Originally Posted by Benandorf
But they could and did, to some extent. In the times soon after Europeans began colonizing America, there were many instances where old technology beat out the newer weapons of the Europeans simply because their warriors were skilled and fierce. Weapon Tech hadn't changed enough to make a big enough difference to allow the Europeans to just walk through the native armies. The Natives had too many numbers, and many skilled, brave warriors.
Technology didn't change a whole lot for a long time. In fact, in the 1400 years between RTW and M2:TW, there historically was not that much change. Better armor, the Crossbow, better lances, and better siege equipment, but nothing compared to, say, early 1900s vs. modern weapons.