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Intellectual Developments In Europe Between 1500 And 1800
There were many transformations in Europe between 1500 and 1800, which influenced intellectual developments. The transformations had a vast influence on the people’s culture that originated in some of the Italian cities. The era saw a resurgence in interest in writing, reading, philosophy, and architecture. Wealthy families and the catholic church were the biggest supporters of renaissance.trade, which was stimulated by crusaders, was a great contributor to intellectual developments. It also led to the development of wealthy cities such as Florence, Genoa, and Venice.
Renaissance characterized an endeavor to resuscitate the ideals of the classical civilizations of Rome, Greece, and the Mediterranean. Though most of the chief renaissance figures did not vigorously disregard the church, they underscored various facets of life than the religion. European renaissance went yonder art and literature as it exhilarated people to think differently before, which was an anticipated quality that Europe needed as it ventured in technology and science.
The scientific revolution stimulated developments in science and math. An example of such development was Ptolemy, a Greek philosopher, and astronomer. They fabricated a geocentric theory that explained that all planets, the sun, and the moon orbited around the earth. The theory was later refuted by Al-din, a monk and mathematician who indicated that all other planets rotated around the sun. Galileo confirmed to them after the development of the telescope, which was used to observe heavenly bodies. His theories were published in a book in 1610, which was greatly criticized by the church, and had to recant his theory to save his life. Another great scientist was Isaac newton who whose genius shaped the majority of the modern field of science.
The catholic church had been a crucial societal force that was very powerful. However, the church was already losing power in many ways as scientists, and literary writers began to challenge it. The pope was also losing power as governments gave more power to the kings. By the 16th century, the catholic religious authority was extremely debilitated by the protestant restructuring. The movement was steered by a german priest and teacher, Martin Luther, who alleged that the church was flawed. He wrote 95 theses, which condemned some of the activities by the church like collecting indulgencies.his most important revelation was that faith and actions could not be separated. As the 16th century came to an end, large parts of Europe were no longer under the catholic church, and Europe was extremely alienated between protestants and Catholics.
The printing press greatly contributed to the spread of Protestantism as it facilitated the spread of Luther’s words widely to other parts. This marked the beginning of a great change initially, and the people always followed the church’s authority without question. As of the 17 th century, the scientific revolution was inaugurated and applied to life’s political and social areas. The movement was identified as the enlightenment, And its philosophers alleged that human reason would also discover the laws to govern political and social behavior. The movement stimulated by reformation dared and reviewed some of the religious thoughts.
In England, the civil wars shaped the political thought as the political authority fell from the king to parliament. The people now believed that their rulers got their power from the people and not from heaven, a move which was propelled by an English political philosopher John Locke.the era between 1500 and 1800 was critical to the European history as it marked the initiation of the maritime revolution, the renaissance, the scientific revolution, the protestant reformation.
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