The Crisis of Feudalism

Abstract

Environmental historymayhelp explain feudalism’s demise and capitalism’s ascent in the 16th century. Medieval Europe was riven by profound socio-ecological contradictions. Feudalism’s environmental degradation pivoted on the lord-peasant relationship, which limited the possibilities for reinvestment in the land. Consequently, feudalism exhausted the soil and the labor power from which it derived revenues, rendering the population vulnerable to disease. The Black Death decisivelyaltered labor-land ratios in favor of western Europe’s peasantry. This new balance of class forces eliminated the possibility of feudal restoration and led the states, landlords, and merchants to favor geographical expansion—an external rather than internal spatial fix to feudal crisis. This external fix, beginning in the Atlantic world, had capitalist commodityproduction and exchange inscribed within it. Capitalism differed radicallyfrom feudalism in that where earlier ecological crises had been local, capitalism globalized them. From this standpoint, the origins of capitalism mayshed light on today’s ecological crises.