Feudalisk

Chazz Winston 1/3/13 Feudalism essay During the Middle Ages Western Europe began to use a loose system of government known as feudalism. Feudalism is when powerful local lords give land to lesser lords in exchange the lesser lords known as vassals would pledge service and loyalty to the land. Feudalism created a feudal society or social structure giving everyone who lived in Western Europe a certain standing. Like how in India the Aryans developed a caste system. Like all great things however, Feudalism started to decline and eventually disappear from Western Europe. Feudalism has many different reasons for its appearance in Western European society during the middle ages. One reason was because during a time of war a king would not be able to maintain law and order. Then, there was the fact that people needed to be able to protect their homes, lands, and themselves. In response to these reasons Feudalism emerged in Western Europe. A feudal contract was created between a lord and vassal. The lord would give the vassal a fief or estate with peasants to work on the land. In exchange a vassal would pledge loyalty, provide military service, and pay a fair. In this feudal society there were certain people who would rank above one another during this time. (page 186, Ellis Esler) The appearance of Feudalism gave everyone a place in the Feudal society. First in the feudal society were the monarchs. Below the monarchs were the powerful lords, such as dukes and counts. These lords all had vassals, and these vassals had their own vassals. Vassals often had more than one fief from different lords. Vassals who had pledged loyalty to more than one lord would be in trouble if they fought and both demanded his aid, so to solve this problem a vassal would have a liege lord whom he owed his first loyalty. Even though feudalism was a very important system during this time it eventually was replaced by a better system. (page 187, Ellis Esler)
As money came into feudalism began to decline. People began to use money again when people began to trade again. New ways of doing business transformed the economy and society. Feudal lords needed money to buy goods, which gave peasants the idea to sell farm products to the townspeople. By 1300s peasants in Western Europe were tenant farmers. Feudalism was a process of give and take. The lords and vassals both worked with each other to create this crude form an economy. Although this was not a perfect system it worked. Feudalism eventually had to be replaced by a money economy so that Western Europe could keep pace with the rest of the word, but some feudal laws stayed active for a long time.