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Classical Period

2019-01-08T13:28:13Z

2600:1006:B10A:F9C:58BB:DF07:3A0F:DE45: /* Notes */

In the Mediterranean world/fertile crescent the [[Bronze Age]] is often said to have ended rather abruptly in a massive calamity called The Late Bronze Age Collapse. Advanced civilizations which had cities, written language, mathmatics and fine products were swept away or faced major setbacks rather suddenly around the 12th century BCE. Exactly why this happened is [[skub|a matter of contention]] and probably not just one thing but regardless the result of which was that society took a fair number of steps back. But things bounced back as a new set of civilizations came about, though considerably different ones from what came before in Greece, the Levant and Italy around 800 BCE or so. Thus began the '''Classical Period'''.

The Classical Period is the time of the Greek City States and the [[Rome|Roman Republic and Empire]] and lasted to about the fifth century CE. What started out as a few minor city states here and there grew into civilizations which would flourish in art, philosophy, engineering, architecture, medicine and more. While many of these states would have Kings at various points in their history, there was also a fair deal of experimentation with various forms of elected government. Even as the classical period would come to an end with the fall of the Western Roman Empire.

The Classical Period is firmly the '''Iron Age'''. Iron had been worked before, Meteoric iron had been worked every now and again for thousands of years and occasionally a few skilled craftsmen in the Bronze Age could make a few bits of it even though it was brittle and expensive and mostly used as a sign of status. Near the Bronze Age Collapse the Hittites had begun smelting and working iron on a larger scale for more practical purposes, but it was only after the collapse that Iron Working really became. Iron has a higher melting point than copper the wood fired furnaces of the Bronze Age just were not up to the task of processing it in meaningful amounts. If you make a large tube furnace, feed it coal, iron ore and oxygen with bellows, you can get it hot enough so you can make lumps of semi-molten goo that can be forged. Regular iron was comparable to bronze in quality for many purposes, but unlike bronze which required two rather metals that you often had to trade for iron ore is as common as muck. Even so, bronze still found a fair bit of use well into the classical period. After all, the big deal about Iron Swords is not that they are better than bronze as much as everyone in your army can now have one.

== Notes ==
* This whole deal is a western thing. In [[China]] and India and so forth things were going along their own paths removed from all this. Though it should be pointed out that roughly around the same time that Rome existed, the Qin and Han dynasties United China for the first time, being their equivalent of a “foundational” regime that would set political and cultural precedents for centuries to come.

== The appeal of the Classical Period ==
Frankly the modern world as a serious Boner for this period. The link we have to the Bronze Age cultures is a bit tenuous at best, but The West sees the Greeks and the Romans as our fore bearers. People like the idea of Greek Philosophers discussing and debating the nature of the world and morality, of Romans forging order from chaos, spreading civilization and building magnificent buildings that stand to this day, Athenian Democracy and Spartan military excellence. Of course that view is overly romantic and overlooks the nastier side of the period, from [[slavery]] to rampant xenophobia and sexism (especially with the Greeks) to the fact that this could be a rather brutal period with a lot of pig headed stupidity at the time. Many people have tried to emulate it's better notions and build on them.

It helps that we actually have a fair bit of information about this time from first hand accounts. Historians have to parse through a smattering of tablets and decorations on walls for the Bronze Age, much of which they can't read. In this period we have a good index of this time period, from Greek poems and plays to biographies and histories. This makes filling in the blanks a hell of a lot easier and gives us insights into a lot of different people which means we have a lot of characters to get insights on how people got along back then.

Finally there is something of a mix the modern and the ancient in the Classical Age that you don't get in the medieval period. In Rome people lived in apartment blocks, had sewers to take away their filth, (if they had said status) had a conception of their role in society as citizens with legal rights and listened to political rhetoric and heard satire that's not too different from what someone in a first world country would hear as opposed to how a medieval peasant or knight would. Mind you this stuff existed in a world where slavery was a normal part of life, having criminals fight to the death was seen as prime penology and people sacrificed sheep so that next years' grape crops would yield a prime vintage was a regular part of religious life.
== Classical Period inspired Games, Factions and Settings ==

== See Also ==
* [[Rome]]
* [[Hoplite]]

{{Skub}}
{{Time Periods}}
[[Category: History]]

Renaissance

2019-01-07T14:12:53Z

2600:1006:B10A:F9C:58BB:DF07:3A0F:DE45: /* Notes */

The '''Renaissance''' is a period of time and history which had it's origins in the 1300s in Italy and would gradually spread across Christendom and beyond. The word roughly means "rebirth" in English, more specifically it refers to the revitalization of Civilization after the Medieval Period. Various Italian City States gradually grew in wealth and prominence through maritime trade as well as connections with Byzantium and the Middle East and banking. The merchant princes of Italy would invest that wealth to make more money, but also into grand architecture, the arts, literature, engineering and academics ranging from studies of the [[classical period]] to natural philosophy. Things which were seen as noble pursuits in their own right but they were also as signs of wealth and prestige and ways of currying favor with other influential figures ("The Cardinal would be glad to back your bid after your magnificent assistance on the new Cathedral"). Eventually ideas from Italy would begin to spread out and took root elsewhere in Europe. Ciiies once again began to grow, all the while

This was fine and dandy in of itself, but in coincided with other big changes. Kings began to consolidate power for themselves with a mind of keeping the squabbling vassals in line. [[Gun]]s were making an increasing impact on the battlefield. In Spain the Spanish managed to drive the Muslims out of Iberia in the Reconquista and emerged as a new powerful European state. Not too long after that thanks to improvements in ship design and navigation methods Vaso de Gama sailed around Africa to India and latter an Italian guy named Columbus set out sailing west across the Atlantic to prove <s>to the ignorant masses that world was round</s> that you could get to India by circumnavigation without starving to death first and ended up finding the Caribbean, thus beginning the colonization of the New World began by the Spanish and Portuges at first, followed by the French, Dutch and English latter. Add to that some religious upheaval which shook the foundations of Christendom in the form of the likes of Hussites and eventually the start of the Protestant Reformation and you got a turbulent period of upheaval to say the least.

== Notes ==
* For the average peasant in the Renaissance the changes were as a rule not so great. As far as they were concerned beautiful paintings, fine statuary and magnificent architecture were all well and good and they'd admire them if they had the opportunity to see them but for all of that the grain still needed to be harvested and the cows still needed to be milked just like in their grandfather's day and as their grandchildren would do after they passed.
* Infantry returned to prominence during this period. New weapons such as arbalast crossbows, matchlock arquebuses and pikes played a role in this, as did cheap munitions plate, but more importantly than that armies became more centralized and systematic than the old feudal systems as the beginnings of standing armies began to take shape.
*Feudalism began to decline as the idea of the Nation-State started to take root. Nationalism would become more prominent in the early modern period to coincide with the Enlightenment, but for now modern countries were starting to take shape, as people began to think of their homelamds as distinct cultural-geographic regions instead of the property of ever-changing noble families. At the same time though, this was when the infamous Habsburg family would come to power and control a good chunk of Europe, owning Spain, the Holy Roman Empire, Austria, and all territories owned by those states.
*While many classical texts had been lost in the West, many had been preserved in the East, with some advances in the sciences provided by Muslim scholars. These texts returned to Europe due to increased trade with the East, which started with the Crusades. If you wanted to be educated, you had to be well versed in Greek, Latin (which at this point nobody spoke anymore) and even Arabic.

== The appeal of the Renaissance ==
The Renaissance is the the closing of the middle ages. A lot of it's mechanism were still in place in various forms, but shifts were in place. There were knights in Shining Armor and they were still formidable battering rams, but they were facing new competition from pike squares and arquebusiers in a rather distinctive combo. Chivalry was gradually on the wain even as plate was forged proofed against shot. All the while there was a lot of shrewd political scheming and intrigues. Why mobilize a thousand levies and and a hundred knights to kill someone when a few drops of poison or a well placed stilleto could accomplish the job cheaper and with far less fuss?

At the same time mechanics and engineers were tinkering contriving a wide variety of new machinery. If one was to ascribe a heroic ideal to the Renaissance it would be the Renaissance Man reflected in the likes of Leonardo Da'Vinci, a brilliant Engineer, Scientist and Artist all rolled into one. On the battlefield the men of power were beginning to take notice of these new novelties and so active patronage of inventors was encouraged. At the same time explorers and conquistadors carve their place in history by finding new lands, settling them and conquering [[Bronze Age]] societies. For those who want to see what Da Vinci could’ve accomplished if he was more of a mad scientist (I.e. if his tanks and other war machines were actually built), [[Clockpunk]] has you covered.

In general if you like your medieval fantasy to have a dash of the modern in it, the Renaissance is where you look for ideas. Besides, the stuff associated with this period is frankly pretty.

== Renaissance inspired Games, Factions and Settings ==
* [[The Empire]]
fill me
{{Skub}}
[[Category: History]]

Renaissance

2019-01-07T13:49:23Z

2600:1006:B10A:F9C:58BB:DF07:3A0F:DE45: /* Notes */

The '''Renaissance''' is a period of time and history which had it's origins in the 1300s in Italy and would gradually spread across Christendom and beyond. The word roughly means "rebirth" in English, more specifically it refers to the revitalization of Civilization after the Medieval Period. Various Italian City States gradually grew in wealth and prominence through maritime trade as well as connections with Byzantium and the Middle East and banking. The merchant princes of Italy would invest that wealth to make more money, but also into grand architecture, the arts, literature, engineering and academics ranging from studies of the [[classical period]] to natural philosophy. Things which were seen as noble pursuits in their own right but they were also as signs of wealth and prestige and ways of currying favor with other influential figures ("The Cardinal would be glad to back your bid after your magnificent assistance on the new Cathedral"). Eventually ideas from Italy would begin to spread out and took root elsewhere in Europe. Ciiies once again began to grow, all the while

This was fine and dandy in of itself, but in coincided with other big changes. Kings began to consolidate power for themselves with a mind of keeping the squabbling vassals in line. [[Gun]]s were making an increasing impact on the battlefield. In Spain the Spanish managed to drive the Muslims out of Iberia in the Reconquista and emerged as a new powerful European state. Not too long after that thanks to improvements in ship design and navigation methods Vaso de Gama sailed around Africa to India and latter an Italian guy named Columbus set out sailing west across the Atlantic to prove <s>to the ignorant masses that world was round</s> that you could get to India by circumnavigation without starving to death first and ended up finding the Caribbean, thus beginning the colonization of the New World began by the Spanish and Portuges at first, followed by the French, Dutch and English latter. Add to that some religious upheaval which shook the foundations of Christendom in the form of the likes of Hussites and eventually the start of the Protestant Reformation and you got a turbulent period of upheaval to say the least.

== Notes ==
* For the average peasant in the Renaissance the changes were as a rule not so great. As far as they were concerned beautiful paintings, fine statuary and magnificent architecture were all well and good and they'd admire them if they had the opportunity to see them but for all of that the grain still needed to be harvested and the cows still needed to be milked just like in their grandfather's day and as their grandchildren would do after they passed.
* Infantry returned to prominence during this period. New weapons such as arbalast crossbows, matchlock arquebuses and pikes played a role in this, as did cheap munitions plate, but more importantly than that armies became more centralized and systematic than the old feudal systems as the beginnings of standing armies began to take shape.
*Feudalism began to decline as the idea of the Nation-State started to take root. Nationalism would become more prominent in the early modern period to coincide with the Enlightenment, but for now modern countries were starting to take shape, as people began to think of their homelamds as distinct cultural-geographic regions instead of the property of ever-changing noble families. At the same time though, this was when the infamous Habsburg family would come to power and control a good chunk of Europe, owning Spain, the Holy Roman Empire, Austria, and all territories owned by those states.

== The appeal of the Renaissance ==
The Renaissance is the the closing of the middle ages. A lot of it's mechanism were still in place in various forms, but shifts were in place. There were knights in Shining Armor and they were still formidable battering rams, but they were facing new competition from pike squares and arquebusiers in a rather distinctive combo. Chivalry was gradually on the wain even as plate was forged proofed against shot. All the while there was a lot of shrewd political scheming and intrigues. Why mobilize a thousand levies and and a hundred knights to kill someone when a few drops of poison or a well placed stilleto could accomplish the job cheaper and with far less fuss?

At the same time mechanics and engineers were tinkering contriving a wide variety of new machinery. If one was to ascribe a heroic ideal to the Renaissance it would be the Renaissance Man reflected in the likes of Leonardo Da'Vinci, a brilliant Engineer, Scientist and Artist all rolled into one. On the battlefield the men of power were beginning to take notice of these new novelties and so active patronage of inventors was encouraged. At the same time explorers and conquistadors carve their place in history by finding new lands, settling them and conquering [[Bronze Age]] societies.

In general if you like your medieval fantasy to have a dash of the modern in it, the Renaissance is where you look for ideas. Besides, the stuff associated with this period is frankly pretty.

== Renaissance inspired Games, Factions and Settings ==
* [[The Empire]]
fill me
{{Skub}}
[[Category: History]]