Feudalism arose at the turn of antiquity and the Middle Ages. Society could come to such a system of relations in two ways. In the first case, the feudal state appeared in place of the decomposed slave state. This is how medieval Europe developed. The second path was the path of transition to feudalism from the primitive community, when the tribal nobility, leaders or elders became large owners of the most important resources - livestock and land. In this way, the aristocracy and the peasantry enslaved by it were born.
Establishment of feudalism
At the turn of antiquity and the Middle Ages, leaders and tribal commanders became kings, councils of elders were transformed into councils of close associates, militias were reformatted into permanent armies and squads. Although each nation developed the feudal state in its own way, on the whole this historical process proceeded in the same way. Spiritual and secular nobility lost its antique features, large land ownership was formed.
At the same time, the rural community was decomposing, and the free peasants were losing their will. They became dependent on the feudal lordsthe state itself. Their key difference from slaves was that dependent peasants could have their own small farm and some personal tools.
Exploitation of peasants
The feudal fragmentation of the state, so harmful to the integrity of the country, was based on the principle of feudal property. Relations between serfs and landowners were built on it - the dependence of the former on the latter.
The exploitation of one social class by another was carried out with the help of the collection of obligatory feudal rent (there were three types of rent). The first type was corvee. Under her, the peasant was obliged to work out the established number of working days per week. The second type is natural quitrent. Under him, the peasant was required to give part of his harvest to the feudal lord (and part of the production from the artisan). The third type was cash dues (or cash rent). Under her, artisans and peasants paid the lords in hard currency.
The feudal state was built not only on economic, but also on non-economic exploitation of the oppressed segments of the population. Often such coercion resulted in open violence. Some of its forms were prescribed and fixed as legal methods of circumvention in the legislation. It was thanks to the support of the state that the power of the feudal lords lasted for several centuries, when the situation of the rest of society often remained simply catastrophic. The central government systematically oppressed and suppressed the masses, protecting private property and socio-politic althe superiority of the aristocracy.
Medieval political hierarchy
Why were the feudal states of Europe so resistant to the challenges of the time? One of the reasons is the strict hierarchy of political and social relations. If the peasants were subordinate to the landowners, then those, in turn, were subordinate to even more powerful landowners. The monarch was the crown of this characteristic design for its time.
The vassal dependence of some feudal lords on others allowed even a weakly centralized state to maintain its borders. In addition, even if large landowners (dukes, counts, princes) were in conflict with each other, they could be united by a common threat. External invasions and wars usually acted as such (invasions of nomads in Russia, foreign intervention in Western Europe). Thus, the feudal fragmentation of the state, paradoxically, both split the countries and helped them survive various cataclysms.
As well as within society, and on the external international arena, the nominal central government was the conductor of the interests of not the nation, but precisely the ruling class. In any wars with neighbors, the kings could not do without the militia, which came to them in the form of detachments of junior feudal lords. Often, monarchs went into external conflict only to satisfy the demands of their elite. In the war against a neighboring country, the feudal lords plundered and profited, leaving huge fortunes in their pockets. Often, through armed conflict, dukes and earls seized control oftrade in the region.
Taxes and the Church
The gradual development of the feudal state has always entailed the expansion of the state apparatus. This mechanism was supported by fines from the population, large taxes, duties and taxes. All this money was taken from city dwellers and artisans. Therefore, even if a citizen was not dependent on the feudal lord, he had to give up his own well-being in favor of those in power.
Another pillar on which the feudal state stood was the church. The power of religious figures in the Middle Ages was considered equal or even greater than the power of the monarch (king or emperor). In the arsenal of the church were ideological, political and economic means of influencing the population. This organization not only defended the actual religious worldview, but remained on guard of the state during the period of feudal fragmentation.
The Church was a unique link between different parts of a divided medieval society. Regardless of whether a person was a peasant, a military man or a feudal lord, he was considered a Christian, which means he obeyed the pope (or patriarch). That is why the church had opportunities that no secular power could.
Religious hierarchs excommunicated the objectionable and could ban worship on the territory of the feudal lords with whom they had a conflict. Such measures were effective instruments of pressure on medieval European politics. Feudal fragmentationThe ancient Russian state in this sense differed little from the orders in the West. The figures of the Orthodox Church often became intermediaries between conflicting and warring appanage princes.
The development of feudalism
The most common political system in medieval society was the monarchy. Less common were republics that were characteristic of certain regions: Germany, Northern Russia and Northern Italy.
The early feudal state (5th-9th centuries), as a rule, was a monarchy in which the ruling class of feudal lords was just beginning to form. He rallied around roy alty. It was during this period that the first large medieval European states were formed, including the Frankish monarchy.
Kings in those centuries were weak and nominal figures. Their vassals (princes and dukes) were recognized as "junior", but actually enjoyed independence. The formation of the feudal state took place along with the formation of the classical feudal strata: junior knights, middle barons and large counts.
In the X-XIII centuries Europe was characterized by vassal-seigneurial monarchies. During this period, the feudal state and law led to the flourishing of medieval production in subsistence farming. Political fragmentation finally took shape. There was a key rule of feudal relations: "the vassal of my vassal is not my vassal." Each large landowner had obligations only to his immediate lord. If athe feudal lord violated the rules of vassalage, at best he was waiting for a fine, and at worst - a war.
Centralization
In the XIV century began a pan-European process of centralization of power. The ancient Russian feudal state during this period turned out to be dependent on the Golden Horde, but even despite this, a struggle was in full swing inside it for the unification of the country around one principality. Moscow and Tver became the main opponents in the fateful confrontation.
Then in the Western countries (France, Germany, Spain) the first representative bodies appeared: the States General, the Reichstag, the Cortes. The central state power was gradually strengthened, and the monarchs concentrated in their hands all the new levers of social control. Kings and grand dukes relied on the urban population, as well as on the middle and petty nobility.
The end of feudalism
Large landowners did their best to resist the strengthening of the monarchs. The feudal state of Russia survived several bloody internecine wars before the Moscow princes managed to establish control over most of the country. Similar processes took place in Europe and even in other parts of the world (for example, in Japan, which also had its own large landowners).
Feudal fragmentation became a thing of the past in the 16th-17th centuries, when absolute monarchies were formed in Europe with the full concentration of power in the hands of kings. Rulers performed judicial, fiscal and legislative functions. In their hands were large professional armies and a significantthe bureaucratic machine with which they controlled the situation in their countries. Estate-representative bodies have lost their former significance. Some remnants of feudal relations in the form of serfdom remained in the countryside until the 19th century.
Republics
In addition to monarchies, aristocratic republics existed in the Middle Ages. They were another peculiar form of the feudal state. In Russia, trade republics were formed in Novgorod and Pskov, in Italy - in Florence, Venice and some other cities.
The supreme power in them belonged to the collective city councils, which included representatives of the local nobility. The most important control levers belonged to merchants, clergy, we althy artisans and landowners. The Soviets controlled all city affairs: trade, military, diplomatic, etc.
Princes and Veche
As a rule, the republics had a rather modest territory. In Germany, they were mostly and completely limited to lands closely adjacent to the city. At the same time, each feudal republic had its own sovereignty, monetary system, court, tribunal, and army. At the head of the army (as in Pskov or Novgorod) an invited prince could stand.
In the Russian republics, there was also a veche - a city-wide council of free citizens, at which internal economic (and sometimes foreign policy) issues were resolved. These were the medieval germs of democracy, although they did not abolish the supreme power of the aristocratic elite. Nevertheless, the existence of many interests of different segments of the population often led to the emergence of internal conflicts and civil strife.
Regional features of feudalism
Each major European country had its own feudal features. The generally recognized homeland of the system of vassal relations is France, which, moreover, in the 9th century was the center of the Frankish Empire. In England, classical medieval feudalism was “brought” by the Norman conquerors in the 11th century. Later than others, this political and economic system developed in Germany. For the Germans, the development of feudalism collided with the opposite process of monarchical integration, which gave rise to many conflicts (the opposite example was France, where feudalism developed before the centralized monarchy).
Why did it happen? Germany was ruled by the Hohenstaufen dynasty, which tried to build an empire with a rigid hierarchy, where each lower rung would be subordinate to the upper one. However, the kings did not have their own stronghold - a solid base that would give them financial independence. King Frederick I tried to make Northern Italy such a monarchical domain, but there he came into conflict with the Pope. Wars between the central government and the feudal lords in Germany continued for two centuries. Finally, in the 13th century, the imperial title became elective rather than hereditary, losing the chance of supremacy over large landowners. Germany for a long time turned into a complex archipelago of independent principalities.
Unlike the northern neighbor, in Italy the formation of feudalism has been going at an accelerated pace since the early Middle Ages. In this country, as a heritage of antiquity, an independent city municipal government was preserved, which eventually became the basis of political fragmentation. If France, Germany and Spain after the collapse of the Roman Empire were massively populated by foreign barbarians, then in Italy the old traditions have not gone away. The major cities soon became centers of lucrative Mediterranean trade.
The Church in Italy turned out to be the successor to the former senatorial aristocracy. Bishops up to the 11th century were often the key administrators of cities in the Apennine peninsula. The exclusive influence of the church was shaken by we althy merchants. They created independent communes, hired external administrators and conquered the rural district. So around the most successful cities developed their own possessions, where the municipalities collected taxes and grain. As a result of the processes described above, numerous aristocratic republics arose in Italy, splitting the country into many small pieces.
