Position:Home>History> Help me on feudalism please?

Your period could be divided into two parts!.!.:
600-900 The Early medieval era
900-1200 Medieval Era
Both areas differ from economical, political, social, demographic, religious perspective!.

Between 600-750, Europe felt into abyss of economic collapse, chaos, instability, and barbarity!. The movement of nations had stopped, but every remains of antiquity was slowly erased!. The cities were abandoned, countryside cased to exist, and the forest had retreated back to agricultural areas!. Population felt between 30-60%!. The trade had collapsed to level not seen since 700 BC!. Centers that had bishoprics, monasteries, and tribal monarchs prospered!. Only church became institution capable to rule and administer, and use it to its advantage at the expense of warrior class!. The migrating people were not willing to work as slave on the roman plantation and usually the settled into village life protected by class of warrior freemans!. Villagers had until than some freedom to grow a crop, since the land was abundant!. Feudal was nothing more than barbarian with sword stealing something!.
The majority prospect of people was to survive, since the starvation was imminent!. Church had a big chance to expand and remove paganism within the society, increasing its power and prestige!. People would be nominally baptized, but they kept many pagan rites!. The society was very isolated, illiterate, brutal, and ruled by battle axe!. By degrees only ruling nobility was allowed to have a sword!.

Between 750-900, Europe stabilized thanks to Charlemagne; and economical, social revival stopped the collapse of the western world!. Writing became the core of the administration, states were unified into major block with future France became dominant power in Europe!. Cities were slowly renewed, and the trade between Frankish and Byzantine opened!. The overall stability improved quality of life for everyone!. The church became totally dominant aspect of everyone life!. Agriculture expanded thanks to monasteries and their work program!. Feudals were receiving landholdings with people that they put under their protection and soon treated all villages as their property!. At that time many edicts restricting what peasants should wear, what tools to use, and how much work they must do for feudal and the church!. Society became more diverse, since the warrior class was suppressed at the expense of the feudal nobility!. This improved stability of the state!. The church expanded as well, but the cities and the trading class was still insignificant!.

Between 900-1200!. Viking and Hungarian rides destroyed work of Charlemagne!. After brief period of darkness, civilization expanded far into central Europe, Baltics, and Scandinavia!. The countryside became more populous, and it will usually take only two hours of walk for peasant to get to any farmer market within the continental Europe!. Coinage became standard currency instead barter!. Slavery was abandoned (for example in Bohemia at 1096) and slave became on social level the same as peasant!. Many new monastic orders improved quality of life!. Premonsterian, Cistercian, Benedictines, Order of St!. John, and many others were cultivating land everywhere!. Greater emphasis was put into structure, art, sculpture, painting, and frescos!. At this time, the entire land was fully colonized and feudalized!. This was classic medieval era, and by the 1150, Gothic style started to take roots in France and by 1200 it will spread out to rest of Europe!. Cities became much bigger; their fortification was rebuilt if it was on the site of Roman city!. Religiously, the last traces of paganism had disappeared from the life at this time!. Woman were considered property of their husband, and treated that way!. Socially, the highest status was and the hand of the ruling family and their friends, and rich church was soon catching up!. Especially abbots and bishops crossed the nobility and the rulers a lot, a lot of unrest (Thomas Becket, example)!. The society was very diverse, from the ruling nobility, to lower nobility, to city traders rich with gold, to free peasant, and to serf!. The society was also closing the social mobility for everyone, but at this point, there were not very strict rules like it was the case two centuries later!.

Interesting fact for gender, that women were treated better during pagan era than early Christian!. The pagan Slavic society prize women a lot, had classes of sorceress, who were free to choose any men they want and often exchanged them the for better one to the horror of latin missionaries!. Slavic women were also used to fight against Frankish and Avars, as it was the case of 870 war between Moravia and Frankish empire!. As the Christianity took root within everyday life, women role was also limited, and they were treated extremely brutally, while church turned blind eye!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

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