Page 65 - 2024-bfw-wiesner-hanks-ahws14e-proofs

TIMELINE

1400 1450 1500 1550 1600

❮ ca. 1350
Petrarch develops ideas 1478–1834
of humanism Spanish Inquisition operates
in Spain
1434–1737 ■ 1492
Medici family in power in Florence Spain conquers Granada, ending
reconquista; practicing Jews
1440s expelled from Spain
Invention of movable
metal type ■ 1494
Invasion of Italy by Charles
1455–1471 VIII of France ■ 1563
Wars of the Roses 1508–1512 Establishment of first formal
in England Michelangelo paints academy for artistic training
this sample.
ceiling of Sistine Chapel in Florence
Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers.
■ 1469
Marriage of Isabella of ■ 1513
Castile and Ferdinand Machiavelli writes
of Aragon The Prince
For review purposes only. Not for redistribution.
■ 1477
Uncorrected proofs have been used in
Louis XI conquers Burgundy Worth Publishers.

by Bedford, Freeman &
the northern Italian nobility and the commercial the right to rule to his son. Some signori (the word
elite created a powerful oligarchy, a small group is plural in Italian and is used for both persons and
that ruled the city and surrounding countryside. forms of government) kept the institutions of com-
Yet because of rivalries among competing powerful munal government in place, but these had no actual
families within this oligarchy, Italian communes power. As a practical matter, there wasn’t much differ-
were often politically unstable. ence between oligarchic regimes and signori.
Unrest from below exacerbated the instability. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the signori
Merchant elites made citizenship in the communes in many cities and the most powerful merchant oli-
Copyright ©
dependent on a property qualification, years of resi- garchs in others transformed their households into
dence within the city, and social connections. Only a courts. Courtly culture afforded signori and oligarchs
Distributed
tiny percentage of the male population possessed these the opportunity to display and assert their wealth and
qualifications and thus could hold political office. The power. They built magnificent palaces in the centers
common people, called the popolo, were disenfran- of cities and required all political business to be done
chised and heavily taxed, and they bitterly resented there. Ceremonies connected with family births, bap-
their exclusion from power. Throughout most of tisms, marriages, and funerals offered occasions for
the thirteenth century, in city after city, the popolo magnificent pageantry and elaborate ritual. Cities
used armed force to take over the city governments. welcomed rulers who were visiting with magnificent
Republican government — in which political power entrance parades that often included fireworks, col-
theoretically resides in the people and is exercised by orful banners, mock naval battles, decorated wagons
their chosen representatives — was sometimes estab- filled with people in costume, and temporary trium-
lished in numerous Italian cities. These victories of the phal arches modeled on those of ancient Rome. Rul-
popolo proved temporary, however, because they could ers of nation-states later copied and adapted all these
not establish civil order within their cities. Merchant aspects of Italian courts.
oligarchies reasserted their power and sometimes
brought in powerful military leaders to establish order. City-States and the Balance of Power
These military leaders, called condottieri (kahn-duh-
TYER-ee; singular condottiero), had their own merce- Renaissance Italians had a passionate attachment to
nary armies and sometimes took over political power their individual city-states: they were politically loyal
once they had supplanted the existing government. and felt centered on the city. This intensity of local
Many cities in Italy became signori (seen- feeling perpetuated the dozens of small states and
YOHR-ee), in which one man — whether condot- hindered the development of one unified state. (See
tiero, merchant, or noble — ruled and handed down “AP® Viewpoints: Venice Versus Florence,” page 48.)
47

04_howsap14e_48443_ch02_044_079.indd 47 12/10/23 1:40 PM