The Renaissance was the rebirth of the European civilization promptly after the Middle Ages. Spreading across Europe from its birthplace in Italy, The Renaissance spanned from the 14th to the 16th centuries and was a time of great cultural and social change in Europe. This time period was distinguished by creativity, imagination, and innovation. This was also the time during which Europe’s classical past was recreated and revisited. What inspired people’s cultural movements during The Renaissance, were their tries to improve and imitate the legacies of previous European societies, like Greece and Ancient Rome.
Some of the major changes that occurred in The Renaissance were things that involved literature, art, science, and more. The Renaissance is important because it gave people a new perspective of the world. For example, “artists were recognized as not just mere artisans and were held at the same standard as poets and writers”(“Renaissance Art and Architecture,” Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2000). They also developed linear perspective, as a result, it was seen as a window on the natural world, and it became the task of painters to portray this world in their art.
After that painters began to devote themselves more to the manifest of landscapes, plants, flowers,etc. and how the eye perceives the elements of nature. At the same time, The Renaissance arts helped with the development of humanism, in which scholars studied and translated philosophical texts. This was also the time when sea captains began to explore and to seek different routes to Asia, which turned out to be the discovery and colonization of North and South America. A person who greatly impacted The Renaissance was the English poet and playwright,
William Shakespeare. Shakespeare’s plays were greatly influenced by the major cultural shifts that were occurring at the moment. He also standardized the English language and expanded its vocabulary and also deepened the humanity of the characters in his plays by giving them emotional complexity. Shakespeare also changed the way plays were at the time were by creating a new style that combined tragedies with comedy which was in no way common. As a result, he created a pathway that many other future playwrights and other writers followed.
Another contributor of The Renaissance was Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese explorer, who was the first person to circumnavigate the world. Magellan first started his voyage in search for the quickest sea route to the Spice Islands in a fleet of five ships called the Trinidad, the Conception, the Santiago, the Victoria, and the San Antonio. Magellan was the first person to cross the Pacific Ocean, and while en route he discovered the Strait of Magellan. The voyage was filled with challenges,which caused Magellan himself to lose his life in a battle, and as a result, the original crew of 270 ended up being a crew of only 18.
His expedition was not in vain, because he proved that the world was bigger and greater than ever previously imagined and that it was possible to sail across the world. During The Renaissance one of the most iconic events in history happened, the reformation. The reformation was a movement that caused uproar in Catholic Europe because people questioned the intellectual, religious, cultural, and political of the church. At the time, there were many reformers including, Martin Luther, and John Calvin, who challenged and questioned the Church’s ability to define the Christian practice.
This disruption was the cause of wars, persecutions, and the Counter-Reformation, which was the Catholic Church’s delayed response to the protestants. The reformation was important because it resulted in forever lasting political changes and triggered the new cultural beliefs of the modern era. The reformation changed the course of history and took the church’s authority it used to have over people. Correspondingly, it put a stop to ambitious political rulers wanted to extend their power at the expense of the church.
One of the reformers previously mentioned who contributed to The Renaissance was Martin Luther. Martin Luther, a catholic monk, he traveled to Rome in 1510 and was horrified when he witnessed the sale of indulgences. He thought this was wrong and that everyone should have a direct connection to god. Money shouldn’t be involved with spiritual matters. In 1517, he posted the “95 Theses” on a church door to show that the Catholic Church was corrupt. Consequently, some of his followers joined the Lutheran religion and quit Catholicism