this is part 4

From the bottom up Before 1300, most premodem people lived in rural areas as subsistence farmers. Europe was a world of villages; the Mediterranean a world of cities and villages. Today we tend to think of 4 village as @ quaint escape from urban areas, but back then 2 village was a basic political, religious, and economic unit. twas a group of families, their fanmland and pastures, a church, and some common natural resources such as woods, fields, and streams. Most villages were legally controlled by a powerful local fiqure or aseoctation, like a lord, a knight, or a religious order. This owner claimed a portion of the village's labor and produce, as well as the power to distribute justice, typically managing things from a large home or estate called a manor The manor served as a symbol of power and place to store and display wealth. Because of this widespread pattem of rural life, the years from 1200 to 1450 are often described as being dominated by the \"manorial system.\" European agriculture was a bot of things, but efficient wasn't one of them. Even during the wanm and stable Medieval Climate Anomaly, crop failures and famine were common, and few families were able to produce enough to feed themselves, let alone sell to the market. Crops and livestock were produced in such limited quantities, the only reliable way to make more food was to work more land. As the population grew, and uncultivated areas tummed into farms, access to land became more difficult. Land was by far the most valuable resource in medieval Europe. Kt was literally worth killing for, and control of land dominated politics for centuries. In addition to controlling access to land, many lords sought to control these who worked it Almost everyone who inved mi Europe were fammersperhaps 0-90 percentyet most did mot own ther land. The fields they worked were owned by the lord of the manor, and they were given access in exchange for giving up many rights and entering into obligations. They might be required to give a portion of their harvest to the lord, or to wee the lord's flour mill, or be prevented from leaving the village without permission. For this reason, most families were peasentsagricultural workers whe faced legal restrictions and lacked control of thei land. Some households were so bound to the land and lord both legally and physically, that they were deeply impoverished. People in these households were known as serfs. It was upon this shaky foundation that European communities built them economic and political worlds. Agriculture drove the economy, and prospenty was tied to harvests. City growth depended on the food drawn from rural communities, amd control over their countryside. There were regional contrasts, amd the environment of the Mediterranean produced different kinds of foods and communities than in Europe north of the Alps