Թեմա - Scandinavian Invasion
Տեսակ - Ռեֆերատ
Գին - 1800 դրամ
Առարկա - Անգլերեն լեզվով
Էջեր - 9
Blockmans, Willem Pieter, Introduction to Medieval Europe, London: 2007
Nicholas, David, The Evolution of Medieval World, London: 1992
Pounds, Norman John Greville, An Economic History of Medieval Europe, London: 1994
Williams, Gareth, "Raiding and Warfare", The Viking World, edt. Stefan Brink, New York: 2008
Scandinavian peninsula and Denmark Germanic inhabitants were one-time neighbours of the Anglo-Saxons and closely related to them in language and blood. For some centuries the Scandinavian had remained quietly in their Northen home, but, in the eighth century a change occurred in the area and provoked among them a spirit of adventurous enterprise. They began attacks upon all the lands adjacent to the Baltic and the North Sea. Their activities began in plunder and ended in conquest.
King Alfred the Great was born in Wantage in 849 and by 871 had begun to engage himself in the war against the Danes. For fifteen years (871-886) Alfred waged war against the intruders and succeeded in maintaining Wessex free from Viking influence. The military struggle with the Danes are described in detail in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. In the years 886 to 892 Alfred was able to devote his energies to non-military matters, chiefly to educational reform and cultural matters in general, such as the translation of religious works. In 892 the Danes took on Alfred once more. The latter, however, succeeded in defending Wessex and English Mercia and in 896 the Danes (consisting of both the Norman and the East Anglia Danes) reconciled themselves to being confined to the Danelaw. Some of them returned to France and others settled down eventually. Three years later, in 899, Alfred, the greatest of Anglo-Saxon kings, died.
As we have seen from above, Europe was exposed to great invasions in early times of history. Nevertheless many things that are known as very destructive by people in fact is not destructive as that much. As being one of them, Viking expansion has destructive effects in short term but also positive effects on Europe in long term. In the long term, Vikings brought the precious metals hidden in the churches in circulation. They developed the trade with the east which had been interrupted with the fall of the Roman Empire. And lastly even they ruined the trade centres; they did not leave Europe in ruin, they tried to build new trade centres.