The Collapse of the Greenland Norse Essay -- european history

In Jared Diamonds novel Collapse How Societies Choose to move over or Succeed he discusses many civilizations that moved away from their homelands, grew in nation, and thusly either failed or succeeded in their new environments. Throughout this essay I will attempt to explain the Collapse of the Greenland Norse, one of the many societies to reverse and fall. The Greenland Norse faced multiple challenges including economical, agricultural, and unfriendly neighbors. Alongside Greenland other northwest Atlantic islands faced geographical challenges that lead to some of their falls as well. Yet, first I will discuss why the Norse left wing Scandinavia in search of new terrain.Similarly to other expansions the Norse, also cognise as Vikings, expansion was most likely caused by whats unremarkably known as push/pull triggers. Push means that the population pressure lead to a lack of opportunities in their homeland slice pull represents good opportunities and empty areas to co lonize elsew here(predicate) (Collapse pg. 185). Another intellect for their sudden expansion is autocatalytic process. For the Norse two very evident events set of this type of process one was that in A.D. 793 a maraud took place in Lindisfarne Monastery yielding a rich haul of loot that lead to even larger yields in following years and the south reason being the discovery of the unpopu late(a)d Faeroe Islands lead to the finding of larger, more than distant islands (Collapse pg. 186).Even though the islands looked promising the Norse soon comprise out otherwise as the geographical environments posed many problems. For instance, Orkneys which lays in the Gulf Stream was perhaps their most successful island as it enjoyed mild climates and allowed for great agricultural production, notwithstanding on... ...the Norse (Collapse pg. 255). Furthermore, the Inuit was able to outlive the Norse due to their advanced fishing skills that the Norse refused to learn from their neig hbors largely in part to religion. In the end though it was the Norses conclusion to refrain from eating fish, ringed seals, and whales that potentially could have saved them from washout (Collapse pg. 274). Even though the Greenland Norse only survived for four hundred and l years they werent necessarily failures. After all their unique European society was able to survive longer than weve been able to survive here in America (Collapse pg. 276). If we, Americans, dont learn from others prehistorical are we doomed to follow in their footsteps? In my opinion, the answer is yes, but hopefully well be able to turn the tides before its too late and we fall into collapse like so many other societies.