Geopolitics

Anyone else starting to get worried about this rise of casual open imperialism? Like, not "peaceful trade at prices social justice activists don't like" imperialism but actual "let's go conquer stuff" imperialism. I know it's "meant to be a joke", but often such jokes are a first step to normalizing something dark...

Hernan Cortes had no intention of peaceful trade; which would have setup the Meso empires to experience their industrial revolution, hyper GDP with expansion into North America.  And a robust, global maritime economy coordinated from Tenochtitlan would have rivaled Great Britain.