The Similarities Between The Feudal Periods Of Japan And Europe

Both Japan and Europe had feudal periods. That doesn’t mean that everything was the same in both areas, however, there were similarities. The location of both societies affect what was done as well as how it was done. Japan is surrounded by water, and Europe has oceans, but it has a lot more land. They were both influenced by politics, economics, and socialism like religion, rulers, trade, income, social structure, views of women, and class ranking.

Japan didn’t have much religious influence in its politics whereas in Western Europe that was the basis for most of its political decisions. An example of those political decisions is the Crusades; in the Crusades the European were in a war with the Muslims over the Holy City. A political similarity between the two is both feudal systems had figureheads. Japan’s figurehead is the emperor, and Europe’s figure head is the king. The shogun has the real power in feudal Japan, and the pope has the power in feudal Europe.

In the economic area for both feudal systems, the societies were self-sufficient and had little trade with outside world. An example would be the manor that they had. They had just about everything needed for everyday life. Japan’s economy was based primarily on fishing, however, it

did have some minimal farming, and this is because Japan is an island country. Europe’s economy was the opposite because the land was not as rocky and could grow crops; it was based on farming, but it also had minimal fishing.
The social influences on both societies were about women’s rights, the social structure, and class ranking.

In both Japan and Europe, women had few rights, however they had more in Japan than in Europe. In Japan, women were expected to be strong like the men because they had to do jobs that men normally would do while the men were fighting. In Europe, the women were seen as needing to be protected. The social structures were similar in that both had a code for the warriors/knights to follow. In Japan, it was called Bushido, but in Europe, it was called Chivalry. The class rankings differed; peasants in Europe were at the bottom of society, but peasants in Japan were above the merchants because the peasant did the actual

work.
The feudal periods of both areas differed even though there were similarities. Japan had different reactions to the things that Europe also faced because of the difference in surroundings. Europe and Japan were both influenced by different things when it came to politics, economics, and socialism.