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Feudalism means different things to different people, and its origins depend on its meaning.

Narrowly defined, feudalism is a system in which a weak central government distributes its power to people who support it. Typically, a monarch gives land and responsibilities to great lords in exchange for military support, and the great lords distribute their power to lesser lords. The strength of such a system is that the problems that develop on a local level can be dealt with faster than they could be if the central government had to mobilize to deal with them.

The origins of this sort of feudalism are in France and the Holy Roman Empire of the 9th century, and they were contemporaneous with the beginnings of Viking raids. The system was used in England by the Normans, but rather quickly fell out of use because the political situation stabilized, the central government strengthened, and the system was no longer needed.

More broadly defined, the system of feudalism is more or less the same as the system of manorialism. Manorialism is a system in which landlords own manors, which are the homes of peasants who work the land. The peasants are not free to leave, but have a right to be on the land that cannot be alienated without just cause. They supply work, food, or rent to the lord, and the lord gives them a place to live, fields to farm, and protection. This system was based on the old Roman system of villas with coloni, who were farmers very like the serfs on manors. This system was based on Roman laws dating to the early 4th century.

Regardless of how the term feudalism is used, it relates to a situation in which powerful people provide land and protection to less powerful people who have duties in return. These systems are closely related, but not the same, and this produces confusion that is causing the term feudalism to be less used. It may fall out of use.

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14y ago

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