we all enjoy learning history sitting at home with a cup of tea reading and looking for interesting information and it's fantastic but sometimes one has to visit the place to uncover all of the aspects of its past therefore this time we are going on a trip to iceland [Music] [Applause] [Music] iceland is a large island located in northern europe near the arctic circle in the atlantic ocean the distance and harsh conditions made iceland one of the last large islands to be inhabited by humans [Music] most of our knowledge about the earliest settlers can be traced to the land namabok or the book of settlements in english it's a medieval manuscript that describes the story of the first norsemen who discovered and inhabited the island the book of settlements mentions irish monks known as the papar as the first settlers who left the island due to the harsh conditions shortly before the norsemen arrived they left crosses books and bells later discovered by the vikings we are told scandinavians sailors discovered iceland by accident after a few research trips the colonization started [Music] the man who is considered as the first permanent settler of iceland was a norwegian named ingolfur arnarsson according to the tradition he founded reykjavik in the year 874 through the next couple of decades other norsemen joined in gold food mostly those who were fleeing conflict or seeking new land to farm by the year 930 the island was already fully settled all arable land was inhabited the settlement had grown to a point when a new form of governance was necessary the chieftains had established their own thingy which is considered to be the world's oldest nationwide parliament the al-thingi or the all thing in english was an assembly of all three icelanders they gathered on the thing that lead plane once a year in summer to constitute new laws and appoint juries laws were not written down but instead were memorized by an elected law speaker when the old thing took place crowds of peasants merchants and craftsmen gathered together it was the most important social event of the whole year eric the red discovered greenland in ad 981 and around the year 1000 icelanders under leif eriksen became the first europeans to land in america in what is today newfoundland canada the colonization of america however did not succeed probably due to the conflicts with the natives and so the vikings abandoned the new continent the settlers of the iceland believed mostly in norse mythology and gods such as odin thor freyja and many others throughout the 10th century however many icelanders converted to christianity because of the political pressure from mainland europe the religious differences caused some conflicts and so in ad1000 the all thing decided to convert iceland as a whole as a whole country to christianity but pagans were still allowed to worship the gods privately the first icelandic bishop named islay fur gi sturarson was consecrated in 1056 by the bishop adelbert of hamburg [Music] it is thought that in the ninth century when the first settlers of iceland arrived iceland was covered approximately in 40 in natural verge forests the norsemen however used wood for constructing buildings and ships or burnt it for warmth therefore iceland was gradually being deforestated [Music] up to the 14th century settlers raised turf houses similar to the traditional viking longhouses which required a lot of wood but later due to the lack of timber they had to develop a long lasting tradition of their smaller icelandic turf houses the next distinct period of the history of iceland began in the 13th century in 1220 a civil war broke out in iceland snorri sturlurson known as a great saga writer and his nephew sturla sigmatsum were chieftains of the sturlungar family clan one of the two main clans engaged in the conflict sturla is known for battling his icelandic enemies who refused to accept the island to be a subject of hakon the old king of norway both sides clashed in the battle of erlixtadir the biggest battle in icelandic history which resulted in stirlas defeat nevertheless it wasn't over yet clashes continued to happen and the chieftain named gizur thurwaltsson who was a former rival of stirla was made a yadal by the norwegian king due to his efforts in 1262 the gamli satmali or the old covenant was signed ending the icelandic commonwealth the island became now the vassal of the kingdom of norway ending a period in icelandic history called the age of stirlungs [Music] to find out more we went to the capital of iceland reykjavik and more specifically to the national museum of iceland iceland experienced a time of peace under norwegian rule but in 1397 norway sweden and denmark became part of the kalmar union in which denmark was the dominant power this way iceland became a danish subject unfortunately denmark unlike norway didn't need icelandic wool or fish which dramatically hurt icelandic economy also it's worth noting that the viking colony established in greenland in the 10th century died out completely by the 1500s the 15th century in icelandic history is sometimes called the english age since more and more english merchants and fishermen were sailing to iceland to fish in the rich waters the trade helped icelanders to raise their living standards in the 16th century german merchants became more engaged in the icelandic economy the bishop of holar jon arson introduced printing to the island also in the 1500s the bible was translated to icelandic in the middle of the 16th century danish king christian iii imposed lutheranism on his subjects some catholic priests however and especially talked already about jon arson refused to promote lutheranism and they put up a fight tension was growing throughout a few years but the opposition finally ended in 1550 when jon arson was defeated in the battle of saudavel and later beheaded followingly iceland became lutheran and remains mostly so to this day in the year 1602 the danish icelandic trade monopoly was instituted iceland was forbidden to trade with anyone except denmark which obviously weakened the icelandic economy 150 years later in the second half of the 18th century the most tragic period in the icelandic history started the climate of iceland had reached an all-time low since the original settlement on top of that something totally unexpected happened [Music] the lucky volcano erupted on the 8th of june 1783. lava heat floods and toxic gases killed 9 000 icelandic citizens and almost 80 percent of nations livestock this period is known as the missed hardships the ensuing famine killed a quarter of the icelandic population and the institution of all thing was cancelled in the year 1800 looting and plundering became frequent considering the tragic situation of the icelanders the danish trade monopoly was abolished but denmark still limited the trade to a certain extent [Music] [Music] [Music] at this time reykjavik became the capital of iceland with only 200 inhabitants [Music] throughout the 19th century the climate got even more hostile causing mass emigration to northern america however thanks to the popular nationalist romantic ideas at the time in the 19th century is also the time of a national revival and new independence movement was led by a lawyer named jon siegertsen the all thing was reestablished in 1843 and the foreign trade was liberated in 1855. in 1874 iceland received its constitution and control of the economy in 1904 autonomy was founded and hannes hofstein became the first prime minister of iceland the island was prospering but unfortunately the first world war broke out and iceland became more isolated the war of course caused a decline in living standards and the deficit of food during the war iceland was a part of mutual denmark but many icelanders sympathized with allies iceland was trading a lot during the war with the united kingdom 391 men born in iceland and 894 of icelandic descent were registered soldiers fighting for canada and united states the skillful governance of internal affairs as well as the relations with other countries helped strengthen the status of iceland in 1918 the act of union between iceland and denmark was signed it recognized iceland as a fully sovereign country the kingdom of iceland it was connected to denmark by a personal union with the danish king denmark however was still representing its foreign affairs and was responsible for defending the island at this time also iceland established its own flag the post-world war one prosperity was ended by the great depression which started in 1929 and lasted until the second world war the value of icelandic export rapidly declined and another period of starvation began finally the second world war broke out now we have to understand that iceland's position on the globe is actually extremely important strategically in modern global warfare firstly it's situated on the atlantic ocean between mainland europe and northern america giving a huge advantage to whoever occupies it in controlling air traffic and waters of the ocean in addition it gives an easy access to both continents as nazi germany occupied the denmark cutting of communication with iceland the whole thing declared that denmark wasn't capable of supporting iceland anymore and so all powers were moved to the icelandic government icelanders turned down british offers of protection in order to preserve their neutrality but britain didn't want to risk iceland being captured by the nazis british military forces invaded iceland on the 10th of may 1914. even though the icelandic government protested against the violation of country's neutrality there was no military resistance and the prime minister of iceland even advised citizens to treat british soldiers politely there were up to 25 000 british troops stationing on the island in july 1941 due to an agreement with the us the british were replaced with up to 40 000 american soldiers they outnumbered all adult icelandic men at a time the agreement also guaranteed iceland to be recognized by the us as a fully independent country at least 159 icelanders died on fishing boats destroyed by the german u-boats aircraft or mines the period of the occupation of iceland however significantly boosted the icelandic economy through the money spent by the soldiers before the war iceland was considered to be a very poor country but by the end of the conflict it was one of the wealthiest in 1944 a constitutional referendum was held in iceland despite denmark being still under nazi occupation 98 of votes opted for independence and establishing a republic finally on the 17th of june 1944 the republic of iceland was proclaimed and sven burensen became the first president for the latter half of the 20th century the economy was prospering and unemployment was low in 1949 iceland also joined natto as one of the founders [Music] after world war ii americans were to leave the island according to the keflavik agreement however due to the growing tensions between the usa and the soviet union during the cold war americans decided one-sidedly to maintain the military presence in iceland to prevent soviet nuclear attacks this caused many protests from the icelanders but it was to no effect in 1951 the airport finally returned to iceland defense forces but the keflavik naval air station was controlled by the us navy until 2006. in recent times iceland's economy was prospering until the financial crash in 2008 iceland was forced to take large loans from other countries in the following years however the country managed to pay back the loans stabilize the economy and end the financial crisis today iceland is a very modern and prospering country with a long rich and beautiful history [Music]