The Renaissance began in France.
Florence . It is considered the birthplace of the Renaissance , and has been called `` the Athens of the Middle Ages '' . France . During the Renaissance , French culture flourished and a global colonial empire was established , which by the 20th century would be the second largest in the world . The Renaissance ( [ rᵻˈneɪsəns ] , [ rɛnəˈsɑːns ] ) was a period in European history , from the 14th to the 17th century , regarded as the cultural bridge between the Middle Ages and modern history . Various theories have been proposed to account for its origins and characteristics , focusing on a variety of factors including the social and civic peculiarities of Florence at the time : its political structure ; the patronage of its dominant family , the Medici ; and the migration of Greek scholars and texts to Italy following the Fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks .