I'm creating an alternate earth where there are more mountains and hilly terrain. The societies, being isolated, never developed a concept of nations and remain deeply tribal and suspicious of centralized authority. A few empires did develop and most "nations" are regions joined as alliances, confederacies or empires. Even economically, they have associations of workers or small businesses rather than corporations. Religiously, they are polytheistic. Does this actually make sense as to how their geography would affect their psychology?

6694173
I've heard that the mountains in Greece fostered independence and prevented the development of a centralized Greek state. Of course, that didn't happen among the Incans. I wonder why?

Are there still navigable rivers that intersect with arable land? That's a good general indicator of people prospering. I'd imagine that more mountains means less arable land, which means less food, which means lower populations. That would also make transportation of goods very difficult(without a river). Greece was pretty boned by its geography, but there's more to it than just mountains and hills.

6694409
The people have adapted to a more pastoral lifestyle. The empires were built around certain rivers. Rather than military expansion, they were built through monopolizing trade (though some of them were extremely warlike and genocidal).