How did Europe's geography affect the Viking Magyar and Muslim invasion?

Answer 1

All of these invasions occurred due to very different aspects of Europe's geography and each of these invaders was well suited to this type of invasion.

Vikings: The Vikings were a sea-faring people who only looted and plundered towns on the European mainland (as opposed to annexing them or proclaiming over them). They were helped by the short distances between the Scandinavian Peninsula and the Germanic regions. Additionally, the proliferation of fishes along the long coast of Germanic regions prompted many villages to be built along the water's edge. This made the pillaging far easier since Vikings no longer had to penetrate miles of unknown forests to acquire wealth.

Magyar: The Magyar were known for their skills as light cavalry, which means that they are most effective on plains or relatively flat land away from city walls and mountains. The area that the Magyar invaded, Imperial Hungary, is just such a "flat-land" between the Carpathians, the Alps, and the Transylvanian Mountains. The geography of this region made their control of it relatively easy and this is why their empire roughly mirrored the topographical map for many centuries.

Muslim: As concerns Muslims, there are two Muslim invasions of Europe.

Muslim-Amazigh: While the Amazigh (also known as Berbers or Moors) were terrible at sea-faring (which would have made the Straits of Gibraltar between Spain and Morocco a difficult crossing), they had an invitation and protection from the Visigothic pretender to the throne, Akhila, to support his claim against King Roderic. Many of the leaders of King Roderic's army were opposed to his rule and therefor provided little resistance to this army which had experience on long-distance conquest.

Muslim-Ottoman: The Bosporus and the walls of Constantinople made it so that the Byzantine Empire in that city was able to hold out for nearly a hundred years after the Ottoman Empire had encircled them in Southern Europe. Outside of Constantinople, geography was less important than the modern warfare techniques that the Ottoman used against the Europeans.