Exercises on The crisis of the feudal system.

From the 11th century onwards, the feudal system of western Europe experienced changes in its social structure that generated contradictions and resulted in the end of this type of organization of society. On the reasons that led to the crisis of the feudal system is incorrect say that:

a) one of the causes of the crisis of the feudal system was the decrease in population.
b) the growth of the population determined the search for new lands.
c) one of the causes was the growth of urban centers.
br />d) sanitation conditions in urban centers resulted in the spread of several epidemics, the most devastating being the Black Death.

Point out and explain a consequence of the decrease in population resulting from the “Black Death” on the economic relationship between peasants and feudal lords.

(Unifesp) The disappearance of feudal serfdom, in Western Europe, in the Late Middle Ages, was:

a) Started with the emergence of an urban market for agriculture, which led to the exchange of labor income for cash income and intensified with the peasant revolts.

b) Accomplished violently and unexpectedly during the Black Death, when the peasants took advantage of the situation to revolt en masse against the lords.

c) Provided by the combined action of two factors external to the peasants, the wars between the nobles themselves and between the nobles and the cities.
Leaded peacefully by the Catholic Church, protector of the peasants, and concluded with the help of the kings, interested in in undermining the powers of feudal lords.

d) Determined by the flow of money that feudal lords received from the cities in exchange for the freedom of peasants, employed in the home production system.

(PUC-SP)

There is neither a member nor a shape,

That does not smell of putrefaction.

Before the soul is set free,

The heart that wants to burst in your chest

Stands up and expands the chest

That's almost right next to the backbone.

- The face is discolored and pale.

And the eyes closed, in the head.

The speech is lost, because the tongue is glued to the roof of the mouth.

The pulse beats and he craves.

(...)

The bones are separated by all the bonds

There isn't a tendon that doesn't stretch and snap.

(Chastellain. Les Pas de la Mort. France, 14th century)

The poem signals the concern with death that is present in the 14th century European mentality. To understand the scope of this fatal inspiration, it is necessary to associate this phenomenon with the fact that:

a) the first oceanic navigations, promoted by Europeans, victimized increasing numbers of adventurers.
b) death was just a metaphor to represent the transition that society was going through and whose emphasis was on agricultural production, hence the compared to the fruit that rots to lay its seed in the earth and again burst with new life.

c) the germs of the romantic movement were noticed through the contestation of the moral that recognized in the existence the supreme good of the human being.

d) the movement of scientific investigation, which would have greater consequences during the Renaissance, took its first steps towards the study of human anatomy.

e) the religious mentality, which conceived life only as an ordeal in search of eternal salvation, found fertile ground in a society that was ravaged by epidemics and wars.

letter a . What happened in the final centuries of feudalism and which became one of the reasons for the crisis of the feudal system was the increase in population and not its decrease.

The decrease in the European population as a result of the deaths caused by the Black Death caused a decrease in the supply of labor force in agricultural production, which caused a decrease in production and the part destined for feudal lords. To reverse this situation, the lords intensified the feudal obligations, a fact that generated the peasants' revolt and resulted in the outbreak of several revolts of this social class.

Letter a . Money income gradually became dominant in Western Europe, as it facilitated the mediation of mercantile exchanges and the sale of agricultural products. Peasant revolts ended up forcing the release of serfs from feudal ties, necessitating agricultural production by more wage workers.

Letter e . The Black Death and the other deaths resulting from the terrible living conditions marked the way of understanding the world during the 14th century, intensifying the religious feeling of several people.