The cultural movement of the Renaissance emphasized the achievements of individuals, often at the expense of the majority of people. The artists, writers, and scholars of this rebirth looked to the Greek and Roman classics for inspiration, but at the same time, expressed an interest in the world around them. The Renaissance first emerged in the Italian city-states, the product of political turmoil and opportunities for individuals. As it spread northward, it was transformed by monarchies seeking to bolster their authority in the wake of the breakdown of the old feudal order. The greatest achievements of the Renaissance were in the fields of art, literature, and architecture, but the movement influenced politics as well. Rulers developed new military and diplomatic strategies, but often neglected the poor. This era constituted a break with the Middle Ages, and Europe stood on the threshold of the modern period.

In Chapter 10, students learn

that the Renaissance meant a rebirth of learning and interest in the classics

the educational focus of humanism and its emphasis on improvements to individual and society

the role and importance of women in the Renaissance, including as humanists

the importance of the moveable type printing press

about the variety of republics and principalities, and the tension that often existed among them

how the popes were not only spiritual rulers of western Christendom, but secular rulers of a territorial state in central Italy

that the Renaissance brought increased anti-Semitism and a revival of slavery

how the Renaissance economy depended on wool, silk, banking, and international trade

how Venetian power rested on the creation of a maritime empire, while Florence 's rested on banking and the cloth industry

about innovations in Renaissance art, including the use of human proportion, realism, and perspective

how Renaissance Italians viewed the family, and the roles of different family members

about the nature of childhood and child-rearing

how Italy was unable to resist invasion by northern monarchs, and the consequences of extensive contact between north and south in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries

of the creation, in England and France, of increasingly powerful, centralized monarchy

how Renaissance values had an impact on the monarchs, artists and intellectuals of northern Europe

the growth of London as a cultural capital in the sixteenth century