What do you understand by the term feudalism?

Answer 1

Before the rise of national states in Western Europe, the people lived under a system called feudalism. This was a social system of rights and obligations based on land ownership patterns.

Each small district was ruled by a duke, count, or other noble. The noble's power was based on the land he held in feud. This peculiar system of landholding determined the pattern of government. It also gave rise to fortified castles, knights in armor, and chivalry. The term "feudalism" therefore describes an entire way of life.

The system of feudalism was established gradually, between the 8th and 11th centuries. France was the land of its earliest and most complete development, but in some form or other it was found in all the countries of Western Europe. It flourished especially from the 11th to the end of the 13th century. There are survivals of feudalism in the laws and social usages of modern European countries.

No,it is highly improbable that European feudalism is applicable in India.

Feudalism had begun as a contract, the exchange of land tenure for military service. Over time, as lords could no longer provide new lands to their vassals, nor enforce their right to reassign lands which had become de facto hereditary property, feudalism became less tenable as a working relationship. By the thirteenth century, Europe's economy was involved in a transformation from a mostly agrarian system to one that was increasingly money-based and mixed. The Hundred Year's War instigated this gradual transformation as soldier's pay became amounts of gold instead of land. Therefore, it was much easier for a monarch to pay low-class citizens in mineral wealth, and many more were recruited and trained, putting more gold into circulation, thus undermining the land-based feudalism. Land ownership was still an important source of income, and still defined social status, but even wealthy nobles wanted more liquid assets, whether for luxury goods or to provide for wars. This corruption of the form is often referred to as "bastard feudalism". A noble vassal was expected to deal with most local issues and could not always expect help from a distant king. The nobles were independent and often unwilling to cooperate for a greater cause (military service). By the end of the Middle Ages, the kings were seeking a way to become independent of willful nobles, especially for military support. The kings first hired mercenaries and later created standing national armies.

The Black Death of the fourteenth century devasted Europe's population but also destabilised the economic basis of society. For instance, in England, the villains were much more likely to leave the manorial territory - seeking better paid work in towns struck by a labour shortage, while the crown responded to the economic crisis by imposing a poll tax. The resulting social crisis manifested itself in the peasants' revolt.

Historian J. J. Bagley notes that the fourteenth century

"marked the end of the true feudal age and began paving the way for strong monarchies, nation states, and national wars of the sixteenth century. Much fourteenth century