Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The consequences of the
Reformation
were severe, with the new faith forced on an
initially unwilling population, who - in common with many other countries at the
time - may have disagreed with Catholic abuses of power but not with Catholicism
itself. The Danish king acquired all Church holdings and their revenues, profits from
which had previously stayed in Iceland; monasteries were abolished and, deprived of
funds, the Church found it hard to sponsor education - though it did manage to
publish a translation of the Bible in 1584, the first book printed in Icelandic.
Politically, too, the Church was now an instrument of the king, and the Danish
crown gained a far more direct hold on the country. Technically, however, Iceland
remained an independent state through its treaty with Norway, but in 1661 King
Frederick III
declared his rule absolute over all Danish lands, and the following year sent
an armed ambassador to Iceland to make its people swear allegiance. During an
assembly at
Bessastaðir
, near Reykjavík, the Alþing's lawspeaker and Skálholt's bishop
were forced to submit, removing their final vestiges of authority and handing complete
control of the country to the Danish crown.
In the meantime, Iceland's economy - still based on farming and fishing - suffered
a severe blow through the
Trade Monopoly
of 1602. This restricted all trade between
Iceland and the outside world to a select few Danish merchants, who charged
steeply for their goods, while giving poor prices for Icelandic products. By 1700, the
monopoly had ruined the country, creating a poor, dispirited population of tenant
farmers and landless labourers. Fishing was also on the wane, partly because a shortage
of timber meant that Iceland's vessels were basic and small, and easily out-competed
by foreign boats. Aside from a fruitless attempt to introduce
reindeer
as livestock, the
only concrete action taken to redress trade imbalances was made by the bailiff
Skúli
Magnússon
, who in 1752 founded a company at Reykjavík - still just a small farming
settlement at the time - to improve agricultural practices and modernize the wool and
fishing industries. Though the company was only moderately successful, its warehouses
became the core of Reykjavík town, soon to become Iceland's largest settlement and de
facto capital.
Unfortunately, a fresh wave of disasters now swept the country, the worst of which
was the catastrophic
Laki Eruptions
of 1783-84 in the southeast. Poisonous fallout
from Laki wrecked farming over the entire country, and the ensuing
famine
reduced
the population to just 38,000. Denmark briefly considered evacuating the survivors to
Jutland, but in the end settled for easing the economy by replacing the Trade
Monopoly with a
Free Trade Charter
in 1787, which allowed Iceland to do business
with a greater range of Danish merchants. Another effect of the eruptions were
accompanying
earthquakes
,
which knocked over the church at Skálholt and caused
subsidence at the Alþing site; the bishopric was moved to Reykjavík, and the Alþing
- which by now only met irregularly to discuss minor matters - was finally dissolved.
Nationalism
European political upheavals during the early nineteenth-century Napoleonic Wars
had little effect on Iceland, though there was brief excitement in 1809 when
opportunistic Danish interpreter
Jörgen Jörgensen
deposed the governor and ran the
country for the summer. However, the increasingly liberal political climate that
1871
1896
1904
1915
Denmark annexes
Iceland
Iceland's territorial waters are
set to three nautical miles
Home Rule
comes into force
Women gain
the right to vote
