Sublime

Perhaps any of the great Eurasian states would have enjoyed a similar success: Tamerlane would have made short work of Montezuma. It was the Occident’s good fortune that its geographical position – closest to the Caribbean antechamber of the pre-Columbian empires – gave it a decisive lead in the acquisition of new lands in the Outer World.

Conquest and consequences

Dutch were able to purchase Manhattan for twenty-three dollars’ worth of beads is that the particular Indians to whom they made the offer were not the ones who properly owned it.