The answer is: The Great Depression
Hope this helps!
It provided incentives/enticements for growth, as well as gage money to land and resources.
They where big trading cities that many people wanted to control and because of it geographic location it was used as a cultural hearth
<span>The merchant class emerged during the Renaissance. This is when rich merchant families emerged as sponsors, or patrons, of individuals who were potentially talented in philosophy, science, art or literature. This became a very prominent practice during the 15th century in the country of Italy</span>
