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In the later Middle Ages serfdom began to disappear west of the Rhine even as it spread through much of the rest of Europe. The rise of powerful monarchs, towns, and an improving economy weakened the manorial system through the 13th and 14th centuries; serfdom had become rare by 1400.
Serfdom was the status of many peasants under feudalism, specifically relating to manorialism, and similar systems. It was a condition of debt bondage and indentured servitude with similarities to and differences from slavery. It developed during late antiquity and the Early Middle Ages in Europe and lasted in some countries until the mid-19th ...
During classical antiquity, several prominent societies in Europe and the ancient Near East regulated enslavement for debt and the related but distinct practice of debt bondage (in which a creditor could extract compulsory labor from a debtor in repayment of their debt, but the debtor was not formally enslaved and was not subject to all the ...
As European kingdoms transitioned to feudal societies, a different legal category of unfree persons – serfdom –began to replace slavery as the main economic and agricultural engine. Throughout medieval Europe, the perspectives and societal roles of enslaved peoples differed greatly, from some being restricted to agricultural labor to others ...
Slaving raids by Barbary Pirates on the coasts of Western Europe as far as Iceland remained a source of slaves until suppressed in the early 19th century. Common roles filled by European slaves ranged from laborers to concubines, and even soldiers. Christians became part of harems as slaves in the Balkans and Asia Minor when the Turks invaded.
The End of the Old Order in Rural Europe (1978) influential comparative history; Crisp, Olga. "The state peasants under Nicholas I." Slavonic and East European Review 37.89 (1959): 387-412 online. Dennison, Tracy. The institutional framework of Russian serfdom (Cambridge University Press, 2011) excerpt Archived 2014-04-29 at the Wayback Machine
These developments entrenched serfdom and created a rigid social hierarchy. [2] Serfdom became central to the economy of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, underpinning its status as one of Europe’s leading agricultural producers. The Commonwealth relied heavily on the export of grain and other agricultural commodities to Western Europe.
Only in 1832 did Jurģi farmers gained the right to change their place of residence within the boundaries of their province, but in Kurzeme until 1848, farmers were not allowed to settle in cities. After the release of the peasants in 1820, Merkel published an essay dedicated to Alexander I, "Free Latvians and Estonians".