Europe before Columbus

From about the second century BCE (Before Common Era) until the fifth century CE (Common Era), the Romans and their empire dominated the Mediterranean and much of Europe. After a series of internal upheavals and foreign invasions, the Roman Empire collapsed in Western Europe and was replaced by several emerging Germanic kingdoms. During Europe’s transition into the medieval period, sometimes called the Middle Ages, many of these kingdoms continued to be assailed by a variety of invading peoples, like the Vikings, Muslims, and Magyars. In an effort to create political stability, a system evolved that required a hierarchical dependence within the nobility and an enforcement of servitude among the majority of the peasantry. Historians call this system feudalism.                                                 

Within feudalism, those at the top of the social hierarchy, the nobility, were connected not only by familial bonds but also as lords and vassals. These relationships bonded men of higher social importance (lords) to those of lower social importance (vassals). Through special ceremonies, vassals pledged fealty (trust and service) to their lords, who in return would grant fiefs (parcels of land and all equipment and people necessary to work them) to the vassals. These connections obligated vassals to provide military service (as knights) and obedience to their lords. In return, the lords ensured the protection and stability of the territory. These relationships were hierarchal, yet reciprocal.

The peasants who worked the land were not part of the hierarchy of the nobility, yet it certainly impacted them. The vast majority of peasants were known as serfs. Serfs were bound to the land and forced to work it for the nobleman who owned it. In addition to working the land of their lords, serfs were also required to pay taxes, usually “in-kind,” meaning a portion of their own harvest. Serfs were not permitted to leave the land. Serfdom was similar to slavery in that it was an inherited condition; serfs could be punished physically for disobedience, and serfs were treated as property. The major difference between slavery and serfdom was that individual serfs were not bought and sold, but rather remained on the land to serve whoever purchased the land.  Nobles depended on the serfs for their livelihood, but socially they were on opposite sides of the spectrum.

This feudal system endured up through the nineteenth century in Russia; however, in many other parts of Europe, economic innovations in the eleventh and twelfth centuries brought dramatic changes to the system. As trade increased inside and outside of Europe, a monetary economy returned and cities began to reemerge. When the Mongols ripped through much of Asia in the thirteenth century, trade with the Far East increased, and cities located along waterways became hubs of wealth and commerce. The growth of trade and cities encouraged peasants to leave their lives of serfdom, sometimes illegally, and begin new lives in the cities. Some among the nobility supported these social changes, but it was the arrival of bubonic plague in 1348 that eventually transformed the feudal system in Europe.

Known as the Black Death, the bubonic plague struck the European population most heavily throughout the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. It is estimated that a third to half of Europeans died during this period. As the population decreased, opportunities for advancement increased, and with workers in short supply, many were able to charge higher wages for their labor. By the end of the fifteenth century, a monetary economy had won out over the older feudal system of in-kind labor, and European monarchs looked to expand their wealth through trade across the globe.