Renaissance means "rebirth, reconstruction, renascence, or resurrection." The idea or rebirth originated in the belief that Europeans had rediscovered the superiority of Greek and Roman culture after many centuries of what they considered intellectual and cultural decline. The preceding era, which began with the collapse of the Roman Empire around the 5^th century, became known as the Middle Ages to indicate its position between the classical and modern world.

In response to the announcement by Pope Urban II of a Crusade to the Holy Land in 1095, Christian forces from western Europe converged on Constantinople, where they united with Byzantine forces to attack Seljuk armies in Anatolia and Muslim armies in Syria and Palestine. By 1099 the Crusaders had achieved their goal—the capture of the city of Jerusalem. The Crusades introduced Europeans to other cultures and helped to revive trade that had lagged during the Middle Ages. Although Christian territories acquired during the First Crusade were gradually lost over the next 200 years, the revitalization that these commercial contacts brought had lasting impact on economic and cultural developments during the Renaissance.