The yoke has connotations of subservience and toiling; in some ancient cultures it was traditional to force a vanquished enemy to pass beneath a symbolic yoke of spears or swords. The yoke may be a metaphor for something oppressive or burdensome, such as feudalism, imperialism, corvée, tribute, or conscription, as in the expressions the Norman Yoke (in England), the Tatar Yoke (in Russia), or the Turkish Yoke (in the Balkans).