When you hear the term 'viking', would you think of people who help with the expansion of knowledge of the ocean? I would not either, but they are important figures when it comes to the history of oceanography. Not only were the vikings intertested in trade and colonization, but they were incredible seaman. A viking know as 'Eric the Red' sailed passed Iceland and found what we know today as Greenland. His son came to North America in 1002, approximately 500 yrs before Columbus. The Vikings originally come from Scandinavia and along there journeys they invaded parts of Europe, France and the British Isles between 793-1066. This period is sometimes known as the 'Viking Age'. During their time, they founded many settlements along the coats of places like Ireland, Iceland, Greenland, Newfoundland, etc, and they were early explores of North America. But, the vikings were also great worriors. They rampaged many colonies along their voyages. Even though they were worriors, they had a huge impact on Oceanography today. They helped find new colonies, explored some of North America and were great navigators. They biuld what we call 'Dragon Ships', which in 1880, archaeologists found a whole ship intact. They also built a ship know as the Knarr.
After hearing about the vikings slightly in a lecture i decided to do a bit more research. I learned a lot about the vikings that i did not know. What i find very interesting about all this, is when people talk about history, it is Christopher Columbus who founded North America, but in actual fact, the Vikings, in particular Leif Eriksson son of Erik the Red, was the first one to find North America after sailing west of Greenland.
To learn more...
3 comments:
Good job following up on a group of people that I didn't really cover in class.
Cathy
There are so many spelling errors in this. I'm 15 and I can spell better than this.
Post a Comment