How Renaissance Shaped the World

Renaissance-era- The beginning of the world of scientific inventions and philosophical developments that we relish even today.

Even if you are not an ardent enthusiast of history, you might acknowledge the peaceful times we live in now. This transition that lasted from 1300 to late 1600 brought a rush of art, science and philosophical mindset. The evolution from the Dark ages to our contemporary world owes credit to the Renaissance. Here are 10 fundamental conceptions and designs from that era that shaped our world as we know now.

• Banking system-

Imagine earning coins as credit for your hard work and preserving them at home with the constant anxiety of getting robbed! Nightmare isn't it? Life before the renaissance hit was more about living in perpetual despair. The idea of bank evolved from a very wealthy and influential family in Florence, House of Medici. They gave out loans and started financing people. They opened their first bank and then spread out its branches, and we bet it must have been the same mechanism as we have today.

• Scientific discoveries-

Renaissance was not just about geographic discoveries. The seeds of scientific inventions were sown then, and some of the devices which we still utilize today belong to that era.

Imagine what we would do without a thermometer. Galileo created the first fundamental thermometer in 1593, and from then it kept evolving to the one we have at our home.

Thanks to Blaise Pascal we don't have to be mental math experts. He delivered the first digital calculator to make the lives of accountants easy. Renaissance was also the workshop to the first mechanical clock. Later across centuries, everyone got accustomed to the standardization of time.

As common as myopia and hypermetropia are, we all need glasses. We wonder what people did before the invention of the lenses. The concept of lenses, magnifying glasses and microscope was not out till the 1590s! As a result of microscopic studies, bacteria were studied at a molecular level then. That led to magnifying vision as well, and telescopes were invented, which helped understand the celestial bodies better.

• Printing press-

One of the most important discoveries, the printing press, which is the backbone of modern-day journalism, started in the Renaissance. Guttenberg introduced printing copies of books in 1440 and brought it upon masses for a quicker spread of knowledge that also paved the way to individual thinking and philosophy building.

• Birth of Classic Art-

You don't have to be a student of fine arts to relish the pieces of art delivered during the Renaissance. All the techniques used even today in a traditional art like realism, depth, perspective, abstract, lighting were analyzed by artists then. Advanced mathematics and science too found a reflection in art works of the era.