History of Iceland

Iceland was settled in the late 9th and early 10th centuries, principally by people of Norwegian and other Scandinavian origin, many of whom are believed to have been fleeing the harsh rule of the Norwegian king Haraldur Harfagri (Harald the Fair-haired). This period, from about period 874 - 930 AD, is considered to be the initial settlement, even though the island had been settled by Irish monks before the arrival of the Vikings. Little is known about the monks except that they moved away when the Vikings started to arrive. The first person credited with settling in Iceland was a Norwegian chieftain named Ingólfur Arnarson. He settled with his family in southwestern Iceland, in a place he named Reykjavík, or Smoke Bay. This very same place would eventually become the capital of the modern Icelandic state.

In 930, the ruling chiefs established a republican constitution and an assembly called the Alþingi (English: Althing). The parliament convened each summer at Þingvellir, where representative chieftains (Goðorðsmenn) amended laws, settled disputes and performed executions. Laws were not written down, but were instead memorized by an elected "lögsögumaður", or Speaker of the law. The Alþingi is believed to be the world's oldest existing parliament.

Iceland enjoyed a mostly uninterrupted period of growth in its commonwealth years. As is well known, settlements from that era have been found in southwest Greenland and eastern Canada, and one viking saga, "Eiríks saga Rauða" speaks of the settlers' exploits.

The settlers of Iceland were mostly pagans, and worshipped, among others, Óðinn, Þór and Loki. In the year 1000, they accepted Christianity upon a parliamentary decision made to avert threatening civil war. The decision also forbade all public pagan practices and rituals from then on.

As the 11th and 12th centuries passed, the government of Iceland became less free, as the former, notable independence of local farmers and chieftains gave way to the growing power of a handful of families and their leaders.

The Icelandic Commonwealth remained independent until 1262, when it entered into a treaty which established a union with the Norwegian monarchy. The treaty ended the bloodiest period in icelandic history, which began in 1220 when Snorri Sturluson became a vassal of the Norwegian king, and subsequently his nephew Sturla Sighvatsson also became a vassal in 1235. Sturla used the power and influence of the Sturlungar family to wage war against the other clans in iceland. It passed to Denmark-Norway in the late 14th century when Norway and Denmark were united. When the united kingdoms were separated by the treaty of Kiel in 1814, Denmark kept Iceland as a dependency.

Though geographically removed from Europe, Iceland was never isolated. Mariners from many nations -- Christopher Columbus perhaps among them -- came to call and trade at Iceland's ports throughout the Middle Ages and early modern period.

In the early 19th century, national consciousness revived in Iceland, and an independence movement developed under Jón Sigurdsson. The Alþingi had been abolished in 1800 but was reestablished in 1843 as a consultative assembly. In 1874, thousand years after the first acknowledged settlement, Denmark granted Iceland home rule, which again was extended in 1904. The constitution, written in 1874, was revised in 1903, and a minister for Icelandic affairs, residing in Reykjavík, was made responsible to the Alþingi. The Act of Union, a December 1, 1918 agreement with Denmark, recognized Iceland as a fully sovereign state united with Denmark under a common king. Iceland established its own flag and asked that Denmark represent its foreign affairs and defense interests.

German occupation of Denmark on April 9, 1940 severed communications between Iceland and Denmark. As a result, the Parliament of Iceland on April 10 resolved to take matters into its own hands, but without declaring independence yet. In May 1940, British military forces occupied Iceland. In July 1941, responsibility for Iceland's defense passed to the United States under a U.S. - Icelandic defense agreement. Following a plebiscite, Iceland formally became an independent republic on June 17, 1944.

In October 1946, the Icelandic and U.S. Governments agreed to terminate U.S. responsibility for the defense of Iceland, but the United States retained certain rights at Keflavík. Iceland became a charter member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 1949. After the outbreak of hostilities in Korea in 1950, and pursuant to the request of NATO military authorities, the United States and Iceland agreed that the United States should again be responsible for Iceland's defense. This agreement, signed on May 5, 1951, is the authority for U.S. military presence in Iceland. Iceland is the only NATO country with no military forces.


View Live Article	This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License