In the beginning of the 13th century, there were hundreds of city-states on the Italian peninsula. Gradually absorbed by the more powerful ones, by the 14th century more than twenty cities had populations over 20,000 people (Merriman, 2010: 45). Since urban areas were far more prone to the spread of ideas, the Renaissance kicked off in cities such as Florence, Venice, Siena, and Milan. What
made it possible was the economic prosperity and social dynamism of city-states, polities that had grown rich and independent from trade in the Mediterranean and Black Sea since the 11th century (Merriman, 2010: 46). These trade routes increased international trade in the region and helped citystates create small-scale manufacturing. As a result, Italian merchants grew very wealthy. This also helped develop a sophisticated banking system in the city-states in the 14th and 15th centuries, thus further financing internal trade and international commerce (Merriman, 2010: 46). The most prominent among them, such as Florence, soon became central to financing monarchies and even
the papacy (Merriman, 2010: 46). These developments led to increasing urbanization, eroded the power of the nobility, and increased the influence of townsmen. Before long urban merchants enriched by commerce had become important to local political life and soon joined the ruling elite (Merriman, 2010: 49). These dynamic urban societies and new urban elites were more open to new ideas because of traders and immigrants. People from different regions came together in the Italian city-states to exchange culture, ideas, beliefs, and intellectual accumulation. Another critical link in this development was the conquest of Istanbul in 1453, which encouraged many Eastern scholars to flee to the Italian peninsula, bringing with them vast collections of ancient books and manuscripts. This in turn led to the rediscovery of ancient Greek and Roman political and philosophical approaches (Merriman, 2010: 56).