Stuff
Crusades (Start)
1095 - Pope Urban II calls the first crusade
Major Italian City States
- Venice
- Florence
- Genoa
Fall of Constantinople
1453 - Byzantine scholars flee west with Greek texts → helps classical learning
Crusades (End Year)
1291 - The Muslim Mamluks captured the coastal city of Acre, Israel
Renaissance (Dates)
Roughly 14th century - 17th century
Gutenberg Printing Press
1450 - Helps spread Renaissance ideas much faster
Crusades
- Religious wars fought mainly between European Christians and Muslims
- Christians wanted to take/control Jerusalem and the Holy Land
- Muslims already controlled much of the Holy Land
The "Father" of the Renaissance and Humanism
Francesco Petrarch (1304–1374)
The Prince
- Book written by Machiavelli in 1513
- A ruler’s primary job is to maintain power and stability at all costs, even if it means using deception, cruelty, and violence
Crusades/Renaissance connection
- The Crusades increased contact between Western Europe, the Byzantine Empire, and the Muslim world
- Crusades brought back new goods, technologies, science, medicine, and classical Greek/Roman knowledge to Europe
- Italian city-states became especially wealthy from trade
- That wealth helped fund artists, scholars, and humanists through patronage
Humanism
A non-religious philosophy believing in human potential, freedom, and using reason/science over religion
Luther's 95 Theses
1517 - Protestant Reformation begins
- Moving armies across the Mediterranean opened permanent trade links between Western Europe and the Near East
- Port cities like Venice and Genoa grew rich by shipping troops, supplies, and exotic Eastern goods like silk and spices
- The wealth went to funding art and education
Secularism
The principle that government, laws, and public education should be kept separate from religion