Think about it.
They were European and would have been loaded with the same diseases that trashed the Indians when Columbus & Co came to visit - why didn’t it work then?
Because they never stayed or had long interactions with the natives? The Americas basically were too far away from the Viking homelands to establish long term settlements. You can see the strain distance put on their supply chains when you consider Greenland vs. Iceland vs. Orkney/Shetland.
The European diseases that wiped out the Indians in the 1500s didn’t really exist in the year 1000. The Black Death was still 300 years away and Europeans hadn’t yet developed immunity to the diseases that wiped out the Indians.
Probably several reasons.
First, the Vikings never really got to America. They did even less than Columbus on his first voyage, making a small settlement on one island offshore of Canada.
Second, that island had seen waves of invaders for thousands of years. They weren’t Europeans, of course, but the population was not protected from the world.
Third, we really don’t have good records of what happened after the Vikings left and how many died or what they died of.
Fourth, the five hundred year difference in timespan may also have made a difference in what diseases they carried and how powerful they were. Although there was certainly some trade between them and the rest of the world, they were comparatively more isolated than the Spaniards. Even the plague hadn’t reached them yet.
The technology of the longboats just wasn’t up to the task. Only a few years after Columbus discovered the West Indies, the Portuguese sailed around the Cape of Good Hope and on to India, a journey of thousands of miles. The Vikings, in contrast only got to the new world by taking relatively short hops between Iceland and Greenland.
This meant that any colony on the North American mainland was at the end of a chain of other colonies. While the European colonies of the 16th Century could be continually restocked and reinforced by ships going directly to and from their home countries, the Viking toe-hold in Newfoundland could only be sustained from the Greenland, which itself was dependent on Iceland. It was just too long of a supply chain.
Another explanation I’ve heard given is that they refused to adapt; they neither learned from the locals nor changed on their own. They tried to live just like back home, where everything from the climate to the wildlife was different and it didn’t work very well. And in the end of course they died out.
Two words: Brett Favre
I wouldn’t say that they didn’t exist. Influenza had a drastic effect on the Indians, and that was probably widespread in Europe in the time of the Vikings. Other diseases may not have reached or been as prevalent in Scandanavia, however. One of the most important diseases that wiped out much of the Indian population was smallpox, which had entered southwestern Europe by the 7th or 8th Century but was not widespread until much later. Malaria and yellow fever mainly came with slaves from Africa, and would not have be present in the north.
Don’t be silly.
The proper answer was that the American Indians had Batman.
Epic fail. From you of all people, too.
It was Captain America ;).
FOOL OF A TOOK!
That was in 1602. Vikings long gone.
In truth, of course, the answer is simply because Thor told them to go home. One does not argue with the son of Jord.
FOOL OF A DWARF! Thor is the son of Odin.
BTW–there is evidence that the Viking colony may have suffered from severe vitamin deficiency. Ricketts? Don’t recall…
PONCY ELF! Jord is Thor’s mother. And I’ve never thought he liked Odin much; my cite is Old One-Eye being an evil sumbitch. Consider the affair with Hrungnir, for instance.
What Viking colony where at what time?
It takes a lot of people to conquer a continent–even when those people are Vikings. There really weren’t very many Vikings who visited America at all. Meanwhile, there were zillions of native Americans–or Skraelings, in Viking speak–who were already here. Plus, the other reasons already made by others in this thread.
That’s the only known site, there were likely others. wiki "Recent archaeological studies found also that this exact site is not the Vinland of the Norse accounts in its entirety, but was the entrance to a larger region called Vinland by the Norse."
Note that the Vikings did not have gunpowder, which I think made a crucial difference.
They also had little need to conquer. The NA natives there had little loot of value and no “souls to save” (although most of the Vikings of that period were likely Christians, they didn’t have the same fervor as the Conquistadors, and there were still plenty of local pagans back in the homeland to save.). The vikings certainly liked to raid and loot, but that section of NA had little of that sort of wealth.
When the Spanish and Portugese got to America, there was gold and loot by the shipload, and they had a religous mandate, too. Motive was far better.
And of course, L’Anse aux Meadows considered to be part of the North American continent, even if it is an island.
No churches with gold relics to plunder?
You don’t give the cite and I’d need to see it before commenting.
All of that is irrelevant to the point that diseases, not guns, killed off 90% of the native population. If the Vikings were the source of pandemics, then mere contact and trade relations would have been sufficient.
All of that is irrelevant to the point that diseases, not guns, killed off 90% of the native population. If the Vikings were the source of pandemics, then mere contact and trade relations would have been sufficient.
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No, it’s not. The Vikings never came in the numbers- or exposed themselves to the numbers of natives- enough to spread such diseases. They met as little as a single tribe, maybe a few more, in a limited area. Also that area was hunting & Gathering, not civilized agriculture, it would have been hard for disease to spread in such a sitrep.
And of course, the 90% figure is just a estimation
As colibri sez, Smallpox had not spread widely in Europe. According to most cites, it was the single highest killer of natives. Influenza is hard to prove, the symptoms are hard to separate, and it wasn’t a pandemic in Europe until 1580. The Vikings may have only had a very mild form. Typhus wasn’t pandemic until 1489. Etc. The Vikings did not seem to be yet infected with any of the major killers, and even so, many of those spread and kill best in crowded conditions, large towns and the like. Of course, the Meso-Americans had such populations. Not that it’s nessesary to have such crowded conditions, it’s just way easier.
So- because had no strong need, desire or ability to conquer, they brought few people over. Also, the Vikings had few large towns, and did not encounter many natives, nor did they live closely with them. The Vikings also came before most of the worst killers had reached pandemic status in Europe, it’s quite possible they brought few diseases with them.
Jared Diamond’s Collapse has an interesting chapter on the Norse colonies during that time period. The short answer is that they didn’t have the naval technology to maintain an adequate supply line. Even the colony on Greenland was chronically short on iron; knives from there have been found that were used and re-sharpened so much they were worn down practically to nubs. Farther afield in Vinland, they didn’t have the numbers or iron weapons to give them any sort of military advantage over the natives. While the Norse persisted in Greenland for a few centuries, they were driven out of Vinland in pretty short order.