Themes In World History Chapter 7 Changing Cultural Traditions

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Humanism:
1. It means the service of humanity irrespective of caste, colour or creed.

2. The writers of the Renaissance age took up their subjects from the Bible. But their aim was the welfare of all mankind.

3. The power of reasoning of man is very fine; His inner faculties are unlimited. His body is the temple of living God. He is supreme among God's creations.

The main factors that helped in the growth of Nation-States in Europe were the following:

1. The decline of feudalism reduced the power of the feudal lords. It enables the strong rulers together the absolute power in their hands.

2. The middle class traders and merchants supported their rulers who would protect their trade interest.

3. The growth of National language and the vast literature also helped in the growth of Nation-States.

4. The Reformation Movement deprived the Pope and the clergy of their privileges. As a result, the national churches which were established in many countries, also helped in the establishment of the Nation-States.

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The points of sucess:
1. The Nation-States brought an end to form slavery.
2. Agriculture, industry and trade progressed.
3. The Nation States helped in the establishment of constitutional forms of government in may countries.
4. Despotism became a weak force.

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Gutenberg and Castar are the inventors of printing press in mid 15th century. Their first book was Bible which was printed in Europe. It helped to increase the impetus of Renaissance in the 15th century.

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Artists’ concern to be accurate was helped by the work of scientists. To study bone structures, artists went to the laboratories of medical schools. Andreas Vesalius (1514-64), a Belgian and a professor of medicine at the University of Padua, was the first to dissect the human body. This was the beginning of modern physiology.

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Copernicus and Galileo contributed tremendously in the field of astronomy by inventing new tools and implements to verify astronomical events.

i. Galileo was the first to develop the first telescope to watch the stars.

ii. Copernicus was the first to declare that Earth is not flat and is not the centre of the universe and it revolves around the sun.

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Those who believed in the scientific approach and protested against catholic religious blindness were called as Protestants and efforts in this direction were collectively known as 'Protestant Reformation'.

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The effects are:
1. Divided the Church into Catholic Church and Protestant Church.

2. The mutual conflict between Catholic and Protestant monarchs led to civil war.

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Machiavelli believed that ‘all men are bad and ever ready to display their vicious nature partly because of the fact that human desires are insatiable’. 

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The causes are: 

1. Crusades. and migration of scholars from Constantinople to Italy.

3. Progress in the field of science, art and literature.

Celestial means divine or heavenly, while terrestrial implies having a worldly quality. 

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He was a German clergyman and one of the greatest exponents of the papal agents. His efforts led to the founding of the protestant religion.

i. The rapid expansion of the Protestant religion in many countries of Europe shook the Roman Catholic leaders.

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The reasons are:
1. Missionary Zeal: The Christian Missionaries were inspired to discover new lands to spread their religion.

2. Renaissance: The curiosity to achieve difficult targets made the men voyage loving and adventurous.

3. The invention of Mariner's Compass: It made the sailors confident that they would not lose the way in bad weather and prompted them to explore new lands.

4. The craze for Trade: When Turkey capture Constantinople and captured the old trade route, the enthusiastic traders did not lose hope. They set out to discover new routes.

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The New Testament is the section of the Bible dealing with the life and teachings of Christ and his early followers.

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The Duomo was the dome of Florence cathedral and was designed by Brunelleschi

Italian architecture in the sixteenth century was copied from imperial Roman buildings.

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1453 

3. Waging of Wars: Charles I waged fruitless wars against Spain, France and Holland. This rendered England financially weak.

So the King and the Parliament came into conflict.

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The religious, artistic and literary elements of Greek and roman culture were revived in 14th and 15th centuries.

The towns of Italy were the first to experience the ideas of humanism due to the following reasons:

(i) Education spread in Italy by 13th and 14th centuries.

(ii) A number of classical books were composed by roman and Greek scholars.

(iii) Universities were first of all developed here to spread education.

(iv) Humanism as a subject was first taught in Italian schools, colleges and universities. Italian people were made aware of humanist views and ideas.

Humanist

The drawbacks are: 

1. National Interest: The establishment of Nation-States made the states selfish and individualistic. The international interests were overlooked. Sometimes the interests of different nations clashed and created an atmosphere of tussle and conflict.

2. Monarchical Attitude of King: The despotic rulers kept their self-interest in mind. The Pope and the feudal lords could not force them to work in the interest of the state and its people.

3. Hatred for other State Nations: Being unduly nationalistic, the people developed an attitude of selfishness. This caused hatred in their minds for the people of other Nation-States. It developed a narrow-mindedness and Nationalism.

Humanism was a restoration of true civilization after the Dark Age that had set in after the fall of the Roman Empire.

The main features of humanism are given below.

1. Humanism stressed on the individual skills. A person with many skills and interests have been referred to as the Renaissance man. The emerging belief in individual potential helped to identify a town by its citizens.

2. The Humanist thought had a very different idea of history. According to this thought only humanism could revive the long past true civilisation. This revival would enable to end the Dark Age that Europe was then passing through.

3. The establishment of the New Age would mark an end to the period of the supremacy of the Church. The basis of humanism is naturalism, which is antithetical to the beliefs of Christianity.

4. Humanism revived the classical Greek literature. The works of Aristotle and Plato were translated. Along with these subjects modern faculties such as chemistry, mathematics, natural science and astronomy also became a part of the college curriculum.

5. Not only formal education but also art, architecture and books were effective mediums of transmitting humanist ideas. Drawing realistic paintings and sculpting perfectly proportioned figures of men and women were expressions of humanism. Painters and sculptors started to rely on anatomy, geometry and physics to recreate reality.

1. They raised objection against the luxurious and immoral life of the Churchmen.

2. The reformers also objected the undesirable methods of extracting money from the common man.

3. They objected to the practice of selling the offices of the Church to inefficient, immoral and corrupt persons.

4. They protested the Pope's authority to raise such taxes and fees as would make the Pope and his Bishops to live in luxury.

2. The Crusades : During the crusades many fanatic lords and barons had died. Moreover the people came in contact with the developed culture of the Arabs. The new ideas inspired them to think freely.
They started learning the superstitions and narrow mindedness which proved helpful in bringing the Renaissance.

3. Growth of Cities and Towns : The decline of feudalism promoted the growth of free cities where trade, commerce and industry grew quite rapidly. The trading class became rich and it set up several schools and colleges. The spread of learning struck at the roots of the superstitions.

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2. Dante : He was the greatest among the Renaissance poets. He also belonged to Italy. In his epic poem 'The Divine Comedy' the criticised the religious beliefs and practices of his age.

3. Thomas Moore : He was a great scholar of England. In his famous book 'Utopia' he ridiculed the malpractices and social evils of his times.

4. Erasmus: He was a great Dutch poet. In his famous work 'The Praise of Folly' he ridiculed the corrupt practices prevalent in the Church of his times.

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2. Fall of Feudalism : It helped in the emergence of new towns and cities. Greek scholars were welcomed there.

3. Topographical Location of Italy: Italy is situated half way between the Western Europe and the Middle East. The Italian cities were centres of prosperous trade and commerce and encouraged Greek scholars. So Renaissance was the first to appear in Italy.

2. Slave Trade : These voyages encourages to the slave trade.

3. Spread of European Civilization : The Europeans not only established their companies and colonies but also spread their civilization in severed other countries 

4. Prosperity : The discoveries of new lands and sea routes promoted trade and made many countries prosperous.

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2. Main Features of Renaissance Period:
(i) Rise of Nation-States : The reformation and help of the middle class had promoted the people to rise against the authourity of the Pope and the feudal lords. In such circumstances the people supported those rulers who tried to get rid of the feudal lords and the Pope.
In this way they established their own kingdoms which they ruled as they pleased. These were known as the Nation-States which proved very much helpful in bringing the modern age.

ii). The Discoveries of New Lands : The great sailors like Vasco-da-Gama and Columbus discovered many new lands like India and America. As a result, people of one county began to mix freely with the people of the rest of the world.
And there was free exchange of ideas. Thus the discovery of new lands also helped in bringing the modern age.

iii). The Reforms made by the Reformers : Many reformers attacked and criticised the Church and the feudal system, the two main pillars of the Middle Ages. The reformers like Martin Luther of Germany, criticised and opposed the corrupt practices of the clergy.
He started a new movement i.e. the Protestant Movement against the Roman Catholic Church. His movement proved helpful in promoting free thinking among the people. Now they gave up blind faith and useless dogmas and thus stepped towards the modern age.

iv). Humanism : Humanism was a philosophy which had faith and confidence, in the unlimited capacities of man to develop himself. The exponents of his philosophy said that man should be honoured and all efforts should be directed to promote his welfare.
All problems that face us as human beings should be solved without reference to God and religion etc.

v. The Rise of the Middle Class : During the Middle Ages the clergy and the feudal lords were in all in the society. But with the growth of trade and commerce, the rise of new cities and towns and the discovery of new lands, a new class of society known as the middle class emerged.
The class was not prepared to how before the pleasure seeking nobility and corrupt clergy. Due to the help of the middle class the common people also became courageous to challenge the special rights and privileges of the so called upper class of the contemporary society.

ii). In Mathematics the Arabs spread the knowledge of numbers and trigonometry in the other regions of the world Omar-Khayyam a great Mathematicians of Arab devised a calendar which is more accurate than the present Christian Calendar.

iii). The Arab astronomers believed that the earth revolves round the sun.

iv). In Chemistry, the Arbs discovered many new compounds like sodium carbonate, silver nitrate, Nitric and sulphuric acids.

2. Arab's Contribution in the Field of Culture :
i). In literature, the Arab classic 'The Arabian Nights' a collection of 1001 stories 'Rubaiyat' by Omar Khayyam, 'Shahnama' by Al-Firdausi are famous all over the world.

ii). The buildings of the Arabs and bulb like domes, small minarets, horse shoe arches and twisted columns.

3. Arab's Contribution in other Fields :
i). The Arabs propounded the ideal of equality and brotherhood.

ii). Arab carpets, leather work, metal work, beautiful, swords and enamelled glass.

2. Earlier, texts existed in a few hand-written copies. In 1455, 150 copies of the Bible were printed in the workshop of Johannes Gutenberg (1440-1458), the German who made the first printing press. Earlier, a monk would have taken the same amount of time to write out one copy of the Bible!

3. By 1500, many classical texts, nearly all in Latin, had been printed in Italy. As printed books became available, it was possible to buy them, and students did not have to depend solely on lecture-notes. Ideas, opinions and information moved more widely and more rapidly than ever before. A printed book promoting new ideas could quickly reach hundreds of readers. This also made it possible for individuals to read books since it was possible to buy copies for oneself. This developed the reading habit among people.

4. The chief reason that the humanist culture of Italy spread more rapidly across the Alps from the end of the fifteenth century is that printed books were circulating. This also explains why earlier intellectual movements had been limited to particular regions.

2. Copernicus asserted that the planets, including the earth, rotate around the sun. A devout Christian, Copernicus was afraid of the possible reaction to his theory by traditionalist clergymen. For this reason, he did not want his manuscript, De revolutionibus (the Rotation) to be printed. On his deathbed, he gave it to his follower, Joachim Rheticus.

Fig.: Copernicus

3. It took time for people to accept this idea. It was much later - more than half a century later, in fact - that the difference between ‘heaven’ and earth was bridged through the writings of astronomers like Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) and Galileo Galilei (1564-1642).

4. The theory of the earth as part of a sun-centred system was made popular by Kepler's Cosmographical Mystery, which demonstrated that the planets move around the sun not in circles but in ellipses. Galileo confirmed the notion of the dynamic world in his work The Motion. This revolution in science reached its climax with Isaac Newton's theory of gravitation.

–Albrecht Durer (1471-1528)

1. Artists were inspired by studying works of the past. The material remains of Roman culture were sought with as much excitement as ancient texts : a thousand years after the fall of Rome, fragments of art were discovered in the ruins of ancient Rome and other deserted cities. Their admiration for the figures of "perfectly" proportioned men and women sculpted so many centuries ago, made Italian sculptors want to continue that traditions.
In 1416, Donatello (1386-1466) broke new ground with his lifelike statues.

Fig. : The Last Supper

2. Artists' concern to be accurate was helped by the work of scientists. To study bone structures, artists went to the laboratories of medical schools. Andreas Vesalius (1514-64), a Belgian and a professor of medicine at the University of Padua, was the first to dissect the human body. This was the beginning of modern physiology.

3. Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) who had an amazing range of interests from botany and anatomy to mathematics and art. He painted the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper.

One of his dreams was to be able to fly. He spent years observing birds in flight, and designed a flying machine.

He signed his name "Leonardo da Vinci, disciple of experiment".

4. Painters did not have older works to use as a model. But they, like sculptors, painted as realistically as possible. They found that a knowledge of geometry helped them understand perspective, and that by noting the changing quality of light, their pictures acquired a three-dimensional quality.
The use of oil as a medium for painting also gave a greater richness of colour to paintings than before. In the colours and designs of costumes in many paintings, there is evidence of the influence of Chinese and Persian art, made available to them by the Mongols.

5. Thus, anatomy, geometry, physics, as well as a strong sense of what was beautiful, gave a new quality to Italian art, which was to be called "realism" and which continued till the nineteenth century.

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‘The Pieta’ by Michelangelo depicts Mary holding the body of Jesus.