The+Italian+City+States+1494

The role of urbanization in transforming cultural values and social relationships

The Italian City States 1494 By 1494 the Italian City States had acquired enough wealth and power to dominate the Italian peninsula. The City states of Milan, Venice, Florence, in competition with the Kingdom of Naples and the Papal States were the five powers that dominated all of Italy. The development of the City States contributed to various cultural and social developments. Culturally everything was centered around wealth, art, power and sophistication; a viewpoint that was strongly endorsed by the City States which represented these values in various forms. Because Italians were very proud and attached of individual City-States and City States competed politically a social and political union was not possible, inviting foreign invaders. Because life itself centered around cities and their urban settings, nobles soon moved to live in Urban palaces, bringing about tremendous social change and influences. As nobles living in cities began marrying members of the merchant aristocracies a new social class emerged known as the “urban nobility”. The Italian City States fit in the theme of the role of urbanization in transforming cultural values and social relationships because they endorsed and partly started urbanization, changed cultural values, worsened social relationships towards unity and introduced a new social class. Which is why a picture showing the art and wealth the culture in Italian City states was centered around is linked to this theme.

MLA: McKay, John P. __History of Western society__. 7th ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2003.