Update: Social media informs me that “there was no such thing as feudalism” is news and that’s something we’ll write up soon! Our biggest and most important publics, after all, are sometimes right there in the classroom with us. But we have to keep working to avoid taking the easy way out, which for me means avoiding the f-word, but also easy ideas like Dark Ages, Renaissance, Fall of the Roman Empire, and all the other constructs that distort more than they reveal. Today, in 2023, a bunch of college Freshmen are now persuaded. I went to grad school in the late 90s and read her work and was persuaded. But they all were taught it was just a fact, as if that’s how the European Middle Ages just simply worked.īrown wrote in 1974. If you do, most won’t ever unlearn it.Īs a case in point, I’m pretty sure that Brown (and me!) persuaded our students that feudalism isn’t real, that historians don’t agree on it, that it’s not useful, that it’s arguably harmful.īut 19 of 20 students in my class learned about “the feudal system” in school - some as early as third grade, and some as late as ninth grade. This is powerful, right? It boils down to: don’t tell students things that aren’t true. In addition, as the amount of time between the learning and unlearning of a concept increases, it becomes nearly impossible totally to correct the misconceptions that a student may have.' Experts who knowingly mislead their students appear to be- unsure of their own ability to present a simplified account of the conclusions concerning medieval society that historians have now reached. Furthermore, not only does such a procedure waste the time of teacher and student, but its supporters apparently disregard the difficulty of, as a student of mine puts it, ''erasing' an erroneous concept or fact from the mind of a child who has been taught it, mistakenly or intentionally, at a lower school level.' This student, Marie Heinbach, who teaches social studies in a New York junior high school, goes on to point out that 'the difficulty becomes almost insurmountable when the amazing retentive powers of a young and impressionable child are considered. Instead, he had to rely on the lords who in turn had ownership of this land.To advocate teaching what is acknowledged to be deceptive and what must later be untaught reflects an unsettling attitude of condescension toward younger students. The king or the lord didn’t have absolute or direct power over all land. Feudalism *Lack of UnityĪ key problem with the feudal system was that it hindered the true consolidation of power. These measures ultimately played a key role in reviving society. Knights imposed a kind of law on the land, and the lords undertook efforts to rebuild the infrastructure. Bandits ruled the routes and trading caravans had a hard time making journeys.įeudalism changed this by creating a social hierarchy. This led to a rapid disintegration of the previous infrastructure including roads and bridges.Īt the same time, lawlessness became rampant due to a lack of centralized authority. Restoration of PeaceĪfter Roman Empire fell, Germanic tribes from the East came wave upon wave into Western Europe. When did Feudalism begin?įeudalism began at the start of the 9th century in Medieval Europe and began more structured with more rigid rules as the middle ages progressed.įeudalism ended with the medieval period as the Renaissance started to begin in Europe around the 15th and 16th centuries. Feudalism played an instrumental role in making this possible.

There was a desperate need for the lords, such as those of the Carolingian Empire, to muster enough force to counter these invaders. Europe was also besieged by various invaders from the East. So they used the feudal system as an alternate way of asserting this authority. The lords lacked the means and resources to directly assert their authority over the lands. The feudal system helped lords establish a sort of central power after the end of the Roman Empire. Feudalism in Europe image showing the Hierarchy of the Feudal system Feudalism – Centralization of Power

Rome feudalism pyramid