• Happened between 1300 and 1600 (after the Middle Ages)

• Europeans had a new interest in learning. People studied science, the arts and Greek & Roman ideas

• Population growth

• Increased wealth

• Italy was the center

• New technologies and techniques

• Famous Renaissance people include: Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, William Shakespeare, Michelangelo and Filippo Brunelleschi

​​Renaissance

• Took place from 1500-1700

• Scientists learned more about nature and questioned existing beliefs

• Use of the scientific method (Careful, scientific analysis)

• Many discoveries in astronomy and human anatomy

• Galileo Galilei was an important scientist who used a telescope to study astronomy

• Discovery that the Sun is the center of the solar system (Heliocentric model) - before this people thought the Earth was the center of the solar system (Geocentric model)

Scientific Revolution

• Started in the early 1500s and lasted until the mid 1600s

• Challenged ideas of the Catholic Church

• Many people were angered by Church corruption

• Martin Luther led a reform movement

• Protestants are Christians who protested against the Catholic Church

The Reformation

• Lasted from the mid 1500s to around 1700

• Catholic leaders tried to reform the Church and end Protestantism

• Protestant books were banned

• Jesuit missionaries started schools and converted people to Catholicism

• Inquisitions investigated and punished people for having different religious beliefs

The Counter Reformation