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/
Shit tier take tbh.
Imagine living in a world with no passports, no state-issued IDs, where transatlantic travel took at least 3 weeks, where much of the world wasn't even mapped, a world where people can and did defect to indigenous territories... and then thinking "geez I'm really gonna have to face the music when I see my creditors in Europe again".
They made the choice to destroy communities rather than take refuge in them. They were utter momsters, through and through; there's no rationalizing what they did.
They did discuss how a lot of these people were massively stupid
Smart enough to make it across the ocean, smart enough to murder lots of people, not smart enough to take the better life staring them in the face.