Remember the structure of the feudal state and the responsibilities and obligations of each level of society The second zone included the oldest populated nuclei of the Holy Roman Empire, the areas that had been colonized before the thirteenth century, with the notable exception of the Lower Rhine (Cologne, Mainz, Rhine Palatinate, etc.), which belonged to the first zone. This area included Bavaria, Württemberg, Baden, Alsace, Hesse, Brunswick, Saxony, Thuringia and Franconia. The decisive factor here was the modesty or mediocrity of any force, be it demographic, economic or political, that could have brought about significant changes. Although there was a dense network of rural villages, between 1500 and 1800, the towns and municipalities were very small and quite undynamic. Most of Germany was far from the main trade routes in Europe. Politically, the region was fragmented into hundreds of small states. The rediscovery of Aristotle`s works allowed the full development of the new Christian philosophy and the method of scholasticism. Around 1200, there were reasonably accurate Latin translations of the major works of Aristotle, Euclid, Ptolemy, Archimedes, and Galen – that is, all the intellectually decisive ancient authors except Plato. Many key medieval Arabic and Jewish texts, such as the major works of Avicenna, Averroes, and Maimonides, also became available in Latin. During the 13th century, scholastics expanded the natural philosophy of these texts through commentaries (combined with teaching in universities) and independent treatises. These include works by Robert Grosseteste, Roger Bacon, Johannes von Sacrobosco, Albertus Magnus and Duns Scotus.
The term feudalism is used to describe a variety of social, economic and political obligations and relations that prevailed in medieval Europe, especially from the eleventh to the thirteenth century, although the feudal system existed in several cases before and well after this period. For example, serfdom in Tsarist Russia was not officially abolished until 1861. Feudalism has also been used to describe ancient or earlier social and political systems in Japan, China, India, the Middle East, and North Africa. The term is controversial and has been used by historians and social scientists as excessive or erroneous. Tod`s idea of Rajput feudalism was largely outdated and supplanted by other theories among British historians of colonial India, but some of its features tended to be incorporated into a more general notion of ancient and medieval Hindu politics as atomistic, divisive, and entropic, often uncomfortably mixed with notions of Eastern despotism. Soon, this image itself was associated with a supposedly « medieval » period that emerged among historians in imperialist and nationalist circles. According to Vincent Smith`s famous story about the early days of India, the great imperial experiments of the Mauryans and Guptas collapsed in the seventh century, giving way to a mixture of small states involved in incessant internal wars. Smith`s position was that this was the natural state under the Indian princes, unless they were controlled by a higher authority like the British.
Nationalist historians have mapped depictions of feudalized political chaos with the idea of the fall of the Golden Age and medieval decline, often using political chaos as an explanation for « national weakness » before invading Islamic armies. All the ingredients of the feudal system served to make society local, personal and hierarchical. The manor, the smallest unit of feudal society, played an important political and economic role in providing justice, protection, administration and a primitive form of insurance. The Church and the army, which were also linked to the feudal system, had their own forms of hierarchy between superiors and dependents. All the relationships that built the feudal pyramid from its base to its point of view relied on two key ingredients to keep the treaty together: self-interest, supported by the knowledge that both parties had to fulfill their obligations so that each party could benefit from it; and honour, driven by the values of the Knight`s Codex. These motivations did not always ensure that all interactions were ideal, but they formed the enduring backbone of feudalism for centuries. For farmers, medieval daily life revolved around an agricultural calendar, with most of their time spent working the land and trying to grow enough food to survive another year. Church feasts marked the days and occasions when the farmer and lord could recover from their work. Feudalism is often confused with manorialism, but the two must be separated. Manorialism was another land use system practiced in medieval Europe. Under his leadership, peasants worked and lived on a manor land, a so-called manor house. The peasants could not inherit the land, and the Lord owed them nothing but protection and maintenance.
Despite the complete transformation of Bloch and Ganshof`s sources and methodology in the second half of the twentieth century, a number of articulate scholars continued to push for the term feudalism to be removed from the vocabulary and mind of the historian. Since a famous and much-discussed essay published by Elizabeth A.R. Brown in 1974, and especially since Susan Reynolds` highly critical book, Fiefs and Vassals in 1994, a line has been drawn between historians who accept the idea of a feudal revolution or mutation at the turn of the millennium and are willing to use the adjective feudal to describe the society that emerged from it, and those who emerged from it. who find the abstract concept of feudalism too imprecise and overloaded with implications of homogeneity and coherence in a period and place that had neither, or possessed certain characteristics that can rightly be described as feudal, but lacked others. Like most complex scientific questions, the story ends with a lively and ongoing debate. A series of contractual relations between the upper classes aimed at maintaining control of the country. William`s reign influenced feudalism in two ways. First, he placed another layer on top of the existing lord/vassal structure. William regarded England as his right of conquest and distributed land in mansions to his followers and loyal subjects. .