East and West are just vague descrpitives when used in political sense, for example the schism in the Roman Empire was not drawn down a line oflongitude but still gave us the Western (Holy) and Eastern (Byzantine) Roman Empires. Hawaii would surely be in the Western camp culturally and religiously.
Also medieval maps showed Rome in the centre (for political and geographical reasons) so it could be argued that West and East are relative to Rome. Hawaii is just less than half way round (westwards) from Rome. So again West.
And then there is that great lump the Pacific ... thats a good geographical divider.
So all in all I think Hawaii is in the West and we dont have to resort to the British Admiralty decision to put Greenwich at the centre!
Originally posted by mtthw But most of Western Europe is considered "the west" despite being east of the Greenwich meridian.
True. My definition looks at it from hemisphere point of view, which doesn't always give the same result as a political of point of view, or any other possible angle. Was communistic Cuba in the West?
Originally posted by wolfgang59 Also medieval maps showed Rome in the centre (for political and geographical reasons) so it could be argued that West and East are relative to Rome.
Hawaii - East or West?
13 Nov '10 03:41
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