A loose history of southern Europe

Far too often I hear the greatness of Northern Europe in terms of the scientific and philosophical progress it has made, contextualizing this to the innate greatness of the northern European culture and the people born into it. I've always abhorred exceptionalism of this sort, and been doubtful about this particular claim. I believed that in pre-modern times, near-tropical countries are much more favoured to make great advances in science and culture sheerly because of the geographically guided climate, flora and fauna they find themselves in. With this belief, I found more surprising that it's the northern Europeans (namely, Germans, British, Dutch, etc.) that find themselves to be more successful than their southern counterparts (specifically Italians, Greeks).

I was listening to a podcast with David Deutsch as the guest where he talked about the "intellectual movement shifting from southern to northern mainly because of what happened to Galileo." This led me to very deep rabbit hole about the history of the Mediterranean.

When I was reading, there were a lot of things that came up which needed to be sorted out in a nice order and connected to each other before I can consume them. Here's an attempt at that:

1. 1071, Byzantines lose the Battle of Manzikert.
2. They never really recover from this, Byzantine empire starts declining
3. Political instability
4. 1190, Alexios III Angelos deposes Isaac II Angelos and becomes the Byzantine emperor
5. 1195, prince Alexios IV Angelos, son of Isaac II, is imprisoned by his uncle Alexios III Angelos
6. 1201, prince Alexios is smuggled out of Constantinople by Pisan merchants to the Holy Roman Empire
7. 1202/03, prince Alexios offers the Crusaders money, army, and the Greek Orthodox Church if they help him overthrow his uncle Alexios III
8. Jul/Aug 1203, Crusaders manage to fulfil their task and get prince Alexios on the throne
9. Dec 1203, relationship between Alexios and the Crusaders is soured. They feel cheated.
10. Apr 1204, Fourth Crusaders sack Constantinople!!!
11. Byzantines never really recovers from this, empire starts declining
12. Political instability in the Greek lands. Those who can, start to emigrate (westwards)
13. Lots of Greeks landing on the Italian shores, carry their culture with them
14. 13th/14th Century Italy, Economic prosperity. Powerful city states, calm Mediterranean waters (as opposed to rough Norther European seas) offering good opportunities for maritime trade, strategically placed for trade with Asia through middle east. 
15. Italian metropolises = super rich people, big cities, lots of urban poor, slums, wide rich-poor gap, questionable sanitation in certain areas
16. Mid 14th Century, Black Death ravages through Europe killing off 30-60% of the population in the cities.
17. Post black death, food and land prices plummet. Surviving people have better standards of living
18. Late 14th, early 15th Century: Rich people find themselves to be too rich. Sponsor arts, sciences, philosophy and fine living.
19. "Thinkers" started to think and write about stuff they found interesting
20. "Oh wow! Ancient Greece is so interesting!!" (see above, who landed on the Italian shores with their culture?)
21. Common people (non-thinkers) are psyopped into "retvrn to antiquity"
22. Rich people want their mansions to be built like those in ancient times
23. 1402, Brunelleschi and his friend Donatello go to Rome to study ancient Roman architecture. 
24. "Omg, is this Linear Perspective"!!!
25. Brunelleschi works on the Basilica of San Lorenzo and the Florence Cathedral
26. 1445-1475, withing 30 years, 4 great men are born in Florence: Boticelli, da Vinci, Michelangelo!!!
27. "Oh shit! Are we living in the Renaissance"!!!
28. 1497-1503, Copernicus spends time in Bologna, Rome and Padua to study religion, philosophy and ofc astronomy
29. 1532 Copernicus finalizes his theory on Heliocentrism
30. 1533, although unpublished, the theory is reaches the educated people across Europe
31. 1543 Copernicus dies of apoplexy and paralysis
32. 1543 His book on Heliocentrism is published
33. 1564 Galileo is born in Pisa!!!
34. 1592-1610 Galileo works at Uni Padua teaching geometry, mechanics and astronomy
35. 1610 Galileo publishes the Starry messenger, noting his observations of the starry sky made through his telescope (the first scientific article of this kind). 
36. 1611 Galileo's colleague at Padua, Cesare Cremonini, is being tried by the Roman Inquisition for heresy and Galileo's name comes up as his collaborator
37. 1613, one of Galileo's letters to his student goes viral. It reads ~"The heliocentric model does not challenge Biblical authority because the Bible has no authority over science anyway" 
38. 1613-1616 Controversy bubbles up even more
39. Feb 1616 Galileo is ordered by the Inquisition to reject Heliocentrism and all his books are banned
40. 1616-1632 Galileo stays away from controversy
41. 1632 Galileo writes a "neutral" book about the two celestial models in the form of a dialogue. The speaker defending Geo-centrism is conveniently made out to be kind of stupid
42. 1632 The Pope takes this as a personal attack and the Church starts a formal trial against Galileo
43. 1633 Galileo arrives in Rome and denies ever defending Heliocentrism.
44. Jun 1633, Galileo's apology and evasions don't work and he's charged for crimes against the Church. He was forced to recant his views, his books were banned and he was sentenced to imprisonment (which was later changed to house arrest)
45. 1642, Galileo dies, while still in house arrest
46. late 17th Century, southern Europe (Italy, Spain) becomes more conservative. Creativity and spirit of scientific enquiry flee southern Europe in fear of religious persecution.
47. late 17th, early 18th Century: empiricism and rationality find a new home by latching themselves onto the Protestant revolution in northern Europe.
48. "Oh shit! Is this the start of the Age of Enlightenment"!!!