Candide Imperialism

The Renaissance spread from Italy to western and northern Europe, like a sunrise making its way across the land (Background Essay). The Renaissance led to more optimistic views, embracing individual value, rational thinking, and people to “live in their present life.”

The Renaissance is a period in Europe, from the 14th to the 17th century, considered the bridge between the Middle Ages and modern history. It started as a cultural movement in Italy in the Late Medieval period and later spread to the rest of Europe, marking the beginning of the Early Modern Age. The Renaissance changed the view of man on the world from how man viewed the world during the middle ages. The purpose of this essay is to show how the Renaissance changed the way man viewed the world. The world was changed in the views of Art, Literature, and Science.

The renaissance, meaning 're-birth', was a time of reformation of culture to the ideals of society. The people of the time, tired of the war and fear during the Middle Ages, looked to the ancient Romans and Greeks for direction in civilized life. As the Renaissance progressed, the purposes and values of education experienced major reformations.

The Renaissance is known as a period of change in Western European society and in the beliefs in the nature of man. Despite conflicting ideas of some of the most known men of the Renaissance, some ideals are universal though they may not be presented in the same fashion. While renaissance thinkers may not have shared all the same beliefs, there were some common views.

Beginning in Italy in the 14th century, the Renaissance was a period of “rebirth” and immense social and cultural change in Europe. The influential historian, Jacob Burckhardt, discussed the idea that the Renaissance marked the origin of modern times, in which the focus of life shifted from solely religion to a higher emphasis on learning and rationality. In his book, “The Civilization of the Renaissance," Burckhardt recognizes “worldliness” as one of the most essential features of the Renaissance. He claims that with this new attitude, there is an “irresistible impulse [that] forces us to the investigation of men and things,” as “the proper end and work” of humanity (421). Considering Burckhardt’s sense of worldliness, as well as regional differences across Europe, it is evident that European society did become more “worldly” during the years between 1415 and 1600, as secular pursuits, materialism, the humanities, and the arts became important values of the time.

Between the 1300s and 1500s, Europe experienced a period of cultural rebirth known as the Renaissance, marking the transition from medieval times to modern times. The Renaissance brought new importance to individual expression, self-consciousness and worldly experience.

Interestingly, “some Europeans confronted the crises they faced with the culture of the Renaissance, a word that means “rebirth”” (Hunt et al. 401). Moreover, this was around the mid fourteenth century towards the sixteenth century, during which the Renaissance “revived elements of the classical past—the Greek philosophers before Aristotle, Hellenistic artists, and Roman rhetoricians” (Hunt et al. 401). There were significant effects of this era, as there was now refocusing on the “human potential and their individuality” (Hunt et al. 402). This was not typically the norm of society, as there was no longer focus on religious contributions. Instead, it was more of the capabilities of the individual. During this period, there was also the

The expression "Renaissance" signifies "re-conception" and alludes to Europe's "social resurrection" in around 1350-1550. Craftsmen and educated people at the time themselves utilized the expression "renaissance" to show the distinction between their reality and the universe of the "dark ages". Renaissance learned people and specialists trusted that they had rediscovered the lost social legacy of Greece and Rome. As we have seen in past addresses, the social legacy of the established world truly had never been

Stokstad posits that these ideas have roots in the previous scientific revolution of the century before it, with philosophers such as Francis Bacon and Rene Descartes establishing what we now know as the scientific method based on logical reasoning, educated guesses and controlled experiments to prove them. The astronomer Galileo Galilei confirmed a previous theory by Nicolaus Copernicus that the sun did not revolve around the Earth and that it was the other way around-- the planets revolved around the sun. These theories and practices went against the Church's teachings, and Galileo in particular was forced to take back what he said on his observations. Other scientists made discoveries on smaller scales relating to the animal kingdom and plant life, and artists were used to convey the new-found information by painting or drawing those findings. (p. 756) With the different revolutions and events that took place before the eighteenth century, it could be said that the Enlightenment was just a logical progression and the next step.

Isaac Newton was a well-known scientist as well as a fantastic theologian. Through combining math and science he produced the Law of Gravity, the Nature of Light, the Laws of Motion, and suggested universal gravitation rather than crystalline spheres. Following Newton was Sir Francis Bacon and Renee Decart. Bacon believed that all science should be open. Everything should be questioned, examined, and tested until proven one-hundred percent true, and that we should never trust the theories of those before us without testing it ourselves. Decart is famously known for, “I think therefore I am.” But beyond that, he is known for pronouncing that “Mathematics plus Science plus Reason equals Order.” However, he never truly witnessed how right he was. Subsequent to that, not only were the walls of science and mathematics forced to crumble, but the walls of medicine were also demolished. With the help of Andreas Vesalius and William Harvey medicine was fully reinvented and the belief that everything could be explained by an imbalance of humors was eradicated. In the end, all medieval beliefs were destroyed and replace with new theories, mathematics, and

Throughout Europe, the Renaissance was an era that appreciated art, science, and technology, as well as established romantic love and humanism. It was the rebirth of cultural and intellectual recreation, and the end of a long immersion of poverty and decay. The Renaissance was influenced by the classical age and ideals of ancient Rome and Greece, and the great minds and leaders within those eras, but the renaissance wasn’t just influenced by the past, it was influences by those in its future. Artists and architects paved the way for the Renaissance, and like the Netherlandish painter, Hieronymus Bosch, sometimes in unusual ways, like resisting the movement altogether.

The Renaissance is referred to the ‘re birth’ of time. Many of the old conceptions of the middle ages were not enforced and people commenced to question the church's power. But one of the most crucial events in the duration was the factors that help spread the conceptions of the Renaissance from Italy to the rest of Europe!

The Renaissance was a rebirth of the ideas of ancient Greece and Rome that began in the City States of Italy during the 14th century. The cultural resurgence began a new style of living in Europe after the horrors of the black death, and is seen as the beginning of the culture of the modern world. As Wassace K. Ferguson put in his book The Renaissance, the Italian artists grew tired of the darkness of Medieval Times and began to turn to the brighter times found in the classical ages (Doc 7). The Renaissance served as the evolutionary bridge between the Middle Ages and the 17th century through art, education, and religion by bringing a rebirth of the ancient Greek and Roman classics that would later define the world’s culture, while continuing the underlying beliefs of Medieval Times.

The Renaissance wasn’t only known for a growth in arts but also in the pursuit of knowledge. This was a rebirth of man questioning his identity and his place in the universe. During this period there was an explosion in science and discovering not only how the world works but how to make the world easier for us. This only drove some to question more though man and his place in society. Many people believed that if science went too far, if man tried to know too much or things he should not dabble in then it was going to be the fall of us from grace. While others thought that science had nothing to do with religion or God and that in fact it was our right as humans to try and learn more and grow as a race. Due to this and the resurgence of religion during this period there was much tension between people and their ideas. There was much call for reform from both sides, some

The Renaissance(or rebirth) that had started in Italy, was an explosion of art and literature that had lasted from 1300 to 1600. Before the Renaissance, well educated men and women in Italy sought to bring back Italy’s past of classical Greece and Rome traditions. Instead, they started a whole new period that led to the different values of humanity, and innovative styles of art, literature, and learning. This Renaissance spread from Northern Italy to the rest of Europe, and there were three contributing characteristics that made Italy the birthplace of the Renaissance: Thriving city-states, a wealthy merchant class, and the classical heritage of Greece and Rome.