Political Decomposition of Feudal Georgia (XIII-XV cen.)
During the period of reign of Rusudan there appeared the internal crisis in the feudal society, which
shook the strength of the country and became the reason of defeat of Georgians by the enemies. In
1225-1231 Shah of Khwarezm, Jalal ad-Din Mingburnu, several times successfully invaded
Georgia. He also took Tbilisi and exterminated the large part of its Christian population. True, soon
after that he was defeated in the struggle with Mongolians and died, but the weakened from his
invasions Georgia stayed against the stronger enemy – Mongolians. In 1243 Rusudan had to
officially accept the supremacy of Mongolian Khan. Mongolians didn't abolish Georgian Kingdom,
which was the result of resistance of Georgians. Conquerors stopped at the step that the king
recognized the supreme government of Genghisides, that he would pay annual tribute and in the
case of necessity help them with the military forces.
After the death of Rusudan there appeared two pretenders for the state throne: the son of LashaGiorgi, David-Ulu, and the son of Rusudan, David-Narin. In 1247 Mongolians affirmed the both of
them as the kings, which obviously created the fore-condition for the country decomposition.
The domination of Mongolians heavily laid on Georgia. The annual tribute destroyed the
economical basis of the country. Besides, Georgians regularly had to participate in the far struggles
of Mongolians, which was connected to the material outlays and human victimization.
To get rid of this situation, in 1259 the king, David-Narin rebelled against Mongolians and
moved to West Georgia, which was declared as the independent kingdom. It was the beginning of
political decomposition of the country, because East Georgia, with the subordinated northern
Armenia stayed in the hands of David-Ulu and his inheritors, as the Autonomous kingdom, entering
the Mongolian Empire.
The kings of East Georgia were trying to avoid this subordination. The rebellions, arranged by
them in 1260–1261, 1297–1311 are famous, which were followed by the wide military activities.
The real liberation of Georgia from the Mongolian domination happened in the period of the king
Giorgi V the Splendid (1314–1346). Giorgi V annexed to Georgia also West Georgian kingdom and
thus restored the political integrity of the country.
Liberated Georgia stood on the way to revival, but in 80s of the XIV cen. there appeared the
new enemy – Tamerlane. This terrible Middle-Asian conqueror invaded Georgia in 1386–1403
eight times and ruined it, exterminated or captured the important part of the population. This was
one of the largest destruction that had happened in the history of Georgia. In spite of that,
Tamerlane still couldn't manage to make the whole Georgia obey. His troops were damaged heavily
in struggles with the Georgians.
The invasions of Tamerlane caused the horrible damage for the Feudal Georgia.
Catastrophically fell economic, the population was abbreviated, the country stood on the way to the
cultural flinch. Georgians were involved in the permanent wars, which were hold by the kingdoms
arisen on the ruins of the Empire of Tamerlane. The invasions of nomadic tribes were endless.
In the second half of the XV cen. the foreign political condition of Georgia was aggravated.
Defeat of Constantinople by Ottoman-Turks in 1453 destroyed the contact with the Christian
Europe for the country. Georgia was alone surrounded by the Muslim kingdoms and became the
object of their permanent aggression.
The endless wars, economical and cultural flinch became the reason of the delay of the internal
development of Georgia. The long period of stagnation began, the one of the results of which was
the political decomposition of the country. At the end of the XV cen. Georgia was divided into
Kartli,
Kakheti and Imereti kingdoms, and Samtskhe Princedom5
. But neither these small kingdoms
were the centralized units and from their side consisted of several subordinated dominations, the
strongest of whom, Megrelia, Abkhazia and Guria Princedoms soon separated from Imereti
kingdom and reached the independence from it.
In the princedoms there also were creating semi-independent seniors satavados, which mean
dominion of the prince (the title "tavadi" was separated from the dominating class in the XV cen.).
Tavads, big, landowners, were the vassals (subordinated) of the kings and princes, but had
administrative, judicial and tax immunities in their dominions. They had own military forces. The
word "nobleman" meant only a small feudal afterwards. Aznaurs were the vassals of the kings,
princes, tavads and the church. The obligation of the feudal-vassals was military service at first. At
the time of the political disintegration of Georgia the serfdom was already firmly established in the
country. The big part of peasants and city merchants and handicraftsmen were just the serves of the
kings, feudalists and the church. The wide layer of the private free peasants is remained only in the
highlands of Georgia and in Abkhazia.
At the time of political decomposition of Georgia, there already were long ago established serf
relations. The large part of peasants and city merchant-handicraftsmen was the slave layer of the Kings, feudalists and churches. The wide layer of independent peasants was only in highland
regions and in Abkhazia
