What feudalism was

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The word feudalism comes from the German word feud, which means 'a piece of land'. Land sits at the heart of the whole system.
The related Latin/French word fief (the land a lord gave out) gives us the English adjective feudal.
A fief was a vassal's source of income. It was held from his lord in return for service. It normally included land plus a number of unfree peasants tied to it, and was meant to be big enough to support the vassal and his household. [4]
The term "feudalism" itself is modern, not medieval. Writers began using it only in the 17th century to describe the earlier age. [2]

Note: NCERT gives the word-root (feud = a piece of land); Britannica adds that the label "feudalism" was coined much later, in the 17th century [2]. The two do not clash — one is about the root word, the other about when scholars started using the full term.

Feudalism describes the economic, legal, political and social relationships of Europe's medieval era (5th–15th centuries). It is not one single thing — it is a whole way of life.
Narrowest use of the term: the tie between lord and vassal, where land is exchanged for military service. [2]
A vassal was a man given a fief in return for services to an overlord. He owed his lord three things: military service, counsel (advice), and financial support. [5]
It developed first in medieval France, and later in England and southern Italy.

Farming was the base of the whole system. Production rested on the lord–peasant relation.
Peasants cultivated two sets of land:
their own land, which fed their family;
the lord's land, worked for free as labour services.
In return the lord gave military protection — safety from raiders and rival lords in an age with no strong central state.
This exchange was not equal. It was unpaid work traded for safety.

Lords also held extensive judicial control over peasants. The lord was the judge in his own area. He tried disputes, punished and fined.
So feudalism reached beyond the economy into social and political life — the same man was landlord, army chief and judge.

Manorialism (the system that made peasants dependent on their land and on their lord) was the practical, day-to-day face of this. [3]
Its basic unit was the manor — a self-sufficient landed estate, under one lord, who held many rights over it and over the peasants tied to it by serfdom (unfree status; the peasant could not leave the land). [3]
The manor was the handiest way to run the big estates of the aristocracy and the clergy, and it made feudalism possible. [3]

Its roots are traced back to Roman practice and to the age of Charlemagne.
Charlemagne accepted powerful men as royal vassals and gave them benefices — offices and land grants they could use for their own profit, so long as they stayed loyal. He also pushed oaths of loyalty across the free population and gave royal vassals administrative jobs. [6]
Charlemagne's empire broke into pieces after 814. Central power weakened. [6]
In the 9th century some offices and land grants began passing from father to son (hereditary) — a twist away from the original lord–vassal bargain. Government became highly decentralised, and landholding started taking feudal shape. [6]
By the 9th century many lords were strong enough to challenge Carolingian kings, and made the people of their own areas their vassals, holding land as tenants of a feud, or fee. [6]
But as a settled, established way of life, feudalism appeared only in the eleventh century.

feud = 'a piece of land' (German) — root of the word feudalism.
Feudalism covers the economic, legal, political and social relations of the medieval era, 5th–15th centuries.
It developed first in France, then England and southern Italy.
Peasants gave labour services; lords gave military protection.
Lords held judicial control over peasants — they acted as judges.
Roots: Roman practice + Charlemagne's age; as a settled way of life, from the 11th century.
Charlemagne's empire split after 814; feudal landholding spread in the 9th century. [6]
A fief = land plus unfree peasants, enough to support a vassal. [4]
A vassal owed his lord military service, counsel and financial support. [5]
The manor = a self-sufficient estate; peasants tied to it by serfdom. [3]
The term "feudalism" was coined only in the 17th century. [2]

Feudalism was not only an economic system. Land, army and justice were all held by the same lord. So a change in landholding was also a change in who ruled and who judged. Useful when a question asks whether medieval Europe had a "state".
Weak centre, strong locality. The system grew as Carolingian central power collapsed after 814 and offices turned hereditary [6]. Compare with Indian cases where local chiefs gained land rights as empires weakened — a good comparative line in GS-I.
Manorialism made feudalism possible. [3] The self-sufficient manor supplied food, labour and income; without it the lord could not have kept armed men. Argue the economic base before the political superstructure.
The exchange was unequal. "Labour for protection" sounds mutual, but the peasant was unfree (serfdom) and the lord judged his own disputes. Use this to assess whether feudalism was a contract or a form of coercion.