AHC: Russian Iceland
- Thread starter Pesigalam
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- iceland russia russian empire
Maybe some Russian Varangians gossip with Scandinavian Vikings and thus the Rurikids decide to send ships to Iceland and claim it. Later on, the first Russian-Orthodox church is erected in Iceland.Iceland belongs throughout the centuries first to the Muscovite princedom later to the unified Russia.
Realistically, the only way to get Russian Iceland is to get Russia ruling, at least, all of Scandinavia, preferably all of Europe.
Which requires HUGE PoDs.
Which requires HUGE PoDs.
Pesigalam
Banned
Did Iceland hold some importance back than which I did not realise?
Couldn't Russia get it in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars when countries were punished for siding with Napoléon by having their borders redrawn?
I doubt it mainly because of the UK. They prefer Russia to be bottled up in the Baltic and Black seas because its alot easier, and cheaper to keep them contained instead of Russian ships being a pest in the North Sea/Atlantic and the Royal Navy being required to patrol a larger area
Holding Iceland would be a huge naval boon to Russia. For that reason I expect a lot of other nations would quite like someone else to have it, and I could see a lot of energy being expended to make that happen. As for the Icelanders, the population has been fairly low historically, and could be swamped over time. On the other hand, Russia might invest a lot more in a strategic possession like that than Denmark did.
Russians aren't taking Iceland unless their army has invaded it. I don't see Britain or any other naval power seeing it in their interest to allow this. In order to allow for this possibility to happen, you must have PODs so enormous this is probably one of the least interesting things about that timeline.
Just found this thread when I was doing some research on the Danish Empire.
Russia and Denmark almost went at it after the 7 Years War when Czar Peter III was trying to regain his Danish patrimony. The war was stopped when his wife killed him. Later a deal was made.
It would be a long shot but maybe some bizarre confluence of events during that war may have resulted in Russia receiving Iceland on the basis that it would help build up their navy by adding a port. I honestly don't know if there are any ports in Iceland that could sustain a naval squadron of any size.
There are the obvious problems:
1. Britain would not be happy to allow Russia to have a naval base though this would be right after the 7 Years War and they may not want to irritate Russia. Britain's policy for generations was to keep Russia from developing outlets to the sea (see the Crimean War as their prime motivation).
2. Peter was not an expansionist like Elizabeth or Catherine and may not care for a naval base.
Russia and Denmark almost went at it after the 7 Years War when Czar Peter III was trying to regain his Danish patrimony. The war was stopped when his wife killed him. Later a deal was made.
It would be a long shot but maybe some bizarre confluence of events during that war may have resulted in Russia receiving Iceland on the basis that it would help build up their navy by adding a port. I honestly don't know if there are any ports in Iceland that could sustain a naval squadron of any size.
There are the obvious problems:
1. Britain would not be happy to allow Russia to have a naval base though this would be right after the 7 Years War and they may not want to irritate Russia. Britain's policy for generations was to keep Russia from developing outlets to the sea (see the Crimean War as their prime motivation).
2. Peter was not an expansionist like Elizabeth or Catherine and may not care for a naval base.
There are five bays that I have found: Bakkaflói, Faxa Bay, Grunnavík, Héradsflói, and Þistilfjörður. Faxa Bay is within the limits of modern day Reykjavik and may be your best bet. The town wasn't built up until roughly the late 1780's.