What historical period corresponds to the era of feudalism. Feudalism in Europe
The feudal system existed, with certain features, in almost all countries.
The era of feudalism covers a long period. In China, the feudal system existed for over two thousand years. In countries Western Europe feudalism covers a number of centuries - from the time of the fall of the Roman Empire (V century) to the bourgeois revolutions in England (XVII century) and France (XVHI century), in Russia - from the IX century to peasant reform 1861, in Transcaucasia - from the 4th century to the 70s of the 19th century, among the peoples Central Asia- from the 7th-8th centuries until the victory of the proletarian revolution in Russia.
In Western Europe, feudalism arose on the basis of the collapse of the Roman slave-owning society, on the one hand, and the decomposition of the tribal system among the conquering tribes, on the other; it was formed as a result of the interaction of these two processes.
Elements of feudalism, as already mentioned, originated in the depths of the slave-owning society in the form of a colony. The columns were obliged to cultivate the land of their master - a large landowner, pay him a certain amount of money or give a significant share of the crop, and perform various kinds of duties. Nevertheless, the columns were more interested in labor than the slaves, since they had their own economy.
In this way, new relations of production were born, which were fully developed in the feudal era.
The Roman Empire was defeated by the tribes of the Germans, Gauls, Slavs and other peoples who lived in various parts Europe. The power of slave owners was overthrown, slavery fell away. Large latifundia and craft workshops based on slave labor were divided into small ones. The population of the collapsed Roman Empire consisted of large landowners (former slave owners who switched to the colonat system), freed slaves, columns, small peasants and artisans.
At the time of the conquest of Rome, the conquering tribes had a communal system that was in the process of decomposition. big role in public life these tribes were played by the rural community, which the Germans called the brand. The land, with the exception of large land holdings of the tribal nobility, was in communal ownership. Forests, wastelands, pastures, "ponds were used together. Fields and meadows were redistributed between members of the community after a few years. But gradually, household land, and then arable land, began to pass into the hereditary use of individual families. Distribution of land, litigation of cases relating to the community, settlement disputes between its members were dealt with by the communal assembly, elders and judges chosen by it.
The tribes that conquered the Roman Empire took possession for the most part its state lands and some of the lands of large private landowners. Forests, meadows and pastures remained in common use, and arable land was divided among individual farms. The divided lands later became the private property of the peasants. Thus, an extensive stratum of independent small peasantry was formed.
But the peasants could not maintain their independence for a long time. On the basis of private ownership of land and other means of production, property inequality between individual members of the rural community inevitably increased. Wealthy and poor families appeared among the peasants. The wealthy members of the community, with the growth of property inequality, began to acquire power over the community. The land was concentrated in the hands of wealthy families and became the subject of capture by the tribal nobility and military leaders. Peasants became personally dependent on large landowners.
In order to maintain and strengthen power over the dependent peasants, the big landowners had to strengthen the organs state power. Military leaders, relying on the tribal nobility and warriors, began to concentrate power in their hands, turned into kings - monarchs.
On the ruins of the Roman Empire, a number of new states were formed, headed by kings. The kings generously distributed the land they seized for life, and then for hereditary possession of their entourage, who had to bear for it military service. The church, which served as an important pillar of royal power, received a lot of land. The land was cultivated by the peasants, who now had to perform a number of duties in favor of the new masters. Huge land holdings passed into the hands of royal warriors and servants, church authorities and “monasteries.
Lands distributed under such conditions were called fiefs. Hence the name of the new social system - feudalism.
The gradual transformation of peasant land into the property of the feudal lords and the enslavement of the peasant masses (the process of feudalization) took place in Europe over a number of centuries (from the 5th-6th to the 9th-10th centuries). The free peasantry was ruined by continuous military service, robberies and extortions. Turning for help to a large landowner, the peasants turned into people dependent on him. Often the peasants were forced to surrender themselves under the "protection" of the feudal lord: otherwise it would be impossible for a defenseless person to exist in the conditions of continuous wars and robber raids.
In such cases, the ownership of a land plot passed to the feudal lord, and the peasant could cultivate this plot only if he performed various duties in favor of the feudal lord. In other cases, royal governors and officials, through deceit and violence, seized the lands of free peasants, forcing them to recognize their power.
In different countries, the process of feudalization proceeded differently, but the essence of the matter was the same everywhere: previously free peasants fell into personal dependence on the feudal lords who seized their land. This dependence was sometimes weaker, sometimes tougher. Over time, the differences in the position of former slaves, columns and free peasants were erased, and they all turned into a single mass of serfs. Gradually, a situation developed that was characterized by a medieval saying: “There is no land without a lord” (that is, without a feudal lord). The kings were the supreme landowners.
Feudalism was a necessary step in the historical development of society. Slavery has outlived itself. In these conditions further development productive forces was possible only on the basis of the labor of a mass of dependent peasants who own their farms, their own tools of production and have some interest in labor, necessary in order to cultivate the land and pay tribute in kind from their crops to the feudal lord.
In Russia, in the conditions of the decomposition of the communal system, patriarchal slavery arose. But the development of society went here basically not along the path of slavery, but along the path of feudalization. The Slavic tribes, even under the dominance of their tribal system, starting from the 3rd century AD, attacked the Roman slave-owning empire, fought for the liberation of the cities of the Northern Black Sea region under its rule, and played a large role in the collapse of the slave-owning system. The transition from the primitive communal system to feudalism in Russia took place at a time when the slave system had long since fallen and feudal relations in European countries had become stronger.
As the history of mankind testifies, it is not necessary that every nation goes through all the stages community development. For many peoples, conditions arise under which they are able to pass through one or another stage of development and go straight to a higher stage.
The rural community Eastern Slavs was called "verv", "peace". The community had meadows, forests, reservoirs in common use, and arable land began to pass into the possession of individual families. The head of the community was an elder. The development of private land ownership led to the gradual disintegration of the community. The land was seized by elders and tribal princes. Peasants - smerds - were at first free members of the community, and then became dependent on large landowners - the boyars.
The church became the largest feudal owner. Grants from princes, contributions and spiritual testaments made her the owner of vast lands and the richest farms at that time.
During the formation of the centralized Russian state (XV-XVI centuries), the great princes and tsars began, as they said then, to “place” their close and service people on the land, that is, to give them land and peasants under the condition of military service. Hence the name - the estate, the landowners.
At that time, the peasants were not yet completely attached to the landowner and the land: they had the right to move from one landowner to another. At the end of the 16th century, the landowners, in order to increase the production of grain for sale, intensified the exploitation of the peasants. In this regard, in 1581 the state took away from the peasants the right to transfer from one landowner to another. The peasants were permanently attached to the land that belonged to the landlords, and thus turned into serfs.
In the era of feudalism, agriculture played a predominant role, and of its branches - agriculture. Gradually, over the course of a number of centuries, the methods of arable farming were improved, horticulture, horticulture, winemaking, and buttermaking developed.
In the early period of feudalism, the shifting system prevailed, and in the forest areas - the slash-and-burn system of agriculture. A piece of land was sown for several years in a row with any one crop, until the soil was depleted. Then they moved on to another area. Subsequently, there was a transition to a three-field system, in which the arable land is divided into three fields, and in turn one pape is used for winter crops, the other for spring crops, and the third remains fallow. The three-field system began to spread in Western Europe and in Russia from the 11th-12th centuries. It remained dominant for many centuries, surviving until the 19th century, and in many countries - to the present day.
Agricultural implements in the early period of feudalism were scarce. The tools of labor were a plow with an iron plowshare, a sickle, a scythe, a shovel. Later, an iron plow and a harrow began to be used. Grinding of grain for a long time was done by hand, until windmills and watermills became widespread.
Feudalism is a social system that existed in Western and Central Europe in the Middle Ages, although the characteristic features of feudal society can be found in other regions of the world and in different eras. The term "feudalism" arose before the French Revolution and meant the "old order" (absolute monarchy, domination of the nobility). German Feudalismus, French feodalite are formed from the Latin feodum (feudum) - feud. In Marxism, feudalism is seen as a socio-economic formation preceding capitalism.
Fundamentals of feudalism
Feudalism is based on interpersonal relationships: vassal and seigneur, subject and overlord, peasant and large landowner. Feudalism is characterized by class-legal inequality, enshrined in law, and a knightly military organization. The ideological and moral basis of feudalism was Christianity, which determined the nature of medieval culture. The formation of feudalism covered the 5th-9th centuries - the period after the destruction of the Roman Empire by the barbarians. During the heyday of feudalism (12-13 centuries), cities and the urban population were economically and politically strengthened, estate-representative assemblies took shape (the English parliament, the French States General), the estate monarchy was forced to reckon with the interests not only of the nobility, but of all estates. The confrontation between the papacy and the secular monarchy created space for the assertion of personal freedom, which gradually undermined the class-hierarchical structure of feudalism. The development of the urban economy undermined the subsistence foundations of the dominance of the aristocracy, and the growth of free thought led to the outgrowth of heresies into the Reformation of the 16th century. Protestantism, with its new ethics and value system, favored the development entrepreneurial activity capitalist type. The revolutions of the 16th-18th centuries marked basically the end of the era of feudalism.
Marxism considered feudalism as a class-based structure of society, characteristic of an agrarian in nature and predominantly a subsistence economy collective. In the ancient world, feudalism replaced the slave-owning system; in a number of cases, in particular in Russia, feudal relations developed directly on the basis of the primitive communal system. The feudal system of economic, social and political-legal relations is characterized by conditional ownership of land, the presence of a feudal hierarchy, legally unequal and socially closed estates. Significant civilizational and historical features distinguish the Western European model of feudalism from similar social systems not only in Asia and Africa, but also in Eastern Europe.
With all the variety of specific historical and regional varieties, stadial features, one can distinguish common features of the feudal system. First of all, it is feudal property, which is the monopoly of the feudal class on the main means of production - land. Ownership of land is associated with dominance over the direct producers - the peasants. For the feudal lord, land was valuable not in itself, but in combination with the worker who cultivated it. The peasant ran an independent household on a plot of land formally granted to him by the feudal lord, but this plot was actually in the hereditary use of the peasant family. Not having the right to own land, the peasant family was the owner of their tools and draft animals. From the relations of feudal property followed the right of the feudal lord to land rent, which acted in the form of corvée, natural or cash quitrent. The feudal mode of production is based on a combination of large landed property of the feudal class and individual farming of the direct producers, the peasants.
Non-economic coercion
An important feature of the feudal system was non-economic coercion of the peasants, which could take the form of class inequality and serfdom. The established economic independence of the peasant, in comparison with the position of a slave under the slave system, opened up opportunities for increasing labor productivity and developing the productive forces of society, but in general, for feudalism, as for a social system with a predominance of the agrarian economy, subsistence farming, and small-scale individual production, it was characteristic slow development of agricultural technology and crafts. The feudal mode of production determined the following features: the social structure of the feudal society (estate, hierarchy, corporatism), the political superstructure (public power as an attribute of land ownership), the ideological life of society (the dominance of the religious worldview), the socio-psychological makeup of the individual (the communal connectedness of consciousness and traditionalism). worldview).
The world-historical era of feudalism is traditionally associated with the Middle Ages and dates from the end of the 5th to the middle of the 17th centuries, but in most regions of the world feudal relations dominated and persisted in the subsequent era, while the content of the modern era was determined by the increasing degree of capitalist relations. For all peoples, feudalism went through the stages of genesis (formation), developed feudalism, late feudalism, and the chronological framework of these stages is different for different regions of the world. In the countries of Western Europe, the feudal system developed on the ruins of the Western Roman Empire, conquered during the Great Migration of Nations by barbarians, mainly Germans - Franks, Visigoths, Burgundians, Lombards, Angles, Saxons. The genesis of feudalism here covered the period from the end of the 5th to the 10th-11th centuries. In the question of the ways of the formation of the feudal system in Western Europe, historiography has developed three directions dating back to the 18th century. The direction of the novelists believe that feudalism comes to the socio-legal and political institutions of the late Roman Empire, the direction of the Germanists - that feudalism was established as a result of the predominance of German institutions in public and political organization medieval society. The third direction adheres to the theory of synthesis, which is understood as mixing in the process of feudalization of ancient and barbarian orders. In the 20th century, the concept of continuity prevailed in Western historiography - the slow, smooth evolution of the Roman and German orders, during which a feudal society took shape.
The term "feudalism" appeared in France in the 17th century. and was originally used in the field of law; was introduced into historical science in the 19th century. by the famous French historian Francois Guizot (“History of Civilization in France”) to determine the stage of social development, which is characterized by the combination of supreme power with land ownership, the conditional nature of land ownership and the vassal hierarchy. In Russian historical science, feudalism is understood as a socio-economic formation, which is a natural stage in the progressive historical development of most peoples of the world on the way from the slave-owning and primitive communal system to capitalism. The characterization of feudalism given below mainly refers to its European variant. But feudalism arose as a result of the disintegration of the slave-owning order only in a few countries whose peoples created high civilizations of antiquity (for example, China, India, Greece, Rome; cf. Ancient Rome, The Ancient East, Ancient Greece). For most other peoples, feudal relations arose from the decomposition of the primitive communal formation (for example, in Germany, among many Slavic peoples, in Scandinavia, in Japan, among the Mongols, in a number of African countries; see Primitive society). The path of the formation of feudalism is also known, which is characterized by the interaction of these processes (an example is the Frankish state, which arose during the conquest of the Roman province of Gaul by the Germanic tribes).
In many countries, feudal relations took shape over a long time, which was determined by the nature and slow pace of development of the productive forces. until the middle of the 17th century. and divided into the early Middle Ages (the end of the 5th - the middle of the 11th century, the birth of feudalism), the heyday of the Middle Ages (the middle of the 11th - the end of the 15th century, developed feudalism) and the late Middle Ages (16th - the middle of the 17th century, the decomposition of feudalism and the birth of capitalist relations) .
Considering the medieval era as a time of domination feudal relations, it should be borne in mind that the concepts of "Middle Ages" and "feudalism" are not quite identical even for Europe, where in the early Middle Ages feudal relations to a certain extent coexisted with the patriarchal way of life, and later with the capitalist one. This is even more so in other parts of the world. In such ancient civilizations of Asia as China and India, feudal relations arose earlier (3rd-4th centuries), in most countries of the East they existed much longer than in Europe (in some countries until the middle of the 20th century). In Russia, the feudal period falls on the 9th-19th centuries. (cm. Kievan Rus). Survivals of feudalism are still preserved in a number of countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America.
Feudalism is regarded as a progressive social system in comparison with the slaveholding system, since the forms of personal, and especially judicial and land, dependence of the peasants inherent in it were much easier than slavery and, with a partial interest in the results of labor, stimulated the development of production, culture, and personality. The transition to feudalism from the primitive communal system was also progressive, since the established individual production to a greater extent corresponded to the level of development of the productive forces and, therefore, was more efficient. These advantages were not immediate and led to an economic and cultural upsurge only during the heyday of the Middle Ages (for example, in Europe from the 10th-11th centuries). The progressive features of feudalism most consistently manifested themselves in its Western European version.
The economy of feudalism was based on the practically monopoly property of the class of feudal landlords on land and was of a natural nature. In the conditions of an agrarian economy, land was the main means of production, and feudal property made it possible to exploit the direct producers-peasants, determined the social structure of society, its political structure. Feudal property could act both in private (characteristic of Europe) and state (in Asian countries) form.
Land was not a commodity, it was not sold or donated, but was given for public and military service. Vassal service to the lord (lord) was a condition for maintaining the land grant, and the owner of the land was essentially not only its last owner, but also all persons who occupied different levels of the feudal ladder from the lord to the supreme overlord - the king, connected by a system of vassal-seignial dependence. The feudal lords distributed most of their land to the peasants in holdings, who conducted independent small farming on it, mainly with their own tools of labor, giving a significant part of the produced product to the landowners in the form of rent or tax. Rent for the landowner was the only way to receive income from his landed property, and for the peasants - a duty for the use of the land. Historically, it acted in three forms: work-out (corvée), food (natural dues) and money. At various stages of the Middle Ages, all forms of rent coexisted, but played a different role in the totality of peasant duties. At first, corvee and quitrent prevailed, then quitrent and, finally, cash rent. The transition from one form of rent to another is called rent commutation.
The collection of payments for the land on which the peasants worked for centuries, but did not have the right to freely dispose of either it or the products of their labor, was accompanied by coercive measures (non-economic coercion). These measures were carried out through the judicial and personal dependence of the peasant on the feudal lord. In Western Europe, the dependence of the peasants was predominantly personal in nature - the peasant was considered attached to the lord, and not to the land. Attachment of peasants to the land, known since the time of the late Roman Empire, did not become widespread. It existed in Eastern and some countries of Central Europe (for example, in Russia, Poland, the Czech Republic, some regions of Northern Germany), where the most severe manifestations of serfdom during the crisis of feudalism are associated with the formation of the European market, the growing marketability of the landlord economy, which gave rise to a return to corvee ( "second edition of serfdom"). The possibility of a reaction and a return to serfdom in those areas where it had outlived itself in the previous period was due to the defeat of the peasant uprisings (the Hussite Wars and the Peasant War in Germany 1524-1525).
Natural economy served primarily to satisfy the needs of the feudal lord and the peasant family. Moreover, almost everything necessary for its normal functioning was created within the framework of this economy. At the same time, the peasant (worker) himself is not separated from the means of production and is close to the natural environment. Commodity production (simple) and trade under feudalism were mainly associated with the development of cities (see Medieval city). European cities became centers of handicraft production and trade from the 11th century. The development of commodity-money relations and the exchange between town and countryside eroded the natural character of the economy. The needs, mainly of the nobility, were increasingly met through trade, but reproduction was still carried out on a natural basis.
Feudal relations were built on a complex social structure. It was not limited to the division into two classes - feudal lords (secular and spiritual) and dependent peasants, who made up the majority of the population. In the cities, in addition to artisans (small independent producers whose economy was based on ownership of the means of production and personal labor), there were other social groups: merchants, bankers, officials, and the intelligentsia. During the period of the disintegration of feudalism and the emergence of capitalist relations, new classes were being formed - the proletariat and the bourgeoisie. In addition, the feudal society was divided into estates, each of which had its own rights and obligations and performed certain functions. These are the clergy (prayers), the nobility (warriors), peasants and artisans who were part of the third estate (who produced material goods and supported everyone else through the payment of rent and taxes). Class rights and obligations existed in unity: the existence of rights implied obligations, the failure to fulfill the latter led to the deprivation of rights. So, a vassal who ignored military service was deprived of the right to a fief (put on); the commoner who enjoyed the "market right" had to comply with his obligations to the workshop or guild.
Within the estates there was also a special system of relations. In the clergy, it corresponded to the hierarchical structure of the Catholic Church (see Papacy). The military estate was subordinate to the vassalage, which connected the vassal and the lord with personal relations of service and obligatory patronage. The relations of domination and subordination were perceived as natural and gave a relative character to the concept of freedom, since one who chose a patron of his own free will on the basis of an agreement was considered free (for example, in France in the 9th century, every free man had to find a lord). In this he differed, for example, from a peasant who was in personal dependence. Corporate ties played a significant role in social relations. Involvement in a corporation (a rural community, a craft guild, a merchant guild, unions of cities, spiritual knightly and monastic orders, social classes, etc.) assumed the equality of its members, mutual respect for rights, gave confidence, and helped in everyday adversity. Medieval man obeyed the ethical and legal norms of the corporation, its traditions. Gradually, a special psychological type of knight, clergyman, merchant, guild craftsman, etc. developed. The main producer, who supported the entire system of feudal society on his shoulders, was the peasant. When his patience wore out, rebellions broke out. The anti-feudal actions of the peasantry were aimed at reducing the rate of exploitation (5th-15th centuries) and, despite the inevitable defeat of each individual, had a very real overall result - the restriction of feudal duties; the abolition of the personal dependence of the peasants (in the advanced countries of Europe since the 14th century), and at times the mitigation of the tax burden. All this gave greater economic independence to the peasant, which contributed to an increase in the level of productive forces and, ultimately, social progress. The struggle of the burghers was also progressive; one of her significant results- acquisition of independence and self-government by many cities. During the period of the disintegration of feudalism, mass peasant uprisings and the struggle of the urban lower classes ensured the victory of the bourgeoisie in the early bourgeois revolutions (see the English bourgeois revolution of the 17th century, the Dutch bourgeois revolution of the 16th century).
Political power was combined with land ownership. The characteristic form of the state was the monarchy (empires, kingdoms, principalities, caliphates, emirates, etc.), which had different historical forms. In European countries, early feudal monarchy, medieval fragmentation, estate and absolute monarchy were successively replaced. The dominance of the monarchical form of government did not exclude the existence of republics in a number of city-states (for example, Venice, Genoa, Novgorod). The life of medieval society was based on respect for law, traditions, class and religious morality. Legal norms were not unified, rights complained to people, social groups, cities, markets, churches. They had hundreds of local options. The right was documented or traditional. Even royal decrees had to comply with the previous legislation and traditions of the country, not violate the rights of subjects.
Of the above-mentioned regulators of social life, morality was universal, inherent without exception to all estates, classes, groups, and individuals. The thought inherent in religious consciousness about the inevitability of appearing before the Creator's judgment at the end of one's life path prompted self-analysis, a sober assessment of one's own behavior, and, ultimately, self-awareness as a person.
The influence of religious ideology was dominant in all spheres of human life. Morality and law (in Islam, law is part of religion), science and art, education and literature, specific manifestations political life and even social protest are permeated with a religious worldview (see Reformation). Under the conditions of political separatism and economic disunity characteristic of feudalism, religion and the church acted as carriers of the ideas of universal unity. The Church, represented by the highest hierarchs, claimed political dominance. The clergy used subtle forms of ideological influence on the masses in favor of the feudal class to which they themselves belonged.
The religious basis of many phenomena of medieval culture explains its appeal to inner world human, its special spirituality and symbolism. It is not only interesting, original and significant in itself, but also represents one of the most important stages in the ascending development of human civilization.
The legacy of the feudal era in the history of mankind is extremely multifaceted. Many phenomena of modern life are rooted in the feudal past. Thus, in the history of our continent, this period includes the formation of most states and their borders, nationalities, national languages and cultures, the formation of nations and classes of bourgeois society. Medieval ssslovo-representative assemblies gave rise to a number of modern parliaments. Peasant and urban uprisings of that era, the struggle against national oppression, the experience of early bourgeois revolutions laid the foundations for the revolutionary traditions of the peoples. Most European cities, many of which have not lost their historical appearance to this day, arose in the Middle Ages. At the turn of the 12th-13th centuries. the first universities appeared, and by the end of the 15th century. in Europe there were already about 60 of them. The needs of the development of education and science led to the invention of printing and the emergence of numerous libraries. Architectural monuments, created by the talent and skill of medieval architects, still serve people, embodying the connection of times and the mutual influence of cultures.
Exceptional successes in science and culture marked the period of the late Middle Ages. He gave the world the high ideals of humanism and the masterpieces of Renaissance culture. In the 16-17 centuries. there was a genuine revolution in the development of scientific thought, prepared by the accumulation of empirical knowledge in previous centuries. At this time, new ideas about the Earth and the Universe were formed. It was the era of the Great geographical discoveries and the beginning of the colonial policy of Europeans.
In the analysis of many ethnic, national, territorial and other conflicts modern world one also often has to turn to their medieval origins, including his deep and serious religious heritage, meaning both the content of dogmas and the activities of church organizations. First of all, this applies to such world religions as Christianity (in its Roman Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant denominations) and Islam (see Religion).
Concerning the features of feudalism in the countries of the East, it should be noted that economic, historical, cultural differences determined the specifics of specific forms, the chronological boundaries of feudal society in individual countries, the timing of their transition to a new historical era. At the same time, in general, for the East, to a greater extent than for Western Europe, the concepts of “feudalism” and “Middle Ages” do not coincide in time: feudal orders were more stable there (for example, in China) and lasted much longer, which is associated with slowness the pace of economic development. An important feature of most of the feudal countries of Asia is the predominance of state ownership of land (early feudal societies). The state, represented by the monarch, was the supreme owner of the land, and feudal rent acted in the form of state taxes and was redistributed through the treasury in favor of individual feudal lords. The very same feudal monarchy in the East at all stages of its development was despotic, and in some cases, as in the Arab Caliphate, theocratic.
It is obvious that the study of the era of feudalism has not only theoretical, but also great practical value and still, despite the centuries-old tradition, leaves room for scientific disputes and searches (see also the articles Culture, Art, Civilization, Science and Technology, Education).
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In relation to Russia, the concept of feudalism was first applied by N. A. Polevoy in his History of the Russian People (vols. 1-6, -). Later, N. P. Pavlov-Silvansky made an attempt to substantiate the concept of “Russian feudalism”.
In the economic field under feudalism, landowners and land users sharply differ from each other and are opposed to each other: property and use are divided, and not only the latter, but the former as well acquire a conditional (limited) character.
In the field of the political system under feudalism, there is a decline in state unity and a weakening of the centralizing supreme power: the territory of the state is divided into parts and state prerogatives fall apart, passing into the hands of the owners of these parts (feudal fragmentation); landowners become "sovereigns". Under the rule of feudal principles, struggle is stronger than union, strength is more important than law: life is much more subject to mores than to institutions, to personal or group initiative than to a general law, which is replaced by oral, local, very shaky customs. In such an era, war is not only the only real form of protection of treaties and rights, but also a powerful means of securing the privileges achieved by their violation, an obstacle to the development of its firm, permanent legal and state norms. Supreme political power became during feudalism the subject of private property; "private wars" between lords took the place of armed clashes between nations. Each noble lord had the "right of war" and could wage war on anyone other than his closest lord.
Finally, in the field of relations between the individual and the state and individuals among themselves, the predominance of private law (instead of public law) principles and the beginning of an individual contract is also established - instead of the general law.
Origin of feudalism
The origin of feudalism is associated with the collapse of the tribal system, the last stage of which was the so-called military democracy. The warriors of the leaders' squads received land with the peasants (especially during conquests) and thus became feudal lords. The tribal nobility also became feudal lords.
The development of feudalism in the territories of the former Western Roman Empire was also facilitated by the presence of latifundia there, in which slaves were allocated plots of land and turned into columns.
Feudalism outside Western Europe
There are different opinions about whether feudal relations (in the classical sense) existed outside of Western Europe. Mark Blok considered feudalism predominantly, if not exclusively, a Western European phenomenon that developed as a result of specific historical conditions and singled out the following features of European feudalism: the dependence of the peasants; the presence of the institution of a feud, that is, remuneration for service with land; vassal relations in the military class and the superiority of the class of warrior-knights; lack of centralized authority; simultaneous existence in a weakened form of the state and kinship relations.
The main aspects of criticism of the concept of feudalism as a universal stage in the development of society are that in most societies of a non-European area there were no such systemically important elements as large private land ownership, serfdom, and immunities of the service class. Mark Blok strongly objected to the identification of the social system with the economic one:
A habit, which has taken root even among historians, tends to confuse in the most annoying way two expressions: "feudal system" and "seigneurial system". It is a wholly arbitrary assimilation of the set of relations characteristic of the domination of the military aristocracy to a type of peasant dependence which is entirely different in nature and, in addition, developed much earlier, lasted longer and was much more widespread throughout the world.
The social system of Japan was especially similar to European feudalism. Nitobe Inazo wrote:
When one gets acquainted with Western history, one is struck by the widespread spread of the feudal system to all the states of Western Europe. This is only noticeable due to the fact that western history is better known, although feudalism is by no means limited to Western Europe. It existed in Scandinavia, in the countries of Central Europe and in Russia. The same system was in ancient Egypt, Abyssinia, Madagascar and Mexico ... The feudal system of France, Spain, England and Germany was strikingly similar to Japanese ... Even the time of the formation of feudalism coincides. It is generally accepted that European feudalism arose in the 9th century, after the collapse of the Carolingian Empire. In the XI century. the Normans brought it to England. Three centuries later, it reached the Scandinavian countries. It's amazing how these dates coincide with ours.
Fall of feudalism
The history of the gradual fall of feudalism covers the end of the Middle Ages and the entire New Age until the middle of the 19th century, when, under the influence of the revolutions of 1848, the serfdom of the peasants in the west of Europe finally fell.
Of the two sides of feudalism - political and social - the second showed great vitality: after the new state crushed the political power of the feudal lords, the social structure continued to remain feudal for a long time, and even in the era of the full development of absolute monarchy (XVI-XVIII centuries), social feudalism retained all its strength.
The process of the fall of political feudalism consisted in the gradual unification of the country under the rule of one sovereign, in the separation of sovereignty from land ownership and in the replacement of vassalage by relations of allegiance. Thanks to this process, the king ceased to be "the first between equals", turning into the sole bearer of supreme power in the country, and the lords, along with all the other inhabitants of the country, became subjects of the sovereign, albeit privileged.
This privilege of the upper class (nobility) was one of the remnants of the social power that belonged to this element of medieval society. Having lost sovereign rights in their lands, having even lost the significance of an independent political force, the nobility retained a number of rights in relation to the peasant masses and to the state. Land ownership for a very long time retained a feudal character: the lands were divided into noble and peasant; both of them were conditional property, immediately dependent on two persons - dominus directus and dominus utilis; peasant plots were taxed in favor of the lords with various dues and duties. The legal dependence of the peasants on the nobles, the owners of the land, also remained for a long time, since the latter owned the patrimonial police and justice, and in many countries the peasants were in a state of serfdom.
With the liberation of cities, which sometimes turned into independent communities with a republican system, next to the former feudal lordships, new, so to speak, collective lordships appeared, which had an enormous corrupting influence on feudalism. In the cities, all forms of the former feudal life were the first to disappear. Where the feudal nobles were part of the urban communities, they had to obey the new orders established in the cities, and became ordinary (albeit privileged) citizens, and the resettlement of the peasant to the city was accompanied by liberation from serfdom for him (“city air makes free "). Thus, there was neither vassalage nor serfdom in the city. In the city, however, the separation of the supreme power from the possession of land first occurred. For the first time in the cities, the principle of feudal land tenure was also dealt a blow, since each householder was the full owner of the piece of land on which his house was built. Finally, the economic development of cities was based on trade and industry; next to land ownership as the basis of an independent and even authoritative position in society, the possession of movable property took its place. The feudal economy was subsistence; in the cities, a money economy began to develop, which gradually began to penetrate into the villages and undermine the very foundations of feudal life there. The city, becoming the economic center of the whole district, gradually destroyed the economic isolation of the feudal lords and thereby undermined one of the foundations of feudalism. In a word, everything new in political and economic life, which in essence contradicted the entire feudal system and way of life, came from the cities. It was here that that social class, the bourgeoisie, was formed, which mainly waged a completely conscious and always almost more or less successful struggle against feudalism. The struggle of the bourgeoisie against the nobility is one of the most important aspects of the social history of the West from the second half of the Middle Ages to the 19th century.
The concept of "feudalism" arose in France before the revolution, around the end of the 18th century, and at that time meant the so-called "Old Order" (that is, the monarchy (absolute) or the government of the nobility). Feudalism at that time was seen as a social and economic reformation that was the forerunner of the well-known capitalism. In our time, in history, feudalism is considered such a social system. It was only in the Middle Ages, or rather in Central and Western Europe. However, you can also find something similar in other eras and in other parts of the world.
The basis of feudalism includes relations that are called interpersonal, that is, between a lord and a vassal, a suzerain and a subject, a peasant and a person who has a lot of land. In Feudalism, there is a legal injustice, in other words an inequality that was enshrined in law, and a knightly army organization. The main basis of feudalism was religion. Namely, Christianity. And it showed the whole character of the Middle Ages, the culture of that time. Feudalism was formed in the fifth or ninth century, when the barbarians conquered the well-known Roman Empire, which was very strong. The heyday, somewhere in the twelfth-thirteenth centuries, then politically and economically strengthened big cities and its entire population, the so-called class-representative communities, such as the English Parliament, were formed, and the class monarchy was forced to pay attention not only to the interests of the nobility, but also to all other members of society.
The secular monarchy opposed the so-called papacy, and this created the possibility of creating and asserting all its rights and its freedom, and over time it undermined feudalism, that is, its structure and main concepts, so to speak. The urban economy developed quite quickly, and this undermined the basis of the government of the aristocracy, or rather the natural and economic foundations, but heresy developed into a reformation that was in the 16th century, and it was due to the growth of freedom of thought. In connection with the updated ethics and the new value system of Protestantism, he helped to develop all entrepreneurs with their activities, which were of a capitalist kind. Well, the revolution that took place in the 16th-18th centuries helped to complete feudalism.
Rise of feudalism
It is generally accepted that feudalism as a special socio-economic formation arose in Western Europe on the basis of the collapse of the slave system of the ancient world and the fall of the Roman slave state as a result of the revolution of slaves and the conquest of the Roman Empire by the Germans. The usual notion that the slave system is directly replaced by the feudal system is not entirely accurate. More often the feudal system re-emerged from the primitive communal system. The peoples who conquered Rome were at the stage of the primitive communal system and did not adopt the Roman slave system. Only a few centuries later they had a class society, but already in the form of feudalism.
Elements of feudalism began to take shape even in the depths of the economic system of the late period of the Roman Empire and in the society of the ancient Germans of the II-III centuries. But feudalism becomes the dominant type of social relations only from the 5th-6th centuries. as a result of the interaction of the socio-economic conditions that existed in the Roman Empire with the new conditions that the conquerors brought with them. Feudalism was not at all transferred in finished form from Germany. Its origin is rooted in military organization barbarian troops during the conquest itself, which only after the conquest, thanks to the influence of the productive forces found in the conquered countries, developed into real feudalism. The new forms of the socio-economic system that arose in the place of the Roman slave-owning society had deep roots both in the old society of Rome itself and among the peoples that conquered it. In the Roman Empire, the crisis of a large slave-owning economy already by the 1st-2nd centuries. n. e. reached its greatest strength. While maintaining large landed property in the hands of a small number of Roman magnates, the latter, due to the extremely low productivity of slave labor, begin to divide their lands into small parcels and plant slaves and free farmers on them. Instead of a large-scale slave-owning economy, colonates thus arise as one of the earliest forms of new social relations - relations between small agricultural producers, who still retained some elements of personal and economic freedom compared to slavery, but were attached to the owner's land and paid rent to the landowner in kind and by working off. . In other words, columns "...were the forerunners of medieval serfs." On the basis of the economic collapse of the slave economy of Rome, its economic and political system was finally destroyed by the uprisings of millions of slaves. All this facilitated the conquest of the empire by the Germans, putting an end to the slave society. But the new forms of social relations were not brought by the Germans "ready", but, on the contrary, their "form of public" had to change in accordance with the level of the productive forces of the conquered country. building. But, already by the time of their first penetration into the Roman, the Germanic tribes were losing their tribal life and moving on to the territorial community-mark. Military movements and conquests led them to the separation of the military-tribal aristocracy, the formation of military squads. The combatants seized the former communal lands, private land ownership arose, and the exploitation of slaves planted on the land. These new relations began to intensify and carry over to Roman soil as Germanic tribes began to settle in various parts of the former empire. The Germans "... as a reward for having liberated the Romans from their own state ..." not only began to occupy free lands, but also took away two-thirds of their land from the former Roman owners - huge Roman latifundia with a mass of people sitting on them slaves and colonies. The division of land took place according to the order of the tribal system. Part of the land was left indivisibly in the possession of the whole clan and tribe, the rest (arable land, meadows) was distributed among individual members of the clan. This is how the German commune-mark was transferred to the new conditions. But the separation of the military-tribal aristocracy and military squads, which seized large areas of land and large slave-owning Roman latifundia, contributed to the disintegration of communal ownership and the emergence of large private land ownership. At the same time, the Roman landed nobility began to unite with military nobility German combatants and leaders.
In some parts of the former empire, as in the Ostrogothic kingdom in Italy, the assimilation of the conquerors with the vanquished was most widespread and led to the assimilation by the Germans of socio-economic relations, the beginnings of serfdom and latifundia, extensive estates specializing in export areas were called Agriculture: growing cereals, producing olive oil and winemaking.) the economy of the former empire. relations "between the Roman column and the new serf stood a free Frankish peasant." The most complete German land orders were preserved where, as in Britain, the German conquerors almost completely destroyed the former Celtic population of the country and introduced their own land use orders, with rapidly growing, however, inequality in it, with the allocation of tribal nobility (earls) and simple free farmers (Curls). With all the diversity in the development of feudal relations in various localities and countries, the further process everywhere consisted in the gradual enslavement of the remaining mass of the free rural population and in the development of the foundations of the feudal-serf economic system. With the fall of the slave-owning economy and the decomposition of communal land forms on the basis of the emergence of property and land inequality in the land community, and then personal and economic dependence, and, finally, with the seizure of land by the conquerors, a complex and developed system of feudal land relations was created in the kingdoms of Western Europe. . The entire social structure, all social relations and the place in them of each individual person are determined on the basis of land ownership and land "holding". Starting from the suzerain, the king, his close and larger and more powerful owners, all vassals dependent on them receive land in a feud, in fief, that is, in hereditary conditional possession, as a reward for service. A complex system of vassalage and vassalage, hierarchies of higher and "noble" ruling classes pervades the entire society.
The development of feudal production relations provided, first of all, the partial emancipation of the direct producer: since the serf can no longer be killed, although it can be sold and bought, since the serf has a household and a family, he has some interest in labor, shows some initiative in labor, required by new productive forces. The basis of feudal production relations was the ownership of the feudal lords to the main means of agricultural production, the land, and the lack of land ownership among the workers. Along with this main feature, the feudal form of ownership of the means of production is also characterized by the incomplete ownership of the feudal lord over the worker (non-economic coercion) and the ownership of the workers themselves, that is, peasants and artisans, based on personal labor, to a certain part of the tools and means. From the feudal form of ownership followed the position in production and the relationship between the main classes of feudal society: feudal lords and peasants.
The feudal lords, in one form or another, endowed the peasants with land and forced them to work for themselves, appropriating part of their labor or products of labor in the form of feudal rent (duties). Peasants and artisans belonged in the broad sense of the word to the same class of feudal society, their relationship was not antagonistic. Classes and social groups under feudalism took the form of estates, and the form of distribution of production products depended entirely on the position and relationship of social groups in production. Early feudalism was characterized by the complete dominance of subsistence farming; with the development of handicrafts, commodity production became increasingly important in town and country. Commodity production, which existed under feudalism and served it, despite the fact that it prepared certain conditions for capitalist production, must not be confused with capitalist commodity production.
The main form of exploitation under feudalism was feudal rent, which increased through the successive change of its three forms: labour-service (corvee labor), food rent (rent in kind), and cash rent (monetary rent). The late feudal corvee-serf system in the countries of Eastern Europe is not a simple return to the first form, but also carries the features of the third form: production for the market. With the emergence of manufactory (the 16th century), an ever deeper contradiction began to develop in the depths of feudal society between the new nature of the productive forces and the feudal production relations, which became a brake on their development. The so-called primitive accumulation prepares the rise of a class of wage-workers and a class of capitalists.
In accordance with the class, antagonistic nature of the feudal economy, the entire life of feudal society was permeated with class struggle. Above the feudal basis rose the corresponding superstructure - the feudal state, the church, the feudal ideology, the superstructure, which actively served the ruling class, helping to suppress the struggle of the working people against feudal exploitation. The feudal state, as a rule, passes through a series of stages - from political fragmentation ("estate-state"), through a class monarchy to an absolute monarchy (autocracy). The dominant form of ideology under feudalism was religion
The intensified class struggle made it possible for the young bourgeoisie, by leading uprisings of peasants and plebeian elements of the cities, to seize power and overthrow feudal production relations. bourgeois revolutions in the Netherlands in the 16th century, in England in the 17th century, in France in the 18th century. ensured the dominance of the advanced bourgeois class at that time and brought production relations in line with the nature of the productive forces.
At present, the survivals of feudalism are supported and strengthened by the imperialist bourgeoisie. The survivals of feudalism are very significant in many capitalist countries. In the people's democracies these vestiges have been resolutely eliminated through democratic agrarian reforms. In the colonial and dependent countries, the peoples are fighting feudalism and imperialism at the same time; every blow to feudalism is at the same time a blow to imperialism.
