I think the single event that had the greatest impact would be the unification of Spain and the expulsion of the Moors in 1492. The Moors left their libraries behind. Spanish scholars discovered translations of ancient manuscripts that had not been read in Catholic countries for nearly 1000 years.
The manuscripts included scientific and mathematical tomes that re-sparked interest in both math and science in the following 100 years. This along with the discovery of the New World made many scholars question using the Bible as a book of science.
The Arabic scholars had built on the discoveries of the ancient greeks and what they had learned had also been left behind in Spain. The use of arabic numbers instead of Roman numerals for math, the concept of zero, alchemy (which became chemistry), using the scientific method of observation to determine facts all came from the discovery of the Moors libraries.
This is just MHO, of course.
