THE RENAISSANCE (Western Europe)



THE RENAISSANCE (Western Europe)

Overview: The term Renaissance comes from the French word meaning “rebirth.” In the early 1300s CE, Feudalism had ended in Western Europe and its citizens showed a renewed interest in the ancient cultures of Greece & Rome.

A) The Early Development of Capitalism

Capitalism is an economy based on money rather than on land.

By the end of the 14th century many serfs were paying rent.

People moving into cities started their own businesses or became salaried workers.

The centralization of government under powerful monarchs supported the growth of cities and the capitalistic system.

• As capitalism developed it was possible for individuals, city-states, and nations to become wealthy and powerful.

B) Origins of the Italian Renaissance

• Began about 1350 in Italy

• A new view of people developed stressing the individual.

• Individualism influenced the development of new forms of literature and art.

• The emphasis on the individual led to the idea of the "Renaissance man." This was a person who had many abilities and used them well.

• The Renaissance began in the cities of Italy for several reasons:

1. Their control of the trade between Europe and the East made them prosperous. It also brought them into contact with the Byzantine Empire and Muslim world.

2. Wealthy Italian merchants and rulers competed to become patrons of artists and writers.

3. Italians lived in what had been the heart of the Roman Empire. They saw around them evidences of classical culture. They felt they were inheritors of the Roman tradition.

4. Florence, an Italian city-state was very wealthy because of the bank established by the Medici Family

C) Renaissance Thought

1. Humanism

• Renaissance humanists emphasized the interests, hopes, and problems of people in the real world.

• Most humanists were personally religious. However, many questioned the traditional teachings of the Church.

• A national literature using vernacular (native Tongue) languages developed during the Renaissance.

• The religious views expressed by Renaissance humanists helped bring about the Protestant Reformation.

2. Literature

• Renaissance literature was influenced by humanistic ideas.

• Francesco Petrach (1304-1374) was an early humanist who helped to make west Europeans aware of the speeches of Cicero, the poems of Homer and Virgil, and Livy's "History of Rome

• In "The Divine Comedy," Dante combines the religious teachings of the Middle Ages and the world of the Renaissance.

• The work depicts an imaginary journey through the inferno (hell), purgatory, and heaven. The poet Virgil serves as a guide. There they meet real people from the ancient, classical, and medieval periods. Beatrice acts as his guide as he reaches heaven.

• People who wished to be successful in the political world read Niccolo Machiavelli's "The Prince."

• Machiavelli (1469-1527) wrote "The Prince" as a guide for rulers who wanted to retain their power. This practical work stresses the belief that rulers must do anything necessary to achieve their goals and maintain their power (the end justifies the means).

• As the Renaissance spread from Italy to the rest of Europe, writers such as Geoffrey Chaucer (1343?-1400) and William Shakespeare (1564-1616) became popular in England.

• In Renaissance Spain Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616) wrote "Don Quixote," a novel that details the adventures of an elderly knight, Don Quixote, and his faithful servant/companion, Sancho Panza

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