In Medieval Europe, politics were organized into a religious hierarchy knows as feudalism. This system dominated Europe for many years. Many factors contributed to breakdown of the feudal system. When this order finally ended it was replaced by an era known as the Renaissance, which would lead to modern Europe.
             Feudalism was based on two main concepts. One was the divine right to rule, where everyone believed that the leader ruled "in the power of God." Therefore if someone went against them, then he or she was committing blasphemy and should be put to death. The second concept, known as absolutism, meant that there were no appeals for arguments with the leaders or their decisions. When these concepts began to be questioned and even proven wrong feudalism began to fail.
             Feudalism ended for many reasons, many of them relating to a change in economy. In order for feudalism to succeed it needed to be in a strictly agricultural society. Therefore its fall began with the rise of commerce. Many things aided commerce in its rise, such as religion. The cathedrals encouraged people, who would not normally leave their home villages, to venture out on pilgrimages. While on these journeys people had to spend money. They needed food and a place to stay, preferably near the cathedrals. From this created cities around the cathedrals. With the cities came trade, commerce, and a business class of people. Under these conditions there was no economic reason for feudalism to continue. This trading encouraged small villages to trade with one another. Eventually people were traveling often and constantly interacting with other villages. This raised the idea of regionalism and eventually nationalism. Along with the trading of money came the sharing of cultures, art, music, and ideas with the Islamic world, Mongol Empire, and other foreign places. From these cultures Europeans picked up ideas like, the alphabet, and ide...