Why is Bretonnia so backwards compared to the Empire (or any civilized nation for that matter)?

[[*UNITY*]_ james]

Everything from its institutions to military capabilities Bretonnia is in every way ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ in its progress (or so its the impression I have). Why so then? They border each other, or at least have well-developed contacts. Why has Bretonnia refused to keep up with the Empire's pace of development?

I mean, I get the Empire is at times not very progressive too, with the witch hunts and what not. But its still hard to imagine Bretonnian nobles would forsake something so useful and practical as making mass use of firearms or advanced artillery batteries just because "muh honor/chivalry/magic." Perhaps they really do have slick magic up their sleeves and ofc good cavalry but it still largely goes against common sense to not learn from your neighbor. Not even the samurai of old were that stupid to not adopt guns by foreign merchans and later still use them against the new Meji government.

The only other reason I could think of is perhaps they are afraid of arming the peasants with such powerful weapons and what it possibly could mean. Then just compromise with them or put on a tighter repression. I'm sure the Empire was at one point the same level in development as was Bretonnia after all. Look at what enfranchisement has done to the Empire, Bretonnia should not shy away from it. Unless if I am missing something in the lore.

[samiamrg7]

I know this is necroing, but I think I have a good answer. They are backward for the same reason that Russia was technologically and economically backward for centuries: serfdom. Brettonia appears to have Serfs while the Empire has Peasants. While peasants are free to travel and work as they please, serfs are almost like slaves in that they are bound to the land they were born in and are not allowed to leave. If tbey try to leave, the lord can go hunt them down and bring hem back.
This means that the labor of a nation cannot really redistribute itself to places and tasks that are in demand, so if there is a population surplus somewhere, those people cannot, for example, move to towns and cities (or even to a different rural area) and work there. This decreases the overall efficiency of an economy drastically and makes industrialization nearly impossible since towns and cities cannot grow to meet the required labor demands.
This also hampers intellectual development because there are fewer resources in general and there is no opportunity for the best and brightest to get educated. Innovation is stifled because serfs having “ideas” is a bad thing as far as the land owning lords are concerned, and so they make sure nothing comes of them.

[Dread]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από samiamrg7:

I know this is necroing, but I think I have a good answer. They are backward for the same reason that Russia was technologically and economically backward for centuries: serfdom. Brettonia appears to have Serfs while the Empire has Peasants. While peasants are free to travel and work as they please, serfs are almost like slaves in that they are bound to the land they were born in and are not allowed to leave. If tbey try to leave, the lord can go hunt them down and bring hem back.
This means that the labor of a nation cannot really redistribute itself to places and tasks that are in demand, so if there is a population surplus somewhere, those people cannot, for example, move to towns and cities (or even to a different rural area) and work there. This decreases the overall efficiency of an economy drastically and makes industrialization nearly impossible since towns and cities cannot grow to meet the required labor demands.
This also hampers intellectual development because there are fewer resources in general and there is no opportunity for the best and brightest to get educated. Innovation is stifled because serfs having “ideas” is a bad thing as far as the land owning lords are concerned, and so they make sure nothing comes of them.

You necroed this thread but I thank you. This is an actually a really good answer. I do find your comparision of Bretonnia to Russia accurate but you are assuming that Bretonnia is backwards based on the industrial revolution which happened throughout Europe. Russia was actually a very strong economical as well as military power before the industrial revolution in which many smaller nations became more economically dominant. For Bretonnia, no industrial revolution has happened yet unlike in the Empire(on a much smaller scale) so the reasons for being being so backwards is the social and economic factors not based on changing scenarios but the one that they are still using for the hundreds of years it has been practiced. It's these factors that prevent the industrial revolution so the actual development of industry cannot be started and these developments will never be needed.