European Expansion and the Contested North Atlantic

Abstract

Scholarship discussing European expansion into the North Atlantic and territorial claims over Newfoundland rarely examines the impact of Dano-Norwegian claims in Greenland. This article integrates the history of the Greenland Norse into the narrative of European expansion to better understand the multinational nature of the early modern North Atlantic fishery. It discusses the rise of island-Iberia in response to the influence of island-Scandinavia, particularly in matters of trade and imperial claims. John Cabot’s reports of “new found land” allowed the other Europeans to fish in waters beyond the Dano-Norwegian Atlantic claims, creating a multinational fishery over which no European power recognized sovereignty until the peace of Utrecht in 1713. Once Dano-Norwegian control over the North Atlantic and Europe’s cod fishery was broken, Norse occupation of Greenland on the far western edge of Europe became a forgotten though still important part of the history of European expansion.