Question

How could the central lord-retainer relationship of feudalism create political and social order? How could it be used to create powerful states? What were its dangers?

Answer 1

Answer:

Feudal lords controlled castles and had military strength that allowed them to create social and political order in vast areas. In several cases, the concentration of power and wealth in the hands of feudal lords allowed them to build some sort of powerful states. However, the fragmentation of political power paved the way for many dangers, like wars, invasions, and famine.

Explanation:

Feudalism is the denomination of the predominant political system in Europe and the Middle East during the Middle Ages, characterized by the decentralization of political power. By relying on the diffusion of power from the cusp (where the emperor or the kings were in theory) to the base where local power was effectively exercised with great autonomy or independence by an aristocracy, called nobility, whose titles derived from governors of the Carolingian empire (dukes, marquises, counts) or had another origin. Feudalism responded to the insecurity and instability of the time of the invasions that were happening for centuries. Given the inability of state institutions, far away, the only security came from local authorities, lay nobles or ecclesiastics, who controlled castles or fortified monasteries in rural settings, converted into new centers of power in the face of the decay of cities.

Feudalism allowed the Lords to concentrate a great power and wealth in vast areas, which in time would derive in the creation of powerful states. It also led to constant conflicts and wars among several feuds. Since there was no clear higher power above the feudal lords, it created a fragile and unstable social and political order that paved the way for wars, invasions, and famine.