Life expectancy in western Europe: in London around 1500 it was 25-35 years.

Discomfort:

• no anesthesia
• no antibiotics

Violence:

• Much higher than today
• Local homicides
• More war

Why was their eurasian dominance?

• Geography: best suited for agricultlure
  • Wheat and barely in the fertile crescent
• Proximity to domesticable animals
  • Cow
  • Horse
  • Pig
  • Sheep
  • Goat
  • African animals are less able to be domesticated
• East-west orientation
  • Plants that grow well in one place grow well in another due to similar latitude
  • Americas & africa have a North/South orientation, making them less able to observe this phenomenon

Scarcity

• There's just not a lot of stuff
• A will might list three items: a spoon, chair, a bible

Unfree labor

• Lack of freedom
• Slavery/serfdom
• Most people didn't have control over
  • where they worked
  • what they did for work
  • what happened to their products

Lack of mobility

• most people didn't leave a few miles from where they were born

Restricted roles/autonmy for women

• Control over their livelihoods, marriages, and bodies