The majority of European armour was made of bronze, either chain mail or plate metal. In war, both knights and samurai mounted horses, wielded swords, and wore helmets. Knights were expected to follow the code of chivalry, while samurai were expected to follow the rules of bushido, or 'warrior's way.' The warriors were held to a code of conduct in both cases. The soldiers became known as knights in Europe and samurai in Japan, and they served local lords. There was no social mobility peasants' children remained peasants, and lords' children became lords and ladies.Ĭonstant wars made warriors the most powerful class in feudal Japan and Europe. Nobles were at the top, led by soldiers, and tenant farmers or serfs were at the bottom.
Hereditary classes were the foundation of feudal Japanese and European societies. division of authority-inevitably leading to chaos.'įeudalism had taken root in Europe by the 800s CE, but it took root in Japan only in the 1100s, when the Heian era came to an end and the Kamakura Shogunate rose to power.Įuropean feudalism died out in the 16th century with the rise of stronger democratic states, but Japanese feudalism persisted until the Meiji Restoration of 1868. dominance of a community of trained warriors bonds of loyalty and security that attach man to man. 'A subject peasantry common usage of the service tenement (i.e. Hint: Marc Bloch, a great French historian, described feudalism as follows:
