I'm reminded of a scene in Enterprise, in Season 4 I think. More or less, Soval is confronted with the fact that the Vulcans are some level are frightened of humanity because they remind them of themselves (and the Romulans), but faster. It took ~2000 years for Vulcans and Romulans to recover from the Vulcan nuclear wars. It took humanity 100. As Soval put it "what might you do in a century hence?" He and the Vulcans were right to be concerned. On the wrong path, in three centuries hence, Humanity would have conquered or annihilated all the great powers of the galaxy save one.