The Vikings Raided & Colonized Europe, Here's How

Vikings. From the year 793 until 1066, a period known as the Viking Age took place. During this time, a part of the Middle Ages, Norsemen originating in what is today Denmark, Norway and also Sweden were known as Vikings and undertook large scale raiding, colonizing, conquest and trading throughout Europe, even reaching North America. This map provides us a quick summarization of the amazing journey these people took, first expanding by land into northern Scandinavia, then into Great Britain, Ireland, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Normandy in France, then Germany, Greenland, the Baltics, Russia and most surprisingly Southern Italy, North Africa and even North America. In Eastern Europe they were also known as the Varangians, which can be connected with the creation of the Rus states which led to the modern states of Ukraine and Russia. In Britain their role was key even if in opposition to the establishment of England as one kingdom and everywhere they reached even where they didn't establish colonies areas in green on this map they left a mark and impacted the development of those regions and what would happen there in the future. In this video we are going to go through this period known as the Viking Age, following along the journey of these brave people throughout Europe, understanding where they went, when and how and taking a deeper look at some of the most interesting stops in their voyage of raiding, colonizing, trading and conquering. Now before we keep going with the video a quick message from sponsor and friend of the channel NordVPN, the best VPN you can get. When you're online there's a number of threats you and your devices face. Phishing, password attacks, malware, malvertising, ransomware, among so many others. NordVPN allows you to be protected against all of these. 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There have been various seafaring people throughout history, from the maritime power of Athens in the Mediterranean to the early Portuguese explorers which set sail and begun European colonialism over the entire world. Apart from bravery, curiosity and simply wanting to explore the world, the desire to leave one's homeland and venture out into the unknown sea is likely caused by one reason above all, the desire to conquer, allied with a lack of prosperity in the homeland. According to the records we have today, several factors drove this Viking expansion. The Vikings were drawn by the growth of wealthy towns and monasteries overseas and the weak kingdoms that they were a part of. The Vikings were strong and ruthless, but not very prosperous. In contrast, they saw these rich lands that had little to no military force and were, in their eyes, ripe for the taking. Their lack of prosperity at home was likely due to the harsh climate, overpopulation, lack of good farmland, and at some points, political disputes. The aggressive expansion of the Carolingian Empire and their forced conversion of the neighboring Saxon people to Christianity may also have been a factor in their desire to venture out and seek revenge against those who they saw as following a god that wasn't their own. So now that we've understood the motivation for their departure, we need to understand a little bit about who these Vikings were. The people which became Vikings were pagan, following the Norse gods as their deities. They spoke Old Norse, which became the mother language for today's Scandinavian languages. By 801, a strong central authority was established in Jutland and the dames began looking beyond their own land for territory, trade, and plunder, and many Vikings went out to sea under the banner of a Dane king. But while the flatlands of Denmark made it easy for there to be a unified kingdom, in Norway, mountainous terrain and fjords formed strong natural boundaries, communities remained independent, and by the year 800, some 30 small kingdoms existed. Being territorially disconnected from each other, the sea was the easiest way of communication between the Norwegian kingdoms and the outside world. So, they began to build ships of war and sending them on raiding expeditions which, alongside with the Danes, effectively started the Viking Age. But other than their internal issues, their isolation, desire for exploration and raiding, another key factor took place, without which many argue the Viking Age would likely not have happened. Technological innovation. Ships had existed for a long time and piracy in the Baltic Sea itself was already a reality long before the Vikings. But the speed at which the Vikings traveled, the distances they were able to cover, and the weather that they were able to face was like no others before them. The reason why they could achieve all of these accomplishments was because of their technological innovations in sailing. They developed larger sails for their ships, they learned tacking practices, a sailing maneuver that takes advantage of wind more effectively, and they sailed 24 hours a day. The clinker-built longships used by them were also uniquely suited to both deep and shallow waters. Technological innovations are often at the origin of sea expansion. The Arabs developed the triangular sail and the Portuguese the metal astrolabe, for instance. So, now that we've understood who the Vikings were, why they wanted to expand and how they were able to begin doing so, let's get into the expansion, raiding and colonization itself. The earliest Viking raid is registered to have taken place in the year of 789, when a group of Danes sailed to the isle of Portland and Dorset. Local officials mistook them for merchants and when they came to the king's manor, they were asked to pay a trading tax on goods that they carried. The Vikings' response? Murdering the official. The brutality of the Vikings quickly became renowned across Europe and many on its coasts feared the Viking sales and the destruction they would bring. What is most fascinating in learning about the Viking Age is that most records are first-hand accounts, written either by Vikings themselves, but mostly by those who they raided. In an Anglo-Saxon chronicle from 793, it was written, This year came dreadful forewarnings over the land of the Northumbrians, terrifying the people, fiery dragons flying across the firmament, the harrowing inroads of heathen men made lamentable havoc. The Vikings seemed to follow a strategy of arriving, raiding or trading, establishing a base, whether it was temporary or permanent, and then moving on to another destination. They primarily targeted Ireland until 830, with the English and Germanic kingdoms being able to initially fend them off. However, after 830, they were able to take advantage of internal struggles of the Carolingian Empire and divisions sometimes caused by them directly between the still separated English kingdoms. This way, they began successively raiding the coasts of Great Britain along with the northern coast of what is today France, the Netherlands, and Germany. The kingdom of the Franks under Charlemagne was particularly devastated by these raiders, who would sail down the river Seine and raid along their way. Their other raids on the coast culminated in a gradual Scandinavian conquest and settlement of the region now known as Normandy in 911. And French King Charles actually granted the duchy of Normandy to a Viking war leader in order to avoid attacks by other raiders. These Vikings converted to Christianity and several generations later the Normans descended from their rule, conquering England and becoming rulers of Great Britain. But the Vikings wouldn't have to wait for generations to pass so that their descendants could rule England, at least parts of it. After those first ships arrived, being mistaken by merchants, a series of raids and attacks on the British coast took place, leading to the eventual settling and colonization of parts of the island by the Vikings. By 871, two great Dane armies were present in Britain, one attacking the south and the other settling in the north, creating what would then become known as Dane law, where Viking law prevailed. This kingdom was led by the Viking Guthrum and it was so big that at one point it took over half of what is today England. Most of the English kingdoms were weak and in turmoil and so they couldn't stand against the Vikings but eventually King Alfred of Wessex defeated them at the Battle of Eddington in 878. A treaty defined the borders of each's domain and attempted at a peaceful coexisting but conflict continued on and off until the English finally drove back the Vikings north and and retook York as the final step to kick them out of the island. Between 947 and 1152 some more raids and attempted invasions took place, many of which going as far as to threaten or even actually take hold of the English crown. Prince Knut of Denmark actually reigned as King of England between 1016 and 1035. However, the English always ended up prevailing and after the 11th century, the Viking Age had essentially ended and its threat to Great Britain as well. Despite this, Norse settling on the north of Scotland had been more effective. The Isles to the north and west were heavily colonized by Norwegian Vikings and became a part of the Norwegian Kingdom. Shetland and Orkney were the last of these to be incorporated in Scotland as late as 1468. In Ireland, the suppression of the Viking threat was very similar to England. Raiding led to colonization and the establishment of a patchwork of Viking kingdoms in the island. Some Vikings of Dublin also ruled the Kingdom of the Isles and implemented historical measures like the creation of the island's first mint. Eventually they were defeated and either fully incorporated with the Irish people or left the island. But while these Vikings were busy in Great Britain and Ireland, others ventured elsewhere across Europe. And because these events happen simultaneously, we can't follow a straight, linear timeline for the video and now have to rewind a little bit to take a look at the other Vikings. Other than the British Isles, Viking raid and colonization was prevalent in four more areas. The North Atlantic, Continental Western Europe, the Mediterranean and Eastern Europe. Some Vikings even traveled as far as Persia and the Caucasus. Ingvar the Far-Traveled led expeditions there between 1036 and 1042. Its travels are recorded on the Ingvar runestones, but there's not much information about them. So, let's take a look at these four areas. First, the North Atlantic, where Viking colonization was different from the rest of Europe, because there were no kingdoms to raid. These places were mostly deserted and were simply discovered and colonized by the Norse. Vikings may have discovered Svalbard as early as the 12th century. Traditional Norse accounts exist of a land known as Svalbard, literally meaning cold shores, but Iceland and Greenland's discoveries had happened earlier. Iceland was discovered by Nador, one of the first settlers on the Faroe Islands who was sailing from Norway but got lost, and named the country Snowland, which was eventually changed to Island. Iceland was first officially settled in around 870 by a Norwegian chieftain named Ingolf Arnarsson, founding Reykjavik in 874 when he settled there with his family and named it this, meaning Bay of Smoke due to the geothermal steam rising from the earth. Greenland's discovery and settlement wasn't far off either and is connected to that of Iceland's. In the year 985, Erik the Red is believed to have discovered Greenland after being exiled from Iceland in 982. With his lead, two areas along Greenland's southwest coast were colonized by Norse settlers. The land wasn't great for farming due to the cold, the main export was walrus ivory which was traded for iron and other goods which could not be produced locally, and Greenland became a dependency of the Kingdom of Norway in 1261. By 1379, the northernmost Viking settlement was attacked by skræling, the Norse word for Inuit, Greenland natives. Crops failed and trade declined and the Greenland colony gradually faded away. By 1450 it lost contact with Norway and Iceland and disappeared from almost all Norse legends. And last but not least for this region, North America. It has long been established and agreed upon by most historians that the Vikings were in fact the first Europeans to arrive at the New World. Norwegian Captain Gerd Jolfsson arrived in 985 when he was blown off course sailing to Greenland from Iceland. After this, various expeditions were taken there, exploring the areas to the west and to places like Ellesmere Island, Skrælig Island and Ruin Island where they hunted and traded with native Inuit groups. A short-lived settlement was established in what is today Newfoundland, Canada. The Greenlanders called the newfound territory Vinland. But what's odd about this attempted colonization is that it was simply done by some Greenland explorers, not by any actual Viking kingdom like Norway or Denmark and so, without any official support, they could not succeed. Eventually, conflict with the natives, who were stronger in number and weaponry, in addition to the troubles Greenland itself faced internally, permanently drove the Vikings away from North America, leaving it to be discovered by other Europeans hundreds of years after. Back in continental Western Europe, we already mentioned Viking arrival and establishment in Normandy. Other raids were made by the Vikings across Francia's and the Low Countries coasts, but no other settlements took place. In the Mediterranean, when we compare it with the rest of Western Europe, the Iberian Peninsula seems to have been little affected by Viking activity. At the time, there was only a small Christian kingdom in the north, with the rest being ruled by the Muslim Moors, and both of them were able to fend off any Viking raids. In 844, they raided Galicia, then moving to Lisbon and Sevilla. In 859, they actually captured and ransomed King Garcia Iniques of Pamplona, but these raids were never very successful, often being fully defeated and never allowing for colonization. In Italy, Sicily, and North Africa, however, settlement was in fact possible. Around 860, the annals of St. Burton provide contemporary evidence for Vikings stopping by Iberia and moving on to Italy, which they called Langbarland. In 1038, several Anglo-Danish and Norwegian nobles, including Harald Hardrada, who later became king of Norway, participated in the Norman conquest of southern Italy. They at first arrived in the 9th century as mercenaries of the Byzantine Empire and when they returned home they encouraged their countrymen to invest in the opportunities of the Mediterranean. These mercenaries, some Roman, some Varinian, but above all of Viking descent, also served the Byzantine Empire in Palestine as well as raiding North Africa, the Middle East, and as far as Armenia. Evidence for Norse ventures into Arabia and Central Asia can be found in runestones erected Scandinavia by the relatives of fallen Viking adventurers. Meanwhile in the eastern Mediterranean the Norse, referred to as Rus, were viewed more as merchant warriors who were primarily associated with trade and business. And with this we arrive at the last area of Europe where Viking raiding and colonization was present and had perhaps the most serious impact in the shaping of European history, Eastern Europe. The Vikings settled coastal areas along the Baltic Sea, mostly for trade. They settled in the coast of Mecklenburg and Pomerania, as well as Eastern Prussia, Courland and Latvia. Then they moved further east, traveling down several rivers, throughout what is today Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. The Varyags or Varygyans were Scandinavians who migrated eastwards and southwards, mainly in the 9th and 10th centuries. Essentially Vikings as well, but while traditional Vikings went west, the Varyags went east. They engaged in trade, colonization, piracy and mercenary activities. They controlled the rivers and so necessarily controlled the major trade routes. Their establishment in the region came after they were asked by the Slavic tribes to come and establish order. Not only were the tribes at war with each other, but they were also constantly raided by these eastern Vikings. The Slavics followed a policy similar to what the French had. They offered some Viking group settlement in exchange for protection. The difference is, in France, the Viking leader had to convert and swear fealty to the French king, while here, the Varyags assumed the leadership themselves and became the ruling class. Eventually, local tribes were united and ruled under the leadership of Rurik, a leader of a group of Varingians. Rurik's successors were able to conquer and united towns along the banks of the Volga and the Dnieper rivers and established the Rus principalities. This was effectively the first dynasty of the then to become Russian Empire and is also closely connected with the establishment of Ukraine through the Kievan Rus, which was the capital of the principalities before it moved north due to the Mongol invasions. Despite the distinctions of the Varyngians from the local Slavic tribes at the beginning, By the 10th century they had begun to integrate with the local community and by the end of the 12th century and new people, the Russians had emerged. So, that is a somewhat brief overview of how the Vikings raided, conquered and colonized Europe and technically a bit of America too, understanding who they were and where they came from, why they wanted to leave their homeland in search for prosperity in new lands that they could raid, trade with, conquer and colonize, how they were able to do it through their technological advances in sailing and their overall bravery, and where, how and to what extent these incursions took place throughout the four centuries that are now adequately known as the Viking Age, from their conquests in Great Britain and Ireland, their colonization of Iceland, Greenland and Newfoundland in North America, to their raids throughout most of Western Europe leading to the establishment of Normandy and the Norman conquest of Sicily, as well as their incredibly important rule as the Varyags in Eastern Europe and the establishment of the rules principalities leading to the creation of the Russian Empire. Much more exists to be known about the Vikings, who they were, what they did and how, but in this video we wanted to provide a general overview of their history as raiders and conquerors and I believe that we were able to achieve that goal. As usual, leave a comment with any mistakes you may have noticed or additional information you might have about this. Thank you for watching, subscribe if you want, and I will see you next time for more general knowledge.