Western Civilization - History Of European Society

(Marvins-Underground-K-12) #1

CHAPTER OUTLINE


I. Introduction

II. The Consolidation of the State (c. 1350–1500)
A. The Iberian Kingdoms: Ferdinand and Isabella
B. France: Charles VII and Louis XI
C. England: The Yorkists and Tudors
D. The Holy Roman Empire
E. Central and Eastern Europe

III. The New Learning: Learned Culture in the Late
Medieval Italian City-State
A. Humanism: Its Methods and Its Goals
B. The Impact of Renaissance Humanism on the
Arts and Sciences


១១១១១១១១១១១១១១១១១១១១១


CHAPTER 13


THE RENAISSANCE: POLITICAL RENEWAL


AND INTELLECTUAL CHANGE


C


hanges in the conduct of warfare and the
erosion of feudal institutions after 1300 cre-
ated a new kind of state, administered by
salaried bureaucrats and defended by paid
soldiers. Though the policies of these states were gov-
erned by dynastic instead of national considerations
and regional differences were accepted to a degree
unimaginable today, the monarchies that emerged from
this process in the later fifteenth century are the recog-
nizable ancestors of the modern state.
At approximately the same time, a new intellectual
movement began in the Italian city-states and, by the
end of the fifteenth century, had spread throughout Eu-
rope. Under the influence of such writers as Petrarch
and Boccaccio, Italians began to reinterpret the ancient
Greco-Roman past and apply the lessons of that reimag-
ined period to their own times. In the process, they
transformed virtually all of the arts and sciences, gave
birth to the modern study of politics and history, and
created a model for liberal arts education that persisted,
with some modifications, into the early twentieth cen-
tury. They changed the way in which Westerners
thought, not only about human affairs, but also about
the physical sciences. This movement is known as the
Renaissance, and the term has been used conventionally
to describe the entire age in which Western learning
moved away from medieval precedents and began to lay
the foundations of the modern world.




The Consolidation of the State

(c.1350–1500)

Medieval princes had worked, with varying degrees of
success, to improve administration and strengthen royal
authority. Most royal governments remained modest in
size and centered firmly on the royal household until
the later years of the thirteenth century. Under Henry

233
Free download pdf