It really is fundamental to understanding why people like Columbus and de Gama were the way they were from knowing the state of Europe at the time. They were violent and desparate mercenaries from a violent and desparate place, when they arrived anywhere their first thoughts were "ok, what can I immediately loot and sell here, if I don't come back with something good my debtors are gonna cut my balls off"
https://www.reddit.com/r/BlackWolfFeed/comments/oj7mzt/540_its_coming_rome_feat_patrick_wyman_71221/
What are some good Tides of History episodes to listen to?
He's done some cool stuff about early Human history in the past months. Stuff like early Banana cultivation in New Guinea and the Indo-European expansion. Personally I'm more interested by some of his earlier episodes about Renaissance Europe. If you've listened to and liked this new Chapo where they talk about finance and mercenary armies being pivotal to European state formation and incipient capitalism, he did an ep or two on Condottiero, the captains of renaissance mercenary companies and two episodes on Jacob Fugger, perhaps Renaissance Europe's wealthiest banker and merchant.