It wasn’t even “do what I say or I’ll kill you”. It was “this land is mine” - the establishment of private property. The lords never needed to explicitly make a death threat themselves when nature could make the death threat for them, and the victim is deprived of access to vital resources.
But being territorial with violence as enforcement goes back fast beyond that. Look at large cats or various primates. Yes the latter have enclaves but they are enclaves and tend to have a bruiser at the top
It wasn’t even “do what I say or I’ll kill you”. It was “this land is mine” - the establishment of private property. The lords never needed to explicitly make a death threat themselves when nature could make the death threat for them, and the victim is deprived of access to vital resources.
But being territorial with violence as enforcement goes back fast beyond that. Look at large cats or various primates. Yes the latter have enclaves but they are enclaves and tend to have a bruiser at the top