Why did the Renaissance start?

Learning Objective: To explain the causes of the Renaissance

Background
The word Renaissance is a French Word for rebirth. It refers to the re-birth of arts and culture into Europe after the medieval period. This was the re-emergence of creative study, the arts, painters, sculptures, architecture and new politics.

Task
For each slide write down: 1. The key events 2. Any clues you can find to help explain why the Renaissance started

The Byzantine Empire Constantinople was a very well-defended city and its Empire (The Byzantium Empire) had its origins in a direct line back to the Roman Empire. As the western Roman Empire was overrun by barbarians in the 4th Century AD, the Eastern part of the Roman Empire (Byzantium) refused to surrender. Byzantium continued to be a centre of culture and learning cut off from the rest of Barbarian Europe. Many centuries later the Byzantium Empire began to be threatened by a new power the Muslim based Ottoman Empire

The Defense of Constantinople

Constantinople was a well protected city surrounded on three sides by water and protected by defensive walls and ditches. The defenders inside also had lots of weapons and cannons.

The Ottomans Attack The Ottomans decided to attack the city in 1453 under their leader Mehmed II. He had so many soldiers that they outnumbered the Byzantium soldiers by 20 to 1! The fighting continued for weeks and weeks and the people inside Byzantium were under siege and had no fresh supply of food or weapons. Things became desperate.

A new plan of attack

The Ottomans came up with a new plan of attack. They carried their ships overland and attacked Byzantium from another direction. The plan worked - now the attack on the city was easy. Thousands more Ottoman soldiers arrived and now they had 50 times more soldiers than Byzantium. They entered the city and many Byzantiums were captured.

The Byzantiums escape Many of the Byzantium Greek scholars fled the city and took ancient books and all their knowledge and learning with them. They escaped over the land and sea to Italy and arrived in Italian ports like Venice. The Venetians and the Catholics in Italy welcomed them. They soon opened up schools of learning. Soon all the learning that had been lost for centuries had been rediscovered and the ways of the Greeks and the Romans was being learnt again. This awakened the Italians to their classical origins and created a desire to recover what had been lost after the fall of Rome 1000 years before.

At the same time in Europe.

A horrible new disease, the black death, had arrived in Europe Many people were killed, and this led to big social changes In Italy people overthrew the old monarchies and replaced them with Republics This was a more fair type of society, and it encouraged people to be more independant and come up with their own ideas

Core Assessed Task

Complete storyboard on The Fall of Constantinople and Causes of the Renaissance Complete for homework Criteria: A (knowledge and understanding of chronology) B (Historical skills Causation)