The Vikings in America (part 3).

Leif Eriksson in Vinland. By Monro S. Orr
Source: Mary MacGregor. Stories of the Vikings, 1908.

Leif and his crew returned to Greenland. On their way back, rescued some shipwrecked persons: a true miracle, in the middle of that sea! They sure carried high expectations, about the nice opportunities of the places they had visited. However, many times the things happen in a fanciful manner, and nobody can help that. Leif Eriksson would not see again that promised land... Maybe under his leadership, the Vikings could have been able to establish in North America. But, what would have happened as a consequence? Is very hard to know. Surely, it would have been a big impact, in those dark times of the Middle Ages.

The Vikings in America (part 2).

Chart of the Viking expansion. By Max Naylor. Derivative work from Rowanwindwhistler

The human hive story would happen again. That migratory wave, with its epicentre in Norway, kept spreading through other regions. Among them, was the volcanic and cold Iceland. As a result, in the first half of the 10th century, the useable lands began to be not enough to sustain the whole settlement. As time passed, the crisis worsened. In order to get away from the phantom of famine and overcrowding, the people had to look up to the western seas. 

The Vikings in America (part 1).

Ruins of a viking settlement, at L´Anse-aux-Meadows, Newfoundland, Canada.
Photo: Carlb, 2002.

The presence of the vikings at North America remained in oblivion for several centuries. Despite of the references about the lands to the west of Greenland, in certain old writings and some Icelandic sagas, it seemed to only be a legend. Finally, their footprints appeared in 1961, when a viking settlement was discovered, to the north of Newfoundland.

The French and Indian War (part 1).

The Dragon Fountain, Versailles Palace. By Israel Silvestre
1676. Source: Library of the Congress, USA. {{PD-US}}

On a cold day of February, in the Year of the Lord of 1763, there was a meeting near to Paris, at the fancy halls of Versailles. A group of representatives had attended, to sign a treaty for a peace agreement, between the most powerful nations of those days. As outrageous as it may seem in the present, they were sharing out the territories of distant countries... as if were the spoils of war. They saw those lands as their properties, all the legal rights included. A few days later, they signed another treaty. Those agreements meant the end of a great confrontation, considered by many, as the First World War. It was the Seven Years War.