Throughout time our world has endured many changes. With great turmoil during the 11th and 12th century, there was change at every corner. For Japan and Europe, it was a time of death, war, and destruction, this time was known as the Dark Ages or Middle Ages. After the fall of Rome, and the weakening of Japanese imperial court; both medieval societies were in pieces. With this, feudal systems emerged. In both systems, knights and samurai made up the warrior class. Were the similarities between the European knights and Japanese samurai greater than their differences? They were more similar than different in three main aspects: social position, training and armor, and honor and death. .
The social position of both samurais and knights was one area with defined similarities. Japan and Europe alike, both had social orders that had to be followed according to class. Being warriors, they fall into the middle class on both forms of the social pyramid(Doc A). Loyal to those who provided land in exchange for military services(Doc A). In Europe the person a knight would pledge his loyalty too was called a noble or lord, while in Japan there lords were called daimyos(Doc A). Loyalty to their superiors was indeed part of the feudal system. A samurai's loyalty towards his feudal lord was called heredity(Doc A). The life of a samurai was not his own, but that of his lord(Doc B). Although there are no legal bindings between a samurai and lord, but there is one for knights, and it is called a feudal contract(Doc B). The European feudal contract was a legal document stating the obligations of a lord and his vassal respectively(Doc B). Even though there is a minor difference, there are more similarities in the aspect of social position. Based on the document, both samurai and knights have a binding loyalty to their lords for land, in return they provide protection and military service. .
All warriors from any point in time not only endure training, but also wear armor.
