North Europe (820 – 963 CE): Viking Networks, Baltic Gateways, and the Birth of Northern Christendom

Geographic and Environmental Context

North Europe extended from the Baltic and Gulf of Finland to the North Sea and North Atlantic archipelagos, encompassing Scandinavia, the British Isles, the Baltic coasts, and the northern forest–sea frontier.
Two complementary maritime worlds defined the region:

• Northeast Europe—Sweden, Finland, the Baltic lands, and eastern Denmark and Norway—linked by the Baltic–Rus’ river networks and fur trade.

• Northwest Europe—the British Isles, North Sea coasts, and Norwegian fjords—dominated by Viking raiding, settlement, and state formation.
  Together they formed a single northern thalassocracy, bound by ships, silver, and sagas.

A cool-temperate climate persisted, but by c. 950 the Medieval Warm Period brought milder seasons, enabling longer sailing windows and expanding grain and pasture zones from Denmark to Iceland.

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Societies and Political Developments

Northeast Europe: Baltic Traders and Forest Kingdoms

• Sweden and Gotland: Powerful chiefdoms organized around Birka (c. 750–975), a premier Viking kaupang on Lake Mälaren linked to the Rus’–Volga silver routes. Assemblies (ting), cult centers (Uppsala), and retinues maintained balance between kings and nobles.

• Eastern Denmark (Zealand/Skåne): Danish rulers from Horik to Gorm the Old (d. 958) controlled Baltic straits and tolls, fostering proto-urban markets and early royal ideology.

• Eastern Norway (Viken/Oslofjord): Chieftains around the Oslofjord oriented toward Baltic commerce; Harald Fairhair’s consolidation (late 9th c.) bound western fjords but left Viken semi-autonomous.

• Finland and Åland: Finnic communities blended swidden farming, fishing, and fur trade, connecting via Swedish merchants to Ladoga and Volga Bulgar markets.

• Baltic tribes (Estonians, Livonians, Curonians, Semigallians, Lithuanians, Latgalians): Fortified hillfort societies managed sea–river interfaces, trading furs, wax, and slaves for Islamic silver and Byzantine goods. The Curonians built sea-raiding fleets that rivaled Scandinavian expeditions.

• Christian missions: Ansgar’s embassies to Birka (829, 852) opened tentative dialogue with Christendom, but pagan traditions remained dominant.

Northwest Europe: Viking Age and Insular Consolidation

• England: The Great Heathen Army (865) carved the Danelaw, ruling from York and East Anglia. Alfred the Great (871–899) defended Wessex, initiating English unification.

• Ireland: Norse–Gaelic towns—Dublin, Waterford, Limerick—became trading and slave hubs linking Ireland, Britain, and Scandinavia.

• Scotland: Orkney, Shetland, and the Hebrides came under Norse jarls; Gaelic and Norse traditions intertwined along the western seaways.

• Iceland: Settled c. 870–930; the Althing (930) became Europe’s earliest continuous parliamentary assembly.

• Norway: Coastal chieftains unified under Harald Fairhair (872), establishing a hereditary kingship while continuing raids westward.

• Denmark: Gorm’s line unified the Danish heartland and projected power into the North Sea and Baltic.

• Flanders and Normandy: Viking settlement produced cultural hybrids—the Norman Duchy (911) under Rollobalanced Norse vigor with Frankish feudal order.

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Economy and Trade

• Exports: furs, wax, honey, tar, amber, falcons, iron (from bog ore), slaves, and dried fish.

• Imports: silver dirhams from the Islamic world, glass beads, silks, and fine metalwork from Byzantium and the Caliphate.

• Dirham hoards across Gotland, Uppland, Åland, and the eastern Baltic attest to intensive exchange through Volga–Bulghar and Dnieper–Rus’ corridors.

• Market towns (kaupangar): Birka, Hedeby, Kaupang (Norway), Zealand/Skåne ports, and Curonian trading forts served as transshipment nodes between the Baltic, Rus’, and North Sea.

• Agrarian base: rye, barley, oats, flax, and livestock; mixed farming around lakes and river valleys; swidden agriculture in the north; seal and whale fisheries along arctic coasts.

• Monetary flows: silver from Samanid Central Asia enriched northern economies and underwrote craft specialization.

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Subsistence and Technology

• Mixed economies: field crops, herding, hunting, and fisheries balanced subsistence with market surplus.

• Shipbuilding: clinker-built longships (langskip) for warfare and broad-hulled knarr for trade; riveted planks, wool sails, tar caulking, and standard keel design revolutionized mobility.

• Crafts: smithing of bog-iron; bead and comb workshops at Birka and Ribe; bone, antler, and amber ornamentation.

• Fortifications: ringforts (e.g., Trelleborg), timber–earth hillforts, and coastal redoubts guarded inlets and trade routes.

• Legal and political forms: things (assemblies) mediated law and kin disputes; oath-bound retinues underpinned early kingship.

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Movement and Interaction Corridors

• Baltic sea-roads: Gotlandic and Swedish fleets reached Estonia and Livonia, then moved upriver via Dvina, Neva, and Volkhov to Ladoga, Novgorod, and the Rus’ routes to Byzantium and the Caliphate.

• Kattegat–Öresund straits: Danish toll points joined Baltic and North Sea trade.

• North Sea routes: connected England, Norway, and Denmark to Ireland, Scotland, and the Frankish coast.

• Gulfs of Finland & Bothnia: seasonal navigation tied Finland to Uppland and Estonia; winter sled routes kept furs moving when seas froze.

• North Atlantic expansion: Norse settlers reached Faroe, Shetland, Orkney, Iceland, and by the next age Greenland.

• River portages: canoe and boat hauls across watersheds maintained silver and slave flow to Baltic markets.

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Belief and Symbolism

• Norse cosmology: Odin, Thor, and Freyr dominated ritual life; Uppsala’s cult complex anchored royal legitimacy; ship burials and Thor’s hammer amulets expressed continuity with seafaring life.

• Baltic and Finnic paganism: thunder and fertility deities—Perkūnas, Ukko—and sacred groves bound clans to landscape.

• Christian presence: survived in Ireland, Anglo-Saxon England, and the Carolingian fringe; Ansgar’s missions (829, 852) reached Birka; later conversions awaited royal patronage.

• Runic inscriptions and art: blended myth, law, and memorial, spreading literacy through image and rune.

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Adaptation and Resilience

• Dual economies—farm and fur, raid and trade—provided stability across volatile markets.

• Route redundancy: when steppe conflicts disrupted Dnieper trade, merchants diverted to Volga or western river systems; when Baltic storms closed sea-lanes, over-ice and portage routes sustained traffic.

• Kin networks and legal assemblies ensured compensation systems that stabilized commerce.

• Maritime craftsmanship and cooperative ship labor reduced transport risk and spread technology rapidly.

• Ecological flexibility: communities adapted from coastal fisheries to forest foraging and long-range voyaging as seasons demanded.

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Long-Term Significance

By 963 CE, North Europe had become an interconnected maritime and riverine commonwealth:

• Birka, Hedeby, and Gotland served as the mercantile hinge between Baltic fur frontiers and Eurasian silver routes.

• Normandy, Denmark, and England anchored a new North Sea order, while Iceland embodied Norse self-governance through the Althing.

• Finnic and Baltic hillfort societies balanced raiding with brokerage, linking forest hinterlands to global exchange.

This age forged the economic and cultural circuits of the Viking world, laying the foundations for Christianization, royal consolidation, and the medieval Baltic–North Sea trading system that would define Northern Europe in the following centuries.

Northeast Europe (820 – 963 CE): Baltic Fur Routes, Viking Kaupang, and Forest–Sea Frontiers

Geographic and Environmental Context

Northeast Europe includes Sweden, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, eastern Denmark, and eastern Norway(including Copenhagen and Oslo).

• A cool, forested macro-region bounded by the Baltic Sea, Gulf of Finland, and Gulf of Bothnia, with archipelagos (Åland, Stockholm skerries, Estonian isles) providing natural stepping-stones.

• Southern lowlands (Lithuania–Latvia) graded into mixed forest-steppe; northern Finland held taiga, lakes, and bogs; the Oslofjord–Viken and Zealand/Skåne littorals offered protected sailing corridors.

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Climate and Environmental Shifts

• Cool-temperate conditions prevailed; toward the mid-10th century the Medieval Warm Period began (c. 950), modestly lengthening growing seasons in the south and improving navigation windows on the Baltic.

• Seasonal sea ice still formed in the Gulfs; storm frequency set sailing calendars and dictated winter over-ice travel and sled logistics.

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Societies and Political Developments

• Sweden & Gotland: Ranked chiefdoms centered on Mälaren sites such as Birka (c. 750–975), a premier Viking-Age kaupang (market town) linked to the Rus’ and the Islamic silver routes. Royal power among the Svear and Götar remained negotiated through assemblies (ting), cult centers (e.g., Uppsala), and maritime retinues.

• Eastern Denmark (Zealand/Skåne): Danes controlled narrows between Baltic and Kattegat; rulers from Horik to Gorm the Old (d. 958) leveraged tolls, raids, and alliances. Proto-urban nodes (kaupangar) on Zealand balanced farming hinterlands with seaborne trade.

• Eastern Norway (Viken/Oslofjord): Local chieftains in the Oslo region oriented to Baltic and North Sea routes; consolidation under Harald Fairhair (traditionally 9th c.) affected the west, but Viken retained strong cross-Baltic ties.

• Finland & Åland: Finnic-speaking communities (Southwest Finland, Åland) practiced swidden agriculture and coastal fishing; warrior-trader elites connected to Swedish/Gotlandic networks and the Volga–Ladoga corridor.

• Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania: Baltic and Finnic tribes—Estonians, Livonians, Curonians, Semigallians, Latgalians, Lithuanians—fortified hilltop settlements, fielded sea-raiding fleets (notably Curonians), and mediated river access into the east.

• Christian missions: Ansgar’s embassies to Birka (829, 852) planted a tenuous Christian presence amid resilient Norse and Baltic paganisms.

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Economy and Trade

• Exports: furs (squirrel, sable, marten), wax, honey, iron (bog-iron bars), tar, amber, falcons, and slaves moved via Baltic routes to Byzantium and the Islamic world.

• Imports: Samanid dirhams, glass beads, silks, and fine metalwork; dirham hoards on Gotland, in Uppland, Åland, Estonia, and Latvia attest to the Volga–Bulghar and Dnieper–Rus’ connections.

• Market nodes: Birka, Kaupang-like sites on Zealand/Skåne, and coastal kaupangar in Estonia and Curonia concentrated exchange and craft production (beads, combs, rivets, ornaments).

• Agrarian base: rye, barley, oats, flax, and livestock supported surplus production around lakes and river valleys; in Finland and the eastern Baltic, mixed farming interlaced with hunting, fishing, and trapping.

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Subsistence and Technology

• Mixed farming with plow teams in the south; swidden (slash-and-burn) in forest zones; extensive lake/river fisheries and seal hunting along Bothnian and Gulf coasts.

• Ironworking from bog ore; smithies turned out axes, spearheads, knives, and rivets for boatbuilding.

• Ship types: long, low-freeboard warships (langskip) and broader cargo knarr for bulk trade; clinker-built hulls, riveted planks, and wool sails underpinned Baltic mobility.

• Fortifications: timber-earth ringforts and hillforts guarded inlets and river mouths; runestones and burial mounds marked elite landscapes.

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Movement and Interaction Corridors

• Baltic sea-roads: Gotlandic and Swedish fleets crossed to Estonia and Livonia, then upriver via Dvina, Neva, and Volkhov to Ladoga/Novgorod and the Rus’ routes.

• Kattegat–Öresund: Danish toll points linked Baltic to the North Sea.

• Gulfs of Finland & Bothnia: seasonal sailing stitched Finland to Uppland and Estonia; winter ice routes moved sledges and furs.

• River portages: canoe and boat hauls bridged watersheds, enabling silver to flow back to Baltic markets.

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Belief and Symbolism

• Norse paganism (Odin, Thor, Freyr) structured sacrificial rites at groves and halls; Uppsala’s cult complex anchored Svear ideology.

• Baltic paganisms honored deities such as Perkūnas (thunder) and sacred groves/stones; Finnic cosmologies revered Ukko (sky) and water/forest spirits.

• Ansgar’s missions introduced Christian symbols to Birka, but conversions remained limited; amulets, Thor’s hammers, and mixed grave goods reflect religious pluralism.

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Adaptation and Resilience

• Dual economies—farm + fur + fisheries—buffered climate and market shocks.

• Route redundancy: when Dnieper corridors were insecure, merchants shifted to the Volga–Bulghar–Caspian pathway; when Baltic storms closed sea-lanes, over-ice and river routes sustained movement.

• Kinship and legal assemblies (ting) mediated feud and trade disputes, stabilizing exchange.

• Maritime craft specialization (sailcloth, tar, hulls) and communal boat labor lowered transaction costs for long-distance trade.

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Long-Term Significance

By 963 CE, Northeast Europe had matured into a fur-silver entrepôt of the medieval world:

• Birka and Gotland sat at the hinge between Baltic markets and Rus’–Volga silver;

• Zealand/Skåne and Viken polities controlled straits and fjords;

• Finnic and Baltic hillfort societies balanced coastal raiding with river brokerage.
  These institutions and sea-roads prepared the ground for late-10th/11th-century transformations—Harald Bluetooth’s royal consolidation in Denmark, Gorm’s legacy, Goryeo to the east shaping trade demand, and the continued integration of the Baltic into Eurasian monetary circuits—carried forward in the next age.

Southwest Europe (1252 – 1395 CE): Mediterranean Thalassocracies and the Atlantic Turn

From the lagoons of Venice to the harbors of Lisbon, the southwest rim of Europe entered the Late Middle Ages as one of the world’s most dynamic maritime zones. The period between 1252 and 1395 witnessed the zenith of the Crown of Aragon’s thalassocracy, the consolidation of Castile and Portugal, and the financial and naval dominance of the Italian city-republics. Across the Mediterranean and Atlantic, fleets, fairs, and fortresses bound Europe’s southern peninsulas into an interlinked economy whose rhythms were set by wind, grain, and gold.

Geography and Climate

The subregion encompassed the Iberian Peninsula, the Italian peninsula and islands, and the surrounding seas—from the Guadalquivir and Tagus basins to the Venetian Adriatic and the Tyrrhenian and Balearic waters.
The onset of the Little Ice Age after 1300 brought cooler, wetter variability: Andalusian and Sicilian irrigation maintained productivity, while drier cycles in La Mancha and Alentejo encouraged sheep and transhumant herding. Maritime provisioning stabilized populations through famine years, even as the Black Death (1348–1352) devastated the great ports—Barcelona, Valencia, Genoa, Venice, and Naples—with partial demographic recovery by the century’s end.

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Mediterranean Crowns and City-Republics

The Crown of Aragon, forged by the thirteenth-century conquests of James I, reached its maritime zenith. Catalan and Valencian fleets dominated the western Mediterranean; Sardinia was taken in the 1320s, and Sicily, freed from Angevin control after the Sicilian Vespers (1282), entered Aragon’s orbit. Barcelona’s merchants financed convoys to Tunis, Alexandria, and Constantinople, while Majorcan cartographers drew the most precise sea charts of the age.

To the west, Castile completed the reconquest of Andalusia, leaving Granada as the last Muslim emirate. The Guadalquivir valley’s cereals and Seville’s shipyards enriched the Castilian crown, while Madrid and La Mancha evolved into the agrarian-sheep core of the realm. Portugal, meanwhile, under Afonso III and Dinis I, stabilized its southern frontier in the Algarve and built the maritime forests of Leiria for ship timber. After dynastic crisis (1383–1385), João I’s victory at Aljubarrota and the Treaty of Windsor (1386) with England secured independence and inaugurated the Anglo-Portuguese alliance that would anchor the next century’s explorations.

Across the sea, Italy’s mercantile powers contested every horizon. Venice, from its lagoon capital, extended a maritime empire through the Adriatic and Aegean; its Arsenal mass-produced galleys and its patriciate ruled an empire of grain and spice. Genoa, facing west, financed expeditions and monopolized Tyrrhenian trade from Corsica to Tunis. In Florence, textile wealth and banking consolidated under the merchant guilds, while the Angevin kingdom of Naples and the Aragonese Sicily contended for southern Italy. Malta, Sardinia, and the Balearics served as naval stepping-stones, their harbors echoing with the languages of sailors from every sea.

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Economy and Trade

Southwest Europe functioned as a dual maritime engine—Aragonese–Italian in the Mediterranean and Castilian–Portuguese in the Atlantic.

• Mediterranean circuits: Venetian and Genoese fleets carried Levantine spices, silks, and sugar; in return, they exported grain from Sicily and Apulia, wine and oil from Iberia, and salt from Ibiza and Trapani.

• Western basins: Barcelona, Valencia, and Majorca knit the western Mediterranean to Atlantic routes through Gibraltar.

• Atlantic façade: Castilian and Portuguese merchants exported wool, iron, wine, and salted fish; Castile’s Mesta(chartered 1273) organized transhumant flocks whose wool fed Flemish and Italian looms. Basque forgessupplied anchors, nails, and artillery; shipyards at Bilbao, Lisbon, and Porto produced cogs and caravels.

• Banking and cartography: Genoese and Venetian financiers underwrote commerce, while Catalan and Majorcan mapmakers synthesized Mediterranean and Atlantic knowledge into the new portolan charts.

Mixed agriculture—grains, vines, olives—and irrigation in the Valencia and Murcia huertas sustained populations; the Algarve, Sicily, and Crete pioneered sugar cultivation, a foretaste of the colonial plantations to come.

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Movement and Interaction Corridors

Sea routes defined the region’s geography.
The Strait of Gibraltar linked Lisbon, Seville, and Barcelona to Tunis and Alexandria; the Messina and Otranto Straits funneled Sicilian and Adriatic convoys; the Venetian–Aegean corridor joined Constantinople to the Po valley.
Overland arteries—Ebro–Pyrenees, Tagus–Guadiana, Po–Alps—fed the ports, while the Douro road connected the Castilian plateau to Porto’s wine markets. The pilgrim routes to Santiago de Compostela continued to channel people and goods across northern Iberia, even amid war and plague.

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Belief and Symbolism

Faith framed identity in a region of plural crowns.
The mendicant orders—Franciscans and Dominicans—flourished in Barcelona, Valencia, Venice, and Naples, preaching reform and mercy during plague years.
Cathedrals such as Seville’s, Valencia’s, and Florence’s Duomo, and civic loggias in Italian and Catalan cities expressed both religious devotion and urban pride.
The lingering influence of the Avignon Papacy tied Provençal, Aragonese, and Italian politics to papal diplomacy, while the Reconquista and frontier crusades gave Iberian warfare a sanctified rhetoric that foreshadowed later overseas expansion.

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Adaptation and Resilience

Despite climatic uncertainty and epidemic loss, Southwest Europe remained remarkably adaptive.

• Irrigation, terrace agriculture, and maritime provisioning cushioned drought.

• Polycentric power—Venice, Genoa, Aragon, Castile, Portugal—allowed commerce to shift ports and flags as crises arose.

• Guild statutes and municipal charters stabilized labor and credit after the Black Death.

• The recovery of the 1380s–1390s re-energized trade, strengthened dynasties, and renewed shipbuilding, positioning the region for its fifteenth-century ascent.

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Long-Term Significance

By 1395 CE, Southwest Europe stood as the beating heart of the late-medieval maritime world.
In the Mediterranean, Venice ruled the Adriatic lanes, Genoa and Florence financed the wider economy, and Aragon’s Catalan fleets mastered the western sea.
Across the Iberian Peninsula, Castile and Portugal unified their realms and turned outward to the Atlantic, where Lisbon’s and Bilbao’s shipwrights were already experimenting with ocean-going hulls.
From the Rialto to Lisbon, from Barcelona to Seville, merchants, mapmakers, and mariners laid the logistical and intellectual foundations of Europe’s global age.
The dual maritime systems of the Mediterranean thalassocracies and the Atlantic wool-iron networks formed a single economic engine—one that would propel Iberia and Italy beyond their seas and into the wider world of the fifteenth century.

Mediterranean Southwest Europe (1252 – 1395 CE): Aragonese Thalassocracy, Venetian Hegemony, and Castilian–Portuguese Consolidation

Geographic and Environmental Context

Mediterranean Southwest Europe includes Portugal’s Algarve and Alentejo, Spain’s Extremadura, Andalusia, Murcia, Valencia, Castile/La Mancha, southeastern Castile and León, Madrid, southeastern Rioja, southeastern Navarra, Aragon, Catalonia, the Balearic Islands, Andorra, and all of Italy (peninsula, Sicily, Sardinia, Venice), plus Malta.

• Anchors: the Guadalquivir Valley (Seville–Granada frontier), the Tagus–Alentejo/Algarve under Portugal, Madrid–La Mancha–Extremadura consolidated in Castile, the Valencia/Murcia huertas, the Ebro–Barcelona–Aragon–Andorra corridor, the Balearics under Aragon, Venice as Adriatic hegemon, Genoa and Florence as rivals in Liguria and Tuscany, the Kingdom of Naples/Angevin South, Sicily in Aragonese orbit, Sardinia, and Malta as naval outposts.

Climate and Environmental Shifts

• Little Ice Age onset (~1300) brought cooler, wetter variability; irrigation kept Valencia, Murcia, Andalusia, Sicily productive.

• Black Death (1348–1352) devastated Barcelona, Valencia, Genoa, Venice, Naples, with partial demographic recovery by the 1390s.

Societies and Political Developments

• Crown of Aragon: James I’s conquests of Valencia (1238) and Balearics (1229–35) were integrated; Sardinia conquered (from 1320s); Sicily entered Aragonese orbit after the Sicilian Vespers (1282); Catalonia projected power across the western Med.

• Castile consolidated Andalusia; Granada survived as the last Nasrid emirate; Madrid matured under Castilian administration; La Mancha became a grain–sheep heartland.

• Portugal stabilized Alentejo/Algarve and built Atlantic–Med linkages.

• Italy: Venice dominated Adriatic–Aegean routes; Genoa contested Tyrrhenian and western lanes; the Angevin Kingdom of Naples and Aragonese Sicily rivaled in the south; Sardinia held by Aragon; Malta under Sicilian–Aragonese control.

• Andorra remained a Pyrenean co-principality (Counts of Foix/Bishop of Urgell).

Economy and Trade

• Venetian hegemony in the Adriatic–Aegean; Genoese finance and Ligurian shipping; Barcelona–Valencia–Majorca fleets knit the western basin.

• Exports: grain (Sicily/Apulia), olive oil/wine (Iberia/Italy), sugar/citrus (Sicily/Valencia), salt (Ibiza, Trapani);

• Imports: spices/silks via Levant; wool from La Mancha and Aragon fed Italian and Catalan looms.

• Banking: Venetian and Genoese firms, Catalan–Majorcan cartography and credit.

Subsistence and Technology

• Canal estates and huertas in Valencia/Murcia/Andalusia; Venetian Arsenal mass-produced galleys; Rialto and Piazza San Marco symbolized mercantile power.

Movement and Interaction Corridors

• Strait of Gibraltar linked Atlantic–Med flows; Messina straits managed Sicily transit; Po–Venetian lagoon fed Adriatic convoys; Ebro–Pyrenees, Tajo–Guadiana corridors fed Iberian ports.

Belief and Symbolism

• Avignon Papacy (outside region yet influential) shaped Provençal–Italian–Aragonese politics;

• Mendicant orders (Franciscans, Dominicans) in Barcelona, Valencia, Venice, Naples;

• Cathedrals and civic loggias embodied urban identities.

Adaptation and Resilience

• Irrigation + maritime redundancy cushioned climatic stress;

• Plural city-republics and crowns allowed merchants to shift flags, ports, and credit;

• Guilds and statutes stabilized labor and prices post-plague.

Long-Term Significance

By 1395, Mediterranean Southwest Europe was a dual maritime engine—Venice in the east, Crown of Aragon in the west—nested with Castile–Portugal consolidation on land. The subregion underwrote the late-medieval Mediterranean economy, setting the stage for 15th-century imperial and commercial expansion.

The Jamestown colony, in its first election in 1619, does not allow any continental settlers to vote, including approximately fifty Polish craftsmen and their families.

They are denied the right to vote on the grounds that they are not of English descent. 

The craftsmen, in response, refuse to work unless they are given the right to vote.

Under this labor pressure, the Virginia Company's Council reverses the decision to disenfranchise the craftsmen, and simultaneously strikes an agreement with the craftsmen to apprentice young men from the colony.

The company leaders fear not only the loss of income and labor, but that the colony might gain a reputation for not being welcoming to further settlers not of English descent, especially skilled craftsmen. 

John Smith first encountered and was impressed with the talents of Polish craftsmen when he traveled through Poland in 1602, fleeing the Turks who had enslaved him.

The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth is at this time the largest kingdom of Europe, covering the present territory of Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Belarus, Ukraine, and parts of Russia. 

Early in Jamestown's history, Smith and the Virginia Company began recruiting workers from mainland Europe to come to their new colony.

The first of these foreign workers had come with the second group of settlers who arrived in the colony in 1608; two of these workers would later save Smith's life in an attack by Native Americans  as noted in Smith's writings.

Contemporary historical accounts refer to this first group of foreign craftsmen as Dutchmen and Poles. 

The foreign craftsmen began producing glassware, pitch, and potash soon after their arrival in 1608. These goods were used in the colony, but were also important as they were the first goods exported from the colony to Europe.

Later more skilled workers arrived and continued to produce tar, resin, and turpentine, and clapboard and frankincense as well. 

As Charleston has grown, so has the community's cultural and social opportunities, especially for the elite merchants and planters.

The first theater building in America had been built in 1736 in Charleston.

Several different ethnic groups have been formed benevolent societies.

The Charleston Library Society is established in 1748 by some wealthy Charlestonians who wish to keep up with the scientific and philosophical issues of the day.

Eliza Lucas, daughter of plantation owner George Lucas, had learned, with the help of African slaves from the Caribbean, how to raise and use indigo in the Low-Country in 1747.

Supported with subsidies from Britain, indigo is a leading export by 1750.

These and naval stores are exported in an extremely profitable shipping industry.