feudal states
Lord-ruled medieval lands
Feudal states are political territories organized under feudalism, where land ownership determined power and social hierarchy.
Lords held land from monarchs in exchange for military service, while peasants worked the land in exchange for protection.
Medieval Europe's kingdoms operated as feudal states, with power distributed among nobles rather than centralized: The feudal states of France were often at war with one another.
- lordshipNoble rank or domain
- serfdomFeudal bound labor
- suzeraintyControl without full annexation
- peasantryRural working class
- dark agesEra of decline or stagnation
castle walls · heraldry · nobility · agrarianism · vassalage · knights · knight errant · Holy Roman Empire · manorialism · barony · monarchy · divine right · tithe · peasant revolt · villeins · freemen · landed gentry · fiefdom
- Ancient ChinaShang dynasty, Han dynasty, Confucius, oracle bones, Chinese characters
- medieval RusKyiv, Kiev, Vladimir, boyars, Primary Chronicle
- Spring and AutumnConfucius, hegemon
- Three KingdomsThree Kingdoms, warlords, strategists, Han dynasty, Chengdu
feudal statesnation-states
Self-governing territorial polities
city-states · absolute monarchies · absolute monarchy · empires · federal states
feudal statesliberal democracies
States combining elections with protected rights
representative governments · parliamentary systems · constitutional monarchies · welfare states · federal republics
feudal, feudalism, feudalistic, feudally, feud, state, states, stately, statehood