Page 317 - Western Civilization A Brief History, Volume I To 1715 9th - Jackson J. Spielvogel

The Italian States in the Renaissance
Q FOCUS QUESTION: How did Machiavelli’s works reflect the political realities of Renaissance Italy?
By the fifteenth century, five major powers dominated the Italian peninsula: the duchy of Milan, Venice, Flor- ence, the Papal States, and the kingdom of Naples (see Map 12.1). Northern Italy was divided between Milan and Venice. After the death of the last Visconti ruler of Milan in 1447, Francesco Sforza (frahn-CHESS-koh SFORT-sah), one of the era’s leading condottieri (kahn- duh-TYAY-ree)—a condottiere was a leader of a merce- nary band (see Chapter 11)—turned on his Milanese employers, conquered the city, and became its new duke. Both the Visconti and Sforza rulers worked to create a highly centralized territorial state. They were especially successful in devising systems of taxation that generated enormous revenues for the government. The maritime republic of Venice remained an extremely stable political entity governed by a small oligarchy of
merchant-aristocrats. Its commercial empire brought in enormous revenues and gave it the status of an inter- national power.
The republic of Florence dominated the region of Tuscany. In 1434, Cosimo de’ Medici (1434–1464) took control of the ruling oligarchy. Although the wealthy Medici family maintained republican forms of govern- ment for appearances’ sake, it ran the government from behind the scenes. Through lavish patronage and careful courting of political allies, Cosimo and later his grandson Lorenzo the Magnificent (1469–1492) were successful in dominating the city at a time when Flor- ence was the center of the cultural Renaissance.
The Papal States lay in central Italy. Although these lands were nominally under the political control of the popes, papal residence in Avignon and the Great Schism had enabled individual cities and territories, such as Urbino and Ferrara, to become independent of papal authority. The popes of the fifteenth century directed much of their energy toward reestablishing their control over the Papal States. The kingdom of Naples, which encompassed most of southern Italy and usually the island of Sicily, remained a backward
DUCHY OF SAVOY
DUCHY OF
P Milan
MILAN
Trent REPUBLIC OF VENICE
MAP 12.1 Renaissance Italy. Italy in the late fourteenth century was a land of five major states and numerous independent city-states. Increased prosperity and a supportive intellectual climate helped create the atmosphere for the middle and upper classes to “rediscover” Greco-Roman culture. Modern diplomacy was also a product of Renaissance Italy.
Q Could the presence of several other powers within easy marching distance make it more likely that a ruler would recognize the importance of diplomacy?
Po
R.
Adriatic
n
a
i
r
u
g
i
L
Tiber
S
e
a
Sea
P Printing press Library
School of art
Rome
Genoa
REPUBLIC OF LUCCA
Lucca
Rome Location of important Renaissance building
KINGDOM OF
Pisa
REPUBLIC
DUCHY Mantua OF
MODENA
Venice P DUCHY OF
FERRARA Ferrara P
Florence
OF FLORENCE Siena
Urbino
PAPAL Perugia
0 0
100
200 Kilometers 100 Miles
NAPLES Naples
REPUBLIC OF SIENA
Bologna
STATES
R.
Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
The Italian States in the Renaissance 279