That story was super interesting. I have always been fascinated by what has driven humans to explore. Human history as we know it seems punctuated by these inflection points of expansion. Post-expansion, we look back on how much progress was made, and yet expansions seem to only happen sporadically. I guess we might be able to conclude that expansion may be more common than what gets recorded, but only becomes sustained when it results in some type of major opportunity for the pioneers.
And even then, it seems as though expansion is a skill that gets honed by a society. I think of the Polynesians, the Vikings, and the Portuguese.
The value of ivory as a commodity makes a lot more sense out of why Vikings would have bothered with Greenland. It has always seemed weird to me that the Vikings made it past all of these hazardous lands to Newfoundland, but didn't really bother to do much in North America.
It's interesting that the article concludes in a rather off-handed way that Greenlanders didn't go native. I don't see why we shouldn't expect a few of them to have done so? I'm reminded a bit of Peter Heywood, from the Mutiny on the Bounty [1]. Although, I would suppose Tahitian life would probably be rather more enticing than Inuit life.
And even then, it seems as though expansion is a skill that gets honed by a society. I think of the Polynesians, the Vikings, and the Portuguese.
The value of ivory as a commodity makes a lot more sense out of why Vikings would have bothered with Greenland. It has always seemed weird to me that the Vikings made it past all of these hazardous lands to Newfoundland, but didn't really bother to do much in North America.
It's interesting that the article concludes in a rather off-handed way that Greenlanders didn't go native. I don't see why we shouldn't expect a few of them to have done so? I'm reminded a bit of Peter Heywood, from the Mutiny on the Bounty [1]. Although, I would suppose Tahitian life would probably be rather more enticing than Inuit life.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Heywood#In_Tahiti