History in Brief
Size and Population Today
Iceland is 39,756 sq. miles, about as big as England, with .006% as many people. Or in American terms, that's 4 times the size of Massachusetts and with one-fifth of the people. Most people live on the coast as the
interior highland is uninhabitable, consisting largely of glaciers, lakes,
lava, and sand.
First Settlement
Iceland is thought to have been briefly settled by Irish
Monks, who then no doubt realized the country was trying to kill them, and
moved on. Norse came over and permanently settled down, forming several
chiefdoms that eventually were united under the what is the world’s oldest
parliament.
Vikings
In early America, restless, landless young men dealt with
being restless, landless young men by going west and conquering the frontier and
mining for gold. In Iceland, they became Vikings. Taking advantage of new, faster
ships, they raided monasteries along Britain’s coasts, before venturing as far
as the Middle East and Russia. Raiding wasn’t unusual at the time; what was
unusual was that the Vikings were so damn good at it.
Losing Independence
The chiefs decided, for the sake of unity, that they couldn’t
be a part-pagan, part-Christian country and opted for Christianity. Around the
1200’s everything dissolved into battles between chiefs and Iceland saw a
chance to restore order by accepting the Norwegian king’s rule. In the late
1300’s, Norway sold Iceland to Denmark, who imposes oppressive trading
restrictions.
Regaining Independence
In 1918, Iceland became an independent state of Denmark, and
move increasingly towards independence during World War 2 (in which it
attempted to be neutral). In 1944, Iceland achieved official independent status,
though that didn’t stop other countries from interfering in its international
affairs. Britain and America occupied Iceland during WWII, and the USA would
return to occupy a military base there during the Cold War.
Today
2008 marked Iceland’s major banking collapse and financial
crisis. Iceland is currently trying to become part of the EU.
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