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The Renaissance: A New Way of Thinking, a New World to Conquer
In our last lesson, we talked about how feudalism rose after the fall of the Roman Empire and how it
slowly collapsed with the rise of cities, trade, and a new middle class. One major event marked the
official end of the Middle Ages: the fall of Constantinople in 1453. This ancient Christian city was
taken by the Ottoman Empire, who blocked the main trade routes between Europe and Asia.
Europeans could no longer get spices, silk, and other goods through the old land paths.
This pushed countries like Portugal and Spain to look for new routes. The Portuguese began
sailing around the coast of Africa to reach Asia. Meanwhile, in 1492, Spain sent Christopher
Columbus west—and he reached the Americas, although he thought he had arrived in Asia. This
started the age of colonization.
The goal of colonization was twofold:
1. To spread Christianity through evangelization,
2. And to enrich the European empires with gold, silver, land, and resources.
At the same time that Europe was expanding outwards, it was also changing within. A cultural
movement called the Renaissance had started in Italian cities like Florence and Venice. The word
renaissance means "rebirth." It was a rebirth of classical culture, especially ideas from ancient
Greece and Rome. But it was also a break with the religious thinking of the Middle Ages.
From God to Humans
In the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church was the center of life. People believed that everything,
including politics and the economy, should follow religious law. Life on Earth was only a path to the
afterlife, and the most important goal was reaching Heaven—this was called theocentrism, meaning
that God was at the center of all things.
But during the Renaissance, this started to change. The focus moved from God to human beings—
this is called anthropocentrism. Thinkers, artists, and writers began to believe that humans were
capable of understanding the world through reason. This new way of thinking was called
Humanism.
Humanism celebrated human intelligence, creativity, and individuality. People began to study
science, history, literature, and philosophy that came from classical antiquity, instead of only
reading religious texts. But humanism didn’t fully break away from the old religious ideas. It still
kept some of the structures of belief, just changed their direction. That is why within a humanist
doctrine, if a society chose not to follow the humanist intellectual inspiration, the humanity of such
society could be questioned.
In the Middle Ages, the final goal of life was to serve God and reach Heaven. In the Renaissance, the
idea of a final goal didn’t disappear—it simply became secular. Now, the purpose of life and
society was to build a rational, advanced civilization based on European values, reason, and
classical knowledge. This shaped the way knowledge was organized, as learning was directed
toward progress and improvement, rather than only toward salvation. At the same time, the
expansion of Europe was framed as part of this larger destiny: other cultures were often seen as
being “behind” on the same path of history. Colonization was not only about riches or land—it was
justified as a civilizing mission, placing Europe at the center of a universal journey toward an
imagined final stage of human development.
The Printing Press and Its Impact
A big part of this cultural revolution was made possible by a major invention: the printing press,
created by Johannes Gutenberg around 1440. Before the press, books had to be copied by hand,
usually by monks. It was slow and expensive. With the printing press, books could be made quickly
and cheaply. This meant that more people could read and ideas spread faster.
One of the most printed books was the Bible. This allowed people to read religious texts on their
own, without depending on the Church to explain them. This weakened the Catholic Church’s
control and helped create the Protestant Reformation, which gave rise to new Christian churches.
Other books that were widely printed included classical philosophy, scientific texts, and Roman
political ideas, such as the concept of the "pater familias"—the father as the head of the family,
with full authority. This idea helped keep patriarchy strong in modern society, where men were
seen as the natural leaders in the family and the state.
A New Economic World
The Renaissance didn’t just change ideas—it also helped build a new economic system. Exploration,
colonization, and trade with new lands brought in gold, silver, and new products. The rise of banks,
credit, and international trade made Europe more connected and more capitalist. Slowly but surely,
this new economic system would replace the old feudal one for good.
The Renaissance was a turning point. It gave birth to new ways of thinking, living, ruling, and
trading. It kept some ideas from the past but used them to build a new world—one that still shapes
the way we live today.