It is still all about getting your DNA into the next generation. You and I walk the earth today because our parents, grandparents, great grandparents, etc, etc, out competed other animals and other humans for resources, mates, and took better advantage of opportunities that opened up in front of them. It isn't always about money and power that determines success. At times it is pure luck.

How many rich and powerful individuals die without offspring ? How many dirt poor couples left a dozen or more children, and then most of them had half a dozen kids each. Those rich and powerful were lifetime successes but miserable genetic failures.

When you read the Old Testament it is all about tribes. If you lived in those times and did not belong to a strong tribe, you and your family died out or at the very best became slaves. But even as slaves there were successful strategies to keep your family line going. The Israelite s endured 500 years of slavery in Egypt and survived and thrived.

Strangely attaining great power does not ensure genetic success. I doubt there are any descendants alive today of Julius Caesar, Alexander the Great, or George Washington. However, I saw a study that they have genetic markers proving that Ghengis Khan is the person with the second or third largest amount of descendants in existence.

It seems one of the perks of conquest was having sex with a great number of captured women. A custom that apparently his sons also practiced. Adding in the fact the Mongols roamed further than almost any other Tribe, they scattered their genes pretty wide. Rather like modern truck drivers or the old railroaders.