"all is for the best" echoed Pangloss of Voltaire's Candide (Lamm 175 ln 46). Pangloss believed that if something happens, then it is for a reason. He held that the, sometimes, bitter end-effect-was justified by the predestined and inevitable means-cause. Pangloss represented the...

Europe in the 12th century A.D. was in many ways the same as Europe in the 14th century, but in certain key ways it was also different, with many changes for the better. First of all, in the 12th century, Europe was still in the Middle Ages. Emphasis was on religion, and science was not very adva...

Prior to the fifteenth century, very few works of art were signed and virtually no information on their artists, male or female, was recorded. However, beginning in the early Renaissance, the identities of artists and their stories begin to be preserved. Any study of the art of this period will undo...

It has been asked if it is fair to consider the Middle Ages as "the Dark Ages" or was it only a continuation of trends that were long underway by the time the Renaissance occurred. Can we say there was no true political expansion? Would we be accurate in saying there were no new thou...

In Medieval Europe, politics were organized into a religious hierarchy knows as feudalism. This system dominated Europe for many years. Many factors contributed to breakdown of the feudal system. When this order finally ended it was replaced by an era known as the Renaissance, which would lead t...

A booming economy along with the communes desire to obtain political power led to the formation of a new class in society which ultimately lead Europe into a period simply known as the Renaissance. Northern Italy's thriving economy was a result of great advances in shipbuilding. Their ships we...

This hero with "super human aspiration" had lived in a time of the Middle Ages and the start of the Renaissance. These were two very different historical eras with quite different values, and Faustus is caught in the grip of changing times. The Renaissance period emphasized the ...

The Crusades One great theme of the middle ages would have to be the crusades and how they changed history in many different ways. The crusades changed a lot of things about society in that day including helping trade and also sparking interest in other cultures which paved the way for the renaiss...

Raphael's "School of Athens" is considered by many art historians to be the absolute masterpiece of the Renaissance. It is the perfect pictorial counterpart to the enormous changes in thinking that came about in the 1300s as a result of economic and technological developments. Its rational perspe...

A culture that evolves and changes through time is a healthy culture indeed. From the early pagan warriors to the artisans of the Renaissance, the European world dramatically reformed. The literature of each era indicates the profound cultural innovations. The Anglo-Saxon's arguably most import...

When a culture constantly evolves and changes it truly is a healthy culture indeed. Since the beginnings of the Pagan warriors to the skilled and accomplished craftsmen of the Renaissance, the European world was drastically transformed. The literature of every epoch indicates the profound cultural i...