The Neolithic populations that migrated west from Asia by 5,000 BC were the first peoples to enter the European global villagethe European culture region includes Europe, excluding those parts where the Slavic language is dominant, but also includes Greenland along with islands associated with the region. However, Europe gets its earliest cultural influences from the first viable civilizationa highly developed and advanced human society, associated with population density, writing and record-keeping, education, art, science, and complex political and social institutions, which arose around 2800 BC on the Isle of Crete. The Crete cultural-heartha place where related changes in land-use shows periods of human occupation in which domestication of animals and plants appear; cultural hearths may contain such items as tools, cultural objects like the wheel, stone tablets, religious totems, or remains of shelters or even seeds that may have been cultivated More had social and technological advances lasting 2,000 years.
European Global Villagea place in the world where your ancestor may have lived, the world is divided into cultural areas, each area designated as a global village, see the Global Villages Map.
Complex and dynamica process or system, characterized by constant change, activity, or progress; in this way culture is dynamic cultures can also be traced back to the Nile Valley of Southwest Asia. By 180 AD, Roman influence had spread throughout Europe. The Anglo-Saxons, originating in northern Germany and Scandinavia, invaded Britain in the fifth century. Their descendants are spread worldwide. Those populations were the dominant cultureculture is not genetically inherited, it is shared, learned, and dynamic- never static of Europe until the Norman conquest in 1066 AD. The conquest of 1066 brought internal conflicts among the many cultural groups vying for power in Europe. Those internal conflicts have continued over centuries.
Globalizationall nations and peoples are interconnected in today's world due to massive flow of goods and services, importation of labor, immigration, technology, finance capital, outsourcing of businesses, and diseases, etc.; globalization promotes rapid culture change and adaptations, which increasingly blurs the lines of cultural components had its true beginning in the 15th century. Many European countries were advancing in ship technologythe system by which a society provides its members with things needed or desired, along with knowledge for the use and maintenance of the system More. The Vikings are said to have made the first voyage across the Atlantic about 1000 AD, but Christopher Columbus first initiated serious exploration voyages to the Americas. Others soon followed, and a dynamic cultural diffusionthe borrowing of cultural traits between different groups, especially during mass migrations and immigration More began to spread in many directions due to the vast undertakings of both commercial and colonial enterprises.
A little-known fact is that the Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria ships were funded by Converso Jews (New Christians). Those ships left from the port of Palos de la Frontera, Spain. The Spanish Inquisition (The Alhambra DecreeAlhambra Decree, also known as the Edict of Expulsion, was an edict issued on 31 March 1492, by the joint Catholic Monarchs of Spain, Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon. The edict ordered the expulsion of practicing Jews from Spain and its territories and possessions by 31 July of that same year., or Edict of Expulsion) also began in 1492, with expulsions, exile, and persecution of the Jews. Some of their assets were used to fund the expedition. The Inquisition, for 300 years, caused much misery and cultural upheavals across the globe. Also, remember that Christopher Columbus himself never landed on the continental United States. And . . . he was an Italian, born in Genoa in 1451, who became an experienced sailor by his twenties. (The main reason we celebrate Columbus Day.)
Columbus’ voyages contributed culturally to the European Global Village by introducing new foodany nutritious substance that people or animals eat or drink, or that plants absorb, in order to maintain life and growth crops from the Americas. Europe did not grow potatoes, corn, tomatoes, or beans. Those crops significantly improved European diets and contributed to population growth. These crops became staples in European cuisine, which in turn improved overall nutrition. There was also the introduction of new plants like tobacco. (Was this good or bad?) This impacted European culture and trade patterns and became known as the “Columbian Exchange.”
The European Global Village has benefitted greatly from the influx of new crops. Growing of these crops created new trade routes and economic opportunities for European nations. The new foods also influenced European culinary traditions, transforming everyday life (culture) and changing traditional social practices.
A negative cultural effect was the contribution of diseases shared by the Columbian Exchange from Europe to the Americas. The diseases such as smallpox, measles, and malaria spread rapidly and caused the demise of millions of Native Americans. There was also whooping cough, chicken pox, bubonic plague, and typhus. (Denevan, 1976, p.5)
Cultural patterns in the European global village changed in cities and rural communities where Latin, Law, Politics, Agriculturecultivation of soil to grow food plants using technologies such as plowing, irrigation, terracing, fertilizers and harnessing power of domesticated animals, Livestock herding, and Christianity began. Today Europe is considered multi-cultural, but many of its states and regions are still monocultural. Though each country has diverse populations assimilated into them, they still have very national identities, and ethnic conflicts often arise.
Many cultural areas still claim their separate identities and languages, yet for the most part, the EU has increased the interdependence of economies and shared spaces among all populations and groups in this global village.