The Renaissance was a period of European culture, artistic, political, and economic “rebirth” following the Middle Ages. The term also came into circulation as a historical term concept in the 19th century. As a Late Medieval cultural movement, the renaissance began in Italy in the 14th century and spread over most of Europe in the following centuries. It occurred after the Crisis of the Late Middle Ages and was associated with great social change.

Generally described as taking place from the 14th century to the 17th century, this period promoted the rediscovery of classical philosophy, literature, and art. This new way of thinking became manifest in art, architecture, politics, and literature. Some of the greatest thinkers, authors, statesmen, scientists, and artists in human history thrived during this era. Early examples were the development of perspective in oil painting. Global exploration opened new lands and cultures to European commerce. The Renaissance is credited with bridging the gap between the Middle Ages and Modern History.

As a cultural movement, the Renaissance, beginning with the 14th century, begun with the resurgence of learning based on classical sources. The development of linear perspective and other techniques of rendering a more natural reality in painting. In politics, the Renaissance contributed to the development of the customs and conventions of diplomacy. In science it led to an increased reliance on observation and inductive reasoning. This period saw revolutions in many intellectual and social scientific pursuits, as well as the introduction of modern banking and the field of accounting. The Renaissance is perhaps best known for its artistic developments and contributions of Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, who inspired the term “Renaissance man”.

The term was introduced by Italian humanists who believed that after a period of decline, with the Middle Ages, a new golden age had dawned. However, it was nothing less than a rebirth of the achievements of Classical Antiquity. It refers also to the birth of important new developments, such as the discovery of new continents, the Copernican system in astrology, the decline of the feudal system and the invention of printing press, paper, compass, and gunpowder. But there was now sharp break with the Middle Ages in many areas.

The Renaissance began in the Republic of Florence in Italy. Various factors account for its origins. The political structure, the patronage of its dominant family in Florence, the Medici, and the migration of Greek scholars and their texts to Italy following the Fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks certainly contributed to this change of thinking. Other major centers were Venice, Genoa, Milan, Bologna and Rome during the Renaissance Papacy. Belgian cities such as Bruges, Ghent, Brussels, Leuven, or Antwerp helped spreading the Renaissance view.

A romanticized view of the Renaissance gives the impression, it was really a period of undisturbed peace and progress. Nothing is less true. During the Renaissance in Europe, the Hundred Years War (1337-1453) raged between England and France. As a result of wars, the political landscape became royal matrimonial politics, with voyages of discovery and major changes in trade and economy. There were also horrific religious conflicts, which would eventually culminate in the Reformation and divide Europe into two halves with different and hostile religions. Persecutions reached a terrible height, not during the Middle Ages, as is often thought, but during the Renaissance and the Spanish Inquisition led to the expulsion of all Jews from Spain in 1492.

As a result of the voyages of discovery, and specially the colonization of Africa, the trans-Atlantic slave trade also flourished. Partly because of these contradictions, modern historians (2021) are becoming increasingly aware that the whole concept of a rebirth after the Dark Ages is particularly problematic. Some observers have called into question whether the Renaissance was a cultural “advance” from the Middle Ages. Instead, it rather seems a period of pessimism and nostalgia for Classica Antiquity, while social and economic historians have instead focused on the continuity between the two eras.