Follow Our Journey: Renaissance
Renaissance Italy is important for its contributions to modern Western thought, but it was also a crossroads for trade, commerce and culture, with influences from the Middle East (think scientific advances in astronomy, mathematics) and Asia, or The Orient, as it was then known (think pasta; enamel, a.k.a., china; explosives, a.k.a., fireworks).
Click on the people, pushpins, or masks to learn more about what the world was like in Renaissance Italy.
Follow Our Journey: Enlightenment
Enlightenment Europe was awash in ideas and innovations in science, technology, culture, and governance; advanced by thinkers and writers who spread the new science, satired the monarchy and the church, and upset the social order.
The people, places, ideas and events on this map helped pave the way for the modern world. Click on the people, pushpins, or masks to learn more about what the world was like in Enlightenment Europe.