FEUDALISM, the estate-class structure of society, characteristic of the collective, which is agrarian by its nature and predominantly conducts subsistence farming. In some cases - in the ancient world - it replaces the slave system, in others (in particular, in Russia) - it is associated with the birth of a class-stratified society as such.
Feudalism is also called the era when the system, in which the main classes were landowners and the peasantry dependent on them, dominated, determined the socio-economic, political, cultural parameters of society. Etymologically feudalism goes back to the terms feud(Latin feodum, in French fief - fief- the same as linen – Lehen in German practice, i.e. hereditary land holding received by a vassal from a lord on the condition of performing military or other service), feudal lord(bearer of the rights and obligations associated with his place in the military-fief system). It is believed that in Europe the genesis and development of feudal relations took about a millennium - from the 5th century. (conditional boundary - the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476) until the beginning of the 16th century. However, the system-forming signs of feudalism, the nature of the social evolution that took place in its depths, are interpreted ambiguously in the scientific tradition.
Feudalism as a scientific term came into use in early modern times. From the very beginning, there was no unity in its use. C. Montesquieu and a number of other authors focused on such signs of the phenomenon as the hierarchical structure of a full-fledged part of society, the resulting division of power and rights to land ownership between the lord and his vassals (among whom, in turn, their own subordination could develop, and at the same time the principle was: “my vassal's vassal is not my vassal”). But often the word was used in a broad sense: any socio-political institutions based on noble privileges and discrimination of the "third estate" were called feudal.
The science of the Enlightenment was mostly contemptuous of feudalism, identifying it with the rule of violence, superstition and ignorance. On the contrary, romantic historiography tended to idealize feudal customs and mores. If, in the study of the feudal system, jurists and historians for a long time focused on the nature of social ties in the upper strata of society, on personal and land relations within the nobility, then during the 19th and 20th centuries. the center of gravity is shifting towards the analysis of relationships between classes.
The problem of feudalism gave rise to a huge literature. It aroused interest among historians, sociologists, cultural scientists, philosophers, and publicists. The largest contribution to its development was made by French historiography, primarily Fustel de Coulanges and Marc Blok.
With an in-depth study of feudal institutions and the sociocultural processes behind them, scientists, as a rule, prefer to refrain from strict, exhaustive definitions. You can consider this a disadvantage. But the point, obviously, is not so much in the miscalculations of individual historians, but in the extreme complexity and diversity of the object of research, which makes it difficult to reduce its characteristics to several basic parameters.
Marxist historical thought went further than others in the formulation of clear, unambiguous definitions of feudalism, at the same time filling the old term with new content. Russian science developed under the sign of Marxism throughout almost the entire 20th century. Many followers of Marxist methodology were found in other countries as well.
Developing the world-historical concept of Hegel and at the same time considering the entire historical process from the point of view of the struggle of classes, Marxism included the feudal mode of production in its stage-typological scheme of the social evolution of mankind (primitive communal system - slavery - feudalism - capitalism - communism). The basis of the feudal socio-economic formation was recognized as the property of the feudal lords to the means of production, primarily to land, and incomplete ownership of the worker in production, the peasant. At the same time, the presence, along with feudal property, of the private property of the feudal-dependent peasant on his tools and personal economy, was ascertained, as well as the coexistence of several socio-economic structures within the framework of the feudal formation.
The development of the question of the forms of land rent and other aspects of the feudal mode of production took a particularly important place in the modification of the teachings of Karl Marx, which was called Marxism-Leninism. Having formed in the conditions of Russia, where the pre-bourgeois socio-political institutions were not only particularly tenacious, but also possessed significant originality, the Leninist doctrine attributed the centuries-old history of the Russian people, from the time of Kievan Rus to the abolition of serfdom, to the period of feudalism. Having acquired the status of a monopolist in the Soviet Union and sharply limiting the debatable field in science, Marxism-Leninism and in what concerned the essence of feudal relations, unconditionally cut off any deviations from the letter Short course or other directives.
If the founders of historical materialism, creating their model of the world-historical process, when deciding the place of feudal society in it, showed certain fluctuations (this was most clearly expressed in Marx's hypothesis regarding the so-called Asian mode of production), then V.I. Lenin and his followers, actively using feudal themes for propaganda purposes, gave the formation model complete certainty and completeness. They paid little attention to the resulting overlays.
As a result, serfdom, intuitively or consciously understood in the Russian manner, was included in the definition of feudalism generally accepted in the USSR. Not only non-professionals, but also some specialists, who were familiar from school years from the works of N.V. Gogol and M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, considered the feudal system the standard of feudal society, not knowing or ignoring the fact that under feudalism the bulk of the rural people in the countries Western Europe remained personally free. The ideological situation in Russia contributed to the introduction of vulgarized or simply incorrect provisions into Soviet historical science - for example, the statement proclaimed in 1933 by J.V. Stalin in a speech at the First All-Union Congress of Collective Farmers-Shock Workers and the thesis about the "revolution of slaves" and "revolution of serfs ", Allegedly - respectively - opening and closing the period of feudalism.
The understanding of feudalism as a socio-economic formation, which inevitably ends with a revolutionary breakdown of the old order, forced Soviet scientists to significantly expand the chronological boundaries of the object. On the scale of all of Europe, they chose the Great French Revolution as the upper formation frontier. The idea was not new at all. The thesis that the 18th century was the time of the "overthrow of the feudal oppression" by the French Revolution was repeatedly repeated by historians, for example, N. Ya. Danilevsky, the founder of the theory of cultural-historical types. However, in the context of the rigidly monistic, dogmatized Marxist-Leninist teaching, the periodization shift acquired a new meaning. In addition, since the identification of the era of feudalism with the Middle Ages was preserved, a renaming was needed: the period of the 17-18 centuries, formerly called early modern times, in Soviet literature became period of late feudalism, or in other words, the late Middle Ages.
In its own way, not devoid of logic, the change in the nomenclature created new difficulties. Within the framework of a very extended in time and, nevertheless, as if preserving its identity, a single formation, practically put on the same level qualitatively heterogeneous social processes and phenomena - starting with class formation among German or Slavic tribes emerging from the stage of barbarism and ending with the formation and crisis of an absolute monarchy, which the Marxists regarded as a state-political superstructure, owing its emergence to a certain balance of forces achieved by that time between the nobility and the bourgeoisie. Moreover, as a result of such a "prolongation" of the Middle Ages, mutual understanding between historians of the old and the new, Marxist-Leninist school was even more difficult. Finally, the new periodization came into conflict with the established tradition - it seemed unusual to write Montesquieu or Voltaire into the category of medieval authors.
After the war, Soviet historians were still allowed to slightly lower the upper boundary of the Middle Ages. Marxist-Leninist thinking demanded that the line between the feudal and capitalist formations must be marked by a political upheaval, a revolution, and therefore the end of the Middle Ages was proclaimed for a long time by the English bourgeois revolution of the mid-17th century. Then the question will be repeatedly raised that since in the advanced countries of Western Europe in the 17th century. Since the transformation of feudal society into a bourgeois society has already gone far enough, it would be more correct to take the Dutch bourgeois revolution or the German Reformation as the formational boundary (while referring to Friedrich Engels, who wrote about the Reformation as an unsuccessful bourgeois revolution).
Specific historical and conceptual flaws, exacerbated by the dogmatic approach to the subject inherent in the Soviet system, did not prevent the fact that the Russian historiography of the 20th century. made a huge contribution to the study of the Middle Ages. Through the works of B.D. Grekov, E.A.Kosminsky, A.I. Neusykhin, A.D. Lyublinskaya, L.V. Cherepnin, M.A. Barg, Yu.M. Bessmertny, A.Ya. Gurevich, many Other researchers advanced the clarification of individual phenomena and events in the history of the medieval world, and the theoretical comprehension of the problems of feudalism progressed.
When the Soviet ideological censorship became a thing of the past, Russian historians returned to the traditional understanding of the Middle Ages. It was not so difficult to bring the use of terms in line with generally accepted practice in the world. The substantive side of the problem still caused and is causing much more difficulties. It took a revision of a number of approaches to it, clarification of the chronological and territorial limits of the feudal public system(as many historians began to express themselves, demonstratively rejecting the concept too closely related to Marxist-Leninist dogmas socio-economic formation).
Disputes continued about the place of non-economic coercion. It is present to one degree or another at all stages of the development of society, but, according to a number of researchers, there is reason to believe that under feudalism this factor turned out to be especially significant. Indeed, in the conditions of the complete predominance of the small-peasant economy, the feudal lord did not act as the organizer of production. At best, he only provided it smooth functioning the fact that he protected from external enemies and from local violators of law and order. The feudal lord actually did not have economic instruments for withdrawing part of the surplus product from the peasant.
The attention of historians is also drawn to the mechanism of interaction of various forms of socio-economic organization of society. On the one hand, along with the land holdings of the feudal type, medieval sources attest to the presence of other forms - from entirely natural, self-contained peasant allodial ownership as a legacy of pre-state life, and up to a completely bourgeois economy based on hired labor and working for the market.
On the other hand, it is obvious that feudal personal and material relations, their refraction in the mass consciousness of their era, are also observed beyond the chronological limits of that approximately thousand-year (from 5th to 15th centuries) interval, which in science is recognized as the period of feudalism. For a long time, scientists have made attempts to examine the history of the ancient world from the "feudal point of view." For example, the history of Sparta with its helots gave rise to considering the social system of Lacedaemon as serfdom, finding him close analogues in medieval Europe. The history of ancient Rome with its colonial and other phenomena, which brought up parallels with the Middle Ages, also gave well-known grounds for such an approach. In the classic monograph by D.M. Petrushevsky Essays from the history of medieval society and state almost half of the text was devoted to the consideration of precisely "the state and society of the Roman Empire." Similarly, signs of feudal-type relations are found in industrial society - not only in the new, but also in the modern era. Among the many examples are the absence of passports for Soviet collective farmers for decades, their actual attachment to the land, the obligatory minimum of working days. Not in such painful forms, but relics of the Middle Ages made themselves felt in Western Europe. The famous French historian Jacques Le Goff said in the early 1990s: "We live among the last material and intellectual remnants of the Middle Ages."
A lot of controversy and controversy is caused by the question of how universal feudalism is. This question inevitably returns the researcher to a controversy regarding the complex of those signs, the presence of which is necessary and sufficient for the recognition of a society as feudal. The legal monuments of Northern France (more precisely, the Paris region) or the code of feudal law of the crusader states in the Middle East - "Jerusalem Assizes", which once served as the main support of historians and lawyers who reconstructed the appearance of the medieval seigneur and clarified the structure of the hierarchical ladder, are deliberately unique. There is no reason to mistake the relationship they draw for a ubiquitous or widespread norm. Even other regions of France, outside the Ile-de-France, had their own regulations.
Official Marxist-Leninist science did not hesitate to give an affirmative answer to the question of whether feudalism is a stage through which all mankind passes. In Russian historiography, the universalist point of view was confidently defended, in particular, by Academician N.I. Konrad, although he himself, like other orientalists, faced intractable problems when examining feudalism on a world-historical scale. It was impossible not to reckon, for example, with the fact that in the European version of feudal society (although it is sometimes difficult to draw the line between full and divided ownership, between property and inheritance), one of the main indicators was land relations, while in those Asian regions, where irrigation was dominant, ownership of water rather than land was of great importance. The predominance of nomadic pastoralism in the vast expanses of Asia made it even more difficult to draw parallels between European and Asian agricultural practices of the past centuries. Even in areas where agriculture was not much different from European in nature, it was not always possible to find the division of property rights between the rungs of the hierarchical ladder. Quite often, on the contrary, Eastern despotism demonstrates the concentration of power functions at the top of the social pyramid. Such obvious facts, which were difficult to ignore, forced the supporters of the world-historical scheme to introduce numerous amendments to the specifics of natural conditions, to the peculiarities of local mentality, the impact of religious beliefs, and so on.
A detailed analysis of the argumentation of supporters and opponents of the universalist point of view on feudalism from the standpoint of orthodox Marxism-Leninism was undertaken back in the 1970s by V.N. Nikiforov. The interpretation he defended, and to this day finds adherents not only among Marxists - "feudal society in world history was a stage that naturally followed the slave-owning one" - of course, has every right to exist. In his opinion, at one of the early stages of its development, society inevitably goes through a stage characterized by: 1) the growth of exploitation based on the concentration of land ownership in the hands of a few; 2) rent as a form associated in that era with non-economic coercion; 3) the transfer of land plots to direct producers and their attachment to the land in various forms. This theory does not contradict the current state of historical knowledge. But such an understanding of feudalism turns out to be extremely impoverished, reducible to an insignificant sociological abstraction.
European feudalism, which still remains a basic model for almost all researchers, had a number of additional and essentially important features, a significant part of which was due to the synthesis of ancient and barbaric principles, unique in world practice. Of course, in comparison with bourgeois society, feudalism, as it was realized in European countries, appears to be an inert structure that is difficult to change progressively. However, if we compare it with the fact that (according to the same, say, V.N. Nikiforov) was feudalism on other continents, then the European version looks completely different. It's not just more dynamic. Its development reveals qualities that are unmatched in other regions. Even in the most sedentary times - in the "dark ages" of European history - deep social processes were observed here, leading not only to the emergence of trade and craft centers, but also to the city's conquest of political autonomy and other changes that ultimately led to the recognition of rights by society. human personality.
Such a load of connotations undoubtedly interferes with the consolidation of rather heterogeneous social phenomena under one common name “feudalism”. It is not surprising that discussions on this issue are constantly flaring up both in Russia and abroad. Not considering it possible to sacrifice empirical wealth in the name of an abstract formula, many of modern researchers prefer the civilizational approach over the world-historical (in other words, formational) approach. At the same time, feudalism is understood as one of the stages in the history of precisely European civilization. This interpretation, as far as can be judged, seems to be the most acceptable today.
Galina Lebedeva, Vladimir Yakubsky
City: Taldykorgan
School: KSU "Secondary school-gymnasium №16"
Class: 7b
Teacher: Minazetdinova L.Sh. - history teacher
Subject: World History, online -lesson
Date: 11.01.2017, 15.00; venue: regional center of information technologies
Topic O
The purpose of the lesson: reveal the most important features and characteristics characteristic of early feudal society.
Tasks:
Find out what role land has in feudal society
Find out the essence of the natural economy and the reasons for its domination; pay attention to the interest of peasants in the results of their labor
Know the tasks and features of the state in the period of feudal fragmentation; to find out the reasons for feudal fragmentation, showing the connection between the strengthening of the property of feudal lords to land and the transition to them of the functions of state power
To help students understand the peculiarities of vassal-senior relations in European states.
To form the ability to trace cause-and-effect relationships and identify signs of concepts
Learning Outcome :
Students must:
1. Know the terms: feud, vassal, lord, feudal estate, subsistence farming, feudal fragmentation, feudal civil strife,
2. Understand and be able to characterize:
- the main features of the feudal system;
- subsistence farming and the reasons for its predominance in the early Middle Ages;
- causes and consequences of feudal strife;
3. Come to conclusions:
signs of the feudal system are:
- transformation of land into the main source of income and wealth; land becomes hereditary property of the nobility
The natural character of the farm
Feudal fragmentation
Feudal civil strife
Key ideas : The development of the mental activity of students in pair work, the development of the creative abilities of students in the process of studying the development of the feudal system.
Equipment: computer, projector, screen, presentation to the topic, markers, Whatman paper, self-control sheets.
Lesson type : a lesson in learning new material.Methods: visual, verbal, partly search, critical thinking techniques.
Organizing timeLesson readiness check
The mood for the lesson.
Work in pairs
3 min
Brainstorm.
What societies did we meet when studying history? (primitive, slave-owning) And what kind of society do we study in grade 7? (feudal)
How are these two societies different?
What is the trend?
What was the main source of life for the population?
In whose hands was the land mainly concentrated?
As you can see, the land has become the main source of income and wealth. What would you like to learn in the lesson today?
(expected answers of students: what is feudal society, the main features and characteristics, how the main classes coexist, what are the relations between them.)
Asking questions
Answer questions
Provide examples, work with a table
1 minute
2. Announcement of the topic and purpose of the lesson
What is the purpose of our lesson?
Announcement of the topic of the lesson.
O the main signs and features of the feudal system.
Formulate the purpose of the lesson on their own
1 minute .
Assessment on self-control sheets.
Types of jobsgrade
1
Individual work
2
Working in pairs
3
Composing a cluster
4
Drafting a project
5
"Catch the mistake"
6
Working with the card (put in the correct order)
final grade
Explanation of the work on the self-check sheet. Recommendations for further work with the self-control sheet during the lesson
Getting to know the self-check sheet
7min
Learning new material
Students work in pairs on the basis of the feudal system:
1 The main features of the feudal system
2 Subsistence farming
3 feudal fragmentation
Draws the attention of students to the fact that feudal fragmentation has not only negative consequences, but also positively affects the development of the economic and cultural life of the newly formed states
The consequences of fragmentation:
PositiveNeutral
Negative
rise in the economy;
successes in development
local culture.
Weakness of royalty;
The independence of the feudal lords;
Organization of feudal lords in the form of a feudal staircase.
Internecine
wars,
loss of life;
Weakening the country in front of external enemies.
4 feudal strife
Working in a group, making flip charts.
Work with new terms, after each flipchart, write down in a notebook.
Shows a slide with terms. Checks how they coped with the assignment.
Writing in a notebook
5 minutes
Feudal hierarchy
One of the features of the feudal system was that the feudal lords in their position were large, medium and small, each was on the rung of the ladder - the feudal hierarchy.
Who is not included in the feudal ladder?
(peasants)
Moving on to the consideration of the feudal ladder, update the knowledge of students by inviting them to answer the followingquestions:
How, in conditions of fragmentation, was it possible to defend their territories and wage wars with other states?
How could a larger feudal lord win over the smaller feudal lords?
Feud - land given for service in de facto hereditary possession.
Senor - the person providing the feud.
Vassal - the person who received the feud.
DUTIES
seniors vassals
Provide a feud; - service in the army;
Protect from enemies; - participation in the court of the seigneur;
Patronage. - guarding the seigneur's castle;
Redemption of the lord from captivity;
Help with money.
Feudal staircase presentation
Why was royal power preserved in conditions of feudal fragmentation?
Students work with textbook page 50
Estimated student answers: the king was needed by the large feudal lords to organize a rebuff against the attacks of external enemies, as the supreme judge in their disputes over land and other sources of income, and also to keep dependent peasants in subjection)
8 minutes
Call
Working in pairs
Students are given the task to draw up their project:
1.Prove which system was more progressive than feudal or slaveholding?
2. Prove that there was no need to engage in trade? (agricultural machinery is low, so yields are insignificant. All estates produced the same products, so there was nothing to trade)
3. Prove that the strengthening of the personal power of the feudal lord led to feudal fragmentation.
Introduces the task and the rules for its implementation.
Get acquainted with the task and complete it.
Working in pairs
Job protection
Give yourself a grade for work in pairs
3 min
Comprehension:
Compare the labor of slaves and the labor of free peasants and determine which of them is more productive.
Where did the inhabitants of the feudal estates in the earlier Middle Ages get their clothes, shoes, tools and tools and food?
Conclusion: in comparison with the previous primitive communal and slave-owning systems, the feudal system represented a more progressive stage of social development.
Explanation of the teacher.
Asking questions.
Draws conclusions.
Perceive the information provided by the teacher.
Answers questions.
They make notes in notebooks.
Conclude
3 min
W. Now, I think you are ready and able to identify the signs of the feudal system and conclude:
The main features of the feudal system
Composing a cluster.
Perceive the information provided by the teacher
They make notes in notebooks.
Cluster recording in notebooks
Conclude
5 minutes
Anchoring.
Working in pairs ... You have to explain to each other the key concepts of the lesson (mini test).
Now let's play a game"Catch the mistake" .
1. The main features of the feudal system in Western Europe were formed in the 10-11 centuries. (9-10th centuries)
2. The main feature of the feudal system is the transformation of cities into the main source of income and wealth. (Land)
3. "Feod" is a land allotment received by a peasant for his service. (For military service "vassal")
4. The peasants turned rivers, mountains, lakes into their possessions. (Feudal lords)
5. The estate is the farm of the peasant. (Feudal lord)
6. The peasants owned the land, therefore they were independent. (Didn't have, were dependent on the feudal lord)
7. Did the peasants perform household work on the estate with the tools of the feudal lord? (by their)
8. The feudal system was less progressive in comparison with the primitive communal and slaveholding. (More)
9. Internecine strife was called clashes when detachments of peasants often attacked the estates of peasants. (Feudal lords)
10. In France, among the feudal lords there was a rule: "The vassal of my vassal is my vassal." (No)
Listening to student responses
Discussion in pairs of your notes
Give yourself a grade for work in pairs
3 min
Summing up the lesson.
1. What did you learn in the lesson?
2. What system follows the slave system?
3. What is the difference between feudal and slave systems?
4. What is a feud? Who is a feudal lord?
5. What kind of economy is called natural?
Working with a card
2. Put in the correct sequence the main features of the feudal system. What are the numbers of the main features of the feudal system indicated in the wrong sequence?
1. Property of feudal lords to land. 2. Allotment of land to the peasants and the presence of their own economy. 3. Exploitation of dependent peasants by feudal lords. 4. Low level of agricultural technology. 5. The power of the feudal lords over the peasants. 6. Subsistence farming.
Indicate the correctness of their sequence (1,2,5,3,4,6)
I ask questions
Checking the primary perception and awareness of the assimilation of new material
Answers on questions
2 minutes
Self-Assessment Sheets
Give themselves a final grade
1 minute
Feedback.
The guys in a circle express themselves in one sentence, choosing the beginning
today I found out ...
it was interesting…
it was difficult…
I was doing tasks ...
I realized that ...
Now I can…
I felt that ...
I bought ...
I learned…
I managed …
I was able to ...
I'll try…
I was surprised ...
gave me a lesson for life ...
I wanted…
Analysis and assessment of the success of work in the classroom.
Self-esteem
1 minute
Homework
§ 6, Find out the features of the life of the classes of feudal society (feudal lords and dependent peasants)
Feudalism - social. - the economic system in medieval Europe.
Estates concept:
Peasants
Citizens (business)
Churchmen, clergy (mental labor, science, culture, religion)
In Western Europe, feudalism was formed on the basis of a synthesis of the decaying slaveholding system of the Roman Empire and the early class social system of the barbarians, mainly Germans, which was at the stage of formation.
The transition to feudalism from the slave-owning system can be considered a progressive phenomenon in world history. Under feudalism, small-scale peasant production took shape, and a small-scale farm. The peasant, in contrast to the slave, was interested in his work.
Har-e features of the feudal system:
The dominance of large landed property, which all concentrated in the hands of the feudal class and is the basis of medieval feudal society.
Combination of large land ownership with small individual farming direct producers, i.e. peasants to whom the feudal lords distributed land for holding on different terms.
The peasants, receiving land from the feudal lords for holding, never became its full owners.
The essence of the production relations of feudalism consisted in the fact that all the land was divided among the landowners and they endowed the peasants with land. The allotment of land by the feudal lords to the peasants was a peculiar form of their exploitation. The land was a kind of natural salary, it gave the peasant surplus products, which went to the landowner.
Extra-economic coercion of the peasant. The first forms of non-economic coercion were reduced only to judicial dependence of the peasant on the feudal lord.
Feudal rent was economic implementation mechanism property of the feudal lord to land.
In feudal society, rent appeared in three forms:
corvee, or labor rent;
grocery rent, or natural rent;
cash rent, or cash rent.
Feudal class organization:
Dukes - Heads of Large Areas
Graphs - heads of small areas
Barons - commanders of local military militias
Knight - equestrian warrior
Every war was given a definition. number of peasants and land.
The peasants had to support the military elite, because the peasant cannot afford to buy uniforms, so the wars protected them. Mutually beneficial cooperation and all business.
Feudal fragmentation. Its causes and results. European countries in the era of feudal fragmentation,IX- XIcenturies (tell about any country to choose from).
X-XII centuries are a period of political fragmentation.
Feudal fragmentation is political and economic decentralization of the state, the creation on the territory of one state of practically independent from each other independent state formations, formally having a common supreme ruler.
Causes:
The established monopoly property of feudal lords to land was reflected in the rules of law.
Having received a monopoly on land, the feudal lords also acquired significant political power: the transfer of part of their land to the vassals, the right to legal proceedings and minting money, the maintenance of their own military power, etc.
The privatization of power leads to the fact that the need for a central government disappears.
With the disintegration, small states developed better.
It is known that on the territory disintegrated in the middle of the 9th century. the empire of Charlemagne, three new states arose: French, German and Italian(Northern Italy), each of which became the base of the emerging territorial-ethnic community - the nationality. Then the process of political disintegration swept each of these new formations, but now they are patrimonial-senior formations.
Results:
Feudal fragmentation - completion of the process of the formation of feudal relations and the flourishing of feudalism in Western Europe... This was a natural and progressive process, due to the rise of internal colonization, the expansion of the area of cultivated land.
France / Frankish Empire in the era of feudal fragmentation:
The period of feudal fragmentation - IX - XIII centuries.
During the period of feudal fragmentation, the nominal unified kingdom was actually divided into many almost independent fiefdoms, the fragmentation also continued within individual duchies and counties.
The folding of the two main classes of feudal society - lords and dependent peasantry- generally completed by the X century ... A feudal hierarchy was formed, headed by a king, with a system of vassalage characteristic of it. The relationship of vassalage rested on the hierarchical structure of land ownership: nominally, the supreme owner of all land in the state was considered the king - the supreme seigneur, or suzerain, and large feudal lords, receiving land from him, became his vassals.
During the period of feudal fragmentation, the king, the nominal head of state, was elected by large landowners - the king's vassals and the highest hierarchs of the church.
Local government is characterized by that the king's authority was only recognized in his own domain, and the land holdings of large feudal lords had their own systems of local government.
In the judicial system under the seignorial monarchy, there were senior justice - the judiciary was shared by the seniors, moreover, the scope of powers was determined by the level of the hierarchical ladder on which they were located.
The army consisted from the knightly militia of vassals who performed the military service to which they were obliged to the lords. During the wars, the people's militia was convened.
Medieval cities. The reasons and ways of their formation. Workshops and guilds. "Communal revolution". Unions of cities. Tell about a city-state or a union of cities (optional - Italian city-republics, Hansa, etc.)
Medieval cities are a concentrate of civilization. Settlements - military fortifications, fortresses.
Synthesis zone. Back in the era early middle ages there were urban-type settlements, first of all, on the sites of former ancient cities.
The number of cities in Western Europe was uneven... Most of the cities are concentrated in the romanized areas of Europe - primarily in Italy. In cities intracity and foreign trade developed.
Non-synthesis zone. The settlements of non-Romanized Western Europe at the beginning of developed feudalism were extremely sparsely populated and practically had no economic value in the life of feudalized Europe.
The phenomenon of a medieval city is a consequence of the isolation and development of handicrafts.
With the evolution of developed feudalism, craft is becoming more and more independent and leading industry in the city.
The craft developed in stages:
handicraft production to order.
connecting craft with the market; the artisan is already becoming a commodity producer.
Cities arise where it was convenient to sell products + in case of war it was possible to hide in the fortress of the feudal lord, so artisans tried to settle near the feudal lords.
After the emergence of cities, social services took shape. compound:
Artisans
Merchants (wholesalers). Traded to distant countries. Prestigious, but dangerous. They paid rent for living in cities. Were the business elite.
Handicraft production, which formed the basis of urban production, had a special form of organization in the early stages of developed feudalism - workshops, or craft guilds. Workshop or guild were originally an organization of small urban artisans, and the guild was more often a merchant's organization. There was tight control over guild production, as well as over the sale of handicrafts. The workshop was headed by a master. The workshop was also a military structure that supplied warriors-artisans to the king or lord. Thus, the workshop was a very complex system - production, life-determining, spiritual, religious, cultural, military etc. In the XIV-XV centuries. there is a process of "shop transformation", or "shop transformation", which leads to the emergence of the rich, or senior workshops and the poor, or junior workshops. The junior workshops, as a result of the competition with the rich older workshops, gradually go bankrupt, and the members of the younger workshops gradually turn into hired workers - a prototype of the future pre-proletariat and the proletariat, which will take shape two centuries later.
12-13 centuries. - communal revolution.
For self-government in cities, against dependence on the feudal lords.
The communal movement that led to urban independence caused another phenomenon - folding urban patriciate, which was not at the early stage of the development of the medieval city. Court, finance, city administration begin to focus gradually in the hands of a patrician. As a result, in the XIII-XV centuries. in almost all countries of Western Europe, the struggle is already developing inside the city - the struggle of the townspeople with the patriciate. Despite some peculiarities in different cities of Western Europe, this struggle ends with the victory of the wealthy artisans and commercial strata of the city, who establish an urban oligarchic administration, practically merging with the urban patrician. The oligarchic administration acts in the interests of the wealthy townspeople.
The social struggle that unfolded in the city went through three stages. The first stage is the communal movement, the second stage is the struggle against the patriciate, and the third is the struggle of the urban handicraft plebeians against the wealthy craftsmen and merchants who have merged with the patriciate, and against the urban oligarchy.
With the growth of cities, handicraft production increases, and trade also grows. The city and the market that has arisen around it become the basis for the formation of a single internal market. At the same time, they begin to take shape largest trading merchant companies, which were important not only for trade itself and the formation of commercial capital, but also played a huge role in the political collisions of Western Europe, being the center of its wealth and thereby determining its political life. The most famous of these was the company created by the merchants of the German lands - the Hansa, or the Hanseatic Trading Society. The merchants of Novgorod and Pskov entered the Hansa. Hansa actively intervened in the political collisions of Western Europe. In the XII-XIII centuries. there is another new phenomenon - fairs as large centers of wholesale trade. The largest fairground at that time was Champagne. Banks, protocapitalism and the rest of the shit come up. Well, you get the idea.
Union of Cities - Hansa. I copy Kostin's version, because it delivers: The aggregate of the cities of the Hansa, the aggregate about which one can simultaneously speak of fragility and strength. The fragility stemmed from the instability of the association, which gathered a huge "crowd" of cities (from 70 to 170), which were far from each other and whose delegates did not gather in full at general conventions. Neither the state, nor a tightly knit alliance stood behind the Hansa - only the cities, on occasion competing with each other, fenced off by powerful walls, with their merchants, navy, craft workshops, with their riches. Strength stemmed from a community of interests, from the need to play the same economic game., from a common civilization "involved" in trade in one of the most populous sea areas of Europe - from the Baltic to Lisbon, from a common language, finally, which was by no means an insignificant element of unity. And that was the language of the “power elite ... the wealth elite, which implied belonging to a particular social and professional group. All these bonds gave birth to cohesion, solidarity, common habits and common pride. The restrictions common to all did the rest. In the Mediterranean, with a relative abundance of wealth, cities could each play their own game and fight fiercely among themselves. In the Baltic, in the North Sea, it would be far more difficult. Revenues from heavy and large volumes at low prices remained modest, costs and risks significant. In the West, having better armed partners before her, the Hansa still managed to maintain her privileges, in London to an even greater extent than in Bruges. In London, the Hanseaticans were exempted there from most of the fees; they had their own judges, and they even guarded one of the gates of the city, which was an undoubted honor.
From 1370 the Hansa prevailed over the king of Denmark by the terms and occupied the fortresses on the Danish straits; in 1388, as a result of a dispute with Bruges, she forced the wealthy city and government of the Netherlands to capitulate due to an effective blockade. The price movement in the West played against the Hansa. Indeed, after 1370 g... cereal prices fell, and then, beginning in 1400, fur prices fell, while industrial prices rose. This opposite movement of both scissor blades had an adverse effect on trade in Lübeck and other Baltic cities. German historians attribute the decline of the Hansa to Germany's political infantilism.
Crusades. Reasons, directions of campaigns, events, leaders, results.
In historical science, it is customary to consider the Crusades as wars of Western European feudal lords, townspeople, peasants, unleashed by Western Europe in the Middle East (Syria, Palestine, North Africa) against the "infidels" (Muslims) and for the liberation from the rule of the "infidels" of the Sepulcher The Lord, Christian shrines and the Holy Land - Palestine.
This movement was organized with the blessing of the Roman Catholic Church, which ideologically shaped all eight Crusades. The Crusades continued from 1096 to 1270. after 1270, attempts were made to revive the Crusader movement. The participants in the Crusades themselves did not call themselves crusaders, but pilgrims (pilgrims), while their campaigns called themselves pilgrimages, or the "sacred road."
Population explosion in Europe
By law, all the money goes to the eldest son. Therefore, the younger sons of feudal families are actively and in great numbers included in the Crusader movement. In addition to them, impoverished peasants and townspeople poured into the first Crusades. Like a desire for profit and everything. (First; the rest are more with knights and kings, but the essence does not change - loot). + there was still a famine, a plague, a crisis in Europe ... why not plunder the East, blasphemy?
Well, religious thoughts also slipped through. The difficult situation in Europe during this era gave rise to apocalyptic sentiments. The population eagerly listened to the calls of the preachers to visit the Holy Land and by this religious feat to achieve salvation. + Pope Urban 2 promised sin leave to all participants. Whores, money and blackjack for free!
How it was:
Means, in 1095 Pope Urban 2 pushes his tearful speech about how bad life is for Christians in the East - in terms of faith, and how good it is materially. Therefore, you need to come, protect the sepulcher of the Lord, shed some of them and your blood, well, you can grab something. For this all sins will be forgiven and in general gorgeous. Well, let's all go - God wants it.
Pilgrims flocked to Lorraine, to Champagne, to the Rhine region. Here the detachments united and moved to the East to gain the Promised Land, in order to wash away their sins in the waters of the Jordan, where the Savior was baptized. But since everyone was poor and, in general, what is geography, they asked in every city if this was Jerusalem and went further to the East. Well, since the way is long, but I want to eat, they robbed everyone. These detachments were led by Peter Hermit.
And so they came to Constantinople. The Tsar saw how they were robbing everything, and he got crazy and sent them to the Turks. There the first stream of crusaders was killed.
Then came the militia, already knights - they even knew where to go. But they still robbed. The knights who came to Constantinople were received in the palace of the basileus. Alexei 1 decided to get rid of them, as with the first detachment, and sent them to the Turks. But the knights were smart-ass - he had to take on certain obligations, provide them with military, diplomatic and material assistance. Therefore, when the crusaders crossed into Asia Minor, they were with quite numerous, well-equipped detachments of the Byzantine army. Nicaea surrendered to the Byzantine army. As the European knights advanced through the territory of Asia Minor, their help from Byzantium was reduced. At the same time, the knights-crusaders won victories over the Seljuk Turks. Crusader troops entered Syria. The rich city of Edessa was captured, and in 1098 the first crusader state was founded - the Edessa county.
After a long and difficult siege of the first-class Byzantine fortress of Antioch, the Crusaders captured it. However, after the capture of Antioch, they themselves found themselves besieged by the fresh forces of the Seljuk Turks who had approached it. The fortress was recaptured (legends about a spear)
Then the knights remembered why they were going and in 1090 they took Jerusalem. After the capture of Jerusalem, the third state of the crusaders - the Kingdom of Jerusalem... The folder controlled all activities through the legates. Since 1099, the Kingdom of Jerusalem becomes the overlord of all states of the Latin East - Latin Romania. The vassal-fief structure of feudal Western Europe was transferred to the Latin East.
In addition to the above states, as a result of the First Crusade, one more was created, fourth state - the county of Tripoli... In all the states created by the crusaders were feudal orders were established according to the North French model... All these states turned out to be short-lived.
Since the West was far away and could not provide real help to the new states, spiritual and knightly orders are beginning to be created in them to help the crusading movement and the states of Latin Romania. Knights Templar, St. Mary, Hospitallers, etc.
In 1145 Pope Eugene III calls for the Second Crusade... The second campaign led by the French king Louis 7 and German Emperor Conrad 3, began in 1147 and ended in 1148. It was short-lived and unsuccessful. Moreover, this campaign contributed to the strengthening of the contradictions between the crusaders and Byzantium. In the same 1187 pope announces the third crusade(1189-1192), led by the king of England Henry II Plantagenet... During the campaign, Henry II died, and the campaign was led by his son Richard the Lionheart... This campaign was also led by other kittens and the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa. We dreamed of creating a single Latin universal state in the East, as an outpost of the West in the eastern lands, but fuck it.
Frederick I Barbarossa tried to capture Constantinople, which contributed to the intensification of contradictions between the West and the Byzantine Empire, but failed... Captured Cyprus (thanks to Richard for that). As a result active action Richard's interests clash with the British and the French. King of the French Philip II leaves with his army to France, and the campaign ends I, and in Europe the Anglo-French war begins. So we went on a hike. But one plus - the Third Crusade strengthened the position of the Latin states in the East, and moreover, a new crusader state was created, Kingdom of cyprus .
Pope Innocent III announces Fourth Crusade, The hike began in 1202 and ended in 1204 d. Officially, this campaign was directed against Egypt (as announced in the papal bull), and in fact - against Byzantium... In short, everyone wanted to kick the polit. unstable Byzantium. But they nodded off. And now there would be no longer to sit on the ass exactly, BUT! In the West, the idea is spreading that the liberation of the Holy Sepulcher only pure sinless children's souls can do... In 1212 in the north of France and in the region of Cologne began gather detachments of teenagers (militant shkolota otake) for a trip to the Holy Land... Some of the detachments went to Marseille, a port city in the south of France, to sail from there to the Holy Land. This route ended tragically: instead of the Holy Land, children fell into the hands of slave traders... Another detachment moved to Genoa, and there traces of it are lost. This is how the children's crusade ended tragically.
In 1217 it was declared Fifth Crusade, which lasted until 1221 Like the previous one, this campaign was also directed against the Egyptian sultan... It was led by the king of Hungary and the rulers of the crusader states. And again fail: his only achievement was the capture of an important fortress - Damietta.
In charge of Sixth Crusade(1228-1229) was the German emperor Frederick II Hohenstaufen, excommunicated at that time from the Church. He turned out to be a clever diplomat who managed to achieve an alliance with the Sultan and conclude an agreement with him, according to the articles of which Jerusalem returned to Christians... It seemed that access to the Holy Land was open, but then the pope intervened... He announced that the excommunicated king had no right to sign a treaty with the Egyptian sultan. Daddy imposed on the contract, in the middle of the XIII century. Jerusalem was recaptured by the Muslims. Wasted.
Seventh Crusade(1248-1254) was prepared by the French King Louis 9 Saints. Louis understood that to fight the Sultan, who possessed a huge army, he it'll be hard... He entered into negotiations with the Mongol-Tatar Khan, hoping for military assistance against Egypt. The Crusaders took several strategically important fortresses in Northern Egypt. The king and numerous chivalry were captured.
In 1270 Louis 9 organized Eighth Crusade against Egypt... This campaign was unsuccessful from the very beginning. After the landing of the crusader troops in Tunisia, broke out plague epidemic, which fell victim to numerous crusaders and King Louis IX.
New attempts by the West to liberate the Holy Land were unsuccessful... Crusader states in the Middle East by the end of the XIII century. ceased to exist. The era of the Crusades, which lasted 74 years, is over.
Church in the Middle Ages. Its role and significance in politics, culture, ideology. The struggle between popes and secular authorities. Mendicant orders. Heresies and the Inquisition.
Christianity is an established religious ideology of the feudal society. The ruling class of this society, adapting Christianity to the conditions of the new feudal system throughout the Middle Ages, strove to strengthen the church in every possible way economically, politically and ideologically. The Christian religion in Western Europe - Catholicism - in the Middle Ages was the dominant form of ideology... She dominated in all areas of social, ideological, cultural life, subjugated morality, science, culture, education, clothed and permeated all aspects of the medieval worldview. The exceptionally large role of religion and the church in the feudal era, their strongest influence on the minds of people was determined by the fact that the worldview of medieval man was predominantly theological.
Church feudal lords occupied a prominent place in the emerging feudal hierarchy. Being vassals of kings and other secular rulers, they themselves had numerous not only spiritual, but also secular vassals. Large church feudal lords had broad immunity rights. Monasteries were of great importance in strengthening the economic and social influence of the church.
The Church more and more acquired the character of a powerful centralized and at the same time hierarchical organization. Popes' claims for political influence in Italy and the rest of Western Europe encountered resistance both within the church and from secular rulers... Then in the 9-11 centuries. the decline of the papacy took place. The Church became more and more "secularized", more and more departed from the ideal of poverty and asceticism, which undermined her authority and influence on the masses... In this regard, a movement arose among monastics aimed at strengthening the moral prestige of the church and its independence in relation to the secular authorities, at creating a strong church organization, in particular, at strengthening the papal power. This movement is at the beginning of the 10th century. headed the Monastery of Cluny, which soon became the center of a large association of monasteries. The Cluny abbot reported directly to the pope.
The Cluny movement was also used by part of the large feudal nobility as a means in the struggle against the royal power and the bishops who supported it, on the one hand, and against popular uprisings and the heretical movements that were strengthening at that time, on the other. Becoming pope (1073-1085), Gregory VII in his treatise “ Pope's dictate”Launched the program of the papal theocracy, affirming the supremacy of papal power over the power of secular princes. This determined and unyielding politician directed all his activities to the implementation of his program. Gregory VII achieved significant strengthening the authority of the papacy and the Catholic Church... However, his theocratic ideas and plans for the creation of a universal papal monarchy were not implemented... In the XII-XIII centuries. further strengthening the influence of the Catholic Church and the papacy. This process was associated with the fact that at this time most of the countries of Western Europe were experiencing a state of feudal fragmentation. In the absence of strong centralized states, the church, which had increased its power by this time, was for some time the only force, whose authority was recognized in all countries.
Papacy in the XII-XIII centuries used all the most important political events of the time to increase its influence. It acted as the organizer of the crusades to the East. The papacy actively participated in the suppression of popular anti-feudal movements and heresies. The political influence of the church and its head - the pope - was based on also on the financial strength of the Roman curia... The strengthening of the power of the church and the papacy in Western Europe was also facilitated by the fact that it continued to maintain power over the entire intellectual and ideological life of society.
Pope Boniface VIII (14th century), striving to further raise the prestige of the papacy, organized in 1300 the celebration “ anniversary of the church”, On the occasion of which he announced“ absolution ”to all those present at this festival and issued special indulgences - letters of absolution, which were sold for money. From that time on, the very lucrative sale of indulgences became widespread in all Catholic countries.
The process of state centralization was carried out during this period by the royal power within the framework of national states - France, England, etc. Papal politics found itself in irreconcilable contradiction with this progressive process.
Heresies
In essence, the common European heresies were not homogeneous. Two types of heresies are conventionally distinguished: burgher (i.e. urban) and peasant-plebeian... Both kinds of heretical directions required elimination of the political claims of the papacy, the land wealth of the Church, the special position of the Catholic clergy. The early Christian Apostolic Church was the ideal of medieval heretical teachings. Heretics opposed indulgences, they denied the oath on the Bible, a separate communion for laymen and clergy ... They practically denied the entire church organization of Catholicism.
At the same time, the heretics were divided into two clearly defined groups. Some, criticizing the priesthood, indulgences, the pope and the church organization, nevertheless remained in the bosom of the Catholic Church and believed that with their new teachings they contributed to its renewal. This position was typical for the moderate wing of the heretical movement. But there was another direction - radical extremist, whose representatives broke with the official Catholic Church and, in opposition to it, created their own church organizations.
Many Western European heresies were characterized by mystical sentiments. In interpreting the biblical texts in their own way, heretics-mystics most often turned to the Apocalypse
The rise of the heretical movement in Western Europe during the developed Middle Ages was, first of all, associated with the emergence and growth of cities... Estates incomplete position of townspeople in feudal society, acuteness of social contradictions and finally, the relatively (in comparison with the countryside) active social life made the cities genuine centers of heresy. Northern Italy, Southern France, Rhineland, Flanders, Northeastern France, Southern Germany were
The growth of cities contributed to the spread of heresies in the countryside. The historical role of heresies in the Middle Ages was that they undermined the authority and spiritual diktat of the Catholic Church and the feudal-ecclesiastical worldview that it defended.
One of the first creators of an independent heretical teaching was Arnold Breshiansky, who headed in the middle of the XII century. antipope uprising in Rome. Sharply criticizing the church of his day, he turned to the Gospel, from which he deduced the demand for the transfer of power into the hands of secular persons. The sect (Arnoldists) created by him, representing the early burgher heresy, continued to exist even after the execution of its leader; only at the beginning of the XIII century. it dissolved in the mass of other heretical currents.
Among the most massive heretical movements of the XII century. refers to the heresy of the Cathars. The teachings of the Cathars carried antifeudal character; they refused to recognize the authority of the state, rejected physical violence and the shedding of blood ... The Catholic Church, as well as the entire earthly world, they considered the creation of Satan, and the pope - his governor; therefore, they rejected the dogma and cult of the official church, its hierarchy, and opposed the wealth and power of the church.
Evangelical ideas were especially widespread in the ranks of heretics. Among the many sects that dreamed of reviving the order of the early Christian church, of particular importance in the 13th century. Acquired by the Waldensians, the Waldensians, along with harsh criticism of the priests, put forward ideas challenging church dogma: they denied purgatory, most of the sacraments, icons, prayers, the cult of saints, the church hierarchy, their ideal was the “poor” apostolic church. They also opposed church tithes, taxes, military service, feudal courts, and denied the death penalty.
The inquisition
The Inquisition played a special role in the fight against heresies. Founded at the end of the XII century. as a form of ecclesiastical court, Carried out at first by the bishops, the Inquisition was gradually removed from the control of the bishops and turned into in the first half of the XIII century. into an independent organization with enormous powers and directly subordinate to the Pope. Gradually, the Inquisition created a special system of tracing and judicial investigation in cases of heretics. She widely introduced espionage and denunciations into practice. She snatched confessions from her victims through intricate sophistic tricks, while refined tortures were applied to the persistent. The diligence of the inquisitors and their informers was rewarded with the division between them of a part of the property confiscated from the convicts. Already in the XIII century. along with heretics the inquisition began to persecute scientists and philosophers who showed free thought. The Inquisition hypocritically proclaimed the principle of "non-shedding of blood", therefore, those convicted of heresy were handed over to the secular authorities for punishment I am. The most common punishment for heretics was burning at the stake, and often in groups, torture like the iron maiden is also not rare.
Mendicant orders
The Church tried to undermine the heretical movement from within. To this end, she legalized some sects, directing their activities in the right direction for themselves. and gradually turning them into ordinary monastic orders. This is how the orders of the Heremites arose, and some others. Seeing the great popularity among heretics of the ideas of asceticism and poverty, as well as the practice of free preaching, the papacy introduced a new type of monasticism - orders of mendicant monks-preachers.
Franciscan - arose as a result of the church's skillful use of the popular preaching of poverty, led by the Italian Francis of Assisi (12-13 centuries). called for the renunciation of property and repentance, demanding from his followers simplicity of morals and engaging in useful work. But Francis did not oppose the church sharply, he preached humility into obedience. The papacy took advantage of this relatively moderate position of Francis and, seeking to control the discontent of the masses, in 1210 established the monastic order of Franciscans (Minorites), and himself Francis later canonized... Gradually, the order moved away from its original ideals of poverty and asceticism. In a short time, the minorities, became one of the richest monastic orders; many of their monasteries (the number of which reached 1100 in the middle of the 13th century) began to play a prominent political role.
Dominicans (1216) - by fanatic monk Dominican Republic. The Dominicans emphasized the art of preaching and scholastic theological controversy. With the support of the Pope, the “Brothers-Preachers” soon seized theological departments in the largest universities in Europe, from their midst came the famous theologians and scholastics of that time - Albertus Magnus, Thomas Aquinas, and others. The Dominicans soon gained enormous influence., which was used in the interests of the papacy in its conflicts with monarchs, cities, universities and individual bishops. But his main they considered the goal of fighting heretics... The overwhelming majority of the inquisitors were Dominicans.
“mendicant orders ”were an important instrument of Catholic expansion to the East; so, the Dominicans founded their monastery near Kiev (1233), penetrated into China (1272), Japan and other East European and Asian countries.
European countries inXII- Xv centuries Estates-representative monarchy, the reasons for its occurrence and essence. Tell about any country to choose from.
An estate-representative monarchy is a form of a feudal state in which, along with a relatively strong royal power, which concentrates all the threads of government in its hands, there is an estate-representative assembly that has consultative, financial (tax resolution), and sometimes some legislative functions.
Prerequisites for occurrence:
Urban development
Folding the domestic market
Aggravation of the class struggle in connection with the intensification of feudal exploitation of the peasantry.
The main support of the estate monarchy was made up of the lower and middle layers of the feudal class. who needed a strong centralized apparatus to strengthen their power over the peasantry. The estate monarchy was supported by the townspeople, who sought to eliminate feudal fragmentation and to ensure the safety of trade routes - the conditions necessary for the development of the internal market.
The centralization of the feudal state under the estate monarchy was expressed in the concentration in the hands of the king of his apparatus of judicial and military power to the detriment of the political independence of large feudal lords.
The greatest development and clear formulation estates received under feudalism, estates were divided into "higher" privileged, and "lower".
On the example of France
The further growth of cities and commodity production entailed not only an increase in the number and activity of the urban population. He caused a restructuring of the traditional feudal economy and forms of exploitation of the peasantry. In connection with the development of commodity-money relations, the feudal lords begin replace part of the in-kind obligations and payments with monetary quitrent... For the seigneur, it is preferable to become personally a free peasant-holder of the hereditary land allotment. The bulk of the peasantry represents personally free censors obliged to pay the lord a monetary rent.
In the XIV-XV centuries in France, the restructuring of the estate system was completed, which was expressed in the internal consolidation of the estates:
clergy. It was recognized that French clergy must live by the laws of the kingdom and regarded as an integral part of the French nation.
the nobility, although in fact in the XIV-XV centuries played a leading role in the social and political life of France. This estate united all the secular feudal lords, who were now considered not just as vassals of the king, but as his servants.
By the 14-15th centuries, the formation of the "third estate" was basically completed, which was replenished due to the rapidly growing urban population and the increase in peasant rentals. This class was very variegated in class composition, and practically united the entire working population and the emerging bourgeoisie.
Formation of the estate-representative monarchy:
the process of political centralization (by the beginning of the XIV, ¾ of the country's territory was united),
further rise of royal power, the elimination of the arbitrariness of individual feudal lords. The seignorial power of the feudal lords essentially lost most of its independent political character.
Gradually the seigneurial legislation disappeared, and by expanding the range of cases that constituted the "royal case", feudal jurisdiction was significantly limited. In the 14th century, the possibility of appeal against any decision of the courts of individual feudal lords to the Paris Parliament was provided, and this is final the principle was destroyed, according to which the senior justice was considered sovereign.
There were also assholes- legists(graduates-lawyers) who supported, saying and said that, like, even in Roman law, it is written "the king is the highest law."
The emergence of the estate-representative monarchy and the gradual concentration of political power in the hands of the king did not undergo significant reorganization of the central government... An important place in the system of central government was taken by the Grand Council, created on the basis of the royal curia. This council included the legists, as well as 24 a representative of the highest secular and spiritual nobility (princes, peers of France, archbishops, etc.). The Council met once a month, but its powers were of an exclusively deliberative nature.
In an effort to centralize local government, the king introduces new posts of governors. Local centralization has also affected urban life. Kings often deprived cities of the status of communes, changed previously issued charters, and limited the rights of citizens. A system was installed over the cities administrative custody... In 1445, having received the opportunity to levy a permanent tax (royal thalia), King Charles VII organizes a regular royal army with a centralized leadership and a clear system of organization.
Small cases were decided by the provost, but cases of serious crimes (the so-called royal cases) were tried in the court of the bailly, all judicial power was in the hands of the king and his administration.
The estate-representative monarchy served the interests of the bulk of the feudal lords... It was an important stage in the political unification of the country. In this period the power of the patrimonial seniors weakened, since the main functions of suppressing the peasants were transferred to state bodies.
Instead of the States General, the king began to convene the Council of Notables. It was attended by the highest representatives of the three estates. Formally, the decision of the Council of Notables was not binding on the king. However, he was forced to reckon with the opinion of the nobility. With the consent of the notables, new taxes began to be introduced, which were collected by the king's officials. A large army appeared. As the power of royalty grows the system of local government was centralized.
The concept of "feudalism" arose in France before the revolution, around the end of the 18th century, and meant at that time the so-called "Old Order" (that is, monarchy (absolute) or the government of the nobility). Feudalism at that time was seen as a social and economic reformation, which 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 legal injustice, in other words, inequality, which 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 took shape in the fifth-ninth centuries, when the barbarians conquered the well-known Roman Empire, which was very strong. The period of prosperity, somewhere in the twelfth-thirteenth centuries, then the large cities and their entire population were politically and economically strengthened, the so-called estate-representative communities, for example, the English parliament, were formed, and the estate monarchy was forced to take into account not only the interests of the nobility, but also all other members of society.
The secular monarchy opposed the so-called papacy, and this created the opportunity to create and assert all its rights and its freedom, and over time, it undermined feudalism, that is, its system and main concepts, so to speak. The urban economy developed quite rapidly, and this undermined the basis of the government of the aristocracy, or rather the natural and economic foundations, but the heresy grew into a reformation that took place in the 16th century, and it was due to the growth of freedom of thought. In connection with the renewed ethics and the new value system of Protestantism, he helped to develop all entrepreneurs with their activities, which were of a capitalist type. Well, the revolution that took place in the 16-18 centuries helped the end of feudalism.
The 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 slave revolution and the conquest of the Roman Empire by the Germans. The usual idea that the slave system is directly replaced by the feudal system is not entirely accurate. More often, the feudal system arose anew 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-owning orders. Only a few centuries later did they have 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 2nd - 3rd centuries. But feudalism became the dominant type of social relations only from the 5th to 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 ready-made from Germany. Its origin is rooted in the military organization of the 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 who conquered it. In the Roman Empire, the crisis of a large slave economy was already in the 1st - 2nd centuries. n. e. reached the greatest strength. With the preservation of large land ownership in the hands of a small number of Roman magnates, the latter, due to the extremely low productivity of slave labor, begin to break up their lands into small parcels and plant slaves and free farmers on them. Instead of a large slave economy, the colonate thus arises as one of the earliest forms of new social relations - relations of small agricultural producers, who still retained some elements of personal and economic freedom in comparison with slavery, but were attached to the owner's land and paid rent to the landowner in kind and labor. ... In other words, the columns "... were the predecessors of the medieval serfs." Due to the economic disintegration of the slave economy in 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 society" 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 penetrations into the Roman Empire, the Germanic tribes were losing their ancestral way of life and passed to the territorial community-mark. Military movements and conquests led them to the allocation of a military tribal aristocracy, the formation of military squads. The former communal lands were seized by the vigilantes, private land ownership arose, the exploitation of slaves, planted on the land. These new relationships 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 liberating the Romans from their own state ..." not only began to occupy vacant lands, but also took away from the former Roman owners two-thirds of their land - huge Roman latifundia with a mass that sat on them slaves and colonists. The division of lands took place in accordance with the orders of the clan system. Part of the land was left indivisibly in the possession of the entire clan and tribe, the rest (arable land, meadows) was distributed among individual members of the clan. This is how the German Mark community was transferred to the new conditions. But the separation of the military-tribal aristocracy and military squads, seizing large areas of land and large slave-owning Roman latifundia, contributed to the disintegration of communal ownership and the emergence of large private land property. At the same time, the Roman land nobility began to unite with the military nobility of the German warriors and leaders.
In some parts of the former empire, as in the Ostrogothic Kingdom in Italy, the assimilation of conquerors with the defeated was most widespread and led to the assimilation of socio-economic relations by the Germans, the beginnings of serfdom and latifundial, vast estates specializing in the export areas of agriculture were called: the cultivation of grain, the production of olive oil and winemaking.) the economy of the former empire. In the Frankish state, where the Roman influence was weaker and where the new Frankish tribes were less quickly assimilated with the Roman population, a vast layer of free peasantry remained for some time, and until the development of feudal-serf relations “between the Roman column and the new a free Frankish peasant stood as a serf ”. Most fully Germanic 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 procedures, with a 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 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 is created in the kingdoms of Western Europe ... The entire social building, all social relations and the place in them of each individual are determined on the basis of land tenure and land "holding". Starting from the suzerain, the king, his entourage and larger and more powerful owners, all vassals dependent on them receive land in the feud, in the fief, that is, in the hereditary conditional possession, as a service award. A complex system vassalage and vassalage, the hierarchy of the highest and "noble" ruling classes permeates the entire society.
The development of feudal production relations ensured, first of all, a partial emancipation of the direct producer: since the serf can no longer be killed, although it is possible to sell and buy, since the serf has an economy and a family, he has some interest in work, shows some initiative in work 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, land, and the lack of ownership of land by 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 to the worker (non-economic coercion) and the ownership of some of the tools and means based on personal labor of the workers of production themselves, i.e., peasants and artisans. The position in production and the relationship between the main classes of feudal society: feudal lords and peasants followed from the feudal form of ownership.
Feudal lords in one form or another endowed 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 in the broad sense of the word belonged 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 entirely depended on the position and relationships of social groups in production. Early feudalism was characterized by the complete domination of a natural economy; with the development of handicrafts, commodity production became increasingly important in the city and countryside. The commodity production that existed under feudalism and served it, despite the fact that it prepared some conditions for capitalist production, cannot 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: labor (corvee), food (natural quitrent), and monetary (monetary quitrent). The late feudal corvée-cregustnic 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 manufacture (16th century) in the bowels of feudal society, an ever-deeper contradiction began to develop between the new character of the productive forces and feudal production relations, which were becoming a brake on their development. The so-called primitive accumulation prepares the emergence of a class of wage workers and a class of capitalists.
In accordance with the class, antagonistic nature of the feudal economy, the whole life of feudal society was permeated with class struggle. Above the feudal basis towered over 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, goes through a series of stages - from political fragmentation ("estate-state"), through the estate 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, leading the uprisings of the peasants and the plebeian elements of the cities, to seize power and overthrow the 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 domination of the then advanced bourgeois class and brought production relations in line with the nature of the productive forces.
At present, the remnants of feudalism are supported and strengthened by the imperialist bourgeoisie. The remnants of feudalism are very significant in many capitalist countries. In the countries of people's democracies, these vestiges have been resolutely eliminated through democratic agrarian reforms. In colonial and dependent countries the peoples are fighting feudalism and imperialism at the same time; each blow to feudalism is at the same time a blow to imperialism.
Planwork
Introduction ………………………………………………………………………… 3
Early feudalism (V - end of X centuries) ………………………………………… .4
The period of developed feudalism (XI-XV centuries) ………………………………… ... 7
The period of late feudalism (late 15th - mid-17th centuries) …………… 10
Conclusion ………………………………………………………………… .14
Test …………………………………………………………………………… ... 15
References …………………………………………………………… ..16
Introduction
The Middle Ages is the period of the birth, domination and decay of feudalism. The word "feudalism" comes from the late Latin feodum - an estate (in the countries of Western Europe in the Middle Ages this word was used to designate the land ownership granted by the overlord to his vassal for hereditary use with the condition of carrying out feudal service).
The main features of feudalism include the following: the domination of a natural economy; a combination of large feudal land tenure and small (allotment) peasant land use; the personal dependence of the peasants on the feudal lord — hence the extra-economic coercion; extremely low and routine state of the art.
It is generally accepted that Western European feudalism is considered a classic version, which was formed as a result of the interaction of two processes - the collapse of ancient society and the decomposition of the primitive communal system among the tribes surrounding the Roman Empire (Germans, Celts, Slavs, etc.).
In modern historiography, there is no consensus about the nature of feudalism in the countries of the East. The socio-economic development of these peoples in the Middle Ages has its own characteristic features. The beginning of feudalism in Western Europe is considered to be the fall of the slaveholding of the Western Roman Empire (5th century), and the end - the English bourgeois revolution (1642-1649).
The development of medieval society was accompanied by significant shifts in the economy, social and political system. Taking into account the totality of changes, three periods are distinguished:
Early Middle Ages - the time of the formation of the feudal mode of production (V-X centuries);
The Classical Middle Ages - the period of development of feudalism (XI-XV centuries);
Late Middle Ages - the period of decomposition of feudalism and the emergence of the capitalist mode of production (late 15th - mid-17th centuries)
Early feudalism (V- the endXcenturies)
This stage is characterized by a low level of development of the productive forces, the absence of cities, crafts, agrarianization of the economy. The economy was natural, there were no cities, no money circulation.
During this period, the formation of feudal relations took place. Large landed property was formed, free communal peasants became dependent on the feudal lords. The main classes of feudal society - landowners and dependent peasants - are taking shape.
The economy combined different structures: slaveholding, patriarchal (free communal land tenure) and emerging feudal (various forms of land and personal dependence of peasants).
The early feudal states were relatively united. Within the boundaries of these states, which united various ethnic communities, the process of ethnic integration and the formation of nationalities took place, the legal and economic foundations of medieval society were laid.
The formation of feudal relations in the early Middle Ages is associated with the emergence and development of various forms of feudal land ownership.
The tribes of barbarians, who seized the Roman territories and formed their own states on them, were settled farmers, at the end of the 5th - beginning of the 6th centuries. they did not yet have private ownership of land. The land belonged to all the inhabitants of the village. The inhabitants of one village constituted a territorial (rural) community - a brand. The community allocated each family a land plot for arable land, and sometimes part of a meadow. In the fall, when the harvest ended, the meadows and all arable land became common pastures. Forests, rivers, wastelands, roads were also in communal use. The personal (private) property of the community member included only a house, a personal plot, and movable property.
At the end of the 6th - beginning of the 7th centuries. within the community there is a process of property stratification and distribution of communal land into private, freely alienable property - allod.
The paths for the formation of large landholdings were different. Most often, these were awards from the king. In an effort to strengthen their power, the Frankish and other kings distribute the seized lands to servicemen in full private ownership (allod).
The distribution of allods led to a reduction in land resources and a weakening of the king's power. Therefore, in the VIII century. Land ownership began to be transferred in the form of beneficiaries, that is, for use without the right to inheritance and subject to military service. Therefore, the benefit was a private property and was provided for the duration of the service. Gradually, the tenure became life-long. Together with the land, servicemen received the right to carry out state functions - judicial, administrative, police, tax and others in relation to the free holders living in this territory. This award was called immunity.
In the IX-X centuries. lifelong benefit gradually turns into hereditary land ownership, or in fact into property (flax, or fief). From the word "feud" got the name of the feudal mode of production. Thus, the power of the feudal lords was strengthened, which irreversibly led to feudal fragmentation, weakening of royal power.
Together with the creation of the feudal (fief) system of land ownership, the process of the formation of the categories of dependent peasants took place.
Serfdom was formalized in different ways. In some cases, the feudal lord subjugated the peasants with the help of direct violence. In others, the peasants themselves asked for help and protection (patronage) from large landowners, who thus became their masters (lords). The peasant who was placed under the protection of the master fell into personal dependence, and, having lost his land, he became dependent on land and had to perform certain duties in favor of his lord.
The church and secular feudal lords often used the system of precarious contracts, when the peasant transferred the ownership of his allotment to them, while retaining the lifelong right to use this allotment and undertaking to fulfill the established obligations. This agreement was drawn up in writing with an indication of the terms of land use and duties. The owner of the land issued a precarious letter to the peasant, which contained an obligation not to violate his rights.
The main economic unit of medieval society was becoming a large feudal economy, where the process of feudal production was carried out. In Russia, these were estates, and then - estates, in England - manors, in France and in a number of other European countries - seigneurs. In the estates the feudal lords exploited the labor of smerds, in the manors - the labor of personally dependent, unfree peasants - villans, in the seigneurs of France - the labor of servos. Within the boundaries of their estates, the feudal lords possessed full administrative and judicial power.
Feudal production was carried out in two main forms: corvee economy and quitrent economy.
Under the corvée economy, the entire land of the feudal estate was divided into two parts. One part is the lordly land, on which the peasants carried out the production of agricultural products with their own tools, which were completely appropriated by the feudal lord. Another part of the land is peasant, which is called allotment. On this land, the peasants kept farming for themselves. Under the conditions of the corvee system, on certain days of the week, the peasants worked in their field, on other days - in the master's field.
Under the quitrent system of farming, practically all the land was transferred to the peasants on an allotment. All agricultural production was carried out on peasant farms, part of the created product in the form of quitrent was transferred to the feudal lord, and the other remained to carry out the reproduction of the peasant's labor force, implements, and support the existence of his family members.
Corvee and quitrent were forms of feudal land rent - a combination of various duties that the peasants carried out in favor of the feudal lord. In addition to labor rent (corvee), food rent (natural rent), there was money rent (money rent).
Feudalism as a whole is characterized by the predominance of agricultural production.
The period of developed feudalism (XI- Xvcenturies)
The period is characterized by the completion of the formation of feudal relations and the flourishing of feudalism. The peasants were placed in land and personal dependence, and the representatives of the ruling class were in hierarchical subordination. This situation, together with the natural character of the economy, contributed to the disintegration of the early feudal state formations and the transition to feudal fragmentation.
The growth of productive forces is observed. Due to the gradual improvement of the tools of labor and the increase in productivity, workers are specialized in different areas of production - the craft is separated from agriculture. Cities arise and grow, mainly as settlements of artisans, handicraft production develops. The growing specialization leads to the growth of exchange, the expansion of trade ties. Merchant guilds appear. The market economy is developing.
The development of the economy, the rise of cities and the growth of commodity-money relations took place against the background of the intensification of the struggle of the masses against the feudal order (peasant and urban uprisings). Ultimately, this led to a change in the forms of feudal exploitation, a weakening of the personal dependence of the peasants, and the emergence of a free urban population. These processes radically changed the face of feudal society, contributed to the elimination of feudal fragmentation and centralization of state power. At this stage, large centralized states are formed - France, England, Poland, Russia, etc.
The main form of ownership and organization of production in agriculture during this period remained the feudal estate. In the XI-XIII centuries. it was a closed subsistence economy that fully met its needs at the expense of its own resources: its characteristic feature was the close connection of the master's economy with the economy of the peasants, who had to cultivate the land of the feudal lord with their own instruments of labor and their livestock.
However, in the XIV-XV centuries. disintegration of feudal relations begins, commutation of duties takes place (replacement of labor and in-kind rent with money), emancipation of the peasantry, which led to the concentration of land and the development of lease relations. Many nobles begin to employ hired labor in the household. Short-term rentals are developing (when changing tenants, it is possible to increase the rent).
From the end of the XIII to the XV centuries. in England, due to the development of sheep breeding, the corvee was replaced by a quitrent, which was paid with sheep's wool.
The transition to a quitrent system expanded the possibilities for the development of agriculture, increased the mobility of the peasants, reduced their dependence on the feudal lord, led to an increase in labor productivity, and increased the marketability of the agricultural sector. Gradually, the natural quitrent is replaced by the monetary one.
The development of commodity-money relations in the countryside and the commutation of peasant duties led to property stratification among the peasantry. Wealthy peasants appeared who rented land and landowners and cultivated it with the help of hired labor of their own neighbors. On the other hand, landless and landless families stood out, which were exploited as agricultural laborers by landowners and rich peasants.
From the end of the XI century. urban revitalization is observed in Western Europe. They acquire great economic importance, becoming centers of craft and trade.
The main factor in the revival of ancient and the emergence of medieval cities was the separation of handicrafts from agriculture. The settlements of artisans, gradually expanding, became cities.