The Vikings and their importance for the North Atlantic (Iceland, Greenland, North America) from the beginning of the expansion in the 9th century until the extinction around 1400

The Viking colony in West Greenland has always interested historians, archaeologists and climatologists. How could the community of 4,000-5,000 Viking peasants survived in Arctic Greenland for 425 years (985-1400), and why did they finally disappeared? Agriculture of the colonists in an Arctic environment encountered serious challenges. The Viking peasants faced these challenges by adapting old agricultural practices under the new conditions. Greenland became the stepping stone for the Vikings, who the first of the Europeans discovered America and settled briefly in Newfoundland circa 1000. How did they manage to colonize the Arctic Zone from Norway to Canada within one hundred years in the 10th and 11th centuries? In Norse Greenland successful subsistence strategies were developed and underpinned a well-integrated settlement. The Viking community had a global significance which surpassed its modest size. In the last decades researchers have been nearly unanimous in emphasizing that long-term climatic and environmental changes created a situation, where Viking agriculture finally was no longer sustainable and their community was ruined. Ultimate colonists' failure may be attributed the combination of cultural, economic and environmental changes at local, regional and continental scales compounded by hostile relations with the natives.