Decline Of Feudalism

Decline Of Feudalism

The decline of the feudalism was not sudden process, it took several hundred years between 1350-1750 (depending on state), and at the end, it was either popular revolt that ended feudal privilege and economic models (France), or was state based dismantling process (like in Austria, England). Feudal system was agrarian economic model based on land holding, and this model could only function in society were majority of people were living off the land, and middle class did not existed. Feudalism raised on ruins of the Roman Empire, where majority of the urban, middle class citizenry disappeared, and society was dominated by small manors and villages. Cities were too small to put any weight into the society, their economic contribution was not as important as was the case of peasants. However, at the late middle ages, the social and economic structure changed, where cities started to control the economy and became the new power play in the state. Cities expanded into size of tens or even hundreds of thousands people, where people lived from commerce, trade, and business and were making own fortune without the need of protection from feudal landlord. They were also protected by walls and had a significant money, while many former powerful knights could not even support themselves and were moving into poverty. The city class also undermined the intellectual and spiritual power of the church, where many urban intellectuals were educated in universities. The late middle age was dominated by class warfare, where one side was knighthood and other hand cities, and in Central Europe around 1500 is often called war of knights against cities. This undermined the last pillars of the feudal society, where knights lost whatever power and prestige they had at the start of Renaissance and their class disappeared into obscurity. However, the Western European model was more successful toward implementing middle class as was the case of Lower countries, England, and Northern Italy....

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