Answer:
Political: Creation of modern Nation State.
Economic: Spread of capitalism.
Cultural: Consumerist and individualist culture.
Explanation:
Political: Nowadays, there are 194 recognized Nation States in the world. All of these States have been created within the lapse of the last 250 years. But, the modern Nation States, which are political institutions that establish a sovereign political order over a population that lives in a certain territory, are Western inventions. The Nation States were created in Europe, first conceptually during the 16th century, following Machiavelli's The Prince, and in practice during the 17th century after the Peace of Westphalia. In the last centuries, due to colonialism, this political invention was exported to the rest of the world and today almost every piece of land lies within one of these Nation States.
Economic: Capitalism is an economic order based on the usufruct of private property over capital (resources) as a form of production of goods and services. In a capitalist economy, these goods and services are exchanged by individuals and companies in a market. This system was born during the 18th century in the United Kingdom and later, jointly with industrialism, expanded throughout the world. In the classical global economy shaped by capitalism, Western countries and the developing world have assumed specific roles according to a division of labor, in which the poor non-western developing nations produce the raw materials necessary for the rich industrial countries to produce manufactured goods that later are sold in the global market.
Cultural: Nowadays, most people in the world tend to be educated and to think according to Western values. For example, people that live in countries that were European colonies speak and think in European languages as a first or second language, like English, Spanish, French, or Portuguese. Also, most people in the world increasingly tend to have individualistic behaviors and to be oriented towards a consumerist culture. These conducts were not significant for many cultures in the world in previous centuries, but today is taken as a natural behavior in most countries and it represents a hallmark of American culture. The fact that consumerism and individualism are widespread in the world is due to the influence of American (and Anglo-Saxon) culture in non-western countries, through movies, commercials, music, books, art, and economy.
