Petrarch

Prior to unfolding of the events in the 18th century the interlinkages of increasingly global world, stirred agrarian and rural society's. In particular, the families had begun to produce surplus and buying new commodities, which were hitherto, considered luxuries. This era of industrious revolution laid the foundation for the industrial revolution. The trade in this time to Europe was mainly spices from India, silk and porcelain from China and inspite of silver flowing in from Americas kept the balance in favour of the East. The capital and labour requirements were not intensive and the mercantile activities were primarily housed in the guilds. This essay attempts to understand how the industrial revolution impacted the commerce

Humanism is derived from the movement that happened from the fourteenth to the sixteenth centuries. The start point of Humanism is in Italy. It is an important development during the Renaissance. Because of the terrible Black Death in 14th century. The population of Europeans decreased extremely. A lot of people died of the Black Death. At the beginning of that time, people thought the Black Death is God’s punishment for living life in sin. People went to Church and hope the forgiveness of God. However, the wide spread of the Black Death didn’t stop. The dead body forced the people started finding the other new way. Instead of believing in God, people started to think about science. The scientists did the research and treated the Black Death by more scientific way. People started thinking about the man himself and explored natural environment by more scientific method. The new ways of thinking influenced the development of Humanism in art during the Renaissance. The Renaissance artworks are about the re-discovery of ancient Greek and Roman artworks and their way of life. Humanists rejected the religion concept and not believe in the supernaturalism. They tried to discover the natural creatures and destiny of man. Artists learned the human beauty from the ancient Greek and Roman artworks and architectures. They began to find out more ideas about the human experience, personal independence and social community. They brought the Humanism ideas into their artworks.

When the plague struck lots of the population of slaves and peasants died, which meant that there was a huge struggle for landowners to find workers for their fields. This meant that peasants could demand higher wages and had lots of bargaining power. This is because if landowners didn’t have workers than they wouldn’t be making any money, which would lead to their loss in wealth. Another way the feudal system was changed is that usually skilled artisans and craftsmen handed down their family business to their sons. However if these descendants were dead then craftsmen and artisans had to employ new workers, which meant peasants and slaves acquired more important skills. And finally, because of these reasons there was a growth in the middle class. The middle class are not slaves, but not nobles. This meant the population became more equal and many different jobs arose for people. Changes to the feudal system allowed Europe to grow closer to what we know it as

| * guilds were developed * it promoted trade among different societies * labor increased with growth of cities

Before the early thirteen hundreds, there was a time called the Midieval era, where life was devoted and owned by the church. People were lied to by the thought of paying and working to go to heaven. When the thirteen hundreds came, alongwith it cam the renaissance that lasted until the late sixteen hundreds. The renaissance had a very important movement that changed all of Europe. Many new cultures and ways of life had changed because of this era, and one of the bigger ones is called Humanism. Humanism caused a very large impact on a person’s thoughts, actions, and art.

The Black Death had arrived in Europe and would kill more than half of the population. This one event spawned economic depression, revolts, and started power struggles between the elite and lower classes, and would lead to a new way of thinking that would spark changes that are still felt today in modern times. Humanism was born and instead of the Bible and religious issues being the only resource to look to, worldly issues and the thought that the individual had importance, became the new way of thinking. Before the renaissance the church controlled art, science, and even how one learned. Any discovery that went against the churches teachings was considered heresy and anyone participating in these acts could expect excommunication or death. Many great artists come from this time, some like Michangllo were able to still thrive under the church’s rule but others like Johann Kepler and Galileo did not fare so well. In the Catholic institution, only the members of the clergy had the power to interpret scripture, and in this new age of learning, these men did not think the bible had all the

People began to value the church and religion a lot less and started to emphasize on the values of people and the world. With people enjoying life rather than treating it as a sufferance people started to explore the Classical World, which had a significant influence on the way people thought about the world and humans. Giannozzo Manetti says that “the world in indeed created by god, but humankind has changed and improved it”, which is saying that the world was created by god but without us humans, it wouldn’t be the same nor as pleasant (1396-1459). Source B says “people began to think more about themselves and their place in the world” and that “they became less interested in thinking about god and the church”, which is implying that the new philosophy of humanism was more about what people could achieve and the world around them rather than religious beliefs and the church. Humanism was a new way of thinking that was influenced by the Ancient Rome and Greek civilization.

The start of private ownership of the means of production was a break away from the middle ages. Wealthy businessmen had the peasants produce textiles, which broke the guild’s monopoly. The law of supply and demand determines prices kept prices fixed. The sharp distinction and little contact with the workers and the capitalist who owns the means of the production lasted between the guild master and their laborers. The gap between capitalists and their workers would prove to be a serious problem in the Industrial Revolution of the 1800's. The profit motive was restricted by the church against charging more than fair price. The creation of the profit motive changed the attitudes and values in European civilization. Over all, capitalism paved the way for the rise of national monarchs in Europe by providing them with the capital to build up strong and professional armies and bureaucracies. The powerhouses of Europe would be the states who best adapted to capitalism, and they would eventually establish dominance of the world in later centuries.

Third and finally was that the economic system of feudal Europe was agrarian. Europe relied upon farmers to cultivate crops and bring food in from only their country. Each small town, castle, settlement, etc, needed to contain it’s own certain set of farmers to help sustain the whole population of said settlement. In society today, we do farm from our own lands but we also import food and crops that we need in seasons we cannot grow in ourselves. All of the advances that we have made from the time of the 10-13th century to present day, have either put us two steps ahead of the game, or set us back in certain areas. In this respect, we have grown exponentially and continue to as each year passes, whereas in Europe, stagnated and did not grown as much as it could of it it’s time.

Humanism, an enlightening and theoretical viewpoint that emphasize the special value of the entity, as well as the fundamental meaning of human standards while conflicting to spiritual principle, that was urbanized within Europe in the new beginning. This was predisposed through the lessons of early Greek along with Latin literature in addition to philosophy (“Humanism” 1). Humanism became a learning agenda, which was called “The Humanities”; this program had Christian teachings and secular values. Renaissance humanist were devoted Christians, they had a love for classical antiquity and also supported and promoted secular values. Humanism is by the way of an answer toward the absolute corruption of regular practice. The effects of humanism

farmers who lived on it and grew crops. Labour was minimal and only when something needed to be done. Money was never of much importance because it did not grow crops, live stock or water. These commodifications began to add value to all types of materials, which in fact devalued things. Although it is quite odd to put prices or value on such items, the market grew stronger in society because of them. As the market had progressed it began to take a hold of peoples minds. The intangible values became less valuableSociety had no choice but to follow the market as other solutions to the economic problem were overturned. The market society developed as people began searching for work outside of what families had been doing for centuries.

At the core of the humanist agenda was the idea of virtue, or behavior with a great moral standard. A man named Francesco Petrarch helped to found these beliefs, by studying classic Roman sources such as the scholar Cicero. Petrarch believed that these classics works could teach someone to be wise and virtuous (class notes). He helped to make Humanism a popular movement among intellectuals of the time and cement the idea that the classical works could help guide humans to live a virtuous and wise

With the arts the artists began to think on their own and those movements began to spread. It was not just what the church said anymore that was right. Humanism, one of the new beliefs which was formed during the Renaissance, said that people should read the works of the greats and focus on writing, and the arts. Humanists believed that they were equal with the ancient Greek and Roman writers and philosophers. Petrarch was the original humanist, and a writer who wrote many letters to the people of ancient Rome. In those letters he spoke as if he was an equal with them. Another of the new beliefs was scholasticism, which was the opposite of humanism. Scholastics thought that people should spend more time the sciences, they also wanted the church and science to be brought together as one. As new scientific discoveries were made many of the churches theories were beginning to be questioned.

The gigantic effect that education had on Renaissance society was greatly stimulated by the new development of humanism. Humanism was responsible for the curiosity of many intellects during the Renaissance, which ultimately led to the discoveries and developments that made the Renaissance such a remarkable time. It proposed a different way of thinking, unprecedented by scholars. Without humanism and the educational interest that it brought about, the Renaissance would not be known as the explosion of culture that it is considered today.

The philosophy of humanism exerted a new viewpoint on the educational system. The idea that true happiness is the result of eternal salvation was introduced by humanist teachers. The Italian poet Petrarch, delighted in studying the works of Cicero, explained that “when we come to think or speak of religion, that it, of supreme truth and true happiness, and of eternal salvation, then I am certainly not a Ciceronian… but a Christian” (doc.5). Education was important in the creation of well rounded individuals, but humanists believed that religion is the key to true happiness. In addition to their beliefs about the effects of religion on society, humanists promoted the study of language and literature to develop strong social skills. This ultimately broadened every aspect of Renaissance society. Establishing social skills can reward a person with “... the personal satisfaction he will take in this, in this way he will never want for pleasant entertainment with the ladies who are usually fond of such things” (doc.4). Although social transformation