[nomonnai]

Yes, it was atrocious, but humans are going to do human things. Cortez's conduct was not so different from how the Aztecs had conquered the region in the preceding 150 years. In any case, germs from Europe, Asia, and Africa would have wreaked havoc no matter what. The Americas would have had to be isolated until the discovery of vaccines.

Still, hard to imagine how much art, music, philosophy, world view in general was lost and where it would be today if American societies could have developed into nation-states.