Between the tenth and eleventh centuries, we observed that Europe experienced a demographic boom resulting from the increase in agricultural production techniques that then existed. Population growth determined the search for new lands, since the available mode of production was not able to satisfactorily meet the pace of development at the time. Over time, several regions of forest and swamp were used to expand the supply of arable land.
Over the decades we see that such changes only delayed the inability of the feudal mode of production to supply the growing populations of the countryside and cities. Reaching the 13th century, we note that the expansion of land through transformation and deforestation actions imposed a series of climate transformations that altered crop yields and, in a short time, created a serious supply crisis by Europe.
The lack of food ended up being allied with the rapid expansion of urban centers, which agglomerated people without conditions of sanitation and hygiene then unknown at that time. In the middle of the 14th century, between 1340 and 1350, this unfavorable situation ended up worsening at the time in which the Black Death consolidated itself as one of the most serious epidemics to hit the population of Europe. Before long, approximately a third of Europeans were decimated with the terrible symptoms of the disease.
At first, the Plague caused a violent retraction in available labor. This scenario ended up being largely responsible for the resurgence of feudal obligations. In this context of disease and greater rigidity, peasant revolts broke out in different parts of the Old World. Apparently, the old work relationships were not effective to meet the food, economic and political demand of that population.
Undoubtedly, we realized that the feudal system could not meet the demands of a population that was clearly growing. On the one hand, technical limitations and obligations prevented agricultural production from being able to meet the demands of the time. On the other hand, the growth of cities and commercial activity would not coexist with an economic model marked in its genesis by subsistence. This is how we notice the concreteness of the transformations between the Middle Ages and the Modern Age.
By Rainer Sousa
Master in History
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Would you like to reference this text in a school or academic work? Look:
SOUSA, Rainer Gonçalves. "The Crisis of the Feudal System"; Brazil School. Available in: https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/historiag/a-crise-geral-sistema-feudal.htm. Accessed on June 27, 2021.
