Page "Feudalism" Paragraph 24

Karl Marx also used the term in political analysis.

In the 19th century, Marx described feudalism as the economic situation coming before the rise of capitalism.

For Marx, what defined feudalism was that the power of the ruling class ( the aristocracy ) rested on their control of arable land, leading to a class society based upon the exploitation of the peasants who farm these lands, typically under serfdom.

Marx thus defined feudalism primarily by its economic characteristics.

Many later Marxist theorists ( e. g. Eric Wolfe ) have generalized this characterization to include non-European societies, grouping feudalism together with Imperial Chinese and pre-Columbian Incan societies as ' tributary.