The Renaissance
Western Civilization's second Age of Expansion, c. 1440 – late 17th century
Also known as: Renaissance period, European Renaissance, Second Age of Expansion
The Renaissance, in Quigley's framework, is the second Age of Expansion of Western Civilization — beginning, in his exact dating, 'about 1440' (EoC 353) and lasting 'until near the end of the seventeenth century' (EoC 354). Quigley treats the popular use of the term as ambiguous and unsatisfactory but uses it as a convenient label for the period whose underlying structural reality is the shift from feudal-manorialism to commercial capitalism as the civilization's working instrument of expansion. 'Even a neophyte in the study of history is aware that this period possessed the qualities we have listed as typical of any Age of Expansion: increased production, rising population…' (EoC 355).
Quigley's exact dating: 1440 – c. 1690
Quigley is unusually precise about the chronology. 'About 1440 new life began to spring up, with new hopes and renewed ambitions. This new growth was based on…' a new instrument of expansion (EoC 353). 'The new Age of Expansion after 1440 lasted until near the end of the seventeenth century. It is very familiar to all students of history and is frequently called the ambiguous term Renaissance' (EoC 354–355). The label, he notes in a parenthetical aside, has 'pleased no one (and has been most displeasing to the specialists on the Renaissance), but no substitute for these long-established divisions has been' adopted (EoC 403). Quigley therefore keeps the term but redefines it in structural terms: the Renaissance is not primarily a cultural movement but a phase in the civilizational cycle — the second of four successive 'Ages of Expansion' he identifies in Western Civilization's history (the first being the medieval expansion of 1100–1270; the third and fourth being the industrial expansions of 1810–1900 and after).
Within the seven-stage cycle
Within Quigley's seven-stage civilizational model the Renaissance is the second Age of Expansion of Western Civilization, preceded by the late-medieval Age of Conflict (1270–1440) and followed by the third 'Age of Conflict' centered on the wars of religion and Louis XIV (c. 1690–1810). The new instrument of expansion driving the period is, in Quigley's terminology, 'commercial capitalism' — the same instrument he identifies in Canaanite civilization (EoC 227). 'The Canaanite instrument of expansion seems to have been commercial capitalism. Thus it is similar to the instrument of expansion that gave our Western civilization its second age of expansion in 1440-1690.' Outmoded earlier institutions — 'feudalism and—in the commercial area—municipal mercantilism in the period 1270–1440' (EoC 11) — are discarded in favor of the new form. The Renaissance is therefore the moment at which Western Civilization, having institutionalized its first expansion, manages to break through to a second; this rare achievement (Quigley argues no other civilization is known to have done it more than twice) is what allows the West to dominate the modern world.
International law, religion, and the modern state
Quigley reads the Renaissance not as a cultural moment but as a period of state-formation. 'The growth of international law in the late medieval and Renaissance periods not only sought to make the distinctions we have indicated' between war and peace 'as a reaction against feudal disorder; it also sought to make a sharp distinction between public and private authority' (T&H 880). Hugo Grotius, who died in 1645, is read as the synthetic intellect of the period; the carefully built distinctions between war and peace would not be fully destroyed again until the Cold War of the twentieth century. The Renaissance is also the period in which the Western cognitive system breaks: 'post-Renaissance thinkers broke the tradition in philosophy because they felt it necessary to break the tradition in religion' (T&H 1288). Descartes, in this passage, is the named hinge figure — a post-Renaissance philosopher abandoning the medieval epistemological synthesis. Quigley's reading is therefore double-edged: the Renaissance is the West's most creative moment and also the moment at which the cognitive substrate of its civilization is decisively damaged.
Periodization problems
Quigley is openly impatient with the conventional 'medieval / Renaissance / modern / contemporary' periodization of European history. 'In European history the same problem of periodization has been causing even greater dissatisfaction. The existing division into medieval, Renaissance, modern, and contemporary history has pleased no one (and has been most displeasing to the specialists on the Renaissance), but no substitute for these long-established divisions has been' found (EoC 403). His own proposal is the seven-stage cycle, which dissolves the Renaissance back into the broader sequence of Expansion, Conflict, Universal Empire, and Decay. The conventional Renaissance — the cultural Renaissance — is then read as a surface phenomenon of the deeper civilizational dynamic, fascinating but not the explanatory unit. This methodological move is characteristic of Quigley's historiography: a relentless impatience with periodizations that lack analytical content and a preference for those that name actual structural mechanisms.
Cited in
- evolution-of-civilizations · p. 11 Quigley
Outmoded institutions like feudalism and—in the commercial area—municipal mercantilism in the period 1270-1440, and state mercantilism in the period 1690-1810 were discarded.
- evolution-of-civilizations · p. 227 Quigley
The Canaanite instrument of expansion seems to have been commercial capitalism. Thus it is similar to the instrument of expansion that gave our Western civilization its second age of expansion in 1440-1690.
- evolution-of-civilizations · p. 353 Quigley
About 1440 new life began to spring up, with new hopes and renewed ambitions.
- evolution-of-civilizations · p. 355 Quigley
The new Age of Expansion after 1440 lasted until near the end of the seventeenth century. It is very familiar to all students of history and is frequently called the ambiguous term 'Renaissance.'
- evolution-of-civilizations · p. 403 Quigley
The existing division into medieval, Renaissance, modern, and contemporary history has pleased no one (and has been most displeasing to the specialists on the Renaissance), but no substitute for these long-established divisions has been...
- tragedy-and-hope · p. 880 Quigley
The growth of international law in the late medieval and Renaissance periods not only sought to make the distinctions we have indicated, as a reaction against 'feudal disorder'; it also sought to make a sharp distinction between public and private authority.
- tragedy-and-hope · p. 1288 Quigley
From Descartes onward, this epistemological problem was ignored or considered... post-Renaissance thinkers broke the tradition in philosophy because they felt it necessary to break the tradition in religion.