 The Renaissance lasted from about  Renaissance means rebirth.  Art  Learning  Literature  Values  Italy had three reasons why the Renaissance started there:  $$$  Its unique location to Ancient Greece and Rome  Thriving cities from trade

 Because many traders came through Italy, money was exchanged between traders and merchants leading to mass amounts of wealth.  As a result, bankers such as the Medici family became rich and powerful.  Although the Catholic church has lost some prestige during the Dark Ages, they remained quite wealthy.  With that wealth, the Medici’s and the Church wanted to invest in art projects that built up their own prestige.

 The Italians naturally looked to their own past for inspiration in art & learning, the Roman Empire.  They also looked to their neighbors of the past, Ancient Greece.  Looking at these two cultures led to a new movement called humanism, or the study of human achievements which is similar to that of the Greeks and Romans.  Humanist mostly focused on history, literature, education & philosophy, today called the humanities.

 Because of the large amount of trade in Italy, many large cities popped up, the rest of Europe was still mostly rural.  Since there were so many cities people could easily exchange ideas with one another leading to a revolution in culture.  With many merchants businesses increasing after the Black Death they turned to being patrons or supporters of the arts.  All of the aforementioned reasons led to Europeans becoming more secular, trying to aquire the finest things the world had to offer.