[Dr. Franklin]

I don't think this is true, at least if we're talking about the immediate post-Napoleonic period, as serfdom existed in Austrian Galicia until 1848.

Napoleon never took Austrian Galicia as part of his empire. So, serfdom continued there even though it was abolished in the Russian and Prussian parts of the partitions of Poland. Since the Poles were so loyal to Napoleon, one can only wonder how history might be different had Napoleon liberated these lands before his disasterous campaign in Russia.

[pierrem15]

True, but the other made it sound as though serfdom was eliminated right after Napoleon, when it was not. It also continued r was reinstituted in parts of Germany. I believe one of the German philosopher Heidegger's grandfathers was a serf on a church estate.

In Quebec, a form of serfdom for the Church continued to exist into the 19th century. The last feudal rent was paid in 1970.