Changing Cultural Traditions Class 11 Notes History Chapter 5 - CBSE

Chapter : 5

What Are Changing Cultural Traditions ?

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There are several sources of information about European history during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.
A huge number of documents, printed books, sculptures, paintings are available which act as a great source of
information for the historians. All the major sources of information have been carefully preserved in the art galleries, archives and museums of Europe as well as America.
The book “Civilisation of the Renaissance in Italy” was written by the famous Swiss historian Jacob Burckhardt. In this book, Jacob drew the attention of his readers towards the development in the fields of art, literature, paintings and architecture that took place in Italy during the period of renaissance.
Renaissance was the revival of the interest of the Italian people in Greek and Latin art and literature. This period saw the revival of the intellectual abilities of the people in the fields of education, art and architecture, and other areas. This age led to the transformation of Europe in the coming times.
The city-state of Florence is said to be the starting point of the Renaissance. The city-states of Italy were making economic progress during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. They successfully established a great trading relationship with the Byzantine Empire and the Islamic civilisations.
The cities of Venice and Genoa was unlike many other cities in Europe. The power of the clergies and the feudal chiefs was limited in these cities and they did not have much political influence. It was major centres of trade due to which there was wide interference of merchants and bankers in the governing of the cities.
Many scholars and intellectuals of the renaissance movement considered humans as highly capable beings.
They believed that humans are capable of achieving great things if they develop intellectual behaviour. Humans are capable of in excelling different fields related to science, history, art and architecture.
The humanists believed that through the medium of education the personality of human beings could be transformed completely. The main emphasis of the humanists was on promoting the teaching of the liberal arts that included subjects like history, philosophy and poetry.
Francesco Petrarch was one of the earliest thinkers in Italy who popularised the idea of humanism in society. His works fostered the development of the ideology of humanism in Italian society which spread to other parts of Europe.
He supported the study of ancient Greek and Roman literature and held them important for the intellectual
development of the society. For his immense contributions in the field of humanism, he is often regarded as the father of Italian Renaissance Humanism.
The period of the High Renaissance saw the development of the artistic marvel of three artistic gems of Europe. They were Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, and Michelangelo. They made hundreds of masterpieces during this period and their works are still preserved very carefully in museums all over the world.
His works were well acclaimed in society. One of his most acknowledged works was the figures that he designed on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. These figures illustrated the example of a perfect human being who was considered a reflection of divine beauty. His paintings also had the flavour of the idea of humanism.
Leonardo da Vinci is one of the greatest artists of the world he had wide range of interests. He was well versed with the fields of botany, anatomy, arts mathematics and other areas as well. Some of his most acknowledged works of paintings were the “Mona Lisa” and “The Last Supper.”
It was in the year 1455, that led to the printing of 150 copies of the Bible in the press of Johanes Gutenberg. This was a revolution in the field of printing. The evolution of this technology led to the printing of a large number of books in a short time which led to the spread of reading mania in Europe.
The wide accessibility of the books also made the public interested in the idea of reading and writing. However, the literacy rate was very low in that duration. The Bible became accessible to a large section of the society that led to the religious transformation of the society.
The works of the famous scientists and scholars started to get published which resulted in the increase of interest of people in the fields of science and literature.
Niccolo Machiavelli was a great political philosopher and wrote many accounts on the politics of the state. Machiavelli’s central thesis in most of his works was about acquiring political power and maintaining that power for controlling the society.
He gave several philosophies on the nature of man and state. According to him, men are generally deceitful and ungrateful and have a great desire for power and wealth. He did not consider men as rational. One of his great contributions was separating politics from ethics.
The first significant challenge possessed by the Catholic Church was from Desiderius Erasmus. Erasmus was one of the earliest religious reformers of the renaissance period. He gave his religious ideologies that came in conflict with the Church. According to the ideology of Desiderius Erasmus, the Christianity faith should show a clear path to its followers about leading a good and fulfilled life. He believed that people should follow the teachings of Christ and the holy book "Bible." He also did not believe in the external rituals for impressing God-like fasting and going to pilgrimages.
Martin Luther was a German monk who started a campaign against the Catholic Church and its orthodox practices. He held the ideology that a person did not need priests to establish contact with God. He asked his followers to have faith in God as it is the only path to heaven.
He led to the beginning of the Protestant Reformation which led to the churches in Germany and Switzerland breaking their connection with the Pope and the Catholic Church.
Nicolaus Copernicus was born in 1473 and received his early education from Krakow. Then he studied in the
universities of Bologna and Padua. His areas of study were generally mathematics and astronomy. He published one of the most famous works "On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Sphere." This work became very famous and gave several new ideas in astronomy.
He gave the theory that the sun is stationary and the earth rotates around the sun. He also gave the idea that
all the planets revolve around the sun. This approach came to be known as the heliocentric approach.
Johannes Kepler was born in the year 1571. He was a great German astronomer, mathematician, natural
philosopher and astrologer. He made significant contributions in this field which earned him great fame in
Europe.
His most significant contribution was in the area of astronomy. He gave the laws of planetary motion. These laws confirmed the heliocentric theory that was given by Nicolaus Copernicus. Kepler gave the theory that the movement of the planets around the sun takes place in an elliptical orbit with the sun at one of the focuses of the elliptical orbit.
The Law of Gravitation was given by the famous physicist Isaac Newton that changed the course of the existing beliefs about the earth.