What are some of the major wars and incidents?  (political upheaval, rise and fall of nations, social issues)

Interesting...why is it that you presume history is always defined by "wars" and events like that?  How do you know that the Renaissance wasn't shaped by great acts of love?  (NB: ok, so that was kind of a joke... ;D but at the same time, I think the Renaissance was more defined by the social and philosophical framework within which man lived his life, a type of worldview that he didn't possess prior to this period).  Anyway, geographically, what are you looking at?  Anything specific, or just general events which involved France and Germany (and maybe Spain and England)?

How about Reformation, Luther, Schmalkaldic League, religious wars in the Holy Roman Empire and peace of Augsburg in 1555?

In Italy, the sack of Constantinople in 1204 helps to propel Venice forward as a power through the Renaissance, until about the 16th century or so.  The sack of Rome in 1527 was also significant.  I would put the Black Death, 1348, as another significant event which likely affected growth in the Renaissance.  The victory of the Turks over Constantinople in 1453 was also significant.  However, I'm not so sure you're interested in an Italian topic…though you should be!  😉

I'm very interested in Italy with this.  I was thinking of something with the plague and Venice (now I need to find that thread here about that).  Or maybe focus on the obsession with death in the arts.

Well, since this might be somewhat related to what you are interested in...I don't like writing "abstracts" or "proposals" for papers before they're written since the end result is normally quite different than the initial idea.  But here's an abstract/proposal for a paper from about a year or two ago.  Now, I ended up doing a paper on something different than this (Saint images associated with the plague in the Middle Ages) so take this for what it's worth.ABSTRACT The Black Death of 1348 was undoubtedly an Armageddon-like episode in the Europe's long history.  The plague was not a singular event, of course, but continued to strike over time through the 17th century, particularly in Italy.1  Art historians have noted a change in artistic focus around this period which included a ?late-medieval obsession with macabre themes?.2  The paper I propose will explore some of these themes in art that developed as a response to the Black Death and subsequent waves of the plague in Europe from the mid-14th century to about 1500.  In particular, I am interested in examining the rise in politically-motivated art that arose out of the plague's aftermath (e.g. Jewish persecution) and particular religious art themes that centered on mortality (e.g. The Dance of Death, Ars Moriendi, and Memento mori).  Another aspect of religious art will be the rise in devotion to particular Saints in the late Middle Ages, such as the Fourteen Holy Helpers, who were venerated because of the part they were believed to play in overcoming sickness and the salvation of souls at death.3  How were these image received by the public?  What influence, if any, did they have on religious and socio-political concepts and understanding of the day?  And how did this affect late medieval pilgrimage?  Answers to these issues will potentially be investigated and analyzed in order to help develop a broader understanding of the way that late Medieval art responded to the catastrophe of the plague as a means of coping with and addressing the social, political, and spiritual problems that subsequently arose.

I'm not actually sure.  I don't recall hearing anything like that, but perhaps someone else has.  The Jubilee years were established in 1450, and they would happen every 25 years, so 1500 was one of those.  Many hordes of pilgrims from all over Europe would make their way into the city.