Up until the early 1400's, European sailors could not sail out of sight of land and had to wait for the wind to change before they could return to port. Chinese and Arab sailors had better ships and instruments and were able to sail against the wind and find their way using the stars as navigation. Europeans did not know about the Arab and Chinese inventions.
Rich people in Europe wanted the beautiful silk cloth that was made in China. European traders travelled overland to China along the Great Silk Road to trade silk with China, but that wasn't all.
They also wanted spices that came from India and some islands in the Indian Ocean. Spices were one of the most important items traded at this time. Before fridges, meat and fish turned bad quickly. Spices such as pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves were needed to help preserve food and to improve its flavor.
Italian traders from the cities of Genoa and Venice controlled the spice trade from India. They sailed to ports in the eastern Mediterranean, where they would buy spices and other goods from traders who had travelled overland to Asia. The Italians would then bring these goods back to Europe.
However, it was difficult and expensive for the European traders to travel overland to East Asia. They had to travel through many countries and pay taxes to those countries' rulers. Venice had control over the trade in the Mediterranean and put high taxes on the trade in spices. European merchants knew that if they could trade directly with people in Asia, they could make huge profits. They began to think they should try to find another way reach East Asia.
The Renaissance: A turning point in European history
At the time that the traders needed to find new ways to reach East Asia, a change was happening in European society. Knowledge, ideas and new technologies from China and the Arab countries were introduced into Europe. The development of the printing press in Europe encouraged literacy and helped to spread the new ideas. Scholars and artists in Europe became more interested in studying the world around them. Mathematicians learned new and better ways of calculating from mathematicians in China ad the Arab countries. At the same time, new shipbuilding techniques and navigational instruments learnt from contact with the Chinese and Arab sailors made it possible for European sailors to journey out of sight of land.
A number of cities in northern Italy became rich and powerful because of overland trade and control of the Mediterranean. The most important cities were Venice, Rome, Florence and Milan. Florence was the center of an international banking system. The banking families had opened branches of their banks in other Italian cities, as well as in cities in England, France, Belgium, Spain and north African ports. The wealthy families in these cities had enough money and power to become patrons of the arts and science. To be a patron meant that they would support artists and scientists by employing them and paying them salaries. Some of the greatest artists, writers and scientists lived at this time. This new interest in art, learning and travel became known as the Renaissance, a word that means rebirth.
The Renaissance was an age of new ways of thinking about the world and the universe.
Two great men who lived during the Renaissance:
In PART 2, we will have a closer look at the new ideas and knowledge that came from the Renaissance...
Resources & Extra reading:
Europeans and explorations | Age of discovery | Silk Road | Spice trade | History of trade | The Middle east and British empire | New world | Post classical history | Renaissance Italy | The Renaissance - why it changed the world
