The viking sword and Exploration

The Viking sword +ULFBERH+T
 We recently learned about the +ULFBERH+T sword. It is a sword that has crucible steel in it. It is a steel that has very few dots and slags as they call them in it. It is better then other steel of its time. To make it you would have to heat the iron and coal to a very high temperature, and in Europe it seemed that no one could do it. But in the middle east there was swords made with crucible steel. This means that the Vikings must have gone to there and got the Crucible steel. Historians think that they went on the Volga trade route. This is a route from Sweden to Iran it is mostly on water. It goes along the Volga river and lakes. Then it goes to the Caspian sea and past it into modern-day Iran and Iraq. Vikings might have got Crucible steel from here. I think they did and so do others. Then they would have gone back to Scandinavia in small rowboats. There they would shape the steel into the sword. But the inscription of +ULFBERH+T is still a mystery. No one knows who Ulfberht was. Christian Abbots and Popes put a cross in front of their name. Maybe this was a Christian Abbot who had made it. But the Christians were forbidden to Trade with the Pagan Vikings. Maybe a Christan viking had made it. Or maybe just a Viking had made it. Or it was a brand name. But it showed that the sword was made with Crucible steel. Other Ulfberht swords were made but they did not have Crucible steel in them. They were fakes. They had the letters +ULFBERHT+ on them. Someone was trying to copy +ULFBERH+T. If you had a +ULFBERH+T sword you would be highly honored as a great and rich warrior. +ULFBERH+T Swords were like the best kind of weapons. 

Exploration
The Vikings who originated in Scandinavia, explored from North America to Pakistan.
They were great explores on sea. They were not the best on land though. Proof that they had gone to North America and Pakistan is real. A viking ruins was found in North America and Statues of Buddha were found in Viking graves. The Vikings also went to Greenland, Iceland, Newfoundland,  Israel, Constantinople, Italy, Spain, Morocco, Russia, France, England, Ireland,Greece, Iraq and Iran. Like you probably know Vikings did not have horns on their helmets and there are also peaceful and economic vikings.

Thirty years war

the Spanish general  Don Ambrosio Spinola

Ferdinand the second holy roman emperor  

The thirty years war was a conflict between most of Europe .it started out as a religious war and ended out as a war for power and land .here's how it started . There were many German states in the holy roman empire and some of them were Protestant or Luther and some were Catholic .so there started to be tensions between the states and it seemed they were going to fight each other .so the holy roman emperor ( a devout Catholic ) quickly made a law that said all states can worship whatever they want. but that didn't work because in 1618 the bohemian ( now part of the czech republic ) revolt began. the Protestant bohemians did not like there Catholic rulers and a group of them threw two catholic noble men or prague castle window ! what they did was called the defenestration of Prague which means throwing someone out the window . after that the bohemian noble men chose Protestant Frederick to be there king and he became allies with the ottomans by sending Ambassadors to Istanbul . The ottomans in return send ambassadors to prague . The ottomans attacked Poland won a few battles then lost one and withdrew from the war after that they stopped there alliance with bohemia . Catholic holy roman emperor Ferdinand became emperor in 1619 and send his army to bohemia . in 1 year defeated the bohemians .Frederick fled to Protestant Netherlands .now bohemia was Catholic . Spain entered the war in 1621. (Here are the reasons they enters the war . #1 because Ferdinand the II war a member of the Hapsburg family which included Spain and Austria #2 because they wanted power and they thought if they helped the holy roman empire he would give them some power ) on the empires side and attacked the Netherlands in 4 years Netherlands asked Denmark and England to help the English could not help much because they were in the middle of a civil war . Under Christian IV Denmark attacked the northern holy roman empire and took some land .Then Denmark asked France to help even though France was Catholic it helped Denmark because it's enemy's were the Hapsburg's the combined army of the French and the Danes took more land . So Ferdinand the II holy roman emperor made Tilly and Wallenstein his generals and Tilly marched towards the Danes while

Gustavus Adolphus

Wallenstein marched towards a Protestant German army . The Danes were defeated because France were in a civil war ( the war with the Protestant Huguenots ) and England was also in the middle of a civil war . The Germans were also defeated at the battle of Dessau bridge . The swedes enters the war under Gustavus Adolphus  ( here are the reasons the swedes entered the war • Gustavus wanted to become Holy roman emperor
• the swedes thought that the Hapsburg's were to powerful
• the swedes wanted to help the Protestant cause ) and won many battles there biggest victory was the battle of Breitenfeld but at the battle of Lützen Gustavus was killed and the swedes withdrew a year or so later . After that the French kept fighting they lost to the Spanish at the starting but defeated them later the .Danes helped the Spanish fight the French after they were conquered by Tilly . The war ended with the peace treaty of Westphalia . after the war France became the most powerful european nation . Many people died during the war not only the soldiers but civilians to . The war nearly halved the population of most German states .

Cardinal de Richelieu of France 

Wallenstien the Catholic  general