The Old Regime: What Was It Like?
Hereditary Rule (Monarchical)
Aristocratic: hereditary and landowning elites
Christian: Established Churches
Agricultural
Economic Exploitation
Landowners...but how?
Land Tenure--complicated
PEASANTRY (Western Europe)
Peter Bruegel the Elder: paintings of peasantry link link link
Landless Labor: forms of dependency
Large Estates
Serfs Tied to Land
Marriage
Military Service
Jews in Towns
Corporal Punishment as Labor (and Family) Discipline
Slavery: mostly extinct in Europe
Atlantic Slavery
THE INVASION OF THE AMERICAS
Creation of Wealth
Conflict with Christian Universalism (all humans descendents of Adam and Eve)
Review Questions
Where did elites get their wealth in the eighteenth century?
How was wealth transferred to its owners?
Why couldn't most people sell their land and movef?
How did the European maritime powers get involved in the slave trade?
What sets slavery apart from other forms of dependent labor?
How was the enslavement of Africans justified?