xxx 1450 to 1750 systems, based on shared religious beliefs, that legitimated and “naturalized” these socially constructed hierarchies Such hierarchies were defined mainly by differential access to economic and political resources, that is, access to wealth and power Relations of gender were dominated by men the world over, with males exercising greater control over property and other resources than females, and women’s class status derivative of men’s Relations of social class mainly concerned control over the fruits of labor and production, with “social class” most usefully conceived as a social relationship determining who owned what and who produced what for whom Most class structures around the world were pyramidal, with laboring people (perhaps 80–90 percent of the populace) occupying the bottom strata, a small middling group (around 5–10 percent), and a much smaller number of persons of rank and privilege toward the top (1–5 percent) From the 1450s to the 1750s, the world was witness to a dazzling array of social classes, groups, and state forms, many in the throes of dramatic change Around 1500 some states consisted of vast empires stretching thousands of kilometers and embracing millions of people of diverse ethnic and linguistic origins, such as Ming China, Mughal India, Safavid Persia, Ottoman Southwest Asia and North Africa, Songhai West Africa, Aztec Mesoamerica, and Inca Peru Most were much smaller Principalities, kingdoms, fiefdoms, and city-states of myriad types proliferated throughout Southeast Asia, East Africa, Mesoamerica, the northern Mediterranean, and Europe In all cases, the formation of social classes and hierarchies was intimately entwined with the formation and development of states Power and Privilege During this period, most state-governed societies were characterized by numerous, often overlapping social classes defined by relative access to power, privilege, and rank Within each social class, and with very few exceptions, men were dominant and women subordinate At the top, almost everywhere, were emperors, kings, queens, and supreme rulers or sovereigns of various kinds Ruling families often comprised a “social class” by themselves, their internal struggles frequently the source of much social conflict Beneath such supreme rulers and their families, one can distinguish at least eight broadly defined social classes common to most societies: (1) bureaucrats, administrators, and other agents of the state; (2) landowning aristocrats and nobility; (3) religious officials and authorities; (4) warriors and/or members of the military; (5) merchants and traders; (6) artisans and craftworkers; (7) peasants and farmers; and (8) slaves, servants, and other forms of bound or unfree labor These categories often overlapped or blended together, especially at the upper echelons—as in the Ottoman Empire, Mughal India, or Spanish America, where state officials could also be religious leaders, nobles, and landowners, or, as in Tokugawa Japan, where leading warriors (daimyo and samurai) were also aristocrats and agents of the state Merchants often owned land, though sometimes did not, as with Jews in Christian Europe or the Aztec pochteca (traveling merchant class) In some polities, some of the categories listed above did not exist—merchants among the Incas, for instance, or landowning aristocrats in Ming China Generally, however, most societies had an overwhelming majority of taxpaying laboring people subordinate to a small elite, overwhelmingly male, whose power derived from birthright, divine sanction, or control of key political and economic resources Surveying the many types of class relations and social hierarchies around the world during this period reveals a number of patterns Beginning at the bottom of the social hierarchy, slavery and other forms of bound or unfree labor were features of almost every state-governed society, though the precise nature of the master-slave relationship varied enormously In the great majority of cases (excepting Atlantic world slavery, c 1500–1870), slavery was not hereditary or based on “race” or ethnicity, while slaves enjoyed certain rights, including the right to live, to form families, and not to suffer excessive punishment In the Muslim world, slaves, purchased in markets or captured in wars, generally were used as household servants or soldiers; manumission was actively encouraged Muslims could not enslave fellow Muslims Elite Slaves Similar patterns characterized the domains of the Mughal Empire, where slavery was not hereditary, and most slaves were either debtors enslaved until debt repayment, children sold as slaves by poor parents, or war captives, especially from tribal frontier zones In Safavid Persia,