African Renaissance

[meninwhite]

What if The Africans had conquerd Italy and say Leanardo was born and had a renaissance in North Africa instad of Italy.

[jolo]

Originally Posted by meninwhite

What if The Africans had conquerd Italy and say Leanardo was born and had a renaissance in North Africa instad of Italy.

What do you mean? Arab Africans or Black Africans? A united Africa under black rule, or a (north) Africa conquered by a Muslim country?

How would you imagine a unification or conquest of Africa, before they attack Italy?

[Admiral Matt]

Well obviously Arab Africans. There really isn't a way for the sub-Saharans to do it, seeing as the Sahara, Arab states, and Mediterranean are all in the way. So is it going to be the Almohads (southern half of Spain, Morocco, Algeria, Tunis) or the Egyptians? Either way, it's no small feat. There is a reason, after all, why Carthage was the last African power in Europe. The big question here is how could they do it, not what would happen when they had.

As for an African Renaissance, I'm afraid you're going to be disappointed. Conquered lands paying taxes and tribute do not have Renaissances. All the money that had been floating around Italy will be going off to Africa instead. So no new monuments, no new Italian styles (though some Arab ones will be brought in), and all the artists follow the pope into exile in Spain, or France, or Vienna. What talent remains in Italy is likely to end up in the court of whoever holds the peninsula, but they'll probably take a second place to their Arab equivalents. Leonardo may end up there, which would be pretty cool, but that doesn't necessarily mean he'll be anything like a central figure in this Arab Renaissance.

The kind of money brought in would create a "rebirth," though, just not the one I think you have in mind. Noone would be evoking Roman styles - it would be a renewal of the ways of early Islam instead. Whichever country managed this conquest would undoubtably have become a center of the Islamic world, but noone in Europe would pay attention. Expect European art to look to Dutch styles and continued Gothic architecture.

[Satyrane]

I think an Islamic empire with the material wealth of Italy on Europe's doorstep would be far from ignored. (To be fair any interaction is more likely to take the form of extended and bloody warfare than amicable trade of ideas, but knowledge has a tendency to spread just as well through enmity as amity.)

I've already posted my ideas on an Islamic Italian Renaissance twice on this board, so will modestly refrain from mentioning them again.

He hinted.