Hansa goes west

[JHPier]

Just an idea:

WI sometime in the 13C the son of a Hansa merchant in Bergen, Norway is regaled with tales of the Norse voyages to Greenland and Vinland by one or more of the servants (maybe one of 'em is from Iceland?). Later on, when he is older and has become a merchant of considerable standing he prevails on some friends to help him fit out a ship to go looking for Vinland. Said ship manages to do that and bring back enough furs and stockfish to pay for it. More voyages follow and by ca.1350 a colony of a few thousand people is established in (say) [Nova Scotia].

Or is this a half-baked idea?

Alternatively the organizer could be the heir to the throne?

 

[Forum Lurker]

Thirteenth century is too late. That's about the depth of the Little Ice Age, the reason in OTL for the abandonment/failure of the Greenland colonies; the cooler temperatures made farming in the north seriously impractical. Even in Europe, the impact was felt; a common theory is that the effects of the Black Death were enhanced by lower food supply from this effect.

If you want Norse colonization of the New World (and really, who doesn't?), you'll want to look earlier. Some way to either make Vinlandsaga happen earlier, or something to force large-enough-scale colonization to let it last past the cooling.

 

[JHPier]

Thirteenth century is too late. That's about the depth of the Little Ice Age, the reason in OTL for the abandonment/failure of the Greenland colonies; the cooler temperatures made farming in the north seriously impractical. Even in Europe, the impact was felt; a common theory is that the effects of the Black Death were enhanced by lower food supply from this effect.

If you want Norse colonization of the New World (and really, who doesn't?), you'll want to look earlier. Some way to either make Vinlandsaga happen earlier, or something to force large-enough-scale colonization to let it last past the cooling.

This is not about Norse colonization, but about German colonization (well the main part, the last line was an afterthought really). I guess I should have mentioned that this: "when he is older and has become a merchant of considerable standing" takes place in Lübeck, or Bremen or so. Bergen was an outpost of the Hansa.
And I proposed modern Nova Scotia because it is south enough to allow farming. It was after all settled in the 17C when the Little Ice Age was at its worst.