Feudalism

The Feudal System

The Feudal System arose from the fall of the Roman system which collapsed after the Romans lost their dharma or martial spirit.

This happened after they converted to Christianity after defeating Jerusalem and absorbing its culture in the process.

This allowed the barbarians to more easily destroy the Roman systems.

Feudalism is an easier way to control huge land areas.

• Each land is divided into fiefs under a lord.
• The lord is then under a king, who is really the strongest lord.

Thus, it can be viewed as a delegated way of governance.

The Fall of Feudalism and the Rise of Cities

The feudal system in turn broke down in Europe as a consequence of Mercantilism.

This is because the feudal lands were rural, but Mercantilism favored urban areas where goods from afar was brought in.

The credit for bringing Mercantilism goes to the Mongols who connected Europe to Asia.

This was different from the Roman and feudal systems where their revenue was taxation from the direct produce of the local land.

• Instead of trading with distant countries, the Romans traded with its own provices.

The trade from distant countries needed moneychangers and logistics facilities which could only be in the cities.

How Did Feudalism Evolve to Become Democratic Governments?

In time, the feudal lords get tired of fighting each other. The strongest lords became kings whom the lesser lords submitted to. The lords allowed the king to have a centralized government to dictate policies for the sake of getting relief from the stress of fighting.

Eventually, the king himself got tired of doing policymaking and micro-managing the feudal lords. He allowed the lords to form a parliament to debate the policies among themselves. They later evolved to become representatives who then checked the power of the King.

The common system in pre-modern times was the allodial system, where people settled anywhere and set their own territorial rules. For protection and justice, they would look to a village elder who was their chieftain. From there, they could choose to become:

• a democracy where people voted on everything, as in ancient Athens
• a republic which had senate to vote on everything, as in ancient Rome
• an empire or monarchy, which had an emperor or king to decide everything, as in China
• feudalism, where mini-kings decided everything, as in Dark Ages Europe where no king is strong enough to be emperor
• mercantile colony, where a single business corporation decided everything, as in India under the East India Company
• theocracy, where everything is under clerics, as in Islamic caliphates –>