There are some people, particularly geographers, who say that natural catastrophes, such as earthquakes, volcanoes, floods, and landslides are nature’s way of teaching people geography. With the recent volcanic activity in Iceland, I thought it might be interesting to do a profile of Iceland.
Iceland lies just below the arctic circle, but its climate is moderated by the mid-Atlantic drift. Iceland’s pastures and sheltered fjords and valleys are primarily on the west side of the island. Iceland is essentially a vast plateau built up by volcanoes, snowfields, and glaciers. The island has about 40,000 square miles, but only about 15% of the land is habitable.
In Human Geography (that’s the part of geography that looks at the interactions between people and their environments), we often point to Iceland as an example of a homogenous country. Most countries in the world exhibit a great deal of diversity with regard to the religious, ethnic, and linguistic make-up of the people. Iceland is one of the few that has almost no diversity.
With regard to religious diversity, for example, four out of five belong to the Lutheran Church of Iceland. There are a scattering of other Christian denominations: Roman Catholic (2.5%), Reykjavik Free Church (2.4%), and Hafnarfjorour Free Church (1.6%).
The first humans to inhabit Iceland were probably Celtic (Irish and Scottish) hermits who came to the island seeking isolation in which to contemplate God. These Christian monks probably arrived on the island in the early 8th century and left little impact on the land.
The primary colonization of the island was carried out between 870 and 930 by the Norse. In 870, Swedish merchant Gardar Svavarrsson was driven off course on his way to the Faeroes Islands and landed on Iceland. He was followed by the Viking Naddod and Raven Floki Vilgerdarson (sometimes called Floki the Lucky) who reported that Iceland had free land for the taking, as well as abundant fish, sea mammals, and birds. While the island is virtually treeless, it offers a good deal of pasture land.
There is, however, some archaeological evidence showing that there may have been some Norse settlement prior to this, perhaps as early as the late 7th century.
Ingólfur Arnarson was the first permanent Norse settler whose name we know. He built his homestead in Reykjavík in 874 and was soon followed by other immigrant Norse settlers and their Irish slaves. By 930, most of the arable land on the island had been claimed. It is estimated that between 5,000 and 15,000 settlers had come to Iceland during the previous 50 years. The Norse exploited the land primarily for stock raising and founded isolated farmsteads.
Some of the new settlers left Norway because of political unrest. For example, Unn the Deep-Minded, the sister of Helgi the Lean, left Norway because she was dismayed by the tyranny of Harald Finehair.
Iceland had no cities or towns: some of the isolated farmsteads, however, may have had several hundred people. The Althing was the major social institution that bound the Icelandic farmsteads together. The Althing had no formal structure. There was a "law-speaker" who was elected for a three-year term. The "law speaker" would stand on the Law Rock and recite the law from memory, giving one-third of it each year. Major disputes and settlements among citizens were announced at the Law Rock.
While many of the early settlers were pagan, Christianity was adopted as the national religion about 999-1000. The Althing ratified the national conversion to Christianity. At this time, there are about 70,000 people living in Iceland. This is probably the high point of Iceland’s population until the end of the 19th century.
Dr. Kenneth Harl of Tulane University, in his Teaching Company course on the Vikings says:
The Icelanders, therefore, were a tough Scandinavian race, able to adjust to a harsh landscape and, certainly, for 250 years, to really succeed brilliantly in conditions that would tax almost anyone.
The Icelandic farmers expanded their pastureland by cutting down the island’s dwarf trees. The destruction of these forests led to the erosion of the uplands reducing the land available for grazing. The deteriorating ecological conditions during the 12th and 13th centuries led to the emergence of powerful men who could consolidate power. Snorri Strulung carved out his own mini-kingdom.
By 1262, the original Commonwealth political system was unable to cope with the increasing power of the Icelandic chieftains. Internal struggles and civil strife lead to the signing of the Old Covenant which brought Iceland under the jurisdiction of the Norwegian crown under Hakon IV and his son Magnus VI. When the kingdoms of Norway, Denmark, and Sweden were united in the Kalmar Union in the late 14th century, Iceland became a possession of Denmark-Norway.
Life on this volcanic island was harsh. The soil is not particularly good, there were volcanic eruptions, and an unforgiving climate. For a society whose subsistence depended on agriculture, Iceland was one of the poorest countries in Europe. Then the Black Death swept across the island twice, once in 1402-1404 and again in 1494-1495, and killed about half of the population.
In the 16th century, King Christian III of Denmark imposed Lutheranism on all his subjects. The last Catholic bishop in Iceland and two of his sons were beheaded in 1550. Since that time, the dominant religion has been Lutheranism.
Denmark-Norway was broken into two separate kingdoms in 1814 and Iceland became a Danish dependency.
In 1783, the Laki volcano erupted and as a result more than half of the livestock in the country died. Famine ensued and about one fourth of the population perished.
In 1875, the Askja volcano erupted and devastated Iceland’s economy. By the beginning of the 20th century, one fifth of the island’s population had emigrated, mostly to Canada (primarily to Manitoba) and the United States.
Iceland was given limited home rule in 1874. In 1918, the Act of Union, an agreement with Denmark, recognized Iceland as a fully sovereign state in a personal union with the King of Denmark. While Iceland maintained an embassy in Copenhagen, Denmark controlled foreign affairs with other countries.
With World War II, Iceland declared its neutrality, but in 1940 the British Armed Forces occupied the country and in 1941 the United States took over the defense of Iceland at the invitation of the Icelandic government.
In 1944 the Act of Union Agreement expired and Iceland became a republic. Sveinn Bjornsson was elected as the first president.