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If you view the US federal system as a sort of empire and the south as a breakaway region that fought a failed war of independence, it isn't that unusual. Empir

• PaulDavisThe1st 6y ago
  ... in fact, the European colonization of the Americas is an absolutely massive exception to this rule. In the Americas, obliteration of the peoples and cultures that were already here rapidly became an explicit goal of the settlers. A good part of the work was done for them by smallpox (1), before significant numbers of settlers arrived. The rest was done with brutal military force later. But you're right that this is unusual. Ghengis Kahn didn't do this, the Roman and Byzantine empires didn't, the many different empires associated with China generally didn't. Hell, even the British empire, as cruel and rapacious an empire as any (and the largest), didn't. Only in what would come to be known as America ... (1) roughly 20% of the planet's total human population was killed by smallpox within 30-50 years of its arrival in N & S America.