> Western nations came, they defeated their enemy, and they took their territory.

The various tribes also engaged in near constant warfare with each other, defeating them, taking their territory, and making the rest slaves. Cortez was only able to defeat the Aztecs because he was able to enlist the aid of the non-Aztec tribes, who hated the Aztecs because of the depredations of Aztecs against them.

The Inca empire was only recently formed before the Spanish arrived.

In North America, the Commanche carved out an empire in the south at the expense of the tribes that had been living there. See "Empire of the Summer Moon":

https://www.amazon.com/Empire-Summer-Moon-Comanches-Powerful...

The accounts of how the Commanche lived nearly all come from accounts written by white people who lived among them (often taken as slaves by the Commanche).

See "Empire of the Summer Moon", by Gwynne. A truly fantastic epic. I'm amazed nobody has made this into a miniseries yet.

https://www.amazon.com/Empire-Summer-Moon-Comanches-Powerful...

May I suggest reading actual history books? The stories in them can be very good. See "Empire of the Summer Moon" by Gwynne.

https://www.amazon.com/Empire-Summer-Moon-Comanches-Powerful...

Why anyone hasn't made this into a miniseries is baffling. It's quite an epic. Not only that, it really happened. No worries about canon. No worries about sequels and prequels, because there is no beginning or end to historical stories. The stories are fractal, in that there's no end to going into a particular aspect in depth.

There are plenty of others.

The bison were deliberately shot in order to force the Comanche onto reservations.

"Empire of the Summer Moon" https://www.amazon.com/Empire-Summer-Moon-Comanches-Powerful...

"Empire of the Summer Moon"

https://www.amazon.com/Empire-Summer-Moon-Comanches-Powerful...

This would make an epic miniseries!

> Diamond absolves Europeans of blame for the crimes of imperialism through his geographical determinism, since the conquerors couldn’t help but seize the helpless Americas.

Running through the article is the notion that somehow Europeans were uniquely interested in brutal empire building. I can only infer that such notions stem from never having read history books about other cultures.

For example, "Empire of the Summer Moon", by Gwynne

https://www.amazon.com/Empire-Summer-Moon-Comanches-Powerful...

The purpose was to force them onto the reservation, not exterminate them.

See "Empire of the Summer Moon".

https://www.amazon.com/Empire-Summer-Moon-Comanches-Powerful...

An excellent read for anyone curious about the history of this.

I highly recommend "Empire of the Summer Moon"[1], a fascinating account of the final decades of the Comanche tribe.

1 - https://www.amazon.com/Empire-Summer-Moon-Comanches-Powerful...