How did the Renaissance take place?

Renaissance took place in a specific ambience of city-states in the northern Italy (Florence, Tuscany; Ferrara, Verona, Pisa, Luca, Milano, Venice, Genoa etc etc.) where the market economy, free-market (thanks to overseas business of some of these city-states) started to develop. These city-states became a destination of some waves of migrations (Jews expulsed from Spain 1492, Greeks leaving Constantinople after being conquered by Turks in 1453) so they soon manifested traits of multiculturalism. These city-towns got quite wealthy so they became centers of arts, architecture, science and philosophy. The psychological effect of that was that of leaving medieval dogmatic, ascetic or austere lifestyle. The result of that was a totally new historical era with its specific values and paradigm.

Explanation: Italian renaissance differs from its later versions that appeared north of Alps (the Netherlands, German lands, France or England).