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| alternate_history:vinland_colony [2021/09/04 11:59] – [Vinland colony as an AH staple... and source of clichés] petike | alternate_history:vinland_colony [2021/09/04 11:59] (current) – [Vinland colony as an AH staple... and source of clichés] petike |
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| A further misconception, in no small part fueled by pseudohistorians and supremacists ever since the early 1900s (decades before viking visitors in America were confirmed), was the notion that the vikings established a huge and developed colony in North America (or even elsewhere in the Americas). This misconception and starting assumption often crops up in some Vinland timelines, especially those of alternate history newbies who don't bother with deeper historical research before beginning writing, and severely overestimate the OTL extent of the Scandinavians' stay and activities in North America. One or at most two temporary, seasonal hamlets, that were promptly abandoned once the visitors permanently returned home, is hardly a basis for a huge, thriving colony with thousands of people. There's a degree of "computer game thinking" in accepting a misconception like this without second thought, because two or three boats of Scandinavians who arrive at the coast of North America does not mean the place will be its own Norse-speaking polity in fifty years time. Especially colonies, especially transatlantic ones without Renaissance era technological advances, is a lot tougher than many think. | A further misconception, in no small part fueled by pseudohistorians and supremacists ever since the early 1900s (decades before viking visitors in America were confirmed), was the notion that the vikings established a huge and developed colony in North America (or even elsewhere in the Americas). This misconception and starting assumption often crops up in some Vinland timelines, especially those of alternate history newbies who don't bother with deeper historical research before beginning writing, and severely overestimate the OTL extent of the Scandinavians' stay and activities in North America. One or at most two temporary, seasonal hamlets, that were promptly abandoned once the visitors permanently returned home, is hardly a basis for a huge, thriving colony with thousands of people. There's a degree of "computer game thinking" in accepting a misconception like this without second thought, because two or three boats of Scandinavians who arrive at the coast of North America does not mean the place will be its own Norse-speaking polity in fifty years time. Especially colonies, especially transatlantic ones without Renaissance era technological advances, is a lot tougher than many think. |
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| The Canadian Beardmore swords hoax from the 1930s is an infamous example of pseudohistorical claims fueling misconceptions about vikings and Vinland. Said Canadian hoax involved a well-connected archaeologist with a politicized interest in "proving" the vikings had settled Canada far more than anyone expected, had real early medieval swords imported from a collector in Norway to Ontario, and then "found them" at a made-up digsite. These pseudohistorical claims even appear as recently as in the contemporary US, where a small group of viking hype fruitcakes in Minnesota (a place with many people of Scandinavian immigrant origin) created a series of hoaxes (and even a whole "museum" to house them) that supposedly "prove" vikings made it all the way to Minnesota. All these flimsily documented hoax "finds" are in stark contrast to actual archaeological proof for such a claim, which remains zero even in 2020. The fact that all these hoaxes tend to have a racist undertone of "this proves our ancestors were always here and the Native Americans don't belong here" is just icing on the cake of awful. In September 2021, the long-suspect "Vinland Map" was proven to be a complete forgery made between the 1920s and 1950s, based on modern chemical and spectroskopic analysis (aside from the map's already obvious anachronistic features). | The Canadian Beardmore swords hoax from the 1930s is an infamous example of pseudohistorical claims fueling misconceptions about vikings and Vinland. Said Canadian hoax involved a well-connected archaeologist with a politicized interest in "proving" the vikings had settled Canada far more than anyone expected, had real early medieval swords imported from a collector in Norway to Ontario, and then "found them" at a made-up digsite. These pseudohistorical claims even appear as recently as in the contemporary US, where a small group of viking hype fruitcakes in Minnesota (a place with many people of Scandinavian immigrant origin) created a series of hoaxes (and even a whole "museum" to house them) that supposedly "prove" vikings made it all the way to Minnesota. All these flimsily documented hoax "finds" are in stark contrast to actual archaeological proof for such a claim, which remains zero even in 2020. The fact that all these hoaxes tend to have a racist undertone of "this proves our ancestors were always here and the Native Americans don't belong here" is just icing on the cake of awful. In September 2021, the long-suspect "Vinland Map" was proven to be a complete forgery made between the 1920s and 1950s, based on modern chemical and spectroskopic analysis. The map also has several obvious anachronistic features. |
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| ==== Essays on this alternate history topic ==== | ==== Essays on this alternate history topic ==== |
