El Puerto

a.) Culture and Religion:


The Renaissance started in the 15th Century, but its main period was 16th century. Its main characteristics were:

o “Rebirth”: They were interested in reviving andrecovering the works of ancient Rome and Greece.
o Humanism: mankind was considered to be the centre of the world.
o Spirit of curiosity: It leads to observation of reality, technological andscientific revolution.
o Emphasis on the individual: Search for a new religious spirit that contributed to church reform.

In the Basque country, in this era, the first university of this country,the University of Oñate, was founded in 1540 which would help modernise the country. In 1545 the first book in Euskera, the Linguae Vasconum Primitiae written by Bernard Etxepare, was printed.

As aconsequence of these ideas, they reached the Renaissance Art which was based in these main ideas of the era. Also in this era, a church reformation and a protestant reformation against it started.Enlightenment: The 18th century, is also called the century of Light and Reason, because they wanted to put reason as the main idea in all the items, reason based on scientific methods, not ontheology. This is linked to the Renaissance, because the origins of this movement lay in the scientific revolution and the doubts that were emerging about religion. In the 18th century variousenlightenment thinkers went further and wanted to change society in the following ways:

o Improve the economy by using new techniques, inventions (agricultural revolution in England).
o Improve society byreducing social differences, improving people’s lives thought education.
o Improve education and research by promoting various royal institutions: the “Real Academia de la Lengua”, “The Planetarium”,museums, the writing of dictionaries and encyclopedias (to bring together the knowledge of that time).
o Improve the political system thought the division of political power.

As we...