APEH Timed Essay (35 minutes)
Topic 2 – Renaissance Culture, Society, and Statebuilding
1. The Italian Renaissance was a “revolution” in which northern Italy led Europe into a modern era: stress
was placed on the humanistic themes of individualism, secularism and classicism. Defend or refute this
statement.
Intro/Thesis
 Jacob Burkhardt – describes Renaissance as a total break with its medieval past.
 Peter Burke – Renaissance more of an extension of the trends already taking place in Medieval
society.
 While clear breaks are rare in history, many urban elite in northern Italy felt the 14th C was unique,
different from the medieval past.
 Thesis: The result of this apparent break with the past was a cultural-intellectual “revolution” that
had a continent-wide influence over the next 200 years; however, the Renaissance had limits within
society due to the fact that it was an elite movement which had little positive consequence for
women and other marginalized social groups.
Body  Renaissance Themes and their Social/Geographic Influence
 Conditions in, around Florence create a social, economic break from Medieval Europe
o wool industry
o papal bankers
o free city-states (political, economic independence)
o center of trade (Asia-Europe-Africa)
o Roman Empire
 Humanism/Classicism
o examine human achievement/interests/capabilities
o renewed interest in Greek-Roman past following fall of Constantinople (1453)  Petrarch,
Salutati
o changes in education/curriculum as a result  Feltre’s “Happy House” (Chambers),
Vergerio’s On the Liberal Arts
o found in literature, art, sculpture, architecture
 Individualism
o glorify one’s uniqueness, confidence in ability to achieve greatness
o quest for glory (fame, ambition, success)
o Sources/Examples:
 In Art (Italian)  Donatello (1st free-standing sculptures in 1200 years), Mosaccio,
(first nudes since antiquity), Michelangelo and Raphael (masters of perspective),
da Vinci (experimentation, true Renaissance man), Titian (portraiture)
 In Architechture  Michelangelo and Brunelleschi (Duomo)
 Civic Humanists  individual only fully developed when participating in the
state/society
 In Art (Northern Europe)  Durer, Bosch, Holbien, Van Eyck (where did they learn
it? The Italians! and hence the geographic spread of the Renaissance through artistic
ideals and techniques)
 Secularism
o focus on material world, not solely spiritual
o focus on here and now; money allows for material gain, patronage
o critically examine/question
o BUT not anti-Christian/church  Northern Renaissance, Christian Humanists
o Sources/Examples:
 Machiavelli
 Civic Humanists
 More & Rabelais  reforming the institution will lead to a reform of the individual
 Geographically, these Renaissance ideals would spread throughout Europe and the rest of the world
over the next two centuries
o Durer (HRE), More (England), Rabelais (France), van Eck (Holland)
 Socially, in the areas of class, gender and race the Renaissance had limited impact
o Class – elite, urban wealthy, Church  lowly peasants see very little of this
o Gender – male dominance, female delegated to “supporting role”
 Women’s education Pizan vs. Castiglione (purposeful vs. decorative)
 Women as “chamber pots” (Ficino)
 Rape crime less significant as crime against society, only crime against male’s
material possession
 Public service not part of role: contrast to medieval role as lady of the manor
o Race  Portuguese begin slave trade; symbols of wealth
Closing  summarize as time allows, return back to your thesis!!
2. Explain how advances in learning and technology influenced fifteenth- and sixteenth-century European
exploration and trade.
Intro/Thesis
 International trading helped create the Renaissance in Florence
o Florence = trading capital of the Mediterranean
o Wealthy, cosmopolitan population
o Rediscovery of Greco-Roman classics catalyze new intellectual movement with a greater
emphasis on learning, the classics, and humanism
 Thesis – The Renaissance generated a period of intense intellectual and technological exploration,
which galvanized and facilitated European global expansion.
Body
 Renaissance influence
o Humanism emphasizes
 Individualism
 glorify one’s uniqueness, confidence in ability to achieve greatness
 quest for glory (fame, ambition, success)
o Renaissance curiosity provokes quest for greater knowledge
o Renaissance influence of education encourages new universities dedicated to geography and
navigation
 Prince Henry the Navigator (Portugal)
o Politically  “New Monarchs” of Europe working to end feudalism and solidify sovereignty
in the monarch (J. McKay)
 Majesty and power further strengthened by conquest  prestige and taxation
 Technological stimuli and innovative exploration tactics
o At sea:
 cannonry
 Portuguese caraval  3-masted ship allows for faster travel, can sail longer and in
adverse weather conditions
 magnetic compass
 astrolabe  latitude
 sea logs (journals) = top secret government documents
o On land
 iron swords and armor
 gun powder weaponry
 Individual/Government motives for exploration
o Crusading zeal
 Portuguese explorer – “While Buddha came to China on white elephants, Christ was
borne on cannonballs.”
o Economic and political advancement opportunities
 Primogeniture in Europe leaves little room for any other than the first born males 
many will become military adventurers, explorers, conquistadors, hermandades, etc.
o Govt. sponsorship  cost of a colony too great, even for a monarch, therefore, companies
with shareholders will offset the costs (Kenneth C. Davis -- historian)
 Benefit to the govt = TAXES for the ARMY!
 Spanish quinto allows Charles V to collect 1/5 of all gold imported from the New
World
o Spices, silks, cinnamon, tapestries (Marco Polo’s Travels, 1298)
o Material profit
 Cortes – “I have come to win gold not to plow the fields like a peasant.”
 Busbecq – “Religion supplies the pretext and gold the motive.”
 Examples
o Prince Henry the Navigator  Ivory Coast of Africa, est’d trading forts (1455)
o Bartholomeu Dias  Cape of Good Hope (1488)
o Columbus – Hispanola (1492)
o Treaty of Tordesillas (1494)
o Vasco da Gama (1498)  breaks Ottoman monopoly of Indian Ocean with cannonry and
traveling in squadrons of ships
o Cortes (1519)  instigates civil war in Aztec empire, disease does the rest
o Nunez Balboa and Francisco Pizarro (1520s-30s)  instigate civil war, kill king Atahualpa,
disease does the rest
o Ferdinand Magellan (1519-1522)  circumnavigates the globe (almost)
Closing
 Commonalities of all explorers = successful thanks to technological breakthroughs of the fifteenthand sixteenth-centuries, the influence of “New Monarchs” who sponsored them, and shared desires
for personal wealth and fame.
3. Discuss the effects of humanism upon women’s status in European society during the Renaissance.
Intro/Thesis
 Medieval women had opportunities that would be unseen in the Renaissance:
o Men were to please the woman’s family (dowery)
o Upper class women were afforded greater public roles due to their roles on the manor, such
as they payment of knights
o Education opportunities = practical and usually reserved for the convent, but seen as socially
acceptable
 16th Century Italian humanist Ficino once said, “Women should be used like chamber pots: hidden
away once a man has pissed in them.”
 Thesis – Women in the Renaissance, especially upper class women, had few opportunities for social
advancement, and actually, their roles often declined in European society as the result of humanist
philosophies.
Body
 Humanist Education
o Possibility for real educational advancement
 Ex: de Feltre’s Happy House provided humanist liberal arts education to both males
and females (Chambers)
o Problem  women must choose either education or social acceptance/marriage
 Educated woman seen as an abomination, against nature by men
 Educated woman alienated other women
 Christine de Pizan’s City of Ladies argued that men were fearful of an educated
woman because she could replace him in society
 Views of Upper Class Women in Renaissance
o Castiglione’s Courtier  women are to be decoratively educated
o Women are to be pleasing to the man
o Education = prep for social functions, display, responsibilities of the home
o Separation of love and sex  women are not meant to enjoy (double standard)
o J. McKay (historian)  Women in the Renaissance were comparable to black slaves,
because both were viewed as a sign of wealth, and “both were used for display”
o Comparisons of Rape
 William the CONQUEROR’S(!) England  rape a crime against both the woman
and society
 14th-15th C Venice  rape only a crime when considered as a crime against a father
or husband’s property, otherwise not a crime
 Exceptions
o Christine de Pizan = highly educated, widowed at age 25 she began a career in writing in
order to support herself
o Still, however, William Manchester (historian) tells us that approximately 89 percent of the
female European population was illiterate  women being well educated not very likely in
the Renaissance
o Women beginning to take a more active role in small entrepreneurial businesses with their
husbands  Ex. Albrecht Dürer and his wife created a thriving art business in which he
created the art and she sold it
Closing
 While upper class women in Renaissance Europe gained some educational advantages through the
humanist curriculum, they faced few actual gains in society because of societal views against
women’s education and due to greater emphasis upon a woman as being a display of wealth, rather
than as a societal “equal”.