“Separation will mean the Destruction of Iceland”: Icelandic independence-politics and separation from the Kingdom of Denmark

Resumé

According to Danish critics, Iceland was too small and empoverished to support independence and had to settle with Danish leadership. The Icelanders aimed late for sovereignty and full separation from Denmark under these conditions. This Danish-Icelandic connection was not acceptable in the long term for Iceland. The Danish state was defined as a Danish nation-state, the latest from 1864, and the Icelanders were always guests in this nation-state. Danish politics made no attempt to rethink the state as a multinational state and even less to build one nation. Therefore, the Icelanders had to demand initially separation and then full divorce, even though they had a weak basis for running their own state. The Icelanders could not remain in the relationship with the Danish fellow nation in the south.