1. Setting the Stage for the Renaissance
Humanities 8
Setting the Stage for the Renaissance

2. The Beginnings for Change
Developments in…
Literature
Painting
Sculpture
Architecture
Education
Medicine
…were supported by the changing worldview in Italy (the birthplace of the Renaissance).

3. Factors That Shaped the Renaissance Worldview
The Silk Roads
The role of Islamic civilizations
The changing social structure
The growth of cities
Florence
Venice
Genoa

4. The Silk Roads
How did the Silk Roads set the stage for the Renaissance in Europe?
Increased trade (goods)
Desire for wealth
Contact with other groups
Exchange of ideas and knowledge with other cultures

5. The Role of Islamic Civilizations
The centre of the Islamic/Muslim world was at the crossroads of the Silk Roads.
All trade between the Europe and Asia was controlled by Muslim middlemen, bringing great wealth to the Muslim world.
Because of the convenient location of the Muslim world, it became a centre of learning during Europe’s Middle Ages.

6. The Role of Islamic Civilization
The Muslim faith supported scholarship and inquiry
Works written by Islamic scholars were copied and kept safe in libraries in Cairo, Baghdad, and Cordoba.
Islamic scholars took mathematical ideas and refined them into the understanding of numbers we have today.

7. Numbers!

8. The Role of Islamic Civilization
Islamic scholars used astronomy to invent tools for navigation (astrolabe).
Islamic scientists (ex. Ibn Sina) studied diseases and the human body and wrote medical texts that were used for centuries throughout the whole world.

9. The Role of Islamic Civilizations
Your homework:
Explain how the geographic location of the Islamic Empire made it a centre for learning and discovery from 750 to Use the map of the Silk Road to help you answer.

10. Silk Road

11. John Green - “Silk Road”

12. John Green “Dark Ages, Not so Dark” start at 3’53”

13. The Changing Social Structure
FEUDAL SYSTEM
A political-economic- social system of landholding.
Class structure and roles were very rigid.
It developed after the fall of the Roman Empire.

14. The Changing Social Structure
The Feudal System
p.23-24
Our Worldviews

15. The Feudal System: Monarchs
Would rent out their land to Nobles in return for military support
Collected taxes from the Nobles.

16. The Feudal System: Nobles
Would agree to support the King in times of war with supplies and soldiers and by paying taxes
Would rent out the land they were renting from the King to Serfs
Would promise protection for the Serfs who were renting their land.

17. The Feudal System: Serfs
The Serfs could only live on the piece of land designated by the noble.
The Serfs would pay the nobleman who rented them the land in money or crops
The Nobles would send much of the crops to the monarch.

18. The Feudal System…to sum it all up
The King gave land to the Nobles.
The Nobles rented land to the Serfs.
The Serfs paid the Nobles in crops or money.
The Nobles paid the King in crops, taxes and military support.
The Serfs served as soldiers for the Nobles, which was the military support for the King.
The Nobles promised protection for the Serfs.

19. The Feudal System
What can you tell about the quality of life of the different social classes by looking at this picture?

20. The Feudal System Your homework:
If you were a member of the family of serfs who lived in a small hut…
What would be your daily concerns?
How might you describe your identity – who you are, what you value, where you see yourself belonging?
How do you think a family member living in the manor house would answer the same questions?
How do you think the perspectives would differ?
Would the worldviews of serfs and nobles have similarities? Why or why not?