Iceland History: Difference between revisions

Although there were a few Christians among the early settlers, the King of Norway sent missionaries in 995 who had success among the Icelandic chieftains. In the year 1000, the Althing decided that Christianity would be the official religion of Iceland. The first Bishops were trained and ordained in Germany. Because of this, the Christianity in Iceland has a more continental European influence and was established on rather different principles than in the other Nordic nations. The Church brought about numerous reforms and for a time stabilized political relations among the clans. In the 1200s a number of chieftains challenged the power of the ecclesiastical authorities, precipitating civil war. The Icelandic republic ended in 1262, when the opposing factions appealed to the Norwegian king, Håkon IV Håkonsson, who prevailed upon Iceland to unite itself to Norway. Violating the treaty that consummated the union, the Norwegian government imposed severe restrictions on Icelandic political and commercial activity. This started a lengthy period of social and economic stagnation. Recurring natural catastrophes, particularly destructive volcanic eruptions, and epidemics of bubonic plague brought the nation to the brink of ruin. When Olaf II, King of Denmark, gained the Norwegian throne in 1380, Iceland was placed under Danish sovereignty. In 1550, the Danish king imposed the Reformation. Jón Arason, the last Catholic bishop of Iceland, was beheaded without trial.