In the 15th century, Florence, period known as the <em>Early Renaissance</em>, was not a city in the united country of Italy as we know it nowadays. Italy was fractioned into many city-states, each with their own kind of government; Florence was a republic in which there existed a Constitution, which mainly restricted the power of the aristocrats and made certain that no person, nor group of people could have total political control of the republic. Political power belonged in the hands of the middle-class merchants, a few wealthy families, such as the Medici family, and the influential societies. The Florentine people were very proud of their form of government, due to the fact that a republic government respects the individualisms.
Renaissance began in Florence because opulence accumulated during this period, between a growing middle and upper class of bankers and merchants. By the 15th century, Florence had fulfilled a high level of prosperity because of its important position on the main Mediterranean trade routes, and its wool industry. In the same period, Florence accomplish one of its major military tests, the effort of the Duke of Milan to bring Florence under his rule and with that to dominate Italy. The victory produced a huge upward in the Florentines civic confidence and cultural activity. It was in this cheerful climate that an extraordinary group of artists and intellectuals formed under the patronage of the Medici family; this artists began to create new ways of vision and thought, initiating with the first period of Renaissance in Italy.
