ABSTRACT
Warfare shaped the Atlantic world between 1400 and 1815, but many of the dynamics that operated in that period had already revealed themselves in the medieval period with the Viking occupation of the Faero Islands, Iceland and southern Greenland, and the establishment of a small Norse outpost on the northern tip of Newfoundland. The Vikings acquired the ability to enter the North Atlantic only as a consequence of their military successes in Europe. Warfare secured them the necessary wealth and political power, and helped motivate the technological innovations that made crossing the ocean possible. The Norse built their rst sailing ships around the year 700 and deployed them against Anglo-Saxon, Frankish and Irish enemies before sailing into the Atlantic. The resulting warfare spurred migration. The Icelandic sagas embellish the events they recall, but there is no reason to doubt the political dynamic they describe. A series of military confrontations, with rulers jockeying for position, establishing outposts on distant islands and carrying warriors and settlers with them, drove Viking colonization on Greenland and Newfoundland.
