World History, January 11th

This week we are moving continents, away from the Americas and back to Europe for the Renaissance (1300-1600). We learned that the Renaissance began in Italy because of city-life, a wealthy merchant class, and a wish to return to the Greek and Roman classics. We also looked at how life moved from the religious (Middle Ages) to Secular. We defined humanism as an intellectual movement focused on man’s potential and achievement. In the Renaissance artists began to paint for patrons and created lifelike art writers began to write in the vernacular (common language of the people), and we also looked at how Tupac’s death and conspiracy rumors are directly related to Machiavelli, a writer who suggested that a ruler may gain an advantage by faking one’s death.