Feudal Europe layered multiple preexisting internal dominations rather than one conquest.

Evidence

Montlosier’s analysis functions very differently from the analysis we saw in the eighteenth century. Montlosier obviously does speak of a relation of domination that results from a war, or rather a multiplicity of wars, but he does not really try to situate it. And he says that the important thing is not really what happened at the time of the Frankish invasion, because relations of domination existed long before that and because they were multiple. Long before the Romans invaded Gaul, there was already a relation of domination between a nobility and a people that paid it tribute. It was the result of an ancient war. The Romans came, and brought their war with them, but they also brought the relationship of domination that existed between their aristocracy and people who were no more than the clients of those rich people, those nobles and aristocrats. That relationship of domination resulted from an old war too. And then the Germans came along, with their own internal relationship of subjugation between those who were free warriors and those who were merely subjects. So what happened at the beginning of the Middle Ages, at the dawn of feudalism, was not just that a victorious people was superimposed on a vanquished people. What was established was a combination of three systems of internal domination: that of the Gauls, that of the Romans, and that of the Germans. — Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended, 245

Categorization

• DEFINE: Introduces the analytic move of reading domination as always already multiplied and internal, not a single founding conquest.
• XREF: Connects to the war-grid template laid out in the general 18th-century lecture that this lecture examines. — connects to: Feudalism arose from internal usurpation of delegated royal power, not foreign invasion; Dubos redefined feudalism as internal usurpation rather than foreign conquest — Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended, 216; Capitalism extended feudal relations rather than negating them (+5 more)

Related

• Feudalism arose from internal usurpation of delegated royal power, not foreign invasion (similarity 0.92)
• Dubos redefined feudalism as internal usurpation rather than foreign conquest (similarity 0.82)
• The Third Estate inverted the Frankish conquest thesis against noble privilege (similarity 0.79)
• Boulainvilliers read Frankish conquest as the origin of feudalism rather than Roman sovereignty (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Capitalism’s form was determined by preexisting feudal civilization #corroborates (0.88)
• Capitalism extended feudal relations rather than negating them #corroborates (0.85)
• Capitalism emerged within feudalism rather than negating it, rooted in racialism. #corroborates (0.82)
• Capitalist and formally pre-capitalist modes combine in structured dominance. #corroborates (0.78)
• Long domination produces adjustment to rather than rebellion #expands (0.75) — Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking Cooperative…, 2121
• Europe’s high nobility was highly mobile across national borders #complicates (0.72) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 500