James Watt was a Scottish inventor who helped perfect the Newcomen Steam Engine in the 1770s. Although he did not actually invent the steam engine, he is generally remembered as having done so. His adaptations to the steam engine created the necessary machinery that led to the Industrial Revolution. 

The Industrial Revolution began in England in the early nineteenth century. Due to England's relative wealth, agricultural prosperity, surplus of workers, colonial holdings, and history of capitalist democracy, the prerequisites for the Industrial Revolution were heavily concentrated there. The Industrial Revolution quickly spread from England around Europe and to North America. 

Leonardo da Vinci is often considered the ultimate "Renaissance man," a term that suggests being supremely skilled in many different areas of life, particularly artistically and intellectually. Perhaps Da Vinci's most famous work is The Last Supper. 

During the Italian Renaissance, the country we now know as Italy was divided up into several independent city-states. All of the answer choices were city-states except for the United Provinces. The United Provinces refers to territory in what is now the Netherlands and Belgium during the time when this territory was under Spanish control.

Cosimo de Medici was the ruler of Florence throughout a large period of the Italian Renaissance. He is renowned as a patron of the arts who encouraged the Renaissance to flourish in his city-state.

The Sistine Chapel and David are two of the most famous works of the famous Renaissance artist and sculptor Michelangelo.

Italy's relatively large urban society and emerging middle class allowed for a large number of individuals to be free to pursue artistic or scientific pursuits. This was in contrast to most of the rest of Europe and the world, where the vast majority of people had no free time for pursuits unrelated to simply surviving. This allowed the Renaissance to flourish first in Italy.

The Decameron was written by Giovanni Boccaccio in the fourteenth century. It is considered one of the most important works of early Humanism and the Italian Renaissance. It is centered around a series of tales about the Black Death. The Black Death was a devastating plague that hit Europe in the fourteenth century and led to widespread death and suffering. By some estimates as many as a third of all Europeans perished as a direct result of the Black Death. It would take almost two hundred years for population levels to recover.

The Medici rose to prominence in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries in Florence. The Medici were a banking family, and in the fifteenth century, the Medici Bank was the largest in Europe. The Medici are significant because they were frequent and enthusiastic patrons of the early Renaissance in Italy. They funded artistic works and spectacular architectural wonders.

The School of Athens is one of the most famous Renaissance paintings, and it is still considered a masterpiece today. It was painted by the Renaissance artist, Raphael, in the early sixteenth century. The fresco can be found in the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican.