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Sure, but later generations haven't left it there. Hence my earlier example with the Raskolniks. They certainly aren't the only such sect.

I'm told some of the sociologists have come up with rather more verbose ways to say that, too.

There are examples of such groups managing to keep pushing for their own kind of policies and procedures for some time.

Is it? How does that relate to the pre-existing relative coverage area thing, where just about any given culture's area could have been covered. (Even the Russians and Chinese couldn't have bootstrapped back out of Siberia and wherever until comparatively recently.)

There were no global-scale targets in the old days.

What if someone'd flattened the one hectare of central Eridu in 5100 BC?

It developed those eventually but it started without them. They had fairly effective-looking locally autonomous structures until the 1920s.

Had some of the others gotten to Stalin first, it might have stayed that way.

They did have a couple of ideas about causing enough of a global mayhem that they could kill off all the others and only 90% of themselves.

Oh, Russia is acting a lot closer to its normal way than it was for decades. But it never got all that different really.

Monetary duress but with some political clout - and with more of the religious influence.

Yes. Well, do note that some of the religious leaders preached and practiced ascetism, and those might have been the ones that had more of a lasting effect on the religious aspect.

They may be working on the idea that trade in itself is indestructible, and trying to cause it to be rebuilt from a different direction.

That has occasionally worked before. Just ask the Phoenicians, or the Hanseatic League.

-- #Not speaking for my employer. No warranty. YMMV.