Question

how did the western cultures develop faster than the eastern?

Answer 1

War mostly. War is the catalyst for the development of new technologies. Many inventions primary purposes were initially created in order to make things easier for your troops or to give their troops a harder time.

An example of this are the stirrups which are attached to the saddle of a horse. Stirrups allow the rider to more easily stay on the horse during combat and allow the rider to lean and strike his enemies without having to worry about falling off as well as allowing him to better use his weight to add strength to his blows ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stirrup#History).

Another major factor which causes cultural development is invasion and settlement by other cultures. The Roman empire for example invaded and settled much of Europe. And with their invasions they spread their technologies and their culture far and wide. Roads, hygiene and thousands of other small but significant advances were spread all over the western world by the Roman empire.

Invasion also works the other way around because as you invade you also take the ideas of the people whom you invade and they too spread.

Answer 2

First of all one has to define what aspect of culture one is comparing...

I think it is a fallacy that Western culture has "developed faster" than Eastern culture....
What the western culture has been good at is going to eastern parts, learning things there, then going around to other places and sharing the gathered information as their own....

Look at how developed the Indus Valley and Chinese civilisations were.............

Answer 3

They are developed but ultimatly there has been an imperialistic culture of western civilazation in every populated continent

Answer 4

imperialism worked only for 2-3 centuries.....
and imperialism is not a "culture" as such, ...............
western countries did rule many countries for some time, but that cannot be called "cutural advancement"......

Answer 5

i stand with what I say as an imperialistic culture. If you dont understand, it means chauvenism, imperialism is a word--just because it signifyies a certain time period doesnt mean u can't use it elsewhere, and I would argue that imperialsim is a part of every culture. Its just emphasized in western culture.

It is in no sense a cultural advancement. That I agree with you. But their involvement with parts of the world were once very dominant, and in some parts they still are...

Answer 6

Ultimately the question cannot be answered objectively by anyone as everyone values different parts of cultures differently, and there isn't an objective scale you can point to that will tell you how advanced a civilization is. If I where to make a guess at the "more advanced culture" I would say western due to the preponderance of it, but there are good arguments for eastern civilizations too.