“When the Europeans arrived in the New World, they introduced New World peoples to five thousand years of advancements in the space of a few generations. This was bound to cause upheaval and spell the end of many Native American ways. All the same, we must recognize that New World people began to use metal tools, firearms, and various European food-production techniques not because they were forced to but because these things made their lives easier. After the Europeans arrived in Mexico, large-scale conflict among tribes ceased for the first time in recorded history, and peace descended across the land to an unprecedented extent. People should be talking about the Pax Hispanica, which was brought to the peoples of Mexico and South America in the wake of the conquest—a peace that saved hundreds of thousands of people from capture, torture, slavery, human sacrifice, and refugee status. The encomienda system in Latin America and the silver mines gave scope for large-scale rights abuses, but whoever tries to weigh these against the value of the peace that was imposed? Meanwhile, roads were constructed, the quality of buildings improved, literacy increased, iron tools introduced, and the quality of life for most Mesoamerican people increased dramatically.