The speaker says Indigenous peoples could sometimes exploit rivalries among European powers, but the Aztecs and Inca could not do so because the Spanish were the only outsiders they had encountered at that early stage.

“these which go way way back through their history the only way that that the indigenous people could have played the same game and to a degree this did happen later was to play different european powers off against each other but of course the problem for for the aztecs for the inca was the spanish were the only game in town they were the only outsiders they'd encountered if the english french”