Europe During The Middle Ages

Throughout the history of Europe every Powerful kingdom that rose and fell had all wanted to achieve the status of ‘Super Power’. During the early ages of Europe when the populations weren’t as dense and resources on the continent were abundant, many of those kingdoms fighting to be a ‘Major power’ fought amongst themselves for land and resources on the European peninsula itself. However, with centuries of fighting, technological advancements, increasing populations and dwindling resources these Kingdoms still on the quest for glory began what could be considered a form of an ‘arms race’ on the sea. These nations began to start looking for new lands to farm, mine and exploit for their own gain. Many of those Kingdoms of Europe had all recently

The catalyst for this spark was known as the Renaissance. The renaissance started as a cultural movement in Italy in the late medieval period. It was thought to be the bridge between the middle ages and what we call the modern age. The movement gave rise to new intellectual thinking, through the rediscovery of classical Greek philosophy, such Protagoras, but who quoted “Man is the measure of all things.” This new thinking gave rise to new ideas in Art, architecture, politics, science and literature. This would later become known as the philosophy of “Humanism”. Many Spanish philosophers were too considered to be founding fathers and leaders of renaissance Humanism such as Juan Luis Vives

The Spanish too decided to push on further in the hopes of discovering actual profitable riches and that’s when they discovered the Yucatan Peninsula. The Original expedition into the interior was headed by Spanish explorer and conquistador, Hernan Cortez, in the year 1519. Upon his arrival, Cortez had only brought with him a small hand of conquistadors numbering 500 in size. So how was it possible for Cortez with such a small army able to conquer an Empire that at its height in 1500CE had a population expanding into the region of 6-12 million people (Source