2. Times of Change: The Expansion of Trade
Question of Focus for this section:
What impact might increased trade
and business have on a society’s
worldview?

3. Economy
Values/Beliefs

4. Overview Vocabulary Recap/Introduction What was the Renaissance?
What factors contributed to the rise of trade between Western Europe and the East at the beginning of the Renaissance?
How did increased trade lead to the emergence of powerful city-states in Italy?
How did trade with the East affect European society?
Key Question: What impact might increased trade and business have on a society’s worldview?

5. Key Vocabulary Usury The Silk Road The Crusades Rural Urban Leadership
Social Organization
Capitalism
Secularism
Caravan
City-states
Hinterland
Geography
Climate
Monarchies
Ciompi
Renaissance
Realism
Humanism
Century
Era

6. Recap/Introduction
We have already explored some of the ways that society, religion, and a changing economy affected the European worldview. You saw how towns, where goods could be exchanged, were spreading all over Western Europe. Next, you will explore how trade and business expanded in Renaissance Europe and how it affected European society.

7. Harry Potter
How did Harry Potter’s worldview change when he met, Hagrid, a person from another culture?
How did his immersion into the Magical World change the way he viewed everything around him?
If Harry Potter stayed in the cupboard underneath the stairs, and continued to be cut off from the Magical World for his entire life, how would his worldview change throughout his life?

8. Can you think of a time when you met someone from another culture
Can you think of a time when you met someone from another culture? How did this meeting effect the way you view the world?
Have you travelled to another country before? How did this experience effect the way you view the world?
Have you lived in another country before? How did moving to Canada effect the way you view the world?

9. Did you know? Each Century is a period of 100 years.
The 1st Century (the first 100 years) stretched through the years 1 through 99.
The time period from is called the 14th Century.
The time period from is called the 15th century…and so forth…

10. Did you know?
The 1st Century to the 4th Century (1-399) is known as the Age of the Roman Empire.
The 4th Century to the 15th Century is known as the Age of the Byzantine Empire.
The 4th Century to the 14th Century is also known as the Middle Ages(medieval people lived during this time).
BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY…
The 14th Century to the 17th Century is known as the Renaissance Era. ( )

11. What was the Renaissance
What was the Renaissance? The Renaissance was a period of great creativity in the arts and sciences. In 1855 a French historian, Jules Michelet, coined the term “Renaissance” to describe what many generations thought of as the rebirth of classical knowledge and learning. This is why we use a French term to describe a movement that started in Italy.

12. Contact with other cultures was increasing during the later part of the Middle Ages.
This meant people started exchanging ideas about the world and this broadened the knowledge and beliefs that people, everywhere, possessed.
Instead of having only a few ideas about the world, people started to have a whole bunch of different ways to understand their world.
This exchange of ideas between cultures helped start the Renaissance Era . Western European culture was being “born again”.

13. The Renaissance Era lasted from the middle of the 14th Century to the beginning of the 17th Century. ( )
It was a period in time that involved great social change.
This social change had its origins in Italy. From Italy, this social change spread throughout Western Europe.
It was a time frame that involved such great change, that it eventually gave way to our modern Western worldview here in the 21st century.

14. Complete Question Booklet
The Renaissance begins in Italy…
Rick Steeves: Florence, heart of the Renaissance
Complete Question Booklet

15. Some famous Renaissance figures…

17. More famous Renaissance figures…
Marco Polo and his Family The Medici Family Giovanni Bellini Christopher Columbus Aldus Manutius Nicolas Jenson Michelangelo Buonarroti Leonardo Pisano Fibonacci Michel de Montaigne

18. Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) Johann Gutenberg Erasmus of Rotterdam Donatello Filippo Brunelleschi Sofonisba Anguissola Masaccio Nicolaus Copernicus Francois Viete William Shakespeare

19. Agrippa of Nettelsheim Maria de Zayas y Sotomayer Marguerite de Navarre Sir Francis Bacon Henry the Navigator Amerigo Vespucci Ferdinand Magellan Hernan Cortes Niccolo Machiavelli Galileo Jacopo Sansovino

20. What factors contributed to the rise of trade between Western Europe and the East at the beginning of the Renaissance?

21. Reason 1: The Fall of Feudalism and the Rise of Capitalism
Remember from earlier that these things, among others, arose after the Feudalism system fell and Capitalism became the new economic system in Western Europe…
Materialism
Less Rigid Social Hierarchy
3. Expansionism
4. More importance placed on time and money
5. Clothing linked to Social Status

22. The social structure BEFORE the Black Death and the Peasant’s Revolt of 1381

23. The social structure AFTER the Black Death and the Peasant’s Revolt of 1381

24. Why would all of THAT make people want to go to Eastern Europe to trade?

25. Reason 2: The Crusades

26. During the late Middle Ages, armies from Europe organized crusades to try and recapture areas of the Middle East that were under Muslim control.
Jews, Christians, and Muslims all considered these areas holy because that is where their religions found there roots.
Each group at the time wanted control of the same area.

27. The Crusades were a series of religious wars between the Christians and the Muslims over who should be practicing what religion and who should be able to live in the Holy Land.
Remember that religion was essential in the lives of people during the Middle Ages. It was the center of everyone’s lives. If you were not praying to the “correct” god, or practicing the “correct” religion, you could risk your soul going to Hell.
For most people, life was so short and usually miserable during the Middle Ages so it was important to guarantee yourself a good afterlife.

29. The Crusades enabled people from many different places in Europe to meet and exchange goods and ideas.
This allowed more opportunity for people to trade various kinds of goods with one another.
The Crusades helped to increase trade connections throughout Eastern and Western Europe.

31. There were two important results of the Crusades for Europeans:
1. contact with Muslim civilization
2. trade.
During this time, the Muslim world was more advanced than Europe.
Because of their travels and contacts, Europeans were exposed to new ideas about medicine, astronomy, philosophy, mathematics, and ancient literature.
In addition, Muslim societies were inclusive and welcomed the contributions of Christian and Jewish scholars.

32. The Crusaders brought back to Europe many new goods, including oil, spices, and new varieties of fruit from the Muslim world.
Europeans wanted more of these goods.
This led to increased trade between Europe and the East.

33. Many of the goods that Italian merchants began to bring in by sea after the Crusades were luxury goods that were not available in Europe.
They included precious jewels, rugs, and fabrics like silk, muslin, taffeta, and satin.
Spices were also one of these luxury goods because it improved the taste of Europeans’ food.

34. Pepper was so valuable that sellers counted it out peppercorn by peppercorn and it was worth more than its weight in gold.
When ships loaded with luxury goods and spices returned to sea ports like Genoa and Venice, merchants from Italy and across northern Europe flocked to buy the valuable cargoes.
They then took the goods to sell in other cities and trading centers.

35. Reason 3: The Silk Road

36. The empires in Asia and Northern Africa, during the Middle Ages, were centers of learning, wealth and trade.
People in Western Europe welcomed exotic goods from China and Japan.
Exotic goods such as silk, paper, glassware, cinnamon and pepper were extremely rare in Western Europe.
These exotic goods made their way to Western Europe by traders who travelled by foot or camel in caravans along a trading network called the “Silk Road.”

37. The “Silk Road” was a series of trade routes that connected Western Europe to Asia and Northern Africa.
Movements of goods went both ways.
Not all the goods that moved along the “Silk Road” were good.
Disease also passed from trader to trader or caravan to caravan.
The most famous example of this occurrence was the Black Death…which we already talked about earlier.

38. The Black Death was brought to Western Europe by boat.
Rats who carried the plague were brought from Asia to Western Europe and the plague then spread across the continent.
However, most importantly IDEAS AND KNOWLEDGE were also traded along the “Silk Road”.
Understandings of religion, science, technology, music, and math were shared between societies.

41. Do you ever think about how many of the foods and other goods in your daily life come from other countries? Imagine how different your life would be without international trade.

42. Field Trip to the Grocery Store
How many goods can you find from another country or province?
List the good and put the location it is from beside it.
How do you think trade with all these countries effects our society and our worldview?
What would our grocery store look like if we did not trade with other provinces or countries? How would this LACK of trade effect our society and our worldview?

43. How did increased trade lead to the emergence of powerful city-states in Italy?

44. Renaissance Europe did not look the way Europe does today.
Many countries had very different borders. Others, like Italy, were not yet countries at all.
At the time, most countries were more like kingdoms, empires, or principalities ruled by monarchs.
Italy was a collection of city-states.
A city-state consists of a city that is politically independent and the rural area around it.
This rural area is called the hinterland.

45. Geographic features contributed greatly to the economic success of Florence.
Dozens of city-states grew up across the northern half of Italy.
They were “in the right place at the right time” to become the wealthiest cities of Europe.
Aspects of their geography, climate, leadership, and social organization help to account for their success.

46. 1. Geography
Of all Europe, Italy was closest to the port cities of northern Africa and the eastern Mediterranean Sea where spices and other luxury goods were available for trade.
As a result, transporting these goods by sea was easier and cheaper for traders in Italian cities than for those of other European countries.

48. 2. Climate
The climate of Italy is milder than the climate in the European countries north of the Alps. This meant that trade and travel were not interrupted by winter weather.
The long growing season produced crops like olives and grapes — important trade items.
Wine made by fermenting grapes was a popular drink across Europe; oil pressed from olives was used for cooking.

49. 3. Leadership
Northern Italy had a different history from the rest of Europe. In pre-modern Europe, most countries were monarchies, that is, ruled by a king or queen.
Northern Italy, on the other hand, was a collection of independent city-states. They had their own governments, armies, and controlled their own affairs.
The city- states of Venice, Milan, Florence, and Genoa grew into the wealthiest trading, business, and banking centers of Europe.

50. 4. Social Organization
Feudalism did not have nearly as strong a hold in Italy as it did in the rest of Europe.
In Italy, the nobles tended to move into the towns, where they took their place in the upper classes of urban society.
Many of them became involved in business and politics.

53. Revolt in Italy…
Do you remember that some peasants in England and France revolted against unfair treatment by the nobles?
Well, in Florence, there was a revolt led by the ciompi or “wool carders.” Because of the Black Death, the economy was weakened.
There was high unemployment among workers, like the ciompi, who did not belong to guilds.

54. The ciompi wanted to form their own guild but this request was denied by the large guilds and by the government, which was run by wealthy merchants.
The ciompi called for an uprising of the lower classes.
They briefly took over the government of Florence, but they were eventually defeated by the powerful guilds.

55. Money, Money, Money
The bankers as well as the merchants of the city-states brought wealth to their cities.
Florentine bankers established banking houses across Europe.
Florence’s economy became so powerful that its golden “florin” became the most important currency in Europe during the course of the Renaissance.

56. Usury, the practice of charging interest when loaning money to someone, played an important part in creating wealth.
During the Middle Ages, the Church considered usury sinful.
However, the growth of international trade required large investments of money that would be tied up for many years.
To encourage investment in international trade, the Church began to allow charging interest for loans that involved risk.

57. Florence competed with other city-states in banking.
Italian and European bankers and merchants travelled around Europe on business.
This exposed other Europeans to the lifestyle of the Italians who had more contact with the world outside Europe.
Wealthy Europeans, artists, and scholars visited Italy and were impressed with the beautiful cities and the sophistication of the Italians.
They spread Italian values and ideas across Europe.

58. Because of increased trading in Italy, cities began to grow quickly in Italy.
By the middle of the 14th century, Paris, Florence, Venice and Genoa were the largest cities in Europe.
A new wealthy, merchant class began to grow.
Workers in Italy did not depend on rich nobles, like the peasants did in the Feudal system. Instead, they created their own wealth.
Individuals began to feel a sense of belonging to their larger communities, not just to their local Lord.

59. There were more opportunities for work, after the Black Death, in the Italian cities than there were in other cities in Western Europe.
This was because Italy established trade with the East faster then the rest of Western Europe.
50 Years after the Black Death, cities in Italy became very powerful.
Warfare among the Italian city states was very common due to economic competition.

60. Pause…

61. How did trade with the East affect European society?

62. Class Brainstorm…

63. ***Key Question: What impact might increased trade and business have on a society’s worldview?

64. Class Brainstorm…