Another factor in the growing strength and versatility of Scandinavian civilization was the emergence of more martial, or aggressive and warlike, elements of society. In this the Scandinavians got their cue, in a sense, from what was happening with their distant cousins, the Germanic tribes living in the lands north of the Alps and south of Denmark. Prolonged trade and cultural contact with Rome had steadily enriched the Germans in all manner of goods, from gold to textiles to weapons. In the 300s and 400s small bands of Scandinavians began raiding the Germanic lands to acquire some of this loot. The Danes and other Scandinavians were also influenced by ongoing German social and political developments, including the formation of warrior bands, each led by a strong chief. The warriors remained loyal to their chief as long as he guided them to exploits that enriched them. According to Haywood:
Military expeditions to win plunder and tribute [money or valuables paid to acknowledge submission] created a very competitive, predatory society where success in war was the key to power and status. It also led to the concentration of power in fewer and fewer hands and to the merging of tribes, either voluntarily to wage war ... or because a weaker tribe had been conquered by a stronger. It was probably in this way, for example, that the Danes emerged as the dominant people of southern Scandinavia by the 6th century.18
As more Scandinavians copied this model and became increasingly militaristic, they began building large-scale fortifications in their lands. Archaeologists have found evidence for at least fifteen hundred such defenses built between a. d. 400 and 600. They may have been intended not only for local security but also to delineate and defend small local chiefdoms or kingdoms that started to appear toward the end of this period. At least ten of these early political units developed, mostly along the coasts. One was in east-central Sweden, around a site called Gamla Uppsala. Another appeared in Denmark in the
Chiefs of the Scandinavian kingdom centered at Gamla Uppsala were buried beneath these earthen mounds, which today are tourist attractions.
700s, possibly centered at Ribe (Denmark's oldest town), in southwestern Jutland.
Small trading centers were built to facilitate exchanges of goods among these chiefdoms, some of which would, centuries later, become the medieval nations of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway. These centers increasingly became personal power bases for strong, enterprising warrior-chiefs who wanted to get rich and make names for themselves at the same time. Some evidence shows that, in Hall's words, "The evergrowing political power of Scandinavian kings encouraged chieftains to bolster their waning status in the homeland by seeking the large and instant rewards that could be gained in lucrative overseas ventures."19
World History
