ITALIAN RENAISSANCE Essay

The social, political, and economic lives of the Italians underwent significant changes and advancements during the Italian Renaissance. Italy underwent significant transformation and revival between the 14th and 16th centuries, as the word “renaissance” refers to a revival. The transition between medieval and ancient modern European nations was fueled by the Italian Renaissance, which marked a turning point in Italy’s history. (Bartlett). It is thought that cultivation was the primary economic activity that predominated in late medieval Europe. It should be mentioned that there was significant political unrest in Italy prior to the Italian Renaissance, which had an impact on trade and agricultural activities. The Italian renaissance show fundamental changes and birth of literature, philosophy,arts,sciences a mong others. By the 19thcentury Italy had dominated the whole Europe in sciences, art, and philosophy among others up to the 16thcentury. According to the available research the Italianrenaissance laid foundation for the European renaissance since it started from withinItaly in the city of Tuscany and spread across most Europeanstates.

Role of economic factors visa -vi political factors in the Italian renaissance

The factors behind the Italianrenaissance are mainly economic and political with economic factors forming the core foundation of the renaissance in the following way;the growth of cities and trade paved way for the Italianrenaissance. Urbanization coupled with the emergency of rich trade merchants led to increased economic activity leading to high income generations. The various economic activities being carried in the cities attracted people all over the world to come to Italy which led to high revenues and aggregate demand (Bartlett). Increased capital accumulation brought about by developed trade led to the development of the relevant infrastructures like hotels, strong banking and other financial systems, modern transport network which led to the fundamental changes in the entire economy due to increased linkages among various social, political and economic fields laying ground for a renaissance culture in the country of Italy.

Urbanisation that was being experienced in Italy led to high wealth production togetherwith increased creativity andinnovativeness.Cities which were commercialised had fixed prices of goods and services. Highlypopulated cities acted as instrumental boosters for international trade especially ion items such as wool,cloth,silk,silver amongothers (Bartlett). The presence of merchants made the market for these commodities available. Similarly, luxury commodities and other important technologies like the production of books were being produced in the country of Italy with support from the artisans. In addition, the merchants who had accumulated capital acted as borrowers and bankers and led to the establishment of various financial institutions in other parts of the world like the Middle East. Increased capital accumulationresulting g from the developed financial sector led to the development of towns like Florence which later led to the renaissance of Italy.Moreover, economic prosperity formed the foundation of autonomy of various cities from the Roman Empire, It was easy for developed cities to be independent without any interfearence from the Roman Empire due to the high capital accumulation that increased their power and status. It should be noted that the capital that had been accumulated in the cities was higher compared to that of the Roman Empire that lacked finance (Ganse). Therefore one can logically reason that economic growth and development that was experienced beginning from the 14 the century and own words especially in the urban centres was the main factor behind the fundamental changes in the political, social and economic life Italians

Conclusion

Conclusively, the achievement of the renaissance can largely be attributed to the economic conditions that were taking place during the 15th century in Italy. Themere fact that the country of Italy was near the Mediterranean,international trade was easy to be carried out which led to the accumulation of capital in urban centres of the area of northern Italy thus leading to the growth and development of infrastructures like banks. Similarly, the connectivity of various routes to the Mediterranean made it possible for the Italians to move across various area in order to acquire better techniques and knowledge which later led to the renaissance of Italy(Ganse).

On the other hand the political factors had to some extent limited renaissance in Italy, forinstance majority of the political decisions that were being made were biased favouring one group or population against the other like the rural against the poor which constrained the rural population from enjoying the benefits of renaissance. Never the less, they also made some contributions to the renaissance of Italylike;Modern diplomacy played an instrumental role in the Italian renaissance, the establishment of various diplomatic offices across most parts of Europe during the 16 the century aided the renaissance. Similarly the prevailing chaos that had been created by the church in her efforts of eliminating the so called enemies of God played a role in the Italian renaissance. Therefore, both social, political and economic factors contributed to the renaissance of Italy.

Sources cited

Kenneth. Bartlett. The Italian Renaissance, Chapter 7, p.37, Volume II, (2005).

Alexander, Ganse. KMLA Handbook Modern European History, 5th edition, KMLA, chapters Late Middle Ages, Renaissance, pp.13-21(2007)