The time period before the Renaissance is most commonly known as the Middle Ages. Society was predominantly rural and feudal. Each town, or kingdom, had a king who prevailed over all of the other people. There really weren't any cities. Many people never traveled off of the manor where he or she was raised. The breakup of the feudal systems, the beginning of city-states in Italy becoming more powerful, especially the rise of Florence and the Midici family, as well as the appearance of monarchies in parts of Europe, and cultural developments cumulated to the birth of a new age that became known as the Renaissance.
Civilization after the turning point of the Renaissance was very different than the Middle