Europe · The modern states
Iceland
1918–present
Iceland became a sovereign state in personal union with Denmark under the Danish crown — the Kingdom of Iceland — by the Act of Union of 1 December 1918. During World War II, with Denmark under German occupation, Iceland was occupied by British and then American forces, and on 17 June 1944 Icelanders voted to end the union and establish a Republic.
- Existed
- 1918–present
- Shown on the map
- 1946–2024
- Peak area
- 111k km²
- Region
- Europe
Overview
Iceland became a sovereign state in personal union with Denmark under the Danish crown — the Kingdom of Iceland — by the Act of Union of 1 December 1918. During World War II, with Denmark under German occupation, Iceland was occupied by British and then American forces, and on 17 June 1944 Icelanders voted to end the union and establish a Republic. A founding member of NATO (1949), Iceland hosted a strategically vital US base and clashed with Britain in the "Cod Wars" over fishing limits. It suffered a severe banking collapse in the 2008 financial crisis. Iceland is not an EU member (though it applied in 2009 and later shelved the bid). Present status (Sept 2026): President Halla Tómasdóttir (since August 2024); Prime Minister Kristrún Frostadóttir (Social Democratic Alliance), in office since December 2024.
Common questions
- What was Iceland?
- Iceland became a sovereign state in personal union with Denmark under the Danish crown — the Kingdom of Iceland — by the Act of Union of 1 December 1918. During World War II, with Denmark under German occupation, Iceland was occupied by British and then American forces, and on 17 June 1944 Icelanders voted to end the union and establish a Republic.
- When did Iceland exist?
- Iceland existed 1918–present. On this map it is drawn 1946–2024.
- How large was Iceland?
- At its greatest extent drawn on this map, Iceland covered about 111,000 km². That is the largest area the border data gives it across the years it is drawn, not necessarily its greatest extent in history.
Sources
This compendium cites its sources once for the whole document rather than per territory. Its bibliography names the English Wikipedia articles for each state as the primary basis, cross-checked against Encyclopædia Britannica, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the ICTY and the 2004 Wiesel Commission for genocide and atrocity figures, and current news reporting (Reuters, AP, BBC, and others) for 2025–2026 political developments, which should be verified against live sources. The article this entry is anchored on:
- Wikipedia — Iceland en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iceland
This entry was last updated .
This entry was researched and drafted with AI from the sources above, and has not been reviewed by a historian. How entries are made
Text available under CC BY-SA 4.0: reuse it with a credit to The World Through Time and a link to this page. Passages drawing on the Wikipedia articles listed above are also licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 by their contributors.
Border geometry for the map itself comes from Cliopatria v0.12 (Seshat Global History Databank, CC-BY-4.0).
See Iceland in its world
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