Who first opened Greenland ??? And got the best answer

Answer from @ Nyushka [Guru]
For the first time the island was discovered by the Icelandic Sailor of Gungrom around 875 (she did not go ashore).
In 982, the Icelander of Norwegian origin, Eikar Raud (Redhead), produced the first examination of the island and called him Greenland.
In 983, the Norman (Icelandic) colonies that existed before the XV century were founded in the south of Greenland. In the XI century, the population of Greenland, including the indigenous - Eskimos, adopted Christianity (in 1126 the first bishop of Greenland). From 1262 to the beginning of the XVIII century, Greenland actually belonged to Norway. In 1721, the colonization of the island of Dania began. In 1744, Denmark established the state monopoly (existed until 1950) to trade with Greenland. In 1814, during the termination of the Danish-Norwegian Ulya, 1380 Greenland remained for the Denmark and until 1953 was her colony. In 1953, Greenland was declared part of the territory of the Danish kingdom. In April 1940, after the occupation of Denmark of Nazi Germany, the US government announced the distribution of Monroe's doctrine to Greenland. On April 9, 1941, the Messenger of Denmark in Washington signed with the American government t. Greenland Defense Agreement (ratified by the Danish Rigsdag on May 16, 1945). The United States has begun to create military bases on Greenland. After the entry of Denmark to NATO (April 4, 1949), a new agreement was signed between the Danish and American governments on April 27, 1951, according to which Denmark and the United States carry out the joint defense of the island. In 1971, the United States had 2 military bases and other military facilities in Greenland.

Greenland (GRØNLAND, literally - "Green Country") is an island in the North Arctic and the Atlantic Oceans, northeast of North America.
The state of the people of Inuit, the autonomous territory of Denmark.
Greenland - the largest island in the world. Area - 2 166 086 km². Population (2005, rack) - 56,375 people.


About 980, Viking Eric Rauda (Redhead) was sentenced to three years of expulsion from Iceland for the killing of the neighbor [. He decided to sail to the West and get to the Earth, which in clear weather can be seen from the vertices of the mountains of Western Iceland. She lay at a distance of 280 km from the Icelandic coast; According to Sagam, earlier in the 900s, Norwegian Gunbjern floated there. Eric sailed to the West in 982 together with his family, servants and cattle, but the floating ice prevented him to land ashore; He was forced to wake the southern limb of the island and landed in the place near Julianshob (cocaton). For three years of his expulsion, Eric did not meet any man on the island, although during his journeys along the coast, he reached the island of Disco, far to the north-west of the southern tip of Greenland.
At the end of the term of his expulsion, Eric Redhead returned to Iceland in 986 and began to encourage local Vikings to relocate for new lands. He called Greenland Island (Niz. Grønland), which literally means "Green Earth". Around the relevance of this name still continues disputes; Someone believes that in those days the climate in these places thanks to the medieval climate optimum was soft, and the coastal areas of the south-west of the island were really covered with thick herbal vegetation; Others believe that such a name was chosen with the sole purpose - to attract more settlers to the island.
Karl Lehmann.
Expert
(269)
Fascism was in Italy, Spain ....

Answer from Elena Osinskaya (Pestova)[guru]
Vikings

Answer from User deleted[guru]
trust a professional !!

Answer from Albert.[guru]
In general, I opened
But from modesty, Lavra gave way ... I do not remember who! :))

Answer from Ўras Dorofeev[guru]
For the first time the island was discovered by the Icelandic Sailor of Gunburne about 875 g. (I did not go ashore)
In 982, our era of Icelandets Eric Torvaldson reached the south-west coast of Greenland. This harsh and hard person, more famous under the name Eric Redhead, was in his homeland for the murder sentenced to a three-year expulsion. For three years he decided to hold, exploring Western lands, which Sailors of Iceland said so much.
Three years later, he returned home and told the tribesmen about his opening. He wanted to excite in the listeners the desire to go to this new land and therefore gave her an attractive name. Torvaldson nicknamed them the edge "green" - Greenland!
Since 1386, the island has belonged to Norway, after which he switched to Denmark. In 1979, the Danish Parliament provided Greenland wide autonomy.
Same:
Archaeologists stand out in Greenland four Paleo-Eskimo cultures, which existed before the discovery of the island of Vikings, but the terms of their existence are determined very approximately:
Sakkak culture: 2500 BC e. - 800 BC e. in southern Greenland;
Culture Independence I: 2400 BC e. - 1300 BC e. in the north of Greenland;
Culture Independence II: 800 BC. e. - 1 BC. e. mainly in the north of Greenland;
Early Dorset Culture, Dorset I: 700 BC. e. - 200 n. e. In the south of Greenland.
These cultures were not unique to Greenland. As a rule, they arose and developed in the territories of Arctic Canada and Alaska long before their penetration to Greenland, and could be maintained in other places of the Arctic after their disappearance from the island.
After the decline of Dorset culture, the island remained unnecessary over the centuries. The carriers of the Inito culture of Tula, the ancestors of modern indigenous people of Greenland, began to penetrate the north of the island at the beginning of the XIII century.
Capital - Nuk (old name - Gothob).
Most of the territory of Greenland is hidden under ice cover, the thickness of which in some places reaches three kilometers. Only the most unpretentious plants and the strongest animals can survive on the border of the earth and ice. Winter in this edge of harsh and last for a very long time, and in the summer the temperature rises very slightly, and it ends itself, hardly time to begin.
In some way in small areas of the Earth, free from ice, you can find the grass and some other low-spirited plants, but still, for the most part, the stones covered with moss and lichens are overlooked.
Today in Greenland lives only about thirty-five thousand people, which is extremely small for such a huge territory. Most settled on free ice southwest coast Islands. Just two and a half thousand people live in the eastern part and a little more than six hundred people in North.

There is no doubt that Greenland exists and existed always, but it does not exist and never existed in those borders that are indicated on some ancient maps. In addition, it is very likely that that real Greenland, which we know today received your name from the name of the mythical island.

The names of "Iceland" and "Greenland" have always caused the desire to think about them. How could it happen that the place is usually not covered with ice, called Iceland (ice earth), and the harsh fruitless Arctic desert-Greenland (green land)? As for Iceland, two theories are most likely: one of them is that Viking Flocks, which opened this island (or maybe re-discovery) in the 870s, drew attention to the north shore (rare, but possible case); The second comes from the assumption that the ancient Scandinavian settlers deliberately gave their new homeland an unattractive name to lean those who committed pirated raids.

The name "Greenland" traditionally explain this way: Eric Redhead gave it to him open to them to attract promising colonists. But it sounds not very convincing. Whatever Eric is a fraudster, it is difficult to believe that he wanted so unless and frankly to fool the group of Scandinavian warriors devotees to him, among whom he was going to live, remaining their leader. The source of this version served the work of Ari Wise, Icelandic chronicist of the XI century. However, the earliest copy of his work, known to us, was made in the XIII century, and suggest that it was complemented by other authors who could make their interpretation into it. In any case, this explanation of the name "Greenland" is very similar to the fiction and should be treated with great caution.

To establish the true origin of this name, we may have to return to the times of ancient Rome. The Roman Writer of the I century of our era of Plutarch is mostly famous for its "book biographies", but he wrote other works, among whom the book entitled "face on the moon," is one of those collection of eccentric information that, apparently, loved Romans. In this book, he cites a statement of a certain dememetrus, one Roman employee who has lived several years in Britain. Demetrius allegedly told him that the British is known is the island lying in the West, which they in their own language called somehow like "Kronos".

This word requires a comment. It cannot be British, since the Britons spoke on the so-called "R-Gaelle" branch of the Celtic language, where the gentle sounds were replaced by the lips, unlike the "Q-Gaelskaya". So, for example, the word "son" on Q-Gaelsky (modern Scottish and Irish languages) - Mac, on P-Gaelsky (modern Wales and Breton Languages) - AR, originally tar. Thus, the word Cronos would sound in ancient Kit, somehow like PRONOS.

Professor California University Arthur Huton expressed the opinion that the most likely source of this name would be the word Cruidhne - the ancient Irish name of Britain Island - and that this association with the island in the West (Ireland) led him to the wrong interpretation of him as the name of the Western Island. If it were so, then Britain's initial Greenland would be.

This is the idea of \u200b\u200bthe island, called the "Kronos", would well combine with the traditional religious Greek-Roman concepts, consisting in the fact that the crowns, the widespread father of Zeus, lies, compounded by the eternal sleep, somewhere on one of the Western Islands. Probably the authority of Plutarha, which quoted Demetrius, was enough to enrich the Roman geography of the Island of Cronia in the Atlantic.

The final part of the theory is that scientists of the early Middle Ages, who owned the language of Teutons, replaced the Teutonic suffix Latin and changed the initial letter, substituting instead of "with" the letter G "more characteristic of them; It turned out Cronia - Cronland - Gronland. To that this new form of word meant in their Green Land (Green Earth) language, was a clean coincidence, and gradually the idea that somewhere in the Atlantic there is an island called Greenland, entered the tradition. And when Eric Redhead opened a new land, he simply suggested that it was Greenland, which he had already heard, so he called it.

There are evidence that the Scandinavians who lived in Iceland knew about the existence of Greenland until 982, but only in 982, Eric Ryzhiy took the first serious studies of this country. Being another young man, Eric went with his father from Norway to Iceland, the country, which at that time was considered promising. But when they arrived there, it turned out that all fertile land is dismantled, and at the head of the company there are old settlers who are looking at the newcomers. Eric's father soon died, and in the end, Erica himself eventually managed to get a plot of land, but he did not recognize the neighbors. The lifestyle of the Iceland of that time was rude and cruel, and the best friend of each of them was their own sword. Twice Eric grabbed a man in a duel. In both cases, this, apparently, was self-defense, but he had no influential friends, and both times sentenced him to expulsion: for the first time for one year, in the second - three.

When the second incident occurred, his all wealth was a ship and loyal servants, and he decided to sail to the West to explore the islands in this direction, perhaps "Schhers Gunbierne", now non-existent. Efforts did not disappear for nothing. He opened the extensive island of Greenland and created a colony on it. When the three years of expulsion passed, he returned to Iceland to recruit new colonists.

An even more than a century, Greenland information was transmitted from mouth to mouth, finding their reflection in Icelandic sagas. The first written testimony about this island, which has spread in circles of European geographers, is approximately 1070.

At this time, the German priest, known as Adam from Bremen, finished his work "History of the Hamburg Diocese". This title will seem uninteresting, if not to take into account the circumstance that all Scandinavia also included in the Hamburg diocese and all overseas countries, colonized by Scandinavia, and that this book is a valuable source of information about the life of the ancient Scandins and their research. Adam had a conversation with the King of Denmark Sinai II on these districts, and his mention of Greenland and Winland is the first reliable information about America in all European literature.

He said about Greenland: "... in the north ocean flows past the Orkna Islands, then endlessly far from the earthly circle, leaving the left Ibernia [now called Ireland], the birthplace of cattle, on the right of Norwegian schhers, and then Island Island and Greenland."

And below, in another paragraph: "... In addition, there are many other islands in the distant ocean, of which Greenland is not the smallest; it is located on, opposite the Swedish, or Rhypsian, mountains. Distance to it is such that the path on the ship from Norway Before this island continues, as they say, from five to seven days, as much as I and Iceland. People living there, bluish green from salt water, and therefore these places were called "Greenland". The way of their life is the same What is Icelanders, but they are savage and make pirated raids on navigators. They report that Christianity reached them recently. "

Here we have a fair confusion, which was destined to leave his mark in cartography. In the first of the above quotes of Greenland, there is definitely a place somewhere far in the ocean, whereas in the second one, one way or another, they are associated with the Swedish mountains ("Riper Mountains" - the mythical themselves, they will be discussed in chapter 11). In medieval geography, the situation "opposite" meant something "on the same latitude", which means Adam Bremensky correctly told that then it was known about Greenland. But such free terminology was a serious source of misunderstanding, and, obviously, these two incompatible assertions of Adam Bremensky led to the late Middle Ages to the thought that Greenland is the Peninsula of Europe or the area associated with Europe's long sushi bridge.

I was informed that in the library of Florence, there is, or, in any case, there existed to the destructive flood of 1966, the map, dated 1417, on which Groinlandia is depicted at almost the right place and is associated with Europe. But I did not have the opportunity to see this card or get it a copy. If it exists, then this is the earliest of famous maps with the image of Greenland.

As far as I managed to trace the cartographic sources, the earliest image of Greenland on the map appeared ten years after the Florentine map mentioned above. It is performed by the Danish cartographer clawdine Schwarz, according to a voluntary reason more famous in history under the name of Claudia Clavus. Obviously, Adam Bremen's influence was influenced by him, but it is unlikely to be doubt that he had other, more modern sources of information. On the first map of Clavus 1427, only the eastern shore of Greenland is depicted. The location is correct, and the drawing of the coastline is amazingly accurate; But his Greenland is the western end of a long, rounded sushi bridge loop, which extends far to the north of Iceland and connects with the shores of Northern Europe to the east of the White Sea. This incorrect idea of \u200b\u200bGreenland was further reflected in many later maps.

Clavus lived most of his conscious life in Italy and had a great influence on Mediterranean cartographers. He created another card in 1467, on which both shores of Greenland were shown, this card accurately reproduces the location of Greenland and her form, but the connection of Greenland with the Northern Coast of Europe is still preserved.

Attempt by claws to reconcile contradictory evidence of Adam Bremensky was not adopted by everyone. On the famous "Map of Winland" about 1440, the discovery of which in 1965 made a sensation, shown properly placed Greenland, with the correct outlines, however, quite small and non-associated with Europe. However, some scientists consider this edition later. Even earlier, three years after the appearance of the first Clavus card in 1427, one of the representatives of the French clergy, Gyloma de Philaster, released a new Ptolemy's publication in which he argued, based only on the names that Greenland should be south of Iceland , "Despite the fact that Clavus described these northern areas and made them a map on which they are shown connected with Europe."

It is difficult to illustrate all the movements of Greenland on the map before the period of serious travels in order to research it than by describing the various configurations on the XV century maps.

The 1447 Genoese Map Following Claudia Clavus, depicts Greenland, connected to Europe. The map of Fra-Mauro is 1459 (the first European card, which shows Japan and are very accurately depicted by the outlines of Africa) depicts Greenland in the form of an elongated Cape Northern Scandinavia stretched to the west.

The card attached to Ptolemy 1467 repeats Claws, but this apparently the first of the cards created under its influence on which Greenland is shown, not related to Europe.

Catalan card of about 1480 (mentioned already in chapter 4) depicting an elongated Ilia Verde (literal translation: "Green Earth") on the latitude of Ireland, which is associated with the Island Brazil.

Map of Nikolai Denis 1482 approximately correctly shows Greenland, not related to Europe, but next to it is a different island called Engronelant. This confusion of two names belonging to the same island will still be repeated.

An anonymous map of the same time depicts Gronland almost at the right place, but duplicates her to another island, EngRoneland, north of Norway, and north puts Pillappelanth (Lapland) - "the last of the inhabited lands."

On the globe of Martin Behaimim, 1492, Greenland is again represented in the form of the Arctic Peninsula north of Norway.

On the map of Johann Ruysh around 1495, the Gruenlant Little Earth is placed to the west southwest of Iceland.

Huang de la Spit on his map of 1500 introduced Greenland in the form of a cluster of small islands north of Iceland.

In this chaos, it is impossible to imagine any system. The fact is that geographers of the XV century, obviously, simply did not know where Greenland is and what it is; Sources of information with which they used were confused and contradictory, and everything depended on how one or another cartographer preferred to use. The Norman Colony in Greenland ceased to exist by the middle of the century; The last entry testifying to contact with it is contained in one of the papal messages of 1418, from which it is clear that the church services are still produced. If we consider the possible ways of communication of that time, it will not be surprising that in the circles of the main geographers of the Mediterranean Greenland in the fifty years of the absence of any contact could turn into an almost forgotten "something" on the edge of the most advanced "nothing."

But although Greenland went out of control, she was not forgotten. At least two dads, Nikolai V in 1448 and Alexander VI in 1492, expressed their concern about this very far outpost of the Christian world. Traveling to re-open this country were inevitable, and it was clear that the initiator would be the Danish-Norwegian kingdom, from where the first Greenland settlers came out.

The first of these travels, about which there are only vague written certificates is the most foggy of all the journeys ever done to research; It is known only by the meager links that appear here, then there after many years after the event itself, mainly on the XVI century cards. It is not for sure that this journey took place in 1472 or 1476, and it is unclear who headed him. Modern historians believe that Didrik Pingik and Hans Pothorst, two famous Norwegian captain, but most of the ancient cards attribute to this swimming with some kind of John Solvus, who, according to the Danish Giograph of Cornell Vitflit, was Pole. In Portugal, at that time there was the height of the Great Era of discoveries, when the path to India was found around the southern tip of Africa, but the Portuguese did not lose interest and to the northern ways. Heinrich Mauchepher conducted a policy of developing good relations with Danes in order to take advantage of their extensive swimming experience in the northern seas, and it is possible that the expedition of the 70s of the XV century is largely stimulated by the Portuguese. Many Danes participated in the Portuguese studies of the African coast, two Portuguese took part in the Arctic swimming of the 1470s: Yuan Your Cortyral and Alvaru Martinsh Omen.

But this expedition was sent exactly, it remained unclear. There is no doubt that she visited Greenland; It is very likely that it went further, stopping in other areas of Arctic America. Frieze on his globe 1537 to the north of the Bay of St. Lawrence places the land of the people of Kvi (Quij) and attributes her discovery to John Slovus. It is assumed that this name is one of the options for the name of the Indian tribe, which, in those days, apparently, dwells significantly east than at present.

Upon returning Cortiraal to Portugal, King Affonsu I satisfied his request and complained to him the domestic on the earth, which he opened. But no further steps for the development of these lands did not take. He became old years old, and he preferred the post of governor in the Azores, demanding a smaller voltage of the forces. There, he met the rich imagination of a young German geographer from Bohemia, known as Martin Behahima (Martin from Bohemia), who married his wife's relative and learned a lot to a lot. At its famous globe of 1492, Behaimim does not avoid the mistakes of the predecessors and depicts Greenland in the form of the Peninsula of the Arctic Europe, but to the west of it, he places several islands, strikingly similar to the islands, framing the mouth of the Bay of St. Lawrence.

In 1493, a certain monetary from Nuremberg, a friend of Behaun, wrote a letter to the king of Portugal Zhuan, in which he mentioned that "a few years ago" Expedition sent by the Moscow Prince, opened Greenland and that in Greenland is still a significant Russian colony. This message can only be applied to Spitsbergen, which Russians obviously achieved back in 1435 and where they founded the colony near the modern Bay of Belsun. Later Svalbard will appear again in connection with the confusing history of Greenland to confuse it even more.

Darisfactory open land, granted to Cortyrial, remained the property of his family, and when the Spaniards began to explore and exploit West India and the area adjacent to it, the sons of Cortyrian appealed to the king with a request to take something until it's late to preserve the integrity of Portuguese possessions in the new world . In accordance with the famous demarcation line conducted by Dad Alexander VI in 1493, the entire open world was divided between Spain and Portugal, and Greenland clearly fell into the Spanish sector. Even the revision of this line a year later in Tordesillas actually did not change the provisions: all inhabited promising areas were transferred to Spain. But at that time, this contract was not implemented. And besides, since the definition of longitude was in those times the procedure is very unreliable, there could be a controversial situation regarding the premises of Greenland to the east of this line.

Three sons of Cortyrian I spent the whole state of the family in search of the Earth, which their father visited. In 1500, the younger son, Gushpar, headed the journey, which turned out to be unsuccessful; Then in 1501, another, worthy of his life. But this time two of his ships returned with the news on the re-opening of Greenland and about the "land Labrador". That is why this northern district of America is wearing the Portuguese name. Gasparu Cortyrial must pay tribute to his genuine second opening of Greenland. His older brother, Miguel, went into swim in 1502, in order to enter the actual possession of these lands, but also disappeared.

The opening of the Cortyrian immediately led to geographical consequences. From the cards, the former estimated Greenland north was immediately eliminated from Norway, she was returned to an old place, and she ranked the right position in Western Atlantic. On the map of Kantino, 1502, it is placed on the eastern (Portuguese) side of the demarcation line and is shown too small and too far to the south, but this card at least reflected real for the time of the presentation of Greenland.

Further story "Wearing" Greenland refers mainly to the field of cartography, so we briefly list the expeditions that it was wanted. The main result of the journey of Cortyrian was that Greenland was taken away from the Danes and handed over to the Portuguese, but the Portuguese did not bring the case to the end, and Greenland remained without a host. King Denmark Christian II designed a trip to Greenland in 1513, but circumstances prevented him to implement his plan; The same thing happened in 1522, when Frederick I King planned a similar journey. In 1578, Frederick II finally sent an expedition under the command of some Magnus Henningsen, who saw the shore of Greenland, but did not sit on him. It was at the same time at the same time when Martin Frobisher (as mentioned in Chapter 3) landed in South Greenland, accepted her for Friesland and seized her as Western England.

From this time, Greenland became a territory, quite well known worldwide. Various English expeditions in search of the North-West Passage studied her shores at least 75 northern latitudes. At the beginning of the XVII century, the Danes were swaming several times; Four of these travels led James Hall, the Englishman, whose in 1612 was a navigator on the ship William Buffin. Hall was killed in a minor skirmish with Greenland Eskimos. During the XVII and XVIII centuries, Greenland was a hunting venue for walrus and seals, famous to the vocabulary of all nationalities. But only in 1721, as a result of the Swimming of the Missionar of Hans, Egieda's right to Denmark in Greenland were restored. Egieda went on a trip with the hope of finding the remnants of the lost and by that time half the legendary Scandinavian colony, to preach the Christianity of the Protestant sense there, but without finding it, he remained preaching among the Eskimos. This in 1832 followed the journey of Wilhelm Graya, a representative of the Danish fleet; During this trip, traces of the ancient Scandinavian settlements were discovered and the right to claim Denmark, which has continued to remain in force since then.

So, we summarized data on practical research. Cartography data is not so easy to sum up.

Greenland was turned into part of Europe, and now in a short time it had to be represented as part of Asia. We have already mentioned that immediately after the opening of America Columbus South Americawhich has become known as a new land everywhere, was universally recognized as such, and North America was considered as a very likely continuation of the East of the Old World. This concept led to the creation of the famous map of the contamini of 1506. On it, South America is connected to Asia Panama Crest; There is no North American continent, but on those latitudes where it should be, sticking out like a deformed thumb, a huge elongated peninsula. The names of it extreme points In the East, identical to the names that gave cortarized the lands open to them - Greenland and Labrador.

But strangely different. Displacements and separation of Greenland usually attracted one of two errors: duplication or restoration of the sushi bridge.

Duplication is easy to explain. After Greenland was open to Cortyrial and again ranked on the map not as a romantic object, to the existence of which they just believed, but as all of the well-known reality, in the Cartographer's environment, it became generally accepted to translate the name "Greenland" in the languages \u200b\u200bon which they worked, words Green Land (Green Earth), no matter how it is written (Greenland, Gronland, Engroenland or somehow otherwise). Thus, almost unfamiliar green island hit the map under this name (on many languages) and as a result of this quickly dissociated from Greenland.

The Coppo Cap of 1528 depicts Isola Verde (Green Island) almost at the right place. But as Greenland became more famous, and its Scandinavian name is increasingly stereotypical, the cartographers began to make a mistake, assuming that two islands are hidden behind two duplicate names of each other.

It is unlikely to make sense to list all the cards of that time here. Throughout XVI and almost the XVII centuries on maps showing genuine Greenland, also a green island (Isla Verde or Insula Viridis) is also depicted somewhere in American waters, usually in North Atlantic, - undoubted proof that the name "Green Island" They associated with this area.

But not all green islands - the result of this error. In 1503, Rodrigo Bastidas sailed from Seville to West India and opened a small island near the Guadeloupe, which he called Isla Verde, and he is on the map of Pedro Martyr 1511. Obviously, in this case, the name was associated with the vegetation of the island and had nothing to do with Greenland.

The imaginary North Atlantic Green Island was long-life, but during the events another reduced double Greenland appeared. At the end of the XVI century, Greenland begins to appear on the maps, accompanied from the west side a significantly smaller island called Groland.

From the fact that this island was constantly placed to the west of Greenland, apparently, it can be concluded that the island of Buffhin Earth was known for a long time.

The name of GROCLAND undoubtedly happened from the antiquity of writing the word Greenland as a Groe-Land with Tilda, that is, as a result of the same cut, which, apparently, was misleading Nikolo Zeno, who read the name Sinclair (Sinclair) as Zichmni, what is already Mentioned in the third chapter. It is not difficult to imagine that Tilda could not notice, and "E" read as "C". In addition, at this time it was customary to put so many islands on the map as names.

But I can not say that much ahead of the preceding researchers in the question of who from the cartographers the first mistakenly placed the Groland Island on his map and what exactly was the reason for the disappearance from the cards of this island. The earliest card known to me, on which the GRAKLAND appears is the Mercator Map of 1569, the very Later - Matthias map of Kuadus 1608. On the map of Hessel Gerina, 1612, dedicated to the discovery of Henry Hudzon, Greenland is well shown quite well, and to the west of it there is still an earth, but the Glocland is not available on it. In essence, the Grocland would relatively long lasted on the maps, but because he appeared at the moment when the great classics of ancient cartography worked, and was included in the maps made by them, he gained great fame than he deserved.

Some curiosities of this time are curious. Ortaliy in 1571 reduced mighty Greenland to a tiny stitch, which in the West eclipsed by the mythical island of EstoLoundandia, and Groland he placed further to the north, directly under the imaginary unknown northern continent (Chapter 6).

On the map of Michael Loca, published by Clepute in 1582, showing little Greenland directly to the north of the mythical frisland. And west of it, approximately on the site of the island of Buffhin, the land is depicted a significantly large territory called Jac. Scolvus GROCLAND. This placement is curious. Michael Lok was a man very educated and many travels. He was vividly interested in geography and, undoubtedly, was familiar with the most reliable sources of that time. It is very likely that the information served as the basis for this card, he received from a report currently lost or not yet detected in which mentioned danish expedition The 1470s, headed, as assumed, regardless of who was her genuine boss, a kind of long-term, whom John is usually called, and not Jacob. This card can be viewed as evidence that the expedition penetrated the territory of North America outside of Greenland, but no convincing evidence confirming this fact does not exist.

Meanwhile, it turned out that some misconceptions are peculiar and the Danes themselves. The Copenhagen's Royal Library is kept by Icelander Sigurd Stephensson in 1590 and, obviously, intended to illustrate the ancient discoveries made by Scandinavians in America. Here, Greenland has almost the right form and sizes, but is a large peninsula of the American continent. She was already part of Europe and Asia, and now became part of North America. All other names are borrowed from the Scandinavian Saga dedicated to the opening of Leif Erikson: Awerke and Herulfsnesses in Greenland and South, along the Eastern Coast of North America, Hellouland, Markland, Promontoria, Winland and Squareland.

But even more interesting is the map created in 1605 by Johannes with a revenue, the rector of the Danish Royal University. On it, Greenland is also depicted in the form of the North America Peninsula and repeated all the names used by Stefansson. The outlines of the coast are repeated, but something has been added from more modern sources. Friesland and EstoLoundandia are designated in accordance with the narrative of Zeno (and EstoLoundandia is equivalent to Hellüland Stefansson), and south of Winland there is a small bay, as suggested by the Bay of St. Lawrence, called Portus Jacob! Carterii Anno 1525 (Port of Jacques Cartier, year 1525 [more correctly 1535]). The simplest explanation of this would be that the Redean simply copied Stephensson with some glitters. But among the marks on the fields, there is a recording of a servn, which says that this card has several hundred years. It is possible that he did a copy from the original, which relates to the time of the actual contacts of Scandinavians with North America. It is possible that one day a happy discovery will be made, like the famous "Map of Wilanandia", which will confirm this assumption, but at the moment the source of borrowing the servn is not known to us.

In 1596, the Danish navigator Bill Barents, heading east in search of the Northern Maritime Passage, saw the shores of the Earth, which he called Spitsbard and accepted for part of Greenland. The Barents himself did not live to the end of the trip, but the members of his crew brought with them a report, which was the result of the next movement of Greenland.

As already mentioned, the report on the opening and colonization of Spitsberegin Russian penetrated into Europe over a hundred years before the travel of the Barents, and then they believed that Svalbard is Greenland. But since at that time it was assumed everywhere that Greenland is part of Northern Europe, adjacent to Russia, then this did not affect geographical concept.

Since the 1520s, almost all European maps of Greenland is shown separated from Europe. By this time, no actual data was obtained, which would confirm the existence of the sushi bridge between them. In addition, I wanted to believe in existence open sea In the north, since this admitted the possibility of the existence of northeast or northwestern passages. The map attached to the narrative of Zeno in 1558 is an exception: it shows Greenland in the form of a strongly elongated Europe Peninsula. But it is likely that Nikolo Zeno II copied this feature with a very damaged time of the card, which he had to restore and which undoubtedly reflected the concepts of their era. Greenland, connected to Europe, was, as far as I know, first depicted on the map of Claudius Clavus in 1427, but the very idea of \u200b\u200bthis connection was rooted, perhaps much earlier, otherwise he could not apply Greenland to the card in such a form.

By the time of the Barents, as a result of Arctic travel north of Europe, the theory of Sushi bridge has lost its popularity, but the possibility that Greenland extends far to the East and that Spitsbergen is part of its territory, has not yet been excluded. If this concept was confirmed, the ancient sushi bridge could get the actual substantiation.

Perch in his book describes many travels to Greenland, having in mind Spitsbergen, as well as some travels in that Greenland, which we know now. That is, both of these areas he considers as one territory.

When the rich hunting places for walru and seals became known, as well as the abundant places of fishing in Svalbard, this island turned into a tailed piece, which immediately found many hunters. First, the right to this territory belonged to the Dutch men, because they opened it and gave her the name. During the English expedition of 1613, part of Spitsbengen was captured by the British and named "New Earth King Yakov", but this name could not be consolidated. In addition, some of the British began to express unreasonable statements that the archipelago was allegedly opened in 1553, long before the Barents, Hugh Willoughby during his journey in search of the northeast passage. Many persistently insisted that Svalbard was renamed to the "Earth Willoughubi", but most often they themselves called him Greenland.

The rivalry of the British and the Dutch, who claimed Spitzbard, led to intricate diplomatic maneuvering, but when the Dutch was gradually established effective control over the harbors, the British were completed. By the 1640s, the Dutch fully controlled the waters of Spitsberegin and mercilessly exploited them. On the coast, extensive enterprises for salting fish and the development of burst were created and the famous Arctic city of Smrenburg appeared, where the workers were provided with housing and everything we need, where life was buried during the short summer season, and the money was treated by the river. Then during a long winter, he was empty and only a few, permanent service personnel remained in it, preparing everything for the next season. And in the spring court returned.

On the XVII century cards, Svalbergen was usually depicted shifted to the west, towards Greenland. It was assumed that they were one of the whole, but by this time was no longer taken to depict the binding their hypothetical coastline.

In Chapter, the sixth was already mentioned about the hydrograph Joseph Moxon and about his meeting in the 1650s with a Dutch sailor, who had just returned from the Fishing Places in Greenland and convicts that he was overpowering through the North Pole; It was also mentioned that Greenland Mokson was actually Spitsbergen. Now the reader is clear where such an error came from. On the map of 1675, published by Mokson, real Greenland is called Greenland, and Spitsbergen - Greenland. The area between them towards Europe is barely scheduled, but reminds a timid attempt to show the old, discredited sushi bridge, which, however, is unlikely to fit with the relationship of Mokson to the story of the Dutch Sailor, allegedly floating past "Greenland" to the North Pole. However, the fact remains: the inscription "Greenland" stretches on the map almost before the inscription "New Earth".

At the heart of Spitsberena's identification with Greenland lay an idea that the Greenland coast stretches far to the east. At one of the cards of this time, the same mistake is allowed, but having the opposite direction: the shore of Greenland is extended to the West. On the map of Nikolai Visher, who mentioned in the chapter of the Sixth, the West Coast of Greenland is about latitude 78 turns to the West, then the Island of Buffhin Land and makes a loop to the south, connecting with the Western shores of Hudson Bay. If this corresponded to reality, no northwestern pass could exist.

By the 1670s, before the richest fishing and hunting grounds began to be exhausted as a result of excessive operation. The Dutch began to visit the waters of Svalbard more and less often, and Svalbard lost the host for two and a half century, until Norway in 1925 consolidated his claims to this island. But this will be discussed below. Meanwhile, the Dutch Skipper Bill de Mooseing in search of new selence hunting places made swimming north around Svalbard. This swimming was proof that Svalbard is not connected with Greenland. The moistening accidentally managed to the latitude of 88 10, ", the highest of the northern latitudes reached by any of the Europeans until 1827, when the Expedition of William Parry in search of the North Pole reached 82 45.

By the beginning of the XVIII century, the difference between Spitsbard and Greenland, and Greenland, even though her shores were still poorly studied, took approximately the right place on the map. And yet she had a few more movements.

The mythical green island continued to exist as a result of the duplication of Greenland and continued to stay on the maps in the area of \u200b\u200bNorth Atlantic, usually in American waters, throughout the XVIII and almost only XIX centuries. By the middle of the XIX century, it decreased to an equally mythical green cliff.

As already mentioned, the American researcher Elisha Kent Kane has reached northern coast Greenland in 1854 and reported that behind Greenland's open sea. German geographer August Petermann was one of the main supporters of the hypothesis about the open polar sea, theory, which was largely based on the Kane's report. But at the same time, in the opposite of this theory, Petermann, in the 1860s, suggested that the still not studied northern tip of Greenland may extend to the north-west, passes by the North Pole and ends with a cape located right north of Cape Barrow on Alaska. Greenland depicted in this way only on the maps of Peterman himself, but the thought of this was finally discarded only when in 1900, Peari studied her northern tip and Greenland appeared in the true light.

Greenland established himself in his place only in the XX century. But even after that, its situation was specified, and the old concepts were not quite popular yet. The Scottish researcher Rudos Brown in 1920 did not pay attention to the fact that seal hunters in his homeland are still called Spitsbergen "Greenland".

It disappeared from the cards and the "green rock", but whether it really existed, and remained a mystery. William X. Babokok, an expert on the mythical islands of the Atlantic, was so much confident in its existence, which even made a request about this island in the United States hydrographic service. Employees of this service responded that they did not believe in her existence, but they mentioned (referring to a certain captain Tulloca from New Hampshire) about the Kumbas story, Shkiper Ship "Pallas", published from Bata in Maine, who reported that he had seen green Rock. According to him, it was a big cliff covered with green moss, which he at first glance took over the bottom of an inverted vessel. The depth of the sea in accordance with the precursors carried out next to it was almost 3 kilometers.

Since Atlantic has not yet been studied with an accuracy of one inches, it is possible that there is something similar to the description with the "green rock" and coinciding with the mythical island. But its existence, apparently, has not been proven.

Finally, it remains to mention another two more or less modern wanders of Greenland.

In 1194, during one of the travels somewhere north of Iceland, the land was opened, which Svalbard called. It is very likely that it was some part of the eastern shore of Greenland or a formidable rocky island, now called Jan Mayen. But since the 1890s, seven centuries after its discovery, the Norwegian government officially insisted that Svalbard is Spitsbergen, and brought this argument as a thorough reason for the presentation of rights to own this island, referring to the fact that the first It was opened by Scandinavians. Such identification, gently expressing, is very doubtful. But in 1925, the League of Nations ratified the claims of Norway to Svalbard, and since that time this Arctic archipelago was officially called Svalbard, the name that was obviously part of Greenland was given for the first time.

While I wrote the first version of this chapter, I first heard about the report of the Expedition of David Chemphri, dedicated to the study of Greenland in 1966, which proved that in existing maps of Greenland, its territory was increased by approximately thirty thousand square miles. Is it possible to assume that the result of this newest study will be the stabilization of Greenland, in other words, is it the most recent of its movements? Undoubtedly, the time will give an answer to this question. But it still it seems that even in the space era, the romantic period in the geography of our Earth has not yet been completed.

Notes:

Not in our understanding of this word, but the word "carib" distorted by the Spaniards.).

Romans called silk "Serikum". - approx. ed.

In the first mention of America, the island in the ocean visited by many, which is called Winland because there is growing wild grapes, which gives the best wine in the world. Wild cereals grow in abundance, and we know that This is not fiction, since Danes confirm this in their messages.

Nikolai V called Greenland "Island to the North of Norway", and Yalmar Holland suggested that he had made a mistaken idea that Greenland was connected to Europe. I can not agree with this. In my opinion, the source of the error is the Clavus card of 1427, ahead of the father's dad twenty years, and in turn, an influence of Adam from Bremen.

According to this line, which was conducted from the Northern to the South Pole across the Atlantic Ocean at a distance equal to about two thousand kilometers from the islands of the Green Cape, all discoveries to the west belonged to the Spaniards, and to the East - Portuguese. - approx. ed.

For me, this is one of the most convincing reasons that give reason to consider the narrative of Zeno genuine. If Nikolo II was conceived by the hoax (taking into account that he lived in Venice, a serious cartographic center), he would use to confirm his messages with more modern cards, and would not operate the geographical concepts already outdated by then.

The story of the Babokka does not indicate the coordinates of the rock, as well as the date of the message and the date of the letter of the hydrographic service. His book was published in 1922.

On the western coast of the Caspian Sea, where the Caucasian spots approach the marine water area quite closely, in the seaside plains and the hills spread out an ancient Derbent. Nowadays, he is the second largest city of the Republic of Dagestan, after the capital - Makhachkala, lying 125 km north.

Derbent is one of the most ancient cities not only the Caucasus, but also of all Russia. His story, as archaeologists consider, has five millennia, - precisely then, in the bronze age, there was a small settlement in this place, then acquired and urban fortifications.

However, the documented formation of the Derbent as a sufficiently large city is associated with the Persian king of the Sassanid dynasty - Jesdigre II (rules in 435-57. AD), who erect it on the northern border of its possessions, on an exalted and strategically important place - between the mountains And the sea (which is reflected in the title: Iranian "Derbend" means "Mountain Pass", or "Mining").

About the century, i.e. In the VI century, in the era of the board of another king of the same dynasty (Hosras i Anushirvan - Rules in 531-579)., On the ruins of former fortifications, the fortified top (old) city is erected, the center of which is the impregnable fortress of the Naryn Cala. Two stone fortress walls are erected (they are equipped with powerful towers and majestic entrance gates), which moved away from the citadel and walked parallel to each other towards the sea. These walls, now survived only partially, have once reached the shore, and even came into a shallow water, so that the city itself, which turned out to be in the enemy protected from the enemy, but also the harbor. In addition to the two main walls, there had previously existed another fortress wall - Dag-bars (mountain wall), 3 m thick and up to 10 m thick, which moved away from the southwestern corner of the citadel and went aside Caucasian Gor. For as many as 40 km! (Now the mountain wall is almost completely destroyed, only individual fragments remained).

Subsequently, thanks to a favorable geographical position, Derbent turns into one of the largest and developed medieval cities of the East. True, his story is full of drama: it turns out to be in the epicenter of rapid events, it is experiencing a lot of assault and destruction, experiencing periods of heyday and decline. In the 630s. Derbent capture Khazara, from 652 g. - It is part of the Arab Caliphate, in the X century. becomes the center of independent emirate. Further, in 1071 the city capture Selzhuki Turks, in the XIII century. He is conquered by the Mongols, in the period from the XVI to the beginning of the XVIII centuries. Derbent - as part of Iran. From 1743 is the center of Derbent Khanate, and in 1813 Derbent joins Russia.

Citadel Naryn-Kala, which has been well preserved to our time, is limited to thick (2-4 m) and high (10-12 m) fortress walls, folded from two rows of well-treated stone blocks with filling out of debris and lime mortar. On its territory you can see the ruins of the Palace of Derbent Khan (2 half of the XVIII century), it is also a special underground structure - a "stone bag" (cellar or prison for the Khan Prisoners), Baths, Gaptwaht. The ruins of the palace structures of earlier periods are preserved (starting from the ancient time).

In the area adjacent to the Citadel - a typical Muslim medieval city with a network of narrow curves of streets, on which the deaf facades are 1-2-storey houses, with mosques, fountains, baths. In this part of the city there are: a complex of Juma Mosque, consisting of a mosque actually (VIII century), Madrasa (XV-XIX centuries) and 3 arched gates (XVII-XIX centuries), as well as a kyrocher-mosque (XVII century. ), Minaret-mosque (XVIII century, partially rebuilt in the XIX century) with the only one in Derbent a dilapidated minaret (XIV century), a damage-mosque (XVII-XIX centuries), former Khan Mausoleum (end of the XVIII century). Here you can see special reservoirs for water storage - underground tanks (XVII-XIX centuries), which for Derbent, like any other fortress city of those times, was almost paramount. Water was supplied here from mountain stennors - according to the numerous detected by the excavations of stone and ceramic waterways.

From 1926, a local history museum operates in the Upper City, and in 1989 the State Historical and Architectural and Art Museum-Reserve "Ancient Derbent" is organized.

Cultural criteria: III, IV
Turns on World Heritage List: 2003

This object on the UNESCO World Heritage Site website WhC.unesco.org/en/List/1070

The beginning of the opening by Europeans of North America was put in the second century - for half a thousandth to the first expedition of Christopher Columbus - Normans (Northern people). The movement of the Norwegian colonists to the West, which led to the opening of Greenland, began from Iceland. It is impossible, even approximately set, to what time the first known to west westing from Iceland is attributed to Norwegian Gunbierne Ulfson. Historians of the XIX-XX centuries time this swim in the most different dates, and none of them can be justified: some authors attribute him to the period of the first colonization of Iceland by Norwegians, that is, to the seventies of the IX century, others - by the end of the IX century, the third - By the first quarter of the X century. The earliest of the proposed dates is 870, the most late - 920 years (K. Gassert); F. Nansen carefully indicates the average date - about 900 years. So, between 870 and 920, Norwegian Gunbierne Ulfson, heading to Iceland, was abandoned by a buzzy far to the west and opened a number of small islands, which in Landnamabok ("The Book of Landowners") call "Schkers Gunbiern". Behind them was visible to the mountainous, covered with snow and ice, but Gunbierne could not approach her because heavy ice . The first swimming of Europeans to the shores of Northeast America was performed in 985, made this swimming Norwegian Baryni Herulfson. Barynie said that she also intends to go there; All the warriors supported him, although in Iceland their decision was considered not reasonable, since none of them had not been in the Greenland Sea. They raised sails and went to the west for three days, until they lost sight of the Mountain of Iceland. "Then the verse is a passing wind and rose the northern wind to the sea and the fog fell, so they did not know where they were, and it lasted many days. Finally, they saw the sun again and could define 8 countries of the world." As soon as the weather cleared up, they went to the former Western course. A day later, Barynie saw the earth, but it was not Greenland. Going closer, they saw that low and forth the forest and there are only small hills there. Bjarni ordered to change the course from Western to the North. Two days later, the navigators saw the land again, but this land was covered with forest, and in Greenland - large glaciers, so they raised the sails and continued their way. All commentators, recognizing the accuracy of the story of Baryni, converge on the fact that in both cases he and his companions saw American coast covered with forest. But what kind of American lands did they see? In this regard, after more than a century of dispute, the opinions are diverged: the coast of the mainland of North America? Peninsula New Scotland? Island Newfoundland? Yes, it is unlikely that this question can be resolved on the basis of one short story, not attracting other materials, except for the physical map of North America and the map of its vegetation. And other materials are not yet. In antiquity and in the Middle Ages, the seaside peoples of Western and Southern Europe firmly believed in existence in the "Western" (in the Atlantic) Ocean of the islands with wonderful nature and a mild climate; Some of these "blissful" or "happy" islands allegedly served as a shelter for hermites, exile or entire peoples, close conquerors. Already Aristotle (IV century BC. E.) announces the islands in the ocean on the other side of the Hercules column (Gibraltar Strait). Latest authors say that some islands in the ocean, open by the ancient Phoenicians, became a refuge for Carthaginian after the destruction of the Romans of their hometown. In the first century, our era about the Atlantic Islands spoke Pliny, and somewhat later (end I or the beginning of the II century) Plutarch. He places them around Britain, and some "sacred" islands moves much west, for five days. It is likely that these messages were based on the actual discoveries of the ancient navigators not only close to North-West Africa, the Canary Islands, but also more distant Madeira, and maybe even the Azores, located about one and a half thousand kilometers west of the Pyrenean Peninsula. In the XVIII-XIX centuries, you can trace the revival of the legend (more precisely, the legends, because there were several of them) about the "blissful" islands in the West Ocean. As can be seen from the book of the Irish Monk Dicuil, in the monasteries of his countries they read and re-read the writings of ancient authors, looking for direct instructions or hints to the existence of distant happy islands. Stories about the actual swimming of Irish ascets to the islands in the northern part of the Atlantic Ocean were mixed with the reports of the ancient authors about the paradise islands in the central part of the West Ocean. So it is possible to explain the emergence of the legend about the wanders of the "Holy" Brandan and about the island's open island. At the end of the 16th century, Brandan sailed allegedly from the shores of Ireland in the western direction along with the group of his followers and students, wandered in the ocean, found some wonderful remote island, lived there and returned to his homeland after a long lack of. This legend, embellished and bloomed by folk fantasy, bypassed almost all Western European countries. Medieval cartographers showed the island of St. Brandan in the most deserted parts of the West Ocean. He was applied first to the west of Ireland. Later, in the XIV-XV centuries as the lands that do not have anything in common with their nature were actually opened in a moderate and subtropical ocean strip. paradise islandsAs they were described in the legend, the island of St. Brandan "slipped" on the maps is farther to the south. At the Venetian map of 1367, this island stands at the Madeira place, and Martin Behaimim on his globe (1492) shows it already west of the islands of green cape, near the equator. In other words, the island of St. Brandan became the "wandering" island and in the end completely disappeared, not giving his name for any real land. Hashe was the fate of another mysterious "wandering" island - Brazil. Born in the Middle Ages is unknown to whose fantasy and approved by the Cartographs earlier south-west of Ireland, the Island of Brazil was moved to the south and west of the European coast, while (at the beginning of the XVI century) did not give his name to the imaginary island of the new world, located at the equator himself, It was the eastern part of the South American continent. The name of this fantastic island "Okrestili" in the XVI century a huge Portuguese colony (Brazil). To the west of the Gibraltar Strait, medieval fantasy (probably in the XVIII-XIX centuries) approved the "Island of seven cities." According to the Spanish-Portuguese legend, after Muslims (Maur) broke the head of Christians in the battle of Jerez and distributed his power to the news of the Pyrenean Peninsula (beginning of the XVIII century), one archbishop with six bishops fled to remote atlantic Islandwhere they founded seven Christian cities. On the maps, this fantastic island appears only at the beginning of the XV century, sometimes close to another, even more mysterious island With an undelivered name - Antiha. The opening of new Atlantic lands in the XIV-XV centuries pushed these fantastic islands far to the west. Different was their further fate. In the middle of the XVI, Spanish conquistadors were in vain sought "seven cities" to the north of New Spain (Mexico), that is, in the center and in the west of the mainland, followed by North America in the second half of the XVI century. The legendary name Antliavel has survived so far for quite real Islands (Big and small Antille Islands). For the first time they are named so on the map of Kantino 1502. These Mirage played a big role in the history of great discoveries. Applied according to the instructions of medieval cosmographs on the cards, they seemed to be H. Columbus in drawing up its project with reliable stages on the Western sea route from the coast of Europe to Indies. And the search for "seven cities" led, as we will see, to the opening of the Spaniards in the middle of the XVI century internal regions of North America - the Mississippi River and Colorado pools.

Early Paleo Eskimo Cultures

The history of ancient Greenland is the history of repeating migrations of Paleo Eskimos from the Arctic Islands of North America. A common feature of all these cultures was the need for survival in the extremely adverse conditions of the most remote edge of the Arctic at the very border of the range of arole. Even small climate fluctuations turned intimately favorable conditions into incompatible with human life and led to the disappearance of insufficiently adapted crops and devastating entire regions as a result of migrations and extinction.

Archaeologists stand out in Greenland four Paleo-Eskimo cultures, which existed before the discovery of the island of Vikings, but the terms of their existence are determined very approximately:

• Sakkak culture: 2500 BC e. - 800 BC e. in southern Greenland;
• Culture Independence I: 2400 BC e. - 1300 BC e. in the north of Greenland;
• Culture Independence II: 800 BC. e. - 1 BC. e. mainly in the north of Greenland;
• Early Dorset Culture, Dorset I: 700 BC. e. - 200 n. e. In the south of Greenland.

These cultures were not unique to Greenland. As a rule, they arose and developed in the territories of Arctic Canada and Alaska long before their penetration to Greenland, and could be maintained in other places of the Arctic after their disappearance from the island.

After the decline of culture, the island remained unnecessary over the centuries. The carriers of the Inito culture of Tula, the ancestors of modern indigenous people of Greenland, began to penetrate the north of the island at the beginning of the XIII century.

Settlements Viking

The last written certificate of Greenland Vikings - a wedding entry in the church of Khwali belongs to 1408. The ruins of this church are one of the most well-preserved monuments of the culture of Viking.

There are many theories regarding the reasons for the disappearance of Norwegian settlements in Greenland. Jared Daimond, author of the book "Collapse: Why some societies survive, while others die," lists five factors that could contribute to the disappearance of the Greenland colony: environmental deterioration, climatic changes, enmity with neighboring peoples, isolation from Europe, the inability to adapt. The study of these factors is devoted a large number of scientific research and publications.

Environmental deterioration

Greenland vegetation belongs to the tundra type and consists mainly of sources, fluffy and lichen; The trees are almost completely absent, with the exception of a dwarf birch, willow and alder who grow in some places. There are very few fertile lands, which, as a result of the absence of forests, suffer from erosion; In addition, the short and cold summer makes farming almost impossible, so the Norwegian settlers were forced mainly to engage in cattle breeding. Excessive exploitation of pastures in an extremely sensitive tundra medium with unstable soils could enhance erosion, lead to worsening pastures and falling their performance.

Climate change

Running results ice ice Allow to know about the climatic situation in Greenland over the centuries. They show that during the medieval climatic optimum there was indeed some mitigation of the local climate from 800 to 1200 years, but at the beginning of the XIV century began cooling; The "Small Ice Age" reached his peak in Greenland in about the 1420s. The lower layers of garbage near the oldest Norwegian settlements contain significantly more bones of sheep and goats than pigs and coarse livestock; However, in the sediments of the middle of the XIV Art. Near the rich dwellings are only bones of cattle and deer, and near the poor are almost solid bone seals. The version of the decline of cattle breeding as a result of cooling and changes in the nature of the nutrition of the Greenland Vikings is also confirmed by studies of skeletons from cemeteries near Norwegian settlements. Most of these skeletons are traces of pronounced rickets, characterized by deformation of the spine and chest, in women - pelvic bones.

Enhance with neighbors

During the foundation of the Norwegian settlements, Greenland was completely devoid of local population, but later the Vikings were forced to contact inuita. Inuit of Culture Tula began to arrive in Greenland from Elsmir Island at the end of the XII - early XIII century. Researchers know that the Vikings called Inuita, as well as Aboriginalov Winland, english (Norv. Skræling). "Icelandic Annals" is one of the few sources, which indicate the existence of contacts between the Norwegians and Inuit. They are told about the attack of Inuit on Norwegians, during which eighteen Norwegians died, and two children were captured. There are archaeological evidence that the Inuites led to the Norwegians trade, because during the excavations of the Initov parking lots, many products of Norwegian work are found; However, the Norwegians, apparently, were not very interested in inuita, at least, the findings of the Initian artifacts in the settlements of Vikings are unknown. The Norwegians also did not adopt the kayak construction technology and receptions of hunting for Killed Nerpen from Inuit. In general, it is believed to be the relationship of Norwegians with Inuitis were quite hostile. From archaeological evidence, it is known that by 1300 the winter parking lots of Inuit existed already on the shores of the fjords near the Western settlement. Somewhere between 1325 and 1350. Norwegians completely left the Western settlement and its surroundings, due to the unsuccessful opposition to the attacks of Inuit.

Kirsten Siemer in his book "Frozen echo" is trying to bring that Greenland has had a much stronger health and fed better than it was thought, and therefore denies the version of the extinction of the Greenland colony from hunger. She probably claims that the colony died as a result of the attack of the Indians, pirates or the European military expedition, which history did not save information; It is also likely to relocate the Greenland in Iceland or in Wellands in search of a more favorable house.

Contacts with Europe

With quiet winter weather, the ship carried out a 1400-kilometer trip from Iceland to the south of Greenland in two weeks. Greenland should have supported relations with Iceland and Norway to trade with them. Greenlandians could not build ships themselves, because they did not have forests, and depended on the supply of Icelandic merchants and from expeditions for wood to Winland. Sagi talk about Icelandic merchants who flood to trade in Greenland, but trade was in the hands of the holders of large estates. They traded themselves with the commercial merchants, and then resold the goods to small landowners. The main article of Greenland exports were walrus. In Europe, they were used in decorative art as a ivory replacement, whose trade was designed during hostility with the Islamic world in the era of crusades. It is considered likely that as a result of improving the relations of Europe with the world of Islam and with the beginning of Transshar caravan trade in ivory, demand for walrus beeves has fallen significantly, and this could contribute to the loss of interests of merchants to Greenland, reduce contacts and the final decline of the Norwegian colony on the island.

However, the cultural influence of Christian Europe felt in Greenland quite well. In 1921, Danish historian Paul Norland was digging the burial of the Vikings at the church cemetery near the Eastern settlement. The bodies were dressed in European medieval clothing XV century and did not have signs of rickets and genetic degeneration. Most had crucifixions on the neck and drawn up in a prayer gesture.

From records of papal archives, it is known that in 1345, the Greenlandians were exempt from the payment of the church decade due to the fact that the colony was seriously suffering from poverty.

The last vessel, which was visited by Greenland somewhere in the 1510th year, was an Icelandic ship that took the West storm. His team did not come into contact with any inhabitants of the island.

At about the same time, about 1501, the Portuguese expedition was visited in the Greenland area. The re-discovery of the Europeans of Greenland, as it is believed to have been committed about 1500 by the Portuguese expedition of the cortyaria brothers. It is usually attributed to the re-opening of Greenland by Europeans.

Danish expeditions to Greenland in the XV century

From this time, Greenland became a territory, quite well known worldwide. Various English expeditions in search of the north-western passage studied its shore at least 75 ° north latitude.

Strategic value

Autonomous Greenland proclaimed himself by the state of the people of Inuit. Danish geographical names were changed to local. The country began to be called Calallit Nunat. The administrative center of the island, Gothob, became Nuuk, the capital of almost sovereign country, and in 1985 the Greenland flag was adopted. However, the movement for the independence of the island is still weak.

Thanks to the progress of the latest technologies, especially the development of aviation, Greenland has now become much more affordable for the outside world. In 1982, local television broadcasts began.

In 2008, in Greenland, a referendum was held on the issue of self-government, following which on May 20, 2009, the Denmark Parliament adopted the law on the extended autonomy of Greenland. Extended autonomy of Greenland was proclaimed on June 21 of the same year. Both inside Greenland and outside it, there are people who consider the expansion of autonomy as a step towards the independence of Greenland from Denmark