Who Exactly Were the Vikings?(part 2)

The viking age ended when they stopped raiding. The reason they stopped raiding was due to the changes happening in Europe. Norse society had a large number of land owning farmers who had the time and means to raid. The ships they needed to go out and raid were expensive. Before a farmer left to go raid he needed to make sure he had enough help to run the farm while he was away. This had changed when the number of wealthy men started to decline and more landless men appeared. These landless men couldn't afford to leave the land and raid.

At the beginning of the viking age most European lands had no central authority figures.What they had were local chieftains and petty kings to rule these lands. By the end of the viking age this had changed.European lands had strong central authorities. They had strong armies capable of defending against viking attacks. These armies were trained and professional.Also the places the vikings usually attacked began to change to be less susceptible to viking attacks. Monasteries built defend able towers to store their valuables in. The raids slowed and then stopped because times had changed.Then vikings to Europeans were not vikings but became swedes,Danes, Norwegians,Icelanders,and Greenlanders.