Feudalism and Divergent Institutional Paths

Key Insight

The collapse of the Western Roman Empire profoundly shaped institutional development in Europe, leading to the emergence of feudal society. Unlike regions like Italy or Gaul where some Roman institutions persisted, areas like England experienced a more complete societal breakdown. Across Europe, the political vacuum was filled by weaker states, which were further buffeted by incursions from groups like Vikings, Huns, and the expanding Islamic caliphates. This shared 'critical juncture' fostered the rise of feudal institutions, characterized by decentralized power and reliant on unfree, coerced labor (serfs). While extractive, feudalism ironically led to the disappearance of slavery in Europe, as the widespread reduction of the rural population to serfdom negated the perceived need for a separate slave class. It also created conditions where independent cities, specializing in trade and production, could flourish outside the direct influence of monarchs and aristocrats.

Europe's institutional evolution continued to diverge from other global regions due to a distinct sequence of critical junctures. The Black Death, for example, further weakened feudalism in Western Europe by shifting the balance of power, strengthening independent cities and peasants against monarchs and large landowners, and paving the way for a more pluralistic society without slavery. The opportunities created by the Atlantic trade, following the discovery of the Americas, then played out on this transformed institutional landscape. These specific interactions between institutional drift and critical junctures in Europe had few parallels in other parts of the world, such as sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, or the Americas, leading to widely different historical trajectories and institutional outcomes.

Comparative histories illustrate these divergent paths. Ethiopia, for instance, developed a feudal-like system called 'gult' after its own imperial decline, involving land grants in exchange for military service and highly extractive tribute (between one-half and three-quarters of peasant output), exceeding the extraction levels of European feudalism. However, Ethiopia's subsequent isolation from later European critical junctures—like the emergence of independent cities or Atlantic trade—meant its absolutist institutions remained largely unchallenged. In contrast, other parts of Africa saw slavery persist for centuries and were drawn into the Atlantic trade as primary suppliers of slaves, with the profits from this trade paradoxically strengthening absolutism in Africa while simultaneously supporting those who opposed absolutism in England. Similarly, early civilizations in the Americas developed extractive institutions, but European colonialism led to a 'reversal of fortune,' making formerly wealthy areas poor, while less developed regions like the United States and Canada became much richer due to different institutional interactions with critical junctures.