Constant Warfare.

Europeans in the age of exploration and expansion held a significant military advantage over nearly all of the people they encountered when they traveled to other parts of the globe. European military prowess grew largely from technological advances made by the major powers as they fought one another almost incessantly throughout the Renaissance era. Before 1350 Europe's military technology was generally no more advanced than that which could be found among the other major civilizations of the late medieval world. As late as 1415 at the height of the Hundred Years' War, English king Henry V led a highly successful invasion of France with a small army of only about eight thousand men. Moreover the most effective battlefield weapon during Henry's campaign in France that year was the Welsh longbow, an efficient weapon for its time but hardly an engine...