regions of Asia to trade in valuable goods
in short supply in Europe, such as silk and
spices.
The rise of a middle class went hand
in hand with economic growth, and the
wider circulation of money played an im-
portant role in the artistic flowering of the
Renaissance. Prominent families such as
the Medici of Florence thrived from loans
and letters of credit that made long-
distance trade possible. The Medici ran an
international conglomerate, with banks,
mines, mills, trading houses, and other
businesses all over Europe; the vast wealth
they acquired allowed them to take power
as a hereditary ruling dynasty in Florence.
The Medici and other merchant families
displayed their wealth by patronizing art-
ists, architects and sculptors, and commis-
sioning new works of art for their homes,
palaces, and private chapels.
Italy was well located to serve as a cen-
ter of international trade. Its ports and
manufacturing centers lay between west-
ern Europe and the Middle East, along
convenient shipping routes through the
Mediterranean. Trade was also conducted
along the major rivers of the continent,
including the Danube, the Rhine, the
Loire, and the Rhone. As monarchies grew
stronger and unified nations emerged, cen-
tral governments extended their control of
trade through taxes, tariffs, and customs
barriers. At the same time, foreign trade
helped diminish the feudal system, as the
money economy allowed bonded serfs to
leave their estates and sell their know-how
and skills in the cities.
The age of exploration that began in
the fifteenth century, with Portuguese ex-
peditions down the coast of Africa and
across the Indian Ocean to southern Asia,
spelled the end of Italy’s dominance of
trade. Portuguese and other navigators
opened up new sea routes and established
colonies, which allowed Portugal and the
rest of Europe to bypass the Italian middle-
men who had controlled trade between
Europe and the Middle East. Busy ship-
ping lanes across the Atlantic linked En-
gland, France, and Spain with their over-
seas American colonies, which provided
raw materials and eventually a hungry
market for goods manufactured in Europe.
Foreign trade replaced agriculture as the
lifeblood of western Europe’s economies,
and would spur the industrial revolution
that began in the eighteenth century.Tudor dynasty ..................................
A series of monarchs that ruled England
and Ireland from 1485 until 1603. The Tu-
dor kings and queens reigned as England
developed into a powerful and influential
state, an important center of Protestant re-
sistance to papal authority, and a leader in
Renaissance letters, science, and art. The
Tudor line began with a Welsh squire,
Owen Tudor, a member of the court of
King Henry V. On the king’s death Tudor
married his widow, Catherine of Valois;
his eldest son was Edmund Tudor, who in
turn fathered Henry Tudor. During the
War of the Roses, this Lancastrian noble-
man defeated King Richard III in 1485 at
the Battle of Bosworth Field and then was
enthroned as the first Tudor king, Henry
VII.
The brother of this king, Henry VIII,
began his reign in 1509. Henry married
his brother’s widow, Catherine of Aragon,
who gave birth to his first child Mary but
failed to provide the new king with a male
heir. Falling out of favor with Henry,
Catherine was replaced by the king’s mis-
tress, Anne Boleyn. When Henry found
himself unable to convince the pope to
sanction his divorce from Catherine, heTudor dynasty