Fun fact: It is very important to properly hydrate during the cold months. Dew it, drink some water. Like the video, share it with your friends. Tell them to drink water.
@@drandersjiang "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction." Where does it state is still legal the slavery in the US? And I am not referring to the part where you are convicted.
@@arjenmiedema8860 So far the main progress for the bottom tiers of society has been less hours and how much variety money can buy (for example a cheap meal today can easily contain ingredients from 3 different continents, a feat that would only be limited to Emperors in the ancient period).
To be honest the serfdom differed around Europe considerably. At least in Estonia and Livonia the serfs were bound to the land, but they were still tradeable entities between lords. Traded for hunting dogs etc. The families were separated as well in the process. Not going very detail of the differences.
@@stefanodadamo6809 Small extra comment due to the reason that someone had an interest in my previous comment. :) For example, the ruling class of Estonia and Livonia came from Medieval Germany, this was kind of a colonization (the Northern Crusades), when we look into the terminology. Therefore entire native population was pushed to lower caste to serve the people from different culture and genetic background. By genetic background I mean that the Germanic people and Finnic people differ in some aspects from each other (visual stereotypes). Many Baltic Germans described Estonian men at least as vile and ugly people, but women were pretty and joyful (for example von Baer, famous scientist). One is Indo-European and another is Finnic-Ugric, but not forget that populations had previously overlapped in some degree, the Indo-European proto groups influenced local population long before. Culturally totally different. But nonetheless, the colonists treated the native population with considerable difference than those nobles did their serfs back in their homeland. Protestantism - lutheranism is the turning point for the local population - education, better conditions enforced through the religion. Even before WW2 when Hitler took the Baltic Germans out from the Baltic states then many Germans had an understanding that the most of the Estonians belong to the lower caste. Like in the video, the process of making serfs to free men took time over the time (Czarist Russia step by step removed the serfdom's negative obligations, even though serfs got freed in 19th century then economical strings were left to pull for the oppressors. Russian Civil war changed the economical situation in the Baltics when the victors decided to nationalize the lands of Baltic Germans and give them to the soldiers and able bodied people for farming.
@@St6mm were all the natives serfs and treated as lowly or were there any middle class like poland which acted as a bridge between nobility and the serfs.
@@cs-mi8ur The serfdom were "abolished" in Estonia (modern northern Estonia) in 1816 and in Livonia (southern Estonia and Northern Latvia) in 1819, but in reality the many obligations of the serfs still persisted. This made possible to buy the farms for themselves, but they were still bound to the land until 1863, when some sort of passport law was introduced. Reality was that many Baltic Germans were aggressively against those reforms, but the enlightened central government of Czarist Russia had a different vision. Many Baltic Germans didn't notify their subjects about changes etc. Basically a little changed since the land was still owned by the nobility and they rented out the lands. Baltic Germans claimed that the natives aren't civilized and ready for the freedom. In 1865 Hauszuchtrecht law was banned, which meant the nobility could judge the law over the serfs, could arrest the serfs and even apply corporal punishment. In 1868 was the year when the requirement to work for free with your own tools for the nobility was also abolished. The stronger Estonian peasantry which you describe actually arose in the end of 19th century. So actually it depends what is the timeline you are looking at, when Estonians were subjected in the beginning of 13th century then over long period of time the answer is that the serfdom had quite bad time. There are some documents, which indicate that until the beginning of 14th century the things were little bit better but the yoke was incrementally growing on the population when the central Livonian order's government grew stronger after stabilization of the conquered territory and installing its own knights as lords.
@@St6mm Thanks for all this information:-) In Norway we had "husmenn" and very little nobility, rather that larger farms could have "husmenn", who was not bound to the land like a serf and could move to a "husmannsplass" of another farmer. On the other hand a farmer could fire a "husmann" whenever he wanted, to replace an old couple with a young couple, and then this poor old couple had nowhere to go, a cruel aspect with Norwegian "husmannsvesen". It all ended with the pietist movement though, starting with Hans Nielsen Hauge, our most famous pietist, which was a movement to a large part consisting of "husmenn" or our kind of serfs, which gained huge economical and political power during the the 17'th century.
Hey so Established Titles is actually a scam... Their company is not based in the UK, you are not legally a Lord or Lady, and you don't actually own the land. You're paying $50 for a pdf please do not buy from established titles!
Yeah it's not legally binding but their website clearly states it's just for fun and novelty. "The intention of these packs is to provide a fun, novelty product for those who want to purchase something a little different for themselves, their friends or their family"
Citizens of the US cannot hold a noble title - pretty sure it's in the Constitution or the Bill Of Rights. I bet you could sell some Harry Potter bullshit to us, though.
@@DogFoxHybrid that’s incorrect. The constitution only says that the US Government can't grant titles of nobility. An amendedment was proposed to do what you are thinking but it was never ratified. There are alot of ex presidents who have been knighted ( a noble title, in Britain the equivalent is Sir one step down from lord/lady)
Honestly explained the transition so much better than what was taught in high school. Whenever they teach about the fall of Rome and the medieval period it’s taught as if it goes from magnificent buildings of marble and granite to straight castles and plague and then byzantines get a mention but that’s it. No one actually talked about the transition period and this channel has fed my curiosity of that time.
Yeah, high school history classes give you the impression that Europeans moved backwards in regards to civilisation during the medieval period, which is wrong. Of course it weakened in some areas, due to high decentralisation (like the arts), but technology and society still moved forward. Some teachers with an ancient history fetish might also give you an impression that during the Renaissance, Europe started to rapidly improve because they suddenly appreciated the Romans and Greeks, which is also bullshit as they have always appreciated them. In my experience High School history in general is VERY lacking, often skipping important bits and concentrating on just very few biased and (arguably) key moments, with putting a higher emphasis on dates instead of motivations and socio-economic factors. It gives you a vague overview of what happened when, but not really the why and how. Just look at what Americans learn about European history (the last I checked, I'm not American), it is 70% French and English history, with some Italy, HRE and Spain thrown in there every now and then. It sure does cover some major points in history, but it is hardly "European History". It will give some context of how modern America came to be, but it won't explain why Russia, Poland or the Balkans today are the way they are.
In American high schools they don't really teach anything before Columbus and the only time slavery is talked about is the African slave trade and the bringing of the slaves to the new world. I learned about Medieval history and Roman history by watching the history channel but those documentaries never went into details or transitions either. Even college history only brushed through the ancient and medieval periods. The content on Kings and Generals as well as elsewhere on TH-cam is miles better than the information from mainstream educational sources 20 years ago.
I think I found a group of people here who are shadowboxing because they aren’t discoverers of new intelligence. I have yet to hear that “European history is genuinely being denigrated,” anywhere. Nobody is ever saying that.
@@boomerix Yeah. They make it seem as if it was suddenly in the renaissance that people started to read and love classics again, but in fact we have men like Alcuin of York who was a scholar in Charlemagne’s court who was obsessed with Virgil’s Aeneid and would teasingly name his students after its main characters. I’ve also read that Seneca was especially popular among knights and nobility.
Fun fact: the 'Sentencia Arbitral de Guadalupe', issued by King Ferdinand II of Aragon in 1486 to bring about an end to the Wars of the Remences (a war fought between the Nobility and the Peasantry of Catalonia over property rights and the abolishment of the "evil laws") is the first 'emancipation proclamation' of Europe. The edict basically granted the Peasants: •the ability to own/lease land in perpetuity with the additional ability to draw up contracts, which in turn are upheld by the newly established Catalonian General Court. •personal freedoms that cannot be infringed upon by neither the Crown, the Nobility nor the Church. •the abolishment of the "evil laws" (it's a thing of its own) •liberation from serfdom (the King, who was described by many including Machiavelli, as frugal, paid 30 sous per head for their freedom out of his own pocket) Such rights would not be seen in Europe for another 3 centuries, until the French Revolution. Despite all this; modern-day Catalans see Ferdinand as a exploitative opportunist. Ironically, he really was one...to everyone but the Catalans.
@@LuisAldamiz Aupa Luis, aspaldiko! Don't forget that even the lord of Bizkaia had to take an oath under the tree of Gernika promosing to uphold the local laws and that he was not above any of his/her "subjects"
Even if Ferdinand put an end to the "bad laws" or "mals usos" and other socioeconomic inequities from the Medieval Ages, marrying into Castile eventually brought the end to the observation of these particular new laws, as all Catalan legislative body was eradicated gradually until its total anihilation post Spanish Succession War, which established an absolute monarchy style of governance directed by Castile that Catalonia never had in all its history. So yeah, Ferdinand ( "El viejo catalanote" - The Catalan Crone, as he was contemptuously refered to in the rest of the Peninsula) actions mark the beginning of the end for Catalan laws and rights that were fought by ordinary people during 700 years, even if he did not intended it that way.
The introduction isn't quite accurate. Slaves in Roman society had some _very_ limited rights. There are a few cases of people being prosecuted for punishing their slaves too harshly. The reasoning wasn't about the welfare of the slaves per se, but a fear that it would spark slave revolts. The outcome is the same: owners were more restricted as to what they could do to their slaves than to their animal livestock.
That's less "slave rights" and more "property-use law," where the state prohibits property owners to do certain harmful things to their property, like dumping animal waste in a random ditch on your property, or driving your car without a seatbelt really fast. Romans did have a set of morality codes as a means of maintaining common decency, and that high-mindedness would have applied occasionally to the treatment of slaves. Beating a slave senseless to the point a slave revolt breaks out is certainly something Romans would prefer to prevent, much like auto accidents or contaminated drinking water today.
It calls to mind the wars Sparta had to fight with their helots, nearly losing twice before they had to capitulate with reforming Spartan society. It also reminds me of the debate amongst the Roman Senate on whether or not slaves should have to wear their own style of clothing, but the idea was ultimately put to rest by Cicero(?) for fear that the slaves might rebel if they knew how many there really were. Of course, Rome also fought the three Servile Wars as well.
@@nikpalagaming8610 Which is why many business owners adhere to anarcho capitalism, wouldnt be surprised if they brought back some form of pseudo slavery if they get their way.
I took a history course about Roman v. Greek slavery, with a basic sociological introduction to slavery in general. We learned that Roman society was a “society with slaves” whereas Greece was a “slave society”. Greece was much more restrictive on slaves in where they were socially. Roman slaves had slightly more opportunity and protection, and it was seen as a fact that slaves could eventually join the main social group. Interesting perspective at least.
Slave: "I am finally free!" Lord: "Be free somewhere else, I'm not hiring you" Free man: "Wait, what?" Lord: "I could hire you, if you're willing to work for barely enough to afford food and shelter" Serf: "The more things change, the more they stay the same"
Remind me of that Asterix and Obelix cartoon where the slaves earn their freedom by completing a huge Roman project, become free men, only to earn the exact amount of salary that covers the exact meals an accomodation they had before as slaves.
that’s not accurate, slav ultimately comes ‘slovo’ which is ‘word’ or ‘letter’ which is how some of the early slavic tribes called themselves to the greeks of the time. The proto-slavic word for “speaker” or “one who speaks” as in one who speaks as we do (and many tribes and people have names for themselves that mean something along those lines - see indigenous new world tribes, african tribes, steppe tribes, aboriginal tribes, etc. many effectively tie to ‘people who talk like us’). Even to this day, slavic languages are verrrrrrry similar and those ancient tribes were often in close contact and intermingled. Fun fact, the word for german ultimately means “mute” as in they didn’t speak the language. Slavs popped up on the roman radar far later than germanic tribes and celtic tribes (which were far more common slaves) in addition to be far from any Roman centers of power so it doesn’t even make historical sense. The slav-slave thing is a myth because they look similar and lazy faux etymology. Slovo/Sclovi/etc (helenization of early slavic name they called themselves) vs sclava/sclavus (latin for slave or serf). Similar but quite different. The english word comes from the latin sclavus, servant, not for the hellenized slovo.
@@MattieK09 old english used ‘þeow’ or thrall for the equivalent of slave, look to the Norman conquests for when a lot of romance language entered into middle and modern english (Italian schiavo, French esclave, Spanish esclavo, etc. - French being the key here - which ultimately derives from Latin sclavus). The muslim slavers which many attribute to the whole slav-slave bit also doesn’t hold much water as they took far more Caucasian people and Italic than Slavs (unless the chronologers were lazy and just blanket described any unknown enslaved peoples as slavs which is entirely possible). The issue is that Slavs weren’t really near any easy spots for slave societies to get to - slavs were still too far east for the Romans, too far north and inland for the muslim slavers, and slavery gave way to serfdom by the time the germans were masters of central Europe. Sun and son seem related yet aren’t. Just because it makes it simpler to change a letter or two to fit by convenience doesn’t mean it’s the case. And there are about 6 different theories on where “slave” etymologically comes from, the one you gave and the one I gave are just two. For myself I find the PIE and migration more matches up with the one I put forward. Who knows, if it ultimately is from slave, maybe slavs should seek reparations lol. Hell, if it’s true and they are the titular slave people it seems reason enough
@@yonathanrakau7279 Well, it depends. In the Roman Empire several emperors began to grant more and more rights to slaves. Claudius announced that if a slave was abandoned by his master, he became free. Nero granted slaves the right to complain against their masters in a court. And under Antoninus Pius, a master who killed a slave without just cause could be tried for homicide. Legal protection of slaves continued to grow as the empire expanded. It became common throughout the mid to late 2nd century AD to allow slaves to complain of cruel or unfair treatment by their owners.
Loved the video. The way people lived daily lives is sorely misunderstood in most people’s understanding of history. Would you all consider making a comparison of serfs and peasants in Europe with other similar positions in places like China Japan and/or the Caliphates states? It’s easy to gloss over them as merely feudalism with different characteristics but I think it would be really enlightening to really understand how different they were and weren’t.
Under chaliphates states there were different types of slavery. One was household slaves like europe with more rights. They were mainly africans. There were bloody rebellions. Other was soldier slaves they were located in frontier. They werent slave todays perspective. Even they build cities for them called "avasım". These soldier slaves were mainly turkic (khipchak branch). When wealth of the states increase they nearly left all military to slaves. So they overthrew their master and found memelukes states which literaly means slaves. I am not an expert but wanted share what I know. 😊
@@williamkline7922 in Islamic society slavery was restricted to non Muslims , so Muslim citizens either urbanites or rural enjoyed economic freedom , serfdom and feudalism didn't exist.
@Kings and Generals 0) Great video, I learned a lot! 1) Small Correction: in Classical Greece (Athens, Sparta, etc.) slavery existed, but did not form the core basis of the economy. The Silver Mines of Athens was the only place of mass-slavery. 2) I argue the shift from the slavery to serfdom started already in the early Roman Empire era (1st century CE/AD). This shift was in practice and treatment, and did not yet constitute any legal changes. Let me explain: The essence of a slave economy is mass slavery to work the land and in the mines. By whatever means, trade or conquest, the slaves come from outside the own community. The slaves, arriving from different communities and cultures, often not sharing any language, have a very difficult time working together and posing a collective threat to their owners, which enables their owners to treat them so bad as they do. When there slaves share youth, language and culture, they are better capable of working together and forcing certain rights to be obtained. That is one reason why class differences in local communities tend to take various forms of serfdom, rather than slavery. Another important difference is inner motivation. With mass slavery, slaves have nothing and slaves get nothing. Wether the land they till blossoms or deteriorates, they go equally hungry. The only motivation these slaves get is the whip, but the whip can't be everywhere all at the same time. This is also the reason why Roman society mostly used wooden tools and metal tools in agriculture. Metal tools are only better if they treated with some form of respect. It is also the reason why the Roman's didn't use work horse in agriculture, but only oxen. Oxen survive maltreatment better than horses. Serves, on the other hand, have a higher inner motivation. If their lands do better, they do better as well. And so, from the early middle ages on, great technological leaps were made in agriculture which increased productivity. The same story goes for wage workers, who risk losing their job with underperformance. On the contrary, a slave underperforming is a malinvestment for the slave owner. This difference in production mode between mass slavery and wage labour is the principal reason for the American Civil war. On the North's side, this got expressed by the fact that industrial capitalism could only expand based on wage labour, not slavery. Machines and tools are too complex to be worked effectively by slaves. Due to manpower shortages, the n@zis employed slave labour in their arms factories at the end of WW2 and the results were lower quality products and multiple sabotage efforts. Slave labour enormously increases the cost of technological efficiency. The Roman Empire, after Emperor August, more or lass peaked in expansion and did not conquer as much territory anymore as previously during the republican and earliest imperial era. One can suspect a lower influx of new slaves and henceforth a rise in slave prices. Although I myself haven't found literal evidence of this yet, I do see some logical effects that would follow such a development. Slaves gradually were treated better and the lifes of slaves were not so easily spent anymore. The survival ratio of losing gladiators increased massively, which on its turn led to an influx of gladiator volunteers. In the cities, househeld slaves were given more and more freedom. They were allowed to run a personal business besides their daily obligatory chores. This leads to a change from slave's lack of motivation to a serf's form of inner motivation. Legally they still had no rights, and the masters could take away all their gained riches at a whim. But in practice, the treatment of slaves had started to change. The number of slaves set free after years of faithful servitude rose as well. For all of these reasons, I argue the change from slavery to serfdom already started in the first century CE, albeit not yet in legal terms. But as you explain in your video, the change was gradual with lots of ups and downs. I also believe slavery lasted longer in Italy, the former Roman Empire's core land, than in parts of Europe.
FYI - Established Titles is a scam. The Scottish Parliament ruled in 2012 that one can't own souvenier plots of land - which is what Established Titles is selling.
That's not the only thing wrong with this video. There are quite a few miss represented parts of history in this video. But I will give them credit for doing a much better job then most of the other videos on YT on this subject.
@@14rick88 A lot. U can’t really condense hundreds years of history into a 20 minute video well without omitting certain points. But I think it’s a pretty solid summary.
I'd love to see a whole series on the institution of slavery throughout history. What was slavery like in the Islamic World? In China? In sub-Saharan Africa? And there definitely needs to be some videos on the Atlantic slave trade and slavery in the United States, the Caribbean, and Brazil, as well as the "blackbirder" slavery in 18th/19th century Oceania
Yes, slavery is an extremely misunderstood and misrepresented topic and with the amount of political attention focused on it, some quality education in the matter would be amazing.
I sat next to a guy from africa on a flight once. He told me how this one african country bought slaves from another african country because they were taller. I cant remember the countries in question and id rather not speculate.
Great video; slavery is a difficult topic to comprehend in medieval society, but undoubtely coexisted with serfdom; even the famous philosopher Ramon Llull acquired an arab-speaking slave to teach him languages. Anyway, congrats to the person that had the brilliant idea to implement a sponsor of Lord and Ladyships in a video about lords, land and slaves.
Since slavery was not outright illegal, only the enslavement of christians was, it was totally possible for people to have non-christian (usually muslim) slaves, but they were more of a curiosity and in no way something society was built upon.
@@xavisanchez7522 Indeed, but also to preach Catholicism in arabic and to assert in his writtings the superiority of Christianism over Islam and Judaism. He was a great man, but also had political agendas far from being inclusive.
Middle eastern slavery was different in each areas. North Africa, Egypt, Levant, Iraq, arabia, persia. Under islamic Caliphate did it became the more generalised version as everything in middle east became generalised. Rights and freeing of slaves came only with islam in almost all of middle east
Interesting. Sounds kinda similar to Greek slaves in the Roman Empire, in that the primary role of the slaves was maybe more intellectual and/or political than purely exploitative.
Its crazy and sad to think that the majority of Serfdom and Slavery only ended around 150 years ago with it still going elsewhere around the world today
Love all this channel's content, but these big picture social change/development videos always come out on top. Keep up the great work guys. You are the golden age of history content!
You can love your work and remain a wage slave beholden to the whims of giant multinationals or state run organisations that dictate socioeconomic wellbeing. Loving work is no guarantee of a just and decent life. Here it is important to recognise that we should work to live, not live to work.
@@Hideyoshi1991 I didn't know that tbh, I will make sure to read up on him more. I just knew he was a commie because they built a massive propaganda plane named after him. The Tupolev ANT-20. They named a ship after him in 1936 while Stalin was in power, doesn't seem like he was that critical if Stalin (of all people) was doing that.
@@All_Hail_Chael Gorky was incredibly critical of Lenin, Stalin said they should arrest him many times, but he only survived because Lenin really liked him.
I’ve always enjoyed learning about world history. I’m 52 now and to this day I listen to podcasts about it -watch shows on different platforms, read books, etc. It engages my mind. Recently, there has been a part of me that has become sad and burned out as I can’t get over the awful way that people have treated each other throughout history. Regardless of culture, physical location, era, etc, the patterns repeat over and over again on various scales. Slavery, murder, war, a powerful lack of kindness; it is all there as a part of who we are as humans. It continues unabated today. I can understand why these behaviors might exist for any number of reasons, but that knowledge doesn’t make them any more palatable. I know that I won’t stop learning about and being interested in history as the future unfolds. However, I’m not sure how this particular perspective will change or remain static and am wondering if that feeling of pain is a stop along the way or something to be begrudgingly embraced for the future road.
@@EuropeanGameClub i think it was a bit like enforced community work back in the days since they do it in scedule eventually they become quite rich they just hire someone to do it, it become the norm and somehow develop into a tax. Middle ages were quite weird have to say, it was not as simple as roman or mesopotamian slavery
Couple of points. Very few people in Ancient Rome had rights as we think of them today. A Roman father could legally execute his children if he wanted. In the late Roman period attempts were made to stabilise the economy by forcing citizens into certain professions. If you were the son of a baker, you became a baker. If you were the son of a soldier, you became a soldier. If you were son of a farmer, you became a farmer. Forced employment wasn’t just restricted to serfs.
It isn't entirely accurate to say that Roman slaves had no rights. As I recall, they did have some limited rights to have their own businesses and earn their own money. Now it may be that their rights we extremely limited compared to free people but the description in this video isn't entirely accurate.
As I said once before, I'm really enjoying your videos about the socio-economic history and I'm especially looking forward to seeing you talk about why did the serfdom lasted much longer in some parts of Europe, than others (even increasing in the early modern period). BTW, are you planning to maybe cover slavery in the Ottoman Empire eventually?
@@muzammilibrahim5011 Indeed. One has a defined owner, the other is basically a slave on retainer. Basically a package deal, buy land, get a servant. That's bullshit.
"Thankfully the world has largely moved on from the serfdom of the middle ages" Seeing what world leaders and politicians are doing today, they seem eager to bring most people back down to that level.
This video answered a LOT of questions I have had for years regarding how slavery seemed to 'dissapear' from historical note in Europe after the fall of Rome. Very revealing; thank you so much!🧐🤔😲
Bro im so happy u made this vid. My world history teacher went over this briefly and i never could really find any historiographical writing on this topic. So thank you for giving some excellent content.
“Very difficult lives full of hunger, exhaustion, and lack of respect.” Thats not allways very accurate. Hunger depended on the harvests, exaustion was mainly present during the sowing and harvest seasons, wich much simpler lifes inbetween, and the lack of respect also depended on individual circumstances. There were also regional differences wich sometimes were quite severe.
An important episode has been left out, slave trade was very much alive during the middle ages, the Italian city states accumulated immense wealth selling slaves to the Arab world and the Viking raids were also based on slave trade
Thanks for not white washing slavery I'm Antiquity. I feel like a lot of the times people try and "justify" it and say that it wasn't -that- bad, but that's just plain wrong. It was still a horrible and despicable practice. We can still enjoy reading about ancient cultures and history without having to justify the atrocities of the past to explain why we can enjoy periods of history.
@Danny Tallmage since you are on a history related channel, i suggest you research the origin of 'white' as a race, its ties to slavery and miscegenation. You try to imply that the original commentator's reference to 'white washing' is somehow intentional yo create anti white sentiment when in actual fact, the so called 'white washing' is justified because slavery before transatlantic slave trade and the invention of white supremacy was entirely based on 2 things, economic status and collateralized war. Therefore, 1 merely wasnt a 'slave' because of their being but for a reason. And such reasons could be escaped out of through upwards mobility whereas being born a skin tone is something one cannot escape and therefore one is a slave in perpetuity. In conclusion, no slavery in history will ever match the brutality and condemnation of the transatlantic slavery period.
@Danny Tallmage except that people literally created the division between the races in order to justify why certain races should or shouldn't be enslaved, they made themselves kulaks on purpose.
@Danny Tallmage ‘create a racial kulak class out of whites.’ Isn’t that exactly what whites did in America? Plus, who invented the idea of a ‘race’ and race-based slavery? It wasn’t Asians or Africans ;) Stop trying to make yourself a victims because you’re appalled at what your ancestors did.
@Danny Tallmage ‘hoes mad cuz they ancestors got mogged on.’ Did you watch the video above? Some of your ancestors were probably slaves engaged to wash the ar-se crack of some king or noble. No doubt some of them were serfs living in perpetual fear of their lords. Kind weird to celebrate ‘mogging’ on someone’s ancestors. Does this hypothetical ‘mogging’ you’re celebrating make your life more meaningful?
@@MattieK09 recorded historical facts are not my opinion. Mines, crucified, lions...these are all punishments for rebellion as slaves cost money, no slave owner was simply going to buy a slave to kill. Slavery in europe was the same as everywhere, captured casualties of war or people trying to escape poverty, until trans Atlantic trade coincided with white supremacy to create the ideology of whiteness and therefore anyone not white was deemed inferior and subhuman. Even in antiquity, slaves were still seen as human and therefore treated like a human would. "Picking cotton' was not serfdom. These Slaves were not tenants to a plot of land which they farmed and got to keep a share of profits. That's what serfdom is. serfdom:condition in medieval Europe in which a tenant farmer was bound to a hereditary plot of land and to the will of his landlord
The relationship between employer and employee sounds strikingly similar to the relationship between serf and lord, with some key distinctions to make them different, but still similar in key ways such as who controls the surplus labor value of those who work and cannot afford or do not want to become capital owners themselves.
No Are you forced to work for your company? Is said force the threat of violence upon you? If not they are completely different Modern corporations have their issues but they do not legally own you, the worst they can do is remove you (prosecution of workers is very rare). If you told a slave that if they didn’t work they’d be let go, slavery would’ve ended overnight
No question there are better and worse jobs/employers/working conditions, but to compare serfdom to modern wage employment is getting kind of close to absurd.
This is one of those big topics I had always wondered. When trying to get a bird's eye view of the development of society, you have this appearance of serfdom all across Europe as this weird intermediary between antiquity and contemporary eras. I knew serfdom has to do as landed people that emerged from a new formal system of landowners, but that it was characteristic in that we began to see an emerging system that people are owed fundamental rights. Other than obligation to stay on the land and work for their lord, they had a surprising amount of freedom than we might naively assume.
My personal theory is that slavery became much less efficient as the global temperature cooled after the Roman warm period. Because, growing seasons became much shorter so you were unable to find good work for slaves as often. This lead to the development of the peasantry and eventually the artisan class due to them having half a year of not being in agriculture would take up a 2nd profession such as blacksmithing, carpentry, tailoring, and masonry. This, and the guild system, meant europe had tons of skilled craftsmen producing many finished goods such as glass, clothing, ships, and importantly metal goods. This lead Europe to become a producer of valuable goods and gave eastern powers a reason to trade with Europe. This lead to trade to flourish and after the end of the medieval warm period the growing season grew shorter again and gave the peasantry even more time to work as artisans. This lead to the economic boom of the renaissance and even despite the Black Death killing many they still were producing huge quantities of artisanal goods. This new economic power of the commoners lead to them to seek more political rights and too dismantle the nobility. Again, no single trend in history can ever be determined to fully cause another. So, gran of salt please.
@@kekero540 I find it dubious that your initial the reasons we gave up slaves are correct ones. The whole point of slaves is that you can ignore any plight they have. The utility of slavery to a ruling culture meant that the practice of slavery caught on immediately and spread rapidly in human civilization.
@@jamesboulger8705 slavery is generally a destabilizing factor in a society. That’s why it was more efficient to let it fizzle out. Plus why use slaves when peasants will work much harder as their work effects their standard of living.
“This time, I really mean it. We should go back to Egypt. Don’t you remember? Snorkelling in the Nile, three square meals a day plenty of exercise, and oh it was paradise…” “w E W e R e i N s L a V e r Y!”
This video does an excellent job at breaking down how there is very little (almost none, actually) difference between a Medieval serf and modern renting tenant. A serf would give 75% of their crop yield as rent and tax, keep what little remained to feed themselves and keep a roof over their head. A tenant will give 75% of their wage as rent and tax, keep what little remains to feed themselves and avoid eviction. Nice.
Imagine a system where you have to go to a small elite of people, who legally own almost everything and can do anything that they want. And you have to work for them, in exchange for some housing and food.
I am absolutely fascinated by this sort of transitory period. In school, we learn about the Roman Empire with its Legions and civil wars and the great cities and triumphs, and then everything suddenly shifts to feudalism and castles and weak kings, and then to Italian writers and painters bringing the cities back to life, etc.. But we rarely get to see how one thing leads to the other. I always like to understand how one period ends and leads to the other, and the fifth, sixth and seventh centuries AD are perfect for this.
I don't know how you did it, but you've found a way to master the algorithm. Whenever I fall asleep to a video related to your content, one of your videos is always queued up...and I'm not even a subscriber! Well done sir.
Though the video IS about medieval Europe, I do believe Established Titles chose a rather controversial video to show its support for the channel. Sounds like "Become a Lord/Lady and raise your own serfs!" Nice little funny joke, lads!
@@jasonbourne9819 I would rather be enclined to think corporations are a bigger threat,as they fund the electoral campaign for a politician to be elected as a leader of that government.
Wild fact about the Roman Empire: There were several instances where a citizen made an invention or had a solution to make work, commerce, trade, construction, etc etc more efficient. These ideas and inventions were usually shelved because if they were implemented, there would be less of a need for slaves. Rome was terrified of the prospect of having countless slaves sitting around idle and no longer needed, as this likely would’ve sparked a rebellion, so the slave society had to continue.
To be fair, personal serfdom (the one where your person belongs to the fiefdom you’re born in) gave way to material serfdom (you are a lord’s serf as long as you have to pay him rent for your home) starting from the 12th/13th century, notably in France and in great part thanks to the Catholic Church. In practice it may only have been a meagre improvement but at least the serfs weren’t the property of the nobles anymore.
I read that Western Europe's population/LE increased post 473 AD fall of the Western Roman Empire. Caesar wrote in his *"Histories, Conquest of Gual"* that he/Rome killed 1/3, enslaved 1/3 and left 1/3 to work the land.
Even though this channel is mostly dedicated to military history I always love it when they dip into economic and social history because they do it so well; it's always well-sourced and takes into account multiple historical perspectives without any of the reactionary conjecture that I've unfortunately come to expect from many TH-cam history channels whose primary focus is usually on ancient or military history. I also feel like this video is a great example of an unbiased historical presentation that nevertheless doesn't refrain from drawing obvious moral conclusions. I hope to see more like this in the future!
@John Hathorne I love how you dance around the root cause of this : capitalism, where the employer can decide to pay you the bare minimum and have you in horrible working conditions, and threaten you with replacement if you complain, and you blame the replacement, as if the employer wasn't the problem in the first place. What an insidious system, that can redirect people's anger towards those even more unfortunate, instead of confronting the root cause, this innomable greed that cannibalizes society. And "that's the way it is" because we allow it.
As much as I love this explanation, I would like to point out that especially in the mediterranian and black sea area slvery never disappeared, but was in fact a key economic factor in the wars between Christian and Muslim entities and for piracy. See for example the slave trading routes from Crimea to Anatolia, Greece, Egypt and Italy or the Spanish and Portugese takeovers in North Africa or the Canaries which would be the start for colonial slavery in the Americas later on.
I always assumed the Catholic Church did not outright ban all slavery (only the enslavement of christians) even though they found it immoral, was because a significant amount of trade done with the Muslim world in which slaves were often used as currency. That, and also it is one more motivation to convert to Christianity, "become christian to become free", so to say.
@@Hungabrigoo I always assumed it was the other way around. Since almost every Christian is a slave descendant who still lives like a serf to this day, while the vast majority of people in the Muslim world are a free people. But that's just my subjective perspective as someone who comes from a society that never practiced slavery and grew up in a country in which both Christians and Muslims live.
@@jacksonquinn8744 That requires a very long answer, mostly because they (like others before them) often mistake damage caused by slavery with "being civilized".
The US Navy was established to stop the muslim (Barbary) raiding of ships for white slaves. In some cases sailors converted and one became a captain of a muslim slave raiding ship.
Eagerly await every single video and often re-watch them over and over again. I have a passion for the Greek/Roman era of warfare. I would like to request a revisiting and update of the Diadochi wars. No rush. 😉 Thank you!
Excellent documentary, well researched and very well explained. Answered many questions I had about serfdom and answered questions I had not yet even asked.
Fascinating that apparently the invention of the water mill *actually* caused a decrease in the slave population, while the cotton gin was invented with the same intention, but of course infamously had the exact oppisite effect (actually prolinging slavery when it would have otherwise likely ended) (16:30)
Sigh, don't order anything from established titles that require them to ship something to you. You will not get it. Been waiting 2 months. I can get custom machined parts from Germany in 8 calendar days as a comparison.
The book "The Road to Serfdom" has nothing to do with serfdom. Its just Hayek claiming that gov policies to help people will anger other people which will create civil war and dictatorship and therefore the gov should never help anyone. Its nonsense that was disproven even before Hayek wrote the book and in his own country of Austria
If the govt feeds you, cloths you, provides health care for you, a roof over your head and in some places now gives you an income you are not free. You are forever a under the thumb of a govt. that controls you. Dependency. What is amazing is how prophetic his ideas were when he wrote them and what is sad is how people today still try to pretend he was wrong. Another example of not learning from history.
A similar transition occurred in the American South in the 1860s, with chattel slavery at least formally replaced by sharecropping and the prison chain-gang.
Enjoyed the video. Your video animator made a few odd picks though: a servant with a tray of fruits presented to the master in Antiquity, which includes Kiwi fruits (New Zealand wasn't discovered until the 18th century), or a drawing on women farming that mimics a famous 19th century painting of French farmers in that century. Other anachronistic depictions (e.g. the US plantation drawing when discussing the practices of the Germanic nobility) made hard to stay visually on topic (antiquity vs early medieval period). A bit off topic, but beautiful drawings nevertheless. And brilliant way to present a complex topic, with multiple theories, in an easy to understand way. Thank you.
Really like the expanded content. I like military history, but economics and the more mundane side of history is honestly more interesting to me because it is so little talked about compared with battle history.
That's an odd thing to say given that Plato's Zeno dialog features a young slave boy being helped by Socrates to work through the problem of doubling the square. Cusa's argument for universal rights in the 15th Century came from his revival of Plato.
While the content of the narration was excellent as usual, I felt that the accompanying visuals were quite a bit off at various points of the video. For example, at 7:20 a background is shown that is seemingly a throne room in 18th/19th century style, also at 10:50 a battle between early Romans/pre-roman Italics and Celts is shown; at both these instances the narration is about late Antiquity so the visuals and narration were at odds. I don't care if the visuals are 100% historically accurate to what's being said, roughly representative of the period should be enough, but this time they just felt a bit sloppy.
I'm in awe. On such a touchy subject, K&G's impartiality shines. I can name a few history TH-camrs that will fail such a simple test, but you lot respect your audience enough to not preach to them: to just let the history do the talking. As we say in (some parts of) Ghana, ayekoo! 🙌🏾
You're the only youtube video to talk about the decline of slavery in Europe. I tied to find videos talking about the decline of slavery in mainland Europe instead I got video after video of the Atlantic slave trade.
Great video as usual. I'd love to see one on the roots of the Trans Atlatntic slave trade from the perspective of Europe's contact and relationship with Africa from as far back the Prester John legends etc.
I'd like to see a longggg video of the entire history of slavery - of how all tribes, klans, communities, countries treated the subject. At some point, both Christian and Islamic law began to prohibit other Christians or Muslims from becoming slaves to those of the same religion, so that was almost certainly part of the reason those religions grew so large. I'd like more info as to why and how slavery spread, was treated, and also how it influenced genetics. I'd guess, for example, that much of the lighter hair and eyes in Rome and Greece are from interbreeding with Slavic and other slaves. In a similar way, many American whites and blacks have some white and black DNA from interbreeding because of slavery. Female slaves often had the kids of their masters. In Europe, if slaves came from all over, I'd guess slaves of different backgrounds interbred, too. So, that means many of us may have Middle Eastern, East Asian, or African DNA because of slaves being shipped from all over the world.
Great topic and very well covered. However, this seems to address mostly slavery in lands belonging to the former roman empire and its immediate neighbors (Germania). What about regions like Scandinavia, where slavery existed for several more centuries? Then there is also the topic of the balkans, where slavery was reintroduced by the ottomans.
I noticed something interesting. In order to have slavery, you need a group of people that are different than yourself. One of the declines in slavery in Europe was that the people being enslaved were not from far away lands(10:17). In the middle ages, slaves participated in the same culture as free people(13:54) which eroded the boundaries between slaves and serfs.
Wow I like your content. Editing and narrating make your channel my favorite. Your work should be admired . You are deserve more subscriber I hope you must gain 1 Million subscriber by the end of this year. Please keep continue this type of amazing work. Your admirable hard work and deep research make you the best channel on TH-cam.
Fun fact: It is very important to properly hydrate during the cold months. Dew it, drink some water. Like the video, share it with your friends. Tell them to drink water.
I wanna ask, when is season 3 of early muslim conquests coming out ?
Tell them to drink water and watch K&G for optimal health 😎
Love from Bangladesh
Love from Bangladesh
Nicest way to shere 🤗......
Looking forward for part two: How Europe Transitioned from Serfdom to Internships
Nice one ! ^^
@@drandersjiang "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction."
Where does it state is still legal the slavery in the US? And I am not referring to the part where you are convicted.
@@drandersjiang Give me real examples.
@@TheSec09 you’ve answered your own question
Convicted felons can legally be used as slave labour
@@bh5817 ah yes committing a felony and being forced to work is the same as being born into slavery.
Slaves: “We’re free!”
Lords: “Oh I wouldn’t say free. More like under new management.”
Same thing as today, all that's changed is what it's called.
Titan from Megamind quote...
People really use the same reddit ass jokes 100 times on these types of videos
@@user-gz4ve8mw9l Modern girlfriends are essentially Roman concubines with slightly more benefits
Huzzah! A man of culture.
Lord: So, what are you qualifications?
Peasant: Well, I used to be a slave for 20 years
Lord: Splendid, you'll make a great serf!
Thats a goodamn curriculum
Employer: So what are your qualifications?
Employee: Well, I used to be a serf for 20 years.
Employer: Amazing! You'll make a great factory worker!
@@arjenmiedema8860 Four legs good, two legs better!
@@arjenmiedema8860 So far the main progress for the bottom tiers of society has been less hours and how much variety money can buy (for example a cheap meal today can easily contain ingredients from 3 different continents, a feat that would only be limited to Emperors in the ancient period).
@@WellBattle6 fact
To be honest the serfdom differed around Europe considerably. At least in Estonia and Livonia the serfs were bound to the land, but they were still tradeable entities between lords. Traded for hunting dogs etc. The families were separated as well in the process. Not going very detail of the differences.
@@stefanodadamo6809 Small extra comment due to the reason that someone had an interest in my previous comment. :) For example, the ruling class of Estonia and Livonia came from Medieval Germany, this was kind of a colonization (the Northern Crusades), when we look into the terminology. Therefore entire native population was pushed to lower caste to serve the people from different culture and genetic background. By genetic background I mean that the Germanic people and Finnic people differ in some aspects from each other (visual stereotypes). Many Baltic Germans described Estonian men at least as vile and ugly people, but women were pretty and joyful (for example von Baer, famous scientist). One is Indo-European and another is Finnic-Ugric, but not forget that populations had previously overlapped in some degree, the Indo-European proto groups influenced local population long before. Culturally totally different. But nonetheless, the colonists treated the native population with considerable difference than those nobles did their serfs back in their homeland. Protestantism - lutheranism is the turning point for the local population - education, better conditions enforced through the religion. Even before WW2 when Hitler took the Baltic Germans out from the Baltic states then many Germans had an understanding that the most of the Estonians belong to the lower caste. Like in the video, the process of making serfs to free men took time over the time (Czarist Russia step by step removed the serfdom's negative obligations, even though serfs got freed in 19th century then economical strings were left to pull for the oppressors. Russian Civil war changed the economical situation in the Baltics when the victors decided to nationalize the lands of Baltic Germans and give them to the soldiers and able bodied people for farming.
@@St6mm were all the natives serfs and treated as lowly or were there any middle class like poland which acted as a bridge between nobility and the serfs.
@@cs-mi8ur The serfdom were "abolished" in Estonia (modern northern Estonia) in 1816 and in Livonia (southern Estonia and Northern Latvia) in 1819, but in reality the many obligations of the serfs still persisted. This made possible to buy the farms for themselves, but they were still bound to the land until 1863, when some sort of passport law was introduced. Reality was that many Baltic Germans were aggressively against those reforms, but the enlightened central government of Czarist Russia had a different vision. Many Baltic Germans didn't notify their subjects about changes etc. Basically a little changed since the land was still owned by the nobility and they rented out the lands. Baltic Germans claimed that the natives aren't civilized and ready for the freedom. In 1865 Hauszuchtrecht law was banned, which meant the nobility could judge the law over the serfs, could arrest the serfs and even apply corporal punishment. In 1868 was the year when the requirement to work for free with your own tools for the nobility was also abolished. The stronger Estonian peasantry which you describe actually arose in the end of 19th century. So actually it depends what is the timeline you are looking at, when Estonians were subjected in the beginning of 13th century then over long period of time the answer is that the serfdom had quite bad time. There are some documents, which indicate that until the beginning of 14th century the things were little bit better but the yoke was incrementally growing on the population when the central Livonian order's government grew stronger after stabilization of the conquered territory and installing its own knights as lords.
The serfdom in the Baltic states was an extremely rare, case of borderline slavery.
@@St6mm Thanks for all this information:-) In Norway we had "husmenn" and very little nobility, rather that larger farms could have "husmenn", who was not bound to the land like a serf and could move to a "husmannsplass" of another farmer. On the other hand a farmer could fire a "husmann" whenever he wanted, to replace an old couple with a young couple, and then this poor old couple had nowhere to go, a cruel aspect with Norwegian "husmannsvesen". It all ended with the pietist movement though, starting with Hans Nielsen Hauge, our most famous pietist, which was a movement to a large part consisting of "husmenn" or our kind of serfs, which gained huge economical and political power during the the 17'th century.
Hey so Established Titles is actually a scam... Their company is not based in the UK, you are not legally a Lord or Lady, and you don't actually own the land. You're paying $50 for a pdf please do not buy from established titles!
Also you do not become a Lord or Lady because you own a plot of land.
Yeah it's not legally binding but their website clearly states it's just for fun and novelty.
"The intention of these packs is to provide a fun, novelty product for those who want to purchase something a little different for themselves, their friends or their family"
Citizens of the US cannot hold a noble title - pretty sure it's in the Constitution or the Bill Of Rights. I bet you could sell some Harry Potter bullshit to us, though.
@@DogFoxHybrid that’s incorrect. The constitution only says that the US Government can't grant titles of nobility. An amendedment was proposed to do what you are thinking but it was never ratified. There are alot of ex presidents who have been knighted ( a noble title, in Britain the equivalent is Sir one step down from lord/lady)
@@talknight2 So basically a voluntary scam. You scam yourself lol.
Honestly explained the transition so much better than what was taught in high school. Whenever they teach about the fall of Rome and the medieval period it’s taught as if it goes from magnificent buildings of marble and granite to straight castles and plague and then byzantines get a mention but that’s it. No one actually talked about the transition period and this channel has fed my curiosity of that time.
Yeah, high school history classes give you the impression that Europeans moved backwards in regards to civilisation during the medieval period, which is wrong. Of course it weakened in some areas, due to high decentralisation (like the arts), but technology and society still moved forward.
Some teachers with an ancient history fetish might also give you an impression that during the Renaissance, Europe started to rapidly improve because they suddenly appreciated the Romans and Greeks, which is also bullshit as they have always appreciated them.
In my experience High School history in general is VERY lacking, often skipping important bits and concentrating on just very few biased and (arguably) key moments, with putting a higher emphasis on dates instead of motivations and socio-economic factors.
It gives you a vague overview of what happened when, but not really the why and how.
Just look at what Americans learn about European history (the last I checked, I'm not American), it is 70% French and English history, with some Italy, HRE and Spain thrown in there every now and then.
It sure does cover some major points in history, but it is hardly "European History".
It will give some context of how modern America came to be, but it won't explain why Russia, Poland or the Balkans today are the way they are.
In American high schools they don't really teach anything before Columbus and the only time slavery is talked about is the African slave trade and the bringing of the slaves to the new world. I learned about Medieval history and Roman history by watching the history channel but those documentaries never went into details or transitions either. Even college history only brushed through the ancient and medieval periods. The content on Kings and Generals as well as elsewhere on TH-cam is miles better than the information from mainstream educational sources 20 years ago.
I think I found a group of people here who are shadowboxing because they aren’t discoverers of new intelligence.
I have yet to hear that “European history is genuinely being denigrated,” anywhere. Nobody is ever saying that.
@@boomerix
Yeah. They make it seem as if it was suddenly in the renaissance that people started to read and love classics again, but in fact we have men like Alcuin of York who was a scholar in Charlemagne’s court who was obsessed with Virgil’s Aeneid and would teasingly name his students after its main characters. I’ve also read that Seneca was especially popular among knights and nobility.
Patrick Wyman has an amazing podcast called the fall of Rome that covers this period really well!
Fun fact: the 'Sentencia Arbitral de Guadalupe', issued by King Ferdinand II of Aragon in 1486 to bring about an end to the Wars of the Remences (a war fought between the Nobility and the Peasantry of Catalonia over property rights and the abolishment of the "evil laws") is the first 'emancipation proclamation' of Europe.
The edict basically granted the Peasants:
•the ability to own/lease land in perpetuity with the additional ability to draw up contracts, which in turn are upheld by the newly established Catalonian General Court.
•personal freedoms that cannot be infringed upon by neither the Crown, the Nobility nor the Church.
•the abolishment of the "evil laws" (it's a thing of its own)
•liberation from serfdom (the King, who was described by many including Machiavelli, as frugal, paid 30 sous per head for their freedom out of his own pocket)
Such rights would not be seen in Europe for another 3 centuries, until the French Revolution.
Despite all this; modern-day Catalans see Ferdinand as a exploitative opportunist. Ironically, he really was one...to everyone but the Catalans.
1102; England had banned slave trading. (Within and from the Islands)
One of the few channels whose comments I actually like. Great insight!
@@LuisAldamiz Aupa Luis, aspaldiko!
Don't forget that even the lord of Bizkaia had to take an oath under the tree of Gernika promosing to uphold the local laws and that he was not above any of his/her "subjects"
Even if Ferdinand put an end to the "bad laws" or "mals usos" and other socioeconomic inequities from the Medieval Ages, marrying into Castile eventually brought the end to the observation of these particular new laws, as all Catalan legislative body was eradicated gradually until its total anihilation post Spanish Succession War, which established an absolute monarchy style of governance directed by Castile that Catalonia never had in all its history. So yeah, Ferdinand ( "El viejo catalanote" - The Catalan Crone, as he was contemptuously refered to in the rest of the Peninsula) actions mark the beginning of the end for Catalan laws and rights that were fought by ordinary people during 700 years, even if he did not intended it that way.
@@sugadaddy7050 you mean nowdays?
The introduction isn't quite accurate. Slaves in Roman society had some _very_ limited rights. There are a few cases of people being prosecuted for punishing their slaves too harshly. The reasoning wasn't about the welfare of the slaves per se, but a fear that it would spark slave revolts. The outcome is the same: owners were more restricted as to what they could do to their slaves than to their animal livestock.
That's less "slave rights" and more "property-use law," where the state prohibits property owners to do certain harmful things to their property, like dumping animal waste in a random ditch on your property, or driving your car without a seatbelt really fast. Romans did have a set of morality codes as a means of maintaining common decency, and that high-mindedness would have applied occasionally to the treatment of slaves. Beating a slave senseless to the point a slave revolt breaks out is certainly something Romans would prefer to prevent, much like auto accidents or contaminated drinking water today.
It calls to mind the wars Sparta had to fight with their helots, nearly losing twice before they had to capitulate with reforming Spartan society. It also reminds me of the debate amongst the Roman Senate on whether or not slaves should have to wear their own style of clothing, but the idea was ultimately put to rest by Cicero(?) for fear that the slaves might rebel if they knew how many there really were. Of course, Rome also fought the three Servile Wars as well.
Isnt it the same now a days with workers? businesses do not care about the welfare of their workers per se, but a fear that it would spark strikes.
@@nikpalagaming8610 Which is why many business owners adhere to anarcho capitalism, wouldnt be surprised if they brought back some form of pseudo slavery if they get their way.
I took a history course about Roman v. Greek slavery, with a basic sociological introduction to slavery in general. We learned that Roman society was a “society with slaves” whereas Greece was a “slave society”. Greece was much more restrictive on slaves in where they were socially. Roman slaves had slightly more opportunity and protection, and it was seen as a fact that slaves could eventually join the main social group. Interesting perspective at least.
Slave: "I am finally free!"
Lord: "Be free somewhere else, I'm not hiring you"
Free man: "Wait, what?"
Lord: "I could hire you, if you're willing to work for barely enough to afford food and shelter"
Serf: "The more things change, the more they stay the same"
Remind me of that Asterix and Obelix cartoon where the slaves earn their freedom by completing a huge Roman project, become free men, only to earn the exact amount of salary that covers the exact meals an accomodation they had before as slaves.
this happened also after the American Civil war
So you are describing Amazon hiring practices.
@@GeoFry3 came to say something similar
next topic in 100 years of so: transition from serfdom to wage slavery
Interesting fact about serfdom. The Czech and Polish words for a worker/serf are were we get the word Robot from.
Interesting, the word in Serbian for a slave is "Rob"
And the English word "slave" comes from "Slav", which is what both Czechs and Serbs are.
that’s not accurate, slav ultimately comes ‘slovo’ which is ‘word’ or ‘letter’ which is how some of the early slavic tribes called themselves to the greeks of the time. The proto-slavic word for “speaker” or “one who speaks” as in one who speaks as we do (and many tribes and people have names for themselves that mean something along those lines - see indigenous new world tribes, african tribes, steppe tribes, aboriginal tribes, etc. many effectively tie to ‘people who talk like us’). Even to this day, slavic languages are verrrrrrry similar and those ancient tribes were often in close contact and intermingled. Fun fact, the word for german ultimately means “mute” as in they didn’t speak the language.
Slavs popped up on the roman radar far later than germanic tribes and celtic tribes (which were far more common slaves) in addition to be far from any Roman centers of power so it doesn’t even make historical sense. The slav-slave thing is a myth because they look similar and lazy faux etymology.
Slovo/Sclovi/etc (helenization of early slavic name they called themselves) vs sclava/sclavus (latin for slave or serf). Similar but quite different. The english word comes from the latin sclavus, servant, not for the hellenized slovo.
@@MattieK09 old english used ‘þeow’ or thrall for the equivalent of slave, look to the Norman conquests for when a lot of romance language entered into middle and modern english (Italian schiavo, French esclave, Spanish esclavo, etc. - French being the key here - which ultimately derives from Latin sclavus).
The muslim slavers which many attribute to the whole slav-slave bit also doesn’t hold much water as they took far more Caucasian people and Italic than Slavs (unless the chronologers were lazy and just blanket described any unknown enslaved peoples as slavs which is entirely possible). The issue is that Slavs weren’t really near any easy spots for slave societies to get to - slavs were still too far east for the Romans, too far north and inland for the muslim slavers, and slavery gave way to serfdom by the time the germans were masters of central Europe.
Sun and son seem related yet aren’t. Just because it makes it simpler to change a letter or two to fit by convenience doesn’t mean it’s the case. And there are about 6 different theories on where “slave” etymologically comes from, the one you gave and the one I gave are just two. For myself I find the PIE and migration more matches up with the one I put forward. Who knows, if it ultimately is from slave, maybe slavs should seek reparations lol. Hell, if it’s true and they are the titular slave people it seems reason enough
@@MattieK09 south slavs? Yeah, but the west and east slavs? Not so much
"You know what else stinks about being a slave? The hours."
as a slave you cant even complain if they suddently decided tomorrow is your death
That's not funny if you live in China.
You know the worst thing about being a slave? They make you work, but they don't pay you or let you go!
@@merovekh i mean they literally can just kill you anyway lol and nobody can do anything bout it
@@yonathanrakau7279
Well, it depends.
In the Roman Empire several emperors began to grant more and more rights to slaves. Claudius announced that if a slave was abandoned by his master, he became free. Nero granted slaves the right to complain against their masters in a court. And under Antoninus Pius, a master who killed a slave without just cause could be tried for homicide. Legal protection of slaves continued to grow as the empire expanded. It became common throughout the mid to late 2nd century AD to allow slaves to complain of cruel or unfair treatment by their owners.
Loved the video. The way people lived daily lives is sorely misunderstood in most people’s understanding of history. Would you all consider making a comparison of serfs and peasants in Europe with other similar positions in places like China Japan and/or the Caliphates states? It’s easy to gloss over them as merely feudalism with different characteristics but I think it would be really enlightening to really understand how different they were and weren’t.
Under chaliphates states there were different types of slavery. One was household slaves like europe with more rights. They were mainly africans. There were bloody rebellions. Other was soldier slaves they were located in frontier. They werent slave todays perspective. Even they build cities for them called "avasım". These soldier slaves were mainly turkic (khipchak branch). When wealth of the states increase they nearly left all military to slaves. So they overthrew their master and found memelukes states which literaly means slaves.
I am not an expert but wanted share what I know. 😊
@@cagriozkan1936 I’ve heard of the Mamelukes but never their origin. Very interesting.
@@williamkline7922 yeah they were really interesting
@@williamkline7922 mamluks were slaves of different origines (circassian, turkic, Slavic ect), their rise to power is quite interesting too
@@williamkline7922 in Islamic society slavery was restricted to non Muslims , so Muslim citizens either urbanites or rural enjoyed economic freedom , serfdom and feudalism didn't exist.
@Kings and Generals
0) Great video, I learned a lot!
1) Small Correction: in Classical Greece (Athens, Sparta, etc.) slavery existed, but did not form the core basis of the economy. The Silver Mines of Athens was the only place of mass-slavery.
2) I argue the shift from the slavery to serfdom started already in the early Roman Empire era (1st century CE/AD). This shift was in practice and treatment, and did not yet constitute any legal changes. Let me explain:
The essence of a slave economy is mass slavery to work the land and in the mines. By whatever means, trade or conquest, the slaves come from outside the own community. The slaves, arriving from different communities and cultures, often not sharing any language, have a very difficult time working together and posing a collective threat to their owners, which enables their owners to treat them so bad as they do. When there slaves share youth, language and culture, they are better capable of working together and forcing certain rights to be obtained. That is one reason why class differences in local communities tend to take various forms of serfdom, rather than slavery.
Another important difference is inner motivation. With mass slavery, slaves have nothing and slaves get nothing. Wether the land they till blossoms or deteriorates, they go equally hungry. The only motivation these slaves get is the whip, but the whip can't be everywhere all at the same time. This is also the reason why Roman society mostly used wooden tools and metal tools in agriculture. Metal tools are only better if they treated with some form of respect. It is also the reason why the Roman's didn't use work horse in agriculture, but only oxen. Oxen survive maltreatment better than horses.
Serves, on the other hand, have a higher inner motivation. If their lands do better, they do better as well. And so, from the early middle ages on, great technological leaps were made in agriculture which increased productivity.
The same story goes for wage workers, who risk losing their job with underperformance. On the contrary, a slave underperforming is a malinvestment for the slave owner. This difference in production mode between mass slavery and wage labour is the principal reason for the American Civil war. On the North's side, this got expressed by the fact that industrial capitalism could only expand based on wage labour, not slavery. Machines and tools are too complex to be worked effectively by slaves. Due to manpower shortages, the n@zis employed slave labour in their arms factories at the end of WW2 and the results were lower quality products and multiple sabotage efforts. Slave labour enormously increases the cost of technological efficiency.
The Roman Empire, after Emperor August, more or lass peaked in expansion and did not conquer as much territory anymore as previously during the republican and earliest imperial era. One can suspect a lower influx of new slaves and henceforth a rise in slave prices. Although I myself haven't found literal evidence of this yet, I do see some logical effects that would follow such a development. Slaves gradually were treated better and the lifes of slaves were not so easily spent anymore. The survival ratio of losing gladiators increased massively, which on its turn led to an influx of gladiator volunteers. In the cities, househeld slaves were given more and more freedom. They were allowed to run a personal business besides their daily obligatory chores. This leads to a change from slave's lack of motivation to a serf's form of inner motivation. Legally they still had no rights, and the masters could take away all their gained riches at a whim. But in practice, the treatment of slaves had started to change. The number of slaves set free after years of faithful servitude rose as well.
For all of these reasons, I argue the change from slavery to serfdom already started in the first century CE, albeit not yet in legal terms. But as you explain in your video, the change was gradual with lots of ups and downs. I also believe slavery lasted longer in Italy, the former Roman Empire's core land, than in parts of Europe.
FYI - Established Titles is a scam. The Scottish Parliament ruled in 2012 that one can't own souvenier plots of land - which is what Established Titles is selling.
Yep, and I'd wish K&G would stopped advertising it as it makes them look bad.
Yeah I figured they were selling nothing
That's not the only thing wrong with this video. There are quite a few miss represented parts of history in this video. But I will give them credit for doing a much better job then most of the other videos on YT on this subject.
@@apolloredux3161 what’s missing? Asking out of curiosity
@@14rick88 A lot. U can’t really condense hundreds years of history into a 20 minute video well without omitting certain points. But I think it’s a pretty solid summary.
I'd love to see a whole series on the institution of slavery throughout history. What was slavery like in the Islamic World? In China? In sub-Saharan Africa? And there definitely needs to be some videos on the Atlantic slave trade and slavery in the United States, the Caribbean, and Brazil, as well as the "blackbirder" slavery in 18th/19th century Oceania
Yes, slavery is an extremely misunderstood and misrepresented topic and with the amount of political attention focused on it, some quality education in the matter would be amazing.
@RJDA 0704 u know that the romans enslaved africans and arabs
I sat next to a guy from africa on a flight once. He told me how this one african country bought slaves from another african country because they were taller. I cant remember the countries in question and id rather not speculate.
@@mehmedtheconqueror7132 yea some Africans and Arabs enslaved whites nothing new anything else?
@@MidlifeCrisisJoe and...... their was alot of asain slaves the biggest slaver in the world was Asian i forget his name
This channel covers such a wide array of topics, and all so well. Great job, keep it up.
I wish they covered lore of fictional stories like the way they've covered fictional battles.
@@theawesomeman9821 start that channel then
@@fallendevonish1869 Too much time, money, and effort! Sorry!
Great video; slavery is a difficult topic to comprehend in medieval society, but undoubtely coexisted with serfdom; even the famous philosopher Ramon Llull acquired an arab-speaking slave to teach him languages. Anyway, congrats to the person that had the brilliant idea to implement a sponsor of Lord and Ladyships in a video about lords, land and slaves.
Since slavery was not outright illegal, only the enslavement of christians was, it was totally possible for people to have non-christian (usually muslim) slaves, but they were more of a curiosity and in no way something society was built upon.
@@xavisanchez7522 Indeed, but also to preach Catholicism in arabic and to assert in his writtings the superiority of Christianism over Islam and Judaism. He was a great man, but also had political agendas far from being inclusive.
Middle eastern slavery was different in each areas. North Africa, Egypt, Levant, Iraq, arabia, persia. Under islamic Caliphate did it became the more generalised version as everything in middle east became generalised. Rights and freeing of slaves came only with islam in almost all of middle east
Interesting. Sounds kinda similar to Greek slaves in the Roman Empire, in that the primary role of the slaves was maybe more intellectual and/or political than purely exploitative.
Its crazy and sad to think that the majority of Serfdom and Slavery only ended around 150 years ago with it still going elsewhere around the world today
wage slavery !!!!!!!!
Private prisons show that slavery hasn't ended at all, it was just nationalized.
@@abcdef-kx2qt Wage slavery is not slavery though, people only call it "slavery" to dramatize the problem.
@@Hungabrigoo Well said. Just head to Africa and the Middle-East to see real slavery.
@@abcdef-kx2qt lol you can leave a job for another, you can also network and build reputation to receive higher pay
Love all this channel's content, but these big picture social change/development videos always come out on top. Keep up the great work guys. You are the golden age of history content!
"When work is a pleasure, life is a joy! When work is a duty, life is slavery"
- Maxim Gorky
Hilarious quote coming from a communist like Gorky.
@@All_Hail_Chael If I remember correctly he despised Lenin and hated the undemocratic nature of the Bolsheviks
You can love your work and remain a wage slave beholden to the whims of giant multinationals or state run organisations that dictate socioeconomic wellbeing. Loving work is no guarantee of a just and decent life.
Here it is important to recognise that we should work to live, not live to work.
@@Hideyoshi1991 I didn't know that tbh, I will make sure to read up on him more.
I just knew he was a commie because they built a massive propaganda plane named after him. The Tupolev ANT-20.
They named a ship after him in 1936 while Stalin was in power, doesn't seem like he was that critical if Stalin (of all people) was doing that.
@@All_Hail_Chael Gorky was incredibly critical of Lenin, Stalin said they should arrest him many times, but he only survived because Lenin really liked him.
I’ve always enjoyed learning about world history. I’m 52 now and to this day I listen to podcasts about it -watch shows on different platforms, read books, etc. It engages my mind.
Recently, there has been a part of me that has become sad and burned out as I can’t get over the awful way that people have treated each other throughout history. Regardless of culture, physical location, era, etc, the patterns repeat over and over again on various scales. Slavery, murder, war, a powerful lack of kindness; it is all there as a part of who we are as humans. It continues unabated today. I can understand why these behaviors might exist for any number of reasons, but that knowledge doesn’t make them any more palatable.
I know that I won’t stop learning about and being interested in history as the future unfolds. However, I’m not sure how this particular perspective will change or remain static and am wondering if that feeling of pain is a stop along the way or something to be begrudgingly embraced for the future road.
Serf: "But I don't want to be a janny..."
Diocletian: "Eww, Janny! Clean this!"
And they do it for free!!!
based
1,000,000 celts killed
1,000,000+ celts enslaved
*dabs*
@@EuropeanGameClub i think it was a bit like enforced community work back in the days since they do it in scedule eventually they become quite rich they just hire someone to do it, it become the norm and somehow develop into a tax. Middle ages were quite weird have to say, it was not as simple as roman or mesopotamian slavery
Diocletian made most occupations hereditary.
Couple of points.
Very few people in Ancient Rome had rights as we think of them today. A Roman father could legally execute his children if he wanted.
In the late Roman period attempts were made to stabilise the economy by forcing citizens into certain professions. If you were the son of a baker, you became a baker. If you were the son of a soldier, you became a soldier. If you were son of a farmer, you became a farmer. Forced employment wasn’t just restricted to serfs.
It isn't entirely accurate to say that Roman slaves had no rights. As I recall, they did have some limited rights to have their own businesses and earn their own money. Now it may be that their rights we extremely limited compared to free people but the description in this video isn't entirely accurate.
As I said once before, I'm really enjoying your videos about the socio-economic history and I'm especially looking forward to seeing you talk about why did the serfdom lasted much longer in some parts of Europe, than others (even increasing in the early modern period).
BTW, are you planning to maybe cover slavery in the Ottoman Empire eventually?
The devil works hard but K&G works harder
A bit backhanded, but I will take it :-)
@@KingsandGenerals please do on the skih empire and king porus
@@KingsandGenerals please do on how warefare was done
@@gnanaganesh5937 that's good ,good luck on ur channel bro
Slavery is when someone owns you.
Serfdom is when you are no better than a tree on a plot of land.
Sounds like the same thing tbh
@@muzammilibrahim5011 Indeed. One has a defined owner, the other is basically a slave on retainer. Basically a package deal, buy land, get a servant. That's bullshit.
Thanks!
"Thankfully the world has largely moved on from the serfdom of the middle ages"
Seeing what world leaders and politicians are doing today, they seem eager to bring most people back down to that level.
The outright destruction of the middle class, mobility, and private property.
You will live in the pod.
You will eat the bugs.
You will own nothing.
And you will be happy.
Slavery never ended. It simply changed form, over the centuries.
You might be interested in the book The Road to Serfdom by F.A. Hayek.
@@davidvondoom2853 thats not how reality works
This video answered a LOT of questions I have had for years regarding how slavery seemed to 'dissapear' from historical note in Europe after the fall of Rome. Very revealing; thank you so much!🧐🤔😲
Bro im so happy u made this vid. My world history teacher went over this briefly and i never could really find any historiographical writing on this topic. So thank you for giving some excellent content.
“Very difficult lives full of hunger, exhaustion, and lack of respect.”
Hmm something seems similar to modern times.
Yes, and the few have all the money, the majority are scraping by, the neoliberalism policy set out by Reagen and Thatcher is coming to the fore.
Hunger not so much
uh no, unless you are living in Africa or Haiti. Otherwise your privilege is pretty disgusting if you think life in the USA is anywhere close.
@@Inspectorzinn2 “the last item on the list”
Yes something does indeed seem similar to modern times.
You’ve demonstrated that perfectly. :/
“Very difficult lives full of hunger, exhaustion, and lack of respect.”
Thats not allways very accurate. Hunger depended on the harvests, exaustion was mainly present during the sowing and harvest seasons, wich much simpler lifes inbetween, and the lack of respect also depended on individual circumstances. There were also regional differences wich sometimes were quite severe.
An important episode has been left out, slave trade was very much alive during the middle ages, the Italian city states accumulated immense wealth selling slaves to the Arab world and the Viking raids were also based on slave trade
@@skorathereckless6449 From one part of the Arab world to another part. It was pretty big you know.
Thanks for not white washing slavery I'm Antiquity. I feel like a lot of the times people try and "justify" it and say that it wasn't -that- bad, but that's just plain wrong. It was still a horrible and despicable practice. We can still enjoy reading about ancient cultures and history without having to justify the atrocities of the past to explain why we can enjoy periods of history.
@Danny Tallmage since you are on a history related channel, i suggest you research the origin of 'white' as a race, its ties to slavery and miscegenation.
You try to imply that the original commentator's reference to 'white washing' is somehow intentional yo create anti white sentiment when in actual fact, the so called 'white washing' is justified because slavery before transatlantic slave trade and the invention of white supremacy was entirely based on 2 things, economic status and collateralized war. Therefore, 1 merely wasnt a 'slave' because of their being but for a reason. And such reasons could be escaped out of through upwards mobility whereas being born a skin tone is something one cannot escape and therefore one is a slave in perpetuity.
In conclusion, no slavery in history will ever match the brutality and condemnation of the transatlantic slavery period.
@Danny Tallmage except that people literally created the division between the races in order to justify why certain races should or shouldn't be enslaved, they made themselves kulaks on purpose.
@Danny Tallmage ‘create a racial kulak class out of whites.’ Isn’t that exactly what whites did in America? Plus, who invented the idea of a ‘race’ and race-based slavery? It wasn’t Asians or Africans ;)
Stop trying to make yourself a victims because you’re appalled at what your ancestors did.
@Danny Tallmage ‘hoes mad cuz they ancestors got mogged on.’
Did you watch the video above? Some of your ancestors were probably slaves engaged to wash the ar-se crack of some king or noble. No doubt some of them were serfs living in perpetual fear of their lords.
Kind weird to celebrate ‘mogging’ on someone’s ancestors. Does this hypothetical ‘mogging’ you’re celebrating make your life more meaningful?
@@MattieK09 recorded historical facts are not my opinion. Mines, crucified, lions...these are all punishments for rebellion as slaves cost money, no slave owner was simply going to buy a slave to kill. Slavery in europe was the same as everywhere, captured casualties of war or people trying to escape poverty, until trans Atlantic trade coincided with white supremacy to create the ideology of whiteness and therefore anyone not white was deemed inferior and subhuman. Even in antiquity, slaves were still seen as human and therefore treated like a human would.
"Picking cotton' was not serfdom. These Slaves were not tenants to a plot of land which they farmed and got to keep a share of profits. That's what serfdom is.
serfdom:condition in medieval Europe in which a tenant farmer was bound to a hereditary plot of land and to the will of his landlord
The relationship between employer and employee sounds strikingly similar to the relationship between serf and lord, with some key distinctions to make them different, but still similar in key ways such as who controls the surplus labor value of those who work and cannot afford or do not want to become capital owners themselves.
No
Are you forced to work for your company?
Is said force the threat of violence upon you?
If not they are completely different
Modern corporations have their issues but they do not legally own you, the worst they can do is remove you (prosecution of workers is very rare).
If you told a slave that if they didn’t work they’d be let go, slavery would’ve ended overnight
No question there are better and worse jobs/employers/working conditions, but to compare serfdom to modern wage employment is getting kind of close to absurd.
Bro really think he Marx 💀💀💀
"Freedom is the sure possession of those alone who have the courage to defend it"
- Pericles
...to defend us from rebellious slaves
This is one of those big topics I had always wondered. When trying to get a bird's eye view of the development of society, you have this appearance of serfdom all across Europe as this weird intermediary between antiquity and contemporary eras. I knew serfdom has to do as landed people that emerged from a new formal system of landowners, but that it was characteristic in that we began to see an emerging system that people are owed fundamental rights. Other than obligation to stay on the land and work for their lord, they had a surprising amount of freedom than we might naively assume.
My personal theory is that slavery became much less efficient as the global temperature cooled after the Roman warm period. Because, growing seasons became much shorter so you were unable to find good work for slaves as often.
This lead to the development of the peasantry and eventually the artisan class due to them having half a year of not being in agriculture would take up a 2nd profession such as blacksmithing, carpentry, tailoring, and masonry.
This, and the guild system, meant europe had tons of skilled craftsmen producing many finished goods such as glass, clothing, ships, and importantly metal goods.
This lead Europe to become a producer of valuable goods and gave eastern powers a reason to trade with Europe.
This lead to trade to flourish and after the end of the medieval warm period the growing season grew shorter again and gave the peasantry even more time to work as artisans.
This lead to the economic boom of the renaissance and even despite the Black Death killing many they still were producing huge quantities of artisanal goods.
This new economic power of the commoners lead to them to seek more political rights and too dismantle the nobility.
Again, no single trend in history can ever be determined to fully cause another. So, gran of salt please.
@@kekero540 I find it dubious that your initial the reasons we gave up slaves are correct ones. The whole point of slaves is that you can ignore any plight they have. The utility of slavery to a ruling culture meant that the practice of slavery caught on immediately and spread rapidly in human civilization.
@@jamesboulger8705 slavery is generally a destabilizing factor in a society. That’s why it was more efficient to let it fizzle out. Plus why use slaves when peasants will work much harder as their work effects their standard of living.
Excellent well-nuanced work!
This is great stuff. Thank you for all your videos. I love using them in my classroom teaching.
One of the best video’s of the year in terms of topic
“This time, I really mean it. We should go back to Egypt. Don’t you remember? Snorkelling in the Nile, three square meals a day plenty of exercise, and oh it was paradise…”
“w E W e R e i N s L a V e r Y!”
I THOUGHT OF THAT TOO ??
B-but we wuz....
hi
Nothing is poifect.
hahaha
@@nunyabiznes33 they werent white thats for sure.
Exactly the kind of video I'm interested in. Thanks for the upload!
The art in this is fantastic.
Thanks
Loving these new economic history videos!
This video does an excellent job at breaking down how there is very little (almost none, actually) difference between a Medieval serf and modern renting tenant.
A serf would give 75% of their crop yield as rent and tax, keep what little remained to feed themselves and keep a roof over their head.
A tenant will give 75% of their wage as rent and tax, keep what little remains to feed themselves and avoid eviction.
Nice.
We are all serfs.
The difference is that the tenant are allowed to find an another job if he likes or even do not work if he has money from somewhere.
Imagine a system where you have to go to a small elite of people, who legally own almost everything and can do anything that they want. And you have to work for them, in exchange for some housing and food.
I am absolutely fascinated by this sort of transitory period. In school, we learn about the Roman Empire with its Legions and civil wars and the great cities and triumphs, and then everything suddenly shifts to feudalism and castles and weak kings, and then to Italian writers and painters bringing the cities back to life, etc..
But we rarely get to see how one thing leads to the other. I always like to understand how one period ends and leads to the other, and the fifth, sixth and seventh centuries AD are perfect for this.
I don't know how you did it, but you've found a way to master the algorithm. Whenever I fall asleep to a video related to your content, one of your videos is always queued up...and I'm not even a subscriber! Well done sir.
Though the video IS about medieval Europe, I do believe Established Titles chose a rather controversial video to show its support for the channel. Sounds like "Become a Lord/Lady and raise your own serfs!"
Nice little funny joke, lads!
I love this channel! Thanks for all your hard work.
Unlike those slaves,we don't even know who owns us,these days...
That Will be the government
@@deandeathstrike9398 that's debatable
@@deandeathstrike9398 government is the biggest enemy these days. Especially ones that espouse socialistic ideals.
@@jasonbourne9819 I would rather be enclined to think corporations are a bigger threat,as they fund the electoral campaign for a politician to be elected as a leader of that government.
central banks - or the families that control them to be more precise, are the new de facto masters
Wild fact about the Roman Empire: There were several instances where a citizen made an invention or had a solution to make work, commerce, trade, construction, etc etc more efficient. These ideas and inventions were usually shelved because if they were implemented, there would be less of a need for slaves.
Rome was terrified of the prospect of having countless slaves sitting around idle and no longer needed, as this likely would’ve sparked a rebellion, so the slave society had to continue.
Very interesting. Thank you.
To be fair, personal serfdom (the one where your person belongs to the fiefdom you’re born in) gave way to material serfdom (you are a lord’s serf as long as you have to pay him rent for your home) starting from the 12th/13th century, notably in France and in great part thanks to the Catholic Church. In practice it may only have been a meagre improvement but at least the serfs weren’t the property of the nobles anymore.
Great thematic. Congratulations.
I read that Western Europe's population/LE increased post 473 AD fall of the Western Roman Empire.
Caesar wrote in his *"Histories, Conquest of Gual"* that he/Rome killed 1/3, enslaved 1/3 and left 1/3 to work the land.
Thank you I've asked if you could make this video few month ago. You guys are great. Respect
I've wondered about this for such a long time, THANK YOU.
Even though this channel is mostly dedicated to military history I always love it when they dip into economic and social history because they do it so well; it's always well-sourced and takes into account multiple historical perspectives without any of the reactionary conjecture that I've unfortunately come to expect from many TH-cam history channels whose primary focus is usually on ancient or military history. I also feel like this video is a great example of an unbiased historical presentation that nevertheless doesn't refrain from drawing obvious moral conclusions. I hope to see more like this in the future!
This was very interesting and insightful, quality content.
Kings and generals I love your channel, thank you for sharing history with us!
One of the best history sources on you tube this channel is!
This channel just keeps getting better and better!
*Slavery during Antiquity*
American retail workers: So anyway, I start blasting!
@@NovemberTheHacker Fighting over which side of a coin is a better coin.
@John Hathorne I love how you dance around the root cause of this : capitalism, where the employer can decide to pay you the bare minimum and have you in horrible working conditions, and threaten you with replacement if you complain, and you blame the replacement, as if the employer wasn't the problem in the first place. What an insidious system, that can redirect people's anger towards those even more unfortunate, instead of confronting the root cause, this innomable greed that cannibalizes society.
And "that's the way it is" because we allow it.
@John Hathorne Source? This idea has been heavily contested in studies.
@John Hathorne based.
@@ouicertes9764 when Marx talked about a worker uprising he wasn't talking about shop keeps and janitors.
Serfdom -“ that’s just slavery with extra steps”
its slavery but you get free slaves as part of your deal purchasing land :D and you dont need to feed them.
Slavery->Serfdom->Slavery->Day wager->Gig economy worker
that was a cheeky ad plug
What an ad transition! 👏👏👏
How very very informative and what a fascinating topic.
As much as I love this explanation, I would like to point out that especially in the mediterranian and black sea area slvery never disappeared, but was in fact a key economic factor in the wars between Christian and Muslim entities and for piracy.
See for example the slave trading routes from Crimea to Anatolia, Greece, Egypt and Italy or the Spanish and Portugese takeovers in North Africa or the Canaries which would be the start for colonial slavery in the Americas later on.
I always assumed the Catholic Church did not outright ban all slavery (only the enslavement of christians) even though they found it immoral, was because a significant amount of trade done with the Muslim world in which slaves were often used as currency. That, and also it is one more motivation to convert to Christianity, "become christian to become free", so to say.
@@Hungabrigoo I always assumed it was the other way around. Since almost every Christian is a slave descendant who still lives like a serf to this day, while the vast majority of people in the Muslim world are a free people. But that's just my subjective perspective as someone who comes from a society that never practiced slavery and grew up in a country in which both Christians and Muslims live.
@@Winchestro how are Christians serfs to this day? Seems like a bold claim
@@jacksonquinn8744 That requires a very long answer, mostly because they (like others before them) often mistake damage caused by slavery with "being civilized".
The US Navy was established to stop the muslim (Barbary) raiding of ships for white slaves. In some cases sailors converted and one became a captain of a muslim slave raiding ship.
Eagerly await every single video and often re-watch them over and over again.
I have a passion for the Greek/Roman era of warfare. I would like to request a revisiting and update of the Diadochi wars.
No rush. 😉 Thank you!
History is like a chronicle of struggle against injustice.
Excellent documentary, well researched and very well explained. Answered many questions I had about serfdom and answered questions I had not yet even asked.
Fascinating that apparently the invention of the water mill *actually* caused a decrease in the slave population, while the cotton gin was invented with the same intention, but of course infamously had the exact oppisite effect (actually prolinging slavery when it would have otherwise likely ended)
(16:30)
I love your videos on wars and battles, but THIS is what we need more of. Thank you!
Sigh, don't order anything from established titles that require them to ship something to you. You will not get it. Been waiting 2 months. I can get custom machined parts from Germany in 8 calendar days as a comparison.
All international mail has been completely broken since the corona started. I don't know if it's the company's personal fault.
Sorry but it's all a scam, you should see if you can get a refund
Gotta give history channel these gems damn!!!
one of your best
Serfdom is still with us just under a different name
Good topic. "The Road to Serfdom" by Hayek is an a great book that captures how modern day serfdom has evolved.
The book "The Road to Serfdom" has nothing to do with serfdom. Its just Hayek claiming that gov policies to help people will anger other people which will create civil war and dictatorship and therefore the gov should never help anyone. Its nonsense that was disproven even before Hayek wrote the book and in his own country of Austria
If the govt feeds you, cloths you, provides health care for you, a roof over your head and in some places now gives you an income you are not free. You are forever a under the thumb of a govt. that controls you. Dependency. What is amazing is how prophetic his ideas were when he wrote them and what is sad is how people today still try to pretend he was wrong. Another example of not learning from history.
@@DieNibelungenliad 😅
A similar transition occurred in the American South in the 1860s, with chattel slavery at least formally replaced by sharecropping and the prison chain-gang.
Literally have been asking myself this for weeks now
Great topic, I look forward to watching now.
Enjoyed the video. Your video animator made a few odd picks though: a servant with a tray of fruits presented to the master in Antiquity, which includes Kiwi fruits (New Zealand wasn't discovered until the 18th century), or a drawing on women farming that mimics a famous 19th century painting of French farmers in that century. Other anachronistic depictions (e.g. the US plantation drawing when discussing the practices of the Germanic nobility) made hard to stay visually on topic (antiquity vs early medieval period). A bit off topic, but beautiful drawings nevertheless. And brilliant way to present a complex topic, with multiple theories, in an easy to understand way. Thank you.
Kiwi fruit is native to China, the first recorded description dates back to the 1100's.
Really like the expanded content. I like military history, but economics and the more mundane side of history is honestly more interesting to me because it is so little talked about compared with battle history.
Welcome to maturity as a history buff.
That's an odd thing to say given that Plato's Zeno dialog features a young slave boy being helped by Socrates to work through the problem of doubling the square. Cusa's argument for universal rights in the 15th Century came from his revival of Plato.
Thank you for brining honest history to the front in these upsetting times.
Great video, really enjoyed this one.
That was a pretty smooth sponsor transition ngl 🤣
While the content of the narration was excellent as usual, I felt that the accompanying visuals were quite a bit off at various points of the video.
For example, at 7:20 a background is shown that is seemingly a throne room in 18th/19th century style, also at 10:50 a battle between early Romans/pre-roman Italics and Celts is shown; at both these instances the narration is about late Antiquity so the visuals and narration were at odds.
I don't care if the visuals are 100% historically accurate to what's being said, roughly representative of the period should be enough, but this time they just felt a bit sloppy.
I'm in awe. On such a touchy subject, K&G's impartiality shines. I can name a few history TH-camrs that will fail such a simple test, but you lot respect your audience enough to not preach to them: to just let the history do the talking.
As we say in (some parts of) Ghana, ayekoo! 🙌🏾
You're the only youtube video to talk about the decline of slavery in Europe. I tied to find videos talking about the decline of slavery in mainland Europe instead I got video after video of the Atlantic slave trade.
Nicely informative video. My compliments to all those who made this video a reality.
Great video as usual. I'd love to see one on the roots of the Trans Atlatntic slave trade from the perspective of Europe's contact and relationship with Africa from as far back the Prester John legends etc.
I'd like to see a longggg video of the entire history of slavery - of how all tribes, klans, communities, countries treated the subject. At some point, both Christian and Islamic law began to prohibit other Christians or Muslims from becoming slaves to those of the same religion, so that was almost certainly part of the reason those religions grew so large. I'd like more info as to why and how slavery spread, was treated, and also how it influenced genetics. I'd guess, for example, that much of the lighter hair and eyes in Rome and Greece are from interbreeding with Slavic and other slaves. In a similar way, many American whites and blacks have some white and black DNA from interbreeding because of slavery. Female slaves often had the kids of their masters. In Europe, if slaves came from all over, I'd guess slaves of different backgrounds interbred, too. So, that means many of us may have Middle Eastern, East Asian, or African DNA because of slaves being shipped from all over the world.
The ship owners, the 'sabbath' practices are problematic and never mentioned the slap happy way Christianity is.
Great topic and very well covered. However, this seems to address mostly slavery in lands belonging to the former roman empire and its immediate neighbors (Germania).
What about regions like Scandinavia, where slavery existed for several more centuries? Then there is also the topic of the balkans, where slavery was reintroduced by the ottomans.
I noticed something interesting. In order to have slavery, you need a group of people that are different than yourself. One of the declines in slavery in Europe was that the people being enslaved were not from far away lands(10:17). In the middle ages, slaves participated in the same culture as free people(13:54) which eroded the boundaries between slaves and serfs.
Wrong. Even in Roman times Romans enslave Romans. Just as Africans are enslaving Africans right now.
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