Why did you have to go that far back in history?
The morons that followed Stalin, Mao, Chavez also got their spoils of war with the state robbing the previous owners and giving it to their army of useful idiots.
And there was nothing left to pillage, the whole farce went down.
When Alexander and Genghis Khan tried to conquer the world, military might reigned supreme. The number of soldiers, cavalry and archers was the most important ingredient to being a global power.
Today, the game may have changed. The united states is normally credited with having the most advanced, largest and most powerful military in the world. But seems unable to do anything effectively with it.
Economic power and productivity could be more important than military power given the way the cold war came to an end. As we all know, the cold war was ended through economic means. The USSR's economy collapsed forcing it to break up into its individual, historic, composite states.
It is possible that rewarding workers, rather than soldiers could be the winning precedent to follow today. A departure from past history.