What If The Vikings Stayed In America?
The early presence of the Norse in North America has, since it’s rise to popular knowledge in the late 1800’s, become something of a glamorized curiosity within not only historian circles, but across much of pop-culture as well, and yet over a century later we only seem to know slightly more than we did before; we now know for certain the vikings were here, in eastern Canada at least, but there’s still tremendous speculation as to how far these Scandinavian visitors explored, how long they stayed, and in fact what they did in their time here.
A major contributing factor to this set of circumstances is the fact that the Norse, for a large chunk of history, did not keep detailed records within their own communities, relying instead on the passing down of stories from generation to generation, making of Norse history almost as much legend as it is documentation. The best records we have today are those produced by other observing societies, often with a negative bias toward what were perceived as senseless raiders; but additionally we’ve begun using modern technology to uncover and decipher traces of this fascinating civilization, comparing said discoveries against both surviving legends, and documents written long after the fact to better understand the timeline of the Norse.
In the case of North America, things become even more hazy as only one Viking site has been confirmed as authentic, that being in the North-West tip of Canadian Newfoundland, and still is one deemed unlikely to have been a sustainable settlement for a population of more than one hundred, however Norse accounts describe environments rather distinct from this region, even when the conditions of historic climate change are accounted for. More so it is known that voyages to the New World did continue on a small scale for purposes of resource extraction for a period which could have been as long as 400 years, and it is thought that the Newfoundland site might not have been a briefly used settlement, but a rest and resupplying stop for resource gathering voyages.
Given the differing accounts and descriptions of the environment, it is quite possible multiple Norse voyages could have landed as far south as modern-day New York and New Jersey, be it for purposes of exploration or simply being taken off course, while more generous assumptions believe landings even further south were possible based on one account describing snow-less winters.
Viking tales seemed to interpret North America as three major segments, one of which represented the extreme north, a mostly uninhabitable land of ice and stone, possibly conjoined to Greenland. Second was a realm of snowy forests which provided a seemingly endless supply of lumber, this correlating to modern Quebec, Labrador, and potentially Newfoundland, the latter of which is most commonly attributed to the third realm known as Vinland where temperatures were moderate, and crops grew plentifully from wheat to grapes; much like the first realm was believed to be connected to Greenland, Vinland was believed to extend onward south until it eventually reconnected with Africa, reinforcing the idea that the Norse explored the hotter, more tropical regions of North America to arrive at this conclusion.
Regardless of how far this exploration took the Norse, records show that by the time the rest of Europe arrived to colonize the New World, there weren’t many traces of them left. Further attempts by the new unified Scandinavian Kingdoms to settle North America at this point turned up fruitless, leaving them with only Greenland, Iceland, and a number of small local lands as their colonial legacy…but what if that changed?
What if in an alternate timeline the Vikings never left North America, and successfully established a sustainable settlement? Once again, it’s difficult to say with absolute certainty what transpired within North America during this period of Norse exploration, but based on what we have found, as well the trends of previous colonization efforts in Greenland, Iceland, and the Faeroe Islands, we can make a fair assumption as to the direction and drives that would propel this hypothetical colony forward.
Firstly it’s commonly believed that settlement of North America failed to gain traction among the Norse because of the poor prospects uncovered in Greenland; Lief Erickson, the supposed first to discover the New World, was after all the son of the the man who sold Greenland as an enticing land rich in opportunities, only for conditions to be relatively harsher than that which was left behind. This isn’t to be misunderstood as Greenland being despised for it’s misleading name, settlers were still happy to find new land open to them, but conditions generally remained stagnant, if not worsened as the climate became increasingly cold, dealing a blow to it’s trade and resource economy. As the colony became neglected by the fatherland, and less capable of sustaining itself, so did it simply become less favorable to other alternatives; this neglect from the Scandinavian mainland also contributed to a decline in colonial efforts, as Greenland, at the time seen as the frontier of Norse settlement, already lacked self-sustaining resources, making it only more costly to settle as time went on, leaving a smaller population to potentially expand further westward; additionally, as this resource strain, and harsh environment was the case for Greenland, new settlers were, of course, reluctant to go one step beyond those conditions to settle in the unknown that was America…this time, things are different.
From what is known about Norse colonization, we find a number of parallels between it’s own motivations, and what occurred in England to drive similar efforts there; from Religious Persecution, to Disagreements with changing government, to simply desires for more farming and trade opportunities, these factors were alive and well in Scandinavia, most especially Norway which had been a launching off point for most early colonization efforts.
By the late 800’s, Harold Fair-hair had successfully conquered various petty kingdoms and chiefdom's across Western Scandinavia to establish himself as the first high-king of Norway; his rule brought about a level of centralization and restructuring never before seen in the region, leading not only several of his political rivals to flee for the then unclaimed frontier of Iceland, but also a number of farmers who felt overburdened by his newly established tax code, not to mention various individuals who simply opposed the concept of a centralized ruler. Like the English American colonies, Iceland would establish a representative assembly system not long after.
Domestic matters would become increasingly more polarized as Christianity was quickly being introduced into the traditionally Norse Pagan kingdom. Lief Erickson himself would be baptized into the new faith by the King, and sent to Greenland for the purpose of converting the rest of the population sometime before he would stumble upon North America. With that in mind, there come two possibilities with which to trigger this greater colonization effort: Option one suggests that, like Spain, Norway sees an opportunity to spread the faith further by introducing it to the native population, eventually seeing missionary settlements develop into larger colonies which take advantage of the bountiful resources available, but this would assume Norway has interest in spreading the faith to a far off land before it’s own, which might not be too likely, and additionally without the immediate appeal of tremendous wealth to be gathered, this might just be dismissed as an effort not worth the trouble.
Option two would instead suggest that the conversion attempts by Erickson are received very poorly in Greenland, where the population is already growing tired of the difficult environment, yet is increasingly dissatisfied with the king. Iceland at the time had also just initiated a Chrisitanization process after repeated pressure by the monarchy, and not long after it would find itself fully submitting to the authority of the over-seas government. A policy of one religion and one law would be put forward, mandating conversion across the whole of the island.
Like Greenland in this alternate timeline, Iceland receives these demands far more poorly, and the reaction takes on an extreme character. Essentially we’re proposing that the populations of Iceland and Greenland resist mainland demands for Christianization and consolidation of authority, by instead distancing themselves to the promising Western Lands which Erickson had reported on, leaving the old colonies, Greenland especially, for the most part abandoned, with little likelihood for the mainland to resettle them to similar capacity.
We’ll be taking the second route for this video as such a reaction wouldn’t be out of place; the “Taking of Christianity” as it was called by the mostly pagan iceland nearly caused a civil war in our timeline, as a matter of fact. Statues having benn torn down and sanctuaries leveled to rubble across the country. It’s believed the only reason the policy even passed was because of the few converted, most had been in leadership positions of some sort, and leadership who hadn’t converted saw their families overseas held hostage by the king.
Norway had already cut off all support and trade to Iceland, leaving them with little to lose. Icelanders might first migrate to Greenland, but find little difference there, as much the upper class was also seeing conversion at the time, regardless of if that was the case, it’d become fairly clear soon enough that there weren’t sufficient resources to support this new population, and so a second voyage would press on for Erickson's supposed Vinland.
We could expect an initial colony population of a few thousand, with many more to come as Norwegian influence gained in Greenland, and the colony itself advanced into a more attractive settlement; before that happened, a reliable food supply would need to be identified, hunters venturing out to get a sense of local game, fishers gathering a healthy supply of salmon, which Erickson had reported to be large and plentiful, while local crops were harvested and stored. Domestic animals would also be brought along from Iceland and Greenland for future farming projects. The Norse settlers might anticipate a retaliation by the crown, but also recognize that given the tremendous distance they would need to traverse, the risk of invasion would be relatively low, and so construct their settlement upon a coast but specifically upon one which could be easily defended from an unlikely attack; also seeing to the construction of a secured port for the receiving of new settlers, storage of ships, and catching of fish. Resources might also be gathered from the other American realms if lumber or stone was lacking in the region of settlement.
Interactions with natives are sure to be mixed, with some resulting in trade or cooperation, whilst others might easily devolve into, or be initiated by conflicts. In our world Erickson's encampment is claimed by one telling to have briefly traded with a group of natives, but stressed an importance on not trading weapons, indicating a recognition that the Vikings held superior weaponry, and did not want to risk their weapons being used against them, or even being duplicated by the native tribes, and so we might expect as much from these settlers, even in times of great desperation.
In regards to weapons, there’d certainly be no shortage of them among the settlers, as Norse tradition dictated that every freeman own at least a few, and carry one on their person regularly.
And in regards to relations with the native tribes, this can be a bit of a tricky observation; the Norse have historically had an irregular reputation when it came to matters of cultural integration as in Normandy we find not only cooperation with the Franks, but embracing of their foreign faith, language, and a number of their customs very quickly, where as in Greenland this was almost non-existent on the part of the Norse who instead influenced the culture of the local population, and the same of Iceland where the Norse culture overwhelmed the meager Celtic population which had migrated there.
Given that the Norse would consider themselves more advanced than the natives, as they did in Greenland and Iceland, they’d more likely than not resist integration or embracing of native customs, even more so as the preserving of their faith and culture would have been their prime motivators for colonization. That being said, this could initially hinder them as it would mean turning away the practices which had helped the natives survive in their environment, forcing the Norse to come to these discoveries mostly on their own, not to mention encounter regular competition and hostilities from the natives, however in the long-term this would have been worth it to maintain their cohesion as a group, and perhaps leading to new discoveries even unknown to the natives.
Finally, on the matter of culture, this Norse colony would in fact retain the Pagan traditions of the vikings, while Scandinavia itself became increasingly more Christian. This cultural divide would ensure that once communication was reestablished between the crown and the colony there’d be little to no chance of reunion save for through conquest. Some might argue that this Norse Pagan society would be incapable of establishing the same level of sustainable government as that overseas, and perhaps so on a long-enough timeline, and in regards to levels of organization, however the unifying actions of Harold Fair-hair, as well as the establishment of the Icelandic Parliament demonstrate that, even if lagging behind and requiring trial and error, effective governing structure is achievable in such a society. Interestingly enough, the Viking Governing structure is regarded as one of the most effective early decentralized models, although this being said, it would certainly need to undergo a series of changes in the new colony; laws in most viking societies weren’t even codified or written down, mind you, but were instead entrusted upon a law-speaker to memorize and recite.
It’s possible that, just as the distance from the crown led English colonists to adopt more democratic practices, the additional demands for responsible organization hoisted upon the Norse colony would lead to the adoption of more centralized governing structure, another step above the Icelandic Assembly perhaps, seeing to the appointing of a high-king with lesser-kings or chiefs serving beneath him as representatives of the community, and later other settlements as the colony expanded. This would especially be the case for the more developed parts of the colony, likely on the coasts, which, as most societies tend to do, would shift their focus toward self-development and increasing of local efficiency, but there’s no telling how long it would take for these coastal settlements to become fully realized cities under the viking model; regardless, the colony would have plenty of time, as over the next few centuries the northern waters would become more difficult to traverse, and following the failure of invasions meant to bring the Norse Americans back under crown rule, the Norwegian King, and later Danish King would consider it a lost cause, leaving the colony to it’s own devices.
It might be suggested that viking settlement of the Americas would trigger an early colonization effort by the European powers, however the under developed navies of what would become Europe’s great powers would be woefully unprepared to take on such an effort even if they wanted to, moreover, Scandinavia has always maintained a fair disconnect from the rest of Western Europe, and still would in this world; tales of their island settlers one day taking off west and never returning probably wouldn’t set off many more alarms than Erickson's initial voyage had, or the multiple alleged resource voyages carried out over multiple centuries, meaning, again, the Norse Americans would be existing free of European interference for quite a time…and in that time would expand along neighboring coasts, and inland, something which would likely drive them into conflict with the Algonquin people who might well become a long-standing rival. Disease, along with overwhelming metal-based weaponry would deal a great blow to these rival tribes, forcing many of them south and westward, where they would only come into further conflict with the tribes of those regions.
The Norse Americans would, within their domain, reestablish old trades of crafting, metal-work, and ship building, improving upon each of them over time, albeit at a slower rate than their contemporaries over-seas. Various Norse communities along the North East coast would come to develop distinct characters and codes, yet at the same time maintain inter-connectivity through regular trade and travel by ship to one another’s growing port cities which would initially begin as hubs of commerce, production, and eventually governance; as we mentioned before, these cities would see implementation of more codified rule, while the outer colony remained under traditional unwritten viking law. Native tribes would become prominent targets for raids, and serve as a force for the Norse to remain united against, that as well as the forces of Europe, which soon enough would stumble upon the Americas. Spanish and Portuguese colonies carry on mostly unhindered as Norse influence would have remained confined to the North East, however French, English, and Dutch colonists would be faced with a far more advanced challenge than that posed by the natives; a challenge which was already resistant to European diseases, possessed weaponry nearly on par with their own, held a deep preexisting animosity toward Christianity, and embodied perhaps just as much savagery as the most vicious of the American tribes.
Norse America would not have become a European colony in the traditional sense, but a new nation built upon an identity the rest of Europe had left behind, and which many across Europe still feared. Upon it’s discovery, and European capability to easily reach it, there’s little doubt that Norse America would become a target for nearly every major power for not only occupying valuable land, but for representing a heretical belief system believed done away with. Likewise, the Norse Americans would not be driven from their new home so easily, not after having had their homes taken from them time and time before.
