Starting in the late 8th century, a group of seafaring people from Scandinavia, now known as Vikings, expanded their influence throughout Europe, often raiding and looting the cities of the continent. From their homeland in modern-day Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, the Vikings used their characteristic longships to sail along the coasts and rivers of Europe and throughout the North Atlantic, settling Iceland and Greenland, and reaching North America almost 500 years before the voyages of Christopher Columbus.
The reason for the Viking expansion is still debated. Some historians have suggested that the Vikings were looking for more agricultural land or more profitable trade routes. Another theory is that they were seeking more women, as they lived in a polygynous society in which rich and powerful men often married multiple women, creating a shortage of eligible women for the average Viking man.
Reconstruction of a Viking longship (Smudge 9000, Flickr, CC BY 2.0).
The Viking expansion in the British Isles
The “Northmen”, later Norsemen or just Norse, started raiding the British Isles at the end of the 8th century. In 865, a large army of Danes, a Germanic tribe of southern Scandinavia, invaded and conquered most of England, and the area they settled became known as Danelaw. The Viking domination ended in 954, when the Danes were expelled, but they again ruled over England between 1016 and 1035, when Danish prince Cnut the Great ruled as King of England, and later also as King of Denmark and Norway.
When the Anglo-Saxon King of England Edward the Confessor died in 1066, the Norwegian king Harald Hardrada attacked England but was defeated by Edward’s successor Harold Godwinson at the Battle of Stamford Bridge. Just a few weeks later, the Norman William the Conqueror defeated the English army at the Battle of Hastings, and was then crowned King of England. Viking raids in the area continued until the mid 12th century, while the House of Normandy ruled over England until 1135.
Norse settlers also colonized other parts of the British Isles, such as the Hebrides, Orkney Islands, and Shetland Islands off the coast of Scotland, the Isle of Man, and various areas of Ireland. Here, the Vikings founded various cities, such as Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Waterford, and Wexford. The indigenous Gaelic peoples of Ireland eventually retook control of the entire island by the late 10th century.
The Vikings in continental Europe and the Mediterranean
In the 9th century, the Vikings started raiding and sacking towns along the coast of continental Europe, and settled in northern France establishing the Duchy of Normandy. This state was a vassal of France between 911 and 1066, when the Norman William the Conqueror became King of England. This meant that England and Normandy were united under the same ruler, which was nominally a vassal of France. This led to a long dispute between England and France, which eventually led to the Hundred Years’ War in the 14th and 15th century.
Between the 9th and 11th century, the Vikings also often raided the coasts of modern-day Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and western France, while attacks on the Iberian Peninsula were less frequent. Viking raiders also moved into the Mediterranean Sea. Here, they sacked the coasts of southern Spain, North Africa, and Italy, where they destroyed the ancient Roman city of Luni in 860.
The Normans, descendants of Viking settlers who intermingled with the indigenous peoples of northern France, arrived in southern Italy around the year 1000 initially as mercenaries, but ended up conquering the region over the course of the following decades. The Norman conquest led to the establishment of the Kingdom of Sicily in 1130, which included southern Italy, Malta, and part of North Africa. The Norman Hauteville dynasty ruled over the kingdom until 1198.
The Vikings also settled the territories along the coast of the Baltic Sea. A group of Viking conquerors known as Varangians moved along the river systems of Eastern Europe during the 9th and 10th century. The Varangians integrated with the East Slavic peoples and established the Kievan Rus’, a state that occupied a large territory in the modern countries of Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus. The Varangian Rurik dynasty ruled the Kievan Rus’ and various principalities that emerged after the dissolution of this state. One of these principalities evolved into the Grand Duchy of Moscow and later the Tsardom of Russia. The Rurik dynasty continued to rule over Russia until 1598.
The Varangians also moved along the trade routes on the rivers of Eastern Europe reaching the coasts of the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, with expeditions into the Caucasus and Iran during the 11th century. The Byzantine Empire recruited the Varangians as mercenaries, establishing the Varangian Guard, an elite unit of the Byzantine army who served for centuries as the personal guard of the emperors. Over time, the Varangians in the Byzantine Empire became ethnically assimilated with the Greeks.
Map of the Viking expansion.
The Viking exploration of Iceland, Greenland, and North America
After reaching the Faroe Islands in the 9th century, the Vikings arrived in Iceland and settled the island around the year 870. Over the following decades, many Norsemen settled in Iceland, claiming all the arable land. During this time, Iceland had large forests due to the Medieval Warm Period, when the climate of the North Atlantic was much warmer than today. This period lasted from the 10th to the 13th century.
The lack of arable land and the relatively mild climate led the Vikings to seek even more land to the west. Some explorers might have reached Greenland in the early 10th century but, according to tradition, the island was discovered by Erik the Red after 982, when he was exiled from Iceland for committing murder. Erik the Red later returned to Iceland and named the land he discovered “Greenland” to convince people that it was a more pleasant area then Iceland.
Around 986, a group of Norse settlers led by Erik the Red established a few colonies on the fjords along the southern and southwestern coast of Greenland. The new settlements thrived for centuries and mantained political independence until 1261, when they became part of the Kingdom of Norway. The Norse settlers abandoned Greenland sometime between 1350 and 1500. The cause is unknown, but it was probably due to a worsening climate at the inception of the Little Ice Age, a period in which the temperature of the North Atlantic was much lower than today.
A few years after settling Greenland, the Norse explorers ventured west reaching the coasts of modern-day Canada. The first Viking to see North America was likely a merchant named Bjarni Herjólfsson, who went off course while sailing from Iceland to Greenland in 985, but did not set foot on the land. He described his findings to the son of Erik the Red, Leif Erikson, who sailed west around the year 1000 and became the first European to reach North America, almost 500 years before Christopher Columbus.
Leif Erikson explored the area and found three different lands: Helluland (“land of the flat stones”), Markland (“land of forests”), and Vinland (“land of wine” or “land of pastures”). According to modern historians, Helluland was probably Baffin Island, Markland can be identified with the coast of Labrador, while Vinland was Newfoundland. Leif Erikson remained in Vinland for some time, and founded a settlement around the northern tip of Newfoundland.
Map of the Viking exploration of North America as described in the Icelandic Sagas (Masae, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0).
Over the following years, various groups of Norse settlers from Greenland reached Vinland and had contacts with the local indigenous peoples, which they called Skræling. It is not clear why the Norse settlements in Vinland never became permanent, but it has been suggested that it was because of hostile relations with the natives. Nevertheless, the settlers in Greenland continued to make sporadic voyages to North America, mostly Markland, to gather resources and trade with the locals for another 400 years.
The archeological site of L’Anse aux Meadows, at the northernmost tip of Newfoundland, houses the ruins of a Norse settlement, with some buildings and hundreds of Norse objects. This site dates from the early 11th century, and it is the only undisputed European settlement in the Americas outside Greenland before Columbus. This might be the outpost established by Leif Erikson, and might have also served as a base for further explorations along the coast of North America, but there is no confirmation that the Vikings ventured more south.