The end of the 15^th century brought the age of discovery and Spain’s conquest of the Aztec and Inca empires. The unusual thing about this conquest was that the Inca, as well as the Aztec empires, were very sophisticated. The Inca had an empire-wide road system and had eradicated hunger, something very few nations have ever been able to do. They had advanced mathematics and impressive feats of architecture. Though with their advancements, the Aztec and the Incan people participated in human sacrifice. When the great Incan temple was built it was celebrated with the sacrifice of 20,000 people. But still, how could empires as great as the Aztecs and Incas fall by only 180 or 200 Spaniards? One reason is probably that the Inca had no horses or guns so going into battle with an enemy wielding these foreign things was probably startling, but the biggest reason seems to be that the Inca had no individual freedom. The emperor was their ruler and their god and every Inca had been told that they were just one atom in a part of the big collective whole. When their emperor was captured the Inca did not know what to do since their entire lives they had been told that they could only follow orders. This seems to be the reason the Inca empire fell with an invading army of 180 Spaniards. The Spaniards had individual thought and the Inca did not.

A myth about the Medieval ages that many people have is that in Medieval times people thought the earth was flat and that one of the reasons people did not originally support Columbus was that they thought he would sail off the edge of the earth. This is entirely false, no one in Medieval times thought the earth was flat. The reason people did not originally support Columbus was that he had grossly miscalculated the circumference of the earth and if he had not found North America he would have starved before he reached Asia. The flat earth myth came about in the 18^th century with people wanting a reason to believe that the Medieval Christians were dumb and stupid. They found an obscure heretic named Lactantius and a 6^th century navigator named Cosmas Indicopleustes who made a model of the earth as flat even though he knew it was round. No one in Medieval times knew of these people but scientists in the 18^th century wanted some excuse to believe this. After this Washington Irvine repeated the myth in his book, A History of the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus, so as to make Columbus seem more heroic. All modern day historians agree that Medieval people didn’t think the earth was flat but you can still see school text books perpetuating the myth and even some scientists as well.

The end of the 15th century was the eve of reform for the church and the eve of the Protestant reformation. The church in these times were plagued by several problems one of which was absenteeism. A bishop would hold an office for the income and then the people of that district would never see that bishop because he was elsewhere doing what he wanted. Another was greed both in the papacy and in the monasteries. Sometimes it was because the monasteries were so impoverished that all the monks could think about was how to get money. There are also accounts of drinking and loose living in monasteries with the monks having concubines, but it is hard to tell the numbers of these things because of the lack of evidence. Monasteries also had problems with monks being ignorant since there were no seminary’s at this time. This is a reason that reformation spread so quickly because the monks and abbots didn’t know how to argue against it. Not all of these problems were widespread or defined every monk but reform was definitely needed and that would come in the 16th century with the council of Trent.

At the same time Spain was becoming more centralized. The area we think of as Spain today used to be comprised of many different kingdoms all quarreling with each other. Unification began with the marriage of Isabella heiress of Castile and Ferdinand heir of Aragon. This united the two kingdoms and they decided to use the reconquistas and take over Granada, the last moorish kingdom from the Muslim conquest of the 8th century. After ten years of fighting Granada surrendered and the peace treaty that followed was very civil compared to others in this era. Another establishment by queen Isabella and king Ferdinand was the Spanish Inquisition. They were meant to root out heracies and Jews and Muslims who had converted but their conversion seemed dubious. This act was to unify all the Spaniards under one religion disallowing heretics and false conversions to disrupt the unity.

The state of Florence in Italy was originally a republican state but eventually was run by one primary family the Medici’s. Also in Florence was a preacher by the name of Girolamo Savonarola. In the 1490s Savonarola went there to live and became a well known preacher with many followers. He gave impactful sermons that could change peoples lives and even people such as Botticelli and Michelangelo came to hear him preach. The thing Savonarola hated above all else was the Renaissance. He thought the secular paintings and ideas drew people away from God and he got people to burn their luxuries and paintings. He detested the pope at that time, who was pope Alexander VI, for his immoral ways. Eventually he came to hold power in Florence as well and began a sort of righteous dictatorship encouraging people to report their sinful neighbors to the government. Eventually pope Alexander VI grew tired of the accusations against him and asked the people of Florence to hand him over. In return Savonarola asked to hold an ecumenical council to depose the pope. At this the people of Florence began to lose faith in him since the last thing they wanted was another schism. Even Savonarola’s most devoted followers fell away when he refused to walk through fire to prove the divine nature of his messages, even though he had said he would do this many times. At this point Florence was done with him and he was arrested and executed.

Meanwhile in 15^th century France another remarkable figure was in power. Louis XI of France was fascinating in that he had so many things going on. He lived simply and ate food similar to that of a peasants. He was a sincere Catholic and always carried his rosary with him. But the thing that he was most obsessed with was centralizing France. The feudal system that had developed during the Viking invasions had reduced the power of the king greatly so now Louis XI wanted to unit France under his absolute power. He had many spies as well not only in France but also in Italy, England and other countries. He could be brutal as well telling exiles that if they came back he would cut off their private parts. All of these things combined made the incredible figure of Louis XI.

In the Renaissance there were three artists that today we consider to be the greatest of the Renaissance, Leonardo Da Vinci, Michelangelo Buonarroti and Raphael Santi. Leonardo was born near Florence and at the age of fourteen went to work in Verrocchios studio. Over his life he had many different interests which lead to him not completing many things since he always wanted to move on to something else. In his work Ginavera De Benci you can see depth and realness in the face and in the background you can see scenes from Italy.

Michlangelo had a working life of seventy years and primarily considered himself a marble carver. Both he and Leonardo dissected bodies to learn about anatomy even though it was illegal. In his statue Moses for the tomb of pope Julius II you can see his understanding of anatomy and how he realistically portrays the figure twisting with his hair flying in imagined wind.

Raphael lived a short life yet he still managed to produce many paintings. He is known for his portrait painting and created many Madonna paintings as well. In his creation Saint Catherine of Alexandria you can see the subject turning to look at the sun which projects light upon her face.

Niccolo Machiavelli exemplified new secular ideas of the Renaissance in his book, The Prince. In this book Machiavelli describes the way in which princes ought to behave. In the middle ages books such as this would be filled with the moral standered the prince had to live up to, and how he could glorify God. In this book however not once does Machiavelli mention God or hold the prince to a moral standered of any sort. Machiavelli describes how a prince should not hold to morals and if the state is threatened it is right and good for him to behave immorally. If he has to commit crimes in order to help the state they will be glorious crimes. He stated that ideally it would be best to be feared and loved but much better to be feared if one had to be done away with. Overall The Prince shows a massive breaking away from the politics of the middle ages.

In the Renaissance one of the earliest artists was that of Ghiberti. He was commissioned to create bronze paneled doors on the baptistery next to the Duomo, after winning a contest to decide the artist. The set of doors had twenty-eight panels with scenes from the new testament. After this he was commissioned to do the doors for the church which had ten larger panels. This second set was considered so fine that Michelangelo called them, “The gates of paradise.” Fra Angelico was a Dominican fryer who still retained some of the medieval style but with Renaissance influences as well. One of the paintings is the Annunciation c 1440.

In it you can see depth and perspective in the background but with some medieval influences in the people. Masaccio had a relatively short life and yet still created some great works of art. He was one of the first people to practice Brunelleschi’s mathematical perspective of art. In Masaccio’s The Holy Trinity fresco you can see the perception of depth in the background and individualism in the faces. The Renaissance was a turning point in the history of art and perspective.