The European renaissance was supported by trade with the Mediterranean, Middle and Far East and by the gold and silver from the New World. The church, nobility and merchant traders would not have developed the leisure and the means to support art, science, study and industry without the cash and fusion of ideas these endeavors made possible.
The expulsion of the Muslims and Jews from Iberia, with their knowledge and tolerance, was followed rather rapidly by expansion into the Americas, building on the beginnings by the Portuguese.
Often forgotton in a discussion of the renaissance are the Spanish and Portuguese boom towns of the 1500s in the area from Mexico to Brazil, and similar development in India and the 'Spice Islands,' followed soon after by the English and their rapid naval expansion.