A question regarding feudalism

What kind of circumstances does feudalism generally arise in? Like, I'm thinking, a country with at least a fairly weak central government would be one of the biggest determining factors. Another would be a situation were military supremacy lay with nobility some way or another, where battles are easily won and lost depending on the battlefield power of the upper classes.
Thoughts? Any suggestions?
 
I would say some sort of constant, anarchic state of war as well. Feudal Japan arose out of the Sengoku Jidai, Feudal Europe out of the Dark Ages. It also definitely involves a previous history of a rigid heirarchy and having little to no middle class. Which means you need an agriculturally based and dominated economy.
 
To me it seems the primary determinant is the effectiveness of raiders.

If raids are stronger than local urban centers, local fortifications must be held at all times. Being as it is at all times, and that fortifications then offer a perfect base for those occupying them to tax the surrounding area, the fort-holders gain power.
Most of them then try to pass that power to their relatives, unless there's a bigger government that can throw them out if they get uppity (or more properly administrative classes backed by decent armies able to easily beat local forts that can withstand raiders).

Medieval Europe, however feudal it really was, suffered from a collapse of the administration followed by massive strides in fortification, and only the rise of new big cities and administrations (especially in Italy) reduced feudal power again.
 
Fuedalism and warlordism generally arise in the wake of the collapse of a centalised state or prior to the formation of one. The King is basicaly a good and lucky soldier and the nobles are his subordinate leaders who are also good and lucky soldiers. Once these Leader-lieutenants-lead arrangements are carved out in the chaos of war or revolution, with the leader taking the biggest slice of the wealth pie and the lieutentants taking progressively smaller slices down the chain, they tend to solidify over time. Just like in electoral politics now, its hard to defeat the incumbent, they have all the resources and know all the tricks.
 
In Europe it was lack of cash. Because the kings didn't have real money to pay administrators, they gave control over the land instead so its wealth (crops) would be the compensation. That was a result of the collapse of Roman knowledge, and that specie fled east into the wealthier lands.

In Japan it was different as technically the shoguns could have bypassed the daimyo and established a centralized state. However, they didn't. Japanese feudalism formed because a weak central state allowed warlordism to fluorish for too long.

In both cases, local magnates who owned lots of land and could therefore field large personal armies were able to act semi-independently because of a weak central government and lack of institutional loyalty.

We see such things happen in many countries and places at times, although we don't call those systems feudal.
 
What kind of circumstances does feudalism generally arise in? Like, I'm thinking, a country with at least a fairly weak central government would be one of the biggest determining factors. Another would be a situation were military supremacy lay with nobility some way or another, where battles are easily won and lost depending on the battlefield power of the upper classes.
Thoughts? Any suggestions?

In Europe, A lot of the infrastructure that contributed to Feudalism had already existed in the Late Roman Period, it really couldn't have become what it did IOTL without the Islamic conquest of North Africa, the massive disruption of trade it caused and the rise in piracy and slaving that came with the conquest.
 
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