ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book discusses the Norse discovery of America and subsequent developments in Europe made possible Portuguese voyages to India, Columbus's voyages to the New World and the birth of the Atlantic World. By the end of the tenth century, over 20,000 Norsemen were living in Iceland. A few thousand more lived in Greenland, which had been discovered only a few years earlier by Eric the Red. The Greenlanders' saga and the saga of Eric the Red tell about several attempts to colonize Vinland, but none of these attempts seems to have enjoyed long-term success. The primary goal of the First Crusade and of later Crusades the capture of the Holy Land from the Moslems was only temporarily attained. The feudal system the political, social, and economic regime which dominated Western Europe at that time never fully recovered from the Crusades.
