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-	{{Template}}	+	#redirect[[Vikings ]]
-	The '''Viking Age''' (793–1066) was the period during the [[Middle Ages]] when [[Norsemen]] known as [[Vikings]] undertook large-scale raiding, colonising, conquest, and trading throughout Europe and reached North America.	+
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-	It followed the [[Migration Period]] and the [[Germanic Iron Age]]. The Viking Age applies not only to their homeland of [[Scandinavia]] but also to any place significantly settled by [[North Germanic peoples|Scandinavians]] during the period. The Scandinavians of the Viking Age are often referred to as ''Vikings'' as well as ''Norsemen'', although few of them were Vikings in the sense of being engaged in piracy.	+
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-	Voyaging by sea from their homelands in [[Denmark]], [[Norway]], and [[Sweden]], the Norse people settled in the [[Viking activity in the British Isles|British Isles]], [[History of Ireland (800–1169)|Ireland]], the [[Faroe Islands]], [[Settlement of Iceland|Iceland]], [[Norse settlements in Greenland|Greenland]], [[History of Normandy|Normandy]], and the [[Baltic Sea|Baltic coast]] and along the [[Trade route from the Varangians to the Greeks|Dnieper]] and [[Volga trade route]]s in eastern Europe, where they were also known as [[Varangians]]. They also briefly [[Norse colonization of North America|settled in Newfoundland]], becoming the first Europeans to reach North America. The [[Norse-Gaels]], [[Normans]], [[Rus' people]], [[Faroe Islanders|Faroese]], and [[Icelanders]] emerged from these Norse colonies. The Vikings founded several kingdoms and earldoms in Europe: the [[Kingdom of the Isles]] (''Suðreyjar''), [[Earldom of Orkney|Orkney]] (''Norðreyjar''), [[Scandinavian York|York]] (''Jórvík'') and the [[Danelaw]] (''Danalǫg''), [[Kingdom of Dublin|Dublin]] (''Dyflin''), [[Duchy of Normandy|Normandy]], and [[Kievan Rus']] (''[[Garðaríki]]''). The Norse homelands were also unified into larger kingdoms during the Viking Age, and the short-lived [[North Sea Empire]] included large swathes of Scandinavia and Britain. In 1021, the Vikings achieved the feat of reaching North America - the date of which was not specified until a millennium later.	+
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-	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]]. The aggressive expansion of the [[Carolingian Empire]] and [[Saxon Wars|forced conversion of the neighbouring Saxons]] to Christianity may also have been a factor. Sailing innovations had allowed the Vikings to sail further and longer to begin with.	+
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-	Information about the Viking Age is drawn largely from [[primary source]]s written by those the Vikings encountered, as well as archaeology, supplemented with [[secondary source]]s such as the [[Sagas of Icelanders|Icelandic Sagas]].	+
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-	== Scandinavia ==	+
-	During, and as a result of the Viking Age, Scandinavia moved from a loose coexistence of tribes and petty kingdoms to the three Nordic countries that still exist today.	+
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-	== Settlements outside Scandinavia ==	+
-	=== British Isles ===	+
-	==== England ====	+
-	* [[Danelaw]]	+
-	* [[Jórvík]] ([[York]])	+
-	* [[Cumbria]]	+
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-	==== Ireland ====	+
-	* [[Arklow]]	+
-	* [[Early Scandinavian Dublin|Dyflin]] ([[Dublin]])	+
-	* Hlymrekr ([[Limerick]])	+
-	* [[History of Waterford|Veðrafjǫrðr]] ([[Waterford]])	+
-	* Víkingr-ló ([[Wicklow]])	+
-	* Veisafjǫrðr ([[Wexford]])	+
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-	==== Isle of Man ====	+
-	* [[Isle of Man|Mann]]	+
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-	==== Scotland ====	+
-	* [[Caithness]]	+
-	* [[Galloway]]	+
-	* [[Kintyre]]	+
-	* [[Norðreyjar]] ([[Orkney]] and [[Shetland]])	+
-	* [[Ross, Scotland|Ross]]	+
-	* [[Suðreyjar]] ([[Hebrides]])	+
-	* [[Sutherland]]	+
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-	=== Western Europe ===	+
-	* [[Normandy]]	+
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-	=== Eastern Europe ===	+
-	* [[Garðaríki]] (Russia)	+
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-	=== Northern Europe ===	+
-	* [[Grobiņa|Seeburg]]	+
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-	=== Atlantic ===	+
-	* [[Faroe Islands]]	+
-	* [[Iceland]]	+
-	* [[Greenland]]	+
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-	=== North America ===	+
-	* [[Norse colonization of the Americas|Norse colonisation of the Americas]]	+
-	* [[L'Anse aux Meadows]] (and possibly a larger area called [[Vinland]])	+
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-	{{GFDL}}	+

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1. redirectVikings