Italian Renaissance revised

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Italian Renaissance
Introduction
The European countries were among the first nations to experience civilization and modernity. This was due to various issues that supported this agenda. Cultural change was one of these factors that made them experience these changes. The people’s culture is one of the most important elements in their lives. For instance, colonization of African countries led to change of much of African culture in a bid to embrace civilization. In their book titled, The West Encounters and Transformation, Brian, Edward, and Meredith give a good account of how the European countries encountered these change. Particularly they mention the Italian Renaissance during the fifteenth century.
The Italian Renaissance also identified as the rebirth was a period in Italy when one of the greatest cultural changes was recorded. In addition, many achievements in many forms of people’s lives were experienced. The period lasted from the 14th Century until the seventeenth century. This period was recorded after the black death of 1348, a period when some parts of Europe experienced economic strife. The rebirth began in the city of Florence, which was among the largest and most prosperous cities in Europe. The city was a hub for banking and commerce. The renaissance later spread to other areas in Italy such as Venice.
The Italian rebirth has been credited for promoting some of the most impressive transformations in Italy due to the change on how people thought and reasoned about issues.

After the Renaissance, Italy became one of the best countries in architecture, literature, music, science, philosophy, exploration, sculpture, and paintings. Italians exerted substantial influence in Europe in the mentioned fields with artists such as Donatello, Piero Della Francesca, and Leonardo da Vinci.
The Italians met and interacted with other non-Romans during this period of transformation. They had differences and similarities in their cultures and ways of living. For instance, there was similarity on how Italian thinkers thought on how to transform their empire. They decided to use the same social engineering that was used by the Ancient Romans and non-Romans during the Imperial age. These principles were incorporated by both societies in the transformation of their countries. The second similarity is that both societies started their cultural changes based on historical city-states. During this time, most European countries were not individual states. Rather, the countries were composed of several independent city-states that had their forms of government. The changes in culture and way of thinking started from individual city-states and spread to other states.
In both Roman and non-Roman societies during these periods, the changes and transformations that took place were in the fields of science, culture, governance, human rights, and art. The same changes took place during the Italian Renaissance. The economies of the societies involved also improve substantially. For instance, non-Romans such as the Greeks were known to have some of the best mosaics whereas the Italians after the renaissance had excellent pieces of sculptures. Both societies produced some notable scientific innovations that have been used as a platform even in modern time.
The difference between these two subjects was that the Renaissance in Italy was more transformative than in many other European nations earlier. This is because the rebirth was recorded in nearly all parts of Italy systematically. For instance, John Bessarion claimed, “Venice became a leading center in western Europe for the publication of Greek books” (Levack et al. 427) This is a manifestation of how transformative the Italian rebirth was compared to other non-Roman societies during the Imperial Age in Rome. The Italian thinkers who supported the renaissance were more determined to transform their empire compared to those present during the Rome’s Imperial Age. In addition, Italy had more resources compared to some other countries going by the nature of some of the city-states such as Florence and Rome.
Another difference between the Italian Renaissance and Romans and non-Romans was on economic terms. Romans and non-Romans such as the Greeks practiced agriculture as a form of economic activity. However, the difference between these two societies was that the most of the non-Romans were not self-sufficient in food production during the Imperial Age in Rome. The small households were not capable of producing enough food crops for their upkeep. This is because big estates developed and started producing non-foodstuffs such as olive oil. For instance, the Greeks had a culture that viewed trade as a degrading. For the Romans during the Renaissance, they also practiced farming and were more self-sufficient on the products they produced from their agricultural practices. In addition, they were engaged in trading activities in a bid to supplement what they already had. They had a higher moral ground about trade compared to the Greeks.
Conclusion
Societies require revolutions in order to experience change. Revolutions such as the Italian Renaissance are one of the most remarkable periods in the history of Italy and Europe at large. The society developed new ways of viewing things thereby leading to the discovery of new ways of doing things. Economic patterns and the social lives of people changed quite significantly during this period. Therefore, it is important for a society to have a period of transformation in a bid to reevaluate the way things are done. The Italian Renaissance can be used as a point of reference by any society that seeks to achieve this type of change.
Work Cited
Brian, Levack, Edward, Muir and Meredith, Veldman. Levack, The West, Encounters, and Transformation. 5. Vol. 1. London: Pearson Longman, 2003.