Feudal fragmentation is a weakening of central state power with a simultaneous strengthening of the country's peripheral regions. The term applies exclusively to medieval Europe with its subsistence economy and a system of vassal relations. Feudal fragmentation was generated by an increase
members of the royal dynasties, simultaneously aspiring to the throne. Along with this factor, the relative military weakness of the medieval kings to the combined forces of their own vassals led to the fact that previously vast states began to split up into numerous principalities, duchies and other self-governing destinies. The fragmentation was, of course, generated by the objective evolution of the economic and social development of Europe, but the condition for the beginning of feudal fragmentation is the year 843, when the Verdun Treaty was signed between the three grandchildren of Charles the Great, which divided the state into three parts. It was from these flaps of the
empire of Charlemagne that France and Germany were subsequently born. The end of this period in European history dates back to the 16th century, the era of the strengthening of royal power - absolutism. Although the same German lands managed to unite into a single state only in 1871. And then, not counting the ethnically German Liechtenstein, Austria and part of Switzerland.
Feudal fragmentation in Russia
The pan-European trend of the X-XVI centuries did not pass by the domestic principalities. At the same time, the feudal fragmentation of the medieval Russian state had a number of features that distinguished its character from the western version. The first bell to the collapse of the integrity of the state was the death of Prince Svyatoslav in 972, after which the first civil wars between the sons of Kiev began between his sons. The last ruler of a unified Kievan Rus is considered the son of Vladimir Monomakh, Prince Mstislav Vladimirovich, who died in 1132. After his death, the state was finally divided into estates by the heirs and never again revolted in its original form.
Of course it was
It would be a mistake to talk about the instant collapse of Kiev possessions. The feudal fragmentation in Russia, as in Europe, was the result of objective processes of strengthening the local land boyar nobility. Having become sufficiently strengthened and possessing vast possessions, the boyars became more profitable to support their own prince, relying on them and reckoning with their interests, rather than remain faithful to Kiev. This is what allowed the younger sons, brothers, nephews and other princely relatives to resist centralization.
As for the peculiarities of the domestic disintegration, it lies primarily in the so-called factional system, according to which, after the ruler’s death, the throne passed to his younger brother, and not to his eldest son, as it was in Western Europe (Salic law). This, however, caused numerous internecine conflicts between the sons and nephews of the Russian dynasty of the XIII-XVI centuries. Russian lands during the period of feudal fragmentation began to represent a number of large independent principalities. The rise of local noble families and princely households gave Russia the emergence of the Novgorod Republic, the rise of the Galicia-Volyn and Vladimir-Suzdal principalities, the creation and rise of Moscow. It was the Moscow princes that destroyed the feudal fragmentation and created the Russian kingdom.