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==Socio-Economic Factors==
The renaissance was an effort to imitate the lost world of ancient Greece and Rome. The Italian, artists, writers and thinkers who all participated in the Renaissance, sought to create works that were the equal of the ancients, whom they regarded as the pinnacle of civilization. The Renaissance unlike the Middle Ages, stressed the individual, reason, beauty, and secular values. This outlook became known as Humanism and has had a profound impact on European society. The Renaissance not only produced great works of art but also resulted in dramatic change in the views of Europeans and a decisive move away from the world of the Middle Ages. The origins of the Renaissance were in Italy and they were a result of the unique society and its recent history.<ref> Burke, Peter. <i>The Italian Renaissance: Culture and Society in Italy </i> Princeton: , Princeton University Press, 1999, p. 6.</ref>
In the aftermath of the Black Death, the economy of Italy benefited greatly from trade and thus some areas became industrialized such as Florence. In this city, there was a large class of weavers who wove cloth for home consumption and export. The wealth of Italy increased because of trade but it also changed people’s outlook, who gradually adopted a more rational approach to the world. Italian society had evolved very differently from the rest of Europe. Northern Italy in particular, was much more urbanized than the rest of Europe. Many of the largest cities in Europe were located in Northern Europe such as Florence and Milan. Urban societies are widely believed to be more dynamic than agrarian societies. In towns and cities' people come together and converse and debate. Urban societies are also more open to new ideas as immigrants and traders settled in them. The plazas and taverns of Florence and other cities were often filled with people, many of them outsiders discussing new ideas and exchanging copies of manuscripts. This was a milieu that was beneficial to creative and intellectual endeavors <ref> Burkhardt, Jacob (1990) <i>The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy</i>. (Hammondsworth, Penguin Classics, 1990) p. 78</ref>
Because of the increasing urbanization of Italian society and the impact of the Black Death, the feudal economic system collapsed.<ref>Ruggiero, Guido. The Renaissance in Italy: A Social and Cultural History of the Rinascimento (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 was govern 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, The Three Ages of the Italian Renaissance 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>History: Politics or Culture? Reflections on Ranke and Burckhardt</i>. (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1990). p. 109</ref>.
[[File: SC2.jpg|thumbnail|300px|thumbnail|Lorenzo De Medici ‘The Magnificent’]]
The great artists and the thinkers of the Renaissance needed the patronage of wealthy patrons and rulers. The unique political situation in Italy meant that the ruling class was distinct from the rest of Europe. Unlike elsewhere, they were not many hereditary rulers, many of the rulers were often self-made men. The ‘new rulers’ in Renaissance Italy usually acquired power through war, such as the Sforza’s in Milan or by manipulating the existing political system as the case of the De Medici in Florence.<ref> Burckhardt, 1990, p. 78</ref> They were to play a crucial role in the development of the Renaissance and the values that inspired it. Since they often ruled by political conquest, they legitimated rule their rule through lavish patronage of artists and composers. Renaissance artists such as Donatello benefitted this system and allowed artists to consistently work. A Swiss Cultural historian in the nineteenth century argued that these new rulers saw the ‘state as a work of art.’<ref> Burkhardt, 134</ref>
These new rulers also could not rely on traditional power structures to support their rule of their governments. This meant that they often adapted and changed the system of governments in the city-states to maintain and perpetuate their rule. This meant that they sought other models of government and as a result, they came under the influence of the classical world. The new rulers employed learned men to help them in their government and for their bureaucracy. They regularly employed humanists and in this way humanism influenced the development of the state. The Humanists often used their classical learning to provide solutions to current problems. This did much to promote classical learning in this period, which was something that could have a practical value and not something merely academic. Through them, the ideas and the works of the classical world, that privileged reason and the individual became very influential and this did much to encourage a new world view among the educated and the literate.<ref> Burckhardt, 1990, p. 156</ref>.
==Individualism==
