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Icelandic History in a Nutshell

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Icelandic History in a Nutshell Icelandic history in a nutshell Guðmundur Hálfdanarson Professor of History and Dean of the School of Humanities The Icelandic story • “National narratives” – Who are “we”? – How did “we” come about? Jón Jónsson Aðils Jónsson Jón • The Icelandic national narrative – Glorious past • 9th-13th centuries – Foreign oppression • 13th-19th centuries – National(ist) renaissance • Since late 19th century Settlement of Iceland • The settlers: – “Norwegians”, originating in western part of Norway • Through the British Isles – “British-Irish” women • Political reasons? – unification of Norway • Demographic pressure – Viking expansion • Late 9th century (874 AD) – Earlier settlement • Historical documents vs. archaeological evidence • Fully settled in the 10th century – 10-20,000 settlers – c. 40-60,000 inhabitants around 1100 Commonwealth Period (c.930-1262/64) • Þjóðveldisöld – “Free State” – “Commonwealth” • Alþingi (c. 930) – two weeks every summer at Þingvellir – court – Lögrétta (right the law) • Legislative assembly? • National “parliament”? – trade fair W. G. Collingwood, 1897 Stateless society • Laws but no centralized executive power – A state has monopoly over a Danish godi romantic view of A the use of force • Goðar (Chieftains) – originally some religious function – 36-39 – hereditary titles – personal relationship, not geographic districts • From personal rule to semi- states – 13th century: Sturlungaöld • struggle for hegemony • cooperation with Norwegian kings • A nation state? Commonwealth Period – literary achievements • Oral traditions – eddic poetry – scaldic poetry • Literature – c 1000: Christianity • 1056, first Icelandic bishop (Ísleifur Gissurarson) – laws and learned literature – Íslendingasögur (Icelandic sagas) – samtímasögur (contemporary sagas) • Whose literature? – Icelandic, Norwegian, norrænn, Germanic … – ownership of cultural heritage Fighters, from Flateyjarbók End of the Commonwealth Period • 13th century: Civil war • 1262-64: The Old Covenant (Gamli sáttmáli) – Iceland becomes part of Norwegian monarchy – A social contract … – … or later fiction? • Emerging state power (goðar sýslumenn) • Legal restructuring – Járnsíða (1271/73) – Jónsbók (1281-early 14th c.) Manuscript of Jónsbók, from around 1600 (Reykjabók) “The Dark Ages” • Signs of decline (14th c. and onwards) – Cultural decline – Growing isolation – Economic decline • harsher climate • ecological deterioration – soil erosion – woods depleted • Signs of “humiliation” – Poverty and famines – Demographic stagnation or decline Growing royal hegemony • Late 14th century: Iceland part of Danish monarchy – 1380: Danish and Norwegian crowns merge • 1550: Lutheran Reformation – Jón Arason, bishop in Hólar, decapitated with his two sons – the king the head of the church • 1602: Trade monopoly • 1662: Royal absolutism – the king sovereign • Danish oppression or European statemaking? 18th century: times of trouble • 1707: Small pox epidemic (Stóra bóla) • 1750s: harsh weather famine • 1783-5: Famine of the Mist (Móðuharðindi) – 1783-4: Skaftáreldar (Skaftár Eruption) • Lakagígar – close to Vatnajökull – Life-stock dies from poisonous gases • “It was so dark because of the smoke and mist that it was difficult to travel … The sky was red as blood, both when the sun came up in the morning and when it set in the evening” (contemporary source). • Was Iceland inhabitable? 10000 20000 30000 40000 50000 60000 0 1700 1705 1710 1715 1720 1725 1703 of Iceland, Population 1730 1735 1740 1745 1750 1755 - 1760 1800 1765 1770 1775 1780 1785 1790 1795 1800 160 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 1735 1745 1755 1765 1775 1785 1795 Births per 1000 inhabitants Deaths per 1000 inhabitants Icelandic society in ca. 1850 • Social structures – Peasant society • 90% living on farms • 95% tenants – Small elite • Royal officials (mostly Icelandic) • Landowners – No real bourgeoisie – No towns or urban centres – Sparsely populated and limited population growth • Economic structures – Agriculture dominates – Fisheries important, but subservient to agriculture • Culture – Only one school in the entire country Icelandic farm – from Illustreret – Strong literary tradition Tidende, 1881-82 • High levels of literacy 19th Century Tourists: Was Iceland a Part of “Europe”? • 19th-century tourism – British, French, German, Scandinavian, American … – Visiting the “Other” • Comparing the “periphery” to the “center” • New travel patterns – Scenes of the Sagas – Spectacular nature – Reykjavík and “the Golden Circle” • Travel books – Sources on perceptions rather than “reality” Where are thine olden fame …? • “In character the people are phlegmatic, conservative to a fault, and desperately indolent. They have particular knack of doing what has to be done in the clumsiest manner imaginable.” • “Iceland has withered under the same paralyzing influence [as Greenland], and the whole character of the people has been deteriorated by the grinding want of the necessaries of life, so that there is now none of the energy and enterprise among them which were the distinguishing feature of the early population”. Baring-Gould, Iceland. Its Scenes and Sagas (1863) “We are not Skrælings” • Icelanders sensitive to the opinions of others • Sigurður Guðmundsson, “the Painter” • “… the honor of the fatherland is at risk, and it is imperative for us to cleanse us of the opinion of foreigners, claiming that we are destitute and have nothing but mud huts to crawl into as skrælings; this opinion will stick to us if we do not show, black on white, that it is a lie …” (1864) • “Europeans” vs. the rest • Let’s built a national museum! Beginning of Icelandic politics • Copenhagen, early 19th century • Centre for Icelandic intellectual life • University of Copenhagen • Political fermentation • The French Revolution • Democratic demands (representation) • Liberal demands (freedom of expression) • Romanticism • Nationalism • The nation is the source of political legitimacy • Danish national construction • Icelandic reaction • Students and candidates • Political and cultural periodicals University of Copenhagen The 19th-century nationalism • The nationalist dogma – all nations should be sovereign • “What we once had been, we could become again” • The dilemma – the Icelanders could not govern themselves • they lacked the necessary infrastructures – roads, schools, hospitals, harbours … • they lacked the economic base • they needed political connections to the external world • Could the ties with Denmark be cut? • Jón Sigurðsson (1811-1879) and the Icelandic nationalist movement – Lived in Copenhagen for most of his adult life – National-liberal – Negotiation rather than conflict The two faces of the ‘sjálfstæðisbarátta’ The political struggle The socio-economic struggle • 1845: Alþingi (re)established • Breaking the cycle of poverty • 1851: Iceland rejects to be and stagnation – Establishing the base for a integrated into a Danish sustainable modern state nation-state • The first ‘industrial revolution’ • 1874: King Christian IX ‘gives’ – Mechanized fisheries Iceland its constitution • The second ‘industrial • 1904: Home rule revolution’ • 1918: Iceland sovereign state – Electricity in union with Denmark • New relations to the external world • 1944: Iceland independent – WWII republic – The Cold War The first ‘industrial revolution’ • 1902: The first Icelandic motor boat • 1905: The first Icelandic steam trawler • 1930s: The Icelandic fishing industry fully mechanized – marine products as propor- tion of all exports: • 1890: 54% • 1900: 77% • 1940: 95% • 1960: 92% • 1980: 75% • 2000: 63% • 2010: 39% • 2017: 38% Natural resources – the sea • Until 1900 – underused resource • Early 20th century: industrialized fisheries – 1933: 518,000 tons of cod • more than half caught by foreign vessels – 2008: 151,000 – 2016: 264,000 • 1948-75: “nationalization” of the fishing banks – 1948: Landgrunnslög (Continental Shelf Law) – 1952-75: fishing limits extended from 4-200 miles – scientifically managed fisheries Collision of an Icelandic coastguard vessel • Fisheries still hugely important and a British warship – Cultural and ideological importance Population in Iceland and Reykjavík area, 1901-2010 350000 70 300000 60 250000 50 200000 40 % Number 150000 30 100000 20 50000 10 0 0 1901 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 Total The Reykjavik Area The Reykjavík Area, % The second industrial revolution • Electric dreams – New natural resources – The poet Einar Benediktsson • Transform the waterfalls into light Búrfell Power Station • 1965: Búrfell and Construction of Kárahnjúkar station Kárahnjúkar of Construction Straumsvík – First major industrial project – Hydroelectricity into aluminium • 2009: Kárahnjúkar and Reyðarfjörður – The last mega power station? • 2017: Aluminium 39% of Icelandic exports International conditions – WWII • 10 May 1940: The British army occupies Iceland – Denmark occupied by the Germans 9 April • June 1941: Defense treaty with the US government – Security of the N-Atlantic – Over 50,000 Allied soldiers at the peak (120,000 Icelanders) • Economic and cultural revolution – New lifestyles – Full employment – Fundamental basis for the Republic • Geographical location – Still a new economic resource Iceland and the Cold War • Iceland – the reluctant ally • 1946: The Keflavík Agreement • 1949: Iceland a founding member of NATO • 1951: Defense Treaty with the United States – foreign army on a hallowed ground – the Keflavík base and the Icelandic economy • 1990s: The end of the Cold War Austurvöllur, 30 March 1949
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