Yes the disaster is usually subjugation and loss of independence. Everyone conquered and subjugated others.Everyone will do it if given the chance. You think we have evolved beyond that? It’s still about grabbing more land, resources, wealth.
If one country is so significantly weaker than another, the encounter of the two usually ends in disaster for the weaker party. Their peoples killed, their cultures erased (genocide happens in more than one form).
How much atrocities happen depends on the degree of power disparity between the two.
In the case of Native Americans vs. the Europeans, you had one group living in huts fighting with ax and arrows and the other with guns and cannons. And it’s not just the Europeans. Even before the 1800, all major countries had better technology than the Native Americans.
Subjugation and loss of independence is a HUGE difference from genocide. Unimaginably huge. Here's the big one: if you surrender to a conqueror and agree to obey them, they stop killing. if you surrender to a genocider they don't stop killing until you are physically removed either by death or expulsion.