A Comparison of Feudalism in Western Europe and Japan

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A Comparison of Feudalism in Western Europe and
Japan
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What is feudalism?

• A political system in which nobles are granted
  the use of lands that legally belong to their
  king, in exchange for their loyalty, military
  service, and protection of the people who live on
  the land.

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Japan During the Feudal Period
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The Geography of Japan

• 120 miles from Korea
• 500 miles from China
• 4,000 islands make up archipelago or island group
• Southern Japan has mild climate with lots of
  rainfall.
• Mountainous with only 12 of land farmable.
• Typhoons, earthquakes and tidal waves are
  threats.

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Early Japan

• Early records come from Chinese writings.
• Hundreds of clans with territories
• Worshipped nature gods and goddesses which
  eventually became Shinto.
• Shinto worshippers believed in divine spirits
  that dwelled in nature.

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Yamato Emperors

• By 400 C.E. the Yamato clan was the leading clan
  in Japan.
• By 7th century, Yamato chiefs called themselves
  the emperors of Japan.
• Yamato rulers lacked real power, but dynasty was
  never overthrown.
• As a result, Japan developed a system whereby
  there was an emperor who was a figurehead and a
  ruling power who reigned behind the throne.

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Chinese Influences

• Korean travelers brought Buddhism to Japan in the
  7th century.
• By the 8th and 9th centuries, Buddhist ideas had
  spread throughout Japanese society.
• The Japanese did not give up their Shinto
  beliefs.
• In fact, in many cases both were practiced.
• The Japanese also adopted centralized
  bureaucratic government, Chinese system of
  writing, landscape paintings, cooking, gardening,
  drinking tea, to name a few.

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Life in the Heian Period

• In the late 700s, the imperial court moved its
  capital from Nara to Heian, which is known as
  Kyoto today.
• A highly refined court society arose.
• This era became known as the Heian period.
• Rules dictated every aspect of court life, i.e.
  length of swords, color of robes, forms of
  address, the number of skirts a woman wore.
• Etiquette was extremely important.
• Everyone at court was expected to write poetry.
• Lady Murasaki Shikibus The Tale of the Genji is
  the story of the life of a prince in the imperial
  court.
• It is considered the worlds first novel.

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The Rise of Feudalism

• For most of the Heian period, the Fujiwara family
  held the real power in Japan.
• In the 11th century, the power of the central
  government and the Fujiwaras began to slip.
• Large landowners living away from the capital set
  up private armies.
• The countryside became dangerous with armed
  soldiers on horseback preying on farmers and
  travelers.
• Privates took control of the seas.
• For safety, farmers and small landowners traded
  parts of their land to strong warlords in
  exchange for protection.
• This marked the beginning of the feudal system of
  localized rule.

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The Samurai

• Each lord surrounded himself with a bodyguard of
  loyal warriors called samurai, one who serves.
• Samurai lived accord to the Bushido, or code of
  behavior.
• Dying an honorable death was considered an honor
  for the Samurai.

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The Kamakura Shogunate

• During the late 1100s, Japans two most powerful
  clans fought for power.
• The Minamoto family emerged victorious.
• In 1192 the emperor gave a Minamoto leader named
  Yoritomo the title of shogun or supreme general
  of the emperors army.
• The emperor still reigned from Kyoto, but the
  real center of power was at the shoguns military
  headquarters at Kamakura.
• The pattern of government in which shoguns ruled
  through puppet emperors lasted in Japan until
  1868.
• The Kamakura shoguns were strong enough to turn
  back two naval invasions by the Mongol ruler
  Kublai Khan in 1274 and 1281.
• Feudal Japan declined due to a draining treasury
  and fighting among local lords.

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Feudalism in Europe
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Invasions of Western Europe

• In the 5th century, Germanic invaders overran the
  western half of the Roman Empire. These
  invasions
• Disrupted trade.
• Money became scarce.
• Cities were abandoned.
• Nobles and city dwellers fled to countryside.
• Western Europe became mostly rural.

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Invasions of Western Europe

• The Germanic invaders who stormed Rome could not
  read or write.
• Level of learning sank.
• Few people were literate except priests and
  church officials.
• Knowledge of Greek was almost lost.
• As German-speaking people mixed with the Roman
  population, Latin Changed.
• Different dialects developed as new words and
  phrases became part of everyday speech.
• By the 800s, French, Spanish and other Roman
  languages had evolved from Latin.
• The development of various languages mirrored the
  continued breakup of a once-unified empire.

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Germanic Kingdoms Emerge

• In the years between 400 and 600 small Germanic
  kingdoms replaced Roman provinces.
• The borders of those kingdoms changed often with
  war.
• During this time of political chaos, the church
  provided order and security.

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Germanic Kingdoms Emerge

• Family ties and personal loyalty, rather than
  citizenship in a public state, held Germanic
  society together.
• Germanic peoples lived in small communities that
  were governed by unwritten rulers and traditions.
• Every Germanic chief led a band of warriors who
  had pledged their loyalty to him.
• Germanic warriors felt no obligation to a king
  they did not know.
• Also, they would not obey an official sent to
  collect taxes.

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Germanic Kingdoms Emerge

• In the Roman province of Gaul (France and
  Switzerland), a Germanic people called the Franks
  held power.
• The leader of the Franks, Clovis, brought
  Christianity to the region.
• When he converted, the Church in Rome welcomed
  his conversion.
• By 511, Clovis had united the Franks into one
  kingdom.

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Germanic Peoples Adopt Christianity

• By 600, the Church, with the help of Frankish
  rulers, had converted many Germanic peoples.
• These new converts settled in Romes former
  lands.
• Missionaries also spread Christianity.
• To adapt to rural conditions the Church built
  religious communities called monasteries.
• Christian men called monks gave up their
  possessions and devoted their lives to God in
  these monasteries.

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Germanic Peoples Adopt Christianity

• Around 520, an Italian monk named Benedict wrote
  a book describing the strict by practical rules
  for monasteries.
• Benedicts sister, Scholastica, headed a convent
  and adapted the same rule for women.
• Monasteries also became Europes best-educated
  communities.
• Monks opened schools, maintained libraries, and
  copied books.

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Papal Power Spreads Under Gregory

• In 590, Gregory I, also called Gregory the Great
  became Pope.
• As head of the church in Rome, Gregory broadened
  the authority of the popes office, beyond its
  spiritual role.
• Under Gregory, the papacy became a secular, or
  worldly power involved in politics.
• The popes palace was the center of Roman
  government.
• Gregory used church money to raise armies, repair
  roads, and help the poor.
• According to Gregory, the region from Italy to
  England and form Spain to Germany fell under his
  responsibility.
• This ideas of a church kingdom, ruled by a pope,
  would be a central theme of the Middle Ages.

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Germanic Kingdoms Emerge

• After the Roman empire dissolved, small kingdoms
  sprang up everywhere.
• The Franks controlled the largest and strongest
  of Europes kingdoms.
• By 700, a mayor of the royal household and
  estates became more powerful than the king.
• Charles Martel extended the Franks reign and
  defeated Muslim raiders from Spain.
• Charles Martels victory against Muslim raiders
  made him a Christian hero.

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Charlemagne Becomes Emperor

• Martels descendants established the Carolingian
  Dynasty which ruled from 751 to 987.
• Charles, who was known as Charlemagne, or Charles
  the Great, ruled the kingdom.
• Charlemagne conquered new lands to the south and
  east and spread Christianity in the process.
• Charlemagne reunited western Europe for the first
  time since the Roman Empire.
• In 800, Charlemagne crushed an attack on the
  pope, so Pope Leo III crowned him emperor.

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The Beginnings of Feudalism

• Charlemagne limited power of the nobles.
• He sent out royal agents to make sure powerful
  landholders governed counties fairly.
• He kept a close watch on management of huge
  estates.
• He opened a palace school and ordered monasteries
  to open schools to train future monks and
  priests.
• Charlemagnes heir, his son Louis, had three sons
  who fought and divided the empire into three
  kingdoms.
• The central authority broke down which led to a
  new system of governing and landholding called
  feudalism.

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Invaders Attack Western Europe

• From 800 to 1000 invasions destroyed the
  Carolingian Empire.
• Muslim invaders from the south seized Sicily and
  raided Italy and sacked Rome.

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Invaders Attack Western Europe

• The Vikings who came from Scandinavia (Denmark,
  Norway, and Sweden) were a Germanic people who
  worshipped warlike gods.
• Viking ships held 300 warriors who took turns
  rowing the ships 72 oars.
• Viking ships could travel in creeks that were
  three feet deep.
• Vikings were warriors, traders, farmers and
  explorers.
• They traveled to not only western Europe, but
  also Russia, Constantinople and even the north
  Atlantic.
• As the Vikings accepted Christianity, they
  stopped raiding monasteries.
• As a result of a warming trend in Scandinavia,
  more Vikings resorted to farming.

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Viking Ship
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Invaders Attack Western Europe

• The Magyars, a group of nomadic peoples from what
  is now Hungary, invaded western Europe in the
  late 800s.
• The Muslims, from their stronghold in North
  Africa, attacked what is now Italy and Spain.
• The invasions by Vikings, Magyars, and Muslims
  caused widespread disorder and suffering.
• Kings could not defend their lands.
• As a result, people no longer looked to a central
  ruler for security.
• Instead, many turned to local rulers who had
  their own armies.
• Any leader who could fight the invaders gained
  followers and political strength.

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Feudalism in Western Europe

• The feudal system was based on rights and
  obligations.
• In exchange for military protection and other
  services, a lord or landowner granted land called
  a fief.
• The person receiving a fief was called a vassal.
• The structure of feudal society was much like a
  pyramid.
• King
• Vassals wealthy landowners
• Knights horsemen who defended their lords
  lands in exchange for fiefs.
• Landless peasants who worked fields.

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The Knight

• By the 1100s, a code of behavior began to arise.
• High ideals guided warriors actions.
• Knights were expected to display courage in
  battle and loyalty to their lord.
• The Code of Chivalry was a complex set of ideals
  that demanded a knight fight bravely in defense
  of three masters, i.e. his feudal lord, his
  heavenly lord, and his chosen lady.
• Many songs and poems were written about a
  knights love for his lady.
• Troubadours were traveling poet-musicians who
  traveled to castles and courts of Europe.

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Social Classes in Western Europe

• Social classes were well defined.
• Those who fought nobles and knights
• Those who prayed men and women of the Church
• Those who worked peasants
• In Europe, the vast majority of the people were
  peasants.
• Most peasants were serfs, people who could not
  lawfully leave the place where they were born.

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The Manor System

• The manor was the lords estate.
• The manor system was an economic system.
• The manor system rested on a set of rights and
  obligations between lord and serfs.
• The lord provided serfs with housing, farmland
  and protection from bandits.
• In return, serfs tended the lords lands, cared
  fo rhis animals, and performed other tasks.
• Peasant women shared in the farm work with their
  husbands.
• A manor covered only a few squares miles of land.
• The manor was a self-sufficient community.
• The serfs and peasants produced everything they
  needed for daily life.

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