In this article I’m going to attempt something similar although I use slightly different categories and reach different conclusions. These are broad brush strokes and crude generalizations that cover over a thousand years of history in just a few sentences. If any historians want to fill in additional details or corrections, I would welcome that in the comments.

Feudalism was the dominant economic system of the Middle Ages. In the 14th century, the black plague killed so many people that it shifted the balance of power between peasants and feudal Lords in ways that led to more rights and slightly better compensation for peasants.

Liberalism was a welcome reaction to feudalism. Smart people, who weren’t quite at the top of the hierarchy, advocated for economic liberalism (the right to trade goods on their own) and political liberalism (the right to have a voice in who runs the place). Over several centuries, those rights expanded to include more and more people.