Wow, has reading comprehension escaped the world? What is different about the passport system compared to the examples you gave? Just think about it for a while.
Do you maybe want to explain it, because I don’t see it. Borders that limit travel weren’t invented around WWI.
The distinction is a world wide system of borders we call countries where you need passports to cross. That is distinctly a modern thing. The way countries work now is a distinctly modern thing. Yes, there were always some places that had walls and borders, but never as a world-wide system.
The way boats and airplanes work is also a distinctly modern thing, with those technologies curiously advancing around the time you claim passports were invented.
And ironically the average person travels less than 500 years ago. Shocking but true. Evem though technology made traveling easier. The reason is money and urbanization. You now need money to travel when I'm the past you didn't.
Do you have a source for that? I couldn’t find anything on that on google and I can’t really believe it.