Britannica Student Encyclopedia - 2010

supplies they thought they would need

to get to Valhalla—tools, weapons, and

even boats. Modern scientists have

learned much about Viking life by opening

Viking graves.

Writings called sagas provide even more

information about Vikings. Sagas are

Viking stories that Icelanders wrote

down in the 1100s and 1200s.

Conquests

Vikings first attacked England in the late

700s. In 865 a Viking group from Denmark

called the Danes conquered several

English kingdoms. The English drove

out the Danes in 954, but the Danes

soon returned. The Danish king Canute

I ruled England from 1016 to 1035 as a

part of his Viking empire. England

finally threw off Danish rule in 1042.

However, in 1066 the Normans conquered

England. The Normans were

descendants of Vikings who had settled

in France. The name Norman means

“Northman.”

Vikings first attacked Ireland in 795.

They started several kingdoms there.

They threatened all of Ireland until

1014, when the Irish beat them in the

battle of Clontarf.

Some Vikings roamed eastward. They

attacked and looted the coasts of the

Baltic Sea. After invading Russia, they

moved far inland and mixed with the

native people. The name of Russia

comes from a Viking word.

After the 1000s the Vikings were no

longer an independent group of warriors.

Some mixed with the peoples of

the lands that they conquered. Others

settled down in their homelands. Eventually

they also became Christians.

#More to explore

Denmark • Leif Eriksson • Norway

• Sweden

Vila

Vila is the capital of Vanuatu, an island

country in the Pacific Ocean. The town

is on Efate Island. Vila is a small town,

A Viking burial ship is on display in a

museum in Oslo, Norway.

In some Viking

funerals, the

body was put

in a boat that

was set on fire

and pushed

out into the

water.

BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA Vila 89

 

but it is the largest town in Vanuatu. It

is also one of the country’s main ports.

The town is also called Port-Vila.

Tourism, banking, and other service

industries are important to Vila’s

economy. The town is Vanuatu’s center

of trade.

Melanesian peoples have lived on the

islands of Vanuatu for thousands of

years. In the 1880s the French and British

together took control of the islands.

In the 1940s, duringWorldWar II, the

U.S. Navy used Vila’s harbor as a base.

U.S. troops built many roads and buildings

in the town. In 1980 Vanuatu

became an independent country. Vila

was made the capital.

#More to explore

Vanuatu

Villa, Pancho

Pancho Villa was a leader of the Mexican

Revolution in the early 1900s. Some

people called him a dangerous revolutionary.

Many others saw him as a

defender of the poor.

Pancho Villa was born on June 5, 1878,

in San Juan del Rio, in northern

Mexico. His name at first was Doroteo

Arango. As a young man he led a gang

of criminals and changed his name to

Francisco Villa. Pancho was a nickname.

The president of Mexico, Porfirio Diaz,

was hard on the common people. Villa

helped a leader named Francisco Madero

to overthrow Diaz in 1911. This

began the Mexican Revolution. Victoriano

Huerta, who was Madero’s army

chief, did not trust Villa. He put Villa in

prison. But Villa escaped to the United

States. In 1913 Huerta seized control of

Mexico from Madero. Then Villa

returned to Mexico.

Pancho Villa

Vila, the capital of Vanuatu, is on the coast

of Efate Island. A small island called Iririki

sits in Vila’s harbor.

90 Villa, Pancho BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA

 

Villa put together a group of fighters

called the Division of the North. In

1914 Villa and Venustiano Carranza,

another leader of the revolution,

defeated Huerta. Carranza became the

new leader of Mexico.

Carranza and Villa soon turned against

each other. Carranza forced Villa and

Emiliano Zapata, another rebel leader,

out of Mexico City, the capital. In 1915

the United States gave its support to

Carranza. Villa then murdered U.S.

citizens in both Mexico and the United

States. U.S. soldiers invaded Mexico in

1916, but they did not find Villa.

Carranza was overthrown in 1920. Then

Villa stopped fighting the government.

Someone killed Villa on his ranch near

Parral, Mexico, on June 20, 1923. Police

never solved the murder.

..More to explore

Mexico • Zapata, Emiliano

Vilnius

Population

(2008 estimate)

544,200

Vilnius is the capital of Lithuania, a

country in northeastern Europe. It is the

largest city in Lithuania.

Service industries such as banking, trade,

and tourism are important to the

economy of Vilnius. The city is also a

major manufacturing area. The leading

industries include clothes making, food

processing, and printing and publishing.

Vilnius dates back to about the 900s. In

the 1500s the city grew as a trading center.

For hundreds of years it was also a

center of Jewish culture and learning.

Many countries—including Russia,

Sweden, and Poland—controlled Vilnius

throughout its history. The Soviet Union

captured Lithuania in 1940.

German troops ruled Vilnius in the early

1940s, duringWorldWar II. The city

suffered heavy damage. The Germans

murdered nearly all the city’s Jews. This

was part of a mass killing called the

Holocaust.

After the war the Soviet Union again

ruled Lithuania. In 1991 Lithuania