I do claim, however, that within each region, judged by local standards, political and cultural cohesion in
1830 exceeded that in 1600, which exceeded that in 1400, and so forth. In every region, judged again by local standards, political and cultural networks in 1830 were unprecedentedly extensive and, other side of the same coin, internally specialized. Innumerable local specificities did not preclude overarching parallels in trajectory, process, and chronology.