# II: Our Civilisation Was Originally Servile explained — The Servile State

> Chapter companion for The Servile State by Hilaire Belloc.

## What happens

This chapter argues that European civilization was originally founded on slavery, which was accepted as a natural and necessary institution in pagan antiquity. Slavery was not based on race but on poverty, and both masters and slaves recognized their common humanity. The chapter emphasizes that no one in the pagan world questioned slavery or sought its abolition; it was simply the air they breathed. The arrival of the Christian Church began a slow transformation of this servile state into a society of owners, but the underlying structure of servitude remains a recurring possibility.

## Themes in this chapter

### Historical Cycle of Slavery and Freedom

The chapter details how European civilization was originally servile, with slavery as its foundation, and suggests that without the Christian experiment, the old institution may return.

### Poverty as the Engine of Servitude

Poverty is identified as the primary cause of slavery: men sold themselves or were born into slavery due to indigence, and the institution was sustained by the poverty of the enslaved.

### The Inevitable Tendency Toward the Servile State

The chapter argues that the servile state is a natural and recurring form of society, as seen in pagan antiquity, and that modern experiments may lead back to it.

## Character check-ins

### Unknown

The narrator presents a historical analysis of pagan slavery and its acceptance, setting the stage for the Church's transformative role.

### Europeans

Europeans are described as having a bloodline that took slavery for granted for thousands of years, with no distinction between races in the institution.

### Collectivism

Collectivism is implicitly referenced as the social arrangement of the servile state, where the mass of people are dispossessed and compelled to labor.

## Key lines

> The society of antiquity, therefore, was normally divided (as must at last be the society of any servile state) into clearly marked sections: there was upon the one hand the citizen who had a voice in the conduct of the state, who would often labour⁠—but labour of his own free will⁠—and who was normally possessed of property; upon the other hand, there was a mass dispossessed of the means of production and compelled by positive law to labour at command.

Ancient society was split into two groups: citizens who owned property and worked voluntarily, and a large class of people who were forced to work by law because they had no means of production.

_This describes the fundamental structure of the servile state, which the author claims is inevitable in any such society._

> Slavery was of the very stuff of Europe for thousands upon thousands of years, until Europe engaged upon that considerable moral experiment called 'the Faith,' which many believe to be now accomplished and discarded, and in the failure of which it would seem that the old and primary institution of slavery must return.

Slavery was an essential part of European life for millennia, until Christianity introduced a moral experiment that transformed society; if that experiment fails, slavery may return.

_This highlights the central thesis that Christianity temporarily altered the servile state, but its decline could lead back to slavery._

> It was poverty that made the slave.

Poverty was the root cause of slavery.

_A concise statement of the theme that economic deprivation drives people into servitude._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_servile_state_se/chapters/ii-our-civilisation-was-originally-servile
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_servile_state_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_servile_state_se/chapters