The northern Atlantic powers, for understandable reasons, acquired no permanent overseas possessions before 1600.
Although Atlantic powers thereafter often fought in the Mediterranean, they mainly fought each other, while the Italian cities became pawns in international politics.
The Atlantic powers are still on opposite sides on agricultural trade, with Europe fighting to maintain an elaborate support network for farmers.
Yet even as they celebrate the Atlantic powers' greatest achievement, many will be mourning their greatest debacle: the failure to forge a common strategy on Iraq.
This is still a far cry from Jobbik, which denounces "Kiev's puppet government" and claims it "serves the interests of Atlantic powers".Of course, many Ukrainians are resentful of the draft, not to mention the country's entrenched corruption and deteriorating economy.
The modern significance of Las Casas lies in the fact that he was the first European to perceive the economic, political, and cultural injustice of the colonial or neocolonial system maintained by the North Atlantic powers since the 16th century for the control of Latin America, Africa, and Asia.
