The world that people know today has taken centuries to develop and has had many events, people and other circumstances which helped shape the modern world. One time period that had a significant influence on America specifically was the Italian Renaissance. The Italian Renaissance was a time period that lasted from the fourteenth century to the sixteenth century and was a time of transition between the medieval world and the early modern world. "Over the fifteenth and sixteenth century, the effects of the Renaissance spread throughout Italy, into France, Northern Europe and Spain ... " (History channel.com) The effects from the Italian Renaissance were felt all over the world for years afterwards and eventually help shape America. Some people deny the overwhelming facts and say that America was not effected much by the Italian Renaissance, but this paper takes the opposite stand point and argues that the Italian Renaissance had a huge effect on the formation of America as it is today. Although many areas were effected during the Renaissance, "perhaps the most important factor of the Renaissance ... the artists, writers and their patrons" is still the most well-known change of this time period.(Unique facts about the Renaissance). The Italian Renaissance has largely effected America by the introduction of Humanism. Effects of this can be divided into four categories: sciences, education systems, artwork's ability to teach, and stressing the importance of studying history. 

The Italian Renaissance is a time period of great change, inventions, which began forming a new way of life, that years later would still be influential. Beginning in the fourteenth century, the Italian Renaissance brought about a sort of return to previous ways and a re-opening of knowledge that was left behind in history. The word Renaissance literally means rebirth, so this makes sense for the time period to be a rebirth of earlier ways of life. During the renaissance, a wave of Humanism spread over Italy, later dispersed over all parts of Europe and eventually spread into America. Humanism is the rediscovery of ancient teachers, philosophers, and artists of Roman and Greek cultures. "Humanism is often associated with naturalism and materialism ...  however, it was not always associated with atheistic philosophies. Humanism flourished alongside of Christianity up to the Enlightenment ...  It is no surprise the Reformation happened during this time" (Consequences of Humanism) Many of the valuable resources became nearly forgotten in time because of a declining population that still spoke and read the language that ancient Greeks and Romans wrote in. By rediscovering and relearning these things, it shaped a new opinion of the public, one more focused and concerned with the education system, inventions, art work, and many other areas. Sadly, most times only the very wealthy people were able to gain this knowledge of the past because they did not have to work as hard and could spend their time studying instead. Due to the Black Death happened in the early fourteenth century, so many people were effected and many began to question their religious beliefs. Humanism effected the religious people of this time period by urging the idea that humans should try to better themselves and enjoy this life time rather than focus so much on the life afterwards. This question of belief and drastic change in way of life caused many uproars and even some religious wars during this time period, which also had a huge effect on the artwork produced in this time. After the Italian Renaissance ended, Italy was in devastating condition and a major reformation was necessary to bring power and unity back to Italy. Humanism had a negative effect as well, mainly the rise of poverty and political and religious persecution. This change of life and new ways can be seen in today's world by the many different religions, the educated being taught more ancient history and people in general being taught that looking to the past for guidance and inspiration for the future can be very beneficial. 

So how does all of this Humanism, and Italy's issues and changes have to do with America and its formation? Humanism played a huge effect in the science advances of the Italian Renaissance. The Italian Renaissance had a huge effect on America in the form of sciences. So many inventions were brought about during the Italian Renaissance and many of the knowledge that was used to create these inventions was knowledge of previous times, rediscovered. Many architects, philosophers, teachers, scientists, and even artists began to spend more time in Greece and Rome, giving them guidance and inspiration by the ancient books and artworks there. During the Italian Renaissance one extremely significant invention was the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg. This invention led to new discoveries and news to travel faster and be available to many more people than before the printing press. This abundance of information and news also played a key part in the Protestant Reformation during this time period, which was a huge topic of debate. In today's world, printing and ease of access to information is basically a must have for our society. Nowadays instead of there being one book that made it difficult for many people to learn from and read, there are thousands of copies of a single book. By so many copies made of one book and research paper, many more people can learn and benefit from it, growing our civilization and more intelligent people. In the science department during the Renaissance, the scientific theory also came to be more widely practiced and taught. Scientists today still use the basic scientific theory in all that they do, in middle schools student are taught the scientific theory as the base line for any science classes they will have in the future. By the scientific theory being more widely used, it led to a great advancing in other science areas that are still very important today such as astronomy, chemistry and medicines. In the field of astronomy there were many scientists whose discoveries heavily impacted our world today. One of these scientists was Copernicus, who introduced the idea that the Earth revolves around the sun instead of the previous belief that the sun revolved around the earth. Unfortunately he was near death when his work was finally published. Another great scientist was Galilei, whose additions to the scientific field were equally influential. Galilei introduced the telescope and discovered information about Venus and Jupiter. Galilei was also known for bringing up debate about tides, their importance and how they come about in the oceans. Today we have improved this and understand tides and the ocean as best as we can. 

Another aspect of the modern world that was influenced by the Italian Renaissance was the education systems. During the Italian Renaissance the new humanistic view on life changed many parts of their world and shaped it for the world we have today in many ways, one being the change of school systems and classes. "Renaissance schoolmasters disregarded the medieval curriculum ... Greek authors were introduced ...  these ancient authors taught grammar, rhetoric, poetry, history, and moral philosophy ... " (Education in Europe). Because of how much the new Humanist movement impacted Europe, schools began to form and taught based on this new Humanistic view on life. The schools focused on liberal arts being studied, such as sciences, literature, music, art and math. This basic system became the backbone of most all school systems in America. Elementary schools today have the basic classes of history, science, English, math and then electives of art and music. All the way through college these common classes are offered as a baseline for education, this whole idea stemming from the Italian Renaissance when the humanists changed the education system. Today, every child can go to school through high school, and can go to college if they can get the money or scholarships to go. During the Renaissance however, only wealthy children could afford this type of education. Some poor children could get the empty seats in classes if they were extremely talented. Women were not encouraged to get the same education as men were, instead their education was more focused on subjects such as poetry and dance. In some schools for boy's only, basic things that men needed to know was also taught, such as hunting and swimming. Even though the Reformation was going on during this time, many humanists' schools still incorporated the Christian world view in their education systems in order to better prepare students to be well-rounded in life. Today, there are still some schools that are Christian schools and do incorporate religion as part of their curriculum. During the Italian Renaissance the Protestant Reformation was going on and was a reason why so many people began to question their religion or become less religious than they earlier were. Even though this religious change was occurring, the education leaders who followed the ancient Greek and roman ways of teaching believed that the best way a person can be is educated in every possible subject in life, including religious study. Today our school systems also want a well-rounded student. For example when applying for college, the student who is well-rounded will have a higher chance of being accepted, as well as having a productive life. 

Lifestyles and education systems weren't the only area of life during the Renaissance that was majorly effected, the artwork began a drastic change. Although "The catholic church remained a major patron of the arts during the renaissance ...  works of art were increasingly commissioned by civil government ... " this leading to the arts telling more life stories, teach lessons, have realistic parts to them, and have more science incorporated in them. (History.com). All of those things are still used today and help us to know more about the Renaissance than we would have learned without the change of artwork. Prior to the Italian Renaissance, the artwork was more for enjoyment and amusement rather than to teach the audience lesson of life. During the renaissance this changed, leading to life lessons surrounding people in life in both obvious and discrete ways. Religious art was a huge area of interest during this time period and is very famous in the modern world for its beauty and life lessons. Some of the famous pieces of art include "The School of Athens" by Raphael, "The Creation of Adam" by Michelangelo and "The Last Judgement" by Bosch. These art pieces all have a religious aspect to them except for the school of Athens by Raphael. Raphael's "paintings, most notably "The school of Athens" ... expressed the classical ideas of beauty, serenity and harmony." (History channel.com) Raphael painted this particular piece of work inside the office of a king. The king's office was round and on one side of the wall Raphael painted the school of Athens and on the opposing side painted a religious art piece. This is the staple point of the Italian Renaissance because it shows the constant debate between religious and non-religious artworks and issue at hand of the ruler, whether to rule based on God and religion or more with a Humanistic view on life. The creation of Adam by Michelangelo is a religious piece of art, but in more recent years it has been closely inspected and studied. The findings were that a humanistic view on life is also included in it. Michelangelo wasn't a strong Christian man and in his artworks he didn't focus primarily on Christian views on life. He painted his specific piece because it was commissioned by a pope during that time. Michelangelo was thrilled to have to pain this piece, so he incorporated his own personal touch. At first glance the artwork is thought of a purely religious painting showing God giving life to Adam. After a closer inspection the "cloud" on which God is sitting it resembles the human brain, which is to say, God not only gave life to Adam but also gave him the initial knowledge, because God has all of the knowledge. Eve is presented behind God in this piece because Michelangelo was not big on women's rights and still though of women as less than equals with men, so Eve is in the back. These paintings not only taught lessons during that time they were made and enjoyed during the Italian Renaissance but also are helpful in today's world because they help teach us about the Italian Renaissance and also are a great guide on how to make beautiful art pieces. Science also became a huge point of focus in art during the Italian Renaissance. Leonardo Da Vinci was one artist who was actually a scientist, He drew a figure of the man, for which he had done extensive research for. "Leonardo was the ultimate "Renaissancce man" for the breadth of his intellect, interest and his expression of humanist and classical values." (History.com). This is important and influential for today because it taught scientist since then the basics of human anatomy and helped to form the amazing understanding we have today of the body and science. Other pieces of art were influential in the way that they introduced new views on artwork and new ways of producing art, many of which are still used today. 

Today, the world has many issues just like it has always had. The Italian Renaissance taught the world one more lesson that is very important for us today, the lesson of looking to the past for guidance with the future. During the Renaissance, people began to spend more time studying ancient Latin and learning the ways and beliefs of past Greeks and Romans, which led to a great increase of their intelligence, a boom in architecture, and a revival of the Christian religion. Today, people have many questions and want to know many things, and if we hadn't used past knowledge to further our knowledge we would not be where we are today in the modern world intelligence wise. Because of the people during the Renaissance studying ancient books, they developed many political advances and ways which we use today. One of these political changes that occurred was the separation of Church and State. Today in America this is written in our basics of our government. The main reason that so much knowledge was lost prior to the Italian Revolution was the loss of speakers and readers for the Latin Language. When nobles began to study and learn ancient Latin they could translate philosophy and other books into their native language so more people could learn from it. Today, Latin is known as a dead language because it isn't fluently spoken or written but still taught basics in schools so that we don't lose this knowledge again and potentially loose valuable information to help shape and better the future of America. In schools today language is taken as a requirement and we have people who specifically study dying languages so we can save as much information that the language may have as we possibly can. If all people just completely ignored and forgot the past then the future would most likely have many problems that could be avoided if the past was used to our advantage like the Renaissance taught us to do. 

America and most all of the modern world was formed based on the past. There have been so many events from the past that helped form the modern world, one of these being the Italian Renaissance. The Renaissance was a time period of great and influential change, hence the name Renaissance. During the Italian Renaissance people began to go back and study past teachers and learn knowledge that people had let slip from their heads over time. Humanism is a topic that was developed during the Italian Renaissance and shaped almost every part of human life. There are four main areas in which the Italian Renaissance is influential and potent for today, sciences, education systems, artwork and its ability to teach, and the importance of learning from the past for the future. Although there are many different time periods, all of which had some influence on the modern world, the argument here is that the Italian Renaissance was the most influential time period for the modern world. 

