The Scandinavian people, who came to be known as the Vikings, were good navigators who could reach far lands without trouble. They realized that wealth was stored in churches and monasteries and hence targeted them in their wars. The Vikings during the Viking age expanded into Europe, North Africa, parts of south Asia, and even North America. The desires for wealth made the Vikings explore extensive partnerships looting across territories and enslaving Christians in the mediaeval Europe.
During this time, the cultural distinction was occurring between the Eastern Europe and Western Europe. The Byzantine Empire had great impacts on the Christians affecting the cultural and political development (Maureen Miller, n.d). At his time, the Scandinavia and France had two ideological poles that the German and the rest of the population wanted to associate themselves with. There were class struggles among the Vikings. Although between 10th and 12th century Iceland did not have full democracy or fully a republican in structure, its proto-democratic aspects are the main driving forces that later lead to great changes in the political and cultural aspects in Iceland.
The first parliament that changed greatly the reign of the kings as the main authority in the region was around the year 930. This is considered the Althing of the Iceland. Prior to this, the Viking did not move into regions as organized political groups whose main idea was to rule. The Vikings were independent settlers. Most of the Norse people were farmers and settlers minded their private lives of bringing up their families and accumulating wealth. There were no many inhabitants on Iceland when the Vikings arrived except for a few monks. Such gave them enough freedom to settle anywhere and do what they wished. By c.930, they established the central general assembly that survived for long (Carl Edlund Anderson, 1999), the Althing that served as the main decision-making organ in the whole country.
The Althing did not have internal competition. The chieftain legislative council met and reviewed and made new laws governing their territories without competition on who takes advantage over the others. In fact, each chieftain had to be accompanied by an advisor during the legislation. However, only the chieftains had the right to vote. It is the legislature that entered into foreign treaties and operated as the main organ leading to a free state. All formal government business was transacted in public. In fact, the Logretta as well as the courts were held in public. All laws made were announced publicly by the law-speaker (Jesse Byock, 2002).
When two powerful chiefs Tungu-Odd and Bellower disagreed, a new set of legislations was passed encouraging feuds. New courts were established. The Althing remained opens, changed legislation to include the changing scenarios, and solved disputes openly making the Free State survive for long However, increased competition among the chieftains and violence increased with increased deadlock of case. Such brought to end the initial Free State.
Work cited
Jesse Byock. “The Icelandic Althing: Dawn of Parliamentary Democracy.” In Heritage and Identity: Shaping the Nations of the North, ed. J. M. Fladmark, pp 1-18. The Heyerdahl Institute and Robert Gordon University. Donhead St. Mary, Shaftesbury: Donhead, 2002, pp. 1-18. http://www.viking.ucla.edu/publications/articles/icelandic_allthing.pdf
Maureen Miller. The Middle Ages. N.d. accessed on November 19, 2014 from http://chnm.gmu.edu/courses/westernciv/video/miller1.html on November 19, 2014.
Carl Edlund Anderson. Formation and resolution of ideological contrast in the early history of Scandinavia. 1999. Accessed from http://asnoc.wordpress.com/2014/08/03/formation- and-resolution-of-ideological-contrast-in-the-early-history-of-scandinavia/ on November 19, 2014
