In the middle of the diagram sits the "civilized" Western European "core" 1650-1789. Civilized, in this context, means a rigid social hierarchy with the King at the top (note that he is the largest figure in the diagram, and is also centrally placed at the top. This image is meant to mirror Hyacinthe Rigaud's painting of Louis XIV, the very model of absolute monarchy.) The urban elites (the burgher) and the nobility stand at a level below the King; both tip their hats as a sign of fealty to him. Below these are figures for both urban artisans and rural peasants, who similarly tip their hats, a recognition of their acceptance of their place within this hierarchy. They owe obligations to those above, but do not seem to be viciously coerced (note that no one watches over their activities).

"On any advancing frontier," wrote McNeill, "labor shortage is always a major problem. Diametrically opposite solutions offer: drastic compulsion to sustain social stratification; or equally drastic liberty with concomitant regression toward an egalitarian neo-barbarism."(661) As Europeans expanded throughout the world, there developed a crude approximation of the social hierarchy as it existed in the European core. Neither alternative is particularly attractive: the frontier regions of North America and eastern Europe are defined by the two poles of anarchy and slavery (or neo-serfdom). Anarchy in America is depicted by a frontiersman fighting off Native Americans; in eastern Europe, Cossacks are the symbol of anarchy. Note that in the cases of slavery in North American (Caribbean sugar plantations) and eastern European feudal estates, the workers are watched carefully by an aristocratic overseer, suggesting greater coercion here than what we find at the European core. These alternatives are meant to represent the extremes that existed on the frontiers of Western European civilization.