Iceland-Denmark: The Independence of Iceland from Denmark 1814-1944

Iceland is another example of a country that was ruled by a stronger Scandinavian power and achieved its independence by peaceful means.

From the thirteenth century it was ruled by Norway, and later by Denmark, as a Norwegian dependency after the Kalmar Union was established. Following the Peace of Kiel, it was passed on to Denmark.

In the mid-nineteenth century Iceland saw the awakening of an independence movement. The struggle for independence would last from 1830 to 1944 when

403 Ibid.

404 The area had not been settled by any Danes or Inuit peoples. Peter Thomas Ørebech, "Terra Nullius, Inuit Habitation and Norse Occupation–with Special Emphasis on the 1933 East Greenland Case," Arctic Review 7, no. 1 (2016).

it was realized. The movement was grounded in the hardships on the island during the last two decades of the eighteenth century; a period marked by instability in Denmark due to the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars and Icelandic internal matters: The Icelandic causes were volcanic eruptions and unusually cold weather that led to the death of livestock and that produced a famine in which one-fifth of the population perished. ⁴⁰⁵ Compounding these troubles, the Danish rule had become so unresponsive to the island’s needs, it required Iceland to export food during the famine.⁴⁰⁶ Thus the nationalist awakening, which shared some similarities with Norway and other European cases in that it was contemporarily grounded in the Enlightenment and Romanticism of the time, it went further, and idiosyncratically sought an unbroken link to the golden age a 1000 years past.⁴⁰⁷ The Icelandic sagas, would paint a picture of Icelandic grandeur with feasts and the respect granted Icelanders by the royalty of ancient Scandinavia and the British Isles.⁴⁰⁸ Thus the creation of images of a grand past stood in stark contrast with the stark reality of the time. This was reflected in the politics of Iceland where the word [politics] itself came to mean one thing: independence.⁴⁰⁹

The ensuing struggle for independence was fought “with legal arguments rather than arms.”⁴¹⁰ And it would remain a non-violent struggle that would

405 Jesse L Byock, "History and the Sagas: The Effect of Nationalism," From Sagas to society: Comparative approaches to early Iceland (1992).

406 Ibid.

407 Eiríkur Bergmann, "Iceland: A Postimperial Sovereignty Project," Cooperation and Conflict 49, no. 1 (2014).

408 Byock, "History and the Sagas: The Effect of Nationalism."

409 S. Tägil, Ethnicity and Nation Building in the Nordic World (Southern Illinois University Press, 1995). 42

410 In 1848, when the King [of Denmark] abolished absolute monarchy, Jón Sigurðsson [the leader of the independence movement] proposed a theory that was to form the basis for Iceland’s struggle for independence for seven decades.

He argued that Iceland had been subjected to the Norwegian King in 1262-64, not the Norwegian people. Thereby Iceland entered a personal union with Denmark when the Norwegian Crown was subjected to that of Denmark in the

continue for over a century. The Icelanders would see a progression towards the restoration of the powers of state. They got legislative power in 1874 with a constitution;⁴¹¹ Home Rule in 1904;⁴¹² and sovereignty in 1918 with a personal union with Denmark.⁴¹³ The Act of the Union contained a clause for either Denmark or Iceland to demand amendments for the Act by 1940.⁴¹⁴ If three years hence, after 1940, no agreement was reached, a unilateral move to dissolve the union could be made. For this to happen, Iceland would need two thirds support in the Assembly of Iceland and a referendum with the backing of three quarters of the voters.⁴¹⁵ Thus, in 1940, the union of Iceland and Denmark would see the beginning of its end. It would culminate in a unilateral plebiscite in 1944 while Denmark was under German occupation during the Second World War. During the war, Iceland was occupied by the allies and by 1942, the United States had taken over the military protection of Iceland. With American backing the Icelanders would hold the plebiscite for independence from Denmark.⁴¹⁶ Christian X of Denmark attempted to halt the process, with some domestic backing, arguing for a free Denmark before Iceland gained its independence. The Icelanders renounced this attempt based on the rationale that one could not predict the outcome for Iceland in case the Germans won the war.⁴¹⁷ The vote was overwhelmingly for independence with only 0.5 percent voting against. The result was accepted late 14^th century. Later, in 1662, the Icelanders had accepted the absolute rule of the Danish King, not the Danish people. Therefore, the King could not give his power over Iceland to his Danish subjects, but only to the Icelanders. [Author’s Emphasis] ibid. And Bergmann, "Iceland: A Postimperial Sovereignty Project."

411 Sólrun B Jensdóttir Hardarson, "The'republic of Iceland'1940-44: Anglo-American Attitudes and Influences," Journal of Contemporary History (1974).

412 With a minister for Icelandic affairs in Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland.

413 Tägil, Ethnicity and Nation Building in the Nordic World. 42

414 After, per the Act, 25 years had passed since the commencement of the union.

415 Hardarson, "The'republic of Iceland'1940-44: Anglo-American Attitudes and Influences."

416 Gunnar Karlsson, Iceland's 1100 Years: The History of a Marginal Society (C.

Hurst, 2000). 321

417 Ibid. 322

by Denmark with Christian X congratulating Iceland on its newfound independence.

When the republic was inaugurated on 17 June, the birthday of Jon Sigurdsson, the most prominent of those men who had fought for Iceland’s freedom in the nineteenth century, a telegram with King Christian’s congratulations was warmly welcomed by the Icelanders.⁴¹⁸

The case of Icelandic independence in 1944, while differing from that of Norway, still fundamentally represents a Nordic case in which within the regional complex, illustrates a greater power that respects the will of another people. And while, unlike the Ålanders, who for all intents and purposes are Swedes, the Icelandic people form a separate nation with their own distinct language, culture and identity that is dislocated from the rest whilst sharing a common history. The Nordic Region, following the timeline, is showing a strong propensity for coming to peaceful solutions to contentions and a pattern taking shape is discernible. Iceland represents one case of several in which the pattern maintenance of the Nordic region accordingly did not deviate in the Second World War: The principles underpinning the Nordic Peace, even in times of war, stayed true and in their wake a value system follows.

7.5.3 Norway-Russia: Delimiting the Boundary in the Barents