Why such a simple idea as the euclidean vector started developing so late, i.e. around the time of complex numbers?

Question

This question is based on the introduction to the book "A History of Vector Analysis" by Michael J. Crowe which can be found here: https://web.archive.org/web/20040126161844/http://www.nku.edu/~curtin/crowe_oresme.pdf

Answer 1

@Moishe Cohen gave an answer in the comment section.

Well, if the idea of vectors indeed goes to 1500s, then this is not late by any means, Europe was just getting out of the medieval times and science - from the medieval scholasticism.