Changes in Feudal Society
Often the changes happen so that not noticed especially in society, and in most cases do not notice the forces of these changes. That's what happened to the feudal society , which were gradually emerging small innovations in the structure of its economy. But people who lived these innovations did not imagine that they would end up contributing to the economic transformation that would take centuries to be noticed.
The feudalism European features, so very different stages of the ninth century, when small farmers are forced to protect themselves from enemies near the castles, and the thirteenth century, when the feudal world knows its heyday to decline below. The turn of the century X to XI was a time of changes in Feudal Europe. With the end of the barbarian invasions, the medieval world experienced a period of peace, security and development.
The first important data reflecting this new time was the increase in population.Population growth was caused by the end of the wars against the barbarians and the retreat of epidemics, causing a decrease in mortality.In addition, there was a climate of smoothing, providing the most fertile land and abundant crops. See the table below as the population of Western Europe has been growing significantly in the period:
Western Europe's Population Growth
| YEAR | POPULATION |
| 1050 | 46 million |
| 1150 | 50 million |
| 1200 | 61 million |
| 1300 | 73 million |
This growth led to increased demand for food stimulating the improvement of agricultural techniques to increase production.Accordingly, the wooden plow has been replaced by a plow (plow iron ), facilitating plowing work; coupling of the animals was improved, allowing the use of the horse in traction; the animals began to be screwed;mills have been improved; and the three-year system was extended across Europe, providing better quality and quantity of agricultural products. The improvement of craft clothing and personal items, weapons and armor assured comfort and military capability.
For centuries the peasants followed the same routine planting. At the beginning of the work, the servants sowed a land extension of the fief.The plant grew and one day it was harvested.And so he did year after year, generation after generation. It was the tradition that was very respected in the Middle Ages , as we have been discussing. The problem was that gradually the earth was running out, losing their fertility.The seed planted became an increasingly weak plant and therefore produce seeds for the next planting smaller and smaller.
By the ninth century, the peasants divided the land to be planted in two parts. While planting a party, the other rested to regain fertility. With this system, half of the arable land was unused. With the new system, three fields are planted in two fields, one with wheat; another, with barley; and third, forage for animals.Forages are plants that have the ability to recover the fertility of the soil for planting of cereals in the next year. Thus the planted area and, consequently, increased production.There would be two cereal crop per year instead of just one.
The main cereal consumed in Europe was wheat. But to be consumed, it must be transformed into flour. It gave a lot of work for the peasants, it was done manually. The use of mills powered by water decreased the effort to get flour. By the thirteenth century was introduced the mill moved the wind. The machine and the energy of the wind and the water began to replace human energy at work.The peasants thus had more time and energy to devote to other tasks, other than essentially agricultural.
The effects of increased food production soon made themselves felt. Eating better, people began to live longer. The disease is no longer the catch him so easily. With increasing population, many areas not utilized for agriculture began to be planted. Thus, the production grew, not only because of farming techniques, but also by the increase in planted area.
With all this, many fiefs began to produce more than necessary. With these surpluses, it was possible to sell and the money to buy other things that came from the neighboring regions.
It begin to emerge at medieval fairs, these were the places where traders were doing business.Some of these fairs have become so important that gave rise to cities. In the cities they lived most artisans and merchants. The city and the country were improving their economic activities. They are as follows: the field improving their agriculture and animal husbandry, as the cities focusing on crafts and trade. And the nobles were with the party that was the driving force of the time: consume, especially the goods sold by traders and artisans.
However, this undeniable technical development was limited, not given the population growth and therefore consumption.Initially new lands were occupied and cleared.Moreover, there was a new historical phenomenon to the Middle Ages, the rural exodus , ie considerable portions of rural people headed to the cities.
It is important to note that many of the advanced technological inventions for the time, were written by simple people people, servants and artisans, most illiterate. What we can conclude that intelligence and creativity are not exclusive qualities of people who have studied much or who are rich.
Text written by Professor Patricia Barboza da Silva licensed by the Federal University of Rio Grande - FURG.
Bibliographic reference
- FERREIRA, José Roberto Martins, History.Sao Paulo: FTD; 1997.
- MORAES, José Geraldo. Way of Civilizations.Sao Paulo: Current. 1994.
Category: General history
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