well considering that the "new world" was discovered before the ending of the game and was really a huge deal, I have no issues with it being in the game.

global colonization really started to pick up after that, at least I think it did. And there is no arguement that a handful of men in armor could handle the aztecs, but what makes it interesting is that there will be huge numbers of aztec warriors coming at you. as you play - I would want to see if I could duplicate what cortez did (minus the disease) and take on about the entire empire with only 300 or so men.

either way, it should be interesting.