1. The Renaissance
The “Renaissance” refers to a rebirth of ancient Greek and Roman culture that occurred between
Especially in Italy (Italian Renaissance)
This rebirth marked a new age
It is a period of European history that began in Italy and spread to the rest of Europe
This rebirth began in Italy and spread to the rest of Europe—it was the result of three main things:
Because Italy was a huge, urban society…
Powerful city-states became the centers if Italian political, economic, and social life…
Within this growing urban society, a secular (worldly) viewpoint emerged as increasing wealth created new possibilities for the enjoyment of material things

2. It was caused by three main things:
1. An increase in urban wealth and power in Italy led to an increase in materialism
Italy never had a centralized monarchy
They didn’t have a single, strong enough ruler…so they had city-states
Milan, Venice, and Florence were most famous in expanding in power and playing crucial roles in Italian politics
They traded with the Byzantine Empire and Crusader states

3. People wanted to show off their wealth
In fact, the effects of the Renaissance were seen most among the wealthy

4. 2. Europe had reached a dark time which led to a desire to return to the glory of ancient cultures
The Black Death (Bubonic Plague) decimated Europe after ships brought it in from the East
(longer)
(shorter)
Video is from August 2013
This was a widespread epidemic of the Bubonic Plague that passed from Asia and through Europe in the mid fourteenth century. The first signs of the Black Plague in Europe were present around the fall of In the span of three years, the Black Death killed one third of all the people in Europe. This traumatic population change coming into the Late Middle Ages caused great changes in European culture and lifestyle.
Coming out of the East, the Black Death reached the shores of Italy in the spring of 1348 unleashing a rampage of death across Europe unprecedented in recorded history. By the time the epidemic played itself out three years later, anywhere between 25% and 50% of Europe's population had fallen victim to the pestilence.
The plague presented itself in three interrelated forms. The bubonic variant (the most common) derives its name from the swellings or buboes that appeared on a victim's neck, armpits or groin. These tumors could range in size from that of an egg to that of an apple. Although some survived  The Plague's Progress the painful ordeal, the manifestation of these lesions usually signaled the victim had a life expectancy of up to a week. Infected fleas that attached themselves to rats and then to humans spread this bubonic type of the plague. A second variation - pneumonic plague - attacked the respiratory system and was spread by merely breathing the exhaled air of a victim. It was much more virulent than its bubonic cousin - life expectancy was measured in one or two days. Finally, the septicemic version of the disease attacked the blood system.
Having no defense and no understanding of the cause of the pestilence, the men, women and children caught in its onslaught were bewildered, panicked, and finally devastated.
but it began both in men and women with certain swellings in the groin or under the armpit. They grew to the size of a small apple or an egg, more or less, and were vulgarly called tumours. In a short space of time these tumours spread from the two parts named all over the body. Soon after this the symptoms changed and black or purple spots appeared on the arms or thighs or any other part of the body, sometimes a few large ones, sometimes many little ones. These spots were a certain sign of death, just as the original tumour had been and still remained.
ADVERTISMENT .
No doctor's advice, no medicine could overcome or alleviate this disease, An enormous number of ignorant men and women set up as doctors in addition to those who were trained. Either the disease was such that no treatment was possible or the doctors were so ignorant that they did not know what caused it, and consequently could not administer the proper remedy. In any case very few recovered; most people died within about three days of the appearance of the tumours described above, most of them without any fever or other symptoms.
The violence of this disease was such that the sick communicated it to the healthy who came near them, just as a fire catches anything dry or oily near it. And it even went further. To speak to or go near the sick brought infection and a common death to the living; and moreover, to touch the clothes or anything else the sick had touched or worn gave the disease to the person touching. "
The Black Death arrived in Europe by sea in October 1347 when 12 Genoese trading ships docked at the Sicilian port of Messina after a long journey through the Black Sea. The people who gathered on the docks to greet the ships were met with a horrifying surprise: Most of the sailors aboard the ships were dead, and those who were still alive were gravely ill. They were overcome with fever, unable to keep food down and delirious from pain. Strangest of all, they were covered in mysterious black boils that oozed blood and pus and gave their illness its name: the “Black Death.” The Sicilian authorities hastily ordered the fleet of “death ships” out of the harbor, but it was too late: Over the next five years, the mysterious Black Death would kill more than 20 million people in Europe–almost one-third of the continent’s population.
The plague got its name from the large black boils that formed on victims bodies
Over a 5 year period, beginning in 1347, more than 20 million people would die
Plague, Great Schism
Italian thinkers became aware of their own Roman past—the remains of which were to be seen all around them
They also became intensely interested in and art the culture that had dominated the ancient Mediterranean world
This revival affected both politics

5. 3. A new view of human beings and the world emerged focusing on natural abilities and achievements in all areas of life
Leonardo da Vinci---a painter, sculptor, architect, inventor, and mathematician

6. There becomes a new passion for knowledge
They studied teachings of the Church, but also rediscovered ancient philopshers
Became fascinated by the human body,
Focused on a realistic, natural style