece, even in this very small aspect, is not truly present. This model of global despotism in comparison to Western freedom would prove influential for centuries, and in many ways is still present today, although present day Westerners tend to call it by other names.
Clearly, the idea of non-Western countries lacking freedom did not begin with the West. It was incredibly common among Greek politicians and statesmen to paint the Persians (Greece’s greatest rival) as despotic warmongers who sought to destroy democracy and freedom. This notion prevailed long after the fall of Greek civilization, and as the myth evolved, the words of the Greeks became accepted as fact. Conveniently, it is hardly ever mentioned that Greece was a slave state under the de facto rule of Spartan dictatorship. The Persians were at the same level at, if not more advanced than, the Greeks, but historical revisionism has erased this reality. In shaping a more modern ‘Western’ identity, the West was able to build upon this framework left by the Greeks.
In framing Western society as a distinct civilization, Western leaders, almost certainly intentionally, distanced themselves from the mass amounts of knowledge they received from the Islamic world during what they called the Dark Ages. Al-Khuwarazmi, for example, was a 9th century mathematician from present day Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. After one of his books was translated into Latin centuries after his death, what is now called algebra rapidly spread across the European continent, allowing European scholars to expand on his work without ever acknowledging that they had Al-Khuwarazmi to thank. Similarly, astronomical discoveries we typically associate with the renaissance indeed stemmed from the Muslim world as well. Ibn al-Haytham was a 10th century mathematician and astronomer whose work on optics helped fuel the work of renaissance-era European astronomers such as Galileo. These are just two of the many examples of Muslim scholars having had incredible influence on the European ‘Dark Ages’, neither of whom went acknowledged when their work sparked incredibly influential ‘Western’ discoveries in the Renaissance. It is safe to say that without the impact of mathematical and scientific discoveries stemming from the Muslim world during the Middle Ages, Europe’s path to hegemonic power would have looked very different, if it reached that level at all.
It is abundantly clear that the notion of an unbroken cultural continuity between the West and ancient Greece is nothing more than historical revisionism. What the West did adopt from the Greeks was the freedom versus despotism framework. Later, Western nations, seeking global hegemony, expanded upon this framework in order to justify colonial expansion to ‘free’ the victims of despotism. This framework is only further undermined by the vast impact of mathematicians, astronomers, and other academics from the Islamic world. Without Islamic civilization, the West as it exists today would not have developed into the global hegemon it is now recognized as. Thus, any ideology that views ‘Western’ values and institutions as completely independent from the world around them is deeply flawed.
Sources: (This paper’s citations were originally cited in Chicago footnotes style, and I’m too lazy to add parentheticals for every citation but there’s only three sources lmao)
Ali, Rabia Umar. “Medieval Europe: The Myth of Dark Ages and the Impact of Islam.” Islamic Studies 51, no. 2 (2012): 155–68.
Llewellyn-Jones, Lloyd. Persians: The Age of the Great Kings. Wildfire, 2023.
Lockman, Zachary. Contending Visions of the Middle East: The History and Politics of Orientalism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013.
