While Europe saw Greenland as a remote outpost, Greenlanders considered themselves European. Greenland seemed the perfect place to pursue the Norse lifestyle, and for over a century, the colonies flourished. But by the 13th century, a cooling climate and plague in Europe caused trade to dwindle to a trickle. Yet Greenlanders hung on, sticking to Norse ways to the very end. Eventually, the Western Settlement was abandoned by 1350; the Eastern Settlement, by 1450.