Conquest, plunder, and enslavement remain to this day the dominant mode in international affairs. The favored methods have become increasingly subtle, shifting from political domination of nation over nation to economic and financial domination of peoples by supra-national institutions.
Slavery is the direct control of labor through physical coercion and threat of harm.
The elimination of the commons, upon which the vast majority of people depended for their livelihood, and the deeding of the land to the lords, deprived people of their means of living free and forced them to pay rent, usually in the form of crop shares. With land access restricted, and forced to pay onerous rents, people were increasingly driven from the land and into urban centers. With the advent of industrialization, the bulk of production shifted from the cottage and village, to factories and cities. Separated from their land and their tools, individuals were forced to work for money as a means of livelihood. For most, this meant migrating to the cities and selling their labor to the factory owners.