[Solved] 1. Why were the Vikings so feared? What impact did they have on... | CliffsNotes (2024)

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[Solved] 1. Why were the Vikings so feared? What impact did they have on... | CliffsNotes? ›

Answer & Explanation. 1. Because they were swift and ruthless strikers with expert fighting skills, the Vikings were greatly feared. Through their raids, trading, settlements, and colonization, they had a significant influence on Dark Age

Viking warrior were highly feared across Europe for their brutal attacks and unorthodox for the time weapon of choice, the battle axe. Well known for their close quarter fighting style and berserker's. Most Vikings warriors were modestly armoured with only the king's guard usually having chain mail.

The Vikings established and engaged in extensive trading networks throughout the known world and had a profound influence on the economic development of Europe and Scandinavia.

The Viking expansion opened new trade routes in Arab and Frankish lands, and took control of trade markets previously dominated by the Frisians after the Franks destroyed the Frisian fleet. One of the main aims of the Viking expansion throughout Europe was to acquire and trade silver.

Europeans were so afraid of the Vikings was because they raided lots of parts of Western Europe, looted towns and monasteries and took prisoners to sell in slavery, the attacks were swift and salvage, they lived in the terror of raids and also their attacks are not just limited to coastal areas since their ship could ...

Peasants were afraid of Vikings coming raiding, local leaders were afraid of the raids impact on their ability to collect wealth. But large payments, Danegelds, were made to make armies disperse and return home. Even when Alfred was in a strong position with a Danish army besieged he payed them to go home.

The purpose of the Vikings' violence was to acquire wealth, which fed into the political economy of northern Europe, notably in the form of gift-giving. Viking warriors were motivated by a warrior ideology of violence that praised bravery, toughness, and loyalty.

The Vikings raided to steal gold from monasteries and also to take people as slaves. The things they stole they often sold so they could buy the things they wanted. The Vikings usually carried out their raids during the summer months when it was safer and easier to cross the sea from their home in Norway.

The Vikings had a big, expansive and planned out trade network. Trade took place on a gold level and over short and long distances. Improvements in ship technology and cargo capabilities made trade and the transport of goods much easier, especially as Europe began to shift to a bulk economy.

Recent scholars are not so certain. But there is no doubt that Viking raiding ultimately led to political conquest, settlement on a substantial scale across northern Europe, and extensive Scandinavian cultural and linguistic influences in eastern and northern England.

What is the main reason why the Vikings attacked Europe? ›

Several things drove this expansion. The Vikings were drawn by the growth of wealthy towns and monasteries overseas and weak kingdoms. They may also have been pushed to leave their homeland by overpopulation, lack of good farmland, and political strife arising from the unification of Norway.

One of the reasons the Vikings are viewed so negatively is that their violence could seem wanton or irrational. Part of that lies in the paucity of documentation of what the Vikings actually did during their raids. To many at the time—clerics in particular—attacking a monastery or church would have seemed irrational.

The people in Europe were so frightened of the Viking Raids because the attackd were full of savage and they wiped out the towns and monasteries and took the prisoners to be sold into slavery.

Fighting was very important for the Vikings. They attacked and raided settlements to find treasure and slaves. They fought wars as a way of taking control of more land. When Vikings first came to Scotland, they only attacked in quick hit-and-run raids, such as attacking the monastery on Iona.

Mongols, Turks were more brutal than the Vikings to name just a couple. Were the Vikings or the Romans more brutal? Romans hands down. Viking raids were often small scale and fast, as in a few dozen warriors, and they'd primarily hit monasteries and isolated towns.

It's not that their goal is to be dead. It's because the reason for their bravery. is the belief in Valhalla. Valhalla was important to the Vikings, as it enshrined their most cherished values, chief of which was bravery.