The Fall of Constantinople was another major reason the Renaissance started in Italy because when the Turks captured Constantinople in 1453 after the fall of the Eastern Roman Empire, scholars fled to Rome. They leaked important manuscripts which helped the advance of science and medicine. They also inspired artists and architects. These manuscripts helped Italy to become more developed than other European countries.
Trade was also a significant reason the Renaissance started in Italy because it brought many new things to Italy such as translated Roman texts. Many city states had their own trades. Florence’s two greats trades were wool and cloth. Venice had four great trades and became very rich from trading with the Far East and the Mediterranean.
The church contributed to the start of the Renaissance because Rome was the centre of the Catholic church. Money came into Rome because of the Catholic Church, this money was then spent on making the city look even more beautiful. In 1378 the Catholic Church was undermined by the election of two popes. This led to all sorts of confusion and by the time the real Pope was given his title, everything had gone haywire. People had stopped believing and the Church had lost some of its power. This gave people freedom to do what they wanted, this led to new possibilities and new ideas. During the 15th century the Church began to change some of its views, this allowed people to experiment with new ideas like Leonardo da Vinci did with anatomy.
Money contributed to the Renaissance because banks were developed in Florence. This was because the banking family, the Medicis were the most powerful family in Florence just as The Doge was the ruling family of Venice. The money that came into Italy from banking was spent on making each city state more beautiful, architects were paid to come to construct beautiful buildings and artists were paid to come and paint those beautiful buildings.
Artists helped the Renaissance begin because many very talented artists lived in Italy such as Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael. The best artists got paid the most to come and paint a specific things. This meant that artists were competing with each other, this encourage them to work harder and to create new ideas which some did extremely well. Art was one of the major things that were developed during the Renaissance. City states paid a lot of money to catch the attention of artists for work.
City states also played its part in the Renaissance because city states competed with each other making their cities more beautiful and advanced in the process. Italy was a hugely populated country. Due to the amount of people and the size of towns there was bigger need for everything such as trade. This increased the amount of money which was brought in and that money was used to make the city states more beautiful. This drew all sorts of people like artists to the city states to come and offer their services. This only made the city states even more beautiful and impressive.
War assisted the Renaissance because France invaded Italy making warfare much more serious. Before France attacked Italy the city states used to fight with each other to gain items of trade or knowledge. The city states hired mercenaries to fight their wars for them but in the 15th century each city state hired engineers and other people to give them the equipment they need for fighting.
In conclusion all these points play a significant part on why the Renaissance took place in Italy. Italy had all the things needed for a revival and the people of Italy took initiative and used what they had. This created the Renaissance and without it we may still have been living like people in the Middle Ages. The Renaissance is a very important period of history in which many things changed.
