Vikings and Potatoes

"I call upon thee, the great minds of AH"

All seriousness aside, and knowing that the bizzare title most likely brought you here, and that this is most likely touching very far into ASB territory (please if it is can a admin move this thread).

So I have a theoretical question on how the introduction of the Potatoe, by Vikings during either Leif Erikssons or Torfinn Karlsevnes trip to Vinland, would affect Europe. How would this affect areas of Europe with more rugged terrain, especially thinking about Greenland, Iceland, GB and Scandinavia.

Now I know this scenario is very unlikely to have happend at all, but lets just not address this missing link of the Vikings finding and bringing potatoes back home and rather what would theoretically happen.
 
Last edited:

"The future will be better tomorrow."

Well ignoring the fact that the potato comes from South America, if the Norse were somehow able to introduce the potato into Medieval European agriculture, it will more or less have the same effect it had in OTL: a cheap, stable crop that is easily planted and harvested, leading to a drastic increase in population over the coming centuries. Of course the downsides of such population booms, as well as the over-reliance on a single crop, will be just as painful ITTL. Not to mention that the various plagues due to hit Europe will most likely be made worse by the denser population.
 
"The future will be better tomorrow."

Well ignoring the fact that the potato comes from South America, if the Norse were somehow able to introduce the potato into Medieval European agriculture, it will more or less have the same effect it had in OTL: a cheap, stable crop that is easily planted and harvested, leading to a drastic increase in population over the coming centuries. Of course the downsides of such population booms, as well as the over-reliance on a single crop, will be just as painful ITTL. Not to mention that the various plagues due to hit Europe will most likely be made worse by the denser population.

One have to remember that the potato (sorry 'bout that) comes in 90 (I believe) different varities, it was the usage of only one crop in Ireland that led to the Potato famine for example. Though I totally agree the implications of a more dense populations and the black plague would be emense.
 
One have to remember that the potato (sorry 'bout that) comes in 90 (I believe) different varities, it was the usage of only one crop in Ireland that led to the Potato famine for example. Though I totally agree the implications of a more dense populations and the black plague would be emense.

How many varieties of this Peruvian vegetable are going to be coming back to Norway on the half dozen or so longboats involved? If anything the Vikings would be less likely to introduce genetic diversity into Europe than were the Spanish.
 
The variety of potatoes in the Andes range in the thousands. Thing is however, the Andeans had other root crops that would work as well. There was oca,ulluco, and yacon, plus quinoa as a grain. And there're other crops close by for them to introduce such as American groundnut,jicama,quamash, and arrowroot for them to introduce. And who knows? Maybe the new crops would be well received by medieval Europeans. Especially if they were considered alternatives to the Spice Trade.
 
Top