UNIT 1 - The Renaissance and Age of Exploration

Renaissance

• Period of renewed interest in art, literature, and learning in Europe

• 14th-17th century,

• characterized by the revival of classical themes and the emergence of humanism.

• Humanism, secularism, individualism

• Urban Phenomenon

The Medici Family

• The most famous dynasty in Florence was made up of merchants and bankers

• Established the banking industry in Italy

• known for their significant patronage of the arts and contributions to the Renaissance.

• Ruled the Grand Duchy Of Tuscany. Family had two popes, many cardinals, and two queens.

• During Italian Renaissance

secularism

a belief that life was more than a preparation for the hereafter

City-states

independent regions that were often centers of trade, culture, and political power during the Renaissance.
- Republic of Florence (most influential)
- Republic of Genoa
- Duchy of Milan
- Rome, the Papal states
- Naples
- Venice, Venetian Republic

individualism

Prominent during the Renaissance. Emphasizes living up to one’s highest potential and exceeding in all endeavors. Life of activity. Pleasure and accomplishment over religious awe.

Filippo Brunelleschi

• Church of San Lorenzo - roman architecture

• Il Duomo, the first dome built since ancient times, is an architecturally significant feature of the Florence Cathedral from the Renaissance period.

Leon Battista Alberti

Studied ancient Roman buildings and applied their principles to build cathedrals. Renaissance.

Donatello

Bronze statue David. First freestanding nude sculpted since ancient Rome. Renaissance.

Raphael

Considered the greatest painter of his era. Known for his masterpieces such as "The School of Athens" and his contributions to the Vatican. Conveys Renaissance style.

Leonardo Da Vinci

“Renaissance man” masterpieces like the "Mona Lisa" and "The Last Supper." Could pretty much “do it all”

Michelangelo Buonarroti

Known for masterpieces such as the Statue of David and Moses, the Sistine Chapel ceiling, Pieta (most perfect marble carving), depicted the “beauty” of God’s creations

humanism

• A philosophy developed by Petrarch that focused on the unlimited potential of human beings as an end in themselves

• A literary and educational movement during the Renaissance that dealt with the issue of politics and human concern over religion. Writing was a profession and not a pursuit of clergy.

Petrarch

• Basically invented humanism. First “modern” writer.

• Popularized the study of classical writers like Plato and Cicero. Wrote sonnets in Italian and other works in Latin. Used writing to contemplate the flow of his life + the human condition.

Marsilio Fincino

Influential in the Italian humanist movement. Catholic priest. Translated Plato’s works into Latin and first heir to the Platonic Academy.

Boccaccio

Lived during Petrarch’s time, a Florentine. Wrote the Decameron which criticized society and the clergy using entertaining tales.

Niccolò Machiavelli

• Wrote The Prince: a guide to survival for the independent city-states of Italy.

• Seen as “the handbook of dictators” and “selfless and ruthless,” using statements such as “the end justifies the means”

• Maintain power at all costs

• “Enlightened balance” - Establish security but dont make the people hate you. feared > loved

Elizabethan Age

• Reign of Elizabeth I

• Renaissance in England, economic and cultural growth

• Intense nationalism due to dynastic rivalries and religious turmoil

• Greatest vernacular literature of all time

• Thomas More, Shakespeare, etc

Christian humanism

• Northern Renaissance

• Renaissance curiosity for knowledge

• Research Hebrew and Greek text

manorialism

• Medieval social structure during the Renaissance

• Nobility and monarchs held all political power

• Everyone else had power based on income

Desiderius Erasmus

• “The Christian gentlemen” - personified Christian humanism

• Wanted gentle and loving reform of the church from within

• Believed education in classics + bible was foundation of true societal reform

• The Praise of Folly - criticized clergy + institutions

• Wrote on humanist issues

• Translated the Bible into Greek and Latin

• Most famous + influential individual of his time

• Enemy of Martin Luther and ally of Thomas More

Lorenzo Valla

• Philology- exposed forgery in the church

• Master of Letters

• On Pleasure- about the Epicureans

Sir Thomas More

• Wrote Utopia- criticizing abuses of institutions and blueprint for the perfect society

• Roman Catholic

• Behead for not supporting king against the Pope during ER

Johann Gutenburg

• Popularized the printing press

• Made the first interchangeable movable type

• This had a massive impact on society: spread ideas, etc, and made reading more common, increasing education reading revolution.

• Gutenberg Bible

Albrecht Dürer

• Master artist during the Northern Renaissance

• The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse— Famous painting

• Mathematician

Baldassare Castiglione

• Author of The Book of the Courtier— manual for manners of the modern gentlemen (polite, skilled, and a reader)

Fuggers

• Powerful family that helped the German city Augsburg peak in banking power

• Established the banking industry in Augsburg Germany

• Most powerful financial family in Europe

Sir Francis Bacon

• Scientist during the Elizabethan Age

• Father of “modern science”

• scientific method

• empiricism - knowledge from observation and not ancient

Pico della Mirandola

• Leading Italian humanist

• Oration on the Dignity of Men— emphasizes free will

René Descartes

• Father of modern philosophy

• “Cognito, ergo sum” - “I think therefore I am”

• Mechanistic view of the universe: nature explanation through mathematics.

• Systematic doubt

Nicolaus Copernicus

• Proved we have a heliocentric (sun-centered system. Contested the Roman Catholic view that heavenly bodies surrounded us

• Caused a major milestone in the creation of a divide between religion and science

• Helped mark the Renaissance as the start of the modern era

• On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres

Philology

The study of the history and development of languages

Civic Humanism

The idea that educated men should be active and engaged in local politics

Leonardo Bruni

• Example of civil humanism during the Italian Renaissance

• Argued the republicanism of ancient rome was the best form of government

• Best ruled by enlightened individual

• Movement to republicanism from feudalism

naturalism

• More realistic art portraying the world as it was

• Italian Renaissance - More idealistic side

• Northern Renaissance - depict the scenes of everyday life

geometric perspective

• Depth and realism to paintings

Pieter Brugel The Elder

• Dutch and Flemish Renaissance

• The Peasant Wedding

• Shows ordinary people

Rembrandt

• Dutch renaissance

• Master of light and dark

• The Prodigal Son- Scene from a parable of Jesus

Ferdinand and Isabella

• Their marriage unified Spain and the consolidation of monarchical power

• Raised revenue through national taxes on property

• Established a bureaucracy

• Drove out Muslims and Jews and established Catholicism as the official religion of Spain

Concordat of Bologna (1516)

• Agreement between king and pope

• Pope got the right to collect income from the French Catholic Church

• France had the right to appoint French Catholic church leaders

  • Could not directly communicate with the pope

• Ultimately gave more power to the king (gave them the right to determine the religion of their subjects)

Peace of Augsburg

Gave individual leaders in the HRE the right to decide whether their subjects would be catholic or lutheran

Bartolome de las Casas

• Spanish priest

• Worked to establish catholicism in the Americas but fought for the people’s dignity

Mercantilism

• System that argued there was a limited amount of wealth in the world that could be measured in gold and silver

• Dominant economic system of Europe

• Demanded “favorable balance of trade” meaning more exports than imports

Jean-Baptiste Colbert

• French general

• Mandated French industry to create everything the people needed so they wouldn’t need to import

• Wanted to claim as much of North America as possible

• Major: Quebec and Louisiana Territory

Treaty of Tordesillas (1494)

• Agreement between Portugal and Spain

• Divide Americas by a line of demarcation: Spain got everything to the left, Portugal to the right

War of Spanish Succession

Spain given the left (Americas) however England and France wanted some too so they fought over these colonial possessions

Columbian Exchange

• The global exchange of goods, flora, fauna, cultural practices, and diseases between the Old and New World

• The 5 major exchanges were disease, food, animals, minerals, and people

• Effects: Increasing mineral wealth and the establishment of trading empires shifted Europe’s center of economic power from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic States

• Primary trade ports became Antwerp, Netherlands, but was later replaced by Amsterdam, Germany.

Hernan Cortes

• Spanish conquistador

• Defeated the Aztec empire with only a few men due to disease (smallpox)

African Slave Trade

• Africans shipped across Atlantic to work plantations of European colonies

Encomienda System

• A system where leading men, called encomenderos, were granted a portion of land.

• This was during AOE.

• Natives became unpaid laborers who did farming or mining however granted protection. If they disagreed = killed

• The Requerimiento established basis

Middle Passage

• Journey Africans took during AOE to the America

• Took one to six months

• Conditions were inhuman and they frequently died

Commercial Revolution

• The revolution of money becoming the most desirable commodity in Europe instead of land

• Rise of money economy (goods, services, wages for work paid with money) and changes in banking and finance

• Double entry bookkeeping

• Joint-stock company

• Caused by the price revolution: inflation and growth of commerce

Two Field System

• In Mediterranean Europe

• Alternated between two fields to prevent the land from getting exhausted

Three-Field System

• Northern Europe

• Fields divided into three sections

• Crops plants in one and two in the fall and different crops in one and two in the spring while third left fallow to replenish

Enclosure Movement

• Fenced off the open fields to enable large landowners to employ crop rotation

• increased poverty

• Caused a massive migration movement of the landless poor into cities to look for work (urbanization)

Urbanization

• Landless poor and nobles moved into the cities and resented the urban merchant classes