The Middle Ages by Joseph Dahlmus and Feudal Society by Marc Bloch

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The purpose of this research paper is to evaluate feudalism’s effectiveness as an economic system. Feudalism was the system most common in Middle Ages Europe. This structure of land distribution involved breaking up land into smaller pieces with their own rulers in exchange for loyalty to the king. This investigation will focus on the Feudalism specifically in Europe in the Middle Ages, as opposed to Oriental feudalism. The books The Middle Ages by Joseph Dahlmus and Feudal Society by Marc Bloch, which dives into Feudalism’s details and effects, are two prominent sources in the paper. Word Count: 95 Summary of Evidence: Feudalism was an economic and governmental structure in which land was divided into smaller pieces based on people’s servitude. Vassals were subjects to whom a higher authority would grant land in exchange for their loyalty and service. The kingdom’s ruler would give his higher-classed subjects vassalages, making them lord of their territory. These lords and nobles then split their land among their own servants, who in turn did the same. In this system, the King’s land was broken up into many small subdivisions. By 700 CE it was custom for knights to become vassals, meaning that lords had high economic status: only the wealthy could afford horses, which were necessary to become an effective soldier. Since shortly before the feudal age, the army with better horsemen was victorious more often in battle. This lead to horses being valued and important, which is why vassals were usually rich. The first recorded form of feudalism in Europe was the leadership structure in German barbarian clans in the 100s CE. Soldiers in these tribes had undying loyalty to their chieftain, and in return they received riches from ... ... middle of paper ... ... lords. The system was effective at the problems it was meant to solve, and only fell apart when power was abused, as can happen in any other process. Word Count: 201 Works Cited Barendse, R.J. “The Feudal Mutation: Military and Economic Transformations of the Ethnosphere in the Tenth to Thirteenth Centuries.” Journal of World History 14, no. 4 (2003): 503-529. EBSCOhost (accessed April 8, 2014). Biel, Timothy Levi. The Age of Feudalism. San Diego: Lucent Books, 1994. Bloch, Marc. Feudal Society Volume 1 – The Growth of Ties and Dependence. Translated by L.A. Manyon. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1961. Dahlmus, Joseph. The Middle Ages. Garden City: Doubleday & Company, 1968 Jupp, Kenneth. “European Feudalism from its Emergence through its Decline.” American Journal of Economics and Sociology 59, no. 5 (2000): 27-46. doi: 10.1111/1536-7150.00084.

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