How Climate Ended the Viking Age

The Viking Age ended because of a massive climate shift that nobody talks about. Around 1300,

temperatures across the North Atlantic plummeted during what scientists call the Little

Ice Age. Greenland's Norse settlements, which had thrived for 500 years,

were completely abandoned. The Vikings who'd terrorized Europe for centuries couldn't

grow crops anymore. Their ships got trapped in expanding sea ice. Archaeological digs

found their final generation eating dogs and horses just to survive. Meanwhile,

the Inuit people thrived because they'd already adapted to hunting seals and whales.

So the mighty Vikings who'd reached America before Columbus didn't fall to warriors or disease.