Merriman Teacher Notes 18 Summer 2023 PDF

### Political upheaval within city-states: - Opposition to Medici in Florence - Rival families in Perugia - 1441: 130 members of a faction were executed - No sense of incongruity with the Church - Wealthy families plotted and carried out brutal torture/murder. They then went to the al...

### Political upheaval within city-states: - Opposition to Medici in Florence - Rival families in Perugia - 1441: 130 members of a faction were executed - No sense of incongruity with the Church - Wealthy families plotted and carried out brutal torture/murder. They then went to the altar on the main square. - Oligarchs ordered priests to say mass for 3 days in atonement. - Conflict between growing power of HRE and France led to fighting in the Italian city-states. ### 1494 War between France/Naples/Milan, Venice/Pope Alexander VI: - Charles VIII (King of France) invaded the Italian Peninsula with 30,000 men. - Ruler of Plaisance handed over Pisa to spare Florence. - Florentines republicans drove Medici from power. - The Great Council (Legislative Assembly) had more patronage of arts to show how republican independence & ideals. - da Vinci and Michelangelo ### Charles VIII moved on to Naples: - French success rallied Spanish king + Holy Roman Emperor to join the war. - French army pushed out of Italian city-states - Girolamo Savonarola (Dominican Friar) heavily influenced republican govr to Florence. - Medici overthrown. ### Savonarola: - Emphasized piety and morality - "Bonfires of the vanities" burned luxurious clothes, objects condemned as occasions of sin (Feb 1497) to eliminate pride, drunkenness, and gambling. - Savonarola denounced abuses of the church, excommunicated by Pope Alexander VI. - Angered wealthy families by appealing to all Florentines. ### 1498: - Savonarola captured by enemies, hanged, then burned. ### 1499: - Louis XII (French King) invaded Milan (supported by Pope Alex VI). ### 1503: - Julius II (new Pope, enemy of Alex VI) drove Borgia family out of Rome. ### 1510: - Julius II (last Pope to lead troops in battle) fought French forces to regain same territory. ### 1510: - Spain defeated France and gained Naples ### 1512: - French victory over the Italian (Holy League) in Ravenna. ### Milan: - Milan remained a fief of Louis XII for a year, but French recaptured Milan in 1516 (held until 1521) ### 1525: - Spanish took over control of Milan. ### Economic Decline: - Economic decline in Italian city-states - Last most trade routes w/Asia - Ottomans took over trade posts on Black Sea and Asian Sea - Only Venice continued to prosper - Made deal for trade with Ottoman Empire (but most profits) - Gave Venice a monopoly on trade w/ East - Diversified economy with small scale manufacturing - Florentines silk and woolen faced competition from Dutch and British. - Economic power shifted to Atlantic countries! - Portugal - Spain - England - Dutch ### Machiavelli: - Niccolò Machiavelli: - Gov't official in Florence - Humanist, looked to Classical Greece/Rome as well as human agency - Saw war as natural outlet for human aggression (he preferred diplomacy). - Absence of "civic virtue" led to factions and infighting. - 1512: Medici overthrow Florentine republic, but Machiavelli came back to power. - Machiavelli into exile. - Constant warfare and invasions disrupted commerce.