Kingdom of Vinland (Vikings in the New World)

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The Beginning
Around the year 1000, Leif Erikson set out to find new land. Leif's expedition first came to an empty, grey land that they called Helluland (“Flat-Stone Land”). As they were sailing southward, they encountered a smooth, forested land which they called Markland (“Wood Land”).

They set sail southward once more, and found a forested, warm spot that they named Vinland. There they built some houses and explored the region before sailing back to Greenland. In 1003, Leif’s brother Thorvald led an expedition to Vinland and spent two years there collecting food and spice. In 1010, Thorfinn Karlsefni, after hearing

Thorvald’s reports of grapes in Vinland, led a colonizing expedition of 65 people. By the time they had stayed there three years, the colonists’ trade with the Native Eriksons had turned to warfare, and the colonists retuned to Iceland and got an arsenal of weapons to use for battle. These battles have since been known as the Wars of Foundation. Erikson then returned to Vinland and lived the rest of his life in his Vinlandic estate. Some text actually taken from Encyclopedia Britannica.

Exploration
As a colony, there was a lot of progress made in exploration. After becoming a colony of Norway, there were over 1,000 settlers sent over to Vinland in the next 25 years. Eventually, the King of Norway designated over 20 explorers to explore the four main regions of Vinland at the time (Vinland, Markland, Helluland, and Slettene Land). By the end of the eleventh century, there were about 30 settlements up and down the Vinlandic coast.

Pro-Independents and Rebels
In the 1030's, the First Vinlandic Revolts occured. Many citizens of Vinland, even those sent from Norway, had begun to develop a sense of identity. Around a hundred rebels attempted to raid important places in Norway and Vinland to gain independence. The King of Vinland at the time, Snorri I, managed to peacefully quell the revolts and keep Norway from attacking back.

Later in Vinland's colonial life, over 80% of Vinlanders were pro-independent. Many of them were willing to attack Norway, and by the beginning of the twelfth century, they did.

Independence
See Vinlandic War of Independence

Age of Prosperity
After independence, the first job for Vinland was getting itself back on it's feet. It worked on improving trade relations with places like Denmark and Scotland, and worked on exploring Erikson. Things were going very well for the Vinlanders. They kept sending out explorers to look for good places to build settlements and gather resources. In the 1140's, Vinland began to focus on mining. They set up mines in many of their big cities, and gathered many resources. Their economy quickly grew even more. This time has sometimes been called the Age of Prosperity for the Vinlanders.

In the 1190's, after the Vinlanders discovered the Inuit across the Helluland Bay, they were forced to get in a war. They lost, and gave the Inuit their own autonomous country. This was a harsh blow on Vinland, and ended the Age of Prosperity for them. They were forced to upgrade their military and tone down on their mining operations.

Poverty and Disease
The early thirteenth century was a terrible time for the Vinlanders. After having to tone down on trade and military operations, trade grew slowly apart with Denmark and England. Luckily, until around 1215, Vinland was able to continue transportation of furs back and forth.

In 1214, the first case of what is now known as Inclino (OTL Syphilis) hit the far west town of Minnibakki. It spread as settlers returned to merchant hubs to pass on goods to others. The Vinlandic king at the time was forced to quarantine these towns, but it ended up killing 15% of their population. The commotion ended with a one year cut of trade to Europe, only to have it reinstated in 1221 (one year after that).

Although short, this one year cease of trade caused much of the people of the major port cities to go into poverty. Many people starved in the coming years, which historians consider a side affect of the Inclino outbreak.

More to come...