Medieval Europe
Feudalism
Feudalism is a political and social system in which a lord gave land to a noble to work govern, and defend in return for the noble's loyalty. It happened in the 900-1300 AD. Feudalism happened because the collapse of Roman Empire. The empire fell apart in the 5th century C.E. and Europe broke into small, independent kingdoms. The rulers of new states had trouble. The king gave big chunks of land, called fiefs to the leading men in the country. Nobles became king's vassals. The vassals has to promise to take care and protect the king. If the land got invaded the nobles had give the king troops. The noblemen also gave land to fiefs to his vassals. The noblemen's fiefs are called knights. The knights would get a place to live and supplies that they needed. If you were born rich you would probably stay rich and if you were poor you would stay poor. The poorest people on the manor were called serfs or peasants. Serfs had to obey the rules and pay taxes. During the 14th century, a disease called Bubonic Plague known as the Black Death killed almost one-third of the population. This caused a labor shortage so serfs, were allowed to demand more rights.
Crusades
Crusades was holy wars sponsored by the Catholic Church to capture Jerusalem from the Muslims. The church split because there was arguments of how you should run the church. Prior to Crusades, Muslims controlled it. Turks came from Asia and they took over Jerusalem. Pope Urban II wanted to unite the church when Alexis sent Alether asking for help. Crusades were series of conflicts between Christians and Muslims during the 11th and 13th centuries.