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Would it be possible for a European nation, preferably a small nation, to make successful trading post colonies in the Americas that develop into legitimate large cities without significant expansion into the surrounding hinterlands?

If so, would it be possible for a symbiotic relationship to develop between the natives and the trade city colonies, in which the traders ally with various native factions and sell them European weapons and goods? I'd love to see an Aztecs having a kind of warring states period where the Europeans manipulate them but don't destroy them, and I'm wondering if such a thing is plausible.
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