2nd year English notes | The Renaissance

A number of civilizations share the credit for bringing about the inspiration for change throughout the history of mankind. Among them, the ancient Greek and Roman civilizations lead all the others. After them, came the turn of the Muslims to hold the flag of learning and knowledge in their firm, intellectual hands.

All over the world, the East was already inspired by affirmative changes such as technological, political, economical etc. Those changes inspired the Christians to a great extent and in turn, the whole western world was also stimulated for all revolutionary changes. The above-mentioned civilizations were remarkably rich with respect to skilful personnel, explorers, artisans and scholars like Michelangelo, Shakespeare, Galileo, Columbus and other people like them who helped bring about constructive change in the life of the masses.

It was the end of the thirteen century when the Christians had lost their resistance against the Arab Muslims. At that time, the Christians took advantage of living with Arab Muslims through new ideas and innovations from affluent Muslim civilization.

In this way, the Christians were able to bring such spectacular and novel ideas and luxury goods back to Europe. That was the genuine time when new ideas were discussed and a wide range of life aspects were challenged such as spiritual, religious, social, political, financial and educational.

Florence was an incredible name in the history of the world with respect to its geographical location and success tale. There were many reasons or basis for the success of Florence.

Among them, the geographic position is of utmost importance as Florence connects north and south of Europe. It was the place well-known for its flourished trade that gained strength in no time. As the city prospers, it invited a number of learned and skilled people towards it. That’s not all; Florence being a flourished city was also responsible for the birth of thriving banks, affluent businesses, rich citizens, artisans, artists, scholars or intellectuals.

There are certain terms and conditions required to be followed in almost every walk of life. Same is the case with traders. From a business point of view, traders need to be resourceful, brisk, creative and competitive. The foremost reason is that businessmen should be courageous enough to take a risk and develop initiative in order to benefit from profit, like the traders of Florence.

Traders should always try to engage their foot in new ventures for instance in the 1300s, the traders of Florence jumped into the business of silk, wool, and flax. In order to get profit in new business and trade, the successful traders have to invest the money as the traders of Florence invested money in building the textile industry by taking the risk in the field.

Artists flourished in Florence to a great extent as Florence turned into a flourishing democracy in a short period of time. This prosperity unlocked the corridor to the traders, artists, creative minds and talented people to flock to the city to earn their livelihood in a better way.

The traders of the city seemed to be competitive, creative as well as powerful as they were ready to accept any challenge or adopt new ideas to make capital. They participated well in the race not only to expand their businesses and let others down but in order to improve their lifestyle too.

People of Florence were busy in their own lives to such an extent that they had no idea what lies beyond their own village in the outer world. Even they didn’t demonstrate any urge to find the hidden truths of nature on the other side of the borders of Florence. Marco Polo, a name that should be credited for bringing about change in thoughts and exposure into the lives of the inhabitants of Italy through his travel experience.

He, being an explorer of the late thirteenth century, made an extensive visit to China and gained insight knowledge about the culture, customs, and traditions of Chinese people. He was the one who shared his experience and tale of adventures in China with the citizens of his city and that stirred the people’s interest in the world beyond their own lands.

Marco Polo and other explorers motivated people to learn about different cultures, customs, flora and fauna of the world. Trade and journeying around encouraged learning. It was the time when people had a desire to get an education by spending their leisure time and money.

The learned people of that time began translating manuscripts from the ancient world, revealing the truths and new areas of thoughts behind the curtain about politics, religion, science, and art. This was considered the beginning of humanism in Europe – an interest in the world and people, the desire to know more. Humanism had a huge impact on the art and architecture of that time. Before humanism, castles and manors were built for the purpose of protection but then they were built for comfort and beauty. Churches were decorated lavishly.

Masons and craftspeople were told what to create. This gave a sense of creativity and aroused artistic aptitude of the people that’s why people started thinking on the solid ground of comfort and luxury to enrich their lives thus creating an impact on art and architecture of Europe.

The world opened up for the people of Florence because of education and with the invention of the printing press by Johann Gutenberg. Before that, it was quite an expensive and time-consuming task to write a book, especially in people’s own languages.

This motivated more and more people to learn how to read and write effectively and efficiently. Due to the printing press, the books became cheaper and this paved a smooth path for the masses to adopt new ideas and learn new things to improve their lifestyle. In this way, the ideas spread rapidly to every nook and corner of the learned state.