I'm wondering why the Vikings didn't conquer the Americas long before.
they did
New Sweden: the US's long-lost 'secret' colony
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Re: New Sweden: the US's long-lost 'secret' colony
#42Re: New Sweden: the US's long-lost 'secret' colony
#43I'm wondering why the Vikings didn't conquer the Americas long before.
Logistics was not on their side.
You can easily sail with a fleet of several hundred longships across smaller bodies of water like the North Sea and concentrate enough power to threaten existing kingdoms on the other side. This is a journey of ~ 3 days, and under optimal conditions, they could make it across in a day and a half.
Sending even a tenth of that force across the Northern Atlantic, with its different weather patterns, longer distances, icebergs and very few places to replenish your resources (Iceland yes, Greenland maybe - they lived fairly on the edge as it was, with not much of a food surplus), was not feasible. A few ships could do it, but a few ships means a few people, and in the Americas, which were settled by other people already, it meant that you were a somewhat weak guest to someone else's territory, and you could always be thrown out or made to leave.
Re: New Sweden: the US's long-lost 'secret' colony
#44I'm wondering why the Vikings didn't conquer the Americas long before.
They didn't develop ships suitable for crossing the Atlantic.
You and a group of your buddies would get together while you were young, build boats, and go be pirates for a while until it was time to settle down somewhere.
There isn't a straightforward transition to the larger amount of organization and economy needed to build the larger more sophisticated ships to cross the Atlantic and land somewhere southerly enough to meaningfully colonize.
Re: New Sweden: the US's long-lost 'secret' colony
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
To be fair, the US is arguably even more of a menace to Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and even the descendent of native Americans who live in other countries (e.g. Mexico). So the OPs point is internally consistent, even generalized past a mentality that 'reeks of West European supremacy'.
As an Asian American I strongly disagree, as do most others of us non-white Americans. You guys don't actually understand how stuff actually works here or how we think. Our (Asian and Latino) ancestral countries economies are heavily tied with the US and leadership in our ancestral countries (excluding PRC ofc) remains either pro-Trump (look at the elections all across Latin America this year) or pro-America but Trum…
This is the weirdest rant I've read from you, in all my years on HN, and will colour my future reading of your contributions.
Unless I'm mistaken, you seem to view the world in terms of race, tribalism, and might-makes-right: even if those you accept to be the unfortunate bystanders are different from who they were historically, I'll concede that you are fully in line with the American tradition.
And same as with the pre-2008 (per your comment) American tradition, it's an ideology that will make the world a worse place. Shame.
Re: New Sweden: the US's long-lost 'secret' colony
#46Re: New Sweden: the US's long-lost 'secret' colony
#47Re: New Sweden: the US's long-lost 'secret' colony
#48The book "Swedes on the Delaware" (or "The Swedes in America") is a comprehensive history of this colony:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/77652.epub3.images
The interesting part of the book to me was that the Swedes and the native American Indians negotiated as equals for the land purchase, it wasn't by means of violence or deceit. In the end they depended on the purchase of food from the natives during a bad harvest.
Amazing that modern Delawareans have built a beautiful replica of the Kalmar Nyckel ship, considering how little impact the Swedish colony had on American history.
All in all, Swedish and Dutch colonists, although enemies, treated each other very much as gentlemen. Taking a fort meant showing up with the larger force and the other surrendering. Forts changed hands several times, which isn't mentioned in the BBC article.
Re: New Sweden: the US's long-lost 'secret' colony
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
> At least 25% of us Americans have never had blood or ethnic ties with Europe. > African Americans make up around 15% of the US, Asian Americans around 7%, Arab Americans around 1.5%, and Native Americans around 2%. Those are cultural identities. The average African American has ~20% European ancestry. Latin Americans vary by country and region of origin, but on the average, they have more European than Native Ameri…
Yes, but most do not associate with some form of European identity or solidarity. The overwhelming majority of African Americans do not view Europeans as their kin and vice versa. Same with a plurality of Latinos depending on where they come from as well as their race. OP's comment represents a very common sentiment and implication I've noticed amongst Europeans: 1. That America is inherently "European" and always wi…
As European, I think America has an obligation to those that were already there, and all our ancestors helped to almost wipe out, those are the real native ones.