Viking/Norsemen explorations, on their own, surpass the explorations of non-Europeans, including the much touted voyages of Zheng between 1405 and 1433 to Southeast Asia, India, and the Horn of Africa — Ricardo Duchesne
Zheng He did not navigate one single unknown nautical mile. Yes, his ships were impressively large, but he merely visited places, established diplomatic relations, and exchanged exotic goods. He was an eunuch.
Ibn Battuta, likewise, was not an explorer, but a traveler who visited, from 1325 to 1354, the known world of North Africa, the Middle East, East Africa, Central and South Asia, the Iberian Peninsula, and West Africa.
In stark contrast, the Vikings, between the eighth and eleventh centuries:
i) established settlements in large areas of England, Scotland, Ireland, and France;
ii) stormed eastwards through the Baltic down into the Black Sea and imposed a ruling dynasty in Kiev from which the name “Russia” derives;
iii) created Normandy from which point William the Conqueror took over the whole of England after the famous Battle of Hastings (1066);
iv) created the Kingdom of Sicily that lasted hundreds of years.
v) They also discovered Iceland, not accidentally, since this land had been described before, though never explored, as “Thule” in various writings, creating a nation with about 30,000 by 930.
vi) And they discovered and colonized Greenland, 200 miles away, starting in 978, followed by a well-planned expedition of 25 ships and several hundred prospective settlers.
vii) And, amazingly, they discovered and established a colony in America 5 centuries before Columbus, which they called “Vinland”. It was at first a chance sighting by Bjarni Herjolfsson, soon followed by planned exploration led by Eirik the Red, and then planned settlement by Thorfinn Karlsefni.
Now, it needs to be added, as contemporary historians of the Vikings have explained, that Icelandic geographers of the early Middle Ages “showed an astonishing sophistication in their image of the northern world”.
We have a manuscript dating from about 1300, Geographical Treatise, compiling this knowledge, “based on the actual experience of Icelandic sailors”. There is another Book of Settlement which describes the settlement of Iceland 870 to 930.
The Viking/Norsemen/Icelandic peoples also wrote, between 1220 and 1280, two fascinating sagas of their explorations of Iceland, Greenland, and Vinland: The Saga of the Greenlanders, and The Saga of Erik the Red.
These are stories of the events and of the major characters associated with the explorations and settlements occurring around 970-1030.
These men were farmers-sailors-warriors, and aristocratic in temperament, by which I mean they had an indomitable will and pride as free men.
This explains why the type of government they created in Iceland was republican (a combination of aristocratic/democratic rule) as were the governments created everywhere by Europeans.
Know your history. They are erasing it as we speak. The academics in charge of our universities, many of whom are increasingly nonwhite, are consciously falsifying this history, spitting on it. Don’t let them trash your dear ancestors!