LO - The state of Feudalism in 1600AD

400 years ago, Feudal societies were the dominant way of organising society around the world. Different versions
of it were followed in Europe, Africa, and Asia, but the basic principles of it remained the same. However, the
problems in Feudalism were starting to show themselves.
But what is Feudalism anyway?

Feudalism is the belief that the Feudal system is good for society. Feudal societies of different kinds dominated
the world for thousands of years. But, about 300-350 years ago, they started to collapse.
In order to understand the collapse, we must understand some key features of feudalism. Among them are:

1. Ownership of land - Land was a key resource under feudalism and whether you owned it, or just worked on it,
played a big part in your status
2. Heredity - Passing on your property or influence was a big part of maintaining your status in a Feudal society.
This meant that people were mostly fixed in their place, and it was very difficult to improve your status if you were
a peasant.
3. Guilds - Guilds were organisations that pertained to a specific profession, and they controlled membership into
that profession. Eg - There may be a potters guild, and they would decide who gets to be a potter and not.
4. Patriarchy - Patriarchy is a system where men have a dominant role, and hold more power than women. In
Feudalism, patriarchy was used by men to make sure that their male children would get their property and status.
5. Religion - The people in power work closely with the heads/leaders of religions to make sure that knowledge
was controlled heavily. This way, they could get most peasants to support the kings, even if the kings were not
helping their lives.

Feudalism in India - The Delhi Sultanate

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The Delhi Sultanate is a series of dynasties in India that all had Delhi as the capital. These dynasties all followed
the Feudal system, and successfully ran from the years 1160 - 1526.

Dynasty - A line of kings in which each king chooses the successor.

The main dynasties of the Delhi Sultanate are the Slave Dynasty, the Khaljis, the Tughlaqs, the Sayyids, and the
Lodhis.
Some of the important rulers of the Delhi Sultanate kings are:

Muhammad Ghori - First king from Central Asia to rule in India

Qutbuddin Aybak - Was a slave of Ghori, overthrew him to become king. Also built the Qutub Minar
Iltutmish - Used diplomacy very effectively to prevent a war with Genghis Khan
Alauddin Khalji - Famous Khalji ruler who expanded the empire of India through war and marriage diplomacy.
He's featured in the movie Padmaavat
Mohammad Tughlaq - Very intelligent ruler who supported the arts and expanded the empire. However, he is
known as a "mad king" sometimes because he made the decision to move the capital from Delhi to Daulatabad
and back. This cost thousands of lives.
Ibrahim Lodhi - Last king of the Lodhi dynasty. He lost a war with Babar at Panipat in 1526, and died.
Overview of the Mughal Dynasty
In the year 1526, Babar, a king from central Asia (now Iran, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan), fought a battle with Ibrahim
Lodhi at Panipat. This is called the First Battle of Panipat. Babar won, and started a new dynasty, called the
Mughals.

King Timeline Cool Fact

Babar 1526 - 1530 Came from Central Asia, was a descendant of Timur on the father’s
side and Genghis Khan on the mother’s side
King Timeline Cool Fact

Humayun 1530 - 1540, 1555 - 1556 Lost his kingdom to Sher Shah Suri and then won it back, died by
falling down some stairs

Akbar 1556 - 1605 Akbar literally means “Great” and he ruled for 49 years. Considered
the most successful and greatest ruler in India during Feudal times.

Jahangir 1605 - 1627 Had to ght o a lot of battles from his own children. Eventually, his
son took over. He was also the rst king to make contact with the
British.

Shah Jahan 1627 - 1658 Built the Taj Mahal for his dead wife, later faced rebellion from his
sons, who imprisoned him in his nal years.

Aurangzeb 1658 - 1707 Last major Mughal, also conquered almost all of India in his empire,
but was quite unpopular towards the end of his rule

Others 1707 - 1857 The last Mughal King, Bahadur Shah Zafar, was exiled by the British to
Myanmar

Akbar - Great, but why?

Akbar is often considered to be the greatest ruler of the Mughal dynasty, and sometimes the greatest ever to rule
in India. He clearly thought this himself as well, because he named himself Akbar! But, there were several things
he did that worked very well within the Feudal system.

1. He ruled for 49 years, and started at age 13. This is impressive because 13 is a very young age to rule an
empire. However, strong lines of heredity were a key pillar of Feudalism, and Akbar kept himself healthy
enough to keep that stability.
2. Akbar was a smart military tactician. He did not seek out combat often, but when faced with invasion, he used
his military effectively and never lost. One of the key battles he won was the 2nd battle of Panipat, when he
was just 14 years old. This helped maintain stability and expand his empire, both of which are essential for a
feudal empire to survive.
3. Akbar introduced many economic measures for the welfare of the peasants living in his empire. He built a
taxation system with the help of Raja Todar Mal which ensured that there were stockpiles of food, and that
people were not overburdened into poverty. This helped his workforce to be strong and productive,
something that many Feudal kings ignored.
4. Unlike most Feudal kings, Akbar was happy to take help from others whenever necessary. He set up a court of
advisors to help him make decisions, as well as to encourage art and culture. This court was called the
Navratnas, or nine gems since he always had 9 key advisors. One of the more noted advisors was Birbal, also
known as Mahesh Das.
5. Feudal societies were built on patriarchy, which is the idea that men should hold the bulk of power in a
society. This is not a great system, but Akbar used this to his advantage to diplomatically increase his empire.
He married 6 times, and often used these marriages as a way to take over the land of the princess he married.

Decline of the Mughals, and Feudalism’s Flaw

From Jahangir onwards, EVERY Mughal ruler’s reign ended by being overthrown by one of their sons. This
demonstrates one of the key problems with Feudal society as a whole.

Heredity is a key pillar of Feudal societies. Ruling families are ‘destined’ to rule from birth, and this means that it is
essential for kings to live long lives for the system to succeed.
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 However, if some kings do live a long life, and rule over the empire successfully, the next generation has to wait
much longer to rule over a bigger prize. (Modern day example - think about Prince Charles) This leads to the next
generation trying to overthrow the previous one in order to take that power earlier.

This leads to the empire being less stable and more likely to collapse quicker. The same thing that made Feudal
empires strong, also eventually made it weak. Hence, heredity is not be an effective way to organise society.

LO - Witch Hunts and Patriarchy

Feudal societies were designed to make sure that women did NOT have power in society. The success of a feudal
society depended on women producing lots of babies, so the people in power came up with the idea of witches
to scare women into submission. Women who were healers, or educated, or just disobeying men, could
sometimes be called witches.

A witch, according to the people of the time, was someone who had magical powers because they followed
Satan (the devil) instead of God. But, anybody could be called a witch, and it would be used to put women, or
people on the fringes of society (outsiders, out-castes, people with mental illnesses) down.

The common people who participated in witch hunts genuinely believed in witch-craft, and they thought they
were doing the right thing. This is because the people in power (The royalty and the religious heads) had control
of the spread of knowledge and information.

They used this to their advantage, to make sure that they would keep their power. They controlled the books and
images, and showed witch burning and torture as a normal thing in society, even a good thing.

Between 1400 - 1800, it is estimated that between 50,000 and 100,000 women were killed this way, and many
more were tortured and harmed.

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7x5KesH3dzM&ab_channel=TED-Ed)

LO - Patriarchy today

Although we don’t burn ‘witches’ anymore, the legacy of feudalism is that we still have a patriarchal society. Men
still get paid more than women to do the same job, it is still much easier for a man to be the main earner in their
family than for a woman, and, similar to Feudal times, men still own most of the land.
Legacy - Something left behind from an old way of living/older time

Patriarchal societies are really bad for women because they don’t give women the social and economic freedom
necessary to live their lives. Patriarchy also creates an environment that is less safe for women than it is for men.
But, patriarchal societies are also quite bad (though not as bad) for men!

Under Feudal societies, anyone could be called a witch, and mostly this was used against women. But, it was also
used to target LGBT men, or any man who went against the conventions of “being manly” or was not trying to
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have children. This was because the people in power wanted a constant supply of new labourers, and could say
that it was ‘sinful’ to do anything else, like a man liking another man.

Today, there are still gender roles in society, and the things boys are expected to do are different from what girls
are. This is not automatically bad by itself, but we should be aware of when it happens so we can avoid the worst
effects of it. Maybe we can even fight to make society fairer regardless of gender!

Also read: Pages 68-69

LO - The Great Fire of London

What - The Great Fire of London was an event in 1666 that caused all of the city of London to burn down.
When - It took place from 2nd September 1666 (a Sunday) to 6th September 1666. This time is significant
because there was a plague (not Bubonic!) also going on at the time.
Where - It started in a bakery on Pudding Lane, London. This bakery belonged to a man named Thomas Farriner.

Who -
Thomas Farriner, the baker claimed that it was arson (the act of deliberately starting a fire with criminal intent).
The Mayor of London, Thomas Bloodworth is known for acting quite incompetently when he found out. He even
said “A woman might piss out the fire"
Samuel Pepys was a resident of London who kept a diary (which was actually about his life and women he liked!).
This diary is the most useful primary source about the fire, since it survived, and so did he.
Robert Hubert was a Frenchman who was eventually arrested for the crime of arson regarding the fire. However,
the evidence seems shaky.

How - It started in a bakery owned by Thomas Farriner on Pudding Lane, who later claimed that there was no way
the fire could have started by accident. It was carried by strong winds, summer dryness and went on until the 6th
of September. It eventually destroyed over 13,000 homes, around 90 churches, and left 100,000 homeless.
However, the official death toll is just 6 people!

Why the fire got so bad:

There were many problems that led to the fire getting worse. The first was that most houses were made of
flammable material like wood, and were tightly packed. What made this worse was that most houses were not
properly maintained, making them even more flammable. The second problem was that there was a strong wind
at the time that helped the fire along, coupled with the fact that September is the hottest dry month in London.
The third problem was that the whole situation was made worse by people in power not taking it seriously. The
Mayor refused to pull down houses in the area to break the fire, and he did not want to pay for “firehooks”, which
would have helped slow the spread of the fire. This is because it would have inconvenienced the rich merchants
who kept him in power.

LO - The Fire and Feudalism

On the face of it, this seems like a random, horrific event from history. But, there are lessons to be learned from it
in how Feudalism was not capable of dealing with it.
Thomas Farriner said there was no way the fire could have started by accident, but if he had said anything else, he
would have lost status as a baker and would have been kicked out of the guild. Since Feudal societies relied a lot
on status, it makes sense that Farriner acted the way he did.

People blamed foreigners, particularly Frenchmen since the English were at war with France at the time. The
Frenchman Robert Hubert was eventually hanged for arson after confessing, but it seems certain that he only
confessed because he was under torture.

The Mayor of London could have helped the situation but did not because of “costs”. This is because the Mayor
was not responsible for the well being of his citizens in any way. His only job was to collect taxes for the king.
Most people suffered because of this hierarchy in society.

Most of our knowledge about the Fire comes from one man: Samuel Pepys, and his diary. Pepys says that very
few people died, but we have already seen how in Feudalism, if you don’t own land you have no status or
importance. Such peoples’ deaths may not have even been recorded.

Although there was incredible destruction, very few people were actually recorded as dead, and most records
suggest that only about 6-10 people died in total. Pepys was a relatively wealthy man (only wealthy people could
write and maintain journals), and this means that he probably only focused on the deaths of people from a similar
section of society. The real death toll is unknown.

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Er3GKw8Z3R4&ab_channel=GuyFoxTV)

Also read: Pages 70-71