Back in the times of medieval Europe and early Japan the feudal system played a very important role. However, feudalism did not have the same structure in these societies. Life during these times was very different to how life is now. Everyone owed respect to another person. It is almost like the major corporate hierarchies in today’s world, but that was how life was all day every day. In Europe, the feudal system took a more complicated system. People always owed the people below and above them duties as did they receive from both (Doc. 9). The Bishop of Laon wrote in a poem that “The ecclesiastical order forms one body, but society is divided into three orders. . . These three groups live together and could not endure separation.” Meaning
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First off their system did not have a perfect system where everyone owed someone food or a specific type of labor. Instead, they had a simple system of one group of people above another. Of course, the Emperor stood at the top of the list while peasants, artisan, and merchants were at the bottom (Doc. 10). There was no way that you could change your status in this system. In the European system, you could move down and possibly marry up if you had an opportunity to. If you served in the military that was your duty. There was no way that you could become a farmer and vice versa. If you attempted to do that you would be expelled. There also had to be a person the occupied each block of people. If not then people were expelled (Doc. 7). 90% of the population were peasants (Doc. 10). They farmed to produce food to the people above them. They were not only located at the bottom of the list, but they had to give two-thirds of their crop to the samurai and they could only keep one-third of it themselves. (Doc. 8)This was required by law to keep the system fed and running smoothly. It seems like that could have affected the system greatly there could have caused uprisings if they didn’t get what they want and could very well have been a part of the fall of the feudal system. This is just one way that the Japanese system was different than the European system because in Europe there were many of these systems in place and in Japan there was only
First off their system did not have a perfect system where everyone owed someone food or a specific type of labor. Instead, they had a simple system of one group of people above another. Of course, the Emperor stood at the top of the list while peasants, artisan, and merchants were at the bottom (Doc. 10). There was no way that you could change your status in this system. In the European system, you could move down and possibly marry up if you had an opportunity to. If you served in the military that was your duty. There was no way that you could become a farmer and vice versa. If you attempted to do that you would be expelled. There also had to be a person the occupied each block of people. If not then people were expelled (Doc. 7). 90% of the population were peasants (Doc. 10). They farmed to produce food to the people above them. They were not only located at the bottom of the list, but they had to give two-thirds of their crop to the samurai and they could only keep one-third of it themselves. (Doc. 8)This was required by law to keep the system fed and running smoothly. It seems like that could have affected the system greatly there could have caused uprisings if they didn’t get what they want and could very well have been a part of the fall of the feudal system. This is just one way that the Japanese system was different than the European system because in Europe there were many of these systems in place and in Japan there was only