Old World

The Old World refers to the continents of Europe, Asia, and Africa — particularly Europe — understood as the historical and cultural source of Western civilization, colonial power, and established class/religious hierarchies, in contrast to the “New World” of the Americas.

Claims that use this term

• Creole revolutionaries sought to preserve parallelism, not to overthrow the Old World
• Old World colonial place-naming treated new sites as siblings, not successors
• Colonial America reproduced Old World class hierarchies rather than founding democracy
• Enlightenment thought upgraded New World peoples but downgraded Old World peoples to barbarians