The Renaissance?

Question

What was the Renaissance and what caused it.

Answer 1

It means re-birth and was a re-awakening of mainly Greek cultural aspirations to which new ideas were added. Started in Italy and spread through Europe.

Answer 2

Fortunately, you don't ask complicated questions!

The Renaissance was a general mood of optimism and this-worldly possibiity that swept the western half of Europe beginning in Italy in the late 15th century and moving upwards, to England and the low countries by the late 16th century, the era of Elizabeth.

It had a lot of causes. Exploration of the oceans starting in the mid 15th century changed the maps and opened up a route to the Orient that didn't require permission from the Ottomans -- a route sailing the long way around Africa.

Not coincidentally, the Ottomans were on the offensive in the middle of the 15th. That's when they conquered Constantinople. One result of this was that a lot of Greek scholars fled to the west, and new learning, in the form of ancient Greek learning, came to Italy.

There was also the invention of double-entry book keeping and the development of new systems of credit in late medieval Italy. The fact that the Medici family in particular was good at such skills enabled them to become the patrons of great artists.

Much else might be said as well, but I think that's a decent start.

Answer 3

It was a time in history when there were many artists of different kinds that were allowed to be artists and respected for their work. Peoples minds were allowed to expand and express them selves. Elizabethan England was very well known for their Renaissance. William Shakespeare was in the Renaissance late 1500's to early 1600's. Books were more common, plays, science, paintings, new inventions, etc. Also a Woman ran the country, Elizabeth 1, you can't get more Renaissance than that.

Answer 4

It was a time of innovations and reforms from the medieval model in every field of human knowledge and culture.

This said the people who lived during the Renaissance were not aware of it and the term Renaissance to describe that period was coined centuries later.

However the Renaissance took place and spread to other places such as Rome from Florence. Florence had become the banking center of Europe having taken over from Siena after the English refused to pay the Sienese bankers their enormous debts causing their collapse.

As Florence became the banking centre and grew in wealth the Medici who were the main bankers and the rulers of the city began pouring enormous sums into the arts and sciences in order to make Florence the center of Europe as well as to glorify themselves. This helped many talented artists, literati, philosophers and scientists to flourish and work giving rise to the Renaissance.

PS as a matter of interest a detail that very few people know.
The English never repaid the Sienese bankers their debts but eventually many centuries later as a sign of gratitude they decided to print on every English banknote an Italian word. The word is Compagnia (Comp.a)instead of Company

Answer 5

Some historians have suggested that global warming caused it. When Europe came out of a period called the 'little ice age' and the global temperatures rose (some say much more than they are today, based on ice core samples) crops flourished, people were less concerned about minimal survival and subsistence. with less worry about just surviving, people had more time to 'think' and so the renaissance was born.

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Answer 6

A rebirth. A time of change in economics and intellectual thinking in Europe from the 14th-16th centuries.