The renaissance introduced humanism and started to shift people's mindsets from striving to achieve an ideal life after death to enjoying and making the best of their current life.
Depends on the time period, but a theme was that money changers stimulated trade and help in the development of growing economies as the trade between different regions occur or happen during that time period.
Answer:
While alive, Mohammed created a political empire. After his death, the community was left without a leader. Since Mohammed hadn't named the next leader before his death, panic spread across the empire. Some clans abandoned Islam altogether, other refused to pay taxes, and some even declared themselves prophets. The next four people to lead the empire all knew Mohammed and became known as the "rightly guided" caliphs. Each one of the caliphs played a part in expanding the Muslim empire to 4X its size. The Muslims succeeded because they were energized by their faith, and let Christians and Jewish people keep theirs. Over time many cultures in the Muslim empire converted to Islam because of Islam's message of equality.
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Desiderius Erasmus lived during a time period of significant change in 1500's Europe. This rebirth, or awakening, was being felt around the known world. During this time period in Europe, a religious renaissance was occurring. The Catholic Church, which was once the one and only church with the Pope as its all powerful leader, was beginning to be challenged by "free thinkers" who opposed some of the traditions and ideals put forth by Catholicism. This time period was also a rebirth/renaissance in the areas of technology, science, arts, and philosophy. The introduction of gunpowder, for an example, forever changed human warfare and made battles more deadly than ever.
