Breaking logs had to be done and it was done, all over the world.
Just a very different set of challenges with the available technology.
Because of the mechanical performance properties of wood, it always has
been impractical to build with large single sheets of wood. Yet a glue up of narrow pieces
can subsequently spread like the fingers of your hand.

The only exceptional example that I know of are the house wall boards used by the Haida.
Out on Haida Gwaii, they split some house boards from living trees (western red cedar).
Others from logs. The houses were sometimes 10m x 30m. The largest house board
of documentary measurement was 36" x 14' tall, about 2" thick.

I suspect (is this true?) that veneer made an attractive surface on a stable but
less visually desirable stock. I think it's called "spiral cut" veneer = amazing.