Download Review Unit #7 Renaissance

Review Unit #7
Renaissance
(Western Europe’s Golden Age)
THE RISE OF CAPITALISM
What Europeans experience while on the Crusades will dramatically change
Europe:
o LEARNING:
 New Muslim ideas (much of it came from the Chinese )
 Greek and Roman learning (had been preserved by Byzantine and
Muslim Empires)
o TRADE:
 New trade products from Middle East and Asia created new
markets and increased wealth in Europe
 Middle Class (bourgeoisie): businessmen, craftsmen, merchants
- Ranked between land owning Nobles and the Peasants
 Guilds: organizations of tradesmen and artists (similar to labor
unions)
- Regulated their trade or art (set prices, hours, standards)
- Masters, apprentice and journeyman- levels of expertise
- Emergence of trade fairs
 Capitalism: economic system that replaced feudalism; also known as
a market economy
- Based on using money – not land – for wealth
- Entrepreneurs, shareholders, joint-stock companies – a new
way of doing business
- Consumers + producers determine which goods and services
are produced and in what
quantities
 Commercial Revolution: a dramatic change in the economy – from
the land-based feudal
economy  to a money-based capitalist economy
(market system)
- Banking system established
 The Hanseatic League formed to promote and protect trade for
northern European cities
 Italian city-states (especially Venice) dominated trade between the
Middle East and Europe
RENAISSANCE (1500 AD)
 Renaissance: a “rebirth” of ancient learning (Greek and Roman), as well as
culture, that had disappeared during the Dark Ages; a Golden Age; = new ideas
and discoveries -> cultural achievements and changes
 Italy: Renaissance began in Italy: Great location for trade on the Mediterranean
Sea
o Trade created wealthy people (patrons) used their wealth to sponsor
great art
 Medici Family: Bankers from Florence  great sponsors of the
Renaissance
 Florence: center of the Renaissance movement (because of the
Medici family support)
 Humanism: new way of thinking during the Renaissance; it is now appropriate to
question things
o less about religious themes (more about Man on Earth – not God in Heaven)
o more about everyday, real life situations (secular or worldly – non religious)
o Emphasis is now on the value of the individual – embrace one’s human
experience
 Art: less religious themes - people appeared more lifelike - more about
everyday situations (humanism)
o perspective: a new technique that makes scenes look more three-dimensional
(shows depth)
o Leonardo da Vinci: a “Renaissance Man” (as he could do many things well);
he painted the “Mona Lisa” and “The Last Supper”; used movement and
perspective in his work
o Michelangelo: painted the ceiling of the “Sistine Chapel” and sculpted
“David”
 Literature: less about religious themes - stories were written to entertain people
(humanism)
o Stressed the power of human reason
o Renaissance literature began to be written in the vernacular (everyday local
language of the people)
o Shakespeare: wrote great stories and plays about everyday human situations
o Machiavelli: wrote The Prince –a ruler should rule by fear – not love; “the
end justifies the means” – do what is necessary to stay in power and to what
is right for the state
 Printing Press: invented by Johann Gutenberg (German)
o Books became more available and thus cheaper; ideas began to spread
very quickly
o More people began to learn to read (literacy increased)
o Judged by many historians to be the most significant technological
development in history