Renaissance I
The six centuries between the collapse of the Western Roman Empire and
the start of the Crusades may be seen as the time when the "barbarian"
states were catching up.
We may mark the start of the civilizing process in Western Europe with
king Henry I of England (reigned 1100-1135) who defined homicide to be
an offense against the state rather than an offense against only the victims
and their relatives [PNKR, p. 74]. Another important civilizing event
also happened in England when the king of England signed the Magna Carta
in 1215, a document that limited his own powers.
The first painter to break from the formal Byzantine style and start
the artistic Renaissance is Giotto (1266-1337) not much later than the
civilizing acts of the kings of England. What other historical events
happened in those centuries? One that comes foremost to mind are is the
sequence of the nine (or ten) Crusades that took place between 1095 and
1272.
Gibbon [EG, Chapter LXI, vol. 6, pp. 205-208] provides an interesting
evaluation of the crusades. He points out that the Latins were inferior
to both the Greeks and the Arabs in "knowledge, industry, and art"
but they had the advantage of an inquiring spirit and were able to learn
from the East. However, such improvements could have been achieved better
by trade than by war that resulted in large loss of lives. He goes on
to say that the major effect of the crusades was "not so much in
producing a benefit as in removing an evil." The crusades weakened
the oppressive European feudal structure. He writes "The estates
of the barons were dissipated ... Their poverty extorted from their pride
those charters of freedom which unlocked the fetters of the slave, secured
the farm of the peasant and the shop of the artificer ...". He concludes
the section with a metaphor: "The conflagration which destroyed the
tall and barren trees of the forest gave air and scope to the vegetation
of the small and nutritive plants of the soil." [ibid, p. 208].
Gibbon's interpretation provides food for thought and we can search for
parallels. One that comes to mind is the extinction of the dinosaurs by
the impact of a meteorite and the subsequent growth of the mammals. In
the post-crusade period the weakening of the warrior knights created new
powers in Italy that were searching for models to govern themselves and
they looked to ancient Rome ([MORR], p. 418). That started the Renaissance.
Northern Italy was broken up. The Pope liked the many small states; they
could not threaten his rule. Suddenly people were free (because of the
demise of the crusading knights). The new spirit, of course, spread throughout
north-western Europe.
“The odd thing about the Renaissance was that this apparently
reactionary struggle to re-create antiquity in fact produced a wildly
untraditional culture of invention and open-ended inquiry.” (ibid)
I am not sure about that observation. The return to the antiquity was
an excuse. People wanted to act outside the church dogma and the “return
to the classics” was a polite way of expressing it.
Big Events of the 1000-1400 period
- 722-1252 Reconquista: Expulsion of Moorish power from Spain.
(Granada held till 1492 but it was a small kingdom at the South of Spain.)
- 1391 Closure of Synagogues and pogrom in Seville.
- 1095-1291 Crusades
- 1200-1300 First Mongol Invasion (Genghis Khan). Affected only the Middle
East.
- 1309-1376 Avignon Papacy (conflict between French kings and the Pope)
- 1340-1360 Black Death Epidemic.
- 1360-1410 Second Mongol Invasion (Tamerlane)
- 1300-1500 Little Ice Age ([GGS] p. 424)
Notable People of the Period in Europe
- Giotto (1266 –1337) started the revolution in art, painting in a
natural way rather than the stylized Byzantine.
- Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) Florence –Start of Renaissance?
Wrote Divine Comedy between 1308 and his death in 1321.
- Petrarch [Francesco Petrarca] (1304-1374) Florence. Coined
term “Dark Ages.” Discovered and translated Livy’s
“History of Rome.”
Outside Europe
Maimonides (1135-1204) Jewish scholar and physician. Active in Egypt.
The World was preparing for big things
Stephen Greenblatt’s “The Swerve” depicts the scene
in those years. The central character is Poggio Bracciolini (early 1400’s),
a scribe, who used to be secretary of several popes. He devoted his free
time to search for ancient manuscripts. People were slowly breaking from
Church control. “Curiosity was said by the Church to be a mortal
sin” ([GRBL] p. 16) Also “debate on books was forbidden”
([GRBL p. 27).
Most of the old Greek and Latin works have been lost (though destruction
by Christians). Very few have survived and starting on the 12th century
people went looking for them. The term “Italian Renaissance”
usually refers to the 14th to 17th centuries (1300-1699). Greenblatt focuses
on the poem “De Rerum Natura” (The Nature of the Universe)
by the Roman poet Lucretius (lived around 100-50 BCE) recovered by Poggio
around 1417.
The poem presents the work of Epicurus to a Roman audience (cited approvingly
by Cicero). Epicurus (circa 300 BCE) was an atomic materialist, following
in the steps of Democritus. His materialism led him to a general attack
on superstition and divine intervention. Lucretius poem is the most comprehensive
presentation of Epicurean philosophy. The following is a summary of that
philosophy ([GRBL], pp. 185-202).
- Everything is made of invisible particles, atoms.
- The elementary particles of matter (atoms) are eternal.
- Atoms are infinite in number but limited in shape and size.
- All atoms are in motion in an infinite void.
- The universe has no creator or designer.
- Everything comes into being as a result of a swerve (clinamen
in Latin). Atoms normally move in straight lines but at unpredictable
times and places deflect slightly from their course and that sets off
a chain of collisions that create the world.
- The swerve is the source of free will.
- Nature ceaselessly experiments.
- The universe was not created for or about humans.
- Human society began not in a Golden Age of tranquility and plenty, but
in a primitive battle for survival.
- There is no afterlife.
- Death is nothing to us. (Corollary of previous)
- All religions are superstitious delusions.
- Religions are invariably cruel.
- The highest goal of human life is the enhancement of pleasure and the
reduction of pain. (But beware of craving pointless luxuries.)
- The greatest obstacle to pleasure is not pain; it is delusion
- Understanding the nature of things generates deep wonder.
Although [GRBL] seems to overplay the effect of the Epicurean philosophy
to the development of the Renaissance, it was certainly a factor.
THE CHURCH REACTION TO THE RENAISSANCE
1481 First Auto da Fe in Seville – Birth of the Inquisition.
Exploration
The Chinese were first to explore other continents
In 1405 a huge fleet under the eunuch admiral Zheng He (or Cheng Ho)
sailed all the way to Zanzibar (an island off the coast of Africa). The
fleet consisted of over 300 vessels (some as large as 2000 tons and 250
feet long) and over 27,000 men. The goal was to extract tribute from the
locals ([MORR], p. 407 and later). There were seven such Treasures Fleets,
the last one in 1433. They visited Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Mogadishu, and
Mecca!
The Chinese government decided that such displays of power were not cost
effective (the collected tribute was much less than the cost of the fleet)
and soon after the last trip the government banned ship building and the
records of Zheng’s voyages were destroyed in 1477.
Why did not the Chinese sail across the Pacific to reach the American
continent? They had no motive and the Pacific is much wider than the Atlantic.
The distance between Shanghai and San Francisco is almost twice the distance
between Lisbon and New York. (No islands in the Pacific north of Hawaii
at 28o latitude and south of the Aleutians at 51o latitude.)
European Exploration
Europeans started exploring the Atlantic in the 1400’s. Why? They
were forced because their access to the riches of the east (India, China)
was blocked by the Ottomans. The Ottoman Empire had become a big power
by 1400 and only Tamerlane’s invasion delayed their capture of Constantinople.
They also knew that the earth was round and, in principle, they could
reach the Far East by sailing west. Some highlights:
- 1420 Portuguese start exploration of the Atlantic, discover Madeira Islands.
- 1431 Discovery of the Azores Islands (they may have been found earlier).
- 1453 Fall of Constantinople to Ottomans creating problems for the European
spice trade. (There was a Genoese trading colony in Constantinople)
- 1492 Columbus expedition
- 1498 Vasco Da Gama (Portuguese) to India
In 1519 Herman Cortes conquered the Aztec Empire (Mexico) with an army
of about 600 men. In 1532 Francisco Pizarro conquered the Inca Empire
(Peru) with an army of fewer than 200 men. Horses and firearms were factor,
but most decisive was the spread of epidemics from the Spaniards to the
Incas [GGS]. (Unplanned biological warfare). The Spaniards also fought
a lot with each other since the “Indians” were such an easy
prey. I can think of another factor. The rulers of the Aztec and Inca
empires weere cruel so their subjects may have been motivated to defend
them against a foreign invader.
In 1510, the Portuguese admiral Alfonso de Albuquerque attacked the state
of Goa (middle of the Indian west coast) and took possession from Ismail
Adil Shah and his Ottoman allies (?). It is estimated that 6,000 of the
9,000 Muslim defenders of the city died, either in the battle in the streets
or while trying to escape. The Portuguese stayed there until 1961.
Portuguese aftermath: Today Goa is India's richest state with
a GDP per capita two and a half times that of the country as a whole.
It was ranked the best placed state by the Eleventh Finance Commission
for its infrastructure and ranked on top for the best quality of life
in India by the National Commission on Population based on 12 Indicators.
In 1535, Portuguese traders obtained the rights to anchor ships in Macau's
harbors and to carry out trading activities. Eventually, they built rudimentary
stone houses and in 1557 the Portuguese established a permanent settlement
in Macau, paying an annual rent of 500 taels (20 kilograms / 44 pounds)
of silver. They continued to pay an annual tribute to China up to 1863
in order to stay in Macau. In 1986 Macau was made a special administrative
region (SAR) of China (same status as Hong Kong).
Renaissance II
Effects of the Explorations in Europe
A lot of silver and gold was brought from the “New World”
to Spain and Portugal that resulted in significant inflation. Prosperity
did not spread to the masses.
New plants: corn, potatoes, sweet potatoes, peanuts spread not only to
Europe but also to China ([MORR] p. 435).
Charles V ruled (1519 – 1556) as Holy Roman Emperor over Spain,
The Netherlands, Austria, Germany, Croatia, Southern Italy, etc. He fought
a lot of wars with France. He also stopped the Ottoman advance to Vienna
in 1529. He was succeeded by his younger brother Ferdinand I as Holy Roman
Emperor (1556 - 1564) and his son Philip II as King of Spain (1556 –1598).
By the way: It was only in 1648, under the Peace of Westphalia, that European
countries recognized Switzerland's independence from the Holy Roman Empire
and its neutrality, even thought the Swiss confederacy of cantons dates
from around 1290.
Charles V and Philip II tried to suppress the Reformation (see below).
They taxed their subjects heavily and borrowed heavily from Italian financiers.
At Phillip II’s death, the Spanish debt was fifteen times its annual
revenue ([MORR], p. 449). The conquest of the New World did not bring
long time prosperity to Spain.
Key event is the failure to unify Europe. No single autocrat as in
China (ibid).
ARTS
The same period (15th and early 16th centuries) also saw a flourishing
of the arts and literature.
Artists: Leonardo da Vinci (1452 –1519), Michelangelo
(1475 –1564), Raphael (1483 – 1520)
Patron of Arts: Lorenzo de' Medici (1449–1492)
Writers: Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527) Florence,
Erasmus (1466-1536) Rotterdam in the Netherlands.
A BIG INVENTION
Johannes Gutenberg (1398-1468). Around 1439 he invented
printing with movable type (the Chinese used fixed type) that had enormous
impact by making books available to the broad public. It was not until
half a millennium later that the World Wide Web had a similar
impact on the dissemination of information.
Impact on Religion: Now copies of the Bible were available
to many people. This led to the Protestant Reformation starting
with Luther (1483-1546). He posted his theses in 1517.
KNOWLEDGE (to 1650)
Astronomy and Physics
Nicolaus Copernicus (1473 –1543) [Poland, but
also studied in Italy] Heliocentric system.
Tycho Brahe (1546-1601) [Denmark] Collected a lot of
astronomical data trying to prove geocentrism. He worked near Prague.
His assistant was Kepler.
Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) [German]. Laws of planetary
motions that set the foundations for Newton’s work. (His mother
was accused for witchcraft and served several months in jail.) Kepler
made horoscopes for the Holy Roman Emperor.
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Kepler's laws:
The orbit of every planet is an ellipse with the Sun at one of the two
foci.
A line joining a planet and the Sun sweeps out equal areas during equal
intervals of time.
The square of the orbital period of a planet is proportional to the cube
of the semi-major axis of its orbit.
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Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) [Tuscany]. Not only astronomy
but also theoretical mechanics. In 1589 his observations on falling bodies
revolutionized the experimental method. In 1610 discovers the moons of
Jupiter using the newly invented telescope (1608).
William Gilbert (1544 –1603) described the magnetic
properties of the earth.
Francis Bacon (1561 –1626). He famously died
by contracting pneumonia while studying the effects of freezing on the
preservation of meat.
The Life Sciences
The Greeks had pursued Medicine and their last famous physician was
Claudius Galen (129-200 CE). His theories dominated and
influenced Western medical science for more than 1,300 years. His anatomical
reports were based mainly on dissection of monkeys and pigs.
The most famous physician of the Arab Golden Age was ibn Sina or Avicenna
(980-1037), Arab speaking Persian physician and philosopher. His 14-volume
The Canon of Medicine (Al-Qanoon fi al-Tibb, The Laws of Medicine) was
a standard medical text in Europe and the Islamic world until the 18th
century.[ His work was based on that of Galen.]
Less well know is the Syrian Ibn al-Nafis (1213-1288)
who discovered the pulmonary circulation of the blood. (Galen had it wrong.)
During the Renaissance the Europeans took over where the Greeks and
the Arabs had left. The Spaniard Michael Servetus (1509-1553)
discovered independently the pulmonary circulation of the blood but he
angered the church authorities (both Catholic and Protestant) and was
put to death.
William Harvey (1578-1657), an Englishman who studied
in Padua is credited with the modern discovery of the pulmonary circulation
of the blood.
Paracelsus (1493-1541), a German who studied in Ferrara
is credited with the application of chemistry to physiology and pathology.
Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564), a Dutchman who studied
in Padua supplanted Galen’s anatomical textbook.
[GGS] |
Jared Diamond Guns, Germs, and
Steel, Norton, 1997-2005.
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[EG] |
Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the
Roman Empire, first published in 1788.Note:
I use the 1978 reprint of the 1910 Everyman's Library (Dutton: New
York) unabridged edition with comments by Oliphant Smeaton.
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[GRBL] |
Stephen Greenblatt The Swerve:
How the World Became Modern, W. W. Norton & Company, 2012. |
[MORR] |
Ian Morris Why the West Rules -
For Now, Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 2010. Subtitled:
The Patterns of History and what they Reveal about the Future. |
[PNKR] |
Steven Pinker The Better Angels
of our Nature, Viking, 2011.
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