Feudalism-world history

1. Feudalism: Its Beginning and
End
By: ZFAAyob &JIFGonzales

2. Introduction
 After the collapse of Rome in 500 AD, Western
Europe went into deep decline. In fact,
northern Europe had a prevailing barbaric
society, generally untouched by civilization.
 It is where primitive customs easily returned to
the disintegrating Roman empire.

3. Feudalism
 Generally speaking, feudalism was the
economic and social system in Western
Europe from about 500 AD until about
1400.

4. The Barbarians…
 One of the primary reasons for the collapse of
the Roman civilization was the revolts and
disruptions caused by the Germanic tribes in
Western Europe.
 With the destruction of Rome, the barbarians
did not disappear, but often went on an orgy
of killing, raping, and stealing in neighboring
tribes.

5. Civilization is Defeated…
 The fall of the Roman empire left Europe very
weak.
 It had been Rome that provided safe and fats
transportation, trade, education, opportunities,
and a common set of laws along with a working
judicial system, all enforced by the legions of
Rome.
All of these disappeared in the feudal era…..

6.  Because of the rising of the feudal era, historians
have called the following centuries the fall of
Rome by a number of names: the “dark ages”,
the “early medieval period”, “middle ages”, or
the “feudal era”.
 We use the last term, because it does not only
describe the time, but also the customs and
economy.

7. Disintegration of Learning and Towns….
 Schools collapsed
 Laws disappeared
 Currency and trade collapsed
 The large towns in Western Europe that the
Romans had built became ghost towns….

8. Trial by Ordeal Replaces Roman Law
 The Roman Law
 To give justice to the victim, and punish the guilty
 Fair and understandable law applying to everyone
in the empire.
 The Trial by Ordeal
 There would not be a judge trained in law instead,
God was the judge.
 An important person would lead the proceedings
and they would hear the case against the
defendant. Then the accused go through the ordeal
of suffering.
 There would be different ordeals like……

9.  One would be to place the hands of the
accused in boiling water for four seconds,
and if there were no burns, he or she was
innocent.
 Or, the defendant would be bound hand and
foot and thrown into the river. If he sunk, he
was guilty and was allowed to drown. If he
floated after a couple of minutes, he was
innocent.
 In this, God was thought to be giving His
divine sign of judgment.

10. Three classes of people under the roman empire:
 Noble class
 Was generally composed of kings, lords, vassals and
knights.
 This was the ruling class, based on heredity.
 Commoners
 The second class.
 Made up of serfs and townspeople
 Clergy
 The third class
 These were the church men and women.
 The group that prayed.

11. Below the Pope, the Church was divided into two different types:
1. Secular Clergy
2. Regular Clergy

12.  The secular clergy lived
between the people in the
villages and the fiefs.
 Their leaders were the
bishops who had special
churches called cathedrals.
They controlled a large area
called diocese that was
divided into parishes.
 A priest worked in each
parish. Priests were
important among peasants as
they baptized them, married
them, attended them when
they were sick and usually
they were the only persons
who could read or write.
 Peasants paid a tax to the
Church. It was called the
tithe as it represented a
tenth of their crops or
income.

13.  The regular clergy were
members of religious orders. They
were Christians who went to
lonely places to pray to God,
they didn’t live among normal
people.
 They lived in a monastery an
were called monks. If they were
women they lived in a convent
and were called nuns.
 Each monastery was ruled by an
abbot, each convent was ruled
by an abbesse.
 Monasteries owned their own
lands or fiefs where peasants
worked.
 Some religious orders were
closed so their members could
leave the convent or monastery.

14.  The functions of monks and
nuns were:
 To pray for the spiritual
salvation of the people
 To educate noble boys and
girls
 To copy manuscripts on the
scriptorium to preserve
them.
 To prepare medicines using
herbs. Some convents and
monasteries acted as
hospitals and pharmacies.
 Sometimes travellers could
get a free night’s shelter in a
monastery.

15.  As peasants paid the tithe
to the Church, some
noblemen or noblewomen
would give money or
properties to the Church
after their death, and
some monasteries and
convents had their own
lands or fiefs, the clergy
became very rich.

17.  90% of the population was composed of peasants.
 Most lived on a fief and worked on the lord’s land.
 There were two types of peasants:
 Freemen owned the land they worked but had to pay
taxes to the lord and priest. They could leave the fief if they
wished and married anyone they chose.
 Serfs belonged to the lord. They could not leave the fief or
get married without his permission. They had to work on the
lord’s land without a salary and they had to pay taxes to
the lord and the priests.

18.  Peasants lived in small villages.
 Their houses were made of mud
and wood and had only one
room. People and animals shared
the house.
 Peasants were self-sufficient, they
grew their food, made their
clothes and furniture and built
their houses.
 Peasants worked year-round from
sunrise to sunset. Peasants only
took a break from work and went
to church on Catholic feast days.
 Peasant women and children also
worked in the fields. Children
didn’t go to school. Most
peasants couldn’t read nor write.

20. Death of Feudalism

21.  By about 1000 AD, the Viking raiders, the fierce
Arabs, and the mounted horse warriors from
Asia had ceased to threaten Europe.
 By the 1200s, Europe was mounting a
reconquest of Spain and a crusade to liberate
the holy land from Moslems.
 Within Europe, the feudal system was slowly
breaking down, and was dead by about 1400
AD in Western Europe.
 Improvements in agricultural production,
started to revived the town’s life.

22. The Manor makes more food..
 During the feudal era, the manors were self
sufficient.
 Crops produced were barely enough to feed
the people of the manor.
 The manor could not grow enough food to sell
on the market and no surplus was created.

23. After the fall of feudalism..
 There are a number of reasons for the
agricultural increase of the manor:
1. Beans and peas began to be planted in the
European soil.
2. A three-field system replaced the two-field
one.
3. Horses were used instead of oxen.
4. Record-keeping was introduced.
5. Irrigation was introduced.
6. More land was brought under cultivation.

24. Learning is Revived…
 During the feudal era, one did not need
university degree to become a serf or noble.
 Thus, there were no universities in Europe, and
illiteracy remained high.
After feudal era, this changed….

25.  Universities were established, such as Cambridge
in England.
 Education was focused on medieval Christian
scholars and selected works from Roman and
Greek science and philosophy.

26. Development of Trade and
Banking..
 Trade developed quickly from the
12th century.
 Products were transported by land,
river and sea.
 As trade developed, money was
needed so banking techniques
changed and new financial
methods like payment by credit
were developed.

27. Development of Cities…
 As trade developed, cities began to
grow. Some old cities were revived
while new cities appeared as well.
 Cities had markets where the
merchants went to sell their goods.
 Lords did not have power in the cities
so many peasants migrated there to
escape the lord’s authority and to find
a new job.
 All the inhabitants of the city were free.

28. The demand for clothes were
evident…
 As the population grew, there was a
greater demand for clothes and
goods so the number of craftsmen
increased.
 Craftsmen made their products by
hand. They worked in small workshops.
 Craftsmen of the same profession
often lived on the same streets which
were named after their trades.

29.  Craftsmen usually joined a guild.
The guild has its own statute and
established:
 Its members’ rights and
obligations.
 The prices of the goods
 The quality and materials to be
used in the products.
 Production
 The number of workers.
 Guilds also distributed raw
materials and looked after its
members and their families
when somebody died or could
not work.

30.  Guilds established 3 categories
of craftsmen:
 Mastercraftsmen owned the
workshop, the tools and the raw
materials. To become a master
one had to pass an exam and
produce a masterpiece to
prove to the guild he was a
skilled craftsman.
 Journeymen were skilled
craftsmen who received wages
for their work.
 Apprentices were young men
who wanted to learn and
trade. They lived in their
master’s house and worked for
him for at least 7 years without
any payment.

31. The King Reforms Justice…
 Jury system was introduced.
 A jury is composed of 12 neighbors who swore to
the Bible to be honest and unbiased.
 The jurors would decided if the accused was guilty
or not.
 If found guilty, the judge would sentence the
defendant.