The Vikings, or Norse, explored and settled areas of the North Atlantic, including the northeast fringes of North America, beginning in the 10th century of the common era. While this settlement process did not have the lasting effects that later settlements and conquests would have, it can be seen as a prelude to wide-scale European settlement in the Americas. The Vikings were the first Europeans to reach the Americas, starting but then abandoning a colonisation process. ... The history of the Americas is the collective history of North, Central and South America and the Caribbean. ... British colonization of the Americas began in the late 16th century. ... The Duchy of Courland was the smallest nation to colonize the Americas with a short-lived colony in Tobago from 1654 to 1659. ... Explorers and settlers from Denmark took possession of the Danish West Indies (present-day U.S. Virgin Islands), which Denmark later sold to the United States. ... During the 17th century, Dutch traders established trade posts and plantations throughout the Americas; actual colonization, with Dutch settling in the new lands was not as common as with settlements of other European nations. ... The French established colonies across the New World in the 17th century. ... The German colonization of the Americas consisted of a 16th century attempt to settle Venezuela. ... Portugal was the leading country in the European exploration of the world in the 15th century. ... After the discovery of northern Alaska by Ivan Fedorov in 1732, and the Aleutian Islands, southern Alaska, and north-western shores of North America in 1741 during the Russian exploration conducted by Vitus Bering and Aleksei Chirikov, it took fifty years until the founding of the first Russian colony in... The Darién scheme was an unsuccessful attempt by the Kingdom of Scotland to establish a colony on the Isthmus of Panama. ... Spanish colonization of the Americas began with the arrival in the Americas of Christopher Columbus in 1492. ... The Swedish colonization of the Americas consisted of a 17th century settlement on the Delaware River in Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland, and possessions in the Caribbean during the 18th and 19th century. ... The name Viking is a loan from the native Scandinavian term for the Norse seafaring warriors who raided the coasts of Scandinavia, the British Isles, and other parts of Europe from the late 8th century to the 11th century, the period of European history referred to as the Viking Age. ... Norse is related to Scandinavia, and may mean: Ancient Norse mythology Medieval Norsemen, i. ... World map showing location of North America A satellite composite image of North America North America is the third largest continent in area and in population after Eurasia and Africa. ...

It is often erroneously described as the Viking colonisation of North America, but there are few findings that support this idea. It is rather better described as Viking attempts to take control over routes and rights for trading animal hides, fur and other commodities. Thus these settlements only grew to a small size and never fully developed into permanent colonies.

The Icelandic poems are the first written sources in Europe that reference North America. Some scholars believe that South American petroglyphs are rune-like symbols and thus offer proof of Norse contact (e.g. Nazca urn in Peru, Brazil, Paraguay), but this assertion has never found support among Scandinavian runologists. There are also runestones found in North America (e.g. the Kensington Runestone, Newport Tower and Oklahoma runes) that are thought by some to descend from the Viking Age. Runological experts generally do not support either the North nor South American runestone finds to be sound proof of Viking contact, and some suggest that these stand merely as proof of the quality and diversity of pre-historic Native American arts. There is a map describing North America, the Vinland map, the age of which is subject to some debate. While it is at least based on a real, historical map, the Vinland map does show parts of the Greenland coastline that were covered with ice around 1100-1300th century. The Norse sagas or Viking sagas (Icelandic: Íslendingasögur), are stories about ancient Scandinavian and Germanic history, about early Viking voyages, about migration to Iceland, and of feuds between Icelandic families. ... Petroglyphs on a Bishop Tuff tableland Petroglyph on Petroglyph Point Petroglyphs on Petroglyph Point Petroglyphs on Petroglyph Point Petroglyphs on Newspaper Rock State Historic Monument Petroglyphs from Scandinavia (Häljesta, Västmanland in Sweden). ... The Runic alphabets are a set of related alphabets using letters known as runes, formerly used to write Germanic languages, mainly in Scandinavia, and the British Isles. ... The Kensington runestone is a roughly rectangular slab of greywacke covered in runes on its face and side. ... The Newport Tower The Newport Tower is a round stone tower located in Touro Park in Newport, Rhode Island. ... the Vinland map The Vinland map is purportedly a 15th century map of the world, redrawn from a 13th century original. ...

Greenland

According to Icelandic Sagas, Vikings from Iceland first discovered Greenland in the 980s. Erik the Red led a settlement expedition there in 985. At its peak, the colony consisted of two settlements with a total population of between 3,000 and 5,000; at least 400 farms have been identified by archaeologists. The Norse sagas or Viking sagas (Icelandic: Íslendingasögur), are stories about ancient Scandinavian and Germanic history, about early Viking voyages, about migration to Iceland, and of feuds between Icelandic families. ... This article concerns the comic book character -- for the Viking explorer, see Erik the Red. ...

At its height, Viking Greenland had a bishopric (at Garðar) and exported ivory, rope, sheep, seals, and cattle hides. In 1261, the population accepted the overlordship of the Norwegian King, although it continued to have its own law. In 1380 this kingdom entered into a personal union with the Kingdom of Denmark. In some Christian churches, the diocese is an administrative territorial unit governed by a bishop, sometimes also referred to as a bishopric or episcopal see, though more often the term episcopal see means the office held by the bishop. ... The Kingdom of Norway is a Nordic country on the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, bordering Sweden, Finland and Russia, with territorial waters bordering Danish and British waters. ...

The colony began to decline in the 1300s. The Western Settlement was abandoned around 1350. By 1378, there was no longer a bishop at Garðar. After a marriage was recorded in 1408, no written records mention the settlers. It is probable that the Eastern Settlement was defunct by the late 1400s, although no exact date has been established. The most recent radiocarbon date found in Norse settlements as of 2002 was 1430 A.D. +/- 15 years. Several theories have been advanced about the reasons for the decline. The Little Ice Age of this period would have made it harder to travel between Greenland and Europe, and more difficult for Greenlanders to farm for subsistence; in addition, Greenlandic ivory may have been supplanted in European markets by cheaper ivory from Africa. The Little Ice Age (LIA) was a period of cooling lasting approximately from the mid-14th to the mid-19th centuries. ...

Despite the loss of contact with the Greenlanders, the Danish government continued to consider Greenland a possession, and the existence of the island was never forgotten by European geographers. European whalers made occasional landfalls on the island in the 17th century. In 1721 a joint merchant-clerical expedition led by Norwegian missionary Hans Egede was sent to Greenland, not knowing whether the civilization remained there, and worried that if it did, it might still be Catholic 200 years after the rest of Scandinavia had experienced the Reformation. Though this expedition found no surviving Europeans, it marked the beginning of Denmark's assertion of sovereignty over the island, a story that belongs to the Danish colonization of the Americas. Categories: Stub | 1686 births | 1758 deaths ... Scandinavia, Fennoscandia, and the Kola Peninsula. ... The Protestant Reformation was a movement which began in the 16th century as a series of attempts to reform the Roman Catholic Church, but ended in division and the establishment of new institutions, most importantly Lutheranism, Reformed churches, and Anabaptists. ... Explorers and settlers from Denmark took possession of the Danish West Indies (present-day U.S. Virgin Islands), which Denmark later sold to the United States. ...

Vinland

According to the Icelandic sagas ("Eirik the Red's Saga" and "the Saga of the Greenlanders"  — chapters of the Hauksbók and the Flatey Book), the Vikings started to explore lands to the west of Greenland only a few years after the Greenland settlements were established. Bjarni Herjólfsson, a merchant, while sailing from Iceland to Greenland, was blown off course and sighted land west of the latter. He described his discovery to Leif Ericson, who explored the area in more detail and planted a small settlement. The Norse sagas or Viking sagas (Icelandic: Íslendingasögur), are stories about ancient Scandinavian and Germanic history, about early Viking voyages, about migration to Iceland, and of feuds between Icelandic families. ... The Flatey Book, (in Icelandic the Flateyjarbók Flat-island book) is one of the most important medieval Icelandic manuscripts. ... Bjarni Herjólfsson was a Norse explorer, believed to be the first European to view mainland North America. ... A statue of Leif Ericson in front of the Hallgrímskirkja in Reykjavik Leif Ericson (old Icelandic: Leifur Eiríksson) was an Iceland born explorer that was the first European to discover North America and more specifically, the region that would become Newfoundland. ...

The sagas describe three separate areas discovered during this exploration: Helluland, which means "land of the flat stones"; Markland, which was covered with forest (something of definite interest to the settlers in Greenland, which had few trees); and Vinland, which was somewhere farther south of Markland. It was in Vinland where the settlement described in the sagas was planted. Helluland is the name given to one of the three lands discovered by Leif Eriksson sometime around 1000 CE on the North Atlantic coast of North America. ... Markland is the name given to an area of unknown location, named by Leif Ericson when visiting North America. ... Vinland (pronounced Winland) was the name given to part of North America by the Icelandic Norseman Leif Eiríksson, about year 1000. ...

Leif's settlement did not prosper; the settlers fought over the few women who accompanied the expedition, and also had conflicts with the local Native Americans (whom they called Skraelings). The settlement was abandoned after a few years. The Greenland Norse remembered the existence of land to the west, though, and continued to travel to Markland for wood. The final voyage may have occurred as late as the 14th century. Native Americans (also Indians, Aboriginal Peoples, American Indians, First Nations, Alaskan Natives, Amerindians, or Indigenous Peoples of America) are the indigenous inhabitants of The Americas prior to the European colonization, and their modern descendants. ...

For some centuries after Christopher Columbus's voyages opened the Americas to large-scale colonization by Europeans, it was unclear whether these stories represented real voyages by Vikings to North America. The sagas were first taken seriously after the Danish archaeologist Carl Christian Rafn in 1837 pointed out the possibility for a Norse settlement or voyages to North America. Christopher Columbus For information about the director, see the article on Chris Columbus. ... Carl Christian Rafn (1795 - 1864) was a Danish archaeologist noted for his early advocacy of the theory that the Vikings had explored North America prior to Christopher Columbus. ...

The question was definitively settled in the 1960s, when a Viking settlement was excavated at L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland. The location of the various lands described in the sagas is still unclear, however. Many historians identify Helluland with Baffin Island and Markland with Labrador. The location of Vinland is a thornier question. Some believe that the L'Anse aux Meadows settlement is the Vinland settlement described in the sagas; others, based on elements in the sagas that depict Vinland as being warmer than Newfoundland, believe that it lay further south. For more on the debate, see the article on Vinland. There are still many questions remaining, and only new archaeological findings can supply more information. Viking colonisation site at LAnse-aux-Meadows LAnse aux Meadows (from the French LAnse-aux-Méduses (Jellyfish Cove)) is a site on the northernmost tip of the island of Newfoundland, in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, where the remains of a Viking village were discovered in 1960 by... Newfoundland (French: Terre-Neuve; Irish: Talamh an Éisc; Latin: Terra Nova) is a large island off the north-east coast of North America, and the most populous part of the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. ... Baffin Island (Inuktitut: Qikiqtaaluk ᕿᑭᖅᑖᓗᒃ) is one of the Canada in the territory of Nunavut. ... This article is about the region in Canada. ... Vinland (pronounced Winland) was the name given to part of North America by the Icelandic Norseman Leif Eiríksson, about year 1000. ...

See also: Inventio Fortunata, Norwegian-American The Inventio Fortunata is a mysterious document that has never been found. ... The Norwegian-Americans are an ethnic group in the United States. ...