You can go back all the way to the stone age: technological evolution -- roads, the wheel, writing, a lot of transportation and communication technologies -- has just inexorably made it so that more people can be in more non-zero-sum relationships with more and more people at greater and greater distances.
Va puteti intoarce in timp pana in epoca de piatra si cred ca, de la revolutia industriala, drumuri, roata, scrisul multe din tehnologiile folosite in transport si comunicare au facut ca, in mod implacabil, mai multi oameni sa poata fi in relatii de suma nenula cu tot mai multi oameni aflati la distante tot mai mari.