Why is westernization important

Although Westernization can be viewed as an unfortunate reality, Westernization or Modernization can also bring about benefits. At Paragon, we encourage always having an open mind. We accept all cultures from every angle, because ethnocentrism can lead to cultural devolution. Westernization has also been beneficial in globalizing the economy and creating more efficient ways of producing goods and services.

Another benefit is the modernization of medical practices, resulting in the extension of life expectancy. Westernization has also created a world with greater knowledge, and the ability to communicate and share knowledge and ideas globally, at the touch of a button. At Paragon, we urge our clients and community to value and appreciate traditions and cultures without a purely ethnocentric point of view.

A formal list of positions and ranks in the military, government, and court of Imperial Russia. Peter the Great introduced the system in while engaged in a struggle with the existing hereditary nobility, or boyars.

It was formally abolished in by the newly established Bolshevik government. By the time Peter the Great became tsar, Russia was the largest country in the world, stretching from the Baltic Sea to the Pacific Ocean.

However, the vast majority of the land was unoccupied, travel was slow, and the majority of the population of 14 million depended on farming.

While only a small percentage lived in towns, Russian agriculture, with its short growing season, was ineffective and lagged behind that of Western Europe. The class of kholops, or feudally dependent persons similar to serfs, but whose status was closest to slavery, remained a major institution in Russia until , when Peter converted household kholops into house serfs, thus including them in poll taxation Russian agricultural kholops were formally converted into serfs in Russia also remained isolated from the sea trade and its internal trade communications and many manufactures were dependent on the seasonal changes.

Peter I the Great introduced autocracy in Russia and played a major role in introducing his country to the European state system. His visits to the West impressed upon him the notion that European customs were in several respects superior to Russian traditions. Heavily influenced by his advisers from Western Europe, he reorganized the Russian army along modern lines and dreamed of making Russia a maritime power. He also commanded all of his courtiers and officials to wear European clothing and cut off their long beards, causing great upset among boyars , or the feudal elites.

Those who sought to retain their beards were required to pay an annual beard tax of one hundred rubles. Peter also introduced critical social reform. He sought to end arranged marriages, which were the norm among the Russian nobility, seeing the practice as barbaric and leading to domestic violence. In , he changed the date of the celebration of the new year from September 1 to January 1.

Thus, in the year of the old Russian calendar, Peter proclaimed that the Julian Calendar was in effect and the year was While their clout had declined since the reign of Ivan the Terrible, the Boyar Duma, an advisory council to the tsar, still wielded considerable political power. Peter saw them as backwards and as obstacles standing in the way of Europeanization and reform. He specifically targeted boyars with numerous taxes and obligatory services.

The state was divided into uyezds, which mostly consisted of cities and their immediate surrounding areas. In , Peter abolished these old national subdivisions and established in their place eight governorates.

In , a new state body was established: the Governing Senate. All its members were appointed by the tsar from among his own associates, and it originally consisted of ten people. All appointments and resignations of senators occurred by personal imperial decrees. The senate did not interrupt the activity and was the permanent operating state body. The new provinces were modeled on the Swedish system, in which larger, more politically important areas received more political autonomy, while smaller, more rural areas were controlled more directly by the state.

Previously, high-ranking state positions were hereditary, but with the establishment of the Table of Ranks, anyone, including a commoner, could work their way up the bureaucratic hierarchy with sufficient hard work and skill. A new generation of technocrats soon supplanted the old boyar class and dominated the civil service in Russia.

With minimal modifications, the Table of Ranks remained in effect until the Russian Revolution of Peter also taxed many Russian cultural customs such as bathing, fishing, beekeeping, or wearing beards and issued tax stamps for paper goods.