Feudalism is the name given to the form of economic and social organization experienced in Central-Western Europe during the historical period known as Middle Ages, between the 5th and 15th centuries. The name is derived from the manors (or villas), the housing and production units that were characteristic of the period. These large agrarian properties demonstrated that there was a process of ruralization of the society that inhabited the European continent and the British Isles, as well as a transition from the organization of work based on slavery to the bondage.
The manor was generally formed by the feudal lord, by slaves (who were minority at the time) and by peasants, free or in bondage. There were still artisans in the manors, representing a small number of people, performing agricultural work for their livelihood. One of the characteristics of feudalism was the tendency towards self-sufficiency of large agrarian properties, a situation that led to a decrease in trade in the region, compared to the commercial exchanges that existed in the Roman Empire.
Feudalism would be the result of the fusion of elements of social organization derived both from the final centuries of the Western Roman Empire and from the barbarian populations.
For example, there was the clientele, the relationship of social dependence between individuals in Rome, the basis of the relationship between master and servant; it's the settlement, which in Rome meant the fixation of man on earth, making it difficult for the servile population to move during its passage to feudalism.
Another Roman element that served for the constitution of feudalism was the precarium, the surrender of land to a lord in exchange for protection. Settlement and precarium they formed the foundations of the institution of serfdom during feudalism.
One element of the barbaric social organization that remained during feudalism was the comitatus, which consisted of the relationship of loyalty between warriors and tribal chiefs, serving as a basis for establishing suzerainty and vassal relations among members of the nobility. There was also the influence of customary laws, based on custom and which served to shape people's rights during the period.
THE nobility it was the highest class in feudalism, as it controlled the large agricultural properties. It was from the nobility that the feudal lords and the main members of the clergy came from. Among the nobles, there was social differentiation between overlords and vassals, the former being the ones who held more power in relation to the latter. Power was exercised during feudalism through the control of a greater number of lands and serfs. Thus, a suzerain gave a vassal a certain amount of land and serfs in exchange for his loyalty, especially during wars, which were constant.
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You servants it was the peasants who constituted the bulk of the population in feudalism. They lived on land and were forced to render heavy services and pay a large amount of tribute to feudal lords, this form of labor exploitation being the basis of feudal wealth.
There were also, in smaller numbers, slaves and also the villains, former free owners who were linked to a master, but who were also obliged to provide services and pay tribute.
Although there is a different social statute from the clergy, they did not differ much from feudal lords, except for the religious control of Christian Catholicism that this layer of nobility held. The churches and abbeys owned a large number of lands and serfs, carrying out a form of exploitation of peasant labor that was in no way different from other feudal lords. Christianity, as the main ideological system of the period, was also one of the main features of feudalism. It was Church-controlled Catholic Christianity that shaped medieval man's behavior, culture, and ideals. Therefore, the Church became the main institution of feudalism.
Feudalism was treated by the men of the Cultural Renaissance as a period of obscurantism in European history, for having been the Greco-Roman culture supplanted by the Christian religious culture. That's why feudalism was also known as the Middle Ages, an intermediate period between antiquity. Classical and the Modern Age, the latter being the age of renaissance men, who sought to rescue culture Greco-Roman.
Although the men of the Modern Age characterize feudalism as a period of darkness, there were technological advances, such as the adoption of the stirrup that gave new dynamism to the horseback riding, agriculture in the three fields (crop rotation), the use of the iron plow (plough) and its adaptation to the use of horses in substitution for oxen. The mills were improved, as well as the handicraft, both in the textile and in the military area, mainly as a result of the numerous wars over power.
* Image Credit: University of Massachusetts Lowell
By Me. Tales Pinto
Would you like to reference this text in a school or academic work? Look:
PINTO, Tales of the Saints. "What is feudalism?"; Brazil School. Available in: https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/o-que-e/historia/o-que-e-feudalismo.htm. Accessed on June 27, 2021.
