[pvg]

This is a gross oversimplification but the purpose and goals of their expeditions were just completely different. Even the earliest Spanish expeditions were (in part) state-approved, armed and essentially get-rich-quick plundering schemes. The existence of advanced (but less well armed) urban civilizations just encouraged them since it meant potential for gold.

A lot of now-famous early British colonizers were basically groups of funky religious malcontents hoping to establish their own little theocracies. Their state approval was more along the lines of 'good riddance'.

[mbroncano]

> Even the earliest Spanish expeditions were (in part) state-approved, armed and essentially get-rich-quick plundering schemes.

Maybe I’m not getting your point, but how does that fit with building up universities? What were they expecting to get out of them? Student debt?

[pvg]

A 16th century university is primarily a religious institution and Spain had a strongly enforced state religion. Pizarro - one of the adventuring/plundering types - founded Lima in 1535, 20 years before the university and after taking out the core of the Inca empire.

To go back to your original question - I don't think this had much to do with technology but just with the different approaches the empires in question took. To Spain, a minor bet paid off spectacularly and the state fairly quickly moved to establish control (not without some trouble - just scrolling through the Wikipedia pages of Pizarro or Cortés is full of stories of Spanish leaders and officials in the New World murdering each other).

It was many decades after all of this, though, that England got around to considering, maybe, the American North Atlantic coast as a decent dumping ground for some irritating Jesus freaks.