And thus some of the professional (but disfranchised) soldiers banded together to form their own companies and set out in mostly self-financed, small expeditions to not only brave the sea, the weather, the jungles, and the diseases, but also to battle foreign cultures hitherto unknown to them.
Their opportunity came in the form of the Age of Exploration, which paved the way (route) to the Americas.
Essentially, most of them were the remnants of the veritable standing army of 16th century Spain – men who were unexpectedly unemployed by the periodic lulls in the Italian Wars, and consequently, motivated men who restlessly craved for more riches (and sometimes glory).
Regardless of their enviable feats and egregious plundering, the question can naturally be raised – who were these Spanish Conquistadors? Where they reckless adventurers or simply paid mercenaries of the Spanish crown? Well, the answer is far more simple – they were soldiers, more specifically disfranchised, professional soldiers.
