Video Summary: The Vikings – Crash Course World History 224

The Vikings were people from Scandinavia , modern day Sweden and Denmark, who sailed around the north Atlantic and Baltic regions raiding and trading during the phase known as the Vikings age from 750 and to 1100 CE.See Video Summary Climate Change Chaos and The Little Ice Age Crash Course World History 206

The Vikings were fearsome warriors but their reputation for blood thirst might be exaggerated. Some parts of history were written by Viking’s victims and this is why it gave them this reputation.

The Vikings used to search for lands to settle in order to farm their crops. Archaeology has shown that Vikings settled in some lands because they cared about agriculture.

Most of what’s known about Vikings was written in the 13’s century. It shouldn’t be trusted much as people who wrote about them wanted to show that Pagans weren’t as civilized as Christians. The sagas were also written years after the vikings were gone and they are more of a fiction.

The Vikings used to raid monasteries because they were isolated targets full of treasures. Viking’s raids weren’t after killing but it was after loot.

The Vikings realized that they can make good money through extortion instead of raiding villages.

The Vikings didn’t colonize the places they occupied. The Vikings didn’t affect the places they raided culturally except to a small extent. (See Video Summary: Venice and the Ottoman Empire: Crash Course World History #19)

The reason Vikings are associated with Greenland, Iceland and Faroe islands is that those places were connected by trade routes.

Vikings traded all sorts of stuff including building and cooking materials. They also didn’t have horns on their helmets.

The vikings turned places such as kieve and Dublin to trade centers. Dublin grew big and powerful as a result that it kicked the vikings out.

Christians wanted to describe vikings in terms of religions so their accounts of vikings, whom they considered pagans, weren’t correct.

Vikings used to trade and occasionally raid other towns but humans tend to remember the raiding part as it’s more attractive. Blood always gets more attention and this always happens in history. (See Video Summary: Buddha and Ashoka: Crash Course World History #6)