The citable source for the origination of heels comes from Elizabeth Semmelhack's Heights of Fashion, but there's also a popular interview the BBC did with Semmelhack a few years ago. We can track that this fashion arrived in Europe at the end of the 16th century. Political alliances with Shah Abbas I meant that there was a trend for Persian styles and heeled shoes were part of that. Heels helped with riding, particularly standing in the stirrups to use weaponry on horseback. This pair of Persian shoes really shows how impossible they would have been for walking. I can't speak to whether they made men look warlike or worldly precisely, but they would have been a foreign style that had its roots in riding, hunting, and war, so it's not farfetched.