America escaped this pattern due to first and foremost our founding fathers being excellent at writing A+ terms of service copy which, although

ridiculously hypocritical

did offer some protection from outright serfdom.

But then we also had a lot of

other people’s land

up for grabs, so the whole lord and estate system hadn’t taken hold for centuries as it had in Europe. Though once we ran out of continental territory we did our best to catch up to global inequality.

When the industrial revolution came along lords began to function more as

barons of capital

This allowed the smooth transition to capitalism in Europe with industry setting up near plentiful energy sources to exploit people used to being born into servitude.

During the latter half of the 19th century however the serfs – and some lords even – were growing restless. Especially in Russia.