Thread by @shrikanth_krish

One "cultural" facet that distinguishes Western Europe from Asia pre-modernity is the age of marriage for women

Across W.Europe, age of marriage for women was 25 in 18th cen!

In India this figure was likely 15-16 in 18th cen

Source : Gregory Clarke's "Farewell to Alms"

Even today the age of first marriage for women in India is much much lower than 25. Around 20-22 if I am not wrong.

What prompted such a late marriage in Western Europe centuries ago?

And what prompted roughly 10% of women never to marry! Unheard of in India

We can tend to "oversimplify" judging by PCI estimates, that the world was all the same pre-Industrial Revolution.

The divergence began only in late 18th century, and all that

But the cultural differences that likely triggered the divergence existed long before 18th cen

In fact the figures above are for 18th century

In the 17th century for England at least, age of marriage was even higher! So 18th century actually saw a decline in age of marriage

In 1650, a fifth of women in England never married. That proportion was 10% by 1790

So the social changes had taken place several centuries prior to the onset of modernity

Besides the high age of first marriage, another thing that strikes you is the sharp decline in homicide rate in England between 11th and 18th centuries

A chart from Clark's book