Independent Iceland in 1809?

What if Iceland had retained independence in 1809 under Jorgen Jorgensen. Jorgensen intended to reinstate the Althing and establish a Republic. I may just do a TL on this, if I can receive enough info to start it up.

Given that the entire compliment of the British ship HMS Talbot, which arrested him and restored the Danish govenor, was around 134 of which 5 would have been marines, he could not have had that much support from the locals.

If you are going to have him suceed either he will need British support (i.e HMS Talbot sent to aid not remove him), or larger support locally.

Jorgen had no real popular support.

1809 Iceland is:

A country with no towns. Reykjavík, the largest town has a population below 1000. Don´t remember the exact number, may be even less than 500.

There is hardly any economy as well. The fish is caught by french, english and ships of various nationalities. (But hardly any Icelanders).

I could imagine a TL where Denmark hands Iceland over to Britain at the end of the Napoleonic wars. It´s not very important too Britain, but not completely useless.

I wonder though if they´d see any reason to create a puppet state.

Fabilius said:

I wonder though if they´d see any reason to create a puppet state.

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It could be used by the Navy as a base for the North Adlantic fleet, this would need to assume that there was a reason for a squadron in the North Adlantic.

It would be at it's most useful during WWI and WWII as a base for convoys (and in WWII an air field for convoy protection). Could have a major impact on the war if more British merchant ships made it accross the adlantic.