Vikings Influence On American History
Humanity has had a long and rich history, where much of history is written from only a few
perspectives throughout the ages. Whichever perspectives were most clearly and widely distributed
are the perspectives contained in the majority of the history books, no matter how limited or biased.
Most of these perspectives are born from European backgrounds, where the dominant European
backgrounds are the result of victories in war and expansion of not only territories but also beliefs.
The country that was dominant in battle, in most cases, was the dominant perspective in that time, and
that was the dominant stance that was written into History. On the other hand, the cultures that were
not victorious in their endeavors are usually misrepresented ... Show more content on Helpwriting.net
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Many nations at the time, assumed that there was nothing worthwhile out to the West and that by
sending ships and explorers out West, they would never return. The Vikings never had such thoughts,
rather they firmly believed that fate was predetermined at the moment of birth, and all that life really
is, is just playing out those acts of fate; therefore, if fate was to say that it was the time for death to
occur, then there is no point in being scared to die; so why not go out and be bold? (Walsh). They had
a mindset that was focused on success, and without the fear of death to deter them, they were not only
ruthless in their conquests but also courageous in their voyages across the Atlantic. This mindset,
combined with the marvel that is the Viking Longboat, was the core strength used by the Vikings as
they slowly went across the Atlantic Ocean and settled the land, starting with the Faeroe Islands,
northwest of Scotland in about 860 AD, then, about a decade later, the Norse reached Iceland
(Lemonick and Dorfman 2). This initial wave of movement westward sparked a larger movement over
time of larger Norse populations towards Iceland, where at one point, there were as many as 12,000
Viking immigrants ultimately settled there, taking their farm animals with them (Lemonick and
Dorfman 2). This mass migration and settlement outside of the native Scandinavian territory mimics
the conquest and expansion of other great Empires, the only difference in the Vikings situation is that
they did it by sea and all other nations did it by land; that, and the fact that the more westward they
moved, the less they had to deal with other nations and more with the fury of the
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