This question is highly dependent on which part of the world we are talking about, but I can speak to Europe.

Prior to Capitalism Europe was under Feudalism. Feudalism died an extremely slow death declining from as early as the 1500s to as late the late 1800s in Russia.

Normally, I don't care for Britannica, but I feel that they did a very good job explaining feudalism and the general transition here. http://www.britannica.com/topic/history-of-Europe/The-Middle-Ages

edit: additionally this might be a good guide to the various stages of history and the dominate means of production in each period https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Periodization#Marxian_periodisation