No, humans living in very poor countries or in remote past also always tried to have at least basic understanding of neighbouring tribe’s language. It’s hard to come with hard data but modern nation states might probably be about the only large monolingual societies in history, other than small and very isolated places.
In modern Africa it’s entirely normal for people to speak 3+ languages. (not necessarily to a very high standard, just to get by)
No, humans living in very poor countries or in remote past also always tried to have at least basic understanding of neighbouring tribe’s language. It’s hard to come with hard data but modern nation states might probably be about the only large monolingual societies in history, other than small and very isolated places.
In modern Africa it’s entirely normal for people to speak 3+ languages. (not necessarily to a very high standard, just to get by)