Contact: Worldviews and Change Renaissance Europe mrmontrond.com Contact: Worldviews and Change

In this Unit…. What was the Renaissance? Why, and how, did Renaissance Worldview spread from beyond the borders of Europe? Why did the Renaissance worldview have such a long- lasting influence on other countries and cultures? Why did the European rather than the Aboriginal worldview become the dominant way of looking at things in the American continents?

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Chapter 1: Times of Change Focus: Values, Society, Beliefs Focus Question: In what ways can changing social structures affect a society’s worldview? thethinkingblog.com

First…Medieval (Middle) Ages http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpHMPzk6uI4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFmO0jxeh74 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w- mFcbc0M8E&feature=related

I swear allegiance to my king Middle Ages During this time, Feudalism was the system in which Europeans were organized into a hierarchy where the King/Queen ruled all and people were ranked according to their importance. You were born into your social class and you stayed there for the rest of your life . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LtbFQEXRBU&feature=related Feudalism was based on loyalty, land, and duty. I swear allegiance to my king

Medieval Life Most of the people during this time were peasants, they lived on manors or rural villages. Each family had a strip of land to plant and harvest that was located on the manor. In exchange for the land, peasants had to turn over a portion that they had made to the “Lord of the Manor.” Anything that the Lord ordered a peasant, they were expected to do…such as build roads and clear trees. Most peasants were uneducated and illiterate; therefore, the limit of their life experience, was life on the manor. Freemen rented land from the Lord and worked for pay. Serfs on the other hand, could not leave the manor without permission and rarely went further than the closest town. Serfs were “bound to the land…which meant that they were part of the property. They stayed on the same land even if a new lord took it over! http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTJFTbiMRck6QW3vmWsUx79pxEMIUdK1MDhB1VRQkjwCGkuvS3c

Town Life Towns in medieval times grew around farm communities…usually close to a castle, palace, or monasteries. Towns were dirty, cramped, busy places…the streets were narrow, filthy, and often rat infested. To protect themselves from rivals, they built stone walls around the towns. The towns were dirty, but they offered freedom and opportunity. In towns people could marry whom they wished, do want they want and try to make as much money as they could. A serf could gain their freedom, if they could stay in a town for a year and 1 day, without being found. Goods and services were organized by guilds (cooperative organization). Guilds controlled prices of goods, standards of quality and quantity, and decided who could enter a craft/trade. (p.23) They worked like labour unions. Women worked with husbands and usually had lots of children…they also did the housework. They could inherit property and during this time, may have taken over their husbands craft. However, women really never made their own choices (even the choice of their husband…at times it was a financial decision). Women from wealthy families had a bit more choice and women that joined religious orders usually received some kind of education.

Feudal System Challenged electricscotland.com Feudal System Challenged In 1337, war broke out between England and France; it lasted for more than a century and was called, “The Hundred Years’ War.” The fighting was hard on the land, peasants got tired of the high rent and taxes that they had to pay to finance the war and stood up for themselves. Peasants banded together and killed the nobles and their manor houses. The authorities brutally put down all rebellions, but the peasant unrest was unresolved. kidspast.com

End of the Middle Ages… Beginning of the Renaissance The Bubonic Plague (black death) was spread by fleas found on the backs of rats (between 1346 – 1350). There was no cure for the disease and within 2 years it killed 1/3 to ½ of the European population – that was about 25 million people! It wiped out some towns and villages. Shortages of labour on manors was hard on feudal estates and they went bankrupt. Landowners began to sell their land or rent it out to serfs. P.26 *what could this do to a persons worldviews?

Times of change How did people live and think during the middle ages? The Black death was one of the massive changes that happened at the end of the middle ages. http://www.learner.org/interactives/renaissance/mi ddleages.html http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IjhQDnoCcY&f eature=related

Canadian vs. Middle Ages Hierarchy Democratic Govn’t The Crown (King/Queen) Upper Class (ex. Rich) Middle class (ex. Average income) Lower Class (ex. Low income) Barons and Abbots & Bishops Knights Commoners (Freeholders & Serfs) VS. Knights swore oaths of alliegence (loyalty to the king) and fight for him in order to gain rights to pieces of land called manors. Bishops had as many rights as Barons and received land from the Crown. The Church became very large land owner.

Changes to come…. Towns grew and manors changed because of the Plague. With towns growing, society became less structured. People gained skills and wealth and had more opportunity to move social classes….a new type of social structure began. Wealthy merchants became the new middle class – class was no longer based on land ownership. People gave more thoughts to material wants, rather than needs (such as types of clothing, decorations, etc). People now wanted luxury goods and this lead to an increase in trade outside of Europe. The want of these luxury goods lead to the placement of sumptuary laws = controls how people spend their money. P.27

Religious Influence Religion was a daily part of peoples lives, and some began to believe that God had sent them the plague as a type of punishment and made them question their beliefs…Why might they think and do this? - today, we turn to science, why? Religion played a huge part in how people thought of the world (even in their map making). P.30 People believed that the church also had it’s own hierarchy p.3. and that this hierarchy needed to be followed. People who were deeply religious, might join a religious order and enter monasteries or convents (Men became monks, Women became nuns) p.32 The church was wealthy and owned 1/3 of the land in Europe, they made money off of rent and tithe…it made people question the church again.

Religion Cont… Monks and nuns were well educated. Some monasteries were centres of learning. Here scholars transferred religious texts from Latin and Greek. Universities grew up around religious schools. Things like grammar, geometry, law and medicine were offered. 80 universities were present in Western Europe by the end of the 1400’s (women could not attend, but this changed in the 1800’s). 2 other main religions at this time were Islam and Judaism. P.33

A New Age The renaissance became a time of great creativity in the arts and science was on the verge of changing they way people thought of the world. The renaissance began the “rebirth of classical knowledge and learning”. “Renaissance thinkers” began to emerge…here are some of those thinkers…..Martin Luther, Christine de Pisan, Nicolaus Copernicus, Leonardo Da Vinci, Vasco da Gama

The Renaissance Renaissance comes from the French word “rebirth”. This was a period in Western European history when the art, literature, and ways of thinking of the classical world (ancient Greece and Rome) were rediscovered – or, reborn. Not that these things had been lost, Islamic (Muslim) and Jewish scholars, and to some degree, the Roman Catholic Church, had preserved them. When the artists, philosophers and architects of Europe began to think and see the world from this perspective, their worldview began to change. This was about 1350 (the 14th century). http://www.renaissanceconnection.org/

Credits Worldview Contact and Change: Pearson Education biographydvd.com popartuk.com davincighost.buzznet.com knol.google.com forestheights.ebrschools.org cartoonstock.com fotopedia.com manofroma.wordpress.com mste.illinois.edu gardkarlsen.com