We have constructed the Renaissance as important not because it was so central to the 15th century. I mean, at the time Europe wasn't the world's leader in anything other than the tiny business of Atlantic trade. We remember it as important because it matters to us now. It gave us the Ninja Turtles. We care about Aristotle and individualism and the Mona Lisa and the possibility that Michelangelo painted an anatomically correct brain onto the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel because these things give us a narrative that makes sense. Europe was enlightened and then it was unenlightened and then it was re-enlightened and ever since it's been the center of art and commerce and history. See that cycle of life and death and rebirth a lot in historical recollection, but it just isn't accurate.