Yes, the primogeniture was a big thing in many countries. In Scandinavia, on the other hand, they divided the land among all the sons, until nobody had enough land to grow a turnip stew.
The United States is still awfully empty, as my daughter found when she drove from Seattle, WA, to Wilmington, NC.
Easy to see why northern parts of the US and some of Canada was more appealing to the Scandinavians, too-enough land to grow food...