feudal system

Examples of feudal system in the following topics:

• Society Under the Zhou Dynasty

  • Under the initial period of the Zhou Dynasty (called the Western Zhou period), a number of innovations were made, rulers were legitimized under the Mandate of Heaven, a feudal system developed, and new forms of irrigation allowed the population to expand.
  • A number of important innovations took place during this period: the Zhou moved away from worship of Shangdi, the supreme god under the Shang, in favor of Tian ("heaven"); they legitimized rulers, through the Mandate of Heaven (divine right to rule);  they moved to a feudal system; developed Chinese philosophy; and made new advances in irrigation that allowed more intensive farming and made it possible for the lands of China to sustain larger populations.
  • The feudal system in China was structurally similar to ones that followed, such as pre-imperial Macedon, Europe, and Japan.
  • Under this feudal (fengjian) system, land could be passed down within families, or broken up further and granted to more people.
  • Most importantly, the peasants who farmed the land were controlled by the feudal system.

• Feudalism

  • It can be broadly defined as a system for structuring society around relationships derived from the holding of land, known as a fiefdom or fief, in exchange for service or labour.
  • Feudalism was thus a complex social and economic system defined by inherited ranks, each of which possessed inherent social and economic privileges and obligations.
  • Feudalism in 12th-century England was among the better structured and established systems in Europe at the time.
  • The king was the absolute "owner" of land in the feudal system, and all nobles, knights, and other tenants, termed vassals, merely "held" land from the king, who was thus at the top of the feudal pyramid.
  • In its origin, the feudal grant of land had been seen in terms of a personal bond between lord and vassal, but with time and the transformation of fiefs into hereditary holdings, the nature of the system came to be seen as a form of "politics of land."

• The Theme System

  • The Byzantine-Arab wars wrought havoc on the Byzantine Dynasty but led to the creation of the highly efficient military theme system.
  • In order to survive and fight back, the Byzantines created a new military system known as the theme system.
  • This was similar to the feudal system in medieval Western Europe, but it differed in one important way: in the Byzantine theme system, the state continued to own the land and simply leased it in exchange for service, whereas in the feudal system ownership of the lands was given over entirely to vassals.
  • This efficiency of the theme system allowed the dynasty to keep hold of the imperial heartland of Asia Minor.
  • As a result, a high level of efficiency was needed to combat the Arabs, achieved in part due to the theme system.

• The Eastern Zhou Period

  • The lords under feudalism gained increasing power, and ultimately the Zhou King You was assassinated, and the capital, Haojing, was sacked in 770 BCE.
  • During this time, power became increasingly decentralized as regional feudal lords began to absorb smaller powers and vie for hegemony.
  • By the end of 5th century BCE, the feudal system was consolidated into seven prominent and powerful states—Han, Wei, Zhao, Yue, Chu, Qi, and Qin—and China entered the Warring States period, when each state vied for complete control.
  • Large-scale works, including the Dujiangyan Irrigation System and the Zhengguo Canal, were completed and increased agricultural production.

• The Manor System

  • The manor system was an element of feudal society in the Middle Ages characterized by the legal and economic power of the lord of a manor.
  • Manorialism was an essential element of feudal society and was the organizing principle of rural economy that originated in the villa system of the Late Roman Empire.
  • Thus the system of manorialism became ingrained into medieval societies.
  • Serfs formed the lowest class of feudal society.
  • Illustrate the hierarchy of the manor system by describing the roles of lords, villeins, and serfs

• The Constitution of 1791

  • Many proposals for redefining the French state were floated, particularly in the days after the remarkable sessions of August 4-5, when feudalism was abolished.
  • For instance, the Marquis de Lafayette proposed a combination of the American and British systems, introducing a bicameral parliament, with the king having the suspensive veto power over the legislature, modeled on the authority then recently vested in the President of the United States.
  • The National Assembly asserted its legal presence as part of the French government by establishing its permanence in the Constitution and forming a system of recurring elections.
  • On a local level, previous feudal geographic divisions were formally abolished and the territory of the French state was divided into several administrative unit (Départements), but with the principle of centralism.

• The Westernization of Russia

  • In order to modernize socially and economically lagging Russia, Peter the Great introduced sweeping social, administrative, and economic reforms that Westernized Russia to a certain extent yet did not alter deeply feudal divisions in the increasingly authoritarian state.
  • Peter I the Great introduced autocracy in Russia and played a major role in introducing his country to the European state system.
  • He also commanded all of his courtiers and officials to wear European clothing and cut off their long beards, causing great upset among boyars, or the feudal elites. 
  • Prior to Peter's rule, Russia's administrative system was relatively antiquated compared to that in many Western European nations.
  • The Table of Ranks established a complex system of titles and honorifics, each classed with a number denoting a specific level of service or loyalty to the Tsar.

• Empress Maria-Theresa

  • Maria Theresa introduced reforms that improved her empire's economy, military, education, public health, and administration but left the feudal social order intact.
  • Despite all these reformist efforts, Maria Theresa did not to change her lands' deeply feudal social order based on many privileges of the landlords and oppressive forced labor of the peasantry.
  • She recruited Gerard van Swieten, who founded the Vienna General Hospital, revamped Austria's educational system, and served as the Empress's personal physician.
  • In a new school system based on the Prussian one, all children of both genders from the ages of six to twelve had to attend school.

• The Ancien Regime

  • The term is occasionally used to refer to the similar feudal social and political order of the time elsewhere in Europe.
  • Different systems for dividing society members into estates developed and evolved over time.
  • The best known system is a three-estate system of the  French Ancien Régime used until the French Revolution (1789–1799).
  • This system was made up of clergy (the First Estate), nobility (the Second Estate), and commoners (the Third Estate).
  • The fundamental issue of poverty was aggravated by social inequality as all peasants were liable to pay taxes, from which the nobility could claim immunity, and feudal dues payable to a local lord.

• Japanese Expansion

  • Prior to 1868, most Japanese more readily identified with their feudal domain rather than the idea of "Japan" as a whole.
  • In this way, loyalty to feudal domains was supplanted with loyalty to the state.
  • In its wake the Japanese military consolidated its control over the political system and most political parties were abolished when the Imperial Rule Assistance Association was founded in 1940.