The Vikings Research Paper

The Vikings were a group of seafaring, Scandinavian raiders that controlled Northern Europe from circa eighth century to the eleventh century. Infamously known for their terrorizing of towns, they plundered areas throughout England and the Frankish Empire, and eventually colonized in Greenland. Popular images portray the Vikings as a barbaric, uncivilized bunch with an unsatisfiable thirst for blood. However, after thorough research, I have come to find that they were explorers, farmers, and skilled laborers that invaded European towns in search of land to cultivate, as well as means of income and expansion. The earliest recorded Viking targets were often monasteries because they were relatively isolated, undefended, and filled with treasure. Raids were not intended to kill people or destroy towns, despite the the tendency of doing so. The 793 BC attack on the Lindisfarne monastery was the first recorded Viking raid in the west. Over a centuries span,

The long Viking history began in Scandinavia. The Scandinavian landscape was cold; only the tough would survive the hardships to come, teaching them to not fear death, but to face it head on. The attacks on monasteries aided to the expansion of Viking culture. They founded cities by raiding isolationist states and forcing them into becoming feeble alliances. While many Vikings were were warriors and raiders, the rest were explorers and traders. Vikings pioneered trade routes and established a trade network that runs throughout modern-day Europe. They opened trade routes to Constantinople, the Byzantine Empire and the far east. Vikings shared their ship building techniques and seafaring skills with Europe. Northern countries tried to replicate these ships, but could not do so as well as the Vikings. The ships designed were the first of its kind to cross the North Atlantic. Europe and Asia greatly benefited from these