Changes

Because of the increasing urbanization of Italian society and the impact of the Black Death, the feudal economic system collapsed.<ref>Ruggiero, Guido. <i>[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0521719380/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0521719380&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=1b90561c922b87b9608d09e3afe7757f The Renaissance in Italy: A Social and Cultural History of the Rinascimento]</i> (Cambridge University Press, 2015), p. 648 </ref> Feudalism was a political-social and economic system that gave political and military power to the landed elite and which tied the majority of the population to this elite. Feudalism was a system that demanded obedience, deference and ordained that people should accept their position in society, without question. It endorsed a view of the world that it advanced the belief that the world governed by unchanging and fixed by the laws of God. Feudalism was never strong in Italy, even in the High Middle Ages, and after the 1350s it all but collapsed. The collapse of feudalism led to the release of social forces that led to the Renaissance.<ref>Lopez, Robert Sabatino, <i>[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007ETTC22/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B007ETTC22&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=4960cf91c401faa3cb7c990af3e6761e The Three Ages of the Italian Renaissance]</i> Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1970, p. 89</ref> People were freer than ever before and they were prepared to question and doubt and develop new ideas about society and to create new means of expression and styles of art to represent them. The society of Italy in the period from 1350 to 1500 energized people and encouraged them to experiment with the arts, thought and modes of life.<ref> Gilbert, Felix. <i>[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0691031630/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0691031630&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=e4d96c0c5e014c0593f0205f31fee3d3 History: Politics or Culture? Reflections on Ranke and Burckhardt]</i>. (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1990). p. 109</ref>

====The New Elite====

[[File: SC2.jpg|thumbnail|300px|thumbnail|Lorenzo De Medici ‘The Magnificent’]]

The Renaissance changed the history of Italy, Europe, and the world. It first emerged in Italy and this was no coincidence. Italian society in the period from 1350-1500 was one that was ideally suited for the development of a new culture and view of the world. The growing wealth and urbanization of Northern Italy meant that a new culture developed to replace the old medieval order and its values. The society was one that privileged the individual and believed that life could be meaningful. The new elite in this society, that appreciated display, and ostentation, encouraged them patronage of great artists. It was also a factor in the experimentation carried out by writers and artists who sought to impress their patrons. Perhaps the key social factor in the development of the Renaissance in Italy was the growing secularism of society, no longer were men and women confined to a theological interpretation of the world and life but sought to find an alternative way of living in their new society. In the new environment, many sought guidance for the new society emerging in the great works of the classical past and in their desire to emulate the past, they managed to create a new culture. One that in many ways laid the foundations for the modern world.

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====References====

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