Climate change - not good news from NAS.

[James_D]

The medieval warm period allowed for trips to the new world by the Norsemen and the colonization of Greenland. The colder climate cut this off by the 1300s.

GAGA!!!!

What?
So it was the colder climate that prevented my earlier countrymen from traveling????
Sounds like the crap from archeologist Thomas McGovern, what he failed to take into count was the extensive trade that was within the norse population. This ended rather abruptly in 1349 when 60-70% of the Norwegian popluation died due to the black plague. so the reason why the trips stopped where not due to colder climate , but due to the black plague.

JD

[KvHagedorn]

Well, from what I have read, it was crop failure in Greenland due to climate change that caused the decline of the communities there. Without the base in Greenland, travel to the new world would not happen either, especially since there was more ice along the route.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenland

After almost five hundred years, the settlements simply vanished, possibly due to famine during the 15th century in the Little Ice Age, when climatic conditions deteriorated, and contact with Europe was lost. Bones from this late period were found to be in a condition consistent with malnutrition.

it does go on to say that

Some believe the settlers were wiped out by bubonic plague or exterminated by the Inuit. Other historians have speculated that Basque or English pirates or slave traders from the Barbary Coast contributed to the extinction of the Greenlandic communities.

The last are fanciful. If there was plague, where did they catch it from, if contact with Europe had been lost? The point is, there was a much warmer period which made Greenland greener and more attractive to habitation, followed by a colder and less hospitable time. My point in even mentioning this is as historical proof of the effects of the medieval warm period. It may well have been that the ravages of plague caused people to stop going there, but what had been a thriving community of farmers could no longer sustain itself.

[Brian Ellis]

Nah, it was because of the mixture of culture due to globalisation.

Beginning sometime in the 13th century, the Norse (Norwegian) settlers began to interact with the expanding Inuit Thule culture that had appeared in northern Greenland about 1100.

(Enc. Brit.)

[Sasq]

KvH re-read James post, I am sure you will understand your missunderstanding with what he said if your read carefully enough.

then again...
"This ended rather abruptly in 1349 when 60-70% of the Norwegian popluation died due to the black plague."

To me, suggests trade existed up until the black plauge. trade was lost post, not pre.

[Dr Mordrid]

Leif Eriksons settlers landed in ~1000 AD. Eventually they fell victim to over browsing, their unwillingness to adopt Inuit hunting techniques (esp. the toggle harpoon), the intrusion of European whalers (Basques mainly) along with a sudden cooling of Greenlands climate in the mid 1300's, after which the population in Greenland was quite small....mainly stragglers. The Basques then set up a Newfoundland whaling station in ~1372 AD with Greenland as a way point.

Also; the plague didn't even hit Iceland until 1402 AD. If the any remaining Greenlanders been also been hit by the plague there would be at least some mass graves, but there are none from this period. This indicates that either they were no longer in contact with Europe or were gone by then.

Dr. Mordrid

[KvHagedorn]

Yes, I see what James is saying.. that lack of trade due to the catastrophe in Norway did them in. Yes, that may well have contributed, as did poor land conservation, but most still agree that the colder climate made life there much harder, especially for farming, which may have become utterly impossible.