Urbanization And Urbanization During The Renaissance

The Renaissance, a period in European civilization from the 14th to the 17th century, sanctioned for a distribution of conceptions and cultural revitalization. A discontinuity with medieval institutions, individualistic and humanistic thinking, as well as an aroused interest in the material world and nature triggered cultural concepts in the Renaissance such as art, politics, trade, urbanization and technological advances such as the Printing Press (which were acclimated to apportion opinions). During the Renaissance, ideas and culture spread through the expansion of commerce, appearance of urbanization, and the influence of the Printing Press.
An expansion of commerce during the Renaissance allowed for the spreading of ideas and culture. After …show more content…
Since a surplus of food was attained, the population increased which freed people to participate in non-agricultural occupations, stimulating the development of trade and reinforcement of cities and communities, since manufactured goods were shipped constantly which allowed for culture and ideas to advance and flourish. Also, the Renaissance and urbanization, “encouraged the mingling of diversity, allowing city dwellers to easily exchange information”. (Lehrer 182) During the Renaissance, urbanization helped build and strong, central community, allowing communication and the spreading of ideas (since people were closer together). In the Renaissance, urbanization endorsed wide ranges of education—“during the Renaissance the wealthy townspeople thought the new boarding schools could not train priests alone, but sons of merchants were supposed to be trained in order to live well, write well, speak well and be able to function as responsible citizens. What mattered was that the clergy lost its monopoly over learning, many people could have the right to be education”. (Yuxia 43) Urbanization granted merchants, artists, and some middle-class townspeople the opportunity to read and write, which allowed for more ideas and culture to spread, since a wide variety of education triggered humanistic …show more content…
It led to a huge increase of printing activities across Europe during the Renaissance as it allowed books, letters, articles, and pamphlets to be published and marketed. Cities in which printing presses were established had growth advantage than similar cities without printing presses. (Dittmar) Historians “have highlighted this role of media as a means of social signaling and co-ordinating public opinion”. (The Economist) The rapid, cultural development of the early Renaissance Era created favorable opinions towards this invention as it stimulated economic, individualistic, and humanistic thinking; for example, people formed and shared opinions based on printed books and articles. In addition, Martin Luther, a Renaissance author, used the Printing Press to share his religious opinions and ideas. Luther and his allies created pamphlets, ballads, letters, and woodcuts and circulated them to promote their message of the Religious Reformation. In one of his letters, The Ninety-Five Theses, Martin Luther had written,
“Out of love for the truth and the desire to bring it to light, the following propositions will be discussed at Wittenberg, under the presidency of the Reverend Father Martin Luther, Master of Arts and of Sacred Theology, and Lecturer in Ordinary on the same at that place. Wherefore he requests that those who are unable to be present a debate orally with us, may do so by letter. In the Name of our Lord