Feudalism was the economic and social system of medieval Europe. In this system, kings granted land to lords, who provided military defense to the king and employed serfs (or peasants) to work their land.
Feudalism Quotes in Why Nations Fail
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Chapter 10
Quotes
The leaders of the French Revolution and, subsequently, Napoleon exported the revolution to these lands, destroying absolutism, ending feudal land relations, abolishing guilds, and imposing equality before the law—the all-important notion of rule of law, which we will discuss in greater detail in the next chapter. The French Revolution thus prepared not only France but much of the rest of Europe for inclusive institutions and the economic growth that these would spur.
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Feudalism Term Timeline in Why Nations Fail
The timeline below shows where the term Feudalism appears in Why Nations Fail. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 4: Small Differences and Critical Junctures: The Weight of History
...and fundamentally transforming its societies. Before the plague, Europe was organized into an extractive and feudal system, in which kings granted their land to lords, who forced peasants to work on...
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...hit key critical junctures. Larger institutional differences, like Eastern Europe’s much stronger and more consolidated feudal system (compared to Western Europe’s), can create even wider divergences. Depending on a combination of...
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Chapter 6: Drifting Apart
...rest of Europe for important institutional changes. For instance, its decline enabled the formation of feudal systems with weak monarchies, which became more and more inclusive over time, especially due to...
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...develop in similar ways. The dominant Roman state gave way to many weaker and decentralized feudal states that were run by local leaders and frequently invaded by outsiders. Feudal institutions were...
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...like the Huns and Vandals did to Rome’s. After the Kingdom fell, Ethiopia developed a feudal system extremely similar to Europe’s, in which landowners provided military services to the new emperor...
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...crushed them and built extractive ones in their place. Still, these societies left behind particular feudal structures that helped inclusive institutions form centuries later in places like Britain.
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Chapter 7: The Turning Point
...wanted to transform institutions, not just take them over. Due to small institutional differences in feudal landlords’ power, Western European nations like Britain became more pluralistic in the aftermath of the...
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Chapter 8: Not on Our Turf: Barriers to Development
...off colonizers. His successor, Menelik II, defeated the invading Italian army by calling together a feudal-style army. The last Ethiopian Emperor, Haile Selassie, kept the state absolutist, extractive, and feudalistic as...
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Chapter 9: Reversing Development
...on slavery. In the Middle Ages, Europe transitioned away from slavery to a system of feudal serfdom. But the slave trade remained alive and well within Africa and the Middle East....
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Chapter 10: The Diffusion of Prosperity
...and held the most political power. Meanwhile, the masses—or the Third Estate—mostly lived in a feudal system of rural poverty. But the French Revolution abolished feudalism and revoked the elite’s tax...
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...his defeat, some territories reversed his reforms, but many didn’t. Thus, French rule actually ended feudalism and absolutism in many parts of Europe, which later allowed inclusive economic institutions and industrialization...
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...regional leaders overthrew Japan’s ruling Tokugawa family, which had run the country as an extractive, feudal society much like medieval Europe. These leaders claimed that their goal was to restore the...
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The Meiji Restoration ended Japanese feudalism, created a modern tax bureaucracy, made all social classes legally equal, and lifted restrictions on...
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Chapter 15: Understanding Prosperity and Poverty
...did so because of many contingent events, like the Black Death and the rise of feudalism.
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