Why is the Renaissance the end of the middle ages and the beginning of the modern age?

Question

Can someone expand on this. Is it the end of papal supremacy and the beginning of humanism?

Answer 1

gutenburg press... unchecked widespread dissemination of previously caste knowledge... among several other factors...

Answer 2

Remember that these divisions are fairly arbitrary-- history isn't divided into neat little chunks and arguments might be made about the validity of periodisation at all. At Oxford the "modern era" begins after the fall of Rome, for St. Andrews it's aprox. a thousand years later and for K-12 in the states they usually teach the industrial revolution as the start of all things modern (a mere century and a half ago). You should think about gradual interrelated changes like changing philosophies, the dissemination of information, the growth of technology, the changing social mores in segments of society (women or farmers for example) but don't oversimplify the picture by thinking that any one of these things is the penultimate marker of the end of one era or the start of another.  

Answer 3

The Renaissance means re-birth. For hundreds of years man had been living in a dark age. Most people couldn't even read or write. There was little practice of medicine and folks were too afraid or too superstitous to ever leave their small town. The Renaissance changed that because it brought back a need and love for knowledge. Suddenly man wasn't satisfied with a person telling them something was so. Instead they wanted to search out the answer themselves. The Crusades are what really brought this about. The western civilization saw the advancements of the easterners and wanted this for themselves.