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[[File:Florence_Cathedral.jpg|thumbnail|370px|left|The Duomo in Florence, Italy built during the Italian Renaissance]]
The Italian Renaissance (1380s-15541550s) was one of the most exciting periods in human civilization. It witnessed a great flourishing of the arts, literature, philosophy, architecture, and politics. Many of the greatest figures in World Civilisation appeared during the Renaissance in Italy, including Michelangelo, Leonardo Da Vinci, Machiavelli, and Raphael. However, several factors led to the end of the Renaissance and the end of one of the most creative periods in human history.
====What was the Renaissance?====
Defining when the Italian Renaissance occurred is somewhat difficult, but the most generous estimate goes from the 1380s to the 1550s. Typically, the Italian Renaissance has been tied to fortunes of Florence and Rome (especially Florence). At the end of the 14th century, after the collapse of the Florentine and Roman economies due to the Great Famine of 13150-1317 caused by the Little Ice Age, the disruption of trade by war between England and France, and the devastation of the Black Plague, Rome and Florence began to rebound. These catastrophes actually helped start the Renaissance because it was initially driven by artists such as Petrarch and Dante who began to question the authority of the Church because it had failed to alleviate the suffering of Italians during these catastrophes.
The end of the Italian is directly tied to Florence's decline and the eventual abandonment of the ideals of the Renaissance. This slow slide began with [[What was the impact of Charles VIIIs invasion of Italy (1494) on the Renaissance?|the invasion of Florence in 1494]] by France and gained speed as Italy broke out into warfare between its city-states. Additionally, like most significant political and intellectual movements, the Renaissance gave birth to a significant intellectual and religious backlash. By the 1550s, many of the works of literature and art that help birth the Renaissance were banned. By the mid-1550s, the Italian Renaissance was essentially over. While the Italian Renaissance died in Florence and Rome, its ideas, beliefs, and art had spread across Europe. These other European Renaissances continued even as Florence's and Rome's rebirth ended.
====Florence's Economic Decline====
====Conclusion====
The Renaissance was one of the most important historical epochs, it produced a culture that created great works of art and provided the world, with the humanist view of life, which encouraged individualism and the use of reason. However, economic decline meant that there was less money for the arts and learning. The Spanish came to dominate the city-states and this meant that artists had less freedom of expression. Finally, the Counter-Reformation by enforcing Catholic Orthodoxy meant that artists, thinkers and writers were afraid to be as daring or original as they had been in the past.<ref>Mullet, p. 134.</ref> These factors led to the end of the Renaissance.
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