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Social 8: Chapter 1
WHAT WERE THE
FACTORS THAT SHAPED
THE RENAISSANCE
WORLDVIEW?
Factors That Shaped the Renaissance
Worldview
 The Renaissance began to flourish in the 14th
century in the cities of the Italian Peninsula in
southern Europe.
 Developments in literature, painting, sculpture,
architecture, and education were all supported by the
changing worldview and the great wealth of Italy.
 The factors that led to the Renaissance worldview
were also the basis for today’s Western worldview.
The Silk Road
(video cllip from cd)
The Impact of the Crusades
 You may have heard about the Crusades of the
medieval period (the Middle Ages). The Crusades
were a series of military campaigns launched by
Europe in the medieval period (the Middle Ages) to
recapture the Holy Lands (Israel of today) from the
Islamic Empire.
 Read Handout: “The Crusades”.
 View video clip
 “Crusades to the Middle East”
The Crusades
 If you’re familiar with stories of King Richard the
Lionhearted of England or the tales of Robin Hood,
you’ve heard about the Crusades.
 Today many people see the Crusades as misguided
and brutal campaigns to extend the power of
Europe into the Muslim world. However, it’s always
important not to judge past ages by modern
standards.
 But whether the Crusades were a noble attempt to
reclaim the lands of the Bible or a crude power play,
they had a huge impact on the worldview of people
in western Europe.
Results of the Crusades
 Though the Crusades of the Middle Ages caused
great human suffering, they did continue the
process started by the Silk Road of bringing
Europeans into contact with other cultures and
other worldviews.
 Through trade, military campaigns, religious
pilgrimages, and the contributions of exceptional
people like Fibonacci, the groundwork was being
laid in Europe for the rebirth in ideas that would
become the Renaissance.
The Social Structure of the Middle Ages
 Most of us assume it’s possible to climb the social
and economic ladder if we make the effort.
 But that wasn’t exactly true in medieval society.
There was some social mobility in that society; for
example, very scholarly young men might make it
into the lower clergy from the peasant class.
 But for the most part—especially if you were born a
serf—you stayed in the class in which you were born.
 And most people didn’t question this system; after
all, it was part of their worldview that the class you
were born into was where God wanted you to be
The Black Death of 1347
 The Black Death was a horrendous epidemic that
swept much of Europe from 1347 to 1350. The
disease was the bubonic plague, but at the time no
one knew that. They just knew that people were
falling ill and dying in droves around them. And they
were terrified.
 *Edhelper, “Black Death”
Summary so far!
 We’ve seen how geography exposed Europe to the more
advanced Islamic and Byzantine Empires— and how that
same geography played a major role in trade, the
Crusades, and the Black Death—all factors that
ultimately played a role in changing the worldview of the
Middle Ages.
 We’ve also seen how contact with other groups—the
Muslim and Byzantine worlds in particular—opened up
the thinking in the West.
 We’ve seen how the ideas and knowledge from contact
with these other cultures—and from cultures farther
east—set the stage for the Renaissance.
Cities and the Renaissance
 In the Middle Ages, most people did live in rural areas
and were somehow connected to the land.
 However, there were towns in Medieval Europe, and in
them you’d have found crafts persons and a few
merchants.
 The rise of the great cities of Europe was something that
began during the Renaissance and as they did so, cracks
began to appear in the feudal system.
 It began first in Italy as that was where the changes that
marked the Renaissance originally occurred.
Why The Growth of Cities?
 Peasants could find work in the city.
 Merchants in cities who owned no land could make
enough money in their businesses to rival the feudal
lords in wealth.
 Crusading soldiers were all funneled through a few ports.
This brought wealth to the people there who could
provide the soldiers with food, transportation, and other
necessities.
City-States
 Many of the cities that began to flourish in Italy
during the Renaissance became city-states.
 That means they governed themselves (along with
the surrounding countryside).
 City-states were really small independent countries,
growing in wealth and importance all the time.
Florence and the Renaissance
 Florence—or Firenza in Italian—became the
wealthiest of all the Renaissance city-states.
The Medici Family
 The Medici family of Florence played a large part in
Florence’s rise to greatness.
 Throughout much of European history, it wasn’t unusual
for great ruling families to control countries for
generations—and sometimes to lead their countries to
greatness.
 But today in the Western world most people believe in
democracy. A democratic system can certainly produce
great individual leaders—but can families play a role like
the Medici did in Renaissance Florence?
 *Edhelper reading.
The Importance of Venice
 In Venice, some of its streets are, in fact, canals.
 You’ve also likely seen photos and films of romantic-
looking gondolas, operated by equally romanticlooking gondoliers. These gondolas take people
through the canal network just as taxis take them
through regular city streets.
 The reason for all those canals is that Venice is built
on a group of low-lying islands off the coast of the
Adriatic Sea?
Geographic Advantage!
 Venice was perfectly located to benefit from trade with
the Byzantine Empire. The city also benefited from the
exchange of ideas that goes along with trade. And the
Byzantine Empire was a channel for these goods and
ideas from the Islamic world.
 Venice became, in fact, the main centre of trade between
the Islamic Empire and Europe.
 Just imagine all the new and fascinating items—and all
the new and fascinating ideas—that arrived in Europe
first in Venice!
The Scuole
 The scuole of Venice were organizations that performed many good
works for the people of the city.
 They collected money and spent it on worthy causes—such as
supporting the sick and the elderly and providing financial aid for
others in need.
 The largest scuole—the scuole grandi—provided much charitable aid
and enriched Venice with beautiful public buildings that everyone
could enjoy.
 Every society has some people who are needier than others. Every
society has people who are relatively poor, who are unwell, who are
elderly, and who can’t earn much money. In Renaissance Venice,
the scuole stepped in to help such people.
Summary of Venice
 Unlike Florence, Venice became an oligarchy, and
because of its location it became the richest trading
centre in Europe.
 Yet, like Florence, Venice was a bustling city full of new
ideas where the social structures, values, and attitudes of
the Middle Ages were being replaced by far more modern
ways of thinking.
 As in Florence, artists flocked to Venice because its
wealthy citizens valued and supported the arts. Venice
also became the centre of the European book trade.
Genoa and the Renaissance
 The word comes from the French word Gênes—the
French name for the Italian City of Genoa.
 Bales of blue cotton cloth, a specialty of Genoa
weavers, used to come to France in bales marked
Gênes—to show where they’d come from.
 Eventually people began applying the name to the
cloth itself.
Trade in Genoa
 During the Renaissance, Genoa was a competitor in
trade with another city-state in particular - Venice.
In fact, the competition was so fierce the two cities
sometimes went to war.
Summary of Genoa
 As the great trade rival of Venice, Genoa was for a time a
powerful and wealthy city indeed; and with its trading empire,
it helped spread Renaissance ideas and values through large
parts of western Europe.
 There were, of course, other city-states in Italy that rivaled the
three you’ve studied in wealth, grandeur, and power. But
these three studies should have given you a flavour of what
sorts of things were happening in the Renaissance and how
the worldview of Europe was changing.
 Next, we’ll be looking at the spread of these changes across
Europe.
Chapter 1 Summary
 In our modern world, it often doesn’t matter much in some ways
whether or not you live in an urban or a rural area. With modern
mass communications— like satellite TV, the Internet, and cell
phones—and rapid means of transportation, in many important
respects rural people and urbanites today share the same basic
culture.
 Several hundred years ago, things were rather different. As cities
began to grow and become important, they revolutionized people’s
lives.
 Cities meant vastly increased opportunity. They meant a ferment of
new ideas. They meant exposure to foreign goods and foreign
culture. And they meant freedom from the old feudal system. It was
in the cities of Renaissance Italy that the ways of looking at the
world that we now call the Western worldview first began to evolve.
Chap 1 summary con’t…
 In this chapter we looked at three cities. But what’s most
important isn’t that you remember many details about
each of these cities.
 What’s important is that you understand the importance
of the rise of cities in forming the way of looking at the
world that you probably just take for granted today.
 If the urbanization of the Renaissance hadn’t occurred,
you’d probably be a very different person from the one
you are.