Chapter 1

What factors shaped the

Renaissance Worldview?
The Silk Road

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vn3e37VWc0k
(5:19)
P 16-
The Silk Road
 Extended from Japan to Italy
 Items: silks, glassware, paper, spices (to name a few) as well as
religions, inventions, ideas and knowledge. Understandings of
science, technology, philosophy, music and mathematics.
 Not all things that moved along the road were good, disease also
passed from caravan to caravan.

P 16-
Role of Islamic Civilization
 The centre of the Islamic world was at the crossroads of the Silk Road trading
routes. All trade between the Far East and Europe was controlled by Muslim
middlemen which brought great wealth to the Muslim world.
 Muslim Empires were centres of learning during Europe’s Middle Ages.
Libraries across the empire preserved documents of Islamic scholars.
 They took mathematical ideas from India and refined them into the
understanding of numbers known today.
Video on
 Through their knowledge of astronomy they invented the astrolabe. how to use
it
 Scientists studied diseases and the human body and wrote medical tests that
were used for hundreds of years throughout the world.

P 18
Beginning of the Renaissance
 Time period between 1350 and 1600
 During Middle Ages most Christians shared a religious worldview
that God is the centre of human existence.
 Poor accepted fate of a short, harsh life believing they would be
rewarded in the afterlife.
 The rich donated money to the church hoping God would reward them
with heaven.
 Art and architecture were heavily influenced by religion.
 Rarely did anyone disagree with the Church’s ideas about the world or
the way people should lead their lives.
 The head of the church, the pope, was a powerful man with a major
influence on kings. There were often power struggles between the pope
and the monarchs.

P 19
 The Crusades
 Europe organized crusades to try to recapture areas of the Middle East that
were under Muslim control. Jews, Christians, and Muslims all considered these
areas holy because that is where their religions had their roots.
 Entire armies travelling through the Eastern Roman Empire, or Byzantine Empire
were exposed to a way of life different from their own. Thousands of religious
pilgrims visited the holy sites and met different societies.
 Europeans became more aware of other cultures, encountering new ideas and
knowledge, foods, spices, cloth and other exotic goods. This led to a new way of
thinking about their own lives and their own societies.

P 20-
Feudalism
 Feudalism is a form of government that started in
the middle ages.
 Kings and Queens
 Rulers
 Nobility
 Lords and Knights
 Controlled the land
 Clergy
 Church officials
 Peasants
 Majority of the population
 Worked the land and served the nobles
Feudalism

 Political and social system based on the granting of land in exchange for loyalty,
military assistance, and other services
 Developed as a result of frequent invasions in western Europe
 Kings and nobles needed a way to protect their lands
 Feudalism
 Lords divided their lands into estates called fiefs
 Fiefs (land) given to vassals
 A person granted land in return for loyalty or
military service
 All nobles were vassals to the king
 Knights
 Mounted warriors who protected lord’s lands
 Given land for their services
 Chivalry
 Code of ethics followed by knights
 Honesty, fairness in battle, loyal, proper treatment of
women
Knights Obligation to Lord
 Provide military service
 Remain loyal and faithful
 Give money on special
occasions
Lord’s Obligation to Knights
 Give Land
 Protect from attack
 Resolve disputes between
knights
***Student Assignment***
 You will create at least 3 diary entries as though you are back in the
Middle Ages. It can be from the perspective of a:
 King
 Nobility
 Merchant
 Serf/peasant
 Or any rank within the Christian order

You submit this in written format either by hand or D2L.

(think of Jake Sully’s entries in Avatar).
Think about your age, your role within society, name,
gender, other family members, your living situation,
access to basic necessities in life, profession. Where do
you live, what time of year is it. These entries should be
at least a paragraph long (1/4 page) proper spelling and
grammar count.
Feudalism and life during the
Middle Ages
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydXi-KiMv7o
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUme01ZA714
 Recap Feudalism https://
www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUzRNp7OucQ