How accurate would it be to assert that European voyages of exploration and the establishment of European overseas empires would never have had place without the renaissance and the Protestant reformation? Say no to plagiarism. Get a Custom Essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get the original essay It is accurate to say that European-led exploration would not have happened without the Renaissance and the Protestant Reformation . I'll explain why I think so below.Renaissance: Was a cultural movement and revival of European literature and art that spanned from the 14th to 16th centuries. It was the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the modern era. The Renaissance began in Italy and then spread throughout Europe over the next century. The Italians traded with the Arabs in the Middle East, which meant more wealth for the Italians. They mainly invested their money in improving their artistic society, which resulted in more quality paintings and sculptures being produced. It was at this time that Italian scholars became interested in the rest of the world and it was the beginning of European voyages of exploration. Later, scholars across Europe became interested in studying the rest of the world, so the rich sent ships and explorers to discover new lands, knowledge, treasures, etc., and then the explorers reported all their discoveries they can take away so that the scholars would study them. The Protestant Reformation: Christian reform movement led by Martin Luther. By the 16th century, the Roman Catholic Church dominated Western Europe. It was politically powerful and led by a pope in Rome. She had many enemies and when the Reformation offered an opportunity to weaken the power of the Pope, many of them thought that if we weakened the power of the Pope we could improve our own powers in relation to the Church Roman and other rulers. By now, popes were more like kings than spiritual leaders. They commanded armies, fought wars, and made political alliances. The Church was also corrupt and many attempts had been made to reform the Church, but none of them had succeeded in challenging the action of the Church until Martin Luther. Luther was a monk and he started the Reformation by posting his 95 theses on the door of a church in Wittenberg, Germany. It contained a list of 95 things that Luther thought the Church was doing wrong. The Church initially ignored Luther, but after his ideas quickly spread throughout Europe, they asked him to renounce his writings and he refused and was therefore expelled from the Church. The Church created an entire council to deal with the problems created by Luther. His writings attracted too many people and they began to realize that he was right. People began to realize that the problem lay in the actions taken by a handful of corrupt and powerful people. The people just wanted a church that was not controlled by a pope who did not engage in wars.Argument 1: WealthIn the Renaissance, many states in Europe began their exploration of the world with a series of maritime voyages . Explorers had different motivations for embarking on these expeditions, but most of them did so because of Renaissance ideals such as wealth, curiosity, and religious beliefs. European voyages of exploration had a huge impact on the European economic system. European explorers traveled to Asia to import spices which, at the time, were.