History is shaped by the interaction of slow-moving forces such as geography and climate and the actions of individual key players.

“scheme of things there are there are multiple wheels that define history the grand wheels that grind slowly geography and climate and then the small wheels in the foreground are the individuals the key players themselves and this is an integration of that that process the big wheels with the small ones yes if courtiers which could have happened on multiple occasions have been taken out early the conquistadors leaderless rudderless may well have disintegrated and the conquest may have been aborted at that at that level”