What role did the renaissance play in launching an age of exploration?

Answer 1

A bit less than many people (and popular books, and general textbooks) often think. . .

Actually, it is sad how UN-enlightened people are about the whole 'pre-modern' era. So let's get some things clear first:

1) educated people of the Middle Ages did NOT think (nor did the Church teach) that the earth was flat!! They had known otherwise for over two millennia! (Opposition to Columbus's plans was based on the belief that the world was LARGER than he thought, and the voyage too far to make safely. In fact, his CRITICS were correct about the earth's size!)

2) related to this -- it was NOT because the Italian Renaissance suddenly freed people from all sorts or superstitions. This is another myth based on the erroneous notion that the Church was ANTI-reason and anti-science. On the contrary, it was precisely Church teachers who launched first the "university" system and from that the beginnings of modern scientific study

A closer look at this last point helps a bit with your question. There was, in fact, a much GREATER "Renaissance" in the TWELFTH century ("High Middle Ages"), one which provided some of the foundation for the smaller more cultural and artistic Italian Renaissance in the 14th century. A key part of this earlier Renaissance was the beginning of the university system.
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As for the "Age of Exploration" -- here are a handful of things that helped it get going, and how they do (or don't) relate to the Renaissance:

1) the ABILITY to sail -- great improvements in technology, specifically in navigation (thanks to the compasss) and ship-building. These inventions, which had NO direct ties to the Renaissance, made the voyages of exploration POSSIBLE for the first time. Prior to this, ships were not able to sail weeks away from land. I suppose some will want to say these were "Renaissance inventions" ---OK, if you wish, but the cultural Renaissance itself did NOT account for them!

2) the 'NEED' to sail -- the victory of the Ottoman Turks cut off the land trade route to the Far East and its riches (esp. their desired spices). This pushed nations to look for another route, beginning with the Portuguese voyages down and around Africa.

3) the DESIRE -- individual interest was not enough... the whole thing needed backing. In this, the growth of nation-states (including the new nation of Spain) with increased power, and competing with each other for prestige and wealth (from the voyages), played a major part.

4) the WEALTH and FINANCING system -- this did have SOME relation to the Renaissance, for as the Renaissance was made possible by patrons made wealthy by trade, so this became a source of financing for voyages of discovery (some of this by the same families)

Now the financing/banking system, esp the invention of stock companies, is sometimes attributed to the Renaissance. But this is backwards!! It is rather this system which enabled the wealth that fueled the Renaissance. And the developments in banking went back to, you guessed it!, the TWELFTH Century Renaissance.
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So, the Italian Renaissance, while it had some connections, and in a sense contributed (esp via MONEY), is not exactly a major SOURCE of the Age of Discovery. It DID come at a time when there was rapid growth in learning (esp through the university) and wealth (banking system, trade), both of helped bring about the Age of Discovery and other advances, but it did not CAUSE things that were already underway!!

Answer 2

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What role did the renaissance play in launching an age of exploration?

Answer 3

The Renaissance did a great deal in launching an age of exploration. Art and creativity, love of the human body, sensuality, sexuality. These were things that everyone was curious about, looking into. Homosexuality, believe it or not, was not uncommon during the Renaissance. It was a wonderful time for literature and discovery, emergence of cultures and a mind broader than the church and The Church's views.

Answer 4

Not much. What did cause the Age of Exploration was a very large population increase. When an area experiences a population increase that exceeds the land's ability to support the number of inhabitants, people have a tendency to go away and look for a better future elsewhere.

Answer 5

it sparked the age of enlightenment by encouraging the people to question whether their royalty were really ordained by God as the church said they were, and then they began questioning other things that the church had mandated, such as the shape of the earth.

I know it doesn't help much, but it's a start. look up the enlightenment period, which is intertwined with the renaissance era.

Answer 6

discoveries in science aided in navigation and medicine. People started to observe facts rather than be led by superstition.